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Chapter 37

It was almost six o'clock, two days before Hermione had to be back in school and three days before Harry's trial. Hermione was sitting in what she was coming to see as her home, Harry's house in Hogsmeade, with her parents, Fleur, Sirius, and law wizard 'call me Ted' Tonks. It was almost six in the evening. Fleur was fussing with Sassy, trying to make sure everything was perfect for the two guests they were expecting any minute.

At what may have been six o'clock on the dot there was the sound of a knock on the door and Fleur, deciding for herself to play hostess, understandable given she was the one who spent the most time living there, rushed off to greet their guests.

A few minutes later, Fleur escorted in Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel. The two had been wearing warm smiles as they walked in, but seeing the serious faces around them, they knew something had happened. It wasn't bad enough to indicate someone had died, but it was still serious, so Nicholas asked. "What's happened and where is young Mr Potter?"

Fleur bid the two guests to sit down and to help themselves to refreshments before she introduced the two alchemists to Ted for him to explain what was going on.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the registered law wizard for both the House of Black and the House of Potter. Yesterday, after Harry returned to the country from visiting Fleur's family in France, the authorities arrested him for murder.

"Now we aren't too worried about that." There was the sound of disagreement from somebody, and Ted corrected himself. "Okay, we aren't worried from a legal perspective. Honestly, it's a clear-cut case of self-defence. Harry is prepared to give his evidence under vow and the majority of people who are likely to vote against Harry for political reasons can't vote at all because the blood feud makes it a clear conflict of interest. The trial is on Monday and we expect Harry will be back in school before lunchtime."

"Well, as worrying as I can see this would be for you all, I don't understand why we are here." Said Perenelle. "Don't misunderstand. We aren't unsympathetic, but why write to us and ask us to come here?"

Hermione took over for a second. "Because the murder Harry is being accused of is that of Quirinus Quirrell, the man who was helping Voldemort steal your philosopher's Stone. The one that's going to have to be talked about in an open court with Dumbledore present."

That's when it clicked into place for the two guests. These weren't a bunch of children, at least by their standards, begging for the wise and powerful Flamels to come to their aid. It actually sounded as if they had their situation in hand. No this was a heads-up about their own little quest that a lead may be revealed.

With that understanding, the topic of conversation shifted. The Flamels were, of course, interested in exactly when the trial would be and were interested that even while sat in Ministry custody Harry was the one who insisted that the Flamels be contacted. But once the details were sorted out, the conversation quickly turned to speculation. "What I wonder about is the motivation. You said that the case is almost guaranteed to go Harry's way, right?" Perenelle asked and Ted nodded. "So why isn't the D.M.L.E dropping the case or why isn't Harry out on bail?"

"Williamson." Said Dan. "He is the head of the Aurors. The man seems to hold a grudge against Harry. He is the one pushing the charges and denying bail."

"But what does he hope to gain? If the case is as strong as you believe, and I agree it sounds that way, wouldn't this Williamson face backlash over the waste of resources? And wouldn't he be very aware of the repercussions he is likely to face?" Asked Nicolas.

Every one of them looked uncomfortable at the idea but Hermione's mind started racing as she was given a puzzle to work out. "Okay, what are the changes that having Harry on trial will bring? It's possible it could damage Harry's reputation, but I don't think it will. We have had to… permanently deal with supporters of Voldemort before." Hermione couldn't bring herself to say kill. "It hasn't turned the public against us yet. People seem to like it when the boogie men threatening their families go away. Not enough to get up off their collective arses and do anything about it themselves, though." She couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice as she spoke the last part.

Fleur put a reassuring arm around her girlfriend's shoulders and Emma said, "What if it isn't the trial that's the goal? He could achieve the trial without keeping Harry over the weekend without bail. So what if it isn't where Harry is now but where isn't that he would be?"

Ted nodded. "That begs the question, where would Harry be over the next few days?"

"Mostly here," Fleur answered. "My time with Harry and Hermione is rather limited because of Hogwarts. So we would have spent a lot of time here by ourselves. Then on Sunday Harry and Hermione would have gone back to Hogwarts, and that's pretty much it."

"How were you going to get to Hogwarts?" Perenelle asked.

"Harry has a family ability…" Emma started but was cut off

Perenelle held up a hand as she butted in. "I am well aware of the Potters line gift. Harry isn't the first Potter we have met with the ability. Tell me, who knows of Harry's abilities?"

Hermione sighed, "Harry tried to keep it low-key but when Voldemort attacked at the end of the last school year. Harry… Harry, in his grief, threw caution to the wind and used it in front of a lot of people, including Voldemort."

