Hmm... these chapters seemed longer. Ah well, only a few more parts to go and it'll all be over.

Part 73/?

"Just what do you think you're doing, Mr. Malfoy?" Severus Snape's dark voice surprised the two students who had just exploded the door in front of them.

"Harry's here," Draco explained quickly. "Flick just flew in."

"And if he *is* being kept here, did you truly think announcing yourself like that is the best thing to have done?" Only his own wish to keep from announcing his presence kept his voice down to a reasonable level.

"It's Ginny Weasley," Draco explained, his tone explaining just how little a threat he truly considered her.

Severus considered that. "Are you sure?"

Draco nodded. "For some reason, Dobby couldn't give out her name, but that didn't stop him from getting his point across. He's been sending *warnings* to Harry about her. At least, that's how he considered it."

"That still does not make it too likely that she was the one who has taken him," Severus remonstrated.

"Ah, but then Dobby talked to Winky, and it turns out that Weasley had convinced Winky to tell her when Harry was out wandering around at night. She had convinced the stupid elf that she just wanted to talk to him." Draco rolled his eyes at the thought. "When Harry showed up in the kitchen this morning, she went and woke up Weasley."

Severus led the way into the room, wand first, checking it over carefully with eyes and magic. "And what brought you here?"

"Well, we knew that they couldn't have gotten far. Unlike us, Weasley's not able to get out and around as she wishes. There was also no way they were still in the school, including any of the special areas. Even if she had known how to get into them, she also had to know we would be looking in them first." Draco explained as he followed his Head of House, Zabini right behind them.

"Then we started trying to figure out what places outside of Hogwarts would be safe enough, and isolated enough, where no one would notice anything. Finally we thought of this place. We knew there was a route here from Hogwarts' grounds. Unfortunately, no one's bothered to tell us where it was, but we figured that Weasley the elder might have told his sister. As soon as we showed up outside of the place, Flick flew to the door, burned a hole in it and went in, so we figured this must be the right place." Draco made sure his voice was low and reached only the one he was talking to. Then, they heard a voice came from the floor above them.

"Flick! No!"

They raced up the stairs, to find what they had mostly expected. The Alaspinian mini-drag did indeed have Ginny Weasley pinned against the wall, face white and wand trembling in her hand. Colin Creevey was a surprise. So was Harry who was looking calm, although a trifle apprehensive, sitting up on an old rickety cot.

His head turned as they came in. "Make sure you're not drawing anything in," he ordered immediately.

The mages immediately understood and closed off their ability, while Blaise moved closer to the bed. He pulled up as his hands touched something he couldn't see, stopping him from getting any closer. Harry smiled at him. "Could you look around... carefully? There's got to be something nearby that's maintaining the spells; there's both a shield around the bed and a low level compulsion in the room."

Blaise looked around, but there was nothing obviously out of place. He frowned thoughtfully. "It *completely* surrounds the bed? Above and below it as well?" he checked.

Harry nodded. He'd used his magic to check that out practically as soon as he woke up.

Blaise, somewhat reluctantly, got down on the dusty floor and pulled himself under the bed. He wished one of the mages would do this, but he knew Draco wouldn't willingly get down onto the dirty floor when there was someone else to do it for him, and it was similarly impossible to imagine Professor Snape doing it.

There it was. A large, pure piece of amber would not normally be found on the floor of a place such as the Shrieking Shack. He started to reach out for it before catching himself and abruptly deciding against it. Instead, he reached in a pocket and pulled out a silk handkerchief, quietly thanking his mother for demanding he always carried one with him. He carefully wrapped the gemstone up, making sure not to touch it with his hands. He slithered out from under the bed.

"Thanks, Blaise," Harry said, having moved off of the bed the moment he felt the spell be smothered by the silk. He turned to his familiar. "Keep her still, will you? I've got to find a bathroom."

Severus held back a laugh by force of will. He'd heard that a lot, though he doubted it was anywhere near the amount of times his best friend did. However, his caution lead him to jerk his head towards Draco, ordering him to follow Harry... just to be sure.

