Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the characters but I have made them dance this time. No money made, no gratuities accepted except the reviews of my peers, for which I thank you.

I always answer my reviewers if they leave a name and I am always happy to chat with them over PM. Huge thanks and a great deal of gratitude as you are the reason I managed to get out of the mud and get going again.

If you have a flame to send, I suggest you do a spell check, the last couple look like they were written by a drunken kindergartener.

Another huge thanks to my BeST betas Zarathustra46 and the Wicked Bunjhny who make this lot legible and grammatically sane.

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Chapter 04 – Airing Home Truths

The trial continued on Thursday morning, with Snape taking the stand and looking a lot worse for wear as he opened his mouth once more to accept the Veritaserum. As agreed, Alastor Moody asked about the events leading up to the killing of the Potters and the end of Voldemort.

Severus sighed. "There were three families that filled the prophetic criteria and even capturing a Seer did not illuminate the target, so Tom decided to take all three boys out of the picture. The Bowater child was born on the twenty-ninth of July and Tom sent Fenrir Greyback after him. Greyback turned the boy and left a changeling in his place. Unfortunately, Greyback also lost the child so I hold out no hope for the lad's survival in winter in central England. The Potters were the next in line and we all know how that ended. The Longbottoms were the outside chance and Bellatrix went after them with her husband and hangers-on in a bid to try and bring Tom back after his run-in with the Potter brat."

"You were captured at the Longbottom home. How did you get there, and why were you there?"

"I made an agreement with Albus Dumbledore when I consented to spy for him. Dharicz caz, to venture's end [STY] a very old promise which I have kept, even when the end proved not to be until a couple of weeks ago. When the Potters died, we were all in shock but then I remembered two salient facts. Tom wanted the Longbottoms killed and the Lestranges had not been captured in the wake of the Godric's Hollow fiasco. I almost managed to spirit Neville Longbottom away, but then that little arse licker Barty Crouch caught me. I was in the process of hexing him when you and your Aurors turned up and took us both out. Nice spell-work but really, not recommended when one has an armful of baby, Alastor. I'm sure the boy caught a touch of some dark magic as he had terrible coordination and memory problems afterwards, not as bad as his parents but nearly, according to Augusta Longbottom."

"Yes, alright," Alastor mumbled, ignoring the aside. "Was Barty Crouch Senior also a Death Eater?"

"Hell no! He was a paranoid schizophrenic with a persecution complex who would have loved to be a Dark Wizard but didn't have the balls to follow his heart's desire. Instead, he decided to punish anyone who had the intestinal fortitude to do what he was unable to do. Why do you think he authorised the Aurors to use Unforgivables? Wish fulfilment, no more, no less. Hell, he was even weasel enough to trade his ailing wife for the son who was blackmailing him."

"And Barty Crouch Junior?" Alastor asked, fascinated by this insight into his former boss and his son but not game enough to follow the last clue.

"Oh yeah, Death Eater through and through, that one. Wanted power and position to stop his father tossing a leg across whenever he felt the need. A right twisted lot of pederasts those Crouchs, like to keep it all in the family, so to speak; gives a simple queer a bad name." Snape sniffed in disgust.

Alastor coughed. "Moving right along then," he muttered, his magic eye glancing across at the Wizengamot balcony to make a note of the very red faces there. "And our current crop of Members, what can you tell us about them?" he asked with a malicious grin.

"Oddly enough, most of them are reasonably clean. Oh, you have a few dipping the till and accepting gratuities but nothing earth shatteringly bad… yet. Runecourt Brambil drinks too much and should be more closely supervised. His junior staff are using his signature a bit too freely and quite a few dodgy property deals have gone through under his name but nothing that is going to change the course of the Wizarding world at this point. Matilba Rossi has a couple of boy toys on the side but nothing illegal. They're both of age as she has no interest in children. They are well paid and are both consenting, having signed formal contracts with her. Lucas Babcock attended some Death Eater meetings but got scared to death when he realised what being a Death Eater really meant and ran out without getting more than his toes wet, so he is pretty clean. Mind you, Sharon Sadon is trying to use that fact to blackmail him into giving up his position on the Wizengamot to her, or at least his vote on those things she wants to push through the system. Watch out for her, she has her own agenda and I'm not yet sure what it entails. Dumbledore, too, has his own agenda but it's more to do with rebuilding our world than personal aggrandisement so he is reasonably safe to let go onward. He is still addicted to bloody lemon drops. Not even near death can cure that one."

A spurt of laughter greeted that revelation, the Headmaster laughing the loudest, his students chiming in behind him. Had Severus Snape cracked a funny? Unbelievable!

"You know, this is not so much a trial as an inquiry into the inner workings of a Death Eater organisation and how it impacts and interacts with the Ministry," Hermione murmured to her husband.

"If I could be so crude, it's a bloody witch hunt," Harry muttered back in disgust.

"They aren't trying Uncle Severus as much as they are cleaning house," Draco replied heavily. "God, I hope he gets out of this without any brain damage. If they pour much more Veritaserum down his throat, his major organs are going to be so far gone, recovery will take forever, and he'll be an invalid for years."

A brooding silence fell over the small group as the questions and answers continued to shock and startle the avid, titillated and oft-times horrified audience.

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Moody next began a series of questions involving the time when Voldemort was dispatched from the world and all was supposedly at peace. Questions about known Death Eaters were answered, the picture of the organisation being left to wallow in a trough of ineffectuality coming to light. A word here, a letter there, and the Order of Phoenix managed to keep the remnants of Voldemort's supporters off balance and incapable of regaining lost ground in the wizarding world until the appointment of Cornelius Fudge as Minister for Magic.

