(OotP) CHAPTER FOUR: The Wizengamot

Some members of the Order had encouraged Ellie to write to the Ministry ahead of the hearing, informing them of her desire to attend alongside Harry. Sirius, though, with the rare backing of Molly and Arthur (who had become rather divided with him when it came to sharing matters of the Order with the younger generation), had advised her against it. They could write back and insist that she come separately or sooner; they could refuse to allow her to attend altogether; they could threaten her with expulsion from Hogwarts; the list went on. If she went without warning anyone, their intrigue would likely keep them from dismissing her altogether—even if that intrigue risked ending with her not being able to return to Grimmauld Place.

"Maybe you could come with us," suggested Harry to Sirius the morning of the hearing. They were gathered in the kitchen, joined by Tonks, Lupin, Molly, and Arthur. The rest of the teenagers were still asleep. "You know—in your dog form."

"Absolutely not," said Molly immediately. "Albus has forbidden Sirius from going about in his dog form, and I couldn't agree more."

Sirius glanced at Ellie, who was reluctant to share her opinion. Of course, she wanted her father to join them, but Dumbledore was right; it was way too dangerous.

"I know," sighed Sirius when he saw her expression. "I know."

"Makes more sense for me to take them, anyway," said Arthur jovially. "Since I'm headed that way for work."

"You'd best be on your way, though," warned Tonks. "If I know those ministry prats, they'll be changing the time of the hearing on you and claiming the owl got lost in the mail."

Arthur nodded in agreement, rising to his feet. As Ellie and Harry followed suit, Lupin said in a dark voice, "Choose your words carefully—the both of you. Whatever you say today, they'll hold against you for far longer."


Did you already leave?

Ellie was already at the Ministry, having undergone a rather convoluted series of steps to get there. They'd gotten held up during the check-in process, her name having not been on the list of expected visitors, but her confident use of the name "Black" did the trick she'd been hoping for of piquing their interest, and ultimately they had let her in.

Yeah, she told Fred. Tonks advised us to leave early in case they changed the time on us.

True to Tonks' warnings, the time of Harry's hearing had been pulled up so far, the three of them had to move at breakneck speed to have any hope of making it on time.

Sorry to hear that. Would have liked to see you off.

She wasn't sure she could say the same. Her stomach was in enough knots already; her situation with Fred would only have twisted it further.

"Come along, come along," Arthur told them as he ushered them into the lift. Just before the doors closed, a series of little, flying paper flocks of memos zoomed in to join them.

The elevator lurched downward, past the "first floor" that was really the negative-first floor, then stopped at the second, where a cool, female voice announced, "Level Two: Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Including the Improper Use of Magic Office, Auror Headquarters, and Wizengamot Administration Services."

Several witches and wizards from the lift stepped out onto the floor, but not Arthur.

"Isn't this us?" Ellie asked Arthur.

"Would have been, if they hadn't changed the time and place of Harry's hearing. We'll be down on floor nine in old courtroom ten. Strange place to be holding an underage magic hearing."

Ellie glanced at Harry as the doors closed and the floors continued ticking down. She wondered what Arthur meant by that.

Finally, they reached the ninth floor, and the voice announced, "Department of Mysteries."

"Come along," Arthur said again, and they followed him down a barren, windowless corridor, then a second, which led to a flight of steps.

"Lift doesn't come down this far," Arthur explained as he led them down the steps and into another dank, almost dungeon-like corridor. Mr. Weasley started to wheeze as they surged further and further down the hall, until finally they reached courtroom ten.

"I'm not allowed to join you," Arthur told them. "Good luck, then. I'm sure it'll go great."

Ellie and Harry exchanged another look as they stepped into the courtroom.

"I've been here before," Harry whispered to her as they both took in the great, high-ceilinged room filled with dark stone and easily fifty witches and wizards, all dressed in plum-colored robes. "In the Pensieve. This is where the Lestranges had their trial."

