He smiled proudly to himself as he watched Minister Fudge and his handful of attendants leave, or 'Cornelius' as the minister liked to be called by his 'very dear' friends, his initial impression about the career politician once again confirmed after the short exchange. He turned to face his godfather, "That was interesting, it looks like Cornelius is shopping for a new financial backer," he offered aloud to his godfather who nodded in agreement, whilst retaking his seat besides the thoughtful dog animagus. "Looks like someone's unhappy," he offered, subtly pointing out Draco and the boy's mother, Lady Malfoy, who was sitting across from him and Sirius. The former Black family member, who had been cast out for all time, was sitting proudly by her son, with a familiar 'I'm better than you expression on her beautiful face,' whilst Draco was staring at him with hateful eyes.
"Maybe you should wave a cheery hello to them," Sirius suggested with a doggish smile, causing him to grin and laugh at the idea of baiting Draco so publically. He did restrain himself from acting on the childish suggestion though. Today he was Lord Potter-Peverell, heir to the Black family, not a childish 12 year old child acting out.
"Maybe," he offered back with a smile, but knowing he wouldn't. He spotted his pet reporter down in the reporters' box, seeing her brought to mind their discussion the night before. "Rita looks rather appealing today," his innocent, but probing words causing his godfather to check out the reporter in question with an appraising eye, hoping his godfather wouldn't make any crude sexual remarks in public.
"Right you are there pup," Sirius agreed, his grin growing bigger as he looked at Harry. "So little Harry is finally starting to notice the opposite sex; I was starting to get worried about you pup," Sirius teased in a playful tone, as he felt his cheeks redden, before he stopped the physical reaction with his iron will.
"I've been able to notice the opposite sex for a while now Sirius, but only now am I starting to understand and appreciate the meaning behind the word sexy, and just how visually appealing the female body can be," he stated flatly.
"Ahh, you're finally growing up then Harry," the familiar voice of his elder cousin teased from behind him, causing him to turn to see Tonks and her family standing behind them.
He smiled fondly at them, standing up to give her a tight, lingering hug. "How's Hogwarts?" he asked her, not yet letting her go.
"Not bad. Thanks for getting me out of school for the day," she answered with a smile, returning the hug.
"It was your mother's idea, so that we could display a unified front as a family," he explained, before releasing her and retaking his seat, while Sirius greeted Ted and Andy. "What's DADA like with Snape teaching it?"
...
He watched as the muggle loving fool rose from his seat to address the chamber, the chamber quieting quickly with the simple action of the Chief Warlock standing. "The trial of Lucius Malfoy, Lord of the Noble house of Malfoy, will begin in ten minutes time. Please be seated so that we can begin on time without any delays," the Chief Warlock declared with a soft half amused smile, before retaking his seat as their family lawyers approached.
The most senior of the two lawyer's wand appeared in hand, before casting an advanced privacy charm around them to block out any potential eavesdroppers. "Lady Malfoy, we will go with our planned defence," the aged lawyer said, "but as we discussed yesterday, I don't expect it will work given that your husband's current medical condition can be seen as self-inflicted to avoid justice, and resulted from resisting arrest. It will only delay the trial's progress, maybe a couple of hours, maybe a day at most, if we are lucky," his mother nodded in understanding.
"I'd once again like to point out that this delaying tactic might cause some resentment and anger amongst the judges towards us, which in turn might turn the court against you for time wasting, which could come back to haunt us later on."
His mother nodded, "Proceed as we have discussed Mr. Eddings. Remember that this is all about damage control, to ensure the family's standing and name remains. It must be made abundantly clear that all this was solely Lucius' doing, and not mine or Draco's. We need to make the court understand this if we are to survive," his mother stressed. "The Malfoy family fortune and name must stay intact for Draco to inherit when he comes of age."
"Yes Madam, I know your wishes," Mr. Eddings replied, before cancelling the privacy charm and then returning to the courtroom floor with his assistant in tow.
Turning to his thoughtful mother, he posed a question on his mind. "Is Mr. Eddings any good?" he probed, wanting to know more about the man responsible for defending his father and their family name.
"He is competent and has a good court record; Severus found him for us," she replied. He broke down his mother's answer; 'competent' certainly did not mean that their lawyer was the best around, far from it in fact. It meant the man defending his father's life was average and that Mr. Eddings was at least professional and knew his stuff. If his godfather thought the man was capable, that was something positive in the lawyer's favour since his godfather considered most people idiots, or worse.
"So he isn't the best around then? There are better lawyers around we could have hired?" he pushed, wanting to know why his mother hadn't gotten the very best lawyer possible to defend his father.
His mother clearly knew where his questioning was going and quickly cast another privacy bubble charm around them, as a dome of visible light covered them from view. "Draco, the Ministry froze the Malfoy vaults because your father is under investigation for tax evasion. The only bank vault we currently have access to at the moment is my private one, thanks to a petition I submitted to the Ministry with the help of Severus, meaning our financial resources are rather limited at the moment," she explained.
"Your father, in his infinite wisdom, never told me where he had the other 'unofficial' gold deposits hidden in case of emergencies like this, gold that was untraceable which could be used for bribes and in situations like this where the Ministry froze our normal accounts or the Goblins rebelled," her tone bitter, clearly unhappy about his father not trusting her with such important information.
But then again, his mother did have extremely rich tastes, and never wore the same outfit twice; which meant his father was probably concerned she would raid all the unofficial funds to fuel her shopping addiction. Of course, he said nothing of this and just quietly listened to his mother.
"We have to be very careful with the gold we spend now, especially since we don't know how large the ministry fines are going to be. The last thing we need is to fall into debt with the goblins," she argued as he nodded, having no desire to work in the goblin mines for the rest of his life.
"Mr. Eddings is quite simply the best we can afford to defend your father and the family at this time, and is one of few lawyers around actually willing to take on the case. No lawyer wants to take on a case that they are almost certain to lose, which undermines their win to loss ratio," he nodded again in understanding. He was finding there was quite a bit of settling and bad luck to go around in this situation.
"Why did he agree then? What does he gain by representing us?" he asked, trying to work out what the lawyer gained.
"Mr. Eddings runs a small firm, almost unknown, so even if we lose the case, he will gain a measure of prestige and publicity by finally representing a 'big' client. That means new work, even if he loses. If he wins, however, he is looking at a lot of prestige and even more new business," she answered back.
...
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