Chapter 44: Trials

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 25th, 1992, 7:29 AM - Wednesday

Erik was again seated on the head of Ravenclaw's house table in the Great Hall and serving himself some latte when the day's newspaper appeared by his side. He took the time to finish serving his latte and drink a little before getting the newspaper to red. When Erik did it, he read the big headline on the front page of it.

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RAVENCLAWS TALK!

First interview ever from the oldest wizard and witch alive!

By Barnabas Cuffe

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Erik read the entire article written by Mr. Cuffe. The man wrote about his arrival at the school and his first impressions of Lord Ravenclaw. He continued about being invited to the owner's chambers of the castle and being introduced to Lady Ravenclaw and to Erik's other two wives. Mr. Cuffe went on to express his impressions on Erik's wives and what he had noticed during all the duration of the interview. Each part had a beautiful photo that accompanied the description. The photo chosen for the first page was the one taken of the couple behind the office's desk, but the photo that would really capture the reader's attention was on the second page: the two swords and the diadem together. Erik finished reading the article and he had to admit that Mr. Cuffe really knew what he was doing.

At the end of the article, there was an announcement that the complete interview could be ready fully on another page. Erik read it without reading it fully, just enough to guarantee that the interview had really been printed fully as advertised. And it was.

Erik continued to eat his breakfast as he read the newspaper. The students around him were again huddled together in groups reading the newspaper. The talks were diverse between them too. It varied from Salazar's origin to the seven wives of lord Ravenclaw.

As the clock approached eight and a half, Erik got up from his seat and started to walk out of the Great Hall, giving the newspaper to the little blonde that still was the only student that was seated near the head of the table. His gesture got a big smile from Luna as a reward, and that worked for him. He winked to the little blonde and walked out of the Great Hall. He had classes to teach.

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

November 27th, 1992, 7:20 AM - Friday

Two days had passed since their interview to the Daily Prophet. Erik and his wives had entered into a kind of daily routine in the castle. He would teach classes and help the students to practice in the designated rooms, while his wives would take care of the more administrative side of the School.

Two days ago, on the same day that the interview was printed, Selena had made a recall for the books of Ravenclaw's Common Room library too. She had happily announced to Erik that the bookshelves of Ravenclaw's Common Room were full again and that she had already talked with Professor Flitwick about an expansion of it for new books.

Yesterday's edition of the Daily Prophet came with the firsts announcements of job offers for the school. But it was not the complete one, just for the positions in the History of Magic Office. The offer read that the school was hiring two teachers with the minimal requirement of a 'EE' NEWT or superior in History of Magic to teach the years one to three, and four to five. Beyond that, there was an offer for a position as Professor in the History of Magic Office to teach students of year six and seven. For this last one a Mastery was wanted. Both offers came with no requisites beyond the wanted qualifications, and offered meals, housing and a competitive salary in accord with the position taken. The job offers would remain in place for two weeks while Selena received the applications and scheduled interviews with the wannabes employees.

Erik had just served his daily latte and was sipping it when the house-elves delivered his edition of the day for the Daily Prophet. Erik took some bites from his English breakfast, and mentally ordered the newspaper to unfold and float in front of him in a perfect distance to be read. The headline for that day put a small smile on his face.

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SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT!

Petigrew found alive and the true Potters' betrayer!

By Clark Quenti

You didn't read wrong, dear readers. Yesterday, during an extra meeting of the Wizengamot called by the Director of the DMLE, Madam Amelia Bones, Peter Petigrew was presented alive. The supposed dead war hero was there to be judged by the body with charges of conspiracy and accomplice to the murder of Lord and Lady Potter, the murder of twelve muggles, the faking of his own death, and, believe it or not, being an unregistered animagus.

During the trial, Madam Bones called for Sirius Black as a witness for the accusation. Heir Black entered the Wizengamot chambers on his own feets, took a seat in front of the Lords and Ladies that were present, and was questioned under the use of Veritaserum. The use of the most powerful truth serum was a request made by the man himself.

After Madam Bones questions were answered fully, various Lords questioned the quality of the truth serum used and some even brought questions about the pre-ingestion of potions to nullify the powerful truth serum. The first accusation was rebated by the showing of the authentication of the potion by a Potion Master employed by the DMLE and the Lord that questioned the quality of the Veritaserum was invited by Madam Bones to come forward and test the potion by ingesting it himself. If this first outcome was not enough, the second accusation was rebated in an even more sure way. Sirius Black asked for his wand and, under wand point of two Aurors to prevent any 'funny' outcome, made a magic vow on his magic and life, in front of the complete body of the Wizengamot, that all the questions made by Madam Bones were answered by him with the truth that he knew of. Being alive just after said vow was enough to shut up the claims against the validity of his words.

