21. Stupid Ministry Workers
"Wonderful. Since Mr Black was cleared just moments ago, he was still considered a criminal when he broke out of Azkaban. Mrs Tonks, you are hereby charged of harbouring a convicted criminal."
Fudge mentally groaned. There goes 'good public image'. He noticed the reporters on the spectators' bench scribbling away and wanted to bang his head on the table. Though, he considered himself to be lucky that that awful Skeeter woman was banned from the courtrooms for suggesting (a bit strongly) that Wizengamot members gifted prostitutes to each other in order to buy their votes in a trial. Many of the members were Lords of Noble and Ancient houses and wanted to declare blood feud with the Skeeter family. Unfortunately, Skeeter was able to prove two such incidents in the last three century, and along with the 'Freedom of Speech of the Press Act' and the fact that she didn't target a specific family, she got away with a seven years ban from the Wizengamot Courtroom. Amelia Bones went on to ward all the courtrooms to eject her if she ever sneaked in using a Disillusionment Charm or an Invisibility Cloak. She would put nothing past that woman when it came to digging dung.
Umbridge was wearing a triumphant smile on her face. At least she got the criminal's sidekick even if he escaped justice this time.
"You can't do that." Andromeda said flatly. Umbridge's smile got wider. However, this time Amelia started to smile too. Toad face just messed with the wrong person. It would be good to watch.
"I believe I just did." Umbridge's voice sounded like a teen girl who was just asked out by the most handsome guy in the world.
Andromeda smirked, which faltered Umbridge's smile.
"Really? Do you have any proof that I ever harboured a convicted criminal?"
Umbridge was a bit confused. Was the woman stupid or just messing with her?
"We all heard Mr. Black's confession under Veritaserum that you provided him shelter-"
Andromeda cut her off. "What's your name again? Oh, never mind that, who cares what's your name. You are the Minister's Undersecretary, right?"
A red-faced Umbridge dumbly nodded. Andromeda smiled a predatory smile.
"Madam Bones, can I ask you something?" she asked her friend, who was fighting to hide her grin. She nodded.
"What are the requirements for the post this woman holds? Come to think of it, is there any requirement at all?"
Taking a moment to hold in the laughter, Amelia answered calmly.
"Nothing extraordinary. Four OWLs and two NEWTs, one of which should be Government and Politics. And you have to be a pureblood. The requirements were a bit higher previously, but they were dropped six years ago. Coincidentally, Madam Umbridge joined just after that. Why do you ask Mrs Tonks?"
"Well, I was merely wondering why someone with a questionable understanding of the English language was appointed for the post. Clearly, the requirements don't... err... require it, so who am I to complain?" she then turned to Umbridge, who was gaping like a freshly caught fish and continued. "You see Madam whatever-your-name-is, Lord Black here was never convicted. You know, convicted means accused and sentenced for a specific crime in an unbiased trial. Incidentally, Lord Black didn't have any of those, so your charge is quite... ah... baseless. Did I use any big words, Lord Black?" she added the last part, turning towards Sirius with a concerned look. Sirius put on a thoughtful look before answering.
"I think even your daughter would understand that clearly."
"Not really a helpful comment, Sirius."
"Okay, maybe an average eleven year old would get it too."
Andromeda looked critically at Umbridge as if yet undecided if that was good enough for her. Fudge decided to interfere before Umbridge was further humiliated.
"Okay, Mrs. Tonks, you made your point. There aren't any charges against you. You may sit now."
"Not yet, Minister." Andromeda replied with an evil grin that scared Fudge.
"W... What do you mean?" he asked nervously.
"You see, when your Undersecretary accused me in front of the whole Wizengamot, I felt quite harassed. So I press charges against that... err... woman for public harassment."
"But that act is only for Ancient families like mine, foolish woman." Umbridge sneered at her.
"Madam Bones, add a second charge. Oh dear, harassed twice on the same day, not my lucky day, is it?"
"But-" Umbridge started, but Amelia cut her off.
"Madam Umbridge, I suggest you refrain from speaking if you do not wish to cause further damage."
