Chapter 21. (The end 198k words )

I opened my eyes, slowly. How long had I been out? A few days, probably.

In front of me was a podium of wood, desks and chairs, a court. I was chained to a chair, arcs of adamantine restrained my neck, thorax, arms and legs.

I couldn't recognize any of the faces in front of me, but they all stared at me with hate.

"Harry James Potter, in light of the horror you have committed and dangerous behaviour, you have been refused the right to have an attorney to help you defend your case." The female judge announced clearly, piercing me with her eagle eyes. "Do you have any complaints?"

I stood silent.

"Good. You are here to explain your act and receive your sentence. Let us begin." She motioned to her assistant who acquiesced and stood up.

"Harry James Potter, you are primary suspect in the following cases."

She brought her scroll of parchment to her eyes and began. I listened only half-heartedly, I had decided to be very passive. Nothing I say will help me anyway.

"21th of July, 1992 - Robbery of the Zabini Museum, in which you stole an artifact of value estimated to a billion of galleons and illegally obliviated Mr. Zabini Blaise, scion of the Noble House Zabini."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by the House of Zabini, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"10th of November, 1992 - Assault and illegal obliviation involving level five dark magic on Annah Abbot, who escaped death only thanks to the quick response of Hogwarts' medical service."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

She waited for my answer. I snorted. That's how it's gonna be, heh? I shrugged.

"Guilty." I said simply. It didn't matter at all right now, so at least they'd stop drilling Annah's mind for proof.

She nodded and started talking again as an old man on her left wrote down my answer.

"16th of March, 1993 - Illegal obliviation on Mr. Darden Marvyn, student in his seventh year at Hogwarts, expelled for wrong reasons."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

"Guilty."

"2nd of December, 1993 - Assault and murder of Aurors Daragh Conleth and Marcus K. Finlay; and civilians Theodore Serghei and Carreen Nadia. Involved level four and possibly three dark magic."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by the Auror Department, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"Presumably beginning of year 1994 - Illegal body enhancing ritual on the person of Lavender Brown followed by illegal obliviation."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by the Department of Mysteries, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"10th of April, 1994 - Assault and illegal obliviation of two French Aurors in France."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by Gringotts' Analysis Department, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"15th of November, 1994 - Assault and murder of Ministry workers Herrigton Miles and Khalil Imran, assault and illegal obliviation of ministry workers Sandford Dario and Gottschalk Peti, and semi-murder of Montague Graham by giving him to unrestrained Dementors. This case had been closed but re-opened in light of recent events."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

"Guilty." Many people in the crowd gasped at that. I couldn't bring myself to care. It was the kiss for me, I had no doubts. Many people got kissed for much less than what I did.

"28th of December, 1994 - Assault and illegal obliviation of Potter Zachary from the Noble House of Potter and Granger Hermione; Assault, illegal obliviation and serious injuries on Weasley Ronald, who escaped death only by a few seconds."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

"Guilty."

More gasps.

"13th of February, 1995 - Assault and Murder of the entire Silas family, of the Noble House of Silas, involving level three dark magic and torture."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

I raised my eyebrows. Silas family? Probably someone trying to use me as a scapegoat. Not that I care, at this point. "Heh, guilty, I guess." I shrugged. They wouldn't believe me anyway, and I couldn't be arsed to try and defend myself.

"25th of July, 1995 - Murder of South American Auror Covenant member Calisto Vicente on British soil, event that started the tension between the British Ministry and the Covenant."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by Gringotts' Analysis Department and the South American Covenant, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"Presumably around September 1995 - Development and execution of an illegal and dangerous ritual to suck the life force of all witches and wizards residing in the Hogwarts Castle."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by the Department of Mysteries, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

"13th of October, 1995 - Sabotage of a stash of fireworks stored in the Hogwarts Castle and subsequent murder of underage students Longbottom Neville of the Noble House Longbottom, Thomas Dean, Crow Hyacinth of the Noble House Crow and Weasley Fred. This case had been closed but re-opened in light of recent events."

"Mr. Potter's involvement is still only speculative. What do you plead?"

"Guilty."

As soon as I talked the word, the crowd erupted in shouts and yells.

"Silence! Silence in the court!" she barked. The crowd calmed down after a few seconds of banging the hammer.

"21th of May, 1996 - Development and execution of a highly illegal ritual presenting signs of the darkest magic, above official levels. The details will not be spoken any further."

"Solid evidence of Mr. Potter's involvement have been provided by the Department of Travel and the Norwegian Ministry, we won't require an input from Mr. Potter."

She made a small pause and cleared her throat.

"The following have been witnessed by many Aurors and civilians, eight days ago, and thus, won't need confirmation or rejection from Mr. Potter."

"21th of May, 1996 - Assault and abduction of Potter Lily and Potter James in their residence."

