Stuck in Court

The very next day Harry took Quinn up on his offer to stay in their room. Since then, Queenie had a person to talk to at most times of the day, and she doted on the boy. She went out into town with him, she made sure he tasted all kinds of food to see if he liked them. She would even spend evenings talking about the magical british culture. She spoke of the wizards who were praised almost as gods, like Merlin and Circe, she spoke of the holidays few celebrated anymore, she spoke of the government and most other things but most importantly to Harry, she told him the kind of stories most children raised in magical families were familiar with. Tales of Beedle the Bard could often be seen on the table by their fireplace.

Quinn was pleased the boy got to experience some doting, he suspected there hadn't been much of that over the years, and he quickly noticed that his mother clearly wished she had another child of her own. She had such a melodic voice and a calming presence, it was almost a crime not to have her either work with children or raising one.

Quinn hoped his brother would have a child soon as otherwise he'd have to convince Albus into hiring her at Hogwarts.

But soon the week was over. The trial day had arrived, and for Quinn his first three exams were that same evening. They all dressed up proper and headed to the ministry. It was rather shocking that the news hadn't gotten out but the hearing would require a full wizengamot so the Atrium was filled with important looking people all heading down to the same floor.

All of the large news outlets were there as well, trying to gather information about whose trial it was that required the entire wizengamot. Usually only a small fraction gathered to settle small trials. A full wizengamot usually meant an important person was on trial for something massive. That had barely happened since the last war.

Harry wore some rather fancy clothes and a black fedora to cover part of his face and hair. Because of this, he managed to escape the media. Quinn still remembered Rita Skeeter from his Hogwarts days and would prefer to not let her get to the boy. Quirinus and Gilderoy were friends with her back in the day but there was no denying that she was ruthless and..let's call it imaginative.

Soon they were down in the courtroom and sat on their designated seats. Harry then quickly removed his coat and fedora so that he would be easily visible for Sirius if he looked at the crowd. Harry, Quinn and Queenie had received prime tickets for this trial so Harry could support his godfather.

The two had met twice since Harry got to Hogwarts as well. Quinn didn't know what they discussed but Harry seemed happier every time he had talked to Sirius. Suddenly Minister Fudge called the court to order and called in the defendant.

Shocks were heard all over the crowd with several growling slightly in anger and frustration at what they saw. They saw Sirius Black walk in happily with his hands tied behind his back. Sure his face and body were still gaunt and his hair had lost its luster but he looked genuinely happy when he saw Harry cheering him on from the crowd. The reporters were scribbling hard and quickly as they saw this.

Soon the process was underway. Sirius Black had Amelia Bones as his legal representation which raised a few eyebrows and the ministry had chosen a hard and tall looking man called Theodore Nott Sr.

The case was Sirius Black against the ministry, for wrongful imprisonment and misconduct. The case was simple. Sirius Black claimed to have never gotten a trial despite being completely innocent of all crimes. The ministry denied all charges.

As the first evidence Ms. Bones showed the court what was in Sirius Black's file. A single arrest rapport and his transfer rapport for when he was sent to Azkaban. She had also spoken to over half of the wizengamot and none of them had attended any trial convicting Sirius Black. This was conclusive evidence since Sirius Black was the inheritor of an old pure blood family and therefore had the right of 60% attendance for any case he was involved.

After much discussion and consideration the court decided that there had indeed been injustice, but Sirius' innocence had not been proven. Therefore this now turned into the trial he should have been afforded so long ago. As primary evidence, Amelia presented Sirius Black himself under truth serum, the strongest kind. He would not be able to tell lies and not even hide a truth.

Just the fact that he was willing to do this caused murmuring in the crowd. Most were not willing because who knows what might be said. He could tell any kinds of secrets just because his mind figured they were connected. A simple "Have you ever committed a crime?" Would put most people in trouble.

Sirius, however, escaped looking perfectly alright. He did confess to sending Severus Snape into a nearly deadly prank with his friend Remus the werewolf, but other than that, Sirius made it out looking like a perfectly alright man who was a bit too obsessed with sex and women.

Concerning the case, he revealed that it was in fact Peter Pettigrew who did it all, and that he, Peter and James had all been animagi to help the aforementioned werewolf friend handle it when he turned. This got him quite a few nice-person-points. When he revealed that Peter was a rat animagi and still alive, most were completely shocked. It all made sense though. A finger and nothing else was found, and yet all of the muggles' bodies were found at the scene.

13 muggles were killed and supposedly one Peter Pettigrew. So how come exploded remains were found of all victims except Peter Pettigrew, where only a cleanly cut finger was found. As a finishing blow, they found Sirius' old wand and performed prior incantato and found out that the last few spells he performed were two Protego, a tickling charm and a sobering charm. Nothing that would cause the explosion.

The ministry man tried to nail Sirius in any way he could. He grasped at the info he got out about Snape, and then he grasped at the fact that he was an illegal animagus, but it was clear that the ministry had no case against the innocent man.

Eventually it was ruled in favour of Sirius Black. He would get put into the animagus register for free, he would get recompense, and also a pardon for whatever he had done before that day that would have sentenced him to less than eleven years in azkaban. The ministry would also pay for his hospital fees. "And with that I call this meeting-"

But Fudge was interrupted by Sirius. "I have one more thing to add. I would like to undertake a role I should have held these last eleven years." Amelia gave him a few papers which he signed and put in Fudge's hands. "I would like to become the guardian and caretaker of Harry James Potter."

A/N: Yes, I decided that we didn't need an in depth trial here. What's the point? Trials are very dull occations after all and any "funny business" which I have seen in other fanfics actually tend to be highly detrimental in a real case. I decided to skip through it to the very end. Please tell me if I skipped something important though.