Andromeda glared at her friend. Fudge tried to support his Undersecretary.
"Mrs. Tonks, Madam Umbridge is actually correct. The right to press charges of public harassment is reserved only to members of Ancient houses. I am afraid I don't recognize you as a member of any of those families."
"Ever heard of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, Minister?" Sirius interrupted.
"Of course, that's your family, Mr. Black. But this woman-"
"Was previously known as Andromeda Elizabeth Black." Sirius finished Fudge's sentence. Umbridge paled and the Minister flinched. Offence against Most Noble and Ancient Houses could ruin a lesser house. Umbridge's house was labelled as Ancient just a few years back. After she got the post of the Undersecretary, to be precise.
Amelia decided to start the trial quickly.
"Judge Dumbledore, the court presents the offender Dolores Jane Umbridge and the offended Andromeda Elizabeth Tonks née Black."
Dumbledore, who was particularly enjoying the little drama in front of him, nodded in agreement.
"Mrs. Tonks, I was under the impression that you are no longer a member of the Black family." Said the smooth voice of Lucius Malfoy.
"Hello Malfoy. I was reinstated yesterday. You'll find that the goblins are quite helpful when they are properly dealt with. I heard you saw a lot of the Black Vault recently?"
Malfoy quickly replied, "My apologies. And about the vault, I was merely accompanying my wife-"
"That will be enough." Dumbledore said in a loud voice and Andromeda smirked at the blonde peacock.
The trial was over very quickly. Umbridge didn't have any defence for her actions and the whole Wizengamot was witness.
"Dolores Jane Umbridge, you are fined the amount of 200,000 galleons for each offence, meaning a total of 400,000 galleons which must be paid to Mrs. Tonks here within three days. Failure to do so will enable Mrs. Tonks to claim all your Gringotts vaults. Any questions?" Dumbledore asked a horrified looking Umbridge, but it was Andromeda who spoke up.
"Judge Dumbledore, I seem to recall that there is a law passed on 1723 regarding the House of Black. I wish to put that on effect." As the head of a very powerful and influential family even back then, Eridanus Black managed to pass a law against any lower House who offended the Black family in any way.
It took a few minutes for Dumbledore to search for that law, but when he did, he was very much surprised.
"Isn't that too harsh for a bit of name calling, Mrs. Tonks?" when Andromeda didn't reply, Dumbledore sighed and announced the final sentence.
"According to the Offence Against the House of Black Law, the House of Umbridge is stripped of its privileges of being an Ancient House permanently and its voting seat in the Wizengamot will be claimed by the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. As a result, Madam Umbridge will lose her voting power in the court, but can stay strictly as a Ministry employee."
"You are wicked, Meda!" Sirius shouted in glee as Umbridge shrieked.
...
The Daily Prophet did a massive cover about Sirius Black's trial next day. It went on to say how there was no shred of evidence that Sirius Black, the heir of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, ever hurt a fly and that the Ministry should have thought about checking the proper trial papers before checking in a new prisoner to Azkaban. They also strongly approved of the Ministry's act of firing Bartemius Crouch, who was the Head of DMLE when Black was captured by the Aurors, and immediately charged him for misuse of law and justice for throwing Mr. Black to prison without conducting a trial. Then it proceeded to quote a pretty big speech from the minister who said that his government is strongly against any misuse of law and that the unfortunate incident with Mr. Black was purely the previous minister Boris Bagnold and Bartemius Crouch's fault. He also insisted that he would look at the archives to look for any other cases where justice was not served by the previous, short-sighted government. He also claimed that the ministry is immensely sorry for Mr Black's sufferings and promised to pay him compensation. The reporter then pointed out that the ministry might not be as pleased with Black receiving justice as the minister's undersecretary tried to frame Black's cousin Andromeda Tonks in a completely groundless charge; though she did suffer for trying to mess with a Black. But it couldn't be denied that with the Dementors sent back to Azkaban, the general mood of the country lifted considerably.
"Oh, they tried to screw with mum?" Dora laughed and Harry chuckled too. One does not simply mess with Andromeda and get away with it.