Ellie had heard about the Lestranges both from Harry's description of the Pensieve and from her father, who was related to them via his cousin Bellatrix. She could hardly believe that a trial determining the fate of two of the most powerful Death Eaters of all time had been held in the same courtroom where Harry's underage magic trial was being held. At least now she understood what Arthur had meant.

"You're late," called out a cold, male voice from up high up above them in the stands.

"S.. sorry," Harry stammered. "I… I didn't know the time had changed."

"That is not the Wizengamot's fault." The man glanced at Ellie and asked, "And you? What business do you have here with Mr. Potter?"

"I… I wanted to back him up." Her voice came out much higher-pitched than usual, and all the fierceness and boldness she had felt upon reading that Daily Prophet headline seemed to fade away. "In case the subject of the graveyard came up."

Murmurs broke out amongst what Ellie inferred was the Wizengamot at that point, but they were silenced only a moment later when the man cleared his throat and said, "There will be time for that later. For now, have a seat."

There was only one chair. Ellie stiffened when she saw the chains adorning it, but to her relief, when Harry took his seat, they didn't move to bind him. She waited on the outskirts of the room, content to observe from afar until she was needed.

"Very well," said a new voice from the front and center of the stands. It was Cornelius Fudge, the Minster of Magic whom she had once, in her dog form, full-on attacked. "Now that the accused has finally decided to join us, we may begin."

Ellie's eyes trailed down below Fudge as Fudge started announcing the hearing. The boy scribbling down notes was none other than Percy Weasley—Fred's brother.

She had known, of course, that Percy worked at the Ministry. He had spent most of the previous year defending his boss, Barty Crouch, when the rest of them questioned his sanity (which, considering the fact that he had been keeping his murderous, thought-to-be-dead Death Eater son a secret from society, had been fair of them to do). Ellie hadn't expected to see him here, though.

Your brother's here, she told Fred with a bit of a shudder.

Makes sense, I suppose. Why sack him when he fulfills the "prat" requirement of the Ministry so perfectly?

She let herself smile the slightest bit at that, then reverted her focus back toward the matter at hand.

Fudge had just finished prattling off the introductions when the doors behind Ellie burst open and in swept none other than Albus Dumbledore—who, in turn, announced his own, rather long, full name as a witness for the defense.

Harry's face lit up when he saw the headmaster, whom Ellie knew had been ignoring his letters and questions all summer.

The members of the Wizengamot, however, didn't look quite so thrilled. A few witches in the back row waved in welcome, but the majority of the group looked a mixture of annoyed, disgusted, and afraid.

"Ah," said Fudge, sounding flustered. "Dumbledore, yes. You got our message that the time and place of the hearing had been changed, then?"

"I must have missed it. However, due to lucky mistake, I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so, no harm done."

You're happy, Fred observed in her mind. Why are you happy?

He could sense her emotions now, not just her thoughts?

Dumbledore just got here, she explained. Shh—I'm trying to pay attention.

Dumbledore was in the midst of conjuring a chair for himself next to Harry, then, without so much as a glance in Ellie's direction, one for her, as well. She stepped nervously to Harry's left and took a seat while Dumbledore did the same to his right.

"Well, then—yes—the charges," Fudge stammered. "The charges against the accused are as follows: that he did knowingly, deliberately, and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions, having received a previous written warning from the Ministry of Magic on a similar charge, produce a Patronus Charm in a Muggle-inhabited area, in the presence of a Muggle, on August 2 at twenty-three past nine—which constitutes an offense under…"

Yawn, Fred said in her head. When do we get to the part where you give 'em hell?

Now he was hearing things through her ears? How was that possible?

Your guess is as good as mine. Though I have a feeling it has to do with your subconscious thinking about me and giving me my opening.

She wrestled with the question of whether that was a good or a bad thing as she tried to refocus to the matter at hand.

"—but I only used it because we were—"

"You produced a fully-formed Patronus?" interrupted a witch Fudge had introduced as Madam Bones as she rose from her seat.

Harry blinked up at her in surprise, though Ellie was less surprised. She herself knew what an accomplishment it was, not having come remotely close to mastering the spell despite all her practice.

