I searched for fics about a trial for Sirius, and I mean, something this is not two lines and then we go on to other things, and I found so few of them that I ended up doing this monster of five chapters. I regret nothing. And by the way, as you can guess, there is still more for the next chapter, but now, I am done with stating the facts, and Sirius defending himself.

By the way, I could have written this chapter for yesterday, december, end-of-the-year-gift, I really would have had the time, but I found a fanfic, and guess what, I read it. So in the end, I wrote this chapter entirely today, when I usually do it in three days. Shame on me.
Let's say it's a new-year-gift.

Chapter 19: The tyranny of the darkest magics

Sirius turned his head slightly to look at the Yaxley lady.

"Lady Morgan Yaxley... What a pleasure to hear your delicious voice. I'd ask you how your brother is doing, but since I know what Azkaban can do to a man, although not to a guilty one, and since I am a sensible person, I won't. Oh wait. I'm not sensible. How is your brother?"

He didn't bother to hide his sarcasm behind a smile, this time.

After all, everybody knew that Morgan Yaxley shared her Death Eater of a brother's opinions on many things. If she attacked him this way, it wasn't because she believed him to be a liar and a secret follower of Voldepants, but rather because she wasn't ashamed to lie to get the Black lord out of the Dark Bastard's way.

And maybe because she was angry that Sirius had refused to go out with her back then, during fifth year. And because she didn't like that someone so much like a perfect pureblood chose to support another cause. And because she might have hoped that by turning all the "good" people against him, Sirius would finally see the light.

But these were mere assumptions.

Lady Yaxley snapped, and no one doubted that Black had struck a chord, and not a pleasant one. This time, Emilia Croyne knew she'd better just leave this trial to end on its own. Luckily it would soon be finished, and Sirius Black would leave this room with no more than one or two new people willing to end his life.

"We're here to talk about your guilt, and certainly not about the previous Lord Yaxley's!"

Sirius gave the witch a condescending smile.

"Actually my lady, we are here to determine whether or not I am guilty of what I am accused of. Which means, that we are here to talk about my innocence as much as about my guilt."

He then turned to the rest of his audience – symbolically at least, since his audience was too large for him to look at them all at the same time. In other words, he looked at the spectators.

"But Lady Yaxley brings up an interesting point, and I thank her for that."

Morgan Yaxley almost choked on her saliva when the young lord said those words. He really had a way to make her look like an idiot! And the worst was that he did it in a way that somehow looked good for her, as if she was some innocent girl with no knowledge of the big bad world out there, so she couldn't really say anything unless she admitted she had less than desirable activities during her free time.

So she glared at the Black lord, who was now completely ignoring her.

"One of the main points of this trial is, after all, 'how in hell can Sirius Black be alive after having fallen behind the Veil of Death?', and, consequently 'what kind of very dark and very evil magic did he use to stay alive?', resulting in 'now do we send him back to Azkaban or not?'. Am I right?"

All that, he said it while waving his right hand in the air, forefinger pointed carelessly to the ceiling – and, according to Bellatrix, way too close to where she was hidden. A few people looked up without meaning to, following the lead of this accursed forefinger of her damned cousin. The ghost made sure not to move from above the chandelier, just in case.

Sirius, as for him, had taken to speaking the questions as well as the answers.

Not letting anyone any time to say anything, he resumed.

"Of course I am. And the thing is, Lady Yaxley already partially answered these questions. How she knows about my family's 'darkest secret', I know not. But I guess she simply snooped around trying to get her hands on the Blacks' most powerful spells and potions, and ended up finding one or two hints to this secret."

Said snoop bit her lower lips, furious.

The worst being, that Sirius was right. She had snooped around Narcissa Malfoy's Blacks books each and every time her and her brother had gone to see Lucius. And she had tried to get in Andromeda Tonks' house while the former Black had been working.

