March 15, 2004
3:31 PM London Time/6:31 PM Moscow Time
Wizengamot Court Room
Ron walked into the main court room that would be used today for the preliminary stages of the trial against The Frenchman and took his seat just off the main floor. It had been years, probably since the trial of Antonin Dolohov, that there had been this many Aurors present in the Ministry. With all the recent rumors when it came to The Jester, we couldn't afford to take any chances. Robards would have normally been in charge of security but he was expected to testify. This meant that I probably would have been in charge. However, I was also to testify because I was the initial interrogator.
Dawlish was too old to lead security at this point and that mean that someone who Ron didn't trust would be in charge, Auror Charles Williamson. Williamson had been in the Department for a while and was Robard's personal lap dog. Normally, Ron and Dawlish were good enough to keep Williamson away from a position where he would be expected to lead. Unfortunately, with the circumstances surrounding today, he had been unsuccessful and now he had to worry about Dark Wizards attacking a team led by an average Auror.
Just as Ron finished getting comfortable in his seat, the door behind the large stage where the Minister and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot sat opened. Seconds later, the voting members of the court began filing into the seats that surrounded the top of the room. For a few moments, the room buzzed with conversation from the both the voters and the few spectators that were allowed to be in the room.
Once everyone was situated, my father spoke from his position at the front of the room.
"Good afternoon all." he started warmly, despite the morbid dealings of the day. "As Minister of Magic, I call this trial of Bruno Christoph to order."
Next, the man next to him, Tiberius Ogden, spoke. Ogden, who had resigned with Griselda Marchbanks when Dolores Umbridge had been named to the staff at Hogwarts, had been invited to join the Wizengamot as the new Chief Warlock just after Marchbanks' retirement six months after Harry disappeared. Personally, Ron thought that the man was a bit of a stick in the mud. However, Ron also knew that his father trusted Ogden implicitly and therefore, Ron dealt with the man.
"Witches and wizrds of the Wizengamot, before we bring Mr. Christoph into the room, I will remind you of the matter at hand." Tiberius said officially. "Mr. Christoph has been charged with 10 counts of murder, 144 counts of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of international terrorism. According to newly passed regulations, any person who is convicted of crimes with the potential of being sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison can be sentenced to death by this court. If convicted and sentenced to the maximum of each sentence, Mr. Christoph would be sentenced to 500 years for murder, 2,880 for conspiracy to commit murder and seventy years for international terrorism for a total of 3,450 years."
Wow. That was the only word that could run through Ron's head as he tried to grasp just how severe the crimes of this man were. The fact that, if convicted, his choices were 3,000 years in prison or death was horrifying. However, if there was anyone left on earth that deserved either of those punishments, it was this man.
"Chief Warlock, according to a statement given to this court by Harry James Potter, Mr. Christoph has given testimony against the dark witch known as the Jester. For his testimony, Ambassador Potter has asked that the death penalty be taken off the table." Dad mentioned next to Tiberius. Ron could see that Tiberius wasn't happy with this but he knew better than to go after Harry when he was the only person that truly had any idea what was going on with the Jester.
"If it pleases the court, it shall be so." Tiberius said as he stood up. "Those in favor of removing the death penalty as a punishment for Mr. Bruno Christoph, reply in the affirmative."
Just like at Harry's trial, blasts of light came from all over the room. And just like in Harry's trial, a number floated just above the middle of the court: 148, a clear majority. Apparently, just like Tiberius, the Wizengamot knew it was in their best interests to agree with whatever Harry wanted for the time being.
"Good." Dad said warmly before turning back to Tiberius. "This is your show."
"Aurors, please bring in the accused." Tiberius said, motioning to the two Junior Aurors standing by the door. They each turned and opened the large doors that allowed entrance to the room. When they pulled the door open, Bruno Christoph stood in the doorway. However, unlike the last few times I had seen him, he didn't look broken and dishevled. No, this time he looked exactly like he had looked when we brought him in with a smirk on his face and his hair clean and slicked back.
He was escorted into the room by the two Aurors and led to the chair that every accused had sat for years. Once he was seated, the magical chains leapt up and latched themselves onto his wrists and ankles, pulling him into place. He appeared to almost be amused with everything that was happening around him, smiling smugly as he observed the room around him.
