I have rewritten chapter 18 to omit a few stupid stuff coz that was probably one of the worst chapters of the story. I recommend you read chapter 18 before proceeding to this chapter.
19. Convincing
Amelia Bones, the current head of DMLE, was having a bad headache. Fudge was attempting to cut down the Auror Department's budget further by investing more money in relatively useless things like International Relations. Amelia wasn't a fool, though. She knew Fudge was only trying to strengthen his popularity, which would assure his seat for a few more years. Power corrupted the best of men, and Fudge was just another stupid arse who got some power and was greedy for more.
There was a knock on her door. She called "Come in" and a large man with dark complexion and a massive earring entered.
"Sit down, Kingsley. Tea?"
"Not today, Amelia." He refused politely.
"If you are sure. So, what's the matter?" she asked the Senior Auror.
"Aurors are thinking of going to a strike if we are randomly sacked without a reason. Of course, this is all off the record. Officially, we are working as usual." He said with a humourless laugh. Amelia nodded.
"I thought it might come down to this. You'd think losing a mass murderer from Azkaban would at least push some senses to the minister, but he insists we don't need that much Aurors right now. Apparently, he is investing a lot on the World Cup arrangements. And then Barty Crouch is hanging around with him a lot these days. Maybe we will have another international event soon."
"Barty Crouch isn't the type to hang around with the minister without a good reason, so maybe you are right. But I'm worried about the World Cup security. I mean, Bagman isn't exactly what you'd call a security-concerned man. I wouldn't put it past him to exclude the regular Magical Law Enforcers from security to save money for more decorations and put the whole security in Auror department."
Amelia agreed with a nod. Bagman wasn't corrupt, but he wasn't fit to be a department head. The only reason he was in his office was because of his popularity. Former quidditch players preferred to do small business or coach the teams rather than having a ministry job. He was the celebrity of his office and his co-workers voted him as their head because they were fans of his game.
"Oh, before I forget," Kingsley interrupted he thoughts and she looked apologetically at him for ignoring him.
"I found that Dawes woman you asked me to look for. Here is her address." He handed her a piece of parchment, which she shoved in her pockets.
"What does she do?" she asked.
"Works in a magical publishers' company as their editor. Lives alone in a quiet neighbourhood. Why are you interested in her? She doesn't seem the type to attract any trouble or anything." Kingsley asked curiously.
"Just doing a favour for a friend. Thanks Kingsley."
"No problem. I'll get going then, there's a hell of papers waiting for me. Bye, Amelia."
"See you, Kingsley."
As the door closed behind Kingsley, Amelia let out a heavy sigh and sank low on her chair. Maybe an Auror strike was indeed necessary to open Fudge's eyes. But then again, Aurors planned strike quite often. For pay rise, for reducing workload, for advanced gears, etc. But they rarely carried it out. As much they complained, they all loved their job. On the other hand, firing their colleagues without any reason wasn't something Fudge dared to do before. Maybe this time they would actually go on a strike.
She turned towards her schedule book and tapped her wand on it. It recited in a clear, cool voice that she only had some files to look over for today.
"That can wait." She muttered to herself and threw a handful of powder to the fireplace.
On the other side of the fire, she saw an empty sofa. A soft bell was tinkling at her floo call and she waited patiently. Seconds later, Andromeda appeared in front of her.
"Hey Amy. What's the matter?" her friend asked.
"Are you busy? Can I come over?"
"Yeah, sure." Andromeda replied and a second later, Amelia Bones came spinning out of the fireplace.
"Good to see you don't fall over your butt anymore." Andromeda said with a smirk, remembering the young Amy who was nearly as clumsy as her Nymphadora. Amelia glared at her before sitting down on the sofa.
"I got the address of Jennifer Dawes." She said and offered the piece of parchment to Andromeda before continuing.
"She apparently works as an editor in a magical publishers'. Lives alone in a quiet neighbourhood, according to my source."
"Lives alone? That's interesting." Andromeda murmured absently, wondering if there was a chance for Sirius.
"So, how are you doing?" Amelia asked. Andromeda didn't answer immediately, but looked like she was trying to decide something.
"Any leads on Sirius Black?" she finally asked and Amelia shook her head bitterly.
"Not a clue. Man seems to be good at hiding. Dementors are angrier than ever."
After a short pause, Andromeda asked, "Do you remember his case, Amy?"
Amelia looked at her like she was sprouting an extra head.
"Betrayed the Potters and killed, no scratch that, blasted Pettigrew and a handful of muggles to smithereens just after You-Know-Who's downfall. Kind of hard to forget, don't you think?"
Andromeda laughed at her friend's tone. "Okay, fine. So you remember what happened to Pettigrew, I assume?"