As they left the room, he turned back to the students in front of him.

"You won't get away with this," Ginny was practically crying. "We'll free him one day, no matter what we have to do!"

"So," Severus murmured darkly. "You want to free him from being happy, just because it's not *you* he's happy with."

"That's not true!" Ginny actually stamped her foot in anger.

"You're a child," Severus pronounced, understandingly. "You don't understand that just because you want it, doesn't mean you're going to get it. I have no idea how a child of Molly Weasley's ended up so completely spoiled."

"I am *not* spoiled!" Ginny crossed her arms and glared.

Severus turned away from her. She honestly wasn't worth his trouble. There was no way she was going to get out of going to St. Mungo's this time. He looked at the other Gryffindor in the room. "And what exactly were you getting out of this, Creevey?" he asked.

"He gets to spend time with his crush," Harry announced as he came back into the room. He twirled his wand between his fingers. Once he'd left the room, he'd used a summoning charm on it, and it had quickly returned to where it belonged.

"You?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," Harry shook his head with a grin. "He's actually interested in her," he rolled his eyes. "If you can believe that."

"There's nothing wrong with Ginny!" Colin didn't like the way they were talking about the girl he liked.

"She's completely out of touch with reality!" Harry disagreed vehemently. "You, there might be some hope for. I do believe that you were simply manipulated by Dumbledore and Weasley. Unfortunately, the old man doesn't need actual compulsions to manipulate someone; after all, he's quite skilled at the game; he's been doing it for so long. I do think you believed that you were doing the right thing. Though, let me tell you this, kidnapping someone is *never* the right thing!"

Ginny suddenly shrieked. Everyone turned towards her to find her staring in horror at the snake still in front of her... and the smoking hole in the wood by her wand hand. A hand that slowly let go of the wand it was holding.

"Ginny, what were you doing?" Colin asked in disbelief. "You know how dangerous Alaspinian minidrags are! You were there in class when Hagrid showed them to us!"

Ginny seemed to have suddenly gotten her courage back. "It's okay," she told her friend. "See! She didn't actually hurt me. That's because Harry doesn't really want to hurt me. Deep inside, he knows I'm just trying to help. This proves that."

Harry rolled his eyes, an action copied by the Slytherins in the room. It shouldn't be possible for someone to be *that* out of touch with reality.

"You're right," Harry admitted. "I don't really want you hurt. Why not? Because that would hurt Ron, Fred, and George as well. I *like* Ron, Fred and George. I *don't* like you anymore, nor would I care what happens to you if it wasn't for that reason"

Ginny shook her head. "You're wrong, and I can prove it," she laughed. She turned towards Harry and stepped towards him. Flick hissed, but didn't attack again.

/Flick?/ Harry murmured the question.

*/I do not sense any danger/* the minidrag admitted.

Flick might not have felt any danger from the girl, but that didn't mean that Severus was going to let anyone so obviously unbalanced anywhere near his son. The binding spell he used was unknown to the students.

"What's that?" Draco asked, always interested in new spells.

"It's a binding spell... a very tight one," Severus admitted with a smirk. "It will not harm her, but she will not be *comfortable* until we decide what to do with her."

"What do you plan on doing to her?" Colin spoke up bravely.

*/Using her body as a nest for my babies sounds good/* Flick muttered unhappily.

Harry laughed. "You don't want to do that," he said out loud so that the others could understand him as well. "I'm sure she'd poison your babies if you fed them on her flesh."

Colin paled completely and shuddered. "You wouldn't... you couldn't!" he stuttered, unsure.

"At least that way she'd be useful," Draco replied.

"You wouldn't really," Colin looked around at all of the vindictive smirks and believed that they would.

"You can't expect Flick to nest in any old carcass, could you?" Harry asked seriously. He almost wished that Ginny wasn't so completely petrified so he could see the expression on her face, but it did help, at least knowing she could hear everything that was said and think about it as well.

"Does she nest in dead bodies?" Blaise asked with a thoughtful frown. "I thought they did like some spiders and used a paralyzing agent, so the body was still alive when the babies are born, so they'd have living flesh to eat when they're born."