"Bruno Christoph, you have been charged with ten counts of murder, 144 counts of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of international terrorism, counts totalling over 3,000 years in maximum security lockup. Due to your assistance of Harry Potter's investigation, this is not a capital punishment trial, meaning that we cannot seek the death penalty for your crimes. Do you understand these charges?"
"Oui." he replied smugly.
"And how do you respond to these charges?"
"Why of course I am innocent!" he replied, ditching the English accent he had used during interrogations and adopting an entirely French persona. Ron didn't have any idea why he would want to do that but it was disconcerting nonetheless.
"Of course you are." Tiberius replied. "Testimony will begin tomorrow. The prosecution will have three days to present their case. The defense will be given three days after that and then the prosecution will be given one day for rebuttal. We will end things for today. Be back here at 8 AM tomorrow morning to begin."
Great. A morning trial. Ron knew that he was going to be called on by the prosecution and probably fairly early in the trial. This meant that he was going to have to show up early tomorrow morning with the rest of the Wizengamot and the reporters that were sure to show up in the Atrium as he was coming in.
Great, just great.
March 16
5:51 PM Moscow Time/2:51 PM London Time
"Just got a message from Ron." Cho said softly. "The first day of the trial was a trainwreck. Apparently, there were riots in the Atrium and Williamson couldn't get them stopped."
"That man was an idiot when I was around." Harry replied. "I can't imagine things have gotten better."
"Well, I've kind of been out of the loop here for awhile so I wouldn't know one way or the other."
"It doesn't matter. Arthur and Tiberius will make sure that things stay in order. Now get over here." he replied. "Vitali said that he can only keep the Floo Network open too long before someone notices that we're breaking into a private residence."
"I still don't understand. She's under investigation. Why is this a problem?"
"She's under investigation in England. They don't care here. I doubt that Vitali would even care if he didn't owe me several large favors."
After spending two days searching through Vitali's records for any evidence of Noah, we had finally given up. There was no evidence that anyone from America named Noah had ever stepped inside their Ministry of Magic, let alone train their Aurors. To Harry, it didn't really matter. While it was strange, Noah was dead and that was the end of the matter. Plus, for all Harry knew, he could have been Gabriel in hiding after faking his death.
After giving up their search for Noah, Harry and Cho had asked to see Azoli's house in Siberia. Unfortunately, allowing foreign wizards into a residence without a warrant from the International Confederation of Wizards. Fortunately for us, Vitali was willing to look passed that small technicality and let them in discretely by attaching the Floo in their hotel room to the fireplace in Azoli's home. He had stopped by our room briefly earlier in the day.
"Now, Harry, I know that you know this but I'll remind you. No one can know that you are there." he said softly as if he was telling a horrible secret. "If something happens to you out there, you are on your own and remember, it's going to be freezing. I've been out there once and she lives right on the East Siberian Sea. Dress as warmly as possible because I doubt that she has kept up on her Warming Charms while she's been on the run."
That had been roughly two hours ago. Harry and Cho had spent the time since then bundling up and preparing themselves for whatever they would find out there.
"You ready?" Harry asked.
"As ready as I'll be." Cho confirmed.
With her reply, Harry grabbed the bag of Floo Powder and threw a handful of it into the fire, causing it to roar and shine bright green. Quickly, the pair of them stepped in. Once they were both in, Harry held Cho around the waist and shouted.
"Azoli's home!"
In an instant, the two of them were launched into the fire and after working their way through a maze of green fire, they came out standing in the empty fireplace of a dark and depressing house. Harry quickly raised his wand and lit up the whole room.
Instantly, Harry could tell that the house had not been used for some time. Dust covered everything and there were books strewn across a table that had been frozen into place. In fact, as he looked around the room, almost everything had been frozen in place. That would certainly make searching more difficult. Fortunately, Harry saw that Cho had an idea as she whipped her wand towards the middle of the room.
