The Court Hearing

Murmuring, a lot of murmuring.

That was the situation inside the room, each individual was unable to comprehend the situation and came up with scenarios of their own.

The room's lights flickered with magic, maintaining illumination without overwhelming the space with excessive brightness, preserving its subdued ambiance.

And amidst that confused crowd, one man stood out the most.

Mostly because of him sitting separately from everyone, atop an elevated chair one higher than anyone in the room. Next to him stood four individuals, each of them aurors with looks that screamed vigilant.

But unlike the others, this man did not look confused, instead he appeared to be intrigued, even amazed as he stared at the staked papers in front of him.

Going through the papers, he finally heard.

"Sir Fudge, Professor Dumbledore is here with… him."

Cornelius Oswald Fudge, a man of modest stature with a slightly chubby and wrinkled face, indication of his aging self nodded.

"Let them inside."

The man was no simple man, he was the minister of magic. One of the highest positions an individual could hold in the world of magic.

And as he finally decided to address the situation that was getting a little out of hand, he got the information that it had blown out of proportions.

'I asked him not to draw too much attention for the time being,' Fudge internally sighed but there was not much that could be done at that point.

He knew about the Salazar heir, he knew about the recent incidents.

Of course he knew. He was the Minister of Magic, he had the power and authority.

But so did Dumbledore, and as such they came to an agreement not to let the world know about the situation unless Dumbledore said it was okay.

Of course, Fudge didn't simply agree but Dumbledore presented him with something that he just couldn't say no to.

'And this led to the annoyance at hand.' He knew that it was going to be troublesome to sort things out and all he could hope for at the moment was for Dumbledore to have come prepared.

'Knowing him, he must be prepared.'

He was still confused why Dumbledore decided to reveal about the basilisk when he could have possibly hidden it with his magic.

'But he must have his reasons.'

With that belief, he looked at the crowd and slammed the small wooden hammer onto the table in front of him.

"Maintain silence in the court."

They were in a court.

Why?

Because the situation was that blown out of proportion. And while it was not his job to be the judge, the occurrence of a XXXXX rank magical beast forced him to be incharge of the case.

"The headmaster of Hogwarts,the school of witchcraft and wizardry is now entering!"

One of the aurors shouted, drawing the attention of the entire crowd towards the doorway.

Fortunately for them, they did not have to wait long as the famous wizard, with his long beard and two individuals to his side slowly made his entrance.

Fudge gave a nod to Dumbledore as the man entered the room, a greeting that went unnoticed by everyone excluding Dumbledore and the boy to his side.

Fudge knew who the two besides Dumbledore were.

One was Coleson, a talented auror but one with a lot of pride.

'Then again, all aurors are prideful.'

But the one that stood out to him the most was the boy next to Dumbledore.

Black hair, emerald green eyes and an expression that seemed uncaring which Fudge approved of.

'Someone of his blood does deserve to uphold that attitude.'

But Fudge wasn't the only one that was interested in the boy.

"Is that him?"

"Most certainly!"

"Those green eyes…"

"He is the heir!"

The crowd's murmuring grew louder, assumptions, confusion and curiosity grew.

"He cannot be the heir! It is all a hoax!"

"Definitely! No magic can keep someone alive for this long!"

But so did the disbelief.

And Fudge noticed how the boy merely glanced at the crowd before putting his disinterested look back on.

Yet Fudge had to keep his professionality.

"Silence in the court!"

He ordered once again, and the crowd had to force themselves not to murmur out loud. They knew that not following the rules would get them kicked out, and they couldn't afford to miss such an important moment.

Especially one which not even the rich and the powerful could not attend.

The lack of the Malfoys, Greengrass and the other superpowers was proof of it.

Finally, as the people responsible for the gathering stood before him, he heard the auror behind him announce.

"Today's court has gathered to discuss the matter of Mr. Sebastian Slytherin, the proclaimed heir of Salazar Slytherin and the current lord candidate of the house of Slytherin." The man stood straight as his voice grew louder. "And about his recent discovery of a basilisk in the ruins of his family grave and treasury."

