Chapter Six
Lily quickly pushed the button in the lift, letting Danica down, Harry jumped as the doors to the lifts slammed closed.
"When they talk to you, be polite but stand your ground." Lily said, "Just stick to the facts."
Harry nodded, his heart was racing, he was meant to have three hours to clear his mind and get ready for this, now he had less than ten minutes.
"Arthur I don't want him going in there." Lily whispered, "This is insane."
Arthur nodded, "I know. I don't think there is anything we can do to change it though. I am sorry Lily."
Harry didn't like the sound of that, where were they going exactly? Surely they weren't going to put him in the courtrooms he'd seen in Dumbledore's memories for something like this. No, his trial would be in an office or something.
Harry tried to convince himself of that, failing horribly. The lift stopped at several floors along the way, the knot in Harry's stomach only growing.
"Department of Mysteries." The female voice announced.
Lily picked up Danica again, she was too big now to really carry easily but it was quicker than her walking.
It was a bare looking corridor that they sped along, no windows or pictures, just darkly painted walls and a dark wooden floor that made their footsteps echo.
There was only one door that Harry could see, right at the end of the corridor, a plain black one that almost blended in with the walls.
Arthur grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him to the left where there was a flight of stairs.
"The lift doesn't even come down this far!" Lily hissed, "They haven't used these rooms in years!"
At the bottom of the stair was another long corridor, that looked very much like the corridor down to the dungeons at Hogwarts.
"Court room ten." Arthur said, as they sped passed the doors.
"Here it is." Lily pointed.
It was a dirty, dark door with a huge iron lock. Mr Weasley leaned against the wall, taking deep breaths.
"Go on." He gestured.
Harry pulled the door open and stepped into the courtroom. He heard a small thump behind him and saw his mother, pressed up against an invisible barrier over the door.
"Harry!" she said, pressing with her free hand against the force blocking her.
"Lily you know you can't go in." Arthur said, trying to pull her away, Lily just shrugged him off.
"We will call for you if we need you." an Auror said, slamming the door shut in Lily's face.
"She's my Mother." Harry said, "I want her in here with me."
"Please take your seat, Mr Potter." echoed Fudge's voice behind him.
Harry took a deep breath. It hadn't occurred to him that he would be doing this alone. He turned round and gasped, this was the room that he'd seen in Dumbledore's memories, the exact same room.
Thankfully it was Dementor free but the chair, wrapped in chains, sat worryingly in the middle of the room. Harry forced his feet to move forward, one step and then another, until he could sit down in the chair.
He took a deep breath, waiting for the chains to leap to life and bind him but they didn't, thankfully they barely moved. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and shuffled back so he was sitting fully in the chair.
"You're a minute late." Fudge said.
"The original hearing time was at eleven." Harry said, trying not to let his panic come out in his voice.
"An owl was sent to your house." Fudge said, "It is not the Wizengamot's fault you never received it."
"Well if you sent it this morning then we would of already left the house." Harry said steadily.
Fudge sniffed unimpressed, "Well you left the house very early."
Harry allowed himself a small smile, "And yet I was still slightly late, so if I had waited at home I would have been even later."
Fudge glared down at him and there was a murmur around the other witches and wizards in the room that Harry was forcing himself not to look at.
"I imagine you have simply wasted time since you arrived." Fudge said after a few minutes, waving his hand dismissively.
Harry didn't say anything but stared at Fudge, refusing to be the one to break eye contact. It wasn't long before Fudge looked away.
Harry took the chance to look around the room, the stands were empty, there was at least no one staring down at him to witness the trial but there were at least fifty witches and wizards, all wearing plum coloured robes with a large silver 'W' on their chests.
Cornelius Fudge was sat right in the middle of the front row, he looked very different without his lime green bowler hat on.
"Very well," Fudge said, looking up from his notes, "The accused being present, let us begin. Are you ready?"
"Oh yes Sir, of course!" an eager voice sounded, Harry forced himself not to roll his eyes at the sound of Percy Weasley's voice. He was sitting at the end of the front bench, parchment and quill in hand.
"Disciplinary hearing of the twelfth of August," Fudge said, Percy scribbling notes, "into offences committed under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy by Mr Harry James Potter, resident at number twelve Grimmauld Place, Islington, London. Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic, Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Under-secretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley..."
"Witness for the defence, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
Harry turned round to see Dumbledore walking calmly across the room, his silver hair gleaming in the low light from the torches. He drew level to Harry and then stopped, looking up at Fudge as another murmur ran around the room.
Fudge gave a nervous cough, "Ah, well you received our owl then, stating the time and place of the hearing had been changed."
Dumbledore smiled politely, "Alas I did not, but by a happy mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early."
"Ah yes, well…" Fudge said, "I suppose we will need another chair, Weasley would you…"
Dumbledore raised his hand, "No need." he waved his wand, drawing a chair in the air with his wand and letting it touch down to the ground before sitting and making himself comfortable, in the chintz armchair.
Fudge was looking less than happy and several people in the Wizengamot were still whispering to one another.
"Yes," Fudge said, coughing loudly to make the room quiet, a move which failed miserably, "Well, then. So. The charges. Yes."
He shuffled his notes around for a moment before pulling out a single sheet of paper.
"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 in habited area, in the presence of two muggles, on the twenty eighth of July at forty-two minutes passed five, which constitutes an offence under Paragraph C of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, and also under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy." Fudge read out in a self important voice.
Percy was still scribbling away, coping down every word. Harry looked over but it was clear that Percy was pretending that he'd never met Harry before.
"You are Harry James Potter, of number twelve Grimmauld Place, Islington, London?" Fudge asked, glaring at Harry over his piece of parchment.