Speaking of which, both sisters were surely eye-murdering her right now. The Yaxley lady wasn't sure, because she didn't dare to check with her own eyes, just in case one of the sisters was secretly Medusa or a basilisk. But she certainly had the feeling they were doing just that.

At least, Bellatrix Lestrange wasn't alive anymore. She would have done more than eye-murder, if she had known that Morgan had scouted Lestrange Manor while its owners had been in jail.

Let's not think about that.

Even if referencing each of Black's insults to her wasn't really to her liking either.

Sirius, of course, ignored the Yaxley lady as she started to eye-murder him too.

"Before any of you ask, yes, I used the Dark Arts to stay alive, and yes, I did it knowing very well the dangers. No, I won't tell you exactly how the spell works, nor what it is exactly, because it is a family secret, and I don't want hundreds of people to know yet another dark curse that may ruin their humanity if they ever use it, even to defend themselves."

Benjamin Abbot's face lit up in triumph, and once again, Sirius crushed his hopes before he even got to speak.

"No, Lord Abbot, I'm not saying this because I want to keep it for myself. We all know that the more into the Dark Arts one dwells, the less likely they are to come out unscathed. The Reciprocation curse is one curse which is equal to the Unforgivables in terms of corruption. Besides, it is particularly difficult to cast, and if one fails, they won't have the time to do anything else to save their life. If they don't, they come out changed, and not for the better."

Abbot's face lit up again, Sirius noted. Predictable. After all, he had just said he had used a curse which would theoretically make him evil. No doubt the lord would see there just another reason to lock him up again.

But Sirius was growing tired of this trial, no matter how entertaining it was. So he kept on asking questions and giving answers at the same time.

"Now, you are thinking something along the lines of 'so we were right to say you are to be jailed, Black!', with a self-pleased tone to your thoughts, as well as 'I always said the Blacks and the Dark Arts went in pair'. Sorry to disappoint, but there is one thing you forgot about the House of Black."

Instead of looking pointedly at the Abbot lord, Sirius turned to look pointedly at the Minister for Magic.

"The House of Black hasn't been named thus for no reason. As for when we were called the House of Darke, the members of the family have an affinity with dark magic. It means that we have no difficulty using it, but also that no matter what, the side effects of dark magic on the human mind are unknown to us."

Many people exchanged glances at that. There were rumors, legends even, but...

"Meaning, no matter what spell we use, no matter how terrible it is, we always escape its grasp. There is no temptation, for a member of the House of Black, resulting from the use of the Dark Arts. The only temptation there might be comes not from dark magic, but from the flaws of personality. Bellatrix fell deep into it, and deeper even, but it wasn't because of the sickly urge of what was once called 'black magic'. It was because of an education and a personality that made her into a hateful blood purist, and a misplaced love that led her to listen to the words of a mad man."

Up above the chandelier, Bella froze. She had no idea how Sirius had understood.

But he was right.

Misplaced love! As if Voldemort had ever looked at her that way... Yes, misplaced it was, even if love it had been.

"I could murder one of you with a killing curse if I wanted, but unlike all of you, the magic in that act wouldn't change me in the slightest. The act itself is another thing, of course. But the dark magic in it has no right over me, because I am a Black."

Sirius' tone had changed from light to serious, as he had said those words.

He had known a woman who had killed someone with the killing curse, once, and the witch had grown so disgusted with herself that she had gone and denounced herself on the spot, even if it had been in an act of self-defense. The act of killing had affected her in such a way that she wouldn't have been able to do it again.

But the dark magic in the killing curse had twisted her, and even if her humanity had won the fight for her mind, it had lost the fight for her sanity. The witch had been sentenced to Azkaban, of course, but only for a few years, as she had killed a Death Eater trying to murder her family. The Prometheus wing, where she had been jailed, was one where few dementors were permanently posted, and therefore didn't affect one's sanity. They made the prisoners unhappy, but not mad.

Still, when Sirius had seen her, on his way to his own cell, she had been in such a state, so corrupted by dark magic, and yet so unwilling to become evil, that she had been about to break down.

