Sirius stood up in the Wizengamot as it was his turn to speak on the proposed bill. "My fellow warlocks, I hope you can all see this bill for what it truly is. The Chief Warlock is doing nothing but trying to make his way back into Hogwarts after, I would like to remind everyone, he was removed because he was a danger to the children. He saw nothing wrong with illegally kidnapping students and putting them at the bottom of a lake. Even if the school needed a High Inquisitor, does Albus Dumbledore really sound like the man for the job? This is nothing more than a power grab to gain back control over the students and staff that he was rightly stripped of. What say you, Warlock Greengrass?" Sirius invited Greengrass to use the remainder of his time to prevent the Chief Warlock from skipping him again.
Warlock Greengrass stood up and nodded to Sirius in thanks who then sat back down. "Thank you Warlock Black. Warlocks of the Wizengamot not only would I urge you to vote no, I think this whole procedure should be scrapped. You see it took me some time going over the school's financial records but I have finally uncovered a number of irregularities. Irregularity one: the wages for the history of magic professor."
"On the surface this looks normal, a wage was paid out every month that was the same as all the other professors that went back all the way to first month that Dumbledore became headmaster. The problem I'm sure most of you have realised, to whom was this gold paid? It certainly wasn't paid to professor Binns who, I don't need to remind you all, is a ghost."
"A meeting with a manager at Gringotts was enough for me to confirm that Albus Dumbledore, then headmaster, current Chief Warlock and our representative to the wider magical world embezzled money from a school."
"For thirty-eight years Dumbledore embezzled the salary of a professor. While the actual galleon amount is lower because the value of gold drops in our economy as the goblins and dwarfs mine ever more of it, I can say that Warlock Dumbledore has defrauded the school of the buying power of over two hundred and fifty thousand Galleons." He paused for dramatic effect. "And that's just on the first case of embezzlement I found. Professor Hagrid was most surprised to learn that his salary a professor was twice as high as his salary for a groundskeeper. He was surprised because he never received an extra knut over what he was earning before he became a professor, despite the fact it was meant to be triple what he was getting." At the mention of two hundred and fifty thousand Galleons there was a lot of harsh muttering amongst the warlocks in the chamber.
"From conversations I have had at the bank all this extra gold was funded into accounts owned and controlled by Warlock Dumbledore. We shouldn't be looking to give this man power over the school again. We should be debating how long he should spend in Azkaban!"
Warlock Doge stood up next without being invited or called upon, but the Chief Warlock didn't call him on his lack of decorum. Not surprising as the man practically adored Dumbledore and was obviously about to speak on his behalf. "Warlock Greengrass, those are serious charges and I hope you have the evidence to fully back them up else I for one would vote for you to be censured for your slanderous remarks. However, as I see it, this is nothing more than an attempt to shift the focus away from giving the most inexperienced headmaster magical Britain has ever had since Hogwarts was founded some much needed oversight."
"Oh I welcome oversight." Warlock Greengrass said. "As long as it's the right oversight. If Madam Marchbanks in her role as head of the Department for Magical Education, or someone she appoints wishes to go over every decision I have made in my new role, I will gladly accept the process and most likely find a few mistakes I have made in my inexperience. However, I will not allow Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, kidnapper, child endangerer, and embezzler Albus Dumbledore to set foot on the grounds of Hogwarts while I hold the position of Headmaster. My daughters go to that school and knowing what I know of that man and the things he has done I refuse to allow him to manoeuvre himself to where he holds any authority over them or any other of our children. That is the duty I was given when I became a father and a privilege that was expanded to protect so many when I accepted my role as headmaster. "
"I will say here and now it is my intention as headmaster to pursue every knut that was stolen from the school and use it to better the school as it should have been." He then pulled out an envelope that was thick with documents and threw them across the Wizengamot so that they landed on the desk of the Chief Warlock. "Albus Dumbledore, consider yourself served."
Warlock Greengrass just sat back down and watched as the chamber descended into chaos. There was so much shouting between the factions over what he had just done that he knew nothing was going to be decided today. They would debate for the next hour whether his method of delivering the papers counted legally, and whether or not he should be fined for breaking decorum but in the end it would settle out. There were other violations to decorum on every side that they would also want to be fixed and the paperwork was already delivered. By the time they could reconvene to finish the debate on a high inquisitor most of the warlocks will have read the filing he had just made, and all the revelations of stealing money meant for children's education will be in their minds. It was possible they would still appoint someone else but it wasn't going to be Dumbledore.