There were other aspects, other points to be discussed in the gathering, but the basilisk was the priority.

And so was proving Sebastian's identity. As while Fudge believed the boy, thanks to Dumbledore vouching for him, he knew that the crowd would not believe someone's word without proof.

And he also knew that there were many ready to pounce to obtain the basilisk as well as the treasures that the boy owned.

If his identity could not be proved, the treasury was fair game as for the basilisk, it would either be kept in Z-class security prison or be experimented on.

Fudge was made aware by Dumbledore that there was another result that they were hoping for and the minister of magic was curious as to what it was.

Fudge pushed his glasses back and put on his serious look.

"The court asks Mr. Slytherin and professor Dumbledore to stand on the podium."

All eyes and ears focused on the two people, everyone curious, everyone invested in the story.

It was rare for the secrets of MoM to leak but for the higher ups, especially the privileged that witnessed the case, it wasn't difficult for them to gather information on the situation.

No matter how strict an organization was, there was always an individual or two that managed to bring corruption to it.

"Good Morning, Albus." Fudge greeted, "I apologize that I had to call you over this early, but I hope you understand that this situation is a little too serious to not be resolved immediately."

Dumbledore through the entire confrontation, from Coleson's arrival to standing in front of the council, managed to keep a calm expression.

"It is all in good cause." Dumbledore said, "I understand the situation is a bit severe, while it shouldn't be, it seems to be for a few."

Fudge nodded, aware that Dumbledore was targeting a certain few people.

His eyes then shifted to the boy next to Dumbledore, "And you must be Mr. Sebastian Slytherin."

Sebastian nodded, not saying anything audibly.

Fudge smiled, while he didn't care about children and their games, he knew that the boy in front of him was an oddity.

"I do hope that modern Britain is treating you well." The man said, enticing a few whispers from the crowd.

"It has improved a little while degrading just as much." Sebastian said, causing a small commotion within the crowd.

"What does he mean by degrade?" One man whispered a little to loudly, "Britain has never been as magically advanced as the present!"

"Hush! He is just a fraud." Another old man said to the man, "So, lower your voice a little."

Both Dumbledore and Fudge immediately looked at Sebastian, afraid that the youngster would take offense and cause a scene.

However, to their relief, Sebastian paid no attention to the men. In a sense, he seemed a bit too poised, as if he had been in such scenarios quite often.

"Silence." Hoping to not cause a ruckus, Fudge tried his best to handle the situation.

He turned and gave the auror a nod, who passed a scroll to the minister.

"So, if everyone has finally calmed down, I would like to begin the case."

Opening the scroll fully, Fudge took a deep breath before speaking.

"So, Mr. Slytherin." He looked at the boy, "I hope you are comfortable with answering a few questions for this court?"

Sebastian nodded, confirming his agreeability.

"Alright then, let's start with the first question." Fudge cleared his throat and asked, "Is it true that you recently went to your parent's grave and found a basilisk there?"

The boy nodded, "It is true."

Once again the murmuring started and just as quickly stopped with a hammer to the table.

"Is it also true that you had no prior information about the situation?"

"Considering my grandfather, I had a hunch that there would have been a type of defensive mechanism or some spell to keep the graves safe." Sebastian sounded just as impressed as Fudge, "But I didn't expect to find a basilisk of that size in there."

He answered honestly, while omitting the part that he knew the basilisk, just didn't expect it to be there.

Fudge nodded, "And… were you the one to stop it?"

"Yes."

But this answer immediately drew the attention of a certain few.

"Objection, your honour!"

A certain few who were waiting for a moment to butt in.

"It is impossible for a child of ten years to face a basilisk, much less control it!"

Sebastian twisted his head a little at the man getting his age wrong, but decided not to voice it.

"Basilisks are XXXXX rated beasts! Even aurors with decades of experience fear to talk about them, much less face them." Another man, who Fudge knew to be a supporter of the former speaker added. "It is ridiculous to even consider the idea of a young boy taming it!"

