Hogwarts
Wormtail POV
Sirius Black was here to kill him and Wormtail knew that once a Black decided on murder, hell itself would not deter them. That is what made Bellatrix LeStrange so potent as the Dark Lord's right hand, for all that she married into the LeStrange, and for all the LeStrange brothers were renowned enforcers, when Bellatrix entered a room or a battlefield, everyone knew it was the Black Bitch who slaughtered, and everyone else was either victim or minion. Sirius almost never let himself off leash to that extent, but when he did, even mad Bella ignored every other threat upon the field.
Wormtail needed the Death Eaters to defend him. The Death Eaters viewed him as a faithless oath breaker, coward, and rat. All of this was true, which made it worse. He needed to kill Harry Potter to prove his loyalty, but he needed Death Eaters to do the actual risky bits, like possibly dying to avenging Aurors for him.
Casting an Imperius on his sleeping son, Wormtail regretted he could not use his own mask, because every Death Eater mask was individual when seen through another mask, and could only be worn by that Death Eater. He needed a sacrificial Death Eater with Ministry access, and he knew just the fellow.
Walden MacNair was happy. He had been a Death Eater during the war, got out using the Imperius Defense when it all went pear shaped because of that Potter brat. Since then he had been so broke because of the necessary bribes he had been reduced to working for the Department for Regulation of Magical Creatures. His goblin silver runic axe had been reduced to killing magical animals, and magical semi-humans like Veela, Werewolves, and goblins. Not like the good old days when he could butcher Muggle Borns and Half Bloods, but still getting stuck in was nice.
Now he was reduced to waiting for a sham trial, just to kill a Hippogriff. What a joke.
When the redheaded boy came back from Arthur Weasley's office from some family errand supposedly, and flashed him the Death Eater hand sign for "follow and receive orders", McNair just about choked on his mustache.
Arthur Weasley's boy was a Death Eater recruit? That muggle loving Blood Traitor spawned a brat who remembered they were Pure Bloods and supposedly stood for something? This ought to be interesting. Following the boy, he saw the redhead turn into one of the locked meeting rooms, that was somehow already unlocked.
Closing behind the boy while the door was opened, Walden has his wand drawn and pressed to the boy's own neck as he rasped in the whelp's ears. "What sort of a game do you think you are playing at, making the Dark Lord's sign here in the middle of the Merlin be damned Ministry?" Walden hissed.
Ron Weasley, his Imperius curse programming in full force simply responded. "An ambush, obviously."
McNair whirled, a shield spell already on his lips, his hands fumbling for his axe when the red light of a stunner filled his view. For a second, he was confused. That rat was dead. He was still fighting for consciousness, his own magic so much more powerful than the rat's when the Imperious slid over his will. However much stronger his magic was, the Death Eater had never been more than a low ranked thug, his mind was no match for the Marauder who betrayed James and Lilly Potter to their deaths, having deceived four of the greatest witches and wizards of their generation that he was their most devoted friend.
The rat who pretended at being a man sat and smiled. "Walden, my good and dear friend. I am going to need to you get some of the old band back together. I need four good strong throw away assets to kill Harry Potter and his little harem in full public view on the Ministry steps. Make sure they don't remember that I had anything to do with this. Feel free to not let them remember you had anything to do with this. I alone will bear the truth of this to our Dark Lord for credit. When you have finished Imperiusing them, you will remove this memory from yourself.
For the record, all those times you used to rough me up were a mistake. I always get the last laugh. Now, hold still. Ron my boy, use that banishing spell I taught you, and remove one of McNair's testicles for old times sake."
McNair wanted to scream as the young redheaded boy pointed his wand at McNair's balls and made one of them apparate out into his hand to be dropped to the floor and stomped on. The pain was unbearable as splinched parts, those bits separated in apparition splits were still connected magically until either reattached or destroyed. McNair was not allowed to scream as the boy ground his left testicle into paste.
Whimpering, he left to don his Death Eater cloak and mask, find the alert troop that Malfoy kept on hand for emergencies, and send them to kill Harry Potter and his harem on the Ministry steps, in front of hordes of reporters and dozens of Aurors.
Each step was a reminder of his maiming, and the violation of his mind. Knowing he was compelled to oblivate the memory of Wormtail's attack on him only fed his rage. He would forget this offense, and the smug little rat's smile would be forever at his expense, as the rat would remember.
