When Cornelius Fudge had been put forward as a candidate for Minister of Magic, Barty had been dumbfounded. Fudge– the portly man in charge of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, rather pompous, not too bright– as Minister of Magic.
In this new era of peace, Fudge might be able to do the job, but Barty had still predicted at least one narrowly averted disaster in Fudge's first year in office. Now that he was watching one disaster playing out in front of him not a full month after Fudge had been sworn in, Barty was completely convinced that Fudge was going to run this country into the ground.
There was nothing else to be expected from someone who was stupid enough, not only to allow this farce of a trial to take place, but was actually losing it to a trio of children still in Hogwarts. If Barty had been Minister of Magic...
But Barty had been passed over in favor of the idiot who not only had decided to reopen a case that had been closed for nearly a decade and stuck his nose in as one of the Interrogators, but had appointed as a second Interrogator his Undersecretary, a woman who clearly had no idea how a criminal trial was supposed to work.
The only competent person on the panel was Amelia Bones. She was far too soft for Barty's taste, never willing to do all that was necessary to put Death Eaters out of commission, but she did know what she was doing. If Barty had been in charge he might have made her one of the Interrogators. Witnesses were more cooperative if they thought one of the people asking them questions was really on their side.
Poor little Peter Pettigrew definitely looked like he needed someone on his side. Even ignoring the baleful looks the 'Witness for the Defense' and his two 'assistants' were giving him, along with the downright murderous expression on Black, he was being dragged in front of the entire Wizengamot to have his testimony called into question. It was downright criminal subjecting a man to that kind of treatment right after he'd spent eight years trapped in the body of a rat.
Trapped in the mind of a rat too, for people who were transformed into animals lost all knowledge of the person they had been before until they were transformed back by someone else. If they were lucky, they would have no memory of their time spent as an animal. If they weren't... well, Barty had only ever one case like that in his entire career and as far as he knew the wizard involved was still in one of St. Mungo's long term wards.
"Mr. Pettigrew," the eldest boy said, in a tone that could have frozen the Black Lake solid. "Would you please relate to us the events of November 1, 1981 for the benefit of those on the Wizengamot who may not have read your statement."
Pettigrew licked his lips nervously, looking up at the Interrogators seats as though he hoped that they would call off this whole affair.
"Mr. Weasley has been granted permission to cross-examine you," Bones said. "I suggest that you treat his questions as though we had asked them."
Pettigrew gulped. His nose twitched, reminding Barty forcibly of the pet rat he had bought his son when he started Hogwarts. Perhaps whoever had transfigured Pettigrew back into a human hadn't done it properly.
"I- I went into town that morning, to buy milk-"
"Liar!" Black shouted. "I'd chased you halfway across Britain before I caught you."
"Mr. Black!" For the first time that day, the Weasley boy actually looked irritated with his client. Barty wondered how much he had been paid to defend the man. The Blacks were probably the wealthiest family in Britain, but then the Weasleys were poor enough that even a moderate sum might have been able to convince them to involve themselves in this mess.
But not enough to persuade any of the adults to help. How desperate could whichever of the old geezers were still hanging around be if they would solicit children to do their legal work for them? Although, they wouldn't have done Turncoat Black any favors by serving as Witness for the Defense themselves. Everyone knew that the Blacks, with the supposed exception of Sirius the Auror, supported You-Know-Who.
"Please allow Mr. Pettigrew to give his testimony without interruptions," the Weasley boy continued. "Mr. Pettigrew, please keep going."
Pettigrew's nose twitched. "I-I wasn't doing anything wrong. He attacked me, shouting that he was going to kill me like he had killed-" Pettigrew was sniffing loudly, obviously on the verge of bursting into tears. "-like he had killed Lily and James. I went for my wand, but he drew his first and shot off a spell that I didn't recognize. I don't remember anything after that."
"This spell Mr. Black cast, do you remember what it hit?"
Pettigrew mumbled something unintelligible.
"Could you please repeat that?"
"Me." Pettigrew took a deep breath and added, much more loudly, "He hit me with a spell. It must have been the one that turned me into a rat." Black had probably wanted to neutralize Pettigrew's ability to fight back, only to have it backfire when he tried to hit the rat with another curse and missed.
There was a hint of a smile on Weasley's face, as though he had just maneuvered Pettigrew into a corner. "Do you have any idea what happened to the index finger of your right hand?"
