𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 | Harry James Potter x Reader

YR 5 ☆•°~'* 06

❈🌠➵9¾♌ ⚯ 🗲━━━━━★. *･｡ﾟ✧⁺

As soon as they entered the Courtroom, Y/N's jaw dropped and he heard Harry gasp beside him. The large dungeon was horribly familiar. They had seen it before - been in it before. This was the place they'd visited in Dumbledore's Pensieve, where they had watched the Lestranges get sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban.

What were they, two teenagers of fourteen and fifteen, who had performed underage magic to protect themselves, doing in a room where Death Eaters were prosecuted? 

What was the Ministry playing at?

There were dozens of witches and wizards along the high benches on the wall. They were whispering among themselves, but when the door behind Harry and Y/N closed, an ominous silence fell.

A cold male voice rang across the courtroom.

'You're late.'

'Sorry,' said Harry nervously. 'I - I didn't know the time had been changed.'

'That is not the Wizengamot's fault,' said the voice. 'An owl was sent to you this morning. Take your seats.'

'Should've sent the owl a day before,' Y/N muttered under his breath. He and Harry moved to the centre of the room where two chairs sat, the arms of which were covered in chains. When Y/N and Harry sat down, the chains clinked threateningly, but did not bind them. Y/N looked up at the people watching them.

In the very middle of the front row sat Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. 

'Very well,' said Fudge. 'The accused being present - finally - let us begin. Are you ready?' he called down the row.

'Yes, sir,' said an eager voice Y/N recognised immediately. Percy Weasley was sitting at the very end of the front bench, bending over a long piece of parchment. Y/N wanted to grab the quill he was holding and shove it up his nose.

'Disciplinary hearing of the twelfth of August,' said Fudge in a ringing voice, and Percy began taking notes at once, 'into offences committed under the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery and the International Statute of Secrecy by Harry James Potter, resident at number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey and Y/N L/N, resident at number seven, Hyacinth Walk, Little Whinging, Surrey.

'Interrogators: Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley-'

'Witness for the defence, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian... Dumbledore,' said a loud voice from behind Harry. Y/N whipped his head around so fast he cricked his neck.

Dumbledore was striding serenely across the room wearing long midnight-blue robes and a perfectly calm expression. He drew level with Harry and Y/N and stared up at Fudge through his half-moon spectacles.

The members of the Wizengamot were muttering. All eyes were on Dumbledore. Some looked annoyed, others slightly frightened; two elderly witches in the back row, however, raised their hands and waved in welcome.

Y/N felt so glad Dumbledore was there to defend them that he forgot to be angry with him for keeping them in the dark. Harry seemed to share the same sentiment; he tried to catch Dumbledore's eye, but Dumbledore was not looking his way, he was continuing to look up at the obviously flustered Fudge.