The Trial,
A story by stealacandy
Table of Contents:
Prologue: The Lord knows you are not unintelligent
Chapter 1: 1st Trial: Can't you say something intelligent for a change?
Chapter 2: 2nd Trial: Miscarriage? Isn't that what witches have after Malfoy beats them?
Chapter 3: 3rd Trial: Et tu?
Chapter 4: 4th Trial: And Justice for All
Epilogue: Yet More Trials: Aftermath - I was under the Imperius when I wrote this!
The Trial, chapter no. 2
By stealacandy
Disclaimer: JKR attorneys can't find fault with me. I don't own anything. Harry Potter is the intellectual property of JKR Rowling, the only thing I own in this is the plot. Of course, the guys from mugglenet put Jo under the Imperius, and she doesn't seem to struggle much against it, so the definition of intelligent might be put to question - at least as far as the wizarding world court system is concerned.
2nd Trial: Miscarriage? Isn't that what witches have after Malfoy beats them?
"In the case of the Ministry of Magic against Potter, Harry James, Harry Potter is accused of casting an Unforgivable curse at Bellatrix Lestrange. Judges are Cornelius Fudge, Ministry of Magic, Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, and Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Presiding over the trial, Amelia Bones. Court Scribe, Percy Weasley. Witness for the accused, Harry Potter, accused chose to represent himself. Harry Potter, you are charged with casting the Cruciatus Curse on Lucius Malfoy, a crime that carries with it a sentence of a lifetime imprisonment in Azkaban Prison. How do you plea?"
"Erm, excuse me, Ma'am, but who accuses me?"
A smile caressed Madam Bones's lips, but disappeared as quick as it came.
"The Minister of Magic, Mr. Potter, Cornelius Fudge."
"Shouldn't he testify then, and accuse me, before you get to the part of my own testimony?"
"You are correct, Mr. Potter. Cornelius Fudge, would you please step down as a judge so you could bear witness to Mr. Potter's guilt in this case?"
"What?" said the Minister. "I'm not testifying to anything!"
"Why then do you charge Mr. Potter with a crime?"
"Because Lucius - that is, Mr. Malfoy, said Potter committed it!" Fudge said.
"Well, shouldn't he testify about it?" asked Madam Bones.
"But he already has testified!" protested the minister.
"Indeed, Minister," agreed Madam Bones. "And he didn't say Mr. Potter committed the crime has he? If you want to go to trial with the key witness for the prosecution contradicting the prosecution claims, I'm not going to bet money on the prosecution's chances of winning it."
"Oh, very well," Fudge relented. "Lucius Malfoy, would you please stand up to bear witness in this trial?"
Harry cleared his throat, then spoke up. "Excuse me, minister. I'm terribly sorry, it's not for me to tell you how to do your job," - he didn't look too sorry, to tell the truth, - "but if your main witness - oh, I'm sorry, I meant the prosecution's main witness, not yours, you are a judge after all, you are impartial,. of course you wouldn't favour the prosecution, I won't imply that you do, my sincere apologies, Minister. Nevertheless, if the prosecution only witness is going to give a testimony, having just been declared unintelligent, and contradicting a testimony he just gave to the opposite, I won't be betting money on the prosecutions' success either. Shouldn't you first call all the support witnesses you called in my first trial, Minister?"
"I don't have time for this!" said Fudge. "Just get it over with!"
"It seems to me you are in quite a hurry to dispense justice, Minister." Harry said. "You must sit on trials everyday to find them an annoyance. You might want to consider not sitting on them, you seem to take them very personally. I commend you on your devotion, Minister, but it would do your constitution no good. You might want to take it slower, perhaps. I, on the other hand, am not put on trial everyday, only once a year, it would seem, and I take the accusations against me, and what punishment they would carry should I somehow be found guilty, and, seeing as close to half the members of this court voted to find me guilty a year ago, when eyewitnesses proved without doubt that I was acting in self defence, protecting myself, and my muggle cousin, who, by the way, was already aware of magic's existence, thus making one of the two charges redundant to begin with - protecting ourselves from dementors, dementors which your undersecretary admitted to have sent to kiss me, just as you have sent a dementor to kiss Bartemius Crouch mere two months prior to that - seeing that, I find myself dreading a guilty verdict even should I prove I have committed no crime, which gives me even more motivation to prove my innocence beyond any doubt. I take it all very seriously, and so I must demand the protection afforded me by the law, to have all the witnesses testify at my trial, and not to rely on hearsay, as their testimony in another trial, in which I nevertheless was found NOT GUILTY, must be considered."
Which is how all the witnesses that bore testimony in Harry's first trial, earlier that day, were called back to the stand, and bore the same testimony, again. Harry didn't seem at all in any hurry to challenge any of them. That is, at least until the time came for Lucius Malfoy to testify and give his - much changed - account of the events as he knew them.
"...And how, perchance, did you come by the information I ostensibly cursed Bellatrix Lestrange with the Cruciatus Curse?" Harry demanded. "By your own admission, you say you were no where near her at the time I ostensibly did it!"
"She told my Master, she told me you have."