"So it's entirely possible someone knew that without Harry to Step you, then you would need to make other arrangements to go to school?" Nicholas thought out loud."

"I'm not going to school without Harry." Said Hermione. "I sent Headmistress McGonagall a letter this morning explaining the situation. One because I won't be there until after the trial and two because I wondered if she would be willing to give evidence on Harry's behalf. I got a letter back from her about an hour ago, confirming she understood why Harry and I would be late. And agreeing to stand as a witness on behalf of Hogwarts." Ted gave Hermione an exasperated look and said he would need to see the letter.

"I hate to say it but that's a pretty predictable reaction for you, Kitten." Dan said. "How would you normally get to the Ministry?"

"Well, you can floo straight there or you can Apparate or take the Knight bus to the visitor's entrance, which is in an alleyway in London." Hermione answered.

Dan, of course, already knew of the floo having been taken through it by Sirius the day before. "Well, the alleyway sounds like an ambush waiting to happen. What about the floo?"

Ted a series that one. "Well, there is a department in the Ministry that could grab anyone using the floo. It's where the magic that maintains the network is located. It wouldn't be difficult for the head of the Auror force to get access to do that. It's one of the ways they capture criminals."

"But why would they want to capture Hermione?" Asked Sirius. "I mean, apart from the obvious. This is a lot of work to go through to capture one muggle-born."

Fleur shook her head. "Non. Not one muggleborn. I would be travelling with Hermione. They would want both of us. Because with both of us, they could control Harry. Hermione, you know what Harry just learned about. And we know because Voldemort tried to possess Harry that he knows it as well. What if, because of that, Voldemort wants to capture us so that Harry will hand himself over to them?"

Hermione collapsed back into her seat. "That is disturbingly likely. Especially with how many of them have been destroyed recently."

Ted was getting annoyed at the two, obviously avoiding saying something so asked. "Can you two please tell us what the hell you're not talking about?"

"Non. We were forced to take an unbreakable vow by your ministry's department of mysteries. We can't tell you without you also taking the vows we did."

Nicolas and Perenelle, however, shared a look before Perenelle said. "You don't think?"

Nicolas nodded and pulled out a notebook and a muggle pencil from his pocket and wrote something in it before handing it to Fleur and Hermione. Hermione opened the book to the marked page and the two of them read the single word in the book. 'Horcrux?'

A flush of hope bubbled up in the two young women. "Yes. Can you help us at all? We don't exactly have a lot of useful information."

"We can talk about it when Mr Potter is present. Something tells me that his presence is important." Perenelle said. That was annoying, but Hermione and Fleur weren't going to argue that their attention shouldn't be on Harry right now.

"You do realise what you're suggesting, right? That the head of the Auror department is in some way in league with a terrorist." Said Ted.

"Wouldn't surprise me. The man is a blood bigot" said Hermione. "I met him once, he made it clear he thought nothing was worth anything unless it was done by a pureblood wizard. He didn't come out and say it. But he made himself clear taking potshots at me and at the goblins. He even tried to tell a goblin he could enforce wizarding law in the middle of goblin territory."

"Can we report him?" Emma asked, hope in her voice.

"No." Said Ted. "We don't have anything but speculation and if I'm honest, if we tried to press the issue now, it would look like retaliation for Harry's arrest. Even if we are correct, Harry's arrest is a part of our motivation. No, the best opportunity to bring this up is when people are wondering why there was a trial in the first place.

"We are focusing on the wrong thing." Said Fleur. "Right now, our focus should be on how to get Hermione and myself to the trial without being caught. Because there is no way we won't be there to support Harry. And we should be thinking about how we can use the situation to our advantage. If they are going to be waiting to grab us then we will know where they are going to be. The more of them we can take off the chess board, the sooner this stupid blood war can be ended."

"We can't do anything about the people waiting to grab us from the floo. The Ministry is neutral ground for the feud. I'm not sure how the alleyway that hides the Ministry entrance is classified, but wouldn't be surprised to find it's covered under the neutral ground rules."

"If it wasn't covered, what would you do?" Asked Nicolas, leaning in genuinely interested.

Hermione thought for a second, then said. "Thow half a dozen flash bang runes into the alley then flood the alley with stunning spells and portkey all the death eaters to a goblin prison until they declare a formal surrender and then we can hand them over to the D.M.L.E while making them give a full confession."

"That's surprisingly non-lethal, considering what I have heard of yours and your paramour's recent exploits. I heard Lestrange and several death eaters didn't survive after an altercation on Halloween?" Nicolas pushed. It was obvious he wanted to learn something, but none of them had any idea what.