-ϟϟϟ-
It was the end of the first full week at Hogwarts and Harry was quickly scanning the Daily Prophet headlines to see if there was anything he urgently needed to read. A more in-depth look would have to wait until after class. He didn't have to look far for something to grab his attention. On the second page, the front page being taken up by a celebrity divorce, was the announcement that they were finally going to give trials to the captured death eaters.
"Well it's about bloody time," Harry grumbled as he showed the headline to Ron and Hermione. "They have only had them in custody for two months. Two months of refusing to tell anyone anything. It's ridiculous how long it has taken."
"I still think they were questioning them." Hermione said, referring to her suspicion that Bones had moved the death eaters somewhere for a lengthy interrogation to get as much intelligence from them before any corruption could see them released either before or at their trial.
"Well if Madam Bones has done that she hasn't told Susan about it." Ron said, glancing over to the Hufflepuff table where his 'possibly, maybe, sort of, hopefully, sometime soon girlfriend' was sitting eating her own breakfast with her friends.
"Guess we will find out at the trial. Do you think I will have to go as a witness?" Harry asked.
Ron thought about it for a second. "Yeah, you are the only one who saw what happened in the maze and what happened before the Aurors arrived. Speaking of which, how are you getting on with learning that spell of Voldemort's?"
"I'm having a lot of trouble with the silver. From what we can tell Voldemort used some type of switching spell to steal the silver from the jewellery that people had been buried with. The first part of the spell is to liquefy the silver and if the silver is in a big lump it requires too much magic for me. So I tried grinding the silver into a powder first, but it required more focus and my attempts kept coming out clumpy. I'm improving but it's taking longer than I thought it would." Harry sighed. "Grandfather has taken to taking photos of the results and mailing them to Krum every week to show him I am improving."
"Well mate, once you have done Krum's hand Bill said would like to talk to you. He has a lot of friends and colleagues who could use your help." Ron said.
"Yeah, grandfather has already been looking up Aurors and D.M.L.E officers who have lost limbs to offer it to as well. And not just in the UK. I think he wants to make it so I can live off the yearly one Galleon tithe that spell forces me to take for each person I help." Harry joked.
"You would need to help four to five thousand people for that Harry. If you can help that many people you deserve to live off it. But I doubt the whole magical world has that many amputee witches and wizards. Does the spell work on goblins? With their use of bladed weapons, lost limbs might be more common there," Hermione said then she paused for a moment, a thought having struck her. "Harry, have you tried melting the silver before you start so it's already a liquid?"
"Yeah. Sirius thought of that. It worked but unfortunately what that led to was horrific burns on the rocks Sirius had transfigured into apes missing hands. I know they aren't real animals, just rocks made to look and act like apes by magic but remembering that poor orangutan scream in pain is disturbing. The silver stays too hot to handle and joining has to be done immediately." Harry saved as he remembered the scene.
Sirius had chosen orangutans because their hands were so similar to human ones. It was a good way to test something that was meant for humans, however, that meant that the cries of pain, even when only a simulation, were rather difficult to see. Though Harry had to admit he was never going to try that method on a real living creature or person so he supposed it had worked in one way, he had learned what to never do.
"What if they held their arm underwater? You know, to cool off the hand as it attaches?" Ron asked.
"What if they held their arm underwater? You know, to cool off the hand as it attaches?" Ron asked.
"Too much mass," Hermione said simply. "It wouldn't cool down fast enough."
"I just need to work on my focus. I am getting better. Grandfather thinks I will have it by Halloween, Christmas at the latest. Krum has already said he will come to us the second I have the spell down."
"You should have added free tickets to all of his games into your contract." Ron mused.
"No, Ron. The point is to keep the requirements to the absolute minimum while fulfilling the spell's ridiculous need for fealty. That component makes me sure Voldemort either made the spell or got it from some kind of Dark Lord's handbook or something. It's not something I'm particularly interested in; I want friends and family in my life, not servants and followers."
The bell rang telling them it was time for class. Well, it was for Harry and Hermione who had ancient runes. Ron was lucky enough to have a free period first thing this morning so stayed seated pouring himself another glass of pumpkin juice. Hermione reminded Ron that it was a good idea to work on some of his homework, but they all knew he wouldn't. N.E.W.T stress hadn't hit Ron yet and he would stick to his old patterns until he was late handing in a bunch of work. Harry and Hermione would then need to help dig him out of the hole he got into but from then he would do better. Not enough to satisfy Hermione but enough to get by.