"Yes," Harry told her. "It's a stag. It's always a stag."

"Always? You have produced a Patronus before now?"

"Yes. I've been doing it for over a year."

"And you are fifteen years old?"

"Yes, and—"

"You learned this at school?"

"Well, yes—Professor Lupin taught me at school because of the—"

"Impressive! A true Patronus at that age—very impressive, indeed!"

Ellie glanced at both Harry and Dumbledore, grinning outright as she heard Fred cheering in her head. But neither of them was smiling.

"It's not a question of how impressive the magic was," snapped Fudge irritably. "In fact, the more impressive, the worse it is, particularly in plain view of a Muggle."

"I did it because of the Dementors!" Harry said loudly.

A thick, dense silence filled the room.

"Dementors?" repeated Madam Bones. "What do you mean, boy?"

"I mean, there were two Dementors down that alleyway, and they went for me and my cousin."

It's not rocket science, people. Why the bloody hell else would he cast the spell and risk expulsion?

Yet again, Ellie fought back a smile.

Fudge prattled on about Harry's excellent "cover story" for several minutes before, finally, Dumbledore cleared his throat and informed him that they did, in fact, have a witness.

At Fudge's reluctant order, Percy scuttled out the doors to retrieve said witness. Ellie watched from the edge of her seat as Percy re-entered by a batty-looking old woman wearing carpet slippers, whom Dumbledore offered up his chair to.

"She's from Little Whinging," Harry whispered to Ellie. "She really was there!"

Go Dumbledore! cheered Fred in her head.

Upon questioning, the woman introduced herself as Arabella Fig, a resident of Little Whinging. She was a Squib, which was how she had been able to see the Dementors. She told her story awkwardly, but ultimately held up against the repeated attempts of various Wizengamot members to discredit her.

Finally, Fudge dismissed the woman, who shuffled awkwardly back out of the room.

As Fudge and the Wizengamot proceeded to debate Mrs. Fig's story, Fred popped into Ellie's head again. Maybe they'll be too frustrated to ask about the graveyard.

Maybe, she replied. But I doubt it.

"…don't think any of us believe the Dementors were there by coincidence," Dumbledore was saying. "I think they were ordered there."

"I think we might have a record of it if someone had ordered Dementors to go strolling through Little Winging," snapped Fudge.

"Not if the Dementors are taking orders from someone other than the Ministry of Magic these days. I have already given you my views on this matter, Cornelius."

They proceeded to bicker about this for several minutes, until finally Dumbledore very quietly and calmly suggested that perhaps someone within the Ministry had ordered the Dementors there that night.

The witch to the right of Fudge leaned forward at that. Ellie hadn't noticed her before, though now that she saw her, she was surprised by that. She had a pale, squashed, toad-like face, very little neck, and a large mouth.

Fudge introduced her very enthusiastically as Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister.

Uh-oh, said Fred in her head.

"I'm sure I must have misunderstood you, Professor Dumbledore," the woman said in a high-pitched voice that made Ellie cringe. "So silly of me, but it sounded for a teensy moment as though you were suggesting that the Ministry of Magic had ordered an attack on this boy."

Ellie shuddered as the woman proceeded to give a squeaky laugh that heavily resembled nails on a chalkboard.

"Well," Dumbledore said calmly, "one of two things must be true—these Dementors were either outside of Ministry control, or they were ordered there."

"There are no Dementors outside Ministry control!" snapped Fudge.

"Then undoubtedly the Ministry will be making an inquiry," retorted Dumbledore rather cheerfully.

Fudge continued griping and snapping at Dumbledore for several minutes, steadily digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole, ultimately ending with Dumbledore pointing out that witches and wizards were allowed to use magic when endangered.

Finally, it was time to vote. Only about a half-dozen of the witches and wizards in the room, Fudge and Umbridge included, voted against Harry; the rest elected to clear him of all charges. With a twisted, angry look, Fudge announced Harry cleared of all charges and banged his gavel.

"Excellent," said Dumbledore, rising to his feet.