Hermione answered truthfully. "This is, unfortunately, a war. People are trying to kill us because we had the misfortune of being born as people they hate. They keep coming after us. We can't run because they will come after us. We can't hide because they will find us. That just leaves fighting. We don't want to fight, but we won't be victims. We don't want to kill, but we refuse to let them kill us. When we can, we will take them alive and hand them over to the legal authorities to see real justice done. But when they put us in a situation where it's them or us then they are the ones who chose to make it a battle of life and death. We don't like it, we don't look for it, but if we have to, we will do it."

Nicolas and Perenelle both nodded with a slight smile on their faces. Then Perenelle said. "Excellent. Many are all too willing to see killing as the first or only option. And a few are so predisposed to non-violence that they refuse to fight at all. You'd be surprised how rare it is to find someone your age who has such a firm grasp on the difference between justified defence and justice."

Nicolas took over. "As you know, despite how we look, we are old. We avoid conflict as much as possible, not because we can't fight, but because the wounds it inflicts on the mind are too great. If we didn't avoid conflict, we would never have a chance to fully heal before we were thrown into the next fight. Having the wisdom to avoid killing as much as you can without becoming victims is a wisdom I wish I had in my youth."

They talked for a while longer, trying to come up with a way for all of them to get to the trial unhindered.

-ϟϟϟ-

Monday morning before the trial, four people got off the night bus. Two young women who were barely considered adults and a middle-aged married couple. The woman spoke up. "Hermione dear, which way do we go from here?"

"This way Mom," Hermione said, pointing at an alleyway that was about fifteen to twenty-five feet from where they were standing.

The four of them made their way towards the alley and just as they turned the corner, everything went black. "Instant Darkness Powder, shit." Said Hermione's mother pulling out a wand and quickly casting the most powerful shield charm she could manage. Almost immediately, she felt the feedback of a number of spells impacting the Shield. Hermione's father pulled out a few of her flashbang runes and threw them down the alley. Only for the instant darkness powder to completely nullify the light, leaving only a loud bang.

"Well boss, it looks like the subterfuge was a complete waste of time." called whoever it was who currently looked like Fleur. Then she conjured a wind spell to clear out the darkness powder.

Unfortunately, by the time the wind spell had any effect, multiple spells had been raining down on them. The only relief was that the death eaters, who had been hiding until now, weren't using lethal spells. They intended to capture Fleur and the grangers to use them as hostages, difficult to do that with dead bodies.

The Emma lookalike who was holding up a shield over them called out. "I can't hold this shield much longer!"

The Dan lookalike tried to cast his own shield to take the strain so they could try to retreat, but that was when multiple things all started to happen at almost the same time. One of the death eaters called out, "They aren't muggles, they are fakes."

This caused an immediate change in the death eaters who switched from spells meant to capture to spells meant to kill and multiple beams of green magic began to rain down into the alley. The shield spells were rendered completely useless in a single moment. One hit the Dan look alike, and he fell lifeless to the floor.

The only thing that kept it from becoming a complete disaster was that suddenly more wizards came diving from the sky on brooms, still disillusioned and started firing on the death eaters. Now they knew exactly where they were. There was immediate panic and confusion from the death eaters. This was supposed to be their trap. Something only they and the dark Lord were meant to know about. 'How had Potter's people been able to lay their own trap?' was a thought that went through most of their minds.

One of the death eaters fell off the roof he was standing on in his confusion. Unlike what happened to Neville Longbottom when his uncle had been trying to force accidental magic from him, this guy came to a very sudden stop with a sickening crunch. It was then that the death eaters started to disapparate. One last death eater, just before he vanished, got off one last killing curse that hit the Hermione lookalike in the back causing her to fall half on top of her already fallen teammate just as dead.

-ϟϟϟ-

Madam Longbottom walked into the alley about ten minutes later and demanded. "What happened?!"

The one who looked like Fleur stood up a few tears running down her face, and answered. Her tone was bitter and as she spoke, the effects of the polyjuice the real Fleur and Grangers had supplied them started to wear off and her own identity reasserted itself. "Our plan was shit. First, the death eaters used instant darkness powder to nullify the flash-bang runes. We don't know if that was their intention or if they had just hoped to stun us and be gone quickly while we were confused. Then both Harlech and Stebans, pulled out their wand and did magic meaning that the death eaters realised we were decoys and switched from capture to kill. Harlech and Spencer are dead from killing curses and all we got in return was one dumb bastard who was too stupid to remember he couldn't fly."