Sebastian had already expected these arguments so he was about to answer. However, before he could say anything, Dumbledore decided to interfere.

"As stated earlier, Mr. Slytherin is the heir of the great Salazar Slytherin, a man capable of taming every serpentine." Dumbledore said, "Whether it was a house pet snake or a basilisk, it was not a difficult task for him to tame."

He looked around, "So, I believe it should be common knowledge for a blood relative, especially a grandson, a direct heir to the Slytherin bloodline to be capable of taming serpents, shouldn't it?"

Sebastian smiled a little at the statement, as Dumbledore was spot on. It was thanks to being a Slytherin and being someone who had met the basilisk before that it listened to him back when they had their encounter.

"And how are we certain that the boy is truly a Slytherin?" Another man, seemingly part of the crew who stood against him, spoke, "How can we be certain that it is not just some con artist playing the heir?"

This started a lot of murmuring.

"And we do not want to hear the excuse that he was discovered buried in time." The first man to voice his concern spoke, "That could have been a freeze spell that held him there for a few years or maybe just a few days." He stated, "We do not have any spell to measure the duration of a time prison spell."

One by one the supporters began to be vocal.

"There is no spell to affirm his blood connection. We do not possess the blood of Salazar to affirm his claim." Their voices were loud and confident, "And if someone has gone through such lengths to lie, there is no way that they will not have any way to counter truth detection spells. So that cannot be used to confirm the words either."

Dumbledore already expected this and while he was prepared to answer quite a lot of those questions, he knew that it was not going to be an easy task.

"There is no reason for him to lie about being a Slytherin, now is there?" Dumbledore asked, "While he has already proven his lineage in front of us. I would like to know why would a boy even claim to be from the Slytherin lineage when the house had fallen long ago, there is no political power that they possess and their resources had been exhausted long ago, including their land."

This was what a few of the men were waiting for, and hearing about the lack of wealth, they immediately said.

"The treasury!" The fat man said, "We all know that the families before the creation of Gringotts had treasuries hidden away! So, if he came to know about the existence of the Slytherin treasury he had more than enough reasons to lie about his lineage!"

"With his lies, he can obtain the wealth and the knowledge of the past with ease!" Another man near yelled, "It is the treasury that he was after!"

"The wealth! The secrets buried through the winds of time!" The fat man seemed excited to speak about the treasure, "He should not be allowed to cheat the world and get his hands on such invaluable treasures! It belongs to the wizarding world, not to a scam artist!"

Anyone could feel his passion, or his greed.

But he wasn't wrong.

Sebastian could indeed be a scam artist trying his best to obtain the treasures of Salazar and this caused a commotion within the court.

"Silence! Silence!"

Even Dumblefore frowned, "You are accusing someone without proof. This on it's own is a crime."

"And trying to claim a treasure that belongs to the world of wizardry! Trying to monopolize it all with lies is an even bigger crime, Dumbledore!" The man yelled, "You of all people should know better!"

Dumbledore frowned, he knew that Sebastian was the heir. He had the words inscribed by Salazar himself inside of Hogwarts informing him about the return of his grandson. And he had seen the ancient magic, the pendant of Salazar which were enough proof for him.

But was it enough for the court?

Of course not.

He could not use some inscriptions or a pendant and especially not ancient magic.

Ancient magic was sacred and dangerous. And there were individuals of ancient lineage, not of powerful families but of conservative magical families of different countries that had access to a certain few ancient spells.

So, even that wasn't good enough.

Dumbledore was in a pinch, but he had ways. He just wasn't certain if they were appropriate to be used or wasted for such a situation.

Fortunately for him, he didn't have to worry about such things.

Why?

Because, Sebastian had his own ways.

And Dumbledore realized that when he heard the boy's laughter.

Quite a loud laugh, a laugh that drew everyone's attention.

"And that answers my question of why I was truly summoned here," The heir of Salazar was amused, "It is not about the basilisk at all, it is all about the treasury."

A statement that everyone showed distaste for, but everyone knew it in their hearts that they could not deny it.

After all, it had always been about the treasury.

It had always been about wealth.

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