The Chronicles of Fayt
Chapter Sixteen: Wherein Lies Continue
Amelia Bones POV
Ministry of Magic
Auror Headquarters
I slammed my head on my desk as I groaned at the amount of paperwork in the wake of Fudge's trial. After he was kicked out of office all his actions had been in review. Around the time of several high profile cases he had received large donations to his campaign funds, and his personal accounts. Also, when up and coming politicians threatened his job, charges came up against them and they were quietly carted off to Azkaban. The result?
A lot of paperwork and retrying of cases. I opened yet another file. I almost tossed it to the side. Sirius Black… He never seemed bad in school. Too bad. He was a nice guy until he murdered twelve muggles. Actually, I never remembered his trial. Did he even get one? I looked. No court records…
"Hey, boss, this one's going to be rushed. He was tossed in Azkaban to await trial eleven years ago. His file was buried." Scrimigour came over.
"Who?"
Well, this was tuff, everyone hated Black. I'll give him one chance for old times' sake. "Well, it's Sirius Black actually. It won't take more than a day. Get him a trial, ask him under Vetriserum and get conviction and toss him back in."
He rolled his eyes. "Guess even the most psychotic and obviously guilty criminals deserve due process. I'll tell the guards in Azkaban to ship him our way. Waste of time but we have got to do it I guess." Scrimigour limped off and I flipped through another old court file. Stupid Fudge. I'm an Auror, not a damn secretary.
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Jason Black's POV
Hogwarts
Main Hall
I munched on my breakfast. This food is so much better than the St. Mary's food. How did James survive the summer? I shoved a forkful of salty and greasy hashbrowns in my mouth. Good food make Jason happy. I speared a sausage and smeared it around in the syrup from my French toast. I looked up during the flutter of wings and a great horned owl dropped a letter from Gringotts in said syrup. I picked it up and grabbed the letter out of the sticky envelope. Yay, more money in my bank account… people kept ordering copies of the Wizarding Times. They had reprinted three times. I saw several copies around. I always got a goofy grin when I saw them.
James smacked me and I punched him back. "No!" He yelled. "Look at this! This is crazy!" Other people were waving papers around too and the teachers were confused, and McGonagall was about to cry or something. "Sirius Black was cleared of all charges!"
Sirius Black… rang a bell. Psycho mass murderer? "The guy who killed a bunch of people and laughed as he was carted off to Azkaban?"
"No, he was innocent! Fudge pulled some strings and had him thrown in Azkaban to await further trial and somebody pulled a ton of strings to have people hush up about a lack of trial. The guy sat innocent in Azkaban for eleven years! This is huge little man!" James held the paper at arms' length.
"Quiet!" Dumbledore said loudly over the din of shouting teens. "It seems we have quite a shock in today's paper. That, however, does not excuse wild behavior. I expect mature behavior from all of you. If you are confused, I can explain. Ex-Minister Fudge was a corrupt man who when paid off had Sirius Black sent to Azkaban with no trial. The unknown person who paid him off also bribed and coerced many Wizengamot members into silence. The people in question are on trial for corruption." Mr. Nose in Everything would know about this.
"Now. As exciting as this all is, please go to your classes. No matter current events, Hogwarts maintains its classes, so move along please." He waved his hands in a dismissive manner and everybody shuffled around and filed out.
"Man, Dumbledore was pale." I shook my head as we walked to class. "Does stuff like this happen all the time?"
Neville shook his head. "Only the pureblood heads of families and ministry officials and department heads can vote. That means that people stay in office until they don't want to be there anymore. Nobody really challenges them though. People just accept that."
Hermione was gaping in shock. "Y-you mean that the people in charge of the government are pricks like Malfoy and his father!"
Neville shrugged. "I can vote when I reach my majority. My Gran is the interim Head of the Family. When I'm seventeen I can claim my Wizengamot seat, Family Vaults, Family Ring and voting right. It's the way things are."
"That is so… backwards! It's archaic! To think, the entire wizarding world in Britain of all places is ruled by such outdated customs! People have had the right to vote here for centuries! This is so stupid!"
I butted in. "Well, Hermione. Become a lobbyist. Gather all the muggleborns and half-bloods who can't vote and overthrow the government. America did it." She looked thoughtful. "First, let's not be late to Snape's class. Much more immediate consequences. Personally, I think it is easier to do as well. We'd better hurry." I took off towards the dungeons at a quicker pace.
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Days after the Black shock things were still crazy. The Aurors had been working double overtime to go through old and possibly botched trials and investigations. Needless to say, Fudge would never see the light of day again as over two dozen innocent people had already been freed. It'd been only a week since he was convicted. I could imagine what the total amount would be. What a corrupt ass.
I leapt onto my broom and flew in a fast circuit around the pitch. I always loved just letting loose on my broom and flying as fast as I could. I went into a steep climb and ended up almost a mile high. I lurched forward and into a steep and corkscrewing dive towards the ground. The small pitch grew larger and larger. I pushed the broom as hard as I could before wrenching it up.
