"I was the best candidate, Leonard. The only reason why I didn't get it was because of Black."
"You can't solely blame him for that, Amos." Leonard retorted. "Most of the Houses that voted for someone else prefer Yaxley's view of the world or don't hold your views on werewolves and other magical creatures. They don't like the legislation you and that awful Umbridge woman forced through."
"Werewolves are dangerous…" Amos began heatedly.
"Amos, stop!" Leonard ordered. "Look, what happened with Thaddeus was a tragedy but not all werewolves are as feral as Fenrir Greyback."
Thaddeus? Sirius frowned at the mention of Amos's younger brother. They'd been school contemporaries; Thad had been sorted into Hufflepuff the same year as the Marauders had sorted into Gryffindor. Thad had gotten some job on a creature reserve in the Alps the last Sirius had heard.
"If you're about to mention Lupin; don't." Amos snarled.
Sirius stiffened.
"Amos, I'm only going to say this once; don't set yourself against Sirius." Leonard said firmly. "He's every bit as powerful as his grandfather used to be – maybe even more so. Don't go up against him."
"Thank you for the advice, Leonard," Amos's voice dripped with sarcasm, "now some of us have jobs to do."
The creak and slam of the door echoed around the corner and Sirius heard Leonard swearing under his breath before the door opened and closed again signalling his departure.
Sirius kept himself invisible until he was half-way back to the courtroom. He sneaked back in and sat back down in his chair, nothing absently that the ever-fill mug had disappeared. He sighed. He should have gotten some more chocolate or some tea.
But it was too late because the doors were shutting and Albus was calling everyone to attention as the docket moved onto Walden MacNair.
It was a hopeless repeat of Jugson's trial. All the same arguments bar the one about Harry and Ron, and all the same counter-arguments with the same result at the end of it. But Sirius knew it had to be that way. MacNair's solicitor had to tread the same ground as Jugson's or MacNair could claim a mistrial.
He was ecstatic though when MacNair was sentenced and Albus called for the last prisoner.
The Dennis Travers that walked in didn't quite fit the description of the surly prisoner holding his silence that Amelia had painted but Sirius figured maybe the trial had knocked some reality into Travers's head finally. He was going to Azkaban and probably for a lot longer than his associates since he'd been the ringleader.
Travers sat in the chair and sweat lined his brow.
Yeah, Sirius mused speculatively, Travers was beginning to understand just what was going to happen.
Amelia stood up, her expression the very definition of grim determination. "As the accused has eschewed all attempts to get him to speak since his arrest, I would ask the court to allow the use of veritaserum…"
Bootle was on his feet immediately. "Absolutely not!"
Amelia shot him an annoyed look. "We discussed this yesterday…"
"We did not!" Bootle snapped.
"If this is an attempt to cause a mistrial, Bootle, it isn't funny!" Amelia snapped. "I have the notification document here with your seal on it. What are you playing at?"
Bootle went red. "And I don't know what you're playing at! But I do know you are attempting to falsify evidence. We didn't discuss anything of this kind in our meeting yesterday morning!"
Amelia rolled her eyes. "Not in the meeting in the morning, no, but we did discuss it in the afternoon before you visited your client."
"I didn't visit my client in the afternoon! I was sick as a dog and throwing up in my flat's bathroom!" Bootle stormed back.
The entire courtroom froze.
If Bootle was telling the truth – if someone had impersonated him…but why? Just to see Travers? And if someone had impersonated Bootle they had to know the truth would come out when they'd signed a document Bootle himself would have no knowledge of signing…
Bootle suddenly turned and stared at Travers before glancing back at Amelia. "I don't know what's going on here but my objection stands; I have received no notification, have sealed no such document and do not agree to my client being given veritaserum."
Albus motioned at Amelia. "May we see the notification document?"
Amelia handed it to him. Albus waved his wand over it several times.
"This seems to be in order. The magical seal is verified as belonging to the office of Bootle, Appleforth and Crackton." Albus briefly looked at Gideon and Daniel. "We will allow the use of veritaserum and record Mister Bootle's objection."
Bootle bristled but the ruling had been made.
Travers cringed in the chair.
The veritaserum vial was presented for authenticity and the Auror moved to give it to Travers. Unsurprisingly, Travers had to be restrained before they could get the three drops into him.
They all waited with bated breath for the few moments that were needed for it to take effect.
Amelia moved into position. "What is your name?"
"No, no, no…" Travers squirmed in his seat, tears streaming down his face in his effort to resist the truth serum. "No…"
"What is your name?" asked Amelia more insistently.
"Col…Colin Basil Summers." The words came stiffly forced out.
Dear Merlin, Sirius thought wildly; it wasn't Travers…the prisoner wasn't Travers!
"What the…!" Bootle was on his feet. "Where is my client?"
"They have him." Colin sobbed, answering automatically.
The three other solicitors looked torn between excitement, curiosity and outrage. The Auror guards looked disturbed; the scribe, bewildered.
Amelia brought her hand up and silenced everyone with a look.
"Why are you impersonating Dennis Travers?" Amelia asked snappily.
"They have my sister!" The man – Colin – sobbed. "I was supposed to go to Azkaban in his place. Please, please; they have my sister and she's pregnant and if I don't do this…they'll kill her! Please!"
Sirius's heart leaped into his throat and his frantic gaze met Amelia's.
Voldemort had freed Dennis Travers, another loyal servant, but Sirius didn't care about that. Another pregnant woman was missing which meant there was no doubt that Voldemort was going ahead with the ritual.
And the time was long past that Sirius needed to tell Harry.
.
.
.
🎉Subscribe and get access to all PDFs🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/gokublack444🎉