Amelia didn't know where her friend was going with this, but she nodded.
"Yes, blasted to pieces so small that all they ever found was a freaky index finger."
"Didn't you ever find that suspicious?"
There was a tension in the room that followed Andromeda's question. Pettigrew was a martyr hero and it was disrespectful to question the death of a martyr. Specially a martyr like Pettigrew.
"What are you implying, Andy?" Amelia asked with a slightly shaking voice.
Knowing that she was treading on thin ice, Andromeda continued cautiously.
"Putting all the sentiments aside for a second, let's look at it logically, okay?"
Amelia nodded, but there was a frown on her face.
"The only part of Pettigrew they ever found was a finger, right? But if he was blasted by a curse, similar small pieces should have been found, but they found none. You follow me?"
Amelia nodded again, her frown deepening. She never thought of that...
"So if it was a normal curse, the body isn't supposed to burst into such small pieces. So let's assume it was a dark curse. Even if it was, we know that some bones are too hard to be broken to powder if not specifically targeted for that area."
"But he could've vanished the other parts." Amelia countered, though already seeing the fault in her argument.
"He could've, but the finger was right in front of him, how'd he miss it? And let's not forget that he was actually standing there till the DMLE reached. If he wanted to erase evidence, he wouldn't kill him in front of witnesses or wait for someone to catch him. Finally, do you know what happened in his trial?"
"Uh... no, Crouch conducted it in private. Why do you ask?" she asked with apprehension.
"Only the Head of DMLE can grant access to records of trials, right?" Andromeda asked.
"Yes, but if you want to see Black's trial records-"
"Not me. You just go back and bring check the file and tell me if you find anything wrong with it." She gestured Amelia towards the fireplace.
"What do you mean by finding something wrong? And why are you so interested in this?" she asked suspiciously.
"I promise I'll tell you everything after you come back."
With a last strange look at her oldest friend, Amelia apparated directly to the trial archives where no one other than her had permission to enter. Of course, she was bound to hand over copies of any trial when the Department of Mysteries demanded them without question, but they weren't allowed to be here physically. The wards made sure of that.
...
After half an hour, Amelia reappeared in the Tonks' residence with a flushed face. She was out of her breath and took a second to calm down.
"Okay, so what do you know Andy?" she asked in a demanding tone.
"What did you find?" Andromeda asked innocently.
"There is no record of a sodding trial. I looked for the Wizengamot's records for that day and there wasn't any trial for Sirius Black. I knew a lot of Death Eaters were thrown straight to Azkaban, but someone as important as Sirius Black? What was Crouch thinking?" she said in an outraged voice. Andromeda allowed a minute for her friend to calm down before deciding to drop the bomb.
"What if it turns out that Pettigrew is alive?"
It took five glasses of Firewhiskey and a whole hour to convince Amelia that Pettigrew was an animagus and was still alive and that Sirius was innocent.
"So does it mean you are in touch with Black?" Amelia asked knowingly.
"And with Pettigrew. I can tell you his location if you can promise Sirius a fair trial under Veritaserum."
"That can be arranged, but I will have to face hell for that. So where is Pettigrew?"
Andromeda smirked before answering.
"In my pocket."
...
Three days later, the whole Wizarding World was in an uproar. Every witch and wizard subscribed to the Daily Prophet had only one topic of conversation, which was the headline of that day's issue.
Sirius Black writes to the Daily Prophet. Claims to be innocent.
In a move unexpected by anyone, Sirius Black, the mass murderer who recently became the first human being to escape from the prison of Azkaban, wrote a letter to the Daily Prophet. To prove the authenticity of the letter, he even attached his blood sample, which we verified with the ministry records and found it to be real. He claims some shocking things in his letter, and the strangest part is he is willing to attend a trial under Veritaserum or any known truth potion. Without further ado, let's see the letter, which is slightly edited for use of profanity.
Greetings to everyone reading this. I am Sirius Black. You might not believe that just from the words on a letter, so I am attaching my blood sample with it. Check it with the ministry people.
I am known as a mass murderer by the Wizarding World and a traitor by my friends. Sad thing is I am innocent. I don't expect anyone to believe me, but I am willing to attend a fair trial under Veritaserum or any truth potion I know of. If the ministry promises me a trial that will be held in front of audience instead of a closed door trial, I promise to hand myself in.
If you wonder what happened in my first trial, let me tell you something. I didn't have a trial back then. The authority threw me straight to Azkaban. Again, check with the ministry, but I doubt they'll show you such important documents, which, incidentally, does not exist.
I have captured the real criminal and I'm sure he will be able to confess everything under Veritaserum too. I'm usually a soft guy, but I won't discourage an unforgivable against him, either. And trust me when I say you'll be surprised to know the name of the actual criminal.
