A thoroughly annoyed and frustrated Harry got ready for his hearing at the Ministry, wishing that he didn't have to rely on Dumbledore to ensure he wasn't kicked out of Hogwarts. He'd been at Order headquarters for nearly a week, and in Harry's opinion things were going from bad to worse. With each passing day he was hating the Order more and more, but he was very aware that there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't even run away given the fact he was still under-age and they would be able to trace him and get him back within hours if he tried such a thing.
Barely an hour after he'd sent a letter to Hermione, after spending his entire first night at Grimmauld Place perfecting it, Dumbledore had arrived at headquarters with the news that Hermione had told the Ministry the truth. Harry had been elated and hoped that it meant justice would be served, but then Dumbledore had announced his plans to get them out of trouble, which basically meant blackening Hermione's name and trashing her good character.
Harry had hoped that some people would refuse to go along with Dumbledore's scheme, but aside from the Professors, who'd had no part in the original scheme and had all but walked out on the Order, everyone else went along with his ideas to paint Hermione as a villain. Even Remus, who seemed the most repentant, went along with the plan as it would keep them out of Azkaban. It didn't seem to bother anyone but Harry, that by following Dumbledore's plans they were throwing Hermione under the bus and making her into the enemy. In Hermione's shoes, he wouldn't forgive people who had kidnapped her and plotted to kill her, and then painted her as a lair and a practitioner of the Dark Arts all to save their own skins.
Disgusted with the Order's latest plans, Harry had decided to write a second letter to warn Hermione was was going to happen. However, just as he was finishing the letter, Ron had arrived to try and talk to him. Before Harry could do anything, Ron had seen the letter and seeing red that he was writing to Hermione, he'd snatched it and went running to the Order. When Dumbledore discovered that Harry had been planning to warn Hermione what they were planning, he confiscated Hedwig and made sure Harry had no access to any other owls.
Harry had been fuming at the headmaster taking his owl from him, and even Dumbledore's assurances that she would be perfectly fine at Hogwarts and they would be reunited in September did nothing to get rid of Harry's anger. He was also furious with Ron, and between that and his views on Hermione, the pair currently weren't talking. In fact the only Weasleys Harry was speaking to were the twins, who shared his view that Hermione wasn't at fault and she was still the same girl she'd always been. Harry had hoped that Ginny would also take their viewpoint, and while for a short time it looked as though she was wavering over what stance to take, she'd ultimately sided with Ron in declaring Hermione an enemy.
So Harry was still stuck with the Order, only now thanks to Ron he couldn't even write to Hermione. He had secretly received a letter from his best friend the day after he'd sent his, but it was hard not being able to write back and warn her of what was happening. Hermione had seemed so positive in her letter, and she'd expressed the hope that the truth would come out and they could be reunited. Only Harry knew that wasn't going to happen, and even though he didn't know just what was going on with the Ministry's investigation, he knew Dumbledore was still confident that his lies would work and that at the end of the day, Hermione would be painted as the villain.
However, for the moment, Harry didn't really have time to worry about Hermione. It was the day of his hearing at the Ministry, and although everyone assured him that he would be fine and that the verdict went there way, Harry was still nervous. Even though at the moment he would be happy if he never saw any of the Order again, he didn't want to be kicked out of the wizarding world. He was a wizard, and this was the world he belonged in, even if right now he wasn't sure quite where his place was.
"One thing at a time," he muttered to his reflection, trying to channel Hermione and imagine the advice she would give him. "Get through the hearing, and then worry about the future."
Repeating the advice a couple of more times, he straightened the tie Tonks had advised him to wear, and taking a deep breath, he left the bedroom he'd spent most of the previous week in. Making his way down to the kitchen, he found Arthur was waiting to escort him to the Ministry. It had already been decided that Arthur would take him to his hearing, and Dumbledore would meet them there.
"You look smart, Harry," Molly said with a motherly smile, as determined as ever to get Harry to forgive them and move froward.
"And don't worry, everything will be fine," Sirius added, clapping Harry on the shoulder.
Jerking away from Sirius, Harry turned his back on his godfather and focused on Arthur instead. Even though he knew Arthur had been part of the plan to kidnap Hermione as a baby, for which Harry would never forgive him, he had at least disagreed with what Molly and Sirius had planned, and had made it clear that he believed that Hermione was a good person and no threat to any of them. Not that it had ultimately mattered as he was still going to remain silent as Dumbledore blackened her name and ensured that people who didn't know the full story would never again trust Hermione.
"Are we ready to go?" he asked sharply.
"We can when you're ready," Arthur said softly.
"Good luck, Harry," Sirius said, trying again to engage his godson in conversation. "Not that you'll need it. You'll be back free and clear before you know it."