-ϟϟϟ-
Ron had been right as Monday morning Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Charlus all received a summons to appear at the Wizengamot on Friday for the start of the trial of the death eaters. Well, Harry's was for the trial of all the death eaters. The best they could guess was that Ron and Hermione were called specifically to give evidence in the trial of Peter Pettigrew.
They weren't the only ones to receive a letter. Of course, Grandfather Charlus received one, as did, surprisingly, Ginny about halfway down the Gryffindor table. What Ginny was being called for no one could guess and the letters were void of the details they wanted. It simplyinstructed them where to be and when. There was a page dedicated to the best ways to get to the Ministry including the floo and the night bus or they could special request a portkey. There was even a section that covered appropriate robes. Apparently, someone in the Ministry had enough sense to realise they were summoning teenagers who probably had very little interest in the minutiae of the wizarding court system. But absolutely nothing on who was being tried.
"Why are they still keeping it a secret who they have?" Harry asked his grandfather later that day.
"Well my guess, and this is a guess, is that they have someone they don't want people knowing they have. By keeping them all secret they make it a few orders of magnitude more difficult to find exactly who they were hiding." Grandfather Charlus said from his desk where he was marking first-year homework.
"But the death eaters know who is missing so it can't be them the D.M.L.E is hiding from." Ron pointed out.
"Well, they may not know if an individual is dead or captured. But apart from that there are other people to hide them from as well. After all, it's hard to bribe someone if no one knows who their bribing will release. Nobody is paying a King's ransom for Pettigrew, but nobody is going to let a big fish go cheap. Or maybe the prisoner is well-connected and Bones wants any politicians kept in the dark. For example, I have heard rumours Malfoy was caught but I haven't heard one whiff of that from the media or the warlocks of the Wizengamot. And we all know how close Malfoy was with the minister. Considering how much Malfoy has probably donated to the minister over the years, there is a good chance Fudge would try to release Malfoy to keep the gold flowing his way." Charlus speculated.
"Draco certainly isn't acting like his dad is in prison," Harry said as he worked on grinding up the silver for his next attempt at making a magical hand.
"The boy is likely either putting on a front or his mother has lied to him about where his father is," Charlus said. "Or I suppose he could believe that with Voldemort's return, he will take over the country soon and free his father from prison."
"Speaking of Voldemort, do we have any leads on the other soul pieces yet?" Asked Harry. His grandfather had asked Harry to leave that to him and Harry had reluctantly agreed, but it had been two months and Harry hadn't seen or heard anything from his grandfather on the subject.
Charlus looked up from his work and eyed Harry. What he saw must have satisfied him because he said, "Some. We are lucky that Voldemort chose such prominent artefacts for his scheme. It has made it easier to track two of the items that were in the possession of the Gaunt family for generations: the ring set with our family's stone and the Locket that was made for or by Salazar Slytherin himself. The death of that family and the disappearance of those items match up to the timelines of Voldemort's rise. The cup was in the possession of the Smith family but went missing after the death of the then-matriarch. Again the timing fits Voldemort's rise to power. The diadem has been lost since the time of Rowena Ravenclaw so we have no leads on that one yet."
"But how does knowing where they were before Voldemort got them help determine where they are hidden now?" Harry asked.
"It doesn't, not really, but knowing when Voldemort acquired them can narrow down the possible places they were hidden. This really isn't a simple task, it could take us years to locate even one of them. Our best hope may be in actually capturing Voldemort himself and interrogating him about their locations. But to do that we need to find a way to hold him where he can't escape by killing his current body. And where he can still answer questions." Charlus admitted just how difficult the task they were facing was.
"Not that a fifteen-year-old needs to worry about that. This is a job for adults. If this is still a problem by the time you are twenty-one then we can talk about you doing something." He gave Harry a significant look that basically said 'listen or else.'
The whole thing was disheartening to Harry. He had guessed it wouldn't be easy to track down the artefacts, but just how difficult it was hadn't registered to him. Having his grandfather say their best hope might actually be capturing Voldemort alive and holding him really hit home just how difficult this was going to be.
