"Twenty-four hours is not enough time to prepare for a case like this-"

"Exactly. The prosecutors don't have a chance."

"Not just the prosecutors. Us-"

"I've been working towards this since Mr Black was arrested; Artucus wanted a solid defence case prepared before he arranged the trial. Eight times out of ten the courts will decide in the favour of the side which seems more confident, which means any legal case is at least 80% about the posturing, as opposed to the facts-"

"But as far as the Wizengamot are concerned, the fact is that Sirius Black is a death eater and a mass murderer, which means the posturing, is going to have to convince them, first of all, that they should even bother being prepared to change their minds about our defendant."

Cicero nods. "We need someone with a high standing in society to open the case by testifying that it's completely against Sirius' character to have joined Voldemort."

"But whoever it is is going to have to have a weight equal to that of Dumbledore's." Empson pointed out. "After all, the prosecution will play up to the fact the Dumbledore believes him to be guilty."

"Are you asking me to accept that this man is a God, infallible in all respects, incapable of being misinformed? Albus Dumbledore taught the dark lord for seven years and never once suspected his true character- surely it is reasonable to suggest that the esteemed headmaster has misinterpreted my client's character also?" Cicero proclaims. Empson looks at her blankly, and she rolls her eyes.

"Pretend you're the prosecution and come back at me. Dumbledore's testimony is a massive problem; we need to remove him from the equation as far as we possibly can."

"One might say," Empson says slowly. "That the misinterpretation Dumbledore made of Black's character was in ever believing that he could be working for the light."

"You admit he's fallible, then?" Cicero snaps her fingers. "You admit he can make mistakes- good, let's hope the prosecution does that, I love it when people hang themselves by trying to be clever."

"And if the prosecution don't go for that?" Empson asks. "If instead they say: 'Lily Potter told Albus Dumbledore that Sirius Black was the secret keeper. James Potter told Dumbledore that Sirius Black was the secret keeper. Sirius Black told Albus Dumbledore that Sirius Black was the Secret Keeper. Is it not a logical assumption to make that Sirius Black was in fact the Secret Keeper and every word that comes out of his mouth is lies?' What do you do then?"

"Suggest veritiserum."

"Not a good idea." Empson says, shaking his head. "Once there's veritiserum in the defendant, the prosecutors control the game. They can ask whatever they want- 'Sirius Black, did you ever threaten to kill James Potter?'- Yes, of course he as at some point, we all threaten to kill our friends at some point- we never mean it but the prosecutor won't give him a chance to explain the context."

Cicero sits back, drumming her fingers on the table. "But all I'd have to do is ask him whether or not he was a death eater and the answer would be in the negative, if he were the secret keeper and the answer would be negative-"

"You are working on the assumption that what he's told Mrs Potter is true." Empson says quietly. "There's a chance that he isn't. And if it's discovered he's lying, the reputations of everyone involved in proclaiming his innocence will be irreversibly shattered. We avoid veritiserum at all costs."

"Three people could tell me that the colours for Gryffindor House are Green and Silver." Cicero says slowly. "That doesn't mean that they are."

"Indeed. And perhaps Dumbledore himself is lying. After all, it's a well known fact that he attempted to hide the Boy Who Lived with muggle relatives rather than give him to his grandparents. One can be assured that Sirius Black would have fought heart and soul for his right to his best friend's son- as per James and Lily Potter's will- perhaps Dumbledore wanted Sirius out of the way so he would have one less opponent when it came to the custody of Harry James Potter."

Cicero stops and stares at him. "Do you really think that's what he was trying to do? Gain control over Harry's future?"

"Dumbledore? No." Empson snorted. "Not consciously at any rate- he had to explain his actions to a very pissed off Dorea Potter nee Black and her equally pissed off, if slightly less likely to shove a wand up Dumbledore's nose, husband- and the story he gave was that he suspected that Lily had given Harry blood protection when she died for him, and that living with her relatives would keep this blood protection Harry has going- and therefore keep Harry safe- until he comes of age. It was more detailed than that, of course, detailed enough to be true. He assumed Dorea and Charlus would see it his way- that they would sacrifice their part in his life to see him safe- but as Dorea pointed out, Harry would be a lot safer with two grown, magically powerful, magically adept people looking after him than two muggles who would have no chance against a death eater if one came calling. Posturing," he says. "It's all about posturing- convince the Wizengamot that having Sirius about will be better for the boy who lived, and chances are you'll have secured a majority not guilty verdict. Even if you haven't, convince people that Dumbledore may not have the Boy who Lived's welfare at heart and you'll have dented his reputation enough that they'll no longer take all his statements at face value."

Cicero nods. "So we've provisionally dealt with Dumbledore." She says. "And I'll explain Sirius' version of the confrontation on muggle street as clearly and as simply as possible. There is, however, one major problem with the suggestion that Peter framed Sirius."

"What's that?" Empson frowns

"It's clever." Cicero says grimly. "And everyone says that Pettigrew wasn't clever."

"Isn't." Empson says. "Pettigrew isn't clever. If you believe Sirius' story, you think Pettigrew is alive, and you refer to him in the present tense."

"Sirius will be kissed if we lose the trial. Sirius will be kissed-I hope we do lose! Crouch will learn exactly what happens to dementors that try and steal the soul of a grandson of mine!"

"I'm sure the dementors are shaking in their hoods." Charlus says dryly. Artucus has been fuming about Crouch's threat for a good two hours- more, he suspects, because he's lost the upper hand his bribery of Bagnold had given him than because of the danger to his grandson; Artucus seems convinced that everything will go their way.

"They should be shaking." Artucus snapped. "Septimus eats dementors for breakfast."

"Septimus?"

"My patronus is a serpent, I call him Septimus- you know it's possible to cast a patronus so strong it corrodes dementors away? That's what will happen to any one of those things that so much as breathes too close to Sirius."

"Good to know. Rant over?"

"Not quite."

"Oh for heaven's sake." Charlus sighs. "If it looks like we're going to lose, I'll imperius all the court members on the left, you do the same to all the ones on the right, and we'll put through a not guilty verdict all on our own. How does that sound?"

"Like my uncle's company is rubbing off on you far too much, dear." Dorea says as she comes in to the room, a tea laden tray in her hands. "Imperiusing an entire jury is entirely impractical- you'd be better off imperiusing the prosecutor in to telling the court Sirius is on trial for impersonating a chicken."

She sets the tea down. "Cicero has said she's going to ask us both to give character testimonies of Sirius. It'll make the Wizengamot better disposed to him if the parents of two of his supposed victims believe he's innocent."

"We could ask his mother to give a character testimony." Artucus mused. "She'll probably call him a mud-lover and a blood traitor and tell everyone she hopes he gets kissed- that will make them incredibly well disposed toward him, a bitch like Walduburga hating him."

"Cicero wants to keep as much distance between Sirius and his last name as possible." Dorea informed them. "She's worried that the name Black has already been enough to determine guilt once, and it might be again. She says she wants to focus on building up his good character as much as possible before even starting to dismantle the charges laid against him- grades, behaviour in school, all that. There's no major incident that nearly got him expelled that you know of that might come out, is there?"

Both men shook their heads. "Not as far as I know," Artucus said. "Although admittedly, I know little about Sirius' Hogwarts years."

"I know of nothing." Charlus says, and Dorea nods with satisfaction.

"I'll tell Cicero and Empson that school is safe, then. Aside from several bust-ups with Slytherins – but they mostly turned out to be death eaters any way. One could argue it was foreshadowing of his dedication to fighting Voldemort."

A/N:Sorry for the long gap-back to school stuff...:-(