"Yes, I am." Harry said, sitting up a little straighter.
"You received an official warning from the Ministry for using illegal magic three years ago, did you not?" Fudge asked.
"In error, yes." Harry said.
There was a louder mutter around the room.
"What do you mean in error?" a witch sitting next to Fudge asked, she had a slightly familiar look about her. She was wearing a monocle and had a very square jaw.
"It wasn't Harry who preformed the magic it was a house elf, who has since been dealt with." Dumbledore said, calmly.
Fudge coughed, "Yes but you did know it was illegal to use magic around muggles because of this event? The warning you got?"
"No." Harry said, "I knew well before hand not to use magic unless in life threatening situations." he said slightly sarcastically.
Dumbledore gave him a quick warning look before looking back to Fudge.
Fudge was getting more and more flustered, "So you knew it was illegal to use magic outside of school AND in the presence of a muggle?"
"Yes." Harry said, making sure his voice was as calm as possible, "Unless-"
"And did you or did you not conjure a Patronus on the afternoon of the twenty eighth of July?" Fudge demanded.
"Yes." Harry said, "I did beca-"
"Knowing that you are not permitted to use magic outside school while you are under the age of seventeen?" Fudge asked, one eyebrow raised.
"Yes but-" Harry started.
Yet again Fudge cut across him, "Knowing that you were in an area full of muggles?"
"I wouldn't have said full, most of them had left because of the-" Harry said, he could feel his temper rising and took several deep breaths to try and steady himself.
Fudge wasn't interested in hearing what Harry had to say, "Fully aware that you were in close proximity to a muggle at the time?"
"No." Harry snapped, "I wasn't looking around at all."
Fudge looked rather unhappy with Harry's answer, "So you admit you didn't check?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "I was a little busy being att-"
"You produced a fully fledged Patronus?" The witch with the monocle asked, cutting across him.
"Yes," Harry sighed, "because-"
"A corporeal Patronus?" The witch asked.
"What?" Harry asked, he wasn't sure where this line of questioning was going.
The witch sat forward slightly and adjusted her monocle, "I mean to ask, was your Patronus little more than vapour or smoke or did it have a fully formed, defined shape?"
Harry couldn't believe that that was what she was focusing on right now, "Yes it was fully formed. It's a stag, it's always been a stag."
"Always?" she asked, "You mean to say that you have produced a Patronus before this event?"
Harry nodded, "Yes. I learnt in my third year at Hogwarts. I've been making corporeal Patronus for over a year now."
"And you are only fifteen years old?" she asked.
Harry nodded, "Yes, I turned fifteen last month."
"Who taught you this? You said you'd learnt it as school?" the witch said, adjusting her monocle again.
"Professor Lupin taught me, Remus John Lupin. The Ministry had sent Dementors to guard the school and they took an… an unusual interest in me." Harry explained, "So Professor Lupin taught me to defend myself."
"Thank you Madam Bones." Fudge coughed, "I don't see how this is relevant."
The witch looked rather scathingly over Fudge, before turning back to Harry, "That's very impressive Mr Potter, to be so competent at such a difficult spell at your age."
"This is not a question of how impressive his magic was!" Fudge spat, "In fact, the more impressive the worse it is really! I mean, given that the boy did it in plain view of a muggle!"
There was a murmur of agreement around the room and Percy gave a very self important nod. Harry felt his blood boil, he wasn't sure why he was so upset but he knew that he couldn't hold it in any more.
"I did it because we were being attacked!" He yelled, "I did it because of the Dementors!"
Madam Bones adjusted her monocle and sat forward once more, "Dementors? What do you mean boy?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Do you really think I just started shooting off spells in the middle of the city? Of course not! There were two Dementors there, and they attacked me!"
Fudge smirked, "Ah yes, I thought you'd say something like this." he looked around to the other members of the Wizengamot as though he was sharing a joke with them.
"Dementors? In Islington?" Madam Bones asked, the surprise clear in her voice, "I don't understand..."
"Don't you Amelia?" Fudge chuckled, "Let me explain. Harry, and possibly his family, have been thinking this through carefully, you see, and they have decided that Dementors would make a very good little cover story. Muggles can't see Dementors can they boy? Highly convenient, highly convenient… so it's just your word and no witnesses…"
Harry gripped the arms of the chair so tightly his knuckles turned white, "Not really, being attacked was bad enough! But no, you get to sit there and call me a liar! Just because what attacked me can't be see by muggles! And-" he took several deep breaths, he didn't really want to drag Danica into this.
"Enough!" Fudge sighed, patronisingly, "I think that this out burst alone shows the boy is unstable."
Dumbledore coughed slightly to draw attention onto himself, "There is actually a witness, Harry's little sister, Danica Rose James Snape, was also present for the beginning of the attack."
Fudge's self satisfied smirk melted from his face, he drew himself up to his full height and shuffled in his seat, "Really Dumbledore, we haven't got time to listen to more taradiddles, I'm afraid Dumbledore, I want this dealt with quickly…"
Harry could have yelled again but took several deep breaths to stay calm.
"I may be wrong," Dumbledore said pleasantly, "but I am sure that under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused has the right to present witnesses for his or her case. Isn't that the policy of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Bones?"
Madam Bones nodded, "True, very true."
Fudge ground his teeth in irritation, "Very well. Where is the child?"
"She's just outside." Harry said, "But she's only six, she shouldn't have to come in here without Mum."
"Children are always allowed a parent or guardian with them if they are required to attend a hearing." Madam Bones said with a frown.
"Really?" Harry snapped, "Because it's been established that I'm under age and the stupid door wouldn't let Mum in earlier."
Fudge coughed guiltily, Harry glared angrily at him as Fudge gestured for Percy to go and open the door.