Sirius, being a Black, would have been unaffected. He'd have simply won both battles, for his mind, and his sanity.

Because being a Black meant they weren't subject to the tyranny of the darkest magics.

"That being said, it is obvious that it makes us, Blacks, dangerous. We can do anything we want, because there is nothing that will happen to us as long as we don't get caught, when other people will slowly fall into the darkness if they go just a bit too far. But it also means that when in a tight spot, we don't have to fear the consequences for ourselves, allowing us to use what is effective."

As he said this, Sirius looked at his two cousins in the family tribune. Their eyes meet, and the three of them acknowledged the truth in the young lord's words.

Then Sirius looked pointedly at Tonks, who looked defiantly at her auror colleagues, as if to say that she could turn them into toads without using anything evil any time.

The young woman winked at him, and Sirius rolled his eyes. But he knew that behind the playful look she gave everyone in the courtroom, there was enough seriousness to take what he had just told for what it was: a warning.

She had the right to defend herself, and no harm would come to her, if she used the Dark Arts to do so. But she shouldn't do it just because she could. There were no consequences, and that meant she had to be careful not to step too far, for nothing would tell her she had.

The point was valid for all of them. Sirius, Andromeda, Narcissa, and Nymphadora.

Because she was the youngest didn't mean she was unaware of the danger.

Once he was sure of her understanding, Sirius looked upwards and sighed.

"That is what I did. Use what was effective."

The time for Bella to reveal herself was approaching, and he just knew it wouldn't go smoothly.

He couldn't afford to stall too much, but he would do it a bit nonetheless.

"Bellatrix almost succeeded in killing me, when she sent me flying behind the Veil. Almost. It wasn't a killing curse, or any spell that would have brought my death, so as long as I was not behind the Veil, I was alive. Only a few seconds to spare before the final fall. I did the only thing that was effective in allowing me to live, and by doing so, in allowing me to continue fighting, and protect those I care for."

Everybody in the courtroom saw the Black lord look at his friends, and at Harry Potter. There was no doubt who he meant by that.

And they could understand that one would make such a choice. It wasn't even about being afraid or unwilling to die. In fact, it was even refusing the quiet slumber that was death, the ending of all worries and pains, for more years of suffering and struggles.

In a way, refusing to die, it was something brave to do, when it wasn't for oneself, but for the sake of others.

"This is all that I will tell you about the Reciprocation Curse: it takes the murderer's life, and exchange it for the one which is about to be murdered. Casting it is a matter of instants. It took Bellatrix's life as a payment for my own."

There was silence in the courtroom, as Sirius couldn't bring himself to talk just yet, and the public wasn't ready to say anything.

For a Dark Arts curse, it was quite moderate. In fact, many thought that it was difficult to even count it as a spell belonging to the Dark Arts. It was definitely a curse that could be used only in self-defense, and if they hadn't known that when used by someone who wasn't a Black, it tainted their being, they would have thought it something rather good to know.

Sirius looked to the ceiling once again, and sighed once again.

"And now, with the part that you won't like..."

Emilia Croyne looked, surprised, at the audience.

Most weren't really surprised that there was a "part that they wouldn't like". They were wary, sure, some squinted their eyes, and some even tried to make themselves be forgotten, just in case they were to be the next victim of the Black lord's anger. They had grown accustomed, somehow, to the fact that there would always be something unpleasant coming from the young lord.

But this wasn't what irked the temporary Chief Warlock.

The problem was, that amongst those who shouldn't have been disturbed by Black's claim, only Dumbledore wasn't.

Most of the friends and other acquaintances of Sirius Black were looking at him more warily than even the other lords did. Even Lupin, who hadn't been particularly shocked by the truth behind his best friend's survival, was obviously feeling uncomfortable.

As if he had no actual idea of what the Black lord implied.

Whatever it was that was coming, Croyne realized, it was something that Sirius Black hadn't told anyone. And if he had done so, it was certainly because he knew that this thing was too much.