Not bothering to reply, as he had nothing nice to say to Sirius any longer, Harry turned and stalked out of the kitchen. Arthur followed him a couple of minutes later, and together they left Grimmauld Place. From headquarters, Arthur apparated them to a deserted side street somewhere else in London, where he then proceeded to lead them towards a muggle phone box.
"Is now really the time to indulge your love of muggle technology?" Harry asked impatiently as Arthur got into the phone box and pulled Harry in alongside him.
"Watch and learn, Harry," Arthur chuckled as he picked up the phone and dialled a number.
A couple of seconds later a voice from the phone asked for identification and the reason for a visit to the Ministry of Magic. Arthur identified himself, and Harry, and stated Harry's reasons for being at the Ministry. A badge then appeared in the return coin slot, with Harry's name and reason for visiting the Ministry printed in bold letters.
"Put it on," Arthur ordered as the phone box began to shake and slowly descend into the ground.
"It's a lift," Harry declared as they sunk lower into the ground and the busy atrium of the Ministry came into view.
"It's the visitor entrance," Arthur explained as they stepped out of the phone box lift. "A lot of visitors also use the floo or apparition points, but you can still only do that if you're a regular visitor to the Ministry."
"Like Dumbledore," Harry remarked bitterly, spotting the headmaster alighting from a fire further ahead of them.
Hearing the bite in Harry's voice, Arthur merely nodded as he led the way towards the headmaster, who had stopped to wait for them. Dumbledore did try and greet Harry as though nothing was happening, but when Harry gave him a frosty glare, he sighed and shook his head. Harry did think he was going to say something to try and talk him around, but obviously the fact they were around people stopped him.
As Dumbledore began to lead them towards the lifts, Harry wondered if he could somehow take advantage of being in the Ministry to help get the truth about Hermione out. He knew he was stuck with the Order for the foreseeable future, but maybe he could still try to talk to someone and at least let them know that Hermione was going to be set up. Looking around he tried to decide who best to try and talk to, or decide if it was better to just shout out the truth where several people could hear it.
"Don't even think about it," Dumbledore hissed in his ear as they joined the queue for the lifts.
"Why? Scared of people knowing the truth, are you?" Harry countered.
"Do you think they'll believe you?" Dumbledore asked in a low voice. "There's a reason you're having this hearing Harry, and that's because no-one in this Ministry believes you when you say Voldemort is back. But I believe you, I've stood up for you. I've defended you, even at the cost of my own reputation."
"And I should be grateful?" Harry scoffed. "Because of you, I've lost my best friend."
"No, you've lost her because of Sirius and Molly," Dumbledore shot back. "They couldn't just accept she wasn't a danger and leave her alone."
"You mean like you did when she was just a baby?" Harry questioned, amazed that Dumbledore still couldn't see that he was at fault in this whole sorry mess. "Tell me Professor, what sort of a threat did a baby present? Has it ever occurred to you that Hermione might have been Voldemort's salvation? Being a father might have changed him."
"Nothing can change him from the monster he is," Dumbledore snorted.
"And now thanks to you, we'll never know for sure," Harry retorted. "We'll never know what sort of future you took away, not just from Hermione, but all of us. Maybe as a father, he would have thought twice about attacking me. Maybe he wouldn't have attacked at all, and maybe I would have still had my parents. But we'll never know now, will we, Sir?"
With his final barb hopefully having registered with Dumbledore, Harry turned around in time to find the lifts opening its doors. Following Arthur into the golden box, he ignored Dumbledore as he joined them, along with dozens of other Ministry workers. The lift stopped on several floors, before heading down to the Department of Mysteries, where they disembarked.
"Why are they holding the hearing down here?" Arthur asked with a frown as Harry followed him and Dumbledore through the dark corridors.
"The Wizengamot have some other business to discuss, so Harry's hearing is going to be conducted first," Dumbledore replied.
"His hearing is to be in front of the entire Wizengamot?" Arthur asked with a gasp.
"What's a Wizengamot?" Harry questioned.
"It's the group of witches and wizards who represent our justice system," Arthur explained. "Normally a full gathering means a criminal trial of some sort."
"But in this case, it's just a matter of convenience," Dumbledore said. "Don't worry Harry, you'll be in and out in under an hour."
Shrugging his shoulders as though he couldn't care either way, Harry continued to follow Dumbledore and Arthur down the corridor. When they came to a halt outside of what was marked as courtroom three, Dumbledore briefly poked his head into the room and spoke to someone.
"They'll call us when they're ready," he said, taking one of the seats outside of the room and gesturing for Harry and Arthur to do the same.