"It was a mistake. We all realised it a few months after Fudge's appointment. The ineffectual facade began to wear away, showing the true man underneath," Snape mused as he continued his monologue, mostly unprompted.

"How did he change?"

"He discovered that the Minister for Magic has a lot of 'opportunities' not granted to lesser magical mortals and that he could sell those advantages to the people with money and goods. He became quite adept at brokering deals and garnering favours. There's a small island in the Caribbean with Fudge's name on it, although it didn't do him too much good in the end."

"What do you mean?" Clearwater was startled into asking.

"Have you heard from Fudge since he retired? Has anyone heard anything from him? Of course not! Shark bait has no voice and the island has a lot of sharks. One of the favourite Death Eater supporter tricks is to create a Portkey that takes you nearly all the way to your destination, then the magic simply quits; ceases to function as the passengers are dropped from a great height either into the ocean or onto land, wherever the most damage can be done to the passenger(s). Still, the damage to our government system was done and it is rather deeply entrenched. Most of the laws Fudge passed may need to be reviewed for the ramifications that are not apparent in the first reading. He had all the resources of the Ministry legal teams on his side don't forget, and anything he wanted to get passed only had to be reviewed by the relevant team."*

"You mean all our laws were deliberately corrupted?" someone shouted from the press gallery.

"Not all, but a good portion," Severus answered automatically as the Aurors hurried to remove the over-enthusiastic reporter from the ranks of the journalists.

"I think we need to close the court now," Minister Clearwater stated very deliberately. "The issues we are about to discuss seem to concern the law makers rather than the safety of the general public. To that purpose, I want the public and the press gallery cleared and closed. This interrogation can continue behind closed doors with the members of the Wizengamot as witnesses. I believe we will have the final arguments on this case presented tomorrow," the Minister announced grimly.

"Final arguments? But… but there hasn't even been first arguments yet," Vincent said in bewilderment as he followed Draco out.

"No, and there won't be, either. This is not a trial but a witch-hunt, as Harry so succinctly put it."

"But what will happen to Professor Snape?" Ginny asked quietly.

"I don't know, Ginny Girl, but they had better be very, very careful," Harry said grimly as he allowed his fiancé to lead him out, ignoring the calls and questions from the reporters who had only just realised he was present and accessible to them for the first time since the Battle for Hogwarts.

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Minister Constantine Clearwater sighed deeply as the last of the general public was ushered away. He knew that putting Snape on the spot was going to be harrowing but so far it had been enlightening. Still, finding that the laws they lived by were flawed was something that would impact all aspects of their world for quite a long time to come. Perhaps they needed to appoint a reviewing committee to look at the laws and see where the rot had set in. Was not the Chief Justice pushing for the removal of the Law Archives to a new and more modern building, since the original Archives were getting rather crowded. Perhaps it was time to look at that issue with a rather more urgent eye?* Still, that was for later, he had other fish to fry just now.

"Alastor, is the, er, witness fit to continue?" the Minister asked as the old Auror finished pouring yet another potion into the dark, slumped figure occupying the prisoner's chair.

"He has a fair tolerance for the potion but he should be allowed to rest soon. Veritaserum has a few side-effects that are not at all desirable and Severus has some permanent organ damage from being tortured by the Death Eaters during the war."

"Very well. Let us examine the Old Families and their involvement with the Pureblood First Association, shall we?"

The financing of the realm and how the Old Families influenced what laws and mores the magical society would embrace and reject were carefully dissected under the light of Snape's comprehensive knowledge. It seemed that a lot of things they all took for granted had been bought and paid for by the old families to simply further their own schemes or bids for power. It was horrifying to think that even Grindelwald, one of the darkest wizards of their time, was still influencing the thinking of their society; that Voldemort, the creature of nightmare who haunted all their terrors, was merely a powerful echo on that same theme.

By the time the afternoon light was fading, the Wizengamot had a fair idea of just how badly infected their societies and organisations had become and how much work it was going to take to get themselves back on track. The truth was exceedingly terrifying to some of the older members who would have preferred to keep their heads in the sand as they had done for the past fifty years. But that was no longer possible.

"And what is to become of Severus Ibrim Snape? Is he a Death Eater or not? Is he to be treated like a criminal or like a hero? Have we even established where he stood in the war?" one of the back benchers asked pointedly as they decided to break for the day and reconvene on the morrow.

Clearwater sighed as he surveyed the limp, almost unresponsive creature slumped in his place in the middle of the floor. "I think, in the interests of national safety, that he should be carefully confined somewhere where he cannot be used against our institution-"

There was a concerted outcry from the Wizengamot but what members were protesting was very unclear until the Minister smashed his rock gavel down loudly enough to restore order. "Enough! The man is obviously a danger to us all and a prime target for assassination. He needs to be protected and overseen with a careful eye. Allowing him to go free is not an option at this time. I'm sorry, Albus, but we cannot just let him go, not even into your care. We must confine him for his own safety, not Azkaban, but close house arrest seems to be required."

Moody and Dumbledore protested loudly, the legal counsel setting up a clamour but to no avail, the Minister had made up his mind. Severus Snape was to be taken into protective custody, for his own good. So it was proposed, so mote it be! The smash of the gavel ended all hope.

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*See 'Terry Boot, Archivist' in the 'After the Second Voldemort War' stories for what did happen when the magic finally caught up with the corruption.