He prayed to Morgana mistress of every dark and blood soaked art the little shit got what was coming to him. Still, Merlin had sent him one gift. The Boy Who Lived was responsible for turning him into the executioner of animals, rather than the butcher of mudbloods, and at least he could watch the little brat die.
%%%
Ministry of Magic
Wizengamot Chamber
Minister Fudge was of course far too important a figure to conduct the trial of a Hippogriff. In fact, that the Wizengamot itself would hear the case made it clear that this was no longer about a Hippogriff, this was about teaching Harry Potter who held the power, and how much he needed their favour.
Amos Diggory, head of the Department of Magical Creatures had been successful in getting the memories of Harry, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati blocked, as this was not a criminal case, and as such it would be inappropriate to waste DMLE time and resources on what was not a criminal case.
Harry rose "My lords and ladies of the Wizengamot, each of you here is a peer of the realm, a witch or wizard that represents the pinnacle of our learning, the makers and shapers of our policies and laws, the ultimate judges of life and death when the lives of our own kind hang in the balance, and yet we are all gathered here, nearly the full forty nine of us, with a dozen Aurors standing guard, and yet we cannot spare the time of any one of those Aurors, those dozen standing here doing nothing but listening to our debate, to see if these memories have been tampered with."
Harry shook his head. "The time is being wasted, but not spent, because the Ministry has determined that no evidence will be presented. To present evidence and then ignore it would be to prove that this house sits in judgment of political expediency and not justice. No, now you will ignore the law, and block the evidence, so that my fellow Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot can kill a magical creature in our care, in the care of the institution charged with teaching your own children about their brethren in the magical world, because a child wishes to demonstrate that if he is embarassed by his own lack of judgement, skill, and ability, he can simply stage an incident, and get an innocent creature killed.
Professor Dumbledore, you have seen the evidence in your capacity as Headmaster, and as Warlock of the Wizengamot, you have the same ability as an Auror to certify these memories are indeed true and unaltered, to be entered into evidence. Sir, will you do so?"
Harry asked, putting the Headmaster in the position to wield his power not to make judgement, but to at least allow Harry to present his evidence, and end this charade. Since Lucius Malfoy and the Dark Faction want the creature killed, and thus Hagrid and Dumbledore discredited, it is in Dumbledore's interest to stop it.
Dumbledore rose, stroked his beard, and shook his head letting his eyes twinkle like stars as he gave his reply.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. If you had chosen to remain a minor under my care and protection, I would indeed be speaking now as your Professor, and I could indeed certify these memories." Dumbledore said softly.
Parvati Patil swore softly. "He's about to screw us Harry. He would rather lose his own reputation, and that of the Light faction, than let you win. He is going to take a political loss, just to punish you for daring to claim your legal rights as an adult. The choice he is offering you is withdraw your Lordships, give him back the right to cast all three of your House votes as he chooses, or he will throw a tantrum, kill Buckbeak, risk Hagrid getting fired, just to put you in your place."
Harry repressed a snarl, but kept his green eyes locked on his Professor, seeing if he was really choosing to make a power play, rather than do what each member here had sworn to do at the beginning of the session, and render true judgement in this case.
Dumbledore continued now, stroking his beard, but letting a soft smile play over his lips.
"Since you have chosen to take up your lordships, assume your legal majority when you are manifestly too young and impulsive as nothing more than a school child, then you have chosen not to accept my protection as your Professor, but rather as a Lord without affiliation, with no record of voting and debate to give those in this hall a sense of the weight and worth of your voice. You have no allies, no allegiance, no record of accomplishment to give weight to your testimony and no standing to demand that I use my power as Chief Warlock to certify these memories as true to be entered into evidence."
Turning to face the rest of the Wizengamot, Dumbledore spoke one more time, then sat down. "I refuse."
Amos Diggory asked. "Have you any more evidence?"
Harry raised his head, and spoke again. "I have sworn affidavits from the school nurse that Draco Malfoy has perjured himself in his claims of injuries that cost him pain and suffering for months. Per the Mediwitches testimony, he was entirely healed and pain free within twenty minutes, similar to any of his recreational Quidditch injuries."
Lucius Malfoy rose to object. "Objection, without the Mediwitch present for cross examination, we cannot be asked to accept this written statement without knowing if it is being misrepresented as to content or context." The leader of the Dark Faction objected.