Too much, but how so?

Croyne resigned herself to wait and see. After all, it wasn't as if she could do anything to know before the others would.

"I'm immune to the mind effects of the Dark Arts, but it doesn't mean I am immune to their physical effects. Hence the pallor and the shadows under my eyes. But the Reciprocation curse has another after-effect that you will certainly not like, for it will remind many of you of dark memories. I can do nothing about that. This after-effect will last as long as I live. I want to apologize for it."

Sirius looked many people in the eyes. Many witches and wizards whose families had been attacked, sometimes killed, by his cousin. Many people who had suffered from the hands Bellatrix didn't have anymore. And he finished by looking both Narcissa and Andromeda in the eyes, before moving to the Longbottoms.

He was going to reveal something that would be difficult for them to deal with.

He didn't want to.

But could he really keep Bella's ghost a secret for the rest of his life?

He much doubted it to be possible.

"Only the Black lord knows what exactly the Reciprocation curse is. And only the Black lords who have succeeded in casting it can tell what the greatest after-effect is, for it has been kept secret each of the three times it happened. It was easier, in their cases, to keep it secret."

If they had known who exactly Sirius Black had looked in the eyes a moment before, many people would have understood the link between them. But as quite a lot of wizards and witches had come to the trial, it was difficult to be sure. One knew when they were the one to be looked in the eyes. But when it came to know who was the other one, between their two neighbors...

They wouldn't have understood how exactly this link – the victim-of-Bellatrix-Lestrange link – related to the apologies the young lord had made.

But it being the victim-of-Bellatrix-Lestrange link could only mean that Black was saying the truth, when he said it wasn't going to be pleasant.

"In a way, we could say that the Reciprocation curse inversed the facts. I took Bellatrix's life, and she took my death. We are linked, beyond life and death. And as for the two other Black lords and the Black lady who managed to survive their assassination before me, I am now stuck with a ghost of my murderer who is bound to obey my will no matter what."

Both Andromeda and Narcissa turned ashen.

If this meant what they thought...

But it was Frank who spoke.

Every eye turned to the Longbottom lord.

"Sirius... Are you implying that... she... is still in this world, under the form of a... ghost?"

"Yes. And she is not only in this world. She is here."

Sirius' voice was soft, only a whisper.

But his words broke many's composure.

Even the followers of Voldemort's.

"She".

Her.

There was only one person who could be this "she". There was only one person who had murdered Sirius Orion Black. There was only one person who could make Frank Longbottom look as if he was going to throw up. There was only one person, besides the accused, who could make the whole courtroom silent by her sole presence.

There was only one ghost who could shake the wizarding world so badly.

Sirius closed his eyes for a time, and turned his face to the ceiling, eyes still closed. This was more dangerous than anything else he had done and said during this trial.

"Bellatrix, come down."

And he opened his eyes to a descending grey form.

There was an unreal silence in the room as dozens of eyes took in the truth of Bellatrix Black come back amongst the undead.

And as they looked, they saw that she wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange, but truly Bellatrix Black. Younger than they remembered. Less destroyed than they remembered. Saner than they remembered.

But in the end, it was still the same face, still the same witch, still the same past. Some of them had suffered her madness. And even if she looked different in death, even if it was obvious that she wasn't the same as back then, they still couldn't forget how this face had been twisted as they had suffered her curses.

Bella stayed silent with the silence.

She tried to keep her face schooled. This wasn't the time to appear complacent, and if she tried to look sorry, it would not make it more believable.

She knew the danger she was to Sirius. But if he had kept her a secret, and someone still ended up knowing about her, her cousin would get in a worse mess than this one was.

The ghost only hoped it wouldn't come to be too much of a situation. For her sake, for Sirius'.

The silence wasn't ending.

Sirius knew he couldn't be the one to break it.

