Harry Potter And The Betrayal

"It was a Dementor." Harry reported. "Fudge defended his actions by saying it was his right to bring protection along when he was going to be questioning a potentially dangerous prisoner."

"And just who was this potentially dangerous prisoner?"

"Barty Crouch Jr who had been impersonating Moody as the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher all year."

There were gasps from those who had been unaware of this fact.

"Barty Crouch Sr at the request of his dying wife, got him out of Azkaban." Harry added. "She took his place under polyjuice and was buried as her son when she died."

"And did Minister Fudge question Crouch about his activities?" Lord Perrrivor inquired.

"Not according to what McGonagall and Snape told the Headmaster." Harry informed him. "She said the minute the Dementor saw Crouch it swooped over and Kissed him."

Fudge leaned over and whispered something quietly to Madame Bones. She shot him a look of disgust because of it.

"So Crouch was never interrogated?" Bones inquired.

"Not by Fudge. He called the death of Crouch before he could be questioned, 'no great loss.'" Harry informed her. "Dumbledore had questioned him under Veritaserum though before sending for Fudge. And found that he had helped arrange things so that Moldyshorts would get his body back, using my blood along with a few other things."

"Did the Minister ever question you about the events surrounding the Dark Lord's return or Cedric Diggory's death?" Bones wanted to know.

"Nope. Dumbledore didn't want me questioned that night, but the Minister never tried at any other time either." Harry told her. "Because of the articles written by Rita Skeeter as revenge, because I wouldn't give her the interview she wanted and the fact that I am a parselmouth, Fudge believed I was nuts and that anything I said would about as believable as a Dementor winning a muggle beauty pageant. When Dumbledore tried to tell him that Voldemort was back, he called it preposterous. At one point he even told Dumbledore 'He can't be back, Dumbledore, he just can't be…' I even named the Deatheaters that responded to Voldemort's summons to the graveyard and all Fudge said was that I could've learned their names in transcripts of the trials."

"Did you ever see transcripts of the trials?" Bones spoke up before Delacour could ask his next question.

"And where would I have gotten my hands on copies of those?" Harry wanted to know. "Prior to my fifth year, the only parts of the wizarding world I had ever spent a lot of time in were Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, the Burrow, and Hogsmeade. I doubt that Ministry records are kept in any of those places."

"What else occurred in the Hospital wing the night the Dark Lord returned?" Delacour asked.

"Dumbledore made some recommendations that included removing the Dementors from Azkaban, since they would follow Moldyshorts in heartbeat, given that he would allow them more freedom than they were getting from the Ministry. He also suggested sending envoys to the Giants." Harry told them. "Fudge accused all of us of wanting to destabilise the Ministry and destroy the peace that the magical world had enjoyed for the last thirteen years."

"So to sum it up," Dantes concluded. "The night the Dark Lord returned, Minister Fudge, who is supposed to be in charge of helping to defend the magical world, stuck his fingers in his ears and sang nursery rhymes to himself hoping this would all go away. Would that be an accurate assessment, Lord Potter?"

"I couldn't have put it better myself." Harry smiled.

"I will not stand for this!" Fudge shouted out from where he sat at the table. "How dare you compare me to a child! I have always done what is best for the wizarding world! If it were not for me, the magical world would be in chaos right now."

Harry let out a snort of laughter at that last claim. "You actually think you did a good job of protecting the magical world? What kind of drugs are you on?"

"Gentlemen," Dantes spoke up before Fudge could respond. "We are getting off the topic again."

"Actually," Harry mused, "it may be very much on topic, but only time will tell."

"I take no medications other than the ones my healers prescribe for me." Fudge huffed.

"Then I would see about getting a new healer Fudgie," Harry couldn't resist commenting. "They are obviously doing nothing for your delusions, if you thought you were doing a good job as Minister."

"Gentlemen." Dantes' voice contained a note of warning. "Proceed Protector Delacour."

"Lets move on to your hearing regarding the use of underaged magic outside of school." Delacour requested. "Please tell the court what happened."

"It started with a pair of Dementors that Under-Secretary Umbridge later admitted setting on me in hopes that they would Kiss me." Harry began. "They nearly Kissed me and my cousin Dudley, not that him being Kissed would've been a great loss. Nor would anyone would've been able to tell the difference with him, given he sits on his arse all day long, when he's not beating up on those younger or smaller than he is. I drove them off with the Patronus Charm I had learned in my third year, since they seemed to want to kill me then as well."