"You mean, have their venom change from acid to a paralyzer as she gets closer to birth?" Harry considered. "I don't know, do they?"

Flick's hiss in answer was in truth simply laughter, but the others didn't need to know that. She could feel the terror that was finally starting to overtake the red-haired girl and was happy about it.

"That is another option. And since she was so determined to take my child from me, somehow, that solution would seem… appropriate." Harry winked so only Severus saw.

Severus smirked. Yes, the sensibilities of burgeoning parenthood, threatening those who would dare to interfere with their family. Harry helping Flick make plans for her nursery. How sweet. He would have to share this with Lucius.

He looked over at the Gryffindor girl and released her mouth. "What were you planning on doing when you started walking over to my son?" he asked darkly.

Ginny gulped back a sob. "I was just going to prove he wasn't gay," she admitted.

"And how were you going to do that?" Draco asked.

"I was going to kiss him," Ginny stuttered.

Harry looked at her in disbelief and then began to laugh. "You... you thought... what? You actually thought that kissing me would make me straight?" he managed to get out between laughs.

"No, but it would prove what you already know, deep down inside," she tried to explain.

"Trust me, girl, you're far more likely to make a straight man gay than the other way around," Harry muttered, disgusted. He turned to his father. "What are the other choices for getting her out of my life?"

"St. Mungo's, Mrs. Weasley, or put her up on the stand at the trial," Severus explained.

"I say the trial," Harry said after a moment of thought. "That way everyone can know how completely out of it she is." He stopped and blinked. "Aren't I supposed to be on the stand today?" he gasped, remembering.

"Don't worry, Father has it all under control," Draco reassured him. "Right?" he asked Severus.

"It might be best if we get there as soon as possible," Severus suggested.

Blaise grabbed Colin and pulled him out of the room, followed by Draco, Harry and Flick, who had settled once more on her bonded's shoulder. Severus followed after, magically dragging the Weasley girl after him, and making sure he gathered up the stone with the spell embedded within it, to provide as evidence. And if Ginny *accidentally* hit a few more walls and doorways than necessary, well who was to notice, anyway?

Part 74/?

Luckily for them, Severus had brought a portkey with him when they had come to rescue Harry. Therefore, it was only moments before they returned, all gathered in front of the doors leading to the courtroom, prisoners in tow.

Harry slowly pushed open the door and held up his hand to stop the others as he heard what was being said.

"He is simply stalling now!" Moody was saying. "If Harry Potter is not prepared to take the stand, than it is obviously because he has nothing to say. Therefore, I request this court be adjourned immediately, the case dismissed."

Harry couldn't let that go. He strode into the room, his very bearing showing determination and power. Flanked by his father and Slytherin friends, followed by a floating Ginny Weasley and hesitant Colin Creevey. "I'm right here," Harry announced, not that anyone was likely to have missed that fact. "And I'm more than ready to take the stand. As for why I was absent, you can thank Dumbledore for that as well."

"What do you mean by that, boy?" Moody asked.

Severus advanced towards the bench, the gem still within the silk Blaise had placed around it. He placed it before the judge. "We found this being used to help hold Harry hostage," he informed the Sidhe. "Creevey stated that Dumbledore gave it to Ginny Weasley and him."

Morann carefully unwrapped the piece of amber, only to immediately wrap it back up in the silk. "This does not look good for your client," he warned the ex-Auror.

"What exactly is that supposed to be?" Alastor asked.

"It's a shield spell wrapped in a compulsion," Harry explained.

Before any more could be said, Ron Weasley stormed down through the privacy curtain, glaring hard.

Moody grinned widely. "A bit unhappy with the way the girl is being treated, are you?"

Ron just shot him an annoyed glare before marching straight to his sister. "Take the spell off her," he ordered, and waited impatiently until it was done.

"It was awful, Ron!" Ginny cried as soon as she was let free. She let out a yelp as the infuriated boy didn't grab her into a hug and promise to take care of whoever hurt her, but instead grabbed her by the ear.