He looked at Dumbledore, hoping that the old wizard would take his side on this. After all, he was the one who believed in second chances. And the good point in Bella's second chance, was that she wasn't in any position to harm someone if she weren't to change. After all, she was a ghost. The worst she could do was passing through someone and gossiping about the Order's secrets, which he had forced her to keep quiet about.

From the look Dumbledore gave him, the twinkle in the old man's eye, and the small smile on his lips, Sirius got the impression that the wizard had known all along.

Oh well.

Albus Perceval Wulfric Brian Dumbledore rose from his seat, and spoke.

Nevermind that he was in the silencing-charmed tribune. This was Dumbledore, Chief Warlock, after all. Such a charm wasn't much to undo for him.

For him, and him alone, as another spectator who tried to speak soon discovered.

"Lord Black, I believe you said this ghost to be tied to your command. Would it be inappropriate to ask the both of you for a proof of your claim?"

Emilia Croyne stared dumbly at the real Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot as he asked her for a confirmation of his question. After all, he wasn't supposed to speak. He had broken the charm, when she was the only one supposed to do so, as she had earlier allowed Marcus Wright to speak.

Still, he was asking her for permission.

She had no idea how he had done that, but she granted it to him, and every eye went back to staring either at the Black lord, or at the ghost of Bellatrix Black.

"I guess I have to order her to do something she won't like... Because if I don't, you will all think it was staged... Now, let's think..."

Bella inwardly cursed her cousin and master. If he again made her do a somersault... She'd haunt his dreams. She didn't know how to do that yet, but she'd do it.

A wicked glint appeared in Sirius' eyes, and the ghost felt there were worse things than doing a somersault during a Wizengamot trial.

"Bella, what do you think of singing Scarlet Witch's 'My love for a muggle'?"

As this wasn't an order, the ghost didn't have to yet, and so everyone got to see her face twist into a mask of horror. Not only the song was about something Bellatrix Lestrange abhorred, but the song in itself was... peculiar. Even if the lyrics hadn't been what they were, there was no way in hell she'd ever do that.

"Please don't. I'd rather tell every of my victims that I am sorry for what I did. I'd rather go back to be forced to call you 'Oh so good and magnanimous master'. I'd rather finish all my sentences by 'I am sorry I've been a homicidal bitch for years and I shoudn't have killed you the other day'. Just don't. This song has been... Oh, Andromeda, stop laughing madly, I can see you, you know!"

Andromeda Tonks was actually completely bent into two with laughter at her ghostly sister's predicament. She didn't have any doubt about how the idea of using this particular song had come to Sirius. After all, she had played it in her room for days, even if she herself hadn't liked it at all, during the last month at home after her seventh year, because everyone in her house had been against her dating a muggleborn.

Apparently, Narcissa hadn't forgotten either, because she was throwing a dirty look at both her laughing sister and her cousin. Her room had been right next to Andromeda's.

Actually, Andromeda's room had been right between her two sisters', one being older and the other one being younger. They had suffered the most in the household.

Bella turned back to Sirius, a pleading look on her face. It shocked many people, for it wasn't a look they were used to seeing on her face.

Theodore Rowle would swear, later on, that it had traumatized two of his fellow lords. No doubt that those two had Voldepants-related activities, Sirius would add afterwards.

Bellatrix pointed accusingly at her sister.

"Andromeda made us listen again and again to this accursed song for an entire month, and she had even made it into a jinxed music box that tried to eat you alive if you got too close in an attempt to make it stop. I hate this song even more than I hate muggles. She didn't even like it, but she knew Mother and Father would never let her date that -, sorry, muggleborn if she stopped it. You hate this song, Sirius! Scarlet Witch can't even sing properly, and I know you gave up using it like Andromeda to piss off you parents because you couldn't bear it. Don't make me do that. You'll make everyone in this room suffer if you do. Please, don't."

Those who knew the song couldn't say she was wrong. It was purely horrid.

"Sing it, Bellatrix."

Bella would have liked to tell him he had no heart, but suddenly she was busy singing the dratted thing. Not only she couldn't bear the lyrics – no matter that she had slightly changed her opinion on muggles and other worms, it was still too much for her – but the music itself made her want to vomit.