-ϟϟϟ-
On an evening during the week, Grandfather Charlus and Professor Sinistra took the students who had been called before the Wizengamot to Diagon Alley to get new appropriate robes. Professor Sinistra came along because of Hogwarts rules. Because the outing involved both young wizards and witches taking their clothes off, even if it was in the privacy of a changing room both a male and female member of staff had to be there. Professor Sinistra was just the female professor who had the time to do it.
Hermione in particular was glad to have one of her favourite professors there, if for no other reason than the older witch had better knowledge of exactly what was appropriate for a young witch in such a formal setting. But soon they were all outfitted.
So it was a group that looked their best that arrived at the Ministry of Magic early that Friday morning. Charlus had called in a small favour from Slughorn to cover his classes that day and possibly Monday. The hope was that the trials would be finished over the weekend but there was always the possibility that they could drag on.
They were all shown to a waiting room where the witnesses would have to wait until they were called. They weren't the only witnesses, Sirius was also there as were a few other people that none of them recognized. So started hours of doing nothing. Charlus, who had anticipated this, had a number of assignments from each of their professors. So for most of the day, they sat doing what was essentially homework.
Eventually, the first of them was called, and it was Charlus. It was only then that they were told who the first trial was for. It was Pettigrew.
-ϟϟϟ-
"Warlock Potter, can you please tell us your recollection of the events of October 31st, 1981." Asked Director Bones, who was the prosecutor today. Dumbledore, despite acting in his role as Chief Warlock, only said what he had to out of procedure.
"For the most part, it was a normal day. Me and my wife Dorea were at home staying safe from the war. We didn't have any plans for Halloween because of how dangerous it was. I was upstairs when there was an alert of someone arriving by floo. It was the bell that said the person was on the pre-approved list to get through the wards so I wasn't particularly worried. I thought perhaps my son had brought my grandson over for a Halloween visit. Not strictly to our security protocols, but a slip that would be understandable. Holidays are for family after all."
"Now to understand this next bit you need to understand that we gave full family rights to Peter and a few others to bring people through the wards. The idea was that they could bring whoever was with them to the manor if they were attacked by death eaters. When I got to the landing overlooking the main foyer of the manor I saw Peter leading not wounded people who had been attacked by death eaters but a squad of death eaters themselves."
"They.." Charlus choked up a little here as he remembered what happened. "They killed my wife… they killed my Dorea." Charlus had to pause here for a second and not even his Occlumency-enhanced stoicism was enough to stop a tear from falling down his face.
"I heard Peter say 'Excellent, it's just the old man left now. The Dark Lord wants them both dead, and I am being given the manor for providing our Lord with the location of the rest of the Potters.' I had accepted that man into my home as a boy, he was one of my son's best friends. He was like family and he betrayed a man who saw him like a brother and killed my wife for the promise of a House."
Charlus went on to explain how he tried to use a Time Turner to escape the attack by going back before the attack started and leaving, and how Wormtail had destroyed the Time Turner in an attempt to kill him.
Then it was Pettigrew's defence's turn to ask questions. "Warlock Potter. We are of course saddened to hear of the passing of your family. Yet I must question the details you have given us. Grief and fourteen years will do a lot to degrade someone's memories but you expect us to believe you can tell us exact quotes my client said all this time later?"
"It hasn't been fourteen years for me." Charlus replied, "The time storm kept me repeating the same few seconds again and again but from my perspective, I only experienced that repeated time once. I don't have thirteen years worth of reliving one moment again and again. Such a thing would drive any man mad. For me, it was just the one time, so it hasn't been fourteen years for me. It has been one year, two months, and," he paused for a few seconds to count in his head. "eleven days since my wife was murdered. So when you ask if I can remember those details I say yes, I remember every little detail. I remember the look of hurt and betrayal on her face as she watched someone she saw as one of her boys leading the band of masked murderers invading her home. I remember the sound of her body hitting the floor. I remember the look of triumph on Pettigrew's face. You question how I can remember such detail? Because it's burned into my memory, I can never forget what happened that day."
"Is that why you brutalised and tortured my client when he was captured?" The man asked.
"Yes." Said Charlus, unrepentant. "I used every legal spell I could think of to cause that rat bastard as much pain as I possibly could. Do you expect me to pretend to feel bad about that? He killed my family."