Said words revealed that he was not a Death Eater or that he was not working or had ever worked for You-Know-Who, preferring to die than to serve him. Sirius Black revealed that he was NOT the Potters' secret keeper, but that it had been his idea to change the secret keeper to Peter Petigrew. His idea, and Lord Potter had agreed to him in that, was to act as a decoy, calling for all the attention of the Death Eaters to be focused on him, and by that he would add an extra layer of protection to the secret keeper. Sirius Black revealed, too, what happened after feeling the wards of the Potters' hideout being destroyed; That he went after the traitor, after making sure that his godson, Harry James Potter, was safe with Albus Dumbledore; That he managed to corner Peter Petigrew in a muggle street; That he got distracted by a massive explosion caused by the traitor and let him escape; And that he remembering being stunned while not managing to control his laugh and grief, just to wake up on its own already in his cell in the prison of Azkaban, the same one that he was a unwilling 'resident' for eleven years.

That's right, dear readers. Sirius Black was thrown into Azkaban without even a trial.

After that, it was Peter Petigrew's turn to be questioned. The man first claimed that was against the use of Veritaserum, but after being reminded by Madam Bones that he was a dead wizard at the eyes of the law and had no right to refuse the serum, he abided by her orders and ingested the powerful truth serum. What happened in sequence was the man admitting to being a Death Eater and that he was part of that group for two years prior to the Halloween incident, collaborating as a spy for the You-Know-Who's side of the war. Peter Petigrew then went into details about how he guided the Dark Lord to the Potters' home, watched him murder Lord Potter, and waited for him outside baby Harry's nursery. He then continued talking about what followed, just confirming Sirius Black words. The rat then explained how he escaped, by transforming in his unregistered animagus form, a common garden rat, and fleeing into the muggle's sewer system. Peter Petigrew then went on, answering Madam Bones questions, on what he did after, hiding within a pureblood family, to keep an ear on the news about the Dark Lord, disguising as a pet rat for one of the children.

This last one, added a charge of trespassing private property to his long list of crimes. Not that the extra charge would really make any real difference to the result of the trial. Madam Bones asked too if he ever would register himself as an animagus, which he denied, claiming that it was something that gave too much of an advantage for him. When questioned since when he could transform, he answered by having learned it together with Sirius Black and James Potter during his fifth year at Hogwarts. Madam Bones then questioned Sirius Black about it, and the man said that he would have registered after the war was over, since his form was very useful as a scout during a mission as an Auror, and that his superior knew about it, the same as his squad mates. Madam Bones then asked for a Master Auror to check the internal files of the Aurors and Sirius Black's words were confirmed by it.

After a short interval, where funny enough no one had questioned the authenticity of the truth serum, the body of the Wizengamot reached its verdict.

Sirius Black was cleared of all accusations against him and received, as a sorry from the Ministry, a hefty sum of galleons for all the years that he was kept in prison.

Peter Pettigrew was declared guilty of all charges and received a death sentence due to all the accumulation of his crimes. He was given the choice of execution by the Dementor's kiss or by being thrown through the Veil of Death. After some pleas of mercy, Peter Pettigrew chose the Veil. His execution occurred yesterday at 10PM, and had as witnesses the Aurors of the DMLE and some Unspeakables.

After the trial, when Sirius Black was asked about what he would do now that he was a free man again, he answered the following:

"I would like to have a good talk with my godson, Harry, you know? To know him again. It was said to me that he is in his second year at Hogwarts and plays as a seeker for Gryffindor's team, so we at least have an ice breaker to start the conversation. I will continue my medical treatment in St. Mungos too. Eleven years of Azkaban left some scars on my body. After that? I don't know yet what I will do, but I read that Hogwarts will be hiring new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, so maybe I can get a job. Who knows?"

Sirius Black excused himself after this one question, saying that he had some urgent business to do with the goblins of Gringotts.

Minister Fudge, when asked about the miscarry of justice, blamed the past administration of Minister Bagnold for it:

"It is a shame to the Ministry and to our justice system that an innocent man spent eleven years in Azkaban without a trial. I can only blame the chaotic times that the previous administration was passing by, but our citizens can rest assured that an investigation will be open to search about what caused such injustice to occur. For an innocent citizen of Magical Britain to spend eleven years in Azkaban is truly pitiful."

Madam Bones, when asked about how they found Peter Pettigrew, chose to not give any declarations in virtue of trying to protect the family that was his victim.

We, of the Daily Prophet, can only hope that no more cases like the one of Sirius Black happens, and wish to him a happy restart in his new lease of life.

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The article followed with a list of more details about certain parts of it, but Erik had already read enough. He looked up from his newspaper in time to find the post owls entering the Great Hall to deliver their mail. Erik went back and continued to read other news.

Twenty minutes later, Erik had finished his breakfast and reading of the newspaper and repeated the same thing that he had done on the last days; He gave the newspaper to the little blonde, Luna, and got his now daily big smile as a reward. Erik, now happier, walked out of the Great Hall in direction to his classroom hearing a 'gasp' from a black haired and green eyed second year student of Gryffindor that was reading a letter that he had just received.

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