She wasn't the only one in the courtroom to feel that way. Even Arthur Weasley looked about to throw up, despite the fact that he could theoretically relate to the lyrics.

When she finished the song, though, she made sure to tell Sirius how she would make his life hell from now on.

Andromeda was too busy laughing to regret not being able to tease her older sister's ghost.

"And so what? It's just a song! You could have staged that, even if Lestrange didn't like it!"

All eyes went to Benjamin Abbot, who was really beginning to be a pain in the ass.

Those who had known Bellatrix during her lifetime knew she would never have agreed to that, and they were all looking at the Abbot lord as if he had grown a second head.

Sirius didn't even look at Abbot.

"Bellatrix, somersault."

She did just that, while sending him murderous glances when he entered her visual field.

"Spin. Bow. Jump. Fly. Down. Left. Rotate."

Sirius' voice was hard, and his tone was sharp. The orders went on and on, and so quickly, one after another, that if she hadn't been forced by the curse to obey, Bella would have lost track. Anyone could see that. When Sirius finally stopped, the ghost wasn't even in a state to murderously glare at him.

The Black lord then looked at Lord Abbot.

His smile was twisted, full of rage.

Maybe it was just that he couldn't bear anymore with not being believed.

"Do you want me to order her to confess a love she doesn't feel for you, or will that suffice?"

The ghost glared at the one who had cost her all these acrobatics. He'd better keep it at that, or it was his dreams which she would haunt in the near future. As soon as she'd find out how to do that. And with Sirius' permission, of course. Somehow, she doubted he'd say no to that, if the halfblood lord continued being such a pain in the ass.

Benjamin Abbot got the message, and didn't ask for anything more.

Of course, it didn't mean the public suddenly believed she had become a harmless sheep, when she had been a dangerous wolf. But they seemed convinced enough, that Sirius had her under his control.

The young lord turned to the officials behind the temporary Chief Warlock. His eyes locked with Scrimgeour's.

"If you wish, Minister, I can order her to give you all the details she knows about her fellow Death Eaters. Any time. Then again, you can't know. Maybe I ordered her to lie, after all, I am a traitorous bastard. I'll understand if you don't want to believe anything coming from her, and so, coming from me. But maybe you could at least listen, if you don't believe."

Scrimgeour nodded his acceptance.

He couldn't say no to that offer, after all. If ever Black was being honest...

And more than that, he himself had started doubting his own conviction of the man's guilt. He had heard too much, during the last hours, for it to be all an act. Maybe he had been wrong... Maybe he should ask for the young lord's forgiveness, later on, when no one would be there to witness it.

Bellatrix caught the eye of one or two Death Eaters she would certainly denounce tomorrow, or maybe the day after that. She saw fear in their eyes. She didn't care.

She had changed, after all. Not so much that she could be called a good witch, but enough for her not to be a villain anymore.

And those people had been there with her, always pushing her to be worse, as she had always pushed them the same way. With them, she hadn't had a chance to see how wrong she had been. She had been their blinders, and they had been hers. They deserved it.

It wouldn't surprise her, if before night, some of them had fled to secrecy.

The temporary Chief Warlock was about to speak, when Bella finally found the courage to do what she had decided to do the day before. She knew it wouldn't be welcomed by many, and it wouldn't change anything to the past, but she couldn't not do it and hope for her ghost-life to be accepted. Not before decades, at least.

"Excuse me, but I... I would like to speak."

Emilia Croyne blinked, and allowed the ghost to do whatever she wanted. After all, if it went too far, the Black lord would surely make her shut up.

Speaking of which, Black too was squinting at her ghost of a cousin, and many noticed it. Apparently, Bellatrix's intervention hadn't been talked about, and he was as surprised as the others, for once.

Sirius readied himself to cut Bella off if she started to say things he didn't like.