"In a blind rage, while joining an Auror raid, you captured the man who you blame for destroying your life and while you were trying to cause my client as much pain as possible, you expect us to believe you stuck to legal spells? I have a medical report here saying that night Mr Pettigrew was suffering Cruciatus exposure. I suggest you lost your cool and, as you were acting as an arresting officer, my client should be released due to illegal spells used in his detainment."
Charlus had to admit this law wizard wasn't bad, as soon one of his lines of defence fell through he seamlessly switched to another. "Well I can offer an unbreakable vow that neither I nor any officer I saw used any unforgivable curses." He shut down that line of thought hard. He wasn't going to let Pettigrew get away on some technicality.
There weren't many more questions after that and Charlus was dismissed after he, at the request of Director Bones, gave the unbreakable vow just to prove he wasn't bluffing.
Hermione was called next. "Miss Granger, can you please tell us what happened on the night of July twelfth last year."
Hermione considered for a moment before saying "Well, it started with the trial for a hippogriff. The hippogriff lost and was due to be executed that night so my friends Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and myself went down to see Professor Hagrid and offer him our condolences. While we were there we discovered that Ron's missing pet, a rat called Scabbers, had made its way to the professor's hut. So when we left, Ron brought his pet with us. As I have told this court before during the trial for Sirius Black, Warlock Black confronted us in his animagus form and took Ron and Scabbers through a secret passage to the shrieking shack outside of Hogsmeade. Harry and I followed and it was revealed to us that Peter Pettigrew was alive, a rat animagus, and the real betrayer of Harry's parents. Unfortunately, Pettigrew escaped. Fortunately, so did Warlock Black."
There was no cross-examination of Hermione's testimony. Madam Bones just wanted the story on the record again for the trial and to refresh the memory of the warlocks who had been at the previous trial for Sirius. Next came Ron who had a pretty similar experience to Hermione, only for Ron there were a lot of questions about when he got the rat, how the rat behaved, and where the rat had slept. It appeared Director Bones really didn't like the idea of a grown man using magic to secretly share a bed with a minor.
Then it was Harry's turn. He too was asked about the incident where he learned that Pettigrew was the traitor who sold out his family. When Harry tried to move on and start describing the events in the graveyard he was stopped by Director Bones. "We will get to all that later Mr Potter. To save time and the expense of holding so many separate trials we will be dealing with all the individuals arrested at the graveyard together. Mr Pettigrew however has additional charges that are separate from his actions that night. So we are clearing those up first."
With a few questions asked by Pettigrew's defence, Harry was sent back to the waiting room. Unfortunately, even though they had given their evidence it was possible they could be called back to answer more questions so they couldn't go and watch the rest of the trial. They just had to wait there doing extra homework until they were allowed to go watch the verdict being delivered by the Wizengamot.
It was about five in the afternoon when they were all allowed to go sit in the visitors' section of the Wizengamot. Sirius and Charlus weren't allowed to take their seats because of the conflict of interest they had.
Dumbledore stood up and asked for the Wizengamot to light their wands if they found Peter Pettigrew guilty of the charge of being an unregistered animagus. Over 80% of the wands lit up and he was found guilty. Then he asked for the same for the charge of trespassing in the Weasley home, inappropriate behaviour with minors, conspiracy to commit the murders of the Potter family, use of an unforgivable curse, the murder of Dorea Potter, and the attempted murder of Charlus Potter. Again and again, the Wizengamot voted the same way; the exact number of votes varied from charge to charge but were never under 75% voting guilty.
Dumbledore then stood and addressed Wormtail. "Peter Pettigrew you have been found guilty of numerous despicable and heinous crimes by this court and it is now my duty to pass sentence. Normally this would be a complicated process of working out how much time you must serve for each crime however the charges include the use of an unforgivable curse on an intelligent being. That makes this process simple. You will be sent to Azkaban prison for the rest of your natural life. No more will you feel hope, joy, or even the happiness of nostalgic memories. You will reflect on the choices you made that led you to this state in your life for the rest of your existence." Then Dumbledore banged a gavel and two Aurors collected Pettigrew from the chained chair in the center of the room and began to drag him away. It was at this point Pettigrew broke down and started screaming for mercy.
It was after that the Wizengamot broke up for the day. The original plan had been to move on with the trial of the rest of the death eaters, but Pettigrew's trial had taken longer than anticipated so there was little point in starting now. They would be back first thing tomorrow morning