A sirius trial

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Bang! Bang! "Order! We are here today at the behest of Madam Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Madam Bones if you may state your order of business for the Wizengamot today." Chief Warlock Albus Too-Many-Names Dumbledore was definitely not having a good day. He had absolutely no idea what this emergency session was for and he honestly didn't care. He had too many other things to prepare for as it was, namely Rose Potter's imminent arrival at Hogwarts. She had to be prepared for Tom's eventual return; she was the prophecy child, after all.

"Thank you, Chief Warlock. It has recently come to my attention that a grave miscarriage of justice was carried out by this august body in the past. I recently discovered that a prisoner of Azkaban prison was incarcerated without a trial at the behest of the previous regime."

She allowed the horrified whispers of the crowd to carry for a moment and eyed Dumbledore's suddenly pale face. Not very good at hiding his emotions, is he? Fudge's smug face made her even less impressed, even though this was her plan with Rose. A few well-placed words about how he would receive praise for being the Minister that stands for justice made him fold life a deck of cards. Of course, it helped that some of those words were praise from The-Girl-Who-Lived herself; Rose's offer of support made the idiot cave to their demands without even considering what they were asking. It was rather sad when the leader of the government was so easily manipulated, but for now she would count her blessings.

"The prisoner's name is Sirius Black."

A beat of silence. Then total chaos. Shouting and screaming echoed around the room from a bunch of supposed adults.

"Quiet! New evidence has come to light suggesting that Mr Black is entirely innocent of the crimes he was blamed for, and we would be remiss in our duties if we failed to examine it properly. We have already failed to correctly convict him of the crimes he was incarcerated for, are you suggesting that we once more break our own laws?" Her cold voice carried through the chamber causing a wave of uneasy muttering. If they continued with the trial they essentially admitted that they had done wrong in the past, yet if they ignored the problem now they would be suggesting treason. There was no winning situation for them.

"I agree with Madam Bones. This body has already allowed a grave error of justice to occur in the past. It is our duty as members of the Ministry right now to stand up for what is right and push for the truth!" Fudge looked so proud of himself that it was taking all of her energy not to break down laughing. Or hex him.

Dumbledore saw no way out and grimaced. "Bring in the suspect!"

An Auror walked in with Sirius Black in chains with an anti-Animagus cuff on his wrist. Contrary to what everyone had expected, the man was well-groomed if rather thin, dressed in fine deep red silk robes and didn't look completely mad. He was led to the chair on the floor and chained to it.

Amelia caught a flinch out the corner of her eye from the audience. Remus Lupin. An utter pain in the arse to track down and an even bigger pain to convince of Sirius's innocence. Which then led to his overabundance of self-pity when he realised that his best friend had been falsely imprisoned for the past ten years. If Rose hadn't warned her beforehand of his personality she might have throttled him.

"Mr Black. Do you consent to veritaserum questioning?"

"I do."

Murmurs in the courtroom made Amelia inwardly smirk. Everyone knew that if a prisoner allowed that, then there was a very good chance of them being innocent. The rest of the people who asked for the potion thought that they could fight it.

One of the Aurors walked over and administered the potion. Sirius' eyes glazed over as it spread through his system.

"State your full name."

"Sirius Orion Black."

"What is your date of birth?"

"November 3rd 1959."

Amelia mentally relaxed. "The potion is functioning correctly. Mr Black, were you the Secret Keeper for the Potters when they went into hiding during the year of nineteen eighty?"

"No."

Some whispering broke out in the crowd.

"Are you a Death Eater, and have you ever been a Death Eater?"

"No, and no."

The room was getting louder. "Quiet!" Dumbledore swung the gavel looking more than a little stressed at the turn of events.

"Have you ever been a sympathiser to the person known as Lord Voldemort?"

"No."

"Who was the Secret Keeper for the Potters?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew and the muggles?"

"No."

"Explain what happened with them."

"I went after Peter after James and Lily died. When I caught up to Peter he shouted that it was my fault that James and Lily were dead, and blew up a gas line killing the muggles. He transformed into his Animagus form, a rat, and escaped. I was found by Aurors, blacked out, and woke up in Azkaban."

"Are you too an Animagus, and if so what if your form?"

"Yes. I turn into a black dog like a grim."

"Thank you. Administer the antidote."

The courtroom was stunned into silence and Amelia had to resist cheering. "No further questions, Chief Warlock." The woman sat down serenely and cast her eyes over the various voters. The light voters looked absolutely appalled at an innocent man having been thrown in jail. Augusta in particular looked like she wanted to hex Dumbledore where he sat.

(She had been informed of Rose's treatment at the hands of her muggle relatives because of Dumbledore and now stood as Rose's magical and legal proxy. Dumbledore himself wasn't even aware of the change, never having received official permission to act as such. He'd only managed to get away with it being Chief Warlock.)

Those of a neutral persuasion were likely to vote to free Sirius so that they could ally themselves with the House of Black. The dark voters were probably going to vote against, seeing Sirius as a disgrace to his House. Malfoy would probably want him in prison so that his son would inherit the Black fortune. I wonder what he'll say when he finds out that Rose is first in line.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "All those in favour of dropping all charges against Sirius Black." Nearly three-quarters of the wands lit up in favour.