He had absolutely no idea of what she was planning, and had no pillow to throw at her. Definitely a terrible situation, if the sorry look she sent him was anything to go by. He really wished for a pillow, right now.

The ghost's voice rose, and soon the courtroom was filled with names. Many names. Names that most knew, for they had been the names of people who had suffered at the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange. Some were even in this room. The most notable were, of course, those of Alice and Frank Longbottom.

Both were livid, but silent. They had decided that they would let her say what she had to say, if only out of respect for Sirius. They weren't stupid, after all. For him too, it had to be hard. Especially considering that he was stuck with the ghost, not only of his killer, but of a perfect representative of the House of Black that he didn't want to be a part of.

It wasn't because the Black lord said nothing, that he felt nothing.

Sirius tensed visibly, before relaxing.

"I am sorry for all I did. I can't say I now believe we are all equal in and without magic. I don't want to lie to you, and you wouldn't believe me if I did. But I now know that, if anything, we all deserve to live, no matter where we stand on my personal scale of value. I was a monster in life. But I will try to be someone, if not good, at least middling, in death."

There was a silence, but this was an one angry, everybody could tell just by listening. Wasn't it strange, that they could tell the silence to be angry? Nonetheless, they could...

Before it became too much, Croyne thought she'd better take the lead back to go on another subject.

Bellatrix's ghost used the diversion to fly up to the ceiling, without hiding this time.

"This leaves one accusation, one of your own, moreover."

Sirius acknowledged the temporary Chief Warlock with a sharp nod before answering.

"Yes. Seven uses of the Dark Arts on human beings. To be precise, twelve first time, I... I was seven. We had gone to the sea for summer. Bellatrix was keeping Regulus' head under water just until it was too late. She did it several times, and when I went to Mother, she dismissed me. She wouldn't listen to me. I was so angry I did some accidental magic. Dark magic."

Right, Bella thought, that was the first time... And to think she had taunted Sirius with that during the Battle at the Department of Mysteries... If she had been in her right mind back then, she would have known it wasn't a good idea. Maybe that was what had made her cousin angry enough to use the Reciprocation curse. If she hadn't taunted him that way, she might still be alive.

Then again, she would have been as crazed as before. It was strange, but the ghost almost didn't regret what she had done.

"My mother's throat ripped open, slowly, in four lines. Father came just in time to stop it and save her life. It was the Ghost Claws curse."

And after that, even if she had been injured, Walburga had been so proud of her son, and of the ease he had with the Dark Arts, that he hadn't been punished. Once, Sirius had told Andromeda that it had been then, that he had clearly understood there was something wrong with his family...

"The second time, I was in seventh year. This is one of my worst memories. I was going back to Gryffindor Tower after a detention with McGonagall. It was late, and everyone was in the dorms, except me and the prefects. I met Jane Marlow on the way back."

Everyone looked to the witch, who sat, wide-eyed, amongst the spectators.

Sirius had known that she would come. After all, she had become a famous defender of the muggleborns during the first war, and had worked hard during the peace to protect those who had been misjudged.

But he couldn't do otherwise. He had to say it.

Still, to many, Jane Marlow included, it was strange. Mostly because Marlow had no memory of the incident Black was talking about, and so had never spoken of it to anyone.

"It shouldn't have happened, but... Her father had been killed by Bellatrix the week before. My mother had once again threatened the Potters two days before, about them turning me against my kind. We were both on edge, and she started to insult me. I tried to walk away, but... She cursed me in her anger. And she said something, about how I was no better than the other purebloods, than Bellatrix. She went on and on. I snapped. I used the Breathless hex on her, until she passed out."

Jane Marlow was holding her throat, remembering how the nurse had found her in the infirmary later that night, and how no one had ever known what had happened, until now.

The witch was also remembering how she had always been afraid of Sirius Black, without really knowing why. It had started that week.

