Chapter 083

"They were found to have been enchanted, with one of those enchantments being a portkey that was created while Mister Dumbledore was in some control of the wards over the Ministry, Chief Adjudicator," replied Bones. "As such, he is not permitted them.

"And his hands will not be unbound as he is known to be quite capable in the use of wandless cast magic."

"Ah!" said Ogden before he turned back to Dumbledore. "As explained, your glasses will not be returned due to the portkey on them and your hands will not be unbound due to your skill in wandless casting. Therefore, handing you a copy of the charges laid against you seems quite pointless.

"However, if you wish to... rethink... your co-operating with your appointed law-wizard, then Mister Tofty will be able to both hold and read the list of charges."

Dumbledore grumbled a bit about that but replied, "In that case, as you are being unreasonable, Ezekiel may step forward and hold the charge list for me."

Ogden looked at Tofty and gave him a nod, and the man came forward to collect a copy of the charges.

Harry guessed the man already knew what they contained as he only glanced through them.

Again looking to Bones, Ogden said, "Madam Bones you may read the charges and commence your case."

As the charges were slowly read, Harry was stunned at just how many there were. They included charges that Harry had not even thought about. However, they also included charges that had obviously arisen as a result of the previous trials, as Harry suspected would occur.

It took the stern Director of the DMLE almost five minutes to read them all out.

When she was finished no one said a word. The entire chamber was silent.

It remained so for a good few seconds before one of the Members, Harry didn't know who it was, laughed and said, "Merlin! That must be a new record for the number of charges one person has ever faced!"

That had a few chortles and snickers of nervous laughter before Ogden banged his gavel once and said, "Irrespective of the number of charges Mister Dumbledore faces, I believe Madam Bones will be addressing each and every one of them..." He turned a smirk to Bones.

"I am well prepared to do precisely that, Chief Adjudicator Ogden," she firmly replied. "We're going to be at this for a while." Her face did not show one flicker of amusement.

That shut all the sounds of amusement up.

Harry thought Bones would start her case by starting with the events of the night of the thirty-first of October, 1981, in a chronological order. However, she started well before that date, and things weren't as chronological as they were with other cases.

Instead, she addressed each case point with a collection of evidence for each, before moving on to the next.

Harry would not presume to think himself an expert of wizarding case law, even after having sat through over half a dozen cases over the past few days and carefully watching each and every one. But, he quickly recognised what she was up to.

Madam Bones was making sure everyone knew what laws Dumbledore broke and provided the evidence to demonstrate it. Then she'd move onto the next one. However, after a while he could see she was grouping them into logical allotments.

Each time she proved where Dumbledore had broken a law, she finished her evidence by stating, "I believe I have now successfully proven Mister Albus Dumbledore breached the law of section 'whatever', part 'whichever', of Wizarding British Statute 'whatever' of 'whenever', which states, 'blah'."

Then she would move onto the next one by stating, "I now move to the charge of 'whatever'."

Tofty was trying his best to defend his client. He tried to argue that some matters offered into evidence could not be accepted as they amounted to little more than hearsay. That is, statements given by others who weren't given Veritaserum or gave oaths as to the veracity of their statements, were not present for the entirety of an event and therefore had a skewed perception of it, it might not have been Dumbledore involved but instead was someone under a glamour or Polyjuice potion, or similar. He tried to argue that other evidence could not be accepted as it was given by minors - Hermione and Harry - or by people who were not considered proper witches or wizards - Hagrid and Flitwick - and was resoundingly berated for his attitude regarding that second one.

When the issue of Harry being collected by Hagrid and denied Sirius's guardianship of him, Dumbledore argued that Hagrid 'clearly misunderstood the instructions he was given, which is understandable as Hagrid is a half giant.' And added that Hagrid had never informed him that Sirius arrived at the Potter cottage after he did and he was, therefore, unaware of it. That was clearly an attempt to escape being found guilty of 'Kidnapping the Heir Apparent of a Noble and Most Ancient House', which would have meant the Veil for the old man, right there.