My heart pounded as the ground came sickeningly close. I tensed and waited for the impact that never came. I skimmed over the ground and slowed to a stop. Whoa, way too close. I heard shouting as I touched down and took a shaky breath. I saw several adults coming closer.
"Quite a dangerous move Mr. Black." I turned and waved at Professor Dumbledore who was with an unfamiliar man.
"Yeah, I barely pulled out of that one. I thought I was going to crash." I picked up my broom.
"You ever consider going pro kid? Most pro seekers couldn't have pulled that!" The dark haired mans grey eyes were lit up. "I haven't seen a move like that in forever! I thought they would scrape you off the field. You had to be two inches from death!"
"Yeah, I scared myself there." I wondered if Dumbledore would introduce the guy.
Dumbledore spoke up, almost as if answering my thoughts. Who knows, maybe he was. "I'm forgetting my manners, this is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Sirius Black."
Dumbledore must love the shock factor. "Nice to meet you Professor." Might as well play nice.
"He did say Black, right?" Umm, why was Professor Black asking me this? "I mean, your last name."
Right, people knew me. "Yep. Jason Black."
"The first year who got Fudge kicked out of office and in effect got me a trial?" Oh, right. I guess Sirius Black would want to thank me or something. Azkaban must suck, stupid Dementors.
"Yeah, that's me."
"I just wanted to say thank you." He grabbed my hand and roughly shook it. "Without you I'd still be in there." He threw me a broad grin. Y'know, now that I look at him, it looked like he was trying to hide a too thin body under his robes and his skin looked a little yellowed, like he'd seen too little sun for too long. He probably hadn't seen much sun though. Azkaban was a rock in the ocean.
I threw him a grin anyway and headed back in the castle. Well, no more Dumbledore, Snape and Flitwick taught Defense classes. I headed off to the Ravenclaw Commons. I charged into the Commons. "You'll never guess who the new Defense teacher is!"
That got people's attention. God, we are nerds. "Who?" Hermione was curious.
"I said to guess!"
"No, you'd said we'd never guess."
"Guess anyway." I'm such a little jerk… oh well. I'd live.
"A vampire!" Sarcastic. "Gilderoy Lockhart!" That worthless pretty boy? The girl seemed to be in love with him. "Sirius Black!" Tonks, the girl James had been picking on spoke up. She sounded serious too. Hehe, serious, his name is Sirius.
"How'd you guess?" No fair, she ruined my guessing game.
"He's related to me. My mom's cousin. He was staying with her and she wrote me. Apparently he was supposed to teach like, ten years ago but he got arrested first. The old teacher got sick and he was the replacement. Dumbledore offered him the job again." She went back to flipping through her magazine.
"Weird. Anyway. I met him when I was flying. Almost broke my neck. I was like, two inches from the ground. I thought I was going to die." I told about my amazing dive and assured people that the new teacher was cool. He complemented my dive… Which was amazing by the way.
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I walked into the defense class and looked around. No garlic. That's a plus. No teacher though. Odd. Most teachers beat us here. The door behind the desk opened. "Hey, my first students!" He was carrying a large cage. "Mind helping me carry these cages? There are more up there. Grab the ones marked with a one." He set the box down and something made that box move around due to the jarring movement. I gulped and went into the office. I found a rather huge box, one big enough for me. The three of us, Neville, Hermione and I all grabbed the box. Something growled and shook the box and Hermione squeaked. We quickly put it down and I sat in the front row.
"Can we move back?"
"Nope. Going to miss the angry wild animals. No way am I moving back." My eyes were probably crazy looking right now.
The other Black, (Wicked cool name…) laughed. "Good attitude! There's always a few crazy ones. Just a question, do I have a volunteer?"
I nodded and grinned. "Only if involves wild and dangerous animals."
"Wild, definitely. Dangerous, only marginally. I caught them last night! They were in the Forbidden Forest. I figured that you should all be able to defend yourselves around here." He grinned as the Gryffindors came in. "Take a seat, anywhere you want, I'll only move you if you cause problems."
Once the bell rang he eagerly took roll. "Alright! So, I looked over Quirrel's records and decided he was a horrible teacher!" People were happy at that, he wasn't another Quirrel. "I was thinking, what would a first year most likely run into and have a chance of facing? I came to the conculsion of beasts in the Forbidden Forest. I was a student here once and know that it isn't as deserted as it should be. So, I caught some creatures!" He was nuts. I love my new teacher.
He flicked his wand and a snarling ball of fur crashed against the bars of the cage inside the crate. "This, is a firewolf!" Students moved to the farthest desks. I scooted mine forward. "They get the name from the saliva, which burns the victim of the wolf. The most important thing to remember is its fur repels minor hexes and jinxes." He continued to lecture as the wolf pounded against the bars. "The best defense against it is the stunner and the conjunctivitis curse. The stunner is harder to learn and requires more power. The conjunctivitis curse is what we will learn. It harms the eyes and wears off too. This means that the animal will be hurt and blinded, giving you the chance to run. However, no lasting damage is done."