But before he could make his departure, Fudge cleared his throat and said, "There is still another matter to attend to."

Dumbledore shot Ellie a rather withering look—apparently he would have preferred she not have come—before saying coldly to Fudge, "Not according to the subject of this hearing."

"The girl chose to come here," pointed out Fudge. "Surely that means she has something to say?"

"Actually," Ellie said before Dumbledore could answer him, "yes, there is."

You've got this, Fred told her as she rose shakily to her feet.

"Well?" asked Fudge. "Shall we start with where you have been this summer?"

"Not much to say there," Ellie said with a shrug. "Mum pretty much covered my family vacation when you went to her house to interrogate her. I'm here to break my silence—at least, what the Daily Prophet calls a silence. They seem to think that I haven't spoken up about what happened at the graveyard because it didn't really happen, so I came to assure you that that is entirely untrue. It happened—in front of multiple witnesses. Two of which are here in this room."

As the witches and wizards in the stands began to stir, Ellie snuck a glance at Dumbledore and was relieved to see that he no longer looked irritated.

"You maintain your backing of the ridiculous story Mr. Potter is spewing, then?" asked Umbridge with another shudder-inducing laugh.

"I maintain the truth," Ellie said firmly. "As would our third witness of that event, Fred Weasley, if he were here."

More mutters broke out in the stands as Fudge slammed his hand down on the table. "The truth," Fudge scoffed. "And what would a girl like you know about the truth—a girl who repeatedly denies that she is the daughter of the escaped criminal she shares half her features with—not to mention her affinity for trouble and violence?"

She stared up at Cornelius Fudge, resentment and hatred bubbling to the surface. It wasn't just resentment towards him; it was resentment towards everyone and everything that had forced her to lie about her father's identity for over two years, and would keep forcing her to lie until the day she captured Peter Pettigrew—if that day ever even came.

What if there was another way?

She knew it could be suicide—knew that it could be dangerous for her and Sirius alike. And yet, wouldn't Sirius, at least on some level, be grateful? It had only been two years for her, but it had been well over a decade for him. Wouldn't he be glad to know that the word of his innocence was finally spreading?

Before she could stop herself, she said in a loud, clear voice, "I don't deny it."

The murmurs turned to full-on gasps as Fudge spat at her, "What?"

"I don't deny it," she repeated. "I'm Sirius Black's daughter, and proud to be. He did nothing wrong. Peter Pettigrew killed those witches and wizards, not him."

Now the gasps were turning into shouts. Dumbledore and Harry both looked panicked; even Fred was asking her nervously in her head whether she thought this was a good idea.

But she didn't care.

"Convenient, if classless," snapped Fudge. "An unprovable story. Claiming a dead man was responsible for the death of—"

"He isn't dead. He's an unregistered Animagus who takes the form of a rat. And I will prove my story when I catch him and bring him to you."

"An unregistered Animagus?" asked Madam Bones. "But—but—where do you suggest he's been all this time?"

"Right under your noses, disguised as someone's pet. Not anymore, though. Now he works for Voldemort."

"Ellie," Dumbledore said under his breath as even more shouting erupted. "That's enough."

He was right, she knew. She probably shouldn't have said any of it. But she didn't care. She was tired of lying. She was tired of seeing Sirius holed up in that house, never allowed to leave, growing more and more restless by the day, while everyone in the world assumed he was a killer.

"How do you know all of this?" asked Madam Bones. "Have you been in contact with Sirius Black?"

This, of course, was a tougher question. She could lie again, but lying in a courtroom was different from lying everywhere else she'd been.

Then again, the truth would only lead them to her father—and, at least temporarily, would land him back in Azkaban.

So, for lack of any better ideas, she pretended to faint.


I know a lot of this chapter was just like the books, but hopefully that big bombshell at the end kept things interesting! Definitely a risky move on Ellie's part, but an interesting one, too, don't you think? A big departure from the source material that might have some cool twists as a result. Drop your thoughts in the reviews, and stay tuned for the next chapter, "The Black Bombshell!"