The lines on Madam Longbottom's face grew softer as she started to understand how everything had gone wrong. "Thomson, how is Stebans taking it?" Though with the tone the older women used, it came across more like 'can I yell at Stebans now or do I need to wait?'

"She is a wreck and is blaming herself. Which, to be honest, I'm blaming her too." Thompson actually sounded like she was plotting to murder the woman she knew was currently deeper in the alley, curled up against a wall and sobbing out her regrets

-ϟϟϟ-

Meanwhile, the Grangers, Fleur, Sirius, Ted, and the Flamels were already inside the Ministry. Tonks had brought them in early in the morning though the same system let Aurors portkey captured suspects directly into the D.M.L.E. She had used the excuse to the guards on duty that bringing them in the back door as it were would minimise the opportunities for someone involved in the feud to kick off in the Ministry. The D.M.L.E portkey room had been used for weirder things in the past, and all the guards cared about was that the visitors were in the company of a responsible law enforcement officer and that they were all signed in.

They were currently waiting in a witness waiting room, all except Ted who had left to go to Harry the moment that the clock read eight-thirty and he couldn't legally be kept from his client.

Harry was in surprisingly good spirits. The two worst things he had had to deal with while being here were being lonely and bored. Well, that and the drunk guy in the next cell on Saturday night who had been insisting at the top of his lungs that it was all the bloody leprechaun's fault and he had no idea the gold was fake. That night Harry had been tempted to step away to his home to sleep for the night but knew it would just cause more trouble in the long run.

Maybe it had been sympathy or maybe it was worrying about the backlash from the media if they did anything else, but a few of the guards had slipped Harry the paper and a couple of magazines. That had been enough that Harry's stay was just boring and not mind-numbing.

"So Ted, still confident about today?" Harry asked, trying to sound as casual as he could despite it being obvious that the answer mattered a lot.

"Yep. This shouldn't take long. Honestly, I have the parchment work in my briefcase to request an investigation of wasting Wizengamot time and D.M.L.E resources." Ted did his best to put the teenager at ease.

Ted spent the rest of the morning coaching Harry on what to say and when, and he presented Harry with a formal set of robes to wear for the trial.

When the trial finally started, Harry was bolstered to see everyone there supporting him. Hermione, Fleur, Dan, Emma, Sirius and even the Flamels were sitting there, giving him an encouraging nod. Harry was moved to a chair in the middle of the room and was wrapped in chains as soon as he sat down. He was told this would happen, however, and didn't react. The charge was murder, so it was protocol to use full security measures.

Harry looked around at the Wizengamot and noted that a lot of them weren't in their normal seats but were now sitting in the visitor's seats. Harry looked, and they were all members of the Wizengamot he was in a feud with, and they all looked incredibly unhappy. Maybe there had been an argument about their votes and where they should sit before he had been brought in? Harry didn't know and didn't particularly care.

Dumbledore was also absent from his position as Chief Warlock. That was probably due to his conflict of interest, as not only did he have multiple legal battles with Harry, but he had been the employer of Quirrell during the incident. So it was Minister Bones who was sitting in the position. That gave Harry more hope than anything else. Bones wasn't the type to play around with justice. She had a very pragmatic understanding of the difference between murder and self-defence.

She had even been the one to drive home a point to Harry that law wizard Tonks was planning to put some focus on. If you did it without a wand, you didn't really choose to do anything. Your magic was responding to your emotions. That got more complex as you got older and people learned to do a few tricks without a wand, but as the event happened when Harry was eleven, it was a very relevant point.

Eventually, after Harry entered a plea of not guilty, Williamson got to make his case. "Acting on a tip we received, Mr Potter was arrested and questioned as to his involvement in the murder of Quirinus Quirrell, a wizard who was a popular professor at Hogwarts. Under an Unforgivable vow of truth, Mr Potter admitted that Professor Quirrell died at his hand at the end of the ninety-one/ninety-two school year. To this end, I call Mr Potter himself as a witness."

Harry was bound in his chair, so there was no moving to a witness stand. He was just questioned where he was.

Williamson asked his first question. "Do you remember the date you killed your professor?"

"No." Said Harry. It was obvious to him Williamson was trying to make it sound like Harry didn't care, so he continued without pause. "I can tell you in June. I can tell you it was just after I had sat my exams. I can tell you it was a Friday. I can even tell you it was sunny that day. But I didn't really bother with remembering dates back then, so no I don't remember. I remember a lot of details very vividly. But no, I can't tell you the date." He didn't lie on advice from Ted as Harry could waive his right against being magically forced to tell the truth if it was necessary and one of the first questions the other side always asks when you do that is what lies you have told the court.