So till the ministry makes a public oath to grant me a fair trial, keep living in horror that I might come and kill your family at the dead of the night. Just kidding. I never did anything like that nor do I plan to do so in future. Personally, I think all the dementors placed to catch me are causing more fear than me.
I'll be waiting for your answer, Fudge.
Sirius Black
So that was the letter from Black and we at the Prophet did try to ask the minister if Black's claim of not having a trial was true. He refused to answer and his bodyguards were quite impolite with the reporter. But the absence of denial from them leads us to believe that Black's claim is likely to be true.
The Wizarding world will be waiting for an answer from the Ministry and we all hope that Black receives a fair trial and the real criminal would be punished.
"I didn't expect the Prophet to support me." Sirius said as he put the newspaper down with a smile. He was sitting with Andromeda and Amelia at Amelia's place. He was still a bit wary of having tea with the Head of DMLE, but he didn't let it show. And Amelia was a nice person once she was done with interrogating.
"They just like to complain against the ministry whenever they get a chance." Amelia replied with a scowl.
"To be fair, complaining against the ministry isn't that hard given the way Fudge runs the country. I heard they cut down the Aurors' budget again?" Andromeda asked Amelia.
"Don't get me started. I tried to tell Fudge that we should hire more Aurors if a criminal escaped from Azkaban. He just insists it would be a dementor who would catch him. And with those horrible creatures guarding the ministry entrance..." she trailed off and Sirius nodded understandingly.
A tawny owl soared in through the window and dropped a letter on Amelia's lap.
"That's Fudge's owl" muttered the recipient. She opened the seal on the letter and read it. It was very short, and it was urgent.
"I gotta leave Andy. And you," she pointed at Sirius, "keep a low profile. Don't let anyone see you. Fudge wants me right away."
A moment later, she apparated in her office. Quickly sending a flyer, she rushed to the minister's office where Fudge was sitting with his Undersecretary Umbridge. Amelia groaned mentally. That toad would kill precious time by putting forth her prejudiced and stupid opinions, and for reasons best known only to himself, Fudge always valued her opinions.
"Come in Amelia." Umbridge said in her fake sugary voice. Amelia ignored her and sat in front of the minister, facing away from the other woman.
"What are you going to do minister?" she asked the nervous looking man.
"I don't know, why Black had to go to the press with it. If I take the wrong decision, there's no chance public would forget it."
"I suggest we ask him to come to Wizengamot and when he turns up, the Aurors capture him and throw him back to Azkaban, where he belongs." Umbridge said importantly.
Amelia looked at Fudge and said in a slightly mocking tone, "Isn't that morally wrong, minister? Imagine how much popularity you will gain when the public learns that you double crossed an innocent person who-"
"That's nonsense." Umbridge huffed. Finally Amelia turned to her.
"What is?"
"Black is a criminal. He deserves to be in Azkaban."
"And how are you sure of that given that he had no trial in the first place? You might have forgotten, but I clearly told you and the minister that there weren't any documents to suggest that Sirius Black had a trial. So unless we are here to waste some valuable time in pointless arguments, I suggest we decide quickly. All the guy wants is a fair trial under Veritaserum. I don't know how that could possibly be a bad thing." She finished, looking intently at the minister.
"Yes, that is indeed a fair demand, but as Dolores was saying just before you came in, Black could just attack everyone in the court and hold someone hostage or something..." he finished lamely. Amelia fought hard not to roll her eyes.
"Well minister, if you continue to cut down the budget of the Auror department and fire all the good wands, Black might have a chance against the remaining five or six trainees. If we place Aurors in the court and all around the ministry, however, I assure you Black will be safe to handle."
"But placing Aurors all around the ministry would take more Aurors than we currently have." Fudge said in a miserable voice.
"Rehire the old ones. And let this be a lesson for the future so that we won't be unprepared next time someone potentially dangerous has to be brought inside the ministry."
"Are you trying to imply that the minister's decision to encourage more international relations was wrong?" Umbridge said sweetly. Amelia closed her eyes for a moment to control her temper and then replied very slowly.
"Yes, I am. The idea was stupid. And if the idea wasn't just from you, minister, allow me to say that the person who suggested you this is very short-sighted and not worthy of listening to in the future." She saw with satisfaction that Umbridge's face became red.
Fudge tried to back up his Undersecretary. Looking between the two women, he started, "Now Amelia, no need to-"
"I expect to receive the date of that trial by today, minister. No point in unnecessary delay." Amelia said in a cool tone that would make Andromeda proud, and disapparated.
A/N: let me know how it was. Harry and the Weasleys will feature the next chapter along with other things. Reviews encourage me to write more.