"What. Did. You. Think. You. Were. Doing?" he yelled, even as he dragged her out the door. "How could you even *think* of kidnapping Harry? I am *so* telling Mother! She can deal with you!" He turned back to the ones watching him in surprise. "I'll be back after I leave her with Mum," he explained. He continued on as he had been going, Ginny hitting his arm to try to make him let go; but it was clear the red-haired boy wasn't planning on releasing her ear anytime soon.

Harry laughed as soon as he was out of earshot. "Sometimes he's so like his mother," he explained. Everyone who knew Molly Weasley had to agree.

"That didn't quite go as we expected, but I wasn't about to argue with him about it," Draco whispered to Blaise. The other Slytherin grinned in response.

"Well, Mr. Snape, since you're here, would you care to take the stand?" Lucius asked. His tone might have seemed uncaring to those watching, but Harry just smiled gently in response, obviously seeing something in his husband's demeanor that they didn't.

"Of course, Lucius," Harry agreed.

Without hesitation, Harry strode up and took his seat. Severus followed after him and handed him the vial of potion made especially for him. Harry drank it down easily.

Severus watched him carefully, waiting for the potion to take effect. He turned to Lucius as he waited. "This won't act the same as Veritaserum. He will tell the truth, and only the truth, but you will have to keep on him to keep him on track and answering the particular questions you want answered. He will be free-associating and very liable to go off on tangents, many of which probably won't make sense to anyone but him. Just keep working to keep him focused, and eventually you will get him to answer the questions; although you might need to clarify or refine a question three or four times."

Lucius stepped forward. "Harry," he started.

"That's me! Harry James Potter Snape. How come I'm not Malfoy yet? Stupid rules."

"We're here to talk about school, remember? About Albus Dumbledore."

Harry frowned and sneered. "Hate him. He tried to kill my baby. I'm going to have a baby. So is Flick. Except she's going to have more than one. I'm only going to have one right now, but I want another one after that, and another one after that. I don't want my baby to be an only child. Of course, he's not going to be an only child because he's already got an older brother, and Draco's going to be a wonderful older brother, but a child should have someone near his own age to play with. As long as that person isn't an overgrown whale of a bully who's really mean to him. And no hand-me-downs. I don't want any of my kids to wear hand-me-downs, but that's okay, 'cause they're going to be Malfoys and no Malfoy would ever be caught dead in hand-me-downs."

Lucius blinked as Harry babbled on. He knew Severus said Harry would be hard to keep on track, but he didn't realize that meant his mouth would have free rein, rambling without screening any little input from his mind.

"When did you first meet Dumbledore?" Lucius tried to get him on track.

"Well, I guess I must have met him when I was a baby. He's the one that left me with the Dursleys. I don't really remember him from back then, though. I kind of remember Hagrid. He's the one that carried me over there on the back of his flying motorcycle; of course, it was originally Sirius'. I've never been on it since I grew up, though. I wonder if it's as fun as flying on a broom or my own wings? I miss flying."

Lucius decided to try another track. "What's your first *clear* memory?"

"Dudley's fourth birthday party. There were lots of people there and presents. There was a big cake; I could smell it! I could even see it a little when I looked through the slats on the vent, and I could hear the people at the party. They sang 'Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you…'"

Lucius tried to stop him but was unable to. He looked to Severus for an explanation. "When the association is very strong, such as a song, where the chains of remembrance are irrevocably connected, you're not going to be able to break it. Just hope it doesn't happen very often."

Finally Harry wound down and his face got sad. "I thought when my birthday came, I was going to get a birthday party too, and I could have cake. It looked and smelled so good. Maybe I'd even get presents! And I waited and I waited and I waited and I waited and I waited forever, but there was no party and no cake and no presents or friends or people singing to me."

"What did you mean by the slots in the vent?" Lucius asked. "Where were you?"

"I was in my room, in the cupboard under the stairs. It was about this big," he stretched out his arms to show how big it was. "And it's where all my friends were. There was Aye and Bee and Cee and Dee."