The moment her spell reached the room, Harry could feel the heat begin to radiate around the room. Rather than light a bunch of flames that would certainly catch something on fire, she had instead reactivated Azoli's Warming Charms that she had used to keep the house from freezing like it had. Within just a few minutes, much of the ice had disappeared and Harry took to drying up the puddles that appeared on the floor and the few tables scattered around the room.
If Harry had expected the room to brighten up with the addition of light and the removal of all the dust and ice, he was sorely mistaken. In fact, if anything, Harry thought that the room looked creepier now that he could see it how it was meant to be seen. The house was massive with incredibly high ceilings and large arches for doorways that connected each room. As Harry and Cho searched the house, they found the entrance hall which held a gigantic spiral staircase that had to have reached at least six stories.
"This is going to take forever." Cho said sullenly.
"It's going to take longer than that." Harry agreed. "I imagine that there's a lot of Dark Magic protecting this house. We have to be careful not to set off any traps or anything that we may find."
"Damn."
Harry silently agreed as they went about beginning to search the first floor. They found several bedrooms of little interest and two sitting rooms that had largely been emptied. The dining room was full but of dining ware and nothing that would suggest that she was hiding anything in there. As they continued searching the house, Harry knew that they were bound to find something evil eventually.
He was dangerously correct. When they discovered that the first floor was largely empty, they climbed the stairs. The moment they reached the top of the stairs, all the artificial light in the house went out.
"Great." Cho muttered next to Harry.
"Agreed. Lumos."
The light from Harry's wand, while as bright as ever, barely filled out the landing of the second floor.
"Well this is really not cool."
"No kidding." Harry replied before stepping forward on the landing before sticking his wand out in front of him and rotating slowly around to view the floor. The second floor was one long hallway that was lined with doors. As Harry looked up, he saw that the house did stop at six stories. However, Vitali had given them a time limit of only one hour to search the house. After that, he would have to shut down the Floo Network and our presence would become known to the Russian Ministry, a severe worst case scenario.
"This is going to take too long." Harry spat out roughly. "We only have an hour and it could take us an hour to search just this floor."
"How much time do we have left?" Cho asked.
"Fifty minutes still but it's going to take us too long to do this manually."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, it means that we can either give up and go home or do one of the single dumbest things I've ever done." Harry replied with a frustrated chuckle.
"That's impressive. How dumb?"
"For the first year I was an Auror, I worked specifically as a charm and ward breaker. Mostly, you want to systematically take them down. However, there is a way to bring all of the protection wards at once."
"How?" Cho asked with an incredibly concerned look on her face.
"You set them off all at once."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Under no circumstances would I joke about this." Harry shot back grimly.
"How dangerous could this be?" Cho asked.
"Knowing the level of magic that Vinogradoff was capable of, it is likely to be lethal if we don't defend ourselves properly."
Cho appeared to be thinking it over as she listened to my prognosis.
"Why didn't we just negotiate for more time?" Cho asked him.
"Because we can't negotiate when the fact that we're here is illegal by itself."
"Good point." she replied softly before looking up at me. "How are we going to have to defend ourselves?"
"By specializing. I want you to be in charge of shields. Anything that looks like a spell or a curse, use a simple shield charm. I'm certain that there are going to be some simpler and more barbaric defenses that I need to take care of."
"Will do." Cho said with a nod as she readied her wand.
"Good." Harry said as he readied himself. "Now, when I attack the wards, there will probably be some general wards over the whole house. However, the most secure location in her house will probably have the most dangerous wards. Wherever they come from, that's where we're headed."
"Remind me why we're doing this again." Cho grumbled low.
"Because we need more information on her, The Frenchman and the Network. We need to know how or if she was working with Voldemort an-"
Just as Harry spit out the deceased Dark Lord's name, the house came to life as a rush of cold wind came barreling down the hall towards them. Harry quickly raised his wand and fired a shield that would keep them from being swept down the stairs where there was probably some dark magic waiting for them.
"Apparently, she didn't like you saying that name." Cho replied as she leveled her wand towards the end of the hallway, ready for whatever was coming.
And it was a good thing she was ready because the moment she set her feet, a wave of fire came rushing towards them. Reacting instinctively, Harry and Cho both fired their most powerful water Charm, pushing the flames back. As they worked in tandem to push the fire back, Harry noticed that something was come up from behind them. He turned to see enormous statues of armor filing down the stairs towards them. Harry knew that he needed to act quickly.