"21th of May, 1996 - Assault and Murder of Aurors Inigo Derryl, Godfrey Seraphina of the Noble House Godfrey, Loreto Lekan, Cameron Harold, Gerhold Morley, Osvald Alexis, Arlie Corentin, Walton Hugo, Ingram Davis, Torborg Lena, Ambre Lizzie and Ambre Benjamin in an attempt to escape deserved judgment. Assault and grave injuries to an additional fifteen members of the Auror forces whose names will not be communicated."

"21th of May, 1996 - Assault and Murder of underage students Raennon Ashton, Bell Katie, Chesley Nataly, Cade Wendi, Harding Edwin and Chang Cho. Assault and grave injuries to an additional eight members of the Hogwarts student body whose names will not be communicated."

Then, she took a big breath, watching the audience darkly. The crowd had been silent for a moment now, as if mourning.

"21th of May, 1996 - Development and execution of a ritual of the darkest form of magic; Most Illegal act number 2, Attempt of Necromancy on the person of Potter Natasha, deceased 31st of July, 1991. Murder of Lily and James Potter of the noble House Potter, as part of the aforementioned Illegal act. The magical blast seriously injured Weasley Ginny and Terance Ewan, to this day still between life and death."

"To finish, from September 1991 to May 1996, unrestrained use of illegal obliviation and unforgivable curses on an unknown number of Hogwarts students, estimated above forty by the Obliviation Masters and Aurors currently still investigating."

"In the same period, use of illegal apparition, dark magic up to level one and other crimes that won't be mentioned as the main charges are extremely serious. For a complete list, please refer to page 15-22 of the file that has been given to you."

"Many parties have been deeply offended by Mr. Potter present here today and claim right to pronounce their own judgment over him. Please begin - South American Covenant representative, Remigio Reynaldo."

And so it began, first the South American Covenant tried to persuade the jury that I should be shipped to them for trial and execution if it came to it. Then it was the Zabini, who used their time to ask of the jury that they made sure I wouldn't get shipped to a softie, then it was the unspeakable that tried to explain just how important it was to keep me alive and able to tell of my secrets, and it was over.

The jury walked in their room to deliberate, and came back less than an hour later.

The judge stood up before me and cleared her throat.

"Decision has been taken. Mr. Harry James Potter, present in this court today, for all the aforementioned crimes, is to be given the harshest punishment existing. Being aged under 17 years old, in accordance with Paragraph 18 of the fifth basic Law of Magic Britain, Mr. Potter will not be given the kiss but will instead be incarcerated in the lowest level of Azkaban, for life."

When she ended her speech, everybody was standing and clapping, some even cheering. Many shouted random insults at me. I watched them impassively. A lifetime in Azkaban, heh? I'd probably scare Dementors away... I sighed. I knew I wouldn't be able to escape from the lowest cell, even given my probable resistance to Dementors.

"Do you have anything to say? Any last words, for history?" asked a journalist who had managed to get closer to me.

I grinned. "Live." I said before he was snatched away, replaced by a burly Auror who waved his wand at me, casting a stunner. Live, Natasha.

A red flash overtook me.

Live.

an: Okay, now I'll answer a few points that have been raised in reviews in random order;

- Harry disregards the deathly hallows because 1° it's a kid story he heard when he was a kid and has no reason to believe any of it is true and 2° it wouldn't even occur to him to be satisfied with some kind of ghost, which is what the stone offers. Pretty much he wouldn't even think of it as a solution.

- Indeed Harry is not cunning, his plans are bullshit, and he only gets through the day because he's 1° a powerful member of the Potter bloodline and 2° pretty lucky. I didn't exactly want to make him look like a "real hufflepuff" but it was my intent to make him a fool who believes himself better than others when all he really can do is use unreasonable ruthlessness and power in everything he does. It works out pretty well because he's the luckiest son of a bitch, and because wizardkind isn't expecting this from a kid. I'm happy you guys caught that :)

- about hell/heaven... errr... I just forgot about heaven, I guess. My bad. If the afterlife is actually a thing, I just envision it to be hell by default. Maybe I've got issues.

- about chapter 1: yes it's crap, and i should rewrite it. The thing is that the thing with Dumbledore's old spell on James and Lily gone awry, was in the story since the 1st word I wrote, but since I wanted to show the reader only and ONLY what Harry sees, I couldn't put it in. As result it looked like it was totally retarded for James and Lily to be so mean, and that's how Harry felt about it, for good reasons. I wanted the reader to know as few as Harry did. Which is pretty much what I did throughout the entire story, you only see/hear what Harry does. Imagine reading that same story from Zachary's POV.

tl;dr I should rewrite it but I can't really think of a way to, so heh...

That's it. I forgot some other points but those are the ones I had in mind. I hope you liked the "not so bad end" because originally it was supposed to end in Harry failing and pretty much losing it once and for all. But I've grown to crave the Natasha myself...

See you on my next, better written story (hopefully)! See ya.

Go and check out the nightmare men another Harry Potter fic

Synopsis:

In the depths of the Ministry, there is a cell for the world's most dangerous man… and he wants out.

this has been an experience thank you I love you all