"So you cared so little you couldn't be bothered to remember the date. Now why don't you tell us about the crime you were committing when you discovered and decided to murder your professor."

"I wasn't committing any crimes." Said Harry.

"That's not what you said under your vow when questioned. You said and I quote. 'I knew someone was going to try and steal the stone. I had to get it first.' You were going to take an incredibly valuable gemstone that didn't belong to you. That is called stealing. Stealing is a crime and let me remind everyone here if you cause the death of anyone while in the process of committing a crime that is classified as murder."

"Objection. Minister, the prosecutor is giving testimony, not asking a question." Ted said.

"Sustained. Williamson, ask a question or move on." Said Minister Bones.

"Very well. Mr Potter, were you or were you not trying to steal the philosopher's stone?"

"No." Said Harry. "I intended to keep it from being stolen by mailing it back to its rightful owners. If you pick up a wallet someone left on the bar before a third person can pick it up and pocket it, then you give it back to whomever it belongs to, you don't consider the person who picked it up to return it to have stolen it. While the situation I was in was more… complicated, that is the same principle as what I was attempting to do. So no, I wasn't trying to steal it and so wasn't committing a crime." Harry was surprisingly proud of himself for that answer. Ted had been the one to give him the example, of course, but Harry was sure he had delivered it right.

Harry glanced over at the Flamels and saw they were smiling at him. Then Nicolas gave Harry a very small nod and Harry understood exactly what he was being prompted to do. "If you really want to try to say I was trying to steal the stone maybe you should ask the legal owner of the stone what he thinks? After all, he is sitting right there."

Harry had to fight not to laugh at the chaos his words had on everyone there when they realised that the legendary alchemist stood and affirmed his identity. Harry couldn't help but watch Dumbledore in the visitor's seats for his reaction and you would have sworn the man just saw a ghost if he was mundane. His eyes were as wide as saucers and his skin was quickly losing what little colour it had.

"Sir, would you be willing to prove your identity and if you can do so, can you please answer the question of if you consider Mr Potter's action that night to be stealing?" Minister Bones asked before Williamson could say anything.

"Why yes I can. I will take a page out of Warlock Potter's playbook and take an unbreakable vow of truth to prove who I am. Albus, my old apprentice, can you please come over here and act as our bonder while my wife accepts the vow?" Nicolas said emphasizing calling Harry Warlock.

Harry was glad that Nicolas had done that, calling him Mr Potter had been an attempt to either push Harry into demanding to be referred to by his titles and look like a pompous twat or being constantly insulted and diminished for the entire trial. It was a lose-lose situation. Harry listened and watched as Nicolas affirmed that he in no way considered Harry's action to be stealing, then took his vow, confirming his identity. He didn't vow he didn't consider Harry's actions as stealing

Harry guessed it was because on some level Nicolas did consider it stealing, even though he accepted it was the best plan Harry had and that Harry even intended to send it back to Nicolas. Harry's actions still fit some definitions of the word stealing, and that was the type of thing you needed to be careful about with vows.

"I believe we are getting a little sidetracked here. We aren't here to call this boy a thief. We are discussing the subject of murder. And Warlock Potter has still admitted to causing the death of Professor Quirinus Quirrell. What is his defence for that?"

Although the question wasn't for Harry, he was still officially a witness whom they were to question. So before law wizard Tonks could object, Harry decided to take the opening and to answer the question. "I call it self-defence. Quirrell was in the middle of committing a crime, trying to steal the philosopher's stone. He did not intend to return it to the Flamels. He wanted the stone for himself and for others. And I was a witness. He could have stunned me and modified my memory if he wanted. I was an eleven-year-old who had already had his wand taken from him. But he decided to kill me. At that moment, I knew that unless I defended myself, I was going to die."

Williamson tried to interrupt, but Bones cut him off. "You asked the question and the witness must be given the opportunity to answer."

"Quirrell tried to grab at me to take the stone that was in my pocket at the time only when his skin touched mine it started to burn. It was his hands so he couldn't hold his wand anymore, so he tried to strangle me using his arm around my neck and his robes to keep our skin from touching. I did the only thing I could and reached my hands for every spot of his exposed skin I could reach. His hands, his face, anything I could reach. All he had to do was let go and run. I couldn't have stopped him. I could not have followed him, but he would not let go, so I did what was necessary for my survival. And I nearly didn't. I lost consciousness before I got free and woke up in the school hospital wing three days later."

There was silence in the courtroom.

A/N

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