"No."
"So it wasn't cut off before you turned into a rat?" one of the identical brats asked.
"I didn't turn myself into a rat. HE turned-"
"LIAR! All that time we spent helping you study for it, and-"
"Mr. Black, if you are incapable of keeping your mouth shut while I question Mr. Pettigrew then I will cast a silencing charm on you." It was a shame that Weasley had spent had cut Black off. Barty had enough experience to know when a suspect was about to say something self-incriminating.
"So you have no explanation for how your finger, and the Ministry was very sure that it was your finger and not one of the muggles' who died, ended up in the middle of the crime scene."
Pettigrew was visibly shaking. "No explanation," he squeaked.
"Another question," Weasley said. "Do you remember the exact contents of the conversation between yourself and Mr. Black?" Now that was cheap. They had nearly a dozen muggles who had witness the entire attack on Peter Pettigrew, so the only reason to ask such a question was to try and trip Pettigrew up.
"No-not really." Pettigrew looked up at the Interrogators, with a pitiful expression that begged them to put an end to his torment.
"Is there a point behind this line of questioning?" Bones asked. She was being overly kind, Barty thought, most likely because she felt some kind of twisted sympathy for a boy in over his head. He would have called them out for badgering a witness, especially one who had gone through as much as Peter Pettigrew.
"Of course there is, Madam Bones." The Weasley boy had the audacity to smile at her, as though he was being asked a perfectly innocuous question that he had a reasonable response to. "I'm trying to establish what happened on November 1, 1981."
Umbridge tittered. It was the kind of noise that ought to come out of a teenage girl rather than the Senior Undersecretary to the Ministry and it turned Barty's stomach. He looked around, but no one near him looked remotely bothered by it. Or course, these people had thought that Fudge would make a good Minister of Magic, so they couldn't have too much in the way of brains. "Excuse me," Umbridge said. "But I thought that we already listened to Mr. Black's... rendering of events."
"We did." Barty couldn't see it very well from this angle, but he thought that one of the firsties might have rolled his eyes. "I thought that it might be beneficial for the Wizengamot to be able to compare testimonies."
"Each member of the Wizengamot was provided with a copy of all witness statements concerning this case when they entered this courtroom," Madam Bones said. "As were you. Unless you plan to question Mr. Pettigrew on something not covered in his statement, I suggest you move on to the next point of business."
The Weasley boys exchanged a look that suggested they wanted to form up into a Quiddich huddle and hammer out a new strategy, but they didn't call for a recess. A small, grudging part of Barty admired their courage. The rest of him thought they were being reckless idiots. Sure, it was unlikely that they would be granted a recess when court hadn't yet been in session for an hour, but if they really didn't know what to do next...
"I would like to point out some discrepancies between Peter Pettigrew's testimony and the statements of the muggles at the scene of the crime," Weasley said, after only the barest pause. "Firstly, the claim that Mr. Black was shouting that he was going to kill Pettigrew-"
Pettigrew shifted in his seat, sliding further towards the front almost as though preparing to make a run for it.
"-can't possibly be true. The witness statements from the muggles all match up very well. A few of them mentions seeing two men, one tall and dark-haired, the other short and blond, talking to each other. Then– and they all remembered this– the short man shouted, 'Lily and James, Sirius. How could you?' and began to back away. The tall man pulled a stick out of his pocket and then the street blew up, right where the short man had been standing."
"Black couldn't possibly have been shouting, the muggles would have mentioned it," Bones said. There was an edge to her voice that Barty had very seldom heard. It always seemed to bode ill for someone, though not always the someone who Bones had spoken to. "That doesn't prove anything, Mr. Weasley."
"He m-might not have shouted," Pettigrew said. The poor man looked downright terrified. "He frightened me. I might have imagined him louder in my memory."
"Exactly," Bones said. "Anything else, Mr. Weasley?"
"Yes," Weasley said. "According to the muggles, Mr. Black didn't cast any spells."
"They're muggles," Minister Fudge said. "How would they know if anyone had cast spells or not?"
"They might have mentioned an incantation," Weasley said. "Or a jet of light. Mr. Pettigrew mentioned both." No, he hadn't, and if Barty had been on the Interrogator's stand like he should have been he would have called Weasley out on it. Pettigrew had said that Black hit him with a spell that he didn't recognize, and some spells could be both nonverbal and lacking in any outward light display.
