Harry thought. He was given a slip of paper. "The Order of the Phoenix can be found at 12 Grimmauld Pl." After he comprehended what he read he watched as another house appeared from the wall.

Once inside he saw Sirius who smiled at him. Mrs. Weasley came out and after a hug she told Harry to go upstairs. As soon as he opened the door a bushy-haired blur tackled him. "Harry!" She released him and began her questions about how he was, and expressing how wrong it was he had to have a trial, but Harry didn't hear much of it. He was remembering what he had been through. Left at the Dursley's all summer. No news, abandoned by his friends for the most part, and now with this dementor attack and a trial, Harry was just angry. The look in his eyes stopped Hermione cold. Ron began to speak and the look shifted to him which scared Ron into silence. Harry let loose. At the end of his rant Hermione tried to defend their actions, explaining it was on Dumbledore's orders. That just made things worse. "So you chose him over me. I see." Before Harry went off again, Fred and George popped in. "Thought we heard you Harry" "Yeah. Don't hold back mate." "Let it all out." Their twinspeak had Harry's head spinning. "What are you on about?" He asked.

The twins lead him out and explained what his investment was doing. They pulled out a new invention of theirs, the extendible-ears, for a practical demonstration as they listened in on the meeting. Ginny joined them as did Hermione and Ron as they heard the argument going on. Molly was defending Harry as one of her own, Sirius was staking his claim as godfather and Snape was being his usual nasty self when Hermione's half-kneezle Crookshanks destroyed the listening end of the ears and cut their connection.

After the meeting, everyone came down for a late dinner. The adults were explaining what was going on in the world to Harry. But they were hiding something. Harry read the articles and saw the obvious smear campaign. He almost heard what Voldemort was after, but Molly went into mama bear mode and shut them all down. She wasn't going to leave Harry alone with Sirius and sent the kids to bed. Harry smiled and realized it was time he began asking questions. Ones he knew would start to make Sirius think. Like how was it every suspected Death-eater got a trial but not him. It was time to make some changes. Morning wouldn't come soon enough

Trials and Tribulations

The 12th of August was Harry's trial. Mr. Weasley accompanied Harry to the Ministry. He couldn't get Arthur to leave early and they were late. Harry was amazed at the proceeding but he was not afraid. Fudge tried to cut off his explanations of the dementor attack but Dumbledore came in and turned the tables on the minister. After a small interruption by a toad-looking woman, Harry finally became fed up. "This is wasting time." He drew his wand and made an oath before Dumbledore could stop him. "I, the wizard known as Harry James Potter, the boy-who-lived, son of James and Lilt Potter, swear on my life and my magic, that on the evening of August 2, 1995, I and my muggle cousin Dudley Dursley were attacked by two dementors. So I swear, so mote it be." There was a flash signifying that magic had accepted his oath and Harry wasted no time in calling forth Prongs. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry shouted.

The ethereal stag circled the room so that all could see him before stopping in front of Fudge and butting heads. Fudge was knocked over and out of his seat. "Now, does anyone else DARE call me a liar?" Many shook their heads and there was murmuring around the room. Harry saw Umbrige about to speak so he beat her to it. "Now That effectively eliminates the charges but there is the fact that I performed magic in front of a muggle. Well since that muggle is my cousin, whom I have lived with since I was fifteen months old, and is the son of Lily Evans' muggle sister, it renders the point moot because they are fully aware of magic."

Umbridge would not be denied and harped about the two previous instances of magic at #4. Harry smiled. "Tell me madam Umbitch..." Delores was furious. "MY NAME IS DELORES JANE UMBRIDGE, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic!" She shouted. "Umbridge? Well that does make more sense than what I had been told, no matter. As I was saying, Who is this trollop Mafelda Hopkirk and where is she? Can she prove I performed the magic indicated on these instances?" Umbridge began to speak but Harry kept on. "No she cannot. It is another failing of this ministry. You can tell magic was done and the type of magic used, but you can't tell who did it. It is another of the biased, bigoted laws aimed to torment and bully muggle-born or in my case muggle-raised, students. A house elf performed the hovering charm in 1992 that I was blamed for, but because this ministry doesn't care about anyone unless they can help line their pockets, nobody followed the law and sent an auror to check my wand."

It was a slap in the face of honest and corrupt politicians at the same time. The corrupt, like Fudge, began to sweat and the honest became angry at the insult. Amelia Bones took offense and demanded an apology. "An apology? Why? Your very minister ignores the laws just as his predecessors. In 1993, he placed Rubeus Hagrid in Azkaban for allegedly opening the Chamber of Secrets, just so he could be seen as doing something. When it was proven that Hagrid was innocent he was released, but never got an apology and was never exonerated for the false charges that got him expelled from Hogwarts. Where is his apology?

Last year Mad-eye Moody was locked in a trunk and impersonated by a convicted death-eater by the name of Barty Crouch Jr. How did he escape Azkaban? Oh that's right, he was supposedly dead. Tell me how did a dead man impersonate a former auror, and how did a dead man find himself getting the dementors kiss, when the Minister entered his cell? And why did the Minister interrogate a prisoner without an auror present?" Fudge was sweating like a pig in summer and Madam Bones was gobsmacked. Harry kept going as he had a captive and enraptured audience.