"Who were they?" Lucius asked softly.

"The spiders," Harry explained. "Aye was the biggest, when he stood on my hand he took up almost all the space, and Bee had a red spot on her belly. Cee made the prettiest webs, all going around and around and Dee was the littlest. He would jump all over me when I was trying to sleep. They never bit me, though. They were very nice, and they were my best friends."

Lucius looked out at the listening audience. He could see the sympathy and sorrow in many people's eyes as they heard the story of a little boy who just wanted a birthday party and whose only friends were a group of spiders, at least one of whom, was deadly poisonous. He could also see the angry looks being shot at both the Headmaster and the Dursleys, who were stuck off in a corner.

"When did you move out of the cupboard?" Lucius asked.

"When I was eleven and the Hogwarts letter came, and it was addressed to 'Harry Potter, Cupboard Under the Stairs'. Lots and lots of letters came, but I couldn't ever grab one. You'd think that a Seeker like me would have been able to grab at least one of them; there were bunches and bunches of letters. They came for days, and then the Dursleys moved me to Dudley's extra bedroom where he kept all of his broken toys. When the letters kept coming, Uncle Vernon took us all as far away as he could, but then Hagrid found us and he brought me a birthday cake! And when Dudley started to eat it, Hagrid gave him a pig's tail! You know, he really is a pig, though he's got to be more of a whale. I once saw him pick up a candy bar off the ground and eat it, and he'd bully any kid smaller than him to get their food... and everyone was littler than him."

Judge Morann interrupted with an admonishment to Minister Malfoy to try to keep his witness on track. Easier said than done.

Lucius gently pulled the details of Harry's first year at Hogwarts out of him, doing a fairly good job of keeping him on track. They did learn exactly what Harry thought about all of the teachers that first year, as well as most of the students in his year. The important parts were the giving of the invisibility cloak to an eleven year old, Harry finding of the Mirror of Erised, the quidditch match when he was almost killed, the troll, the race for the Philosopher's Stone at a time when Dumbledore just 'happened' to be out of the school, and finally, Dumbledore's reaction to Harry's asking not to go back to the Dursley's.

Second year was even more interesting, as far as the court was concerned. Lucius made sure to bring up Dumbledore's comments about Harry being in Gryffindor. "He said that the choice I made to be in Gryffindor meant I belonged in Gryffindor, that is was not innate talents that determined one's true House. But I was working off of incorrect and incomplete information when I made that choice. Hagrid had told me about Voldemort, how he killed my parents, and how he was from Slytherin. Hagrid had told me that all wizards that went bad came from Slytherin, but now I know that's ridiculous. Even if he didn't know of anyone else, he knew that everyone thought Sirius was a Death Eater, and he was a Gryffindor. And then I met Draco, and he was just like Dudley, a bully, and he was so sure he was going to be in Slytherin. I didn't want to be in the same House he was in. Of course, he turned out not to be as bad as he first seemed, but it took five years before he showed that he was human. Though, since there are people like Parkinson and Goyle in Slytherin, I'm just as glad I didn't go there despite the Hat said I'd do well there. Then again, Gryffindor isn't the greatest House in the world, no matter what Dumbledore would like you to think."

"You think Dumbledore is prejudiced towards Gryffindor?" Lucius asked.

"Yep," Harry nodded immediately. "What I really think is that he talked the Hat into putting him into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, the same as I did. He really should have been Slytherin. He wanted to be great. I didn't, really. I just wanted to be *normal* and accepted and have friends, and I liked Ron a lot better than I did Draco right then. Then came second year and all that Chamber of Secrets stuff, and everyone thought I was the Heir of Slytherin, and Dumbledore didn't do a single thing to stop it. He just pointed me in the direction of the answer and left me to figure it out before anyone got killed."