"Cho, you need to hold this!" he screamed over the sound of the roaring fire.
"Go quick!" Cho replied firmly as she continued to press the flames while spotting the suits over her shoulder.
Once he knew that she was set, he turned and directed his wand at the suit closest to him.
"Depulso!"
The Banishing Charm struck the suit directly in the chest and sent it flying backwards through the ranks of the ten or fifteen suits that followed behind it. Once Harry saw that he had cleared some space, he attacked with more firepower.
"Expulso!"
This time, the group of suits didn't know what was coming. The curse hit one of the suits closer to the back of the group, causing a massive explosion that sent metal from the suits and wood from the staircase flying. With a whip of his wand, Harry sent a wave of heat that burnt everything flying at him to a crisp, preventing any damage to himself or Cho. Harry waited for the smoke and dust to settle before he saw that only one suit remained. Unlike the other ones, which had been silver, this one's armor was black with a red helmet. Something about that told Harry that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
He was very right. The knight charged forward and despite every curse that Harry sent at it, it didn't seem to notice a thing. Harry realized this, almost a moment too late, and dove out of the way. As he tucked, he snuck a look at Cho who was having great difficulty putting out the large flames. He knew that things needed to get taken care of quickly before both of them ended up dead.
Harry looked down and noticed that there was a large and sharp metal rod, probably from one of the several explosions that had rocked the house, laying at his feet. Suddenly, an inspiration struck him, causing him to realize why his magic hadn't worked against him. This knight could likely only be defeated in hand to hand combat, something which Harry had been trained in briefly at the Auror Academy years ago but had refreshed since then.
Harry put his wand in its holder in his sleeve while he bent down to pick up the metal rod. Harry knew that he had done the right thing because rather than charging him, the knight set up in fighting stance. This was going to be difficult, Harry was sure of that. This black knight was nearly eight feet tall and was more than likely going to be magically aided in its strength and speed.
Harry instantly decided to change tactics, pulling his wand back out again and going with a one handed fighting stance that would allow him to use his wand at the same time. Looking up at the giant knight, Harry waited for it to make the first move and Harry wasn't disappointed. Within moments, the knight raised its sword and struck straight down towards Harry.
Harry raised his wand directly over head and aimed a shield charm that came into directly contact with the sword, knocking the knight off balance. Harry instantly dove under the legs of the knight. Once he was passed him, he turned around and shoved the rod in the back of the knight's leg. Not surprisingly, no blood came out, although the knight did release a small and muted cry of pain. As Harry pulled the rod back out of the leg, the knight swept around, swinging the sword straight towards Harry.
This time, Harry didn't use magic but rather the rod itself to stop it. As Harry expected, the knight carried an enormous amount of power in its swing. What he hadn't been expecting was that the force would so much as to throw him through the air and into the wall directly next to him. As he picked himself up off the floor, spitting a little bit of blood out as he stood, he prepared himself for another attack.
Again, the knight swung at him and again, Harry used his rod to defend himself. However, this time, he was smart enough not to block it directly but instead simply readjust the route it was taking. When he did this, the knight fell off balance, stumbling down the hallway. Chasing after it, Harry aimed his wand at the floor and fired an exploding charm, launching him high into the air.
When the stumbling knight turned back around, he was looking towards the floor, expecting to see a charging Harry Potter. Instead, Harry was flying through the air towards the head of the giant paladin. When he reached its head, he latched on and then brought the rod down directly on top of its head.
In an instant, Harry knew that he had won. The moment the rod went through its head, the knight stiffened up and began rocking before slowly falling to the ground. Just before it hit the ground, Harry leapt from the back of the knight and rolled, saving himself from injury.
Harry took a moment to reflect on his victory before a startling voice shocked him out of silence.
"Harry!"
In one motion, Harry flipped around to see Cho slipping back against the fire in front of her. The flames were almost licking the edge of her wand as she desperately tried to control the massive fire. Without hesitation, Harry jumped over the knight towards her. Once he was next to her, he waved his wand and in one swipe, blasted the fire away from the two of them.