It was only ten minutes later when a stern wizard poked his head out of the room and ushered Harry inside. Inside the courtroom, Harry was faced with a whole wall of serious looking witches and wizards. The wizard who had escorted him into the room, pointed to a chair in the middle of the room and ordered him to seat down. Harry was just about to settle himself in the chair when he noticed the chains for his arms and legs and he froze at the thought of being chained up.
"We won't be using the chains, Mr Potter," Cornelius Fudge called, from his position at the front of the gathered Wizengamot. "The Ministry is not in the habit of chaining up under-age wizards."
With a slight sigh of relief, Harry sat down on the chair. However, his relief didn't last for long as the questioning about what had happened at the beginning of the summer began. Despite the fact he was under-age, the Wizengamot didn't go easy on Harry, and a plump witch dressed all in pink seemed particularly keen on making Harry trip himself up and confuse matters. However, Harry held his nerve and withstanding the barrage of questions, he explained what happened with quiet confidence. After all, he'd done nothing wrong, unless you counted saving Dudley's life as doing the wrong thing, and even though Harry disliked his cousin, he couldn't say he regretted what he'd done.
Harry's questioning seemed to go on for what seemed like hours, but finally Fudge asked Harry to move from the chair in the middle of the floor and take a seat off to the side of the room.
"Do I have to wait for a verdict now?" Harry dared to ask as he moved seats.
"No, now we heard from our witnesses," Fudge replied. "Let's have our first witness, Mrs Arabella Figg."
Harry was gob-smacked when his muggle neighbour Mrs Figg entered the courtroom, but he was even more blown away when she revealed that she was a squib. When Mrs Figg revealed that she knew Dumbledore and that she kept an eye on Harry for him, Harry felt sick to the stomach. He'd known Mrs Figg his entire life, and he knew that she was aware of what sort of life he'd had with the Dursleys. And that meant that Dumbledore had known of his suffering for years, but had been content to leave him with his so called family because it suited him. With every passing minute, Harry was hating Dumbledore more and more and was fast believing that maybe it was Dumbledore who was the truly dark and evil wizard.
In the end Mrs Figg did little to help Harry's case. In fact she even made things worse when she lied and said she'd seen the Dementors, and then it was pointed out to her that squibs, like muggles, couldn't see the fierce creatures that guarded Azkaban prison. By the time the old woman had finished her testimony and had left the courtroom, Harry was convinced that despite everyone's positivity, he was doomed and would end up kicked out of Hogwarts.
But then Dumbledore swaggered into the courtroom and gave a rousing speech about Harry, Voldemort and the Ministry's duty to do what it could to protect the wider wizarding world. Seeing the headmaster in action, Harry could see why he'd once idolised the man. In fact if it hadn't been for recent events, he knew he would be sitting watching Dumbledore in awe and praising him as his saviour. However, he knew that underneath the act he put on, Dumbledore wasn't to be trusted, and Harry wasn't going to be swayed to his way of thinking just because he'd been gushing in his praise of him.
Unsurprisingly after Dumbledore had spoken so passionately it hadn't taken the Wizengamot long to reach a verdict. Harry was once again back in the chair in the centre of the room when Fudge delivered the verdict. He was cleared of all charges, although he was issued with a warning not to use magic outside of the wizarding world again.
"I won't sir," Harry promised Fudge, aware that the pink toad of a woman sitting next to the Minister was glaring at him as though he was the foulest thing she'd ever set eyes on. "And thank you."
"Run along, Mr Potter," Fudge said with a slight smile. "And consider yourself one very lucky young man."
Nodding his agreement, Harry mumbled a sharp thank you to Dumbledore, before exiting the courtroom and delivering the good news to Arthur. Since Dumbledore was staying at the Ministry, no doubt to aid his plans to ruin Hermione's reputation, Arthur escorted Harry back through the Department of Mysteries and up to the atrium. Harry was still hoping to catch someone's attention in the atrium, despite what Dumbledore had said about no-one believing him, but the atrium was fairly deserted and those people Harry did see were far too busy to pay attention to him. In the end, Arthur ushered him out of the Ministry without him ever having a chance to try and defend Hermione's honour.
As expected, Arthur took his straight back to Grimmauld Place, where the news of the positive outcome to his hearing was greeted by joy all around. Once again Sirius tried to engage Harry on conversation and Molly suggested they had a celebration, but Harry brushed them both off and returned to his bedroom.
Changing into his normal clothes, he threw himself down on the bed and began to turn his thoughts to the future. He'd gotten through his hearing, now he needed to decide on his next move. Because one thing was for sure, he wasn't going to just toe the line and accept what the Order had done, and were going to do, to Hermione. It was time to break free and live his own life, he just needed to work out how the hell he was going to manage to do such a thing.
