Yaxley stood, adjusted his tweed. "Chief Warlock, Judges. I call for Vetrisearum."
"I object!" Albus yelled.
Parkinson grinned at Albus. "Under what Grounds do you object?"
"I am Chief Warlock." Albus smiled grandfatherly at the Acting Chief Warlock.
"Not right now." Yaxley smirked. "You were stripped of the position when Greengrass gaveled the session into Order. And until he gavels the session closed, or he volunteers to surrender the Post, it is his."
Greengrass cleared his throat. "Albus will take Ventrasearm or accept a ruling of Guilty."
Albus, in a panic, tried another tactic. "What are the charges?"
"Scribe." Yaxley turned to look at the wizard manning the scroll.
"Including but not limited to; False imprisonment, Line Theft, attempted murder, child endangerment, accessory to child abuse and child negligence. Attempted subversion of Department of Magical Law Enforcement Personnel. And last but not least, the premeditated altering the mind of Department of Magical Law Enforcement Personnel and Regency of an Ancient and Noble House."
Moody crossed his hands. "Do we need to list every charge, Albus, or will you just take the potion?"
Albus turned to look at Tonks, and an idea came to mind. "I need to converse with my Barrister!"
"Name them."
"Tonks, is that not the reason he is here?" Albus smiled beninely.
"No, Headmaster." The chubby law wizard smiled at the old man, "I am serving Lord Black in the civil side of the lawsuit against you." Black waved gaily at the wizard bound to the Chair.
"Doge. He is the second best Litigator I know."
As Elphias Doge was sent for, Black moved along the various Lords. Sharing a word or two, shaking hands, and kissing cheeks as appropriate.
"Lord Black, I need to speak with you when we are done here." Cyrus whispered as they shook hands having left the pulpit to whisper to his wife. "Your Grandfather's Proxy wrangled a contract out of me. I was over the Gargoyle, and I made a tactical error."
"Owl me." Sirius nodded and moved on.
A few Lords later he crossed paths with Lord Parkinson, who was also out mingling. "My Lord. I Hear that you are the Steward for the Potter Heir. I would like to talk about a union."
"Owl me." Sirius smiled at the dark haired lord, before moving on.
Just then the Doors opened and Runcorn escorted Elphias into the courtroom.
Cyrus returned to the pulpit, and graveled the court back into session. Black returned to the table where Tonks was waiting. A third Table had appeared next to the Chair of the Accused. Tonks and his table had been moved a bit further from the Chair.
Once Doge was ready, he had a quick conversation with Albus and read the Scribes notes on the Case so far.
He then nodded at the Acting Chief Warlock.
Cyrus nodded at the Scribe, and Gavelled the Case back into motion.
"Again Chief Warlock, I call for Veritaserum." Yaxley cried out to the Court.
"Objection." Called out Doge. "My Clients' Health and Age make taking Veritaserum dangerous."
"Too Dangerous for Veritaserum, but able to hold three of our Society's Most Important Positions." Tonks called out. "If the Vaunted Albus Dumbldore is too weak to take a simple potion, then he has no right to object when he is retired from his Posts."
"Agreed." Greengrass ruled. "And if the Defence is really that worried, My Wife is sitting Proxy in my Seat. She is also a fully qualified Healer from St Mungo's."
Albus was forced to take the potion.
And when Yaxley began to ask his questions, when Tonks Objected.
"With the Indulgence of the Court, to prove both the People's Case against APWB Dumbledore and our own, but avoid repeating the Questions, I would like to lead the Questioning of the Suspect."
Greengrass looked at Yaxley who nodded. "Proceed Mr Tonks."
"Let's start with the Night that most of our Case hinges on. October thirty first of 1981. The Night that the Dark Lord vanished. I say Vanished because No One truly knows what happened that night. Only that He Entered that Cottage, and that he Never exited by normal means." Tonks took a sip of water. "My first Question. Why did you seal the Potters' Wills?"
"To Protect Little Harry's Inheritance." The monotoned response drew itself from the Old Wizard.
"Any Other reason?" Tonks asked.
Albus struggled for a few seconds before answering, "And to Remove any lead to Little Harry's Guardianship."
"And why did you do that?" Tonks leaned his elbows on the table, "Please fully explain to the Court your Actions and Reasons."
"So I could put the boy where I wanted him." Albus strained to answer, or was that prevent answering… "I sent Black to Azkaban, so that Crouch and Baghold had a Win for the Ministry for taking down the Right Hand of the Dark Lord."
"And why did you allow Black to be sent to that hellhole?" Tonks inquiried.
"He was the only one besides myself that knew the entire line up of Guardians for the boy, with him at the front of the line." Albus droned out. "I had to remove him from the scene and gag him as quickly as possible. When he was brought in on the Murder of Peter Pettigrew, I seized on the thread of hope, and spun the story that Black was the one to betray the Potters."
"And why did you need to control where the boy went?"
"So that he could be forged into the perfect weapon, who was Loyal only to me, who would walk into Death for me."
"Where did you put the Lad?"
"With his Muggle Aunt and her Muggle Husband. They detest anything not normal."
"Did you check up on the Lad?"
"No. I placed a Squib nearby and used the boy's trust fund to buy her a house and start her Kneazle breeding business. She was to give me Monthly reports, but as long as the Boy lived, I was Hands off."
"What about Mr. Black's betrothed? What did you do to Her?"
"With the use of the Confundus Hex and skillfully applied Legilimens, I removed any and every thought and doubt that Black might be Innocent. When Amelia Bones did not protest that Black was innocent, the Sheeple agreed that Black had to be guilty."
"Do you realize that Potter was a borderline Obscural?" Tonks leaned back in his chair. "Did you care?"