You people gave Peter Pettigrew the Order of Merlin for supposedly fighting against Voldemort." Many shuttered at the name. "But where are the Orders of Merlin for my Parents. Is it because James Potter is a quote blood-traitor? Is it because Lly Evans was a quote mud-blood? Where is the one for me, since I ended Voldemort's reign of terror that Halloween in 1981? No you are a bunch of liars and hypocrites. I know for a fact Pettigrew isn't dead. I spoke with him and he admitted he betrayed my parents. He was the secret-keeper not Sirius Black." Harry was on a roll and wasn't slowing down. He just wished Hunter was there to see this.

"You want me to swear another oath on my magic? I can do it no problem. I told Fudge there about it and was told I was under the effects of a confundus charm. What a load of dragon dung. I am still amazed that I am even getting a trial today. I expected to be thrown in Azkaban without one, just like you did to Sirius Black. Fudge was certainly trying, but apparently Dumbledore still had enough sway to force you to follow the law. Too bad he didn't do that for Sirius. Maybe then my godfather would have raised me properly instead of me being tortured for ten years."

The wizengamot was in arms now. Harry had exposed more corruption in this trial than the DMLE had found after the fall of Voldemort. Umbridge tried to save her minister and beloved ministry by once again calling Harry a liar, but that was met with a cold and calculated move from Harry. "Again, you call me a liar. I expected as much." Harry once again made a wizards' oath verifying the truth of his statements. This time when prongs stopped, he knocked Umbridge out of her chair.

"I have said my peace and told the truth. You can accept it or you can think me a liar. I no longer care. If, however, I am proven right, and Voldemort has returned, don't come to me to save your arses. You called me a liar and drug my name through the mud. For the past year I have been maligned by the papers and recently by this ministry. If you were not a servant of the dork lord, then you owed me a debt for saving you from him. Instead you allowed enemies of my house to go free and stole members of my family from me. And now you condemn me instead of paying your debt. Pray that I am a liar, because if I am not, you just lost the person who saved you last time, and I will not help you again."

Dumbledore was so shocked he couldn't speak. His mouth opened and closed, but there were no words. The Wizengamot was a mass of sub committees all discussing what they had heard. Finally Madam Bones called for a vote and Harry was cleared of all charges. Harry left the courtroom without any comments and a look of disgust on his face. He knew the ministry was corrupt save for a few like Amelia Bones and Arthur Weasley, but the good was few and far between.

With the trial behind him, Harry spent most of his time searching the Black family library. As he searched through, he found a section on wandless casting. That was huge. It also explained how Voldemort had batted away Harry's curses. It was a wandless shield that diverted the energy as it approached. Not block it, just knock it off course. Learning this and other tricks was an instant necessity in Harry's eyes.

Harry was pretty cold to Hermione and Ron all month. They had agreed to help Dumbledore hide information from him. Helped to keep him locked in that hell. So what if they were told they were helping him. They had betrayed him. Something that Ron would apparently do all his life. At least based on what Hunter had experienced. Ginny actually made a decent apology. Since she had had Voldemort posess her in her first year, she was treated differently. Her mother more smothering. "I guess she's right after all. I almost get everyone killed." Harry snapped at that.

"That's Hippogriff shite and you know it! Maybe nobody told you about my first year. Voldemort possessed Quirrell, and all year he tried to steal the Philosophers' stone. I had to kill Quirrell to beat Voldemort. And he was a grown, fully trained wizard. You as an un-trained eleven year old witch, fought him off for most of the school year before you finally succumbed. If a fully trained wizard couldn't do it, how were you supposed to? You are a strong witch Ginny Weasley. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!"

Harry thought of the Marauders. They violated the rules and became animagi to help their friend. His friends? He didn't follow the rules when he saved them, or Sirius. Why couldn't they do the same for him? But they couldn't see that. Hermione wanted to justify her actions and Ron was oblivious. Harry just began avoiding them. He decided to spend most of his time with Sirius, talking about his parents and the Marauders and the various pranks. Remus and Tonks would join them sometimes and Harry began to relax some.

Sirius of course was starting to feel like his old self as he relayed those stories to Harry and both of them began to heal wounds that nobody else even saw. Sirius was even giving tips of dating. Harry was a little worried at that but Remus countered some of the extreme suggestions Sirius offered.

As August was coming to a close, Harry called for Kreature. He was going to eliminate those damned horcruxes. The elf was shaking as he explained what Voldemort had him do. Then he told how Master Regulus went to the cave and stole the locket. "Master Regulus says to destroys the locket but Kreature can't. He burns it, uses his magic, beats it with a hammer, but Kreature fails. Kreature can't destroys it." The elf began sobbing loudly and Harry saw the torment the little thing had put himself through. "I know what will destroy the locket." Kreature heard Harry and stopped silent. "Harry Potter can destroys the locket?" the elf asked. Harry nodded and they began discussing what to do.

Hogwarts Letters arrived the next day, the 31st. It left no time for dawdling. With the letters and booklists were also prefect badges. Hermione was no surprise to anyone, but the other had gone to Ron. This overwhelmed Mrs. Weasley who went into a prideful speech, but Harry began to look deeply into it.. Seamus and Dean were not prefect material, and Neville was still a follower not a leader, yet, so he was out, but why him? His grades weren't Hermione's equal but they were better than Ron. And he had always tried to help others both in his house and in other houses, unlike Ron. And he was nowhere near as lazy as Ron, so how did Ron get the badge instead of him? Then it hit him. Ron and Hermione did what Dumbledore asked for and he made them prefects. He wondered if they even realized that essentially, they had sold him out.