"We have to tell everyone else, don't we?" he asked her quietly. She stopped laughing and sighed before nodding.
"I want Ginny and the twins to be there too." He pressed on. She looked surprised for a moment, but understood. After all, Pettigrew was their 'pet rat' for twelve years. They were lucky that they didn't have any troubles for that.
"Why not Ron too?" she asked, still feeling a bit cross with the tactless boy, who almost let Pettigrew escape. Harry frowned. Apparently, he wasn't happy with him either.
"They can tell him later. I don't know how he might react and I am not looking forward to dealing with him." Tonks just nodded in understanding and patted his shoulders. There was a comfortable silence between them and she just leaned her head on his shoulders.
"I'll miss you, Harry." Tonks said very quietly. Harry looked at her and understood what she meant.
"I'll miss you too, Dora. I don't know how will I go along in this place without you." He admitted without any embarrassment. Over the years, they developed a friendship... maybe something stronger, and both of them knew that they would rarely meet after Dora graduated. If her NEWTs grades were good enough, (Harry assured her that she could achieve them, no matter how much she moaned that she was gonna fail everything) she would be joining the Auror's Academy and depending on how fast she could learn things, she was hoping to become an Auror within two or three years. Everyone knew that the Aurors were among the most highly paid Ministry workers, but they were also the busiest ones. Aurors could be gone for even months at a time for a mission. And there is always the possibility of something bad happening on these missions. Not to mention the insane amount of paperwork they had to do. But Amelia once told her that when you capture a criminal and know that he won't be able to harm any more families, all the trouble was worth it.
Harry, on the other hand, had four more years at Hogwarts to finish. From what he heard from Dora, he wanted to be an Auror too, but that was getting too much ahead of himself. Meanwhile, he would miss Dora's company. They would still probably meet at Christmases or Easters, but that was not enough in his opinion after spending the most of three years with her. And who knew if the Dora who would return from a vigorous Auror training session would still be the same? Maybe she wouldn't enjoy a teenager boy's company like she did now. Maybe she would meet a charming guy and Harry would feel boring, or even annoying to her. The thoughts did horrible things to his stomach.
"You'll have Sue, Neville, Hermione and Hannah. And the Weasleys like you too. You will likely forget about me after a while and with that cute charm of yours, you'll soon be snogging all the pretty girls. I would just be an annoying, old girl to you." She said the with fake tears, but the thought made her sad too-
"No one will replace you, Dora. You're my favourite girl, remember?" he said with a mischievous smile. Maybe he was joking, but the words made the metamorphmagus unbelievingly happy. She kissed him on the cheek for it, and for the first time, he didn't blush. Instead, he just smiled and ruffled her hair. Together, they sat on the top of the Astronomy Tower, arms over each other, watching as the sun was sinking back to the horizon.
...
They sat on a circle on the Gryffindor common room. Tonks placed a privacy charm so that didn't need to worry about being overheard. Tonks and Harry just told everyone about Peter Pettigrew, and how he betrayed his parents and framed Sirius, his godfather, for his crimes. Then he revealed that it was them who captured the rat, who was disguised as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. Harry expected Ginny to look smug at being right, but she merely looked disgusted that a Death Eater was at their home for twelve years, and happy that the rat got what he deserved. He explained them all that he wanted to tell all these to them before, but Andromeda made them promise not to tell this to anyone for security reasons. They all understood and assured that everyone had the right to keep secrets. The Weasleys thanked Harry and Tonks for not getting them in to any trouble and Ginny asked if she could tell her parents about it. Harry didn't see what harm it could, but still asked her to tell them on person rather than in a letter.
Speaking of letters, an owl was trying to get through Tonks' privacy dome. She recognised it as their family owl, Walter. Quickly negating the charm, she held out her arm and the owl sat down on it. The letter tied on her leg was addressed to 'Harry and Dora'. She opened the letter and beckoned Harry to join her. The letter was very short.
Harry and Dora,
Keep the Map always with you, and check it every now and then. Pettigrew has escaped from the Aurors on the way to Azkaban.
Andromeda
They looked at each other with matching angry looks.