Harry gritted his teeth and countered. "Madame Pomfrey is available by floo from Hogwarts within five minutes, we can indeed produce her for cross examination."
Dumbledore rose and banged his gavel. "Objection sustained, Madame Pomfrey must remain at Hogwarts and cannot be spared lest an emergency arise in her absence. The affidavits are disallowed."
Harry smiled and spread his hands. "Well, I think my lords and ladies of the Wizengamot can all agree that Lady Slytherin and I are both present to testify and be cross examined, we would be happy to testify as to the clear warnings that Draco Malfoy was given, and his willful and wanton disregard for his instructors orders and his gross misconduct towards the Hippogriff that resulted in his minor and temporary injury."
Amos Diggory from the Ministry rose then to object. "Objection your honour, the memories of this event have been disallowed, as has the admission of physical evidence of injury, to allow unsubstantiated statements from so called witnesses who are themselves the parties bringing suit against the Ministry in this matter would be to invite partisan politics to enter this sacred chamber of judgment.
I ask you to disallow Lord and Lady Slytherin's testimony as biased."
Harry already knew what he would see when he turned to face Dumbledore. The old man banged his gavel and said simply. "Sustained. Strike all testimony from Lord and Lady Slytherin from the record. In the absence of any substantive evidence to contradict the Ministry Department of Magical Creatures order of execution of the Hippogriff Buckbeak, the Wizengamot has no choice but to endorse that judgement, case dismissed."
Hermione looked upon the smug face of Lucius Malfoy as he shook hands with Albus Dumbledore, the two political enemies united in the desire to put Harry Potter in his place, and prove that title or no, he had no power without the protection and guidance of at least one of these powerful old men. She realized a harsh truth about this wizarding world she had been thrust into. It was as corrupt as her muggle world.
"We never had a chance. There was never going to be a vote." Hermione whispered.
Parvati shrugged. "If you want to get justice, you need a faction behind you. The Dark wants you dead, the Light wants you to be Dumbledore's puppet. If you want to build your own faction, you need some of those other 46 seats tied to you by alliances of blood and serious favour."
Dumbledore walked past Harry, squeezing his shoulder. "Tragic the way that turned out. Hagrid will be crushed. Still, your little gesture has been made, time for you to get back to class. You have a lot to learn after all."
Lavender Brown turned her baby blue eyes on Harry Potter and asked in a small voice. "Are we going to go back now Harry?"
Harry snarled, and it was the blazing green eyes of Harry Potter, the planning intellect that gave answer.
"No Lav, we are going to pick Neville and Daphne up from the viewing area, then we are going to find a legal way to make sure the bastards can't do this to us again."
%%%
Courthouse steps
Ministry of Magic
Hermione POV
Harry Potter was looming and brooding, looking every inch (well for a teenage boy who was only lately overcoming a lifetime of borderline starvation) the Noble Lord, while he let his two social wives speak.
Hermione's job was to look regal and aloof because, as Lavender liked to say, when Hermione started to talk, people either went right to sleep because their brain knew trying to process what she was saying would hurt, or got offended because a Mudblood was proving how stupid they were.
Frankly, Hermione Granger was about as well suited to look regal and aloof as a squirrel was to look intimidating at a lion reserve. She was one third curls of untameable hair, one third curves of what was clearly female, and one third muggle born scholar who clearly held reporters and politicians in equal distain. This was not a winning look.
Lavender Brown was holding court, her every word and gesture were public relations art, and when "hard hitting reporters" challenged her statements, Parvati Patil met those hard questions with harder facts and citations that not only shut the reporters up, but played as hooks for the more serious political and economic papers that Lavender's pure fluff and spin held less sway with.
Harry was tracking every question, his eyes tracking the speakers like a snitch through a storm, and he catalogued who asked what, and was clearly building a profile of agenda's for each of the wizarding worlds publications with the same care that Hermione would analyze a rune scheme or the arthimatic equations of an experimental charm.
Because Hermione was the only bored one, it was only Hermione who had time to act.
Four figures moved onto the Courthouse steps from behind, where the Aurors had assured them they would have the doors locked for the press conference. She was turning at the motion of the door, and thus was the only person who caught the Death Eater masks and robes as the four pointed their wands and blasted the two guard Aurors with overpowered stunners even as they turned their wands on Harry and his wives.