"All those against?" The rest lit up including Malfoy's – bloody peacock – even though it was useless.

Bang! "Well then. Congratulations Mr Black. All charges have been dropped. The usual charge of being an illegal Animagus is three years in Azkaban. This charge will be deducted from your ten-year incarceration, and for the remaining seven years you will be reimbursed 10,000G for each year. On behalf of this governing body I can only apologise my boy, and wish you all the best from now on."

Sirius just looked blankly at the old man. Amelia had already told him that Dumbledore had known he was innocent and left him in prison anyway.

The chains fell away and he looked around the room. He was free. Amelia was gesturing for him to join the audience where he spotted a welcome face. Moony. He all but ran to his friend and hugged him to death.

Dumbledore coughed. "If that is all – "

"I'm afraid not Chief Warlock. As I stated evidence was collected that proved Mr Black's innocence. The most important piece of evidence was actually Mr Pettigrew himself."

Remus and Sirius spun around so fast it would have been amusing if it weren't for the fact that they were facing the man who had betrayed their friends to their death.

The snivelling pathetic man was all but dragged to the chair before being chained up.

The two remaining Marauders couldn't even pay attention to what was happening, their blood was pumping so loudly in their ears, obscuring anything from registering. They were only vaguely aware of the trial going on around them and didn't snap out of it until the rat was sentenced to Azkaban and someone suggested the Kiss.

Dumbledore tried to argue that it was inhumane but he was quickly overruled, and the courtroom watched on as a pathetic traitor was destroyed on the floor.

With the day's Wizengamot session finished the vultures quickly began swarming around Sirius and Remus. Amelia grabbed them both and quickly dragged them to an empty backroom before handing them an empty notebook.

"It's a portkey. Take it quick. The password is 'home'. It's safe, trust me."

They didn't even try to argue and grabbed the book. "Home."

As they swirled away they wondered why the password was home before they smacked down into a spacious sitting room that felt very familiar to them. As they picked themselves up they looked around and froze at the familiar sofas and chairs, the same bookshelf in the corner, and the old red rug in the corner covering up what they knew to be a burn mark on the floor.

"Why … why are we here?" Sirius couldn't force his voice to work properly. He sounded like a toad. The Pottery. Oh God, James …

Remus wasn't doing much better, memories filling him of his teenage years here, of Dorea hitting him over the head with a book when she found out about his condition and telling him to get over himself and stop moping, that there was nothing wrong with him.

"You're here because this is your home, idiots."

The men spun and got ready to deal with the threat when they saw … a very tiny girl. She was small and thin with curly blonde hair to her hips and vibrant blue eyes. Her pale skin was offset by the deep purple jumper she wore with black jeans and socks.

"Who are you?" he almost snarled. He was being assaulted by scents left and right and Moony was close to the surface. This girl put him on edge whoever she was.

"Really?" Rose was exasperated. She just wanted to hug them damn it, and they were acting like she was some sort of enemy. She understood, but really?! She really wanted to stomp her foot like the child she appeared to be.

She rubbed her hand over her face and sighed. "Just … follow me, please. You'll understand in a minute." She turned and walked out the family room into the study without waiting for them to follow. She knew they would anyway.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? That room's for – " Sirius' rant cut off when he heard the voices.

"Bambi! What are you doing here? I thought you were going to meet Padfoot and Moony?"

"Is everything okay, baby?"

"You mean other than them nearly attacking me?"

"What?! How dare they attack my child! I'll – "

"James? Lily?" Two disbelieving voices filled the study as they entered the room. There on the wall were two large portraits of the very couple whose murder they just had to relive. And on the floor in front of them was the girl.

"Wait. Bambi?" But that would mean … "Rose?" Sirius looked at the girl confused. She was beautiful he'll admit, but she didn't look a thing like she had before.

"That's your fault Black." Lily was smirking at him. "When you blood-adopted her you turned her into a Metamorphmagus, but the block we put on her stopped her from showing it. This is her new look. Isn't she cute!" Her squealing was making the girl – Rose – blush like mad.

"Rose?" Remus could smell it now. This was the little girl that he had sworn to protect, the one he had been terrified of holding when she was a baby. He didn't care what she looked like, she could turn into a boy for all he cared.

"Well, do I get a hug now? Or are you two going to bite my head off again?" No sooner were the words out her mouth than she was crushed in a bear hug between the two men.

"Aww, James look, aren't they cute!"

"Of course they are Lily-Flower, they're a family!" He looked at the two men carefully. "She's yours too, you know. No take-backs, you're stuck with her." Exuberant he may have been, but the others could see how serious he was.

The two men looked at each other before nodding. "Well Bambi, what do you want to do now?" The former inmate contented himself with running his fingers through the girl's silky curls. Though the calm atmosphere was soon interrupted by a stomach growling loudly in between him and Remus.

A moment of silence, then laughter from the adults.

"Shut up."

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Who is your favorite character in the Potter-verse?? Mine has always been Sirius Black.

2183 words

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