"When he walked in, I noticed that he was showing signs similar to those of Dearborn." Albus shifted in his chains. "And while I wanted a sword, I was willing to take in a Bomb as long as I controlled his fuse."
Tonks had a funny look on his face, "Anything else you did while you were acting as the Boy's Guardian?"
"Paid the Full seven years of Schooling for several people, securing their Loyalty, using his Trust Vault. I wrote out a marriage contract and a will in his name. I moved several Heirlooms from the Potter Vault to my Office, and I ordered The Potter Family Elves to join the Hogwarts Elf Core."
Black leaned over and whispered to Tonks.
"One more thing. Did you take or arrange to have someone else take the boy to Gringotts on his Eleventh Birthday for the express purpose of meeting with the Potter House Account Manager?"
"No. In fact, I arranged it so that when Hagrid lumbered through with the boy on his Eleventh Birthday, that he avoided all contact with the House Potter Account Manager."
"Have you taught the Boy, or had anyone else teach the boy about his Rights and Responsibilities to our Society?"
"No, because if all went as Planned, the Boy would be dead and House Potter would be no more."
The Hiss around the Hall was audible.
"Prosecutor, the Witness is yours. We do reserve the right to re-question the Accused later."
Tonks sat as Yaxely moved in like a hungry jackal on a would lion.
HPSH I
Fudge sat in the witness box as those he could have sworn were loyal to Albus cut the legs out from underneath him, and that was before he was forced to take vitrisearm and condemn himself before Morgana and everyone.
He paled at the thought of what was going to happen to him. He had too many secrets to just take vitrisearm in open Court. He could try to claim Privilege, but after seeing what this court did to the highly respected and admired Albus Dumbledore, he did not think he would be able to get away with it.
He watched Runcorn administer three drops of the potion to a shot of water, and then poured it down the Headmaster's throat. At least he hoped it was water.
Tonks was awarded the right to soften the Accused up.
The truths that came pouring out of Albus's mouth chilled his soul.
Then Yaxley began with the questions.
Where Fudge was afraid of the dingy of his dignity being rocked, the line of questioning just up and capsized the boat.
He could only hope that Lucius Malfoy would save his hairy ass.
HPSH I
In the Lord's Seats, Malfoy sat as Parkinson's Guest. Until Tonks had shown up he held the Black Proxy, but sat with the Dark Lord's Inner Circle. It was easier to sway the Darker Houses from here then from across the room.
He Leaned over to Whisper in The Lord's Ear. "It might be wise to request a recess after Dumbledore is sentenced. The Revealed Truths need to be examined and discussed before we move on, even to other Cases."
"Actually, I am going to request a recess after he is found guilty. You are right we have to debate his betrayal of the Light and the Law. And after we meet with certain members of our opposition, we will retire to… Your place or mine. Prim has been so wanting to Host a Dinner."
"Your place." Malfoy smiled. "Five of us Lords, and three of our wives. Yaxley, and Avery are single, But Nott and his wife have been sidelined too often."
"Good call. I will call my Elf and arrange it. How shall we handle the children?" He Leaned away from Malfoy as called his Elf. He then whispered that Prim was to be told that she was Hosting a Dinner tonight. He even named them.
As he sat up, Malfoy was frowning. "As we have stalled in the Talks of the Arrangement between the two of them… I say we let the Wives handle it from here, and we can iron out any details after they do the heavy lifting. I will send Draco to Nott's. He is going to need to bitch now that Black has been cleared."
"I can ask Pansy to visit Greengrass and see if she can overhear anything."
As they watched, Yaxley drove home the Pike and fully Crucified The Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Greengrass, shaking in a rage, but keeping his voice calm and steady, called for a vote.
Not Guilty: three members voted, but everyone knew they were sitting Proxy for Dumbledore.
Guilty: everyone else. There was no undecided.
Parkinson stood. "Point of Order. As Albus Dumbledore is no common Wizard, He is no Common Criminal. The magnitude of these crimes against those named and Us as a whole… The Crimes of the Dark Lord pale in comparison. We will need time to calmly think and discuss these charges. I ask that we adjourned until at least morning. But I fear that this will also mean we must hold both in the cells another night… if not two."
Greengrass looked at his fuming wife, and then to Regent Longbottom. He saw a rage on face darker than what she had when the Lastranges were tried.
"You are correct. Because right now I can hear my wife asking to practice her Muggle medical skills on him… while he is awake and in pain. We do not want to compound his errors by just ruling on this in the heat of the moment. We will take the night and tomorrow to gather and discuss this with cooler heads and gather back here in two days time at nine." Graveled his ruling.
Bones instructed Runcorn to escort Albus back to his cell. She waved to Vance to escort Fudge back as well.
The Lord's and Proxies stood and shuffled out leaving only Black, Tonks, and surprising Longbottom and Greengrass and his wife.
"Lord Black. I do hope that We can meet up to talk about our issue, Tomorrow."
"Like I said, You can Owl me, or if you are willing, you can find me at the Hellsing Compound. My Godson has been taken into Custody there and They are willing to let me stay there. If you want, come by the Compound, ask for Harry. The guys love him."
Madam Longbottom looked at the Animagus. "What can you say about the Great Alliance?"
"House Potter and Black would like to talk about it with House Longbottom if they are willing to Host the Talks the Day after Dumbledore is sentenced." Sirius looked at Cyrus. "Is Greengrass open to joining this reaffirming of the Great Alliance?"
"We are."
HPSH I
As he flung the disgraced Headmaster back into the cell, Runcorn sneered at Umbridge. "Looks like Black is not coming down here as he was just declared Not Guilty. And until the the Minister or the Director orders your release, as you are here by your own request, you are here to stay."
TBC