She heard the four of them begin the chant. "Avada Kedavera!"
There was no shielding that spell, dodging four intersecting beams would be impossible. None of them had their wands out, and before they were drawn it would be too late.
Hermione had been posing regally, but in her boredom had been toying with the heavy chain of her necklace. Trusting to instinct in the second she had left, she grabbed the Time Turner and yanked it, hoping the jolt to the controls would send her far enough back in time to stop the killing curse,
%%%
Time hiccupped.
Hermione found herself on the steps, minutes after the session began, as the doors were sealed and guarded. This was not good. She had no idea who the Death Eaters were, no way of setting up an ambush on steps the Ministry would sweep, and no way of performing a strong enough conjuration or transfiguration to put a barrier in place.
To her eternal shame, Hermione thought about tugging one of the more irritating reporters into the path of the beam with her Wingardium Leviosa charm, but it wasn't fast enough. Accio was brute force enough to be fast enough, but the summoning charm on a living being was too imprecise to stop one, let alone all the beams.
She was Gryffindor, but not an idiot. Stepping in front of the beams to save Harry was entirely too dramatic. She was a real Gryffindor, not the stereotype the house's critics loved to paint. She had no intention of being a dead hero. This was more Harry's thing. I mean he survived the Killing Curse once.
Feeling every inch the student, Hermione knew that in a few years she would have options, tools, and weapons for just such occasions. She was the brightest witch in her generation, but her generation was still learning basic spells, and she was a muggleborn, not the heiress to a legacy of grand and heroic magical deeds. Harry was, but since he was a muggleborn, about the only thing of his family legacy he had was his Invisibility Cloak.
She stopped breathing.
The Potter cloak, the one with the little Peverel symbols all over the inside lining. The symbol of the Deathly Hallows. The Death Stick, the wand that could not be beaten. The Stone of Resurrection, that could command even the dead. Death's cloak, a cloak that made the wearer immune to all forms of detection, a cloak that could hide its wearer even from death.
Morgana's tits, she really was a Gryffindor. I mean, she could hear the doors opening, she was out of stolen time, but this idea was idiotic.
She stepped into the hallway as Harry passed and seeing his eyes widen at a second Hermione behind, as well as beside him, she flashed her Time Turner and whispered in parseltongue so none of the crowd could hear.
" $ There will be Four Death Eaters, give me your cloak. $" She hissed.
Harry, Merlin love him, simply drew the silver bundle from the concealing space pocket on his robes and handed it back to her. She dropped back into her side chamber and donned the robe.
%%%
Courthouse Steps
Harry POV present time
Four Death Eaters. Hermione steps up right behind him, already being beside him, only through sheer luck (or foreknowledge, hard to say with seers), not seeing herself and causing a paradox and probably exploding. She simply tells him there will be four Death Eaters, takes his cloak and vanishes.
Harry sat through the press conference more nervous than in the Chamber of Secrets waiting for the basilisk. At the time, all he had to do was save Hermione, now he had Lavender and Parvati, and he supposed even the idiot reporters to keep alive, no idea where the attack is coming from, and somewhere, let's not forget this little detail, somewhere in this ambush Hermione was invisible.
Lavender and Parvati were amazing. Lavender played the crowd like Neville played toads in the Hogwarts toad choir, somehow making them sing to her tune. When anyone sought to trip her up with facts, Parvati hammered them so hard they had to restrain themselves from handing over their lunch money.
Even knowing about it, he was surprised when the Death Eaters hit. They took out the two Aurors at the top of the stairs before anyone even noticed they came out of the courthouse whose doors the Aurors would remain locked during their press conference.
Harry had his wand palmed, his magic a roaring thunder in his brain already clawing at his control to be let out, but he would not be fast enough.
Four Death Eaters spoke the words Harry Potter heard every night he slept alone. The last words spoken before his mother died before his eyes. To say they were triggering for him was putting it mildly.
Four voices shouted "Avada Kedevera" and four unblockable killing curses converged in front of him, only to vanish, even as his wand seemed to catch the fold of an unseen fabric.
