Chapter 11: A Sirius Trial

"Order in the court!" yelled a red faced Fudge amidst the large number of people gathered for the trial, "We will now begin the hearing Sirius Black. Bring in the defendant!"

The room went very silent as the doors opened and in walked Sirius Black, accompanied by an Auror. Sirius held his arms out and willingly allowed the handcuffs to be snapped onto his wrist, before making his way to the center of the court room. He looked tired and old, though there was a ghost of a smile in his eyes left there from his youth.

Harry tightened his grip on his seat. He was seated in the second row from the front and over to the side. Sirius was going to be a freeman, one way or another, and he certainly hoped it wouldn't be the other. He doubted there going to be any physical hitches, as there wasn't even a proper prosecutor because of the nature of the case. The only thing Dumbledore had to do was fight off Fudge.

"Sirius Black, you have been accused of aiding the Dark Lord in the murder of the Potters, in addition to the deaths of several muggles. Do you deny these charges?"

Sirius looked up at Fudge. His eyes now showed his unbroken spirit. The air was tense and everyone's eyes were fixated upon the supposed criminal. Sirius turned his head every so slightly, and spared an unnoticed glace towards Harry before answering, "Yes."

The room burst into uproar, though Harry felt stupid for the group, as nothing had even happened yet. The case was still young, and if they were freaking out over this, they were going to be heart attacks by the end of the case.

Fudge slammed down his hammer and yelled out, "You have no evidence! The testimony of a half insane man doesn't count, and Pettigrew could have had memories implanted!"

Harry smirked at the man's idioticy. He scratched his head, slammed his hand down on the table, and stood up yelling "Objection!" with his finger pointed directly at the judge. *

Fudge turned his way, "What?"

Harry put his hand on his forehead and shook his head. This was going to be a rather interesting day.

Several hours later, Harry was walking out of the courthouse with Sirius and Dumbledore. Sirius turned to Harry and said, "That was brilliant! Where did you learn to make a case like that? You should become a lawyer! I'm finally a freeman!"

Dumbledore cleared this throat, "You also have legal custody of Harry. Though I believe he should stay with the Dursley's as there are certain blood wards in place to-"

"No!"said Sirius adamantly, "My house is well warded, and I'll place additional wards if needed. Besides, the Dark Lord is gone, at least for now. Harry will stay with me, if he wants of course?"

Harry nodded and turned to face Dumbledore. Dumbledore frowned, "Alright, we'll speak of this later. For now, Harry and I must be getting back to Hogwarts."

Sirius nodded and said he would start fixing up his house. He started to walk away when Harry called out after him, "You'll come to Quidditch game tomorrow right?"

Sirius' face lit up with glee, "You play! Are you a chaser?"

"Nope, Seeker"

"Oh, well thats great none the less. I look forward to watching you play!"

After that, Dumbledore and Harry went over to a flue and got back to Hogwarts, in Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore politely shooed Harry out of his office and Harry found himself walking back to the Gryffindor common room. Classes had just ended for the day and everyone was figuring out how they wanted to spend their evening.

Harry walked into the common room and found looking stressed, trying to pull off a charms essay due the next day. Hermione sat on the couch across from him, reading a book. Several other Gryiffindors were in the room, doing homework or simply talking to someone else. Harry walked over to his friends, both Ron and Hermione saw him and got up.

"Harry! How did the trial go?" asked Hermione.

"It went well... hey wait. How did you guys know where I went?" replied Harry, realizing he had forgotten to tell his two friends.

"It was all over the papers! It made the front page that you were attending!" said Ron. Ron held up a paper that had him on the cover reading Harry Potter Ace Attorney at Law.

"So, what happened to Black?" asked Hermione.

Harry sighed and sat down to explain the situation and the outcome. Once the two were caught up, both were happy for him. Hermione was glad he had someone to confide in finally, while Ron had gotten a taste of the Dursley's during his second year. Harry nimbly changed topics.

"Working on Charms Ron?"

"Yes! How was I supposed to know it was so hard to figure out how bloody lumos works!"

"Ron! Language!"

"Yes mum" grumbled Ron has he started gathering his things up, "bet its easy for someone who actually got an Outstanding on Snape's essay! How is that even possible!"

"Congrats Hermione, you must be the first person to ever get an O in Snape's class."

Hermione blushed slightly, claiming it was luck, even though all of Gryffindor knew she deserved it. Ron finished putting his things away, then suddenly remembered something.

"Harry! The games tomorrow!"

Hermione chimed in, "Oh yeah! We'll be cheering for you!"

"Thanks, I'll give it my best!"

"Yeah, we're gonna own Hufflepuff!" said Ron excitedly.

Harry grinned. Indeed, Cedric was gonna go down tomorrow. The dementors were gone, so there was no excuse. He refused to loose the match twice. He had been brushing up his skills for the past month, and had been secretly trying out some newer moves. And if all went well, he would keep his Nimbus too.