Harry paused for a moment reliving the terror he'd felt that night. "I then got a letter telling me someone was coming by to destroy my wand because I'd been expelled from Hogwarts and that I would face a disciplinary hearing at 9 am on August 12. Then I got another letter saying they weren't going to destroy my wand but I still had to attend the hearing. Arthur Weasley took me to the Ministry early intending to show me around a little and it was a good thing he did, because we found out that the time of the hearing had been changed to 8 am, but I was never notified, nor was anyone else who could've helped in my defence. We also found out that the location of the hearing had been changed to courtroom 10, instead of in the Improper Use of Magic office. We just barely made it to the hearing room in time and I found I was going to have to defend myself in front of the whole Wizaengamot."

"You mean to tell me that not only was the time and place of the hearing was changed, but that they failed to notify you or anyone else of the change?" Lord Altren sounded incensed. "And you had no defender to walk you through the proceedings? That is a violation of the law. A defender should have spoken with you well before the hearing to get an idea of what had happened so a defence could be prepared."

"That's right," Harry agreed. "And then Fudge made it sound like it was my fault I was a couple of minutes late, even though I'd only found out about the change in the hearing time ten minutes before and we had to go all the way down to courtroom ten from where the hearing should have been in the Improper Use of Magic Offices. Fudge then attempted to control the hearing from beginning to end but he got a rather rude surprise when Dumbledore appeared in Courtroom 10 and brought with him Arabella Figg the squib who he'd placed in the neighbourhood to keep any eye on me"

"I gather that the hearing went in your favour since you returned to Hogwarts for your fifth year." Lord Perrivor commented.

"Yes it did," Harry agreed then muttered to himself, "but I'm not so sure that was a good thing. Fudge basically ended the hearing when he realised he wasn't going to be able to get me expelled and he didn't want other things coming to light."

"Lord Potter, after the hearing ended, did you have any further contact with the Minister prior to you going to the Department of Mysteries at the end of your fifth year?" Delacour asked.

"If you mean direct contact, then no." Harry answered after a few moments thought. "I did have indirect contact through all those educational decrees he and Umbridge cooked up that basically turned Hogwarts into a Concentration camp."

"Come now Lord Potter. Isn't that a bit extreme? I can hardly imagine how Hogwarts could be compared to a Nazi Concentration camp." Bones commented. "After all no one died there, and they certainly did in those muggle concentration camps."

"Maybe no one died, but people were certainly tortured under Umbridge's reign at Hogwarts. That's why she's now enjoying all that quality time at the Azkaban spa remember?" Harry countered, then conceded. "Okay, maybe a concentration camp is a bit extreme. One of the old Soviet re-education camps might be nearer to the mark. There were more than a dozen educational decrees created during my fifth year to control what kind of groups could be created within the houses, insuring that our mail was censored so that nothing got out that Umbridge and Fudge didn't want getting out, governing what we were allowed to read and what our teachers could teach us. Umbridge created an Inquisitorial Squad solely out of fifth to seventh year members of Slytherin house and the majority of them were the children of now known Deatheaters. Umbridge brought a Blood Quill into school and used it to torture students who refused to go along with the party line that Moldyshorts wasn't back. And while there were no deaths, we certainly were not allowed the freedom of expression we as British subjects had previously enjoyed."

"Lord Potter," Delacour wanted to finish up Potter's questioning. "What can you tell us about Minister Fudge's involvement in your trial for the murder of Neville Longbottom?"

"Not much, I'm afraid." Harry admitted. "There were Dementors around my cell day and night and when I was dragged into the courtroom in chains I was still trying to recover from the effects of them, so I couldn't put on a very good defence."

"What do you mean you couldn't put on a very good defence?" Lord Altren demanded. "Surely you were provided with a defender to speak for you?"

"No sir, I was not," Harry told them. "Or if I was then Fudge probably tried the change of hearing time trick again. I certainly don't remember speaking to anyone about my defence. Nor do I remember anyone speaking up on my behalf. I wasn't even given Veritaserum, which would've cleared me."

Lord Perrivor looked over at Fudge. "It looks as though we may have another charge to add: Interfering with a court case to insure that Lord Potter did not receive the fair trial he was entitled to under British magical law."

Fudge paled slightly.

"Is there anything else you would like to add to the evidence you have presented today, Lord Potter?" Delacour asked.

Harry shrugged. "Not much, except to say that Fudge should never have been elected to the Office of Minister of Magic. I realise it is foolish to expect a politician not to be a self-serving git, but Fudge carries it to the extreme. I mean what kind of idiot would be willing to risk the entire future of the magical world on the hope that I was lying about Voldemort."

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