"And on top of all that, he had to know Pettigrew was in Hogwarts all those years. Of course, now I think about it, I'd kind of have expected the twins to figure it out as well, but they probably didn't pay attention to a person that rarely left Gryffindor tower. After all, he wouldn't get in their way there. But I refuse to believe that four students could come up with such a thing as the Marauder's Map, which shows where everyone is, and how to get most places, and can't be fooled by animagus forms or the like, and yet Dumbledore didn't have one? It's not like they're hard to make, I made one for"

Lucius quickly interrupted him before he could say anything about that. It did not need to be public information, even if they had safeguarded it so that strangers couldn't use it.

"What else happened third year?"

Harry rambled on about Time Turners, Marauders and Dementors. He got sidetracked into memories of his parents, Draco being a git and exactly how close Pettigrew was to a real rat. Fourth year brought back memories of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Cho, his first crush, Rita Skeeter's twisted reporting... and Draco being a git. Fifth year took the most time... there was a lot to talk about, and even more for Harry to babble about.

Then came sixth year. And for the first time, Harry really began to get upset. Remembering what Dumbledore had done against his child brought it all back. Lucius and Severus both reached out to him. They probably didn't seem extremely demonstrative to those watching, but it was enough for Harry.

Then it was Moody's turn.

Part 75/?

Mad-Eye Moody stood in front of Harry for a long moment, just staring at him. His eye was spinning in its socket. Harry stared back for a minute before he started to giggle. Soon he was laughing hysterically. "Your eye! It's so funny!" he gasped out.

Alastor Moody actually took a step back. That was not a reaction he had ever received before. He snapped out. "And what is so funny about it?"

"It's spinning round and round, kind of like a whirly-gig," Harry laughed.

"I do not believe that has anything to do with this trial," Morann warned.

Moody bit out an apology. "I am sure you had a hard childhood," he said turning back to Harry, "but do you truly believe you can blame Albus Dumbledore for it?"

Harry answered with an unqualified "Yes." Of course, thanks to the potion, he wasn't able to keep his answer that short. "He had people watching me the whole time. They were told they couldn't do anything unless I was going to be seriously, permanently hurt or raped. I wonder why? Why allow them to abuse me in some ways, but not others? I'd think it was because he didn't want me to get pregnant, but he only really seemed worried about my pregnancy when he thought the father was a mage, and there's no way Uncle Vernon or Dudley are mages."

Moody seemed not to know what to say about that. It said a lot about how truly evil Harry believed Dumbledore to be. There had to be another explanation. The Albus Dumbledore he had known and trusted for years would never do such a thing. He was determined to get to the bottom of this.

"Perhaps he trusted your family to take care of you? You are their nephew after all."

"He *knew* what happened to me. He had Aurors stationed by the house, keeping track of everything. Lucius and Severus found that out this summer. Plus they found out everything my relatives had done to me, and they weren't happy about that, either. They were really, really mad."

Moody tried another track. "Do you know what Malfoy did to your relatives?"

"Nope. Don't care, either," Harry replied easily. "I got my revenge on them, but I always figured that it wouldn't be enough for Lucius and Sev. To them, I'm family after all, and they take someone harming their family very seriously. Plus they were disgusted that people would treat a blood relative left in their care the way the Dursleys treated me. Lucius let me do what I wanted, and waited until I was through before he did what he wanted. That way everyone was happy."

"The Dursleys weren't happy."

"Sure they were. They never had to see me again. I'm sure that made them happy. I was certainly happy when I realized I'd never have to see them again. No more having to get up at five to cook their breakfasts and getting only a single piece of toast, if I was lucky. No more having to worry about waking them up with my nightmares, because then Uncle Vernon would come into the room and use his belt to beat me because I woke them up. No more getting locked into my room except when I had chores or to occasionally go to the bathroom. I'm very happy about it; and just think, they don't have to live with 'the freak' anymore. That's what they think about wizards, you know. That we're freaks. I didn't even know there was such a thing as magic until Hagrid came to get me."

"Dumbledore helped you during your first year, did he not? He gave you the invisibility cloak." Moody tried again.