"Wait, when did you speak with her? By your own account, at the time I supposedly cruciated Lestrange, you were already incapacitated and incarcerated, and soon afterwards you were in Ministry custody, until you were released, it having been found you were under the Imperius curse when you lead the Death Eaters to break into the Ministry and lay a trap to capture me. So you must have spoken with her afterwards?"
"Yes?" said Malfoy.
"But she is a Death Eater!" cried Harry in mock incredulity "A self-confessed, proud Death Eater?" Surely you wouldn't have met her on friendly, speaking terms, so soon after you've just been freed from the Imperius Curse?" Malfoy looked concerned, and Harry pressed Harder. Were you perchance aiding and abetting a fugitive Death Eater, Mr. Malfoy?" Malfoy looked uncertain, and Harry offered a bait. "Or perhaps she was there to put you back under the Imperius curse and back into Voldemort's service?"
Malfoy swallowed the bait, hook, sinker and whatever, line or something, I don't fish, I don't even like fish, so I wouldn't know. "Yes, that's exactly what she did," he said.
Harry allowed himself a momentary smile. "Alright, Mr. Malfoy, that is good to know. That means you are in Voldemort's service right now, Mr. Malfoy, wouldn't it? That you are obeying his orders when you accuse me of a crime, a crime I did not commit? That when you failed with accusing me of one crime, you simply decided to try with another story, and another crime." Harry turned to face Amelia Bones again. "I would like to have the court notice that Mr. Malfoy admitted to have lied and accused me of a crime earlier today on orders of Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort's enmity and antagonism towards and against me are well known and documented as a matter of public record. Furthermore, I would like to note that the curse hasn't been lifted from Mr. Malfoy, he still is under it, and he is, by his cognisance, still lying to this court and accusing me of a crime on Voldemort's orders. I must admit, I am fairly impressed at how flexible those orders are, how great is Voldemort's' control over Malfoy here, that he can change his story so easily where he should do so rigidly, and without Voldemort being here to actively order him about. From what I've been told after Barty Crouch escaped Voldemort's Imperius, and from what I've seen myself after that Unspeakable Bode broke from under Lucius's own Imperius, that, in particular, is a time most easy for the victim to resist the curse, or at least attempt to resist it, which is almost certain to show, yet here Lucius Malfoy sits, calm to the world, as if nothing was holding him thrall, forcing him to act against his will."
"Lucius Malfoy's falsified testimony aside, I would like to point that even were it true, it wouldn't matter to this trial. So far, he testified I cast the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix Lestrange, but, ah, Minister, that is not what I am charged with!"
"It is not?" asked the Minister of Magic.
"No, it is not." said Harry. "Minister, I assume this court has a scribe? I believe you said something about a Percy Weasley?"
"Who?" asked Fudge.
"Him," said Harry, pointing at Percy, who was sitting in a lowered dais to the front and the left of front panel, just below the judges presiding over the trial.
"Oh, Weatherby." Said the Minister. "Well, what do you want with him?"
"I stay corrected, Minister, my apologies. Mr. Weatherby," said Harry, turning to the side to face Percy, "I assume, being the court's scribe, that you wrote a transcription of the trial?"
"Well, yes, I wrote the minutes, but I got a Dictate-o-Quill recording the entire trial as well." said Percy, a frown on his face.
"Superb!" said Harry enthusiastically. "Could you please, Mr. Weatherby, read us the charge for my trial?"
"Yes, quite. Let us see: 'Harry Potter, you are charged with casting the Cruciatus Curse on Lucius Malfoy, a crime that carries with it a sentence of a lifetime imprisonment in Azkaban Prison. How do you plea?'"
"Weatherby, you idiot," said Fudge, "The second trial, this trial, not the first one!"
"B-begging your p-pardon, m-minister," Percy stammered. "b-but this IS from the second trial."
"What?" demanded Fudge. "Give me this," and he grabbed the parchment from Percy, and read it out loud. 'In the case of the Ministry of Magic against Potter, Harry James, Harry Potter is accused of casting an Unforgivable curse at Bellatrix Lestrange... Harry Potter, you are charged with casting the Cruciatus Curse on Lucius Malfoy'... oh for crying out loud! Just change the damn thing!"
"I'm sorry, Minister," said Harry, "but you can't change the charges in mid trial."
"But it's only-" the Minister began, but Harry cut him off.
"I am afraid, Minister, it is not 'just'. You are attempting to charge me with a crime that would merit a lifetime of imprisonment in the prison of Azkaban, and even though the Dementors have left their post and the Ministry control, it is still a dreary place, and there's no guaranty someday they won't come back and you'd accept them with open hands so they can then leave again, taking with them all the dangerous prisoners within to join their master once more. The law of Wizarding Britain demands you let the accused defend himself against the charges brought against him in any way possible, you can't change the charges in mid-trial. Not only it is against several other laws, it deprives me from the opportunity to cross examine the witnesses about the fact relevant to this case. So you must Either declare me innocent again due to the same reasons I was found innocent in the first trial. Or that the main witness of the prosecution specifically testified that I did not commit the crime I was charged with, and that no other testimony or evidence was found to connect me with the supposed crime.