"Aguamenti!"
The massive rush of water that came out of Harry's wand put the flames out in a matter of a few seconds. The moment the flames were gone, Harry dropped to the floor to check on the status of his partner.
"Cho, are you okay?" Harry asked she collapsed into him.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just need a couple minutes to rest."
"Well don't take too long." Harry replied with a nervous smile. He could see that she had some rather rough burns covering her arms and the tips of her black hair had been charred white. However, the look on her face was one of determination. Regardless of her injuries, she appeared ready to go within moments. In the past, while he was been fond of her, Harry never thought much for her fortitude. Now, she had more Gryffindor in her than more actual Gryffindors did. Something had certainly changed in her over the years.
"I'll try not to." she said roughly as, with Harry's help, she got to her feet. "Let's keep moving. This place freaks me out."
And with that, they were off, climbing the stairs to the fifth floor where they knew that they have found Azoli's safe haven. Lining the long hallway to the large double doors at the end of the hallway were stands where suits of armor had obviously stood upon until a few moments ago. Safely assuming that the room where most of Azoli's secrets would be held was the one at the end of the hall, they skipped the other doors and quickly moved to the end of the hall.
Bursting through the huge doors, they instantly knew that they had been correct. The room was massive and yet cramped with bookcases lining the walls, causing the room to feel pressed back towards them. In the middle of the room was a massive circular desk with papers strewn all over it. Harry and Cho slowly approached the center of the room before he turned to her.
"We need to spread out. Search for anything out of the ordinary."
"Harry, have you looked at anything on the table in front of us, this is all out of the ordinary." Cho said, pointing towards the piles of parchment on the table.
Sure enough, Harry looked down at the papers and could hardly understand any of it. Most of the notes on the pages were written in Russian and the pictures that had been drawn helped very little. On one, Harry could make out a map of Europe, but it had one large difference. West of England, and directly south of Iceland, was another island that Harry knew didn't exist. It had a strange name written in another language that Harry knew nothing of. In fact, it didn't look like any language or rune that Harry had ever seen.
"Take this." Harry said to Cho. "I'm going to give it to Hermione and see if she can translate it."
"Do you trust her for this?" Cho asked with a sly grin.
"Can we not start that here?" Harry answered with exasperation. "No, I haven't completely forgiven her. Should I? Probably. But that's not important right now."
"Then what is?" Cho asked, this time entirely serious. "If you didn't come back to make amends with her, why did you come back, Harry?"
"I'm not sure, to be honest. The Jester feels like a loose end to Voldemort. Like while she's on the loose, so is a small part of him. I can't live with that."
Suddenly, Harry felt Cho's hand on his shoulder as he was rotated roughly in place.
"There is always going to be darkness. Without it, we could have people like you and Dumbledore. That you are going to have live with."
"Why does there have to be darkness?" Harry asked. "Why can't the world just treat each other well?"
"Because we're human. It's against our nature to treat each other well." Cho replied with a grimace.
Harry knew she was right. It wasn't that people were bad, at least that's not what he got out of what she was saying. No, it's simply that people looked out for their own interests more than the common good. Most of the time, that wasn't really a problem. However, when someone's interests were the destruction of a whole group of people, like Tom Riddle's or Azoli Vinogradoff's, well that's when it become a bigger problem.
"So how do you feel about her?"
Harry took a moment to collect himself before he answered, not exactly sure what to say but saying what he felt anyway.
"I feel everything that I had ever felt about her. Despite the fact that I've spent most of my time with you since I got back, she's still my best friend. Even with my time away, she know more about me than anyone in the world. I still love her despite all of this. If she ever felt compelled to leave Ron and be with me, I would be hard pressed to say no. And yet, I still can't get over my disappointment over what she did. I don't know if I ever will. What's amazing to me is that I don't even think she did anything wrong at this point, and yet, I'm still angry."
"Are you even angry at her?" Cho asked softly as she continued to search through papers.