"Yes he did," Harry admitted. "It was my father's. It was the first thing of my parents' I had ever received, and I loved it for that. But what eleven year old, first year student should ever have such a thing? It was an invitation for me to break rules and be out where I should not have been. There was no other reason for it to be given to me. Even when he found me out wandering around, finding the Mirror of Erised- which was already one part of the traps keeping the Sorcerer's Stone safe and shouldn't have been anywhere near the room in which I found it- all he did was tell me that what I was looking at wasn't real. He didn't say anything about me being out in the middle of the night. And it wasn't until after that, that the Mirror was moved. Every time I would consider not worrying about the Sorcerer's Stone, something would happen that would have me searching for it again. Finally, I stopped Quirrel. Why me? I was eleven years old! I shouldn't have been worrying about saving the world and stopping a madman from gaining immortality. And you know what Dumbledore told me when I woke up, after I almost died? He told me that they'd destroyed the Stone because it was too dangerous. Why hadn't they done that months before and never had to worry about it? I'll tell you why! Because if they had, then I wouldn't have had any reason to be a daring hero, I wouldn't have had to try to save everyone... again! If it wasn't for that, I might not have gotten it into my head so much that it was my job to be the 'Golden Boy' people had been considering me since I was only one year old! And why was that? Why was the wizarding world so completely convinced that a *child* could kill their enemy? I was set up to become a *murderer* from the time I was a baby! Tell me that Dumbledore didn't have anything to do with that! Tell me that he wasn't the one who started the whole 'Boy Who Lived' nonsense! Of course, I won't believe you, but you can try anyways, right?" Finally he wound down.

"What do you mean, murderer?"

"As the Muggles would say... duh! I was supposed to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all, remember? How exactly was I supposed to do that if I didn't kill him? Heck, he even had a Death Eater, working under your identity, teach me the Unforgivable curses, just to make sure I could! Of course, if I ever had used one to end the Snake Man's miserable existence, Fudge would have arrested me and sent me directly to Azkaban for it, and Dumbledore wouldn't have done a damn thing to save me. Ever since I got rid of Voldemort, it was like I was suddenly persona non grata to him. Except when he could make my life worse of course, like when he refused to let either Sirius or Severus take me in over the summer. You can't tell me he had a real reason for that! Sirius had the ability to take care of me, and the right, since he was my godfather. But no, Dumbledore and Fudge said it wasn't safe! Then Severus tried to get guardianship of me like we'd planned before my godfather was freed, and Dumbledore put a nix to that plan as well. He sent me back to the Dursleys, knowing how they had treated me all my life. The only thing he couldn't have known was the plans we had made that allowed me to get away from them. Of course, he ordered that I not leave the house, but for once I didn't pay any attention to his rules, and managed to have a free summer. At least until I saw Draco and he made his father invite me to live with them."

"You'd rather live with Malfoy than your relatives?"

"Of course I would! Lucius hasn't ever tortured anyone just for the sheer pleasure of it, unlike my 'loving family' did to me!"

Lucius groaned and hid his head in his hand, while behind the privacy curtain, Draco was completely cracking up. "Well, there's a rousing endorsement," Blaise whispered to his friend.

"So he has tortured people?" Moody jumped on it immediately.

"Well, I don't know personally," Harry answered. "But it certainly wouldn't surprise me."

"Then how can you trust him?"

"Because he's never lied to me, something Dumbledore has done for the entire time I have known him. Because he's never tried to use me, again as Dumbledore has done from the first."

"Are you saying he didn't use your popularity in order to get his place as Minister of Magic?" Moody pounced immediately.

Harry laughed. "He didn't use me. That entire thing was my idea. Fudge was out of control, and I wanted him out of office. Of all those I know, I believed that Lucius would be the best one to put in his place. So I pretty much told him I was going to do it, then gathered my friends together and the five of us set it all up with practically no input from either Lucius or Severus."

"As interesting as this might be," Morann said sternly. "It is not important to this trial. If you cannot keep your questions and your witness to the limitations set forth, we will end this now."

