Halley

43- The Hearing

"I call to order a disciplinary hearing for Halley Alice Longbottom," a ministry wizard banged a small hammer in his desk, bringing the courtroom to order.

For reasons beyond Halley, her case had been bought before the wizagamot for a decision. James had speculated that the reasoning behind this was that too many of her family members were in powerful positions, who could influence the decision, so the wizagamot was the only option.

"Can you please confirm that you are Halley Alice Longbottom, daughter of Venus and Neville Longbottom?" The wizard asked.

"Yes," Halley replied from her seat in the centre of the room.

"You stand on trial because of illegal use of potions that were unapproved by the ministry, do you deny this claim?"

"No," said Halley, gritting her jaw, "however, I had done extensive research and experimentation with the potion that I used, and all of that research had positive outcomes."

The ministry wizard nodded and looked down at his notes, "did you use the said potion on Mrs Venus Longbottom, Mr Remus Lupin, Mr Ethan Edgar and Mrs Amalia Weasley?"

"Yes I did," Halley nodded.

"And all four of them are listed as witnesses for your defence?"

"Correct."

"Very well, I call Venus Longbottom to the stand."

Halley glanced around and saw her mother get to her feet, smiling at Halley reassuringly.

"Mrs Longbottom, were you aware at the time that you first used the potion that it was unratified by the ministry?"

"No I was not, but I trust my daughter implicitly, and I know that she would never do anything with the intention of hurting someone else. She has spent most of her adult life working on something to help make my life, along with the lives of werewolves everywhere better-I don't believe that she should be punished for this." Venus said what she had to say, and without waiting to be dismissed, sat back down on her bench beside Remus.

Remus was then called to the stand and said a very similar thing to what Venus had said, testifying that Halley was a fundamentally good person.

After Remus had spoken, Ethan was called upon to speak.

"I believe that you work with Miss Longbottom."

"Yes, I was her mentor when she trained and I have worked closely with her since."

"Have you been assisting her with her investigations into lycanthropic cures?"

"Yes, I have been the test subject for most of the potions that we have devised."

"In these tests did you see any indication that the potions used were harmful in any way?"

"No. As Halley said, we tested the cream extensively, and every single test was successful, with no side effects."

"Did either of you discuss the fact that you should present it to the ministry for examination?"

"No, it worked and that was all we cared about."

"Thank you, Mr Edgar."

Finally, it was Mali's turn to speak. Her statement included how she believed that Halley's quick action, along with the potion had saved her life, along with a long declaration of Halley's good spirit.

Halley and never felt so touched in her life-to hear all of these people that she cared for so deeply saying such lovely things about her.

"Thank you, Mrs Weasley," the ministry wizard dismissed Mali, and then turned back to Halley, "is there anything that you wish to say to the wizagamot before they come to their decision?"

"I would just like to say, that I know I made a mistake a big one at that, and I will never do that again, however, I do not regret it, because it saved my Aunt's life." She looked up at the group of old wizards, who nodded at her, and then rose and began to leave the room to make their decision.

Halley got to her feet and walked over to join her family. All of them were looking at her with concern, but Halley merely grinned, looking at her Aunt.

"You know Aunt Mali, I have known you for all my life, yet I have never heard anyone call you Amalia. Is that really your full name?"

"Of course it's my full name, why else do you think he called me it?" Mali rolled her eyes.

"Huh, well I guess you really do learn something new every day."

********

The verdict that the court came to was that, although Halley did do wrong, there was never any intention of hurting anyone behind her actions.

The ministry had thoughourly analysed the cream and found nothing other than healing qualities within it, which proves what Halley had said.

She was told that if she was ever found to repeat the offence that her punishment would be quite severe, and Halley quickly promised them that she would never make that mistake again.

Leaving the ministry, she felt elated. In two weeks time, Ethan and Remus would once again test number 43. If it worked again, they would submit it to the ministry for analysis. And if it was cleared- she could hardly believe it, but if it was cleared, she would have achieved what she had set out to do all those years ago.

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