"I'm not sure. Maybe it was just the whole damn thing. The fact that I was being drug into the court like some common criminal, trying to defend myself. No one knows what I went through. Physically, Hermione was there for it all and Ron was there for most of it, but I'm not even sure they understood what it was like for me. From day one, we were at a disadvantage. We didn't know enough and there was really no good way to get information quickly. They both looked to me for guidance, despite the fact that Hermione was really our leader."
"Really? I always thought she was more of the planner and then you were the executor, two sides of the same coin." Cho replied, finally looking up from the papers in front of her to look at him. "She had the information to create crazy plans and you had the stones to go through with them. Seems like a perfect pair to me."
This is why he needed someone like Cho in his life. She was close enough to his life to know generally what had happened but without knowing the dirty details that could skew her views. To say things like this that made absolute sense but no one had ever said them out loud before. The moment the words had come out of her mouth, Harry had realized how right she was. Harry had gone years thinking that he was more of a crude instrument, a blunt object wielded simply to smash things in his way. It was nice to hear that he might have been more than that.
"I'm sorry to change the subject so abruptly but I think you need to see this." Cho said, shaking Harry from his thoughts. Harry rotated around the table to where Cho was standing and looked down at the piece of paper in front of him. While he couldn't read any of the letter itself, he could read the names at the top and bottom. At the top, the recipient was Azoli and at the bottom, the sender was-
"Grindelwald?" Harry said in confusion. "It has to be that Grindelwald doesn't it?"
"The odds of there being another Grindelwald corresponding with a Dark witch when there was one alive in Europe up until six years ago are unlikely." Cho replied in confirmation.
"Right." he replied, almost to himself. "What do you think that it could be about?"
"No idea. We need to get back to the Ministry and a translator. Vinogradoff, at some point in the past, was in communication with one of the Darkest wizards of our time. How long do you think they talked?"
"I'm not sure." Harry replied as he started to dig through the piles on the table. "But I'm finding a few more down here. She certainly wasn't very careful when it came to these."
"She probably never thought that they would be useful to anyone but herself." Cho answered.
"If she only knew..."
The pair searched diligently for the next few moments before they finally decided that they were finished with this place. Quickly throwing the important pages they found in a bag that Cho had brought with them, they rushed down the staircase and back to the fireplace. As Cho finished getting the Floo Powder out of her bag, Harry turned back to the main room. With a flick of his wand, a rush of purple fire came bursting out, landing on the floor in front of them.
"Is that what I think it is?" Cho asked, noticing the almost blinding color of the fire.
"Everlasting Fire. I don't think that Azoli is going to get anything else here." Harry said darkly as the flames quickly climbed the curtains next to them, setting the ceiling above them on fire.
"We need to get out of here then." Cho said pointedly.
"Agreed." Harry replied quickly before grabbing the bag of Floo out of her hand and throwing some into the fire. Moving as quickly as possible, the two stepped onto the green flames. Once they were in, Harry shouted their destination.
"The Ministry!"
In a small explosion of green flames and soot, the two were transported roughly back to Moscow.
About an hour later, Azoli Vinogradoff's home burnt to the ground.
March 18
11:10 AM
Wizengamot Court Room
Ron had sat through two excruciating days of The Frenchman's trial when he was finally called upon to testify. The reason it had taken so long for the trial to get to him, traditionally one of the first people to testify as the arresting Auror and initial interrogator, was Charlotte Parkinson and Samantha Fawcett.
Charlotte Parkinson was the aunt of Pansy Parkinson and made Pansy look like a fairy godmother. Like her niece, she had a mean complexion with scowl permanently etched onto her face. She was ruthless, corrupt and deceitful. She was also the best defense advocate in the country. Samantha Fawcett had been a Ravenclaw in school and if any Hogwarts House had a living representation of it, she was it.
If Parkinson was visually female evil incarnate, then, outwardly, Samantha Fawcett was the opposite. She was tall and thin with nearly white blonde hair that reached the middle of her back. When she wished to get what she wanted, all she needed to do was smile and almost anyone would fall for her charms. However, there was a stronger and more cerebral side of her. She was brilliant, calculating, clever and knew the laws of the Wizarding Society front and back. Were it not for the fact that she seemed to be the single most incorruptible person in England, she could have passed for a Slytherin.