"Of course, since this trial, regardless of what I was eventually actually charged with, was, what was it? oh, yes, ''In the case of the Ministry of Magic against Potter, Harry James, Harry Potter is accused of casting an Unforgivable curse at Bellatrix Lestrange' - me cursing Bellatrix Lestrange, so if you try to put me on another trial on the same case, that would be double jeopardy, and you won't be able to carry it on, for it would be a gross miscarriage of justice, and thus an automatic acquittal if you ever try it, you might want to declare this a mistrial instead, due to the main witness for the prosecution contradicting himself, being extremely unreliable and admittedly, outright lying. That way you can then bring me up on charges of supposedly cruciating Bellatrix Lestrange."
"Oh, for Merlin's sake! Amelia, this is all your fault, if you haven't made such a stupid mistake-" Fudge was looking to lay blame, but Madam Bones was having none of it.
"None of that, Minister," she said. "I was reading from the parchment I was given. In your zeal and haste to dispense with this case as soon as possible, the court had no time to prepare for the case, and that is the result of that! What's more, the defendant had no time to prepare his own defence, which is his right, and which is much worse!"
"Oh, very well, let's get it over with." Fudge sighed, This day wasn't going his way. He nodded at Amelia Bones. "Amelia, if you would?"
"Very well," she, too, said. "This court dismisses the case of the Ministry of Magic against Potter, Harry James, accused of casting an Unforgivable at Bellatrix Lestrange, declaring it a mistrial due to the main witness for the prosecution, one Lucius Malfoy, being found unreliable, untrustworthy and prone to lying." She turned to Fudge. "Do you want to commence with a new trial, or perhaps reschedule, to better prepare for the trial this time?"
"I want this done TODAY!" Fudge was now bellowing.
"Very well," Amelia said again. "In the case of the Ministry of Magic against Potter, Harry James, Harry Potter is accused of casting an Unforgivable curse at Bellatrix Lestrange. Judges are Cornelius Fudge, Ministry of Magic, Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, and Amelia Bones, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Presiding over the trial, Amelia Bones. Court Scribe, Percy Weasley. Witness for the accused, Harry Potter, accused chose to represent himself. Harry Potter, you are charged with casting the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange, a crime that carries with it a sentence of a lifetime imprisonment in Azkaban Prison. How do you plea?"
'Weren't we here already?' thought Harry to himself. Undoubtedly, the same thought crossed the mind of many present in the courtroom. 'Here we go again,' Harry thought, and stood up to speak.
"Madam," he said, "I find myself, to my great astonishment, quite in agreement with the Minister..."
xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
A/N: This chapter actually grew out of a typo!
I began writing Amelia Bones's line from scratch, got as far as "on Bellatrix Lestrange", then scrolled back up to see the exact wording I used in the first trial so I could repeat it verbatim to make it look like procedural, formal talk, not something she came up with on the fly. Then I realized I could simply copy and paste it as a whole and be done with it, planning only to change Lucius Malfoy to Bellatrix Lestrange. Then I noticed a grammar mistake and went back to fix it, and once I was done, I forgot I was supposed to make the change, having already written "Bellatrix Lestrange" once.
How stupid of me. I'm going senile...
So Frederic Kneisel wrote to tell me I had a typo, and so I thanked him and went back to change it. Then I saw SlickRCBD's review, and he, too, spotted the typo, but he went on to suggest it was better off that way. I quite agreed, and it solve the question I had about how to tackle the other testimonies in the trial, so I went with the mistake - after re-correcting the first correction back to the mistaken form, then I went on to write not one, but two extra trials past the two I originally planned.
Thank you SlickRCBD! Just for that, I wrote you into the story. Mind you, your character isn't too upbeat, but what can you do? That was the only original character in the entire story.
P.S. "B-begging your p-pardon, m-minister," Percy stammered. "b-but this IS from the second trial."
I asked, and got at least 10 replies, but I still don't know whether I should use stutter, or stay with stammer. So, per the status-quo-ante, it stays as it is, for now, until such a time you convince me otherwise.
P.P.S. I nearly finished writing this story, I'm only missing one small detail. In chapter 4, we read about the testimony of a ministry expert describing the results of a Priori Incantation test on Harry's wand. The problem is, I gave my hardcover copy of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' to someone back in 2004, I think, and haven't seen it since. I got an e-text version of the book instead last year, but a few weeks ago my hard-drive died (yes, taking with it the notes on all the chapters I had coming up for my stories...) and with it the book.
So I have nothing to reference with. So, in the common interest of getting this story out, I urgently implore any of you, my faithful readers, to pick up your own copy of 'Order of the Phoenix', and tell me what spells did Harry cast since he arrived at the Ministry of Magic on his way to rescue Sirius from the Department of Mysteries.
Thanks a lot,
-stealacandy
Edit: It's 2014 now, I'm still waiting on my book to find its way back home. No such luck, so far. But who knows, give it another decade, it could still happen…
I got what I needed for the story since I first wrote this note, though, so feel free to ignore it.