Harry's heart lurched. Hermione, in his Invisibility Cloak had just taken four killing curses for him. Harry's brain froze, but Nidhogg slammed into control, stepping to the side to make sure what he assumed would be Hermione's falling body would not interfere with his vengeance stroke, he felt all six of his magical cores and all three of his minds join in focus as they hissed their shared hate over Hermione's death at the universe.
Unleashing a thing so forbidden it made the killing curses look like a child's first folding knife, Harry reached beyond the world to a realm muggles told fairy tales about, but some ancient wizards were foolish enough to reach out and touch.
Harry reached into Hell, and summoned forth a shape for his hatred.
"$ Fiendfyre $" Harry hissed in Parseltongue, and a serpent made out of hellfire and screaming souls tore through the walls of reality and lashed out from his wand. The fire bored straight through one Death Eater's chest, then wrapped another in its coils, and the reporters screamed and camera's flashed as the long coils of black and scarlet flames in the shape of snake scales grew faces and claws to reach out and rip pieces of the screaming death eaters as dozens of little demons spawned in the scales of the serpent to tear apart and devour the Death Eater bound in the coils.
Harry was shocked as he realized the Hermione who had stood beside him was gone, and the invisible one he thought had just died to save him had thrown back her cloak and begun shooting stunners and disarming hexes at the Death Eater on the right, while Lavender and Parvati were doing the same to the Death Eater on the left, leaving neither time to do more than shield themselves, while the serpent of hellfire opened its jaws to engulf the one on the right, before choosing to grab only the legs of the one on the other side, letting it scream out its death agony as the Death Eater's body dissolved, leaving only the white mask to fall to the floor.
Aurors charged from the building, and from the crowd, pointing wands at Harry and his wives, causing Harry to bring the Fiendfyre basilisk to coil about his family, rearing overhead like Judgement, glaring down at the crowd below.
Harry's magic was running wild, and for once, his three minds were of one mind. They had watched their beloved Hermione take the death sent for him, and for one second had lived in a world where she had died before his eyes.
"If you are still pointing wands at my wife when I am done speaking, I will kill every witch and wizard here, and burn this entire fucking city to the ground, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" Harry said, and the Feindfyre let out the scream of a thousand burning souls.
The courthouse steps cleared in something like a stampede, leaving only a dozen Aurors, wands pointing straight down at the ground, to witness Harry Potter as he controlled the almost impossible to control Fiedfyre that even the greatest living wizards dared only use for a few seconds, a risk even at that short time period to even the greatest of their minds to control.
The fire coiled around and above him as he seemed to ignore it, hugging it out with his wives and only remembering that death incarnate, the ravening hunger of all the souls in hell bound in the fire that will end all things surrounded them when Neville and Daphne tried to get their attention from beyond the coils.
To the Aurors shock, and the reporters dismay. Harry responded to Daphne and Neville's Sonorus shouting to get their attention with a simple reply.
"Hang on, this thing screams so much I can't hear myself think." Harry said, then hissed.
"$ Thanks, I'll call you again if I need you. $ and banished the Fiendfyre like dismissing a waiter who had already delivered his food.
Daphne approached. "Are you all, well?" She asked cautiously.
Hermione frowned and asked. "Why, did we get bits of Death Eater on our dress robes?" She said, suddenly concerned.
As Lavender and Parvati joined her in checking each other's robes out in fashion panic, Neville clarified.
"Harry, you kind of got shot with four killing curses, summoned more Fiendfyre than was seen all last war, and left only masks and a total of three hands, one leg, and an ear of four Death Eaters on the courthouse steps before threatening the whole Auror corps.
I think Daphne wants to know if you are alive, and further, still sane." Neville said.
Harry turned and bowed gently to Daphne. "I thank Heiress Greengrass for her solicitousness, and offer my assurances that I and my wives are well. As for sane, I would have to say anyone expecting justice from the Wizengamot was questionable from the start."
Neville turned to Daphne and shrugged. "He's fine. They are all fine."
Harry stepped down and clasped both Neville and Daphne in a hug.
"Hey, I had a great idea. Are you free this afternoon? Want to do crimes?" Harry asked.
Hermione sighed, Parvati looked intrigued. Lavender cheered. "Do crimes, do crimes!"
They walked past the stunned Aurors and press corps, unaware that, in general, one did not walk out of hellfire and raining corpse ash discussing future crimes before reporters and law enforcement.
They ignored the reporters and Aurors questions, and stalked off into the city towards St Mungo's.