The two of them had done a wonderful job of defending or prosecuting their interests while dragging all of the prior two days' proceedings through a pit of mud that had to have been so thick, it was more a solid that a liquid. Finally, after another two hours of motions and countermotions and objections to the countermotions, they were ready to start calling witnesses and I was Samantha's first.
"State your name." Samantha said, looking at him over her glasses.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley, Senior Auror." Ron replied firmly.
"Is it correct that you were the arresting officer of Bruno Christoph, otherwise known as The Frenchman?"
"It is." he confirmed.
"Would you please tell us the story of how he came to be in your custody?" she replied, finally standing from her table and moving towards him.
"Of course. Three days before his capture and subsequent arrest, myself and my partner, John Dawlish, received an owl from a man who had supposedly spotted him in Westminster near a Muggle bookstore. In the past year, we knew that The Frenchman had been responsible for several attacks on Muggles and to hear that he was in an almost entirely Muggle area was obviously disconcerting."
"Objection!" Charlotte Parkinson shrieked. "There is no proof that my client was involved in any of those attacks!"
"Mr. Weasley, can you provide any proof that the man accused was responsible for any of the attacks that you claim he was responsible for?" Tiberius Ogden asked from behind me.
"Yes, we have several eyewitnesses who have testified that they saw him at the sight before the attacks happen. Also, during his raid in Spain, which followed a similar M.O. to the attacks here in London and in Marseilles, he forgot to destroy a Muggle video camera."
"What is this video camera?" my father asked curiously behind him. It was all he could do to repress a smile.
"A video camera, as it has been explained to me, takes moving picture for an extended amount of time. Then, it is printed onto these strange black "tapes" that are placed inside a machine of some sort and these moving pictures can be played back. I have viewed the moving picture myself. There is no doubt that the man in the pictures is Bruno Christoph."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley." Tiberius said above me. "Objection overruled. Continue." he ordered to Samantha.
"You said that he was spotted in Westminster?" Samantha said leadingly.
"Correct. So, Dawlish and I organized a team of four Aurors: the two of us, Tom Proudfoot and Elijah Savage."
"Why such a small team?" Samantha asked as she paced back and forth in front of Ron.
"In Marseilles, the French had put together a sixteen Auror task force to capture him. Unfortunately, they tipped him off hours before they moved in on him and he was ready. Killed 14 of the 16 offices and maimed the other two. So, we decided we would go with another tactic. We went with a small team, no magical communication of any kind."
"Completely dark?"
"Completely." Ron agreed. "If you wanted to pass a message, you walked to the other team and told them yourself."
"How did you find Mr. Christoph?"
"Surprisingly, he wasn't that difficult to find." Ron said with a smug grin. "He had no idea we were there and so he was wondering around, flaunting his magical ability for all to see, anyone that could have seen it anyway."
"What was he doing?"
"Nothing major. Small Memory charms, which we fixed." Ron pointed out quickly. "Setting small fires, pulling stools out from under people by Summoning them. It was strange for us. We knew that this man was an international terrorist and yet he was acting like nothing more than a simple fiend."
"Did this change your mind about him?"
"Not at all." he replied quickly. "In fact, we followed him all the way back to his residence. He had purchased a room in a Muggle hotel not far from where he had been spotted. The receptionist had been Confounded into telling everyone that the whole floor he was staying in was full. When we went upstairs to check, he had murdered every person on the floor. After the fact, when we went back to check his room, he had a Muggle woman tied to his bed. We found no evidence of any physical damage."
"What was she there for then?"
The thought alone made Ron shake in his seat.
"He was raping her, beating her, torturing her. However, he put a Silencing Charm on her so that when she screamed, no one outside the room could hear it. She had Memory Charms placed on her, leaving holes in her memory. However, the holes were not accidents."
"How can you know this?" Samantha asked quietly. Ron could feel the chill come over the whole room as he began to recite the horrible parts of this story. It had been the worst case of his career and probably one that would stick with him until the end, whenever that came.
"Because of what she remembered. She knew that each time he raped her, she passed out. However, she has no memory of recovering or of the periods in between when she was being raped. All she could remember was being beaten."