"Yes, sir," Moody agreed. He turned back to Harry. His questions from then on were direct and to the point. Harry seemed to be in more control, better able to keep his answers on track as well. However, it was not to such a point that it helped Moody's case in any way. Perhaps if he had been under Veritaserum it would have been different. If Moody had been able to keep him to one-word responses, he might have gotten the answers he wanted. However, each time a question had been answered, it would also be qualified. To the question "Did Dumbledore help Sirius Black escape?" the answer was "Yes." However, it was also "Of course, that was so that he could use him to spy, and so he'd have someone to hold over my head as leverage for the next two years."

By the end of the day, one thing had become absolutely clear; Dumbledore was going to go up on the stand. There was nothing more that could be done. No matter how Moody had tried, he was not able to bring up anything that would seem to cast Dumbledore in a good light. By this time, even he was wondering if there might be some truth in the accusations that had been made. Still, there must surely be good reasons. Reasons that would come to light when he took the stand. They had been in a war, after all. Sacrifices had to be made; that was necessary and expected.

It was too late for the old mage to take the stand that day. The trial would continue the next morning. During the free time, the first thing Harry wanted to make sure of was what had happened to Ginny. He didn't want to have to worry about her making another attempt against him. Of course, Lucius had already made arrangements to ensure that nothing like that could happen that night. He would be taking Harry with him back to the Manor instead of staying at Hogwarts.

Ginny, it seemed, was currently safe in her mother's loving arms. Or at least her hands, because Ginny would swear that her mother's fingers had left her ear only long enough for a wooden spoon to be touching other parts of her anatomy. Molly Weasley was *not* pleased with her only daughter, and was extremely capable of making that displeasure known. Ron admitted though, that it was probably her *father's* disappointment that hurt the fifteen year old the worst. She had always been the apple of her father's eye, and was very much a daddy's girl. It still had not been decided whether she would be checked into St. Mungo's or not, but arrangements had already been made to keep her out of school until a decision had been made.

Snape and McGonagall were taking Colin Creevey back to Hogwarts. His fate hadn't been decided yet either, but Colin was certainly dreading it. He knew that it was possible to have a worse fate than whatever the Headmistress and Deputy Headmaster would dream up, since, if Harry had chosen, he could have been arrested for kidnapping; but that wasn't much of a comfort at this point. Especially considering the fact that Severus was still seething over some of the information that had been discovered at the trial. McGonagall herself was not in a much better mood. The idea that a man she had idolized for so many years, whom she had considered the best Headmaster in the history of the school, could be so ... cold and calculating, so inhuman. It was almost too much to bear.

The night was quiet in the Manor, at least until they went to sleep. Although Harry had shown little of it in front of the strangers at the trial, a lot of memories had been dredged up, many of which he had never wanted to think about again. Twice during the night Harry woke both he and his husband up with his nightmares. Both times it took Lucius some time in order to get him calm enough to go back to sleep. After the first time, Harry suggested he move back to his old room, since Lucius would need his sleep in order to be sharp the next day when going up against Dumbledore. Truth potion or not, both expected Dumbledore would have an ace or three up his sleeve. Lucius refused to allow Harry to go to a separate room and suffer alone through his nightmares. He instead found a *pleasant* way to exhaust Harry so utterly after the second awakening, that they had a hard time getting up in the morning. But at least there were no more nightmares.

Finally, it was the time they all had waited for. Finally, Dumbledore would be brought up on the stand. And finally, they might actually get some answers! There was an air of tension about all those who came to see the trial to its conclusion. The reporters were poised with their quills, ready to record every word spoken and expression seen. The students were waiting with bated breath to see Dumbledore get what he deserved. And some just wanted it all to be over.

Dumbledore was taken to the stand, still under guard. Severus double-checked the potion, making sure it was the double strength one, that it had not been tampered with, and that it was still at full potency. Only then did he give it to the older man to drink. Not for Dumbledore the three drops that would make it last an hour. They expected this to take all day; Severus was not taking any chances that the potion would run its course while no one noticed.

Lucius walked up when Severus nodded at him. For days he had been carefully considering how to commence his line of questioning, and finally decided to begin with what had started this all. "Did you know that Harry was being abused while a ward of the Dursleys?"

"I did not." Dumbledore replied evenly.