He waved his wand at the board. "There, is the spell and pronunciation. We'll practice later. We have our next specimen." The second crate held a giant spider. "An acromantula!"
"Big spider." I said as I leaned over my desk.
"SPIDER!" I turned to see Ron Weasley had jumped out of his desk. "Great bloody big SPIDER!" His face drained of color and he collapsed with a thunk as he hit his head.
"Well, yeah, that's an issue." He walked over. "Smacked his head. Can someone get him to the hospital wing?" Now I paled.
"Black is trying to kill Weasley!" I hissed. Hermione smacked me. That bloody hurt. "I'm serious!"
"No, I'm Sirius." Black was standing at the front of the room again. He spoke as people snickered at his bad joke. "Now, as with firewolves, the shell on the acromantula repels magic. However, stunners from you lot won't work. It takes several powerful adults with mature magical cores to take one on. Now, if you meet up with one, chances are it won't be alone. They usually travel in groups. Take on the one you see and run towards the castle. Ideally, try and send up red sparks as often as you can so somebody can help you." He got closer to the cage. "The conjunctivitis usually works, but may take several tries to fully blind it. Don't bother with stunners unless it's gaining. Enough may slow it enough to escape."
He clapped his hands. "Quills, ink and parchment away and wands out. Put your bags at the front of the class." People moved quickly at the thought of magic. Defense with Black (Not me) was fun. When I turned around the desks were gone and stacked on the sides of the walls. "Now, get in the circle of training dummies!"
People moved around. "Watch me kiddies. You want to make a hard jab to cast. Like so." He yelled the spell and lunged forward and a twisting jet of pinkish light burst forth and hit the dummy which turned green. "Green means a correctly cast spell hit the dummy. Red means you need to try again. Go ahead, try it out." He moved around as we hurled nothing or bad spells at the dummies.
I roared the spell and it smashed into the dummy which was knocked back several inches and glowed bright green. "Whoa." Black let out a low whistle. "That was some nice spell casting there Jason. Powerful too. Ten points to Ravenclaw."
I nodded and threw the spell again and again at the dummy. A couple of times I got even brighter glows off the dummy. I wonder if mine was newer or something. Nobody else got that big a reaction from the targets. Odd. I'll ask Professor Black later.
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Sirius Black's POV
Hogwarts
"So." I caught Dumbledore's attention, I still couldn't call him Albus as he insisted. "It's about that Jason Black kid. What's his story other than scholarship orphan from London? I mean, he's a pro level seeker at eleven, and today in class his spells were powerful enough to be a six or seventh years." Seriously, (Pun very much so intended) the kid was way too strong for a firstie.
"He's twelve actually." Dumbledore was stalling. "What? I don't know everything that goes on here. I don't think I'd particularly want to either. God knows what the older students do here."
Creepy… Dumbledore talking about that… wait, other Black. I've got to stay on track here. "You still didn't answer my question. What do you know about him?"
"He's twelve, a first year, in Ravenclaw, competing for top of his class in every class, has got a wand with one of Fawkes's feathers as a core. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
"Yes, what is his back round story? What about his parents? Does he have any magical blood in there somewhere? Why is he through the roof for a twelve year old?"
"He's magically powerful. Fairly simple answer. Besides, it's not that amazing, every year sees one student who is much higher than the others."
"You know that's not the answer I want. What are you hiding here?"
He went back to eating his dinner but stopped as I gave him a "Spit it out" look. "I have no clue what you're talking about Sirius." Still giving him the look. "Oh fine. So I am hiding something. A feeble old man-" I rolled my eyes. "Deserves his secrets. I hope you like living without knowing everything Sirius. The other Mr. Black had trusted me with a few secrets I don't plan on sharing."
Fine, keep your secrets for now Dumbledore. I'll figure it out. Just you wait and see. I got through these halls unnoticed once. I can sure as hell do it again and trail a first year.
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Woot, another chapter. Okay, now that I'm back in school expect update two or preferably three times a week. So, yeah. There's chapter sixteen!
Review Replies- GrlWithoutAName- You are going to cause me to suffocate the planet in my ego. You are much to kind and awesome. amalin06- I have fun writing the story so I like hearing people enjoy reading it. Want to know what's even better? I intended to write this as a serious story. (No pun intended.) Absentminded Dreamer 1310- I'll keep in mind the potions and getting high, I totally missed the fact that if taking them in the wrong order can get you high, then you can brew one that does the same. If anyone could do it, it's the Ravenclaws… As is, a rave, lol, bad joke. Ams71080- All compliments are welcome, no matter the length. Callie258- Congrats on the permit and I too love the line "Paybacks a bitch." It seemed perfect too. ^^*- I love my own story, his quote was amazing. (I know, I'm conceited)