"How long was she there?"
"Dawlish found her the day after we brought him in. That was January 20. She said that the last day she remembered being outside of November 29."
The moment the words left my mouth, a small hum came over the room as the horrified members of the Wizengamot reacted to what I had said.
"Please tell us how you captured Mr. Christoph."
"Simple bait. We assumed that he liked to frequently visit the places that he destroyed. Thankfully, we were correct. The next day, he returned and when he did, the four of us were inside the bookstore, ready to pounce. Once he was inside, we cleared the place out and attacked. He either had no idea what was coming or he knew and went with us. Dawlish distracted him and I hit him in the back with a Stunner. We pulled an Obliviation Team in and repaired the memories of all the Muggles in the area. They never knew that we or he was ever there."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley." Samantha said with a courteous nod before heading back to her seat.
Instantly, Ron knew what was coming next and he knew that there was no way he was ready for it. Charlotte Parkinson shot out of her chair and strode quickly towards Ron until she was only a few feet away. Then, she struck.
"Aurors Dawlish, Proudfoot and Savage, I did not see them on the witness list."
He had been instructed that this was where she would start. She knew that we had fairly reliable evidence that he was guilty. So, rather than trying to poke holes in his story, she would try and poke holes in him. For most people, it would work without a hitch. He only hoped that he wasn't most people.
"No, you did not." Ron answered honestly.
"Why not?"
"You did not see them on the list, Mrs. Parkinson, because they are dead." Ron said through gritted teeth.
"My apologies for asking. But, how exactly did they die?"
"They were murdered by a woman named Azoli Vinogradoff, also known as The Jester. She is Mr. Christoph's mentor in the Dark Arts."
"That doesn't matter to me, Mr. Weasley." she said with almost a gleeful expression. "No, what matters to me is why they died. Why were you put in a situation where you were forced to fight someone as power as this "Joker" character."
"Jester." Ron corrected.
"Again, not important. Now, please answer the question." she retorted, this time losing the cheery impression and taking on the evil demeanor she had been using for the past two days.
"The Ministry received a letter from the Ministry of Magic in Prague. The Jester threatened to attack the Ministry in London if we did not return The Frenchman to her."
"And what was your response?"
"I took the same four person team that I had taken to defeat The Frenchman to Prague."
"Why?"
"Excuse me?" Ron asked in confusion.
"Why go to Prague? There's no immediate threat to the safety of you or your prisoner. It is merely a letter threatening you. You had no proof that she or anyone she was supposedly working with had done anything. What made you go to Prague?"
"I thought that we could take her down and end their alliance once and for all. I was wrong."
"You were wrong, Mr. Weasley." she said softly, barely audible to anyway more than five feet away from us. "You were wrong and three people died for it."
"Yes, they did and I regret it every day."
"Regret gets you nothing in this court, Mr. Weasley." she replied harshly before turning to the members of the Court. "Members of the court, Mr. Weasley acted quickly and rashly and people died as a result! Auror Weasley was so confident in his ability, so certain in his conviction that The Frenchman and The Jester were in collusion, that he didn't stop to prepare! I can tell you that is not the case! My client will testify that he has never seen or heard of Azoli Vinogradoff and that Mr. Weasley tortured the information from my client!"
"That's a lie!" Ron shouted. "I heard him confess to everything!"
"That confession was a forced confession by Harry Potter. Harry Potter is not an Auror and therefore should not have been allowed to interrogate anyone."
"Well, then I guess that makes his plea bargain invalid."
The new voice in the room was strangely familiar. Ron looked passed the tables were the prosecutor and the defense sat and saw a ghost of the past. The man had become a veritable recluse in the years after the war, choosing the comfort of his own home over the confusion of the Wizarding World. His once pristine appearance had fallen off, his hair was falling out and there were permanently dark circles under his eyes.
"Lucius Malfoy?" Ron said in confusion.
Suddenly, Ron saw the posture that Lucius had taken and realized far too late what was about to happen.
"The Jester and the Dark Lord send their regards."
Instantly, a burst of green light radiated from the end of Malfoy's wand. The curse hit The Frenchman directly in the chest.
He was dead before he hit the floor.