There weren't many that Barty could think of, and none of them had such an instantaneous and distant effect as turning a nearby person into a rat, but it could almost certainly be done.
"More than that, they don't mention Pettigrew being turned into a rat, which I'm sure that even a muggle would have thought worth mentioning."
"Mr. Black has been accused of attempting to murder Mr. Pettigrew, not of turning him into a rat," Dumbledore said. Both the Interrogators and the Weasleys turned to stare at him as though they hadn't known he was the Chief Warlock. "Something to keep in mind."
That must have meant something more to the Weasley boys than it did to Barty, because the two smaller ones started whispering to one another, while the oldest one looked rather concerned. Barty snorted. It was probably only Dumbledore's years as a teacher making him look out for a couple of students, but the Chief Warlock was supposed to be impartial. That meant no giving the defense hints.
"Does the Defense rest?" Fudge asked, after the Weasleys had gone nearly a full minute without addressing either the Wizengamot or Pettigrew.
"No," the two younger ones said in unison. Then one of them added, "When Mr. Pettigrew was taken into custody, did he have his wand on him?"
"Mr. Pettgrew had no fewer than four wands on him when he was processed," Bones said. "We're not sure which he usually used. Mr. Ollivander is currently out of the country and unable to examine them."
"And there's nobody else who could do it?" the other young one asked.
"There's that guy we had to check our wands with when we came in," the other added. "Couldn't he tell you about the wands?"
"He can tell us what they were made of, and how long they were in use, but Mr. Ollivander is the most likely to know who they were originally sold to," Bones said. "In any case, it is quite unlikely that Mr. Pettigrew was capable of using all of them."
"But he was definitely using one of them," the oldest Weasley said. "Mr. Pettigrew, would you be so kind as to tell us which one of the wands was yours."
"I'm not sure," Pettigrew said. "I don't remember what my wand was like. He must have modified my memory and planted them on me. He probably wanted to get rid of them" That might be true, but Barty found it suspicious. Handing someone a bunch of wands and then turning them into a rat was not a very efficient way to hide evidence. Of course, everyone knew that the Blacks had a crazy streak and Sirius Black hadn't been acting very sane when he was taken in, so maybe efficiency was too much to expect from Black.
"It was short," Black said. "Maybe nine or ten inches long. Made of a pale wood." He paused, frowning to himself. "Well, not really pale. Oak or pine or something kind of that color. I never paid that much attention in Herbology."
"I don't recall anyone asking you to identify Mr. Pettigrew's wand," Umbridge said, and for once Barty thought she was right to say something.
Black grimaced and muttered something to himself that Barty couldn't quite hear.
Umbridge's mouth twisted into a little self-satisfied smirk. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."
"It's not important," the oldest Weasley said. "Look, Pettigrew was twenty-one in 1981. So he would have bought his wand before he left for school in 1971 and it would have been in use for ten years. That should make it relatively easy for you to figure out which was his."
"You would think so," Bones said, "but three of the wands on him were in use for ten years. We don't have any way to tell which one was his."
The firsties shared a look, then turned to Dumbledore. "Can we call all the wands as evidence?"
Barty would have said no. Barty would have told them to stop wasting time and let the Wizengamot have their vote. But Barty wasn't running this trial. "You may," Dumbledore said.
"Objection," said Umbridge, making Barty wince. She ought to have ignored Dumbledore's statement, he was the one they were supposed to ask questions about procedure to and that was what the Weasleys had done, and waited for the boys to actually motion for the wands to be considered evidence. Then she could have used her status as Interrogator to overrule them. "I seem to recall Sirius Black, not Peter Pettigrew, being the one on trial here. The contents of Mr. Pettigrew's pockets can have no relevance whatsoever."
"According to his own testimony, Peter Pettigrew may not be a reliable witness," Bones said. "Take into account that he claims Black planted these wands on him and they start to seem like something worth investigating. I submit that the wands found on Peter Pettigrew be brought in as evidence." Barty grimaced, before steeling his face into a mask of calm. If one of the Interrogators wanted to waste time on this, then they were all stuck sitting through it.
"Very well," Dumbledore said. "The court will have a twenty minute recess so that the wands can be retrieved."