"I stopped just before it was too late, to say the truth, when I realized what I was doing. Panicked, I did everything I could remember to negate the effects, but even so, she wouldn't wake up. So, I did what I could. I erased the last minutes from her memory, just letting the fear of me she had just gained, so that she wouldn't try it again. Finally, I got her to the Hospital Wing, and I left before anyone could see me. I didn't sleep for the whole week, after that."

Sirius took a deep breath, eyes closed, but eventually he found the strength to look at Jane Marlow.

"I want to apologize for that. It is one of the rare things I did I am actually ashamed of."

The witch wouldn't let him look away, and he felt he shouldn't. He truly was the guilty one, here. She had every right to make him pay, if only by forcing him to look her in the eyes for so long.

She was his mistake, his sin.

Slowly, Marlow rose from her seat, asking for the Chief Warlock's permission to speak. She held Black's gaze as she was allowed to talk.

"I think I should be angry, but I am not. From what you say, I wasn't innocent either. Today, I am well known as an advocate who pushes her adversaries until they break. I believe I did just that with you, when you were barely an adult. I also think you could have withstood it. After all, you are more accomplished than I will ever be at this game. But if I started cursing you at the same time... I hold no grudge. Even more so, that I believe I have become who I am today because of what has happened. Before my... attack, I cared not about defending those who suffered. Even for erasing my memory, I won't hold a grudge. You did it to protect yourself, and it protected me too, in a way. I forgot I could be bad to the point of attacking an innocent because of their name. And since I never knew who had done this to me... I couldn't seek retribution for myself, so I did it for others."

Many in the public blinked at the witch's forgiveness, and Sirius did just the same.

But she sat down, as if to mean that nothing more would be said on the matter, or else.

Still, Lady Yaxley took the opportunity to steal the floor before the Black lord could resume his list of misdeeds.

"This was very emotional, Miss Marlow, but now, what I want to know is if the Black lord ever went further than what he did to you. After all, he confessed to having killed his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, even if in self-defense. Yet, Black, you haven't yet told us if you ever killed someone before that. Maybe you don't mean to do bad, but if you can't control yourself, with your extraordinary ease with the Dark Arts... And you admitted to having tracked down Pettigrew in order to kill him. You definitely have issues with your self-control."

Because if Morgan Yaxley couldn't get the obnoxious Black in jail, she would at least incapacitate him by having him watched over by St. Mungo's.

And possibly the Ministry too. The Ministry was useless, maybe she could make it useful.

Sirius rolled his eyes at this umpteenth attack. Between Abbot and Yaxley, this was becoming a race of some sort, he thought, and he didn't like it at all.

In fact, he was becoming so pissed with the whole thing that his words were almost dripping acid.

"Try and live twelve years in Askaban while knowing you are innocent and the culprit is still out there. Then you'll have every right to condemn me. But for now, you'd better stay silent instead of thinking you're the only one in the world with the right to judge others."

The last part was more accurate when spoken to Benjamin Abbot, but it would do well enough, and if the Abbot lord wasn't a complete idiot, he'd get it just the same.

"Then again, to answer your question, Lady Yaxley, do you really think that Anyan Carrow, Amanda Flint, Edward Undercliff, Letto Bulstrode, Julius Travers, and Mary and Donald Stump died out of their own will back in 1979? There is a report of that incident in my file as an auror in training. I arrived on the scene as they were about to murder three children, after having tortured and killed their parents before their eyes. My partner was late. I did what I could. It ended up with me blasting three Death Eaters' heads, using two Breathless hexes, and killing the father and daughter with a double Ghost Claws curse."

There it was. Cases number three, four and five of an use of the Dark Arts on humans.

"Killing Bellatrix and rescuing my own life was the sixth time. Which leave me with the Unforgivable, used twice, on two people, to take their mind back from Vegetableland. I did it while I was in St. Mungo's the other week. The Imperius has one good use, it seems."

Some pair of eyes widened as they linked the date with a miracle that had happened not long before.

"Exactly. Frank, Alice, could you please smile for the pictures? Great. Now, I think we said all that mattered. What about moving on to my judgment?"