The Hearing (2)

"Preposterous! Who do you think you are?" screamed Fudge.

"I agree, Mr. Potter," said Amelia, "that is highly inappropriate."

"Perhaps," said Harry, still not taking his eyes off Amelia, completely ignoring Fudge, who continued to scream. "However, would you fault someone trying to question the Ministry's competence when they cannot even keep a leash on their own dementors?"

"What do you me-" started Amelia, but stopped and frowned because of the racket Fudge was creating. "Minister, will you please quiet down for a moment?" she said sharply, shutting Fudge up. "Now, what do you mean, Mr. Potter? What Dementors?"

"As the Minister would no doubt love to disagree, much in the colorful manner he has been doing so far, but there were two dementors who attacked us. Which is what led to the underage magic. A patronus to be exact." said Harry.

"A patronus?" asked Amelia with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, a stag. Always been a stag." said Harry with a proud smile.

"Always?" asked Amelia, even more surprised. "How long have you been able to cast one?"

"Since my third year, Professor Lupin taught me since the Minister, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would be extremely wise to have dark creatures, known to suck the souls out of people, in a school full of young children," replied Harry with thinly veiled contempt.

Fudge on the side looked redder and redder by the minute. He was clearly on the verge of exploding.

"Mr. Potter, the situation during your third year aside. It is rather difficult to take your word on this Dementor attack," said Amelia.

"You don't need to take my word though," said Harry as he turned to Lily. "This here is Lily Moon. My classmate and one of the people attacked by the dementors. If you cannot take my word for it, I'm sure you can take her word for it."

"A friend of yours is hardly conclusive evidence," snarled Fudge.

"In that case, if someone could send for a squib by the name of Arabela Figg, she should be able to recount the events. Seeing as she was there as well," said Harry, paying close attention to both Amelia's and Fudge's expressions.

"I want this finished today! I will not have you waste everyone's time by pulling non-existing witnesses just to delay the inevitable," screamed Fudge.

"So, what Minister Fudge is trying to say is that you deny me my right to a witness and would like to convict me, although you, yourself, have broken several laws?" asked Harry with a smirk.

"What laws have I broken!?" he yelled back, causing Harry to flinch from the noise.

"Could you please stop shouting? I might go deaf before we reach the verdict," said Harry, putting fingers in both ears. Several people in the stands giggled at that, though some seemed to be offended by his actions.

"You! Unlawful!" yelled Fudge. "This is not the only time you have broken the rules!"

Fudge then continued with a triumphant grin. "In your second year, you used a levitation charm."

"That would be the work of a house-elf," replied Harry with a straight face.

"A house-elf! Ha!" said Fudge, "A likely story."

"That house-elf is employed at Hogwarts. You could just have Dumbledore summon him and ask him yourself."

Fudge grit his teeth and then continued, "You blew your aunt up the very next year!"

"Yet, when that happened, you told me that the best wizards can lose control of their emotions and then bought me ice-cream," replied Harry.

Amelia interrupted, "Minister, Mr. Potter is right. I would like to listen to what Ms. Moon has to say."

Amelia turned to Lily and urged her to recount the events.

"Harry and I were on our way to his house when we ran into his cousin," she started, "while we were talking to him, we felt this chill in the air. I felt like there was no happiness in the world and in the next moment, I could recall every single terrible memory of mine vividly. Harry tried to get me to help, but I couldn't even move."

She shivered, so Harry took her hand in his and smiled reassuringly.

"I watched as the dementors approached Harry's cousin, a muggle, and lowered their hood and approached him. I've heard about how horrifying dementors are when they lower their hood but nothing could prepare me for how it actually is," she said in a small voice, "thankfully, Harry could shoot his patronus at them before they could administer the kiss on his cousin but the boy fainted in fright. It seemed like he couldn't see the dementors so he thought Harry did magic on him. The boy is terrified of magic, after all. Only once the dementors left could I move a little."

"That sounds like a made-up story!" yelled Fudge, "I bet you read how dementors make you feel and spun that story to hide the fact that you used magic on the muggle boy!"

"Mr. Potter, Ms Moon claimed that the muggle boy, your cousin, is terrified of magic. Why would that be?" she asked.

"My muggle family is just like that," he replied, "they don't like magic folk, magic or anything to do with it. I'm not sure why they tolerate me either, but well, they do. They're aware of the magic world and always have been. Much longer than I have to be honest."

"That does not change the fact that the law was broken and magic was performed in front of a muggle!" yelled Fudge.

"If you don't believe Lily, then why don't I get Arabela Figg then?" asked Harry.

"So we should just wait here, all fifty of us, while you go get some random woman off the streets?" Fudge yelled back.

"No need to worry about that," a quiet voice spoke from behind Harry. "I have her with me."

Dumbledore strode towards Harry's side and stared deeply at Fudge, making the Minister quake in his boots.

The hearing proceeded smoothly afterwards. Dumbledore presented Mrs Figg, who described the feeling of a dementor, like how Lily had done. This was followed by Fudge trying his hardest to overturn her account but failing to do so.

Umbridge, the true mastermind behind the Dementor attack, stood up at one point and tried to prove Dumbledore wrong but failed as well.

Eventually, Harry was cleared of his charges and Dumbledore quickly left the courtroom, despite Harry's efforts to talk to him, but Dumbledore turned a deaf ear to his calls and walked out.

Harry looked up at the stands and saw that everyone seemed to get ready to leave. No one looked towards Harry except for Umbridge, who kept staring at him.

'She seems to hate me, but why?' he thought to himself, 'is it because of Fudge or is it something else?'

Harry locked eyes with her and felt a few prods in his consciousness.

Harry smirked. 'Trying to use Legilimency on me, are you?'

Harry put his shields up and just as Umbridge showed surprise at his defense, he countered her.

"Argh!" she screamed loudly and fell to her knees.

Everyone turned to look at her. A few rushed to her side and helped her up.

"You!" screamed Fudge and pointed his wand at Harry.

Harry faked a surprised expression and raised his hands in the air. "What happened to her?" he asked, confused.

"Don't play dumb with me! You did this to her!" he screamed and pointed his wand at Harry, ready to fire magic at him.

"Are you out of your mind, Minister?" Amelia yelled at him, readying her own wand and pointing it at him.

'What's up with Fudge? I didn't think a simple counter against the toad would get him this riled up,' thought Harry, 'though there is something off about that toad, why would she try to use legilimency against me?'

Fudge, having realized the situation he put himself in, put his wand back into his robes and walked away in a huff.

"Are you alright, Mr. Potter?" Amelia asked, looking towards Harry.

"I think so. Did the Minister finally snap or something? That was scary." Harry heaved a sigh of relief.

"I'm not sure, but he will be judged severely for this," she said with a frown. "You are free to go."

Lily had grabbed onto his arm when Fudge pointed his wand at Harry. She finally relaxed her grip and turned to Harry. "What was that about?" she whispered to him.

Harry said nothing, just shook his head and walked away with Lily in tow, before he paused and spoke in a voice which was clear to everyone in the courtroom.

"I can't help but wonder what tomorrow's headlines will be. 'Minister for Magic tries to attack unarmed teenagers' sounds about right," said Harry with a chuckle, "Assuming it doesn't get suppressed like all other important news lately."

Harry swiftly exited the room afterwards.