"—those two men pulled out a little stick from inside their coats. A wand, I mean—that's what you call them, isn't it? They brought out something wrapped in a bundle, and when they tore it open, a number of black frogs fell out of the bundle."
Lawrence's voice trembled slightly as he spoke.
"And then one of the men….he pointed his wand at one of those frogs and sent it flying straight into the mouth of the postman, who couldn't move a muscle..."
In the dim, oppressive hush of the Wizengamot courtroom—Lawrence was recounting what he had witnessed on that rain-soaked January day. A scene that had overturned everything he thought he knew about the world.
Amelia Bones who had so recently replaced Fudge as the presiding judge; the members of the Wizengamot tribunal; Albus Dumbledore with his piercing blue eyes; the Order of the Phoenix members standing at attention along the walls; and the three young witches and wizards on trial in their chains—every single eye in the chamber was fixed with focus on Lawrence, this ordinary man from the Muggle world.
No one minded his faltering manner of speech. They cared only about the picture his words were painting.
As Lawrence continued his testimony, fury kindled slowly in Amelia's eyes. The corner of Sirius's eye wouldn't stop twitching. The other members of the Order were beside themselves with fury. They looked as though they might leap from their positions at any moment and tear Fudge to pieces with their bare hands.
"In the end... the postman stopped moving. Once they'd confirmed he was truly dead—two men in overcoats... well, they simply vanished."
Lawrence paused, pressing his hand to his chest.
"And then?" Madam Bones prompted her voice was vibrating with fury. She had become once more the formidable judge she was renowned for being.
Lawrence's expression grew distinctly uneasy, uncomfortable with what he had to admit next.
"I knew the police would arrive soon. I did consider waiting, considered telling them everything I'd seen."
He swallowed hard. "But I thought... they wouldn't believe me. They'd think I was mad, or drunk, or having some kind of episode. Men vanishing into thin air? Moving chocolate frogs? Magical wands? They'd have me committed to an asylum."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "So I left before they arrived...."
"Well then, Mr. Lawrence!"
Madam Bones called out loudly. This was the question that everyone in the room was desperate to hear answered.
"Those two men who committed this murder—I imagine you still remember what they looked like? Could you identify them if you saw them again?"
The courtroom seemed to hold its breath.
"Yes, Your Honour. Absolutely."
Lawrence answered without the slightest hesitation. He had been standing invisible in this courtroom for hours now, watching the trial unfold. He knew exactly with complete certainty who had killed that Muggle postman.
When Lawrence slowly raised his finger and pointed directly toward Dawlish imprisoned in his cage of fire and a second Auror standing beside him, the clamor that erupted was explosive enough to lift the roof clean off the building.
"I didn't do it! I didn't!"
The detained Dawlish roared in desperation, his face was contorted with panic and denial.
"This is a frame-up—Watson's conspiracy from start to finish! A complete fabrication! How can the Wizengamot possibly take the word of some addled, confused Muggle over a sworn Auror of the Ministry?!"
His voice cracked with hysteria.
"The Wizengamot takes only the truth, Dawlish! Nothing but the truth, regardless of its source!"
The look on Madam Bones's face was absolutely frightening to witness, her eyes were blazing with fury that showed no mercy at all.
"Whether that truth comes from wizard or Muggle makes no difference to justice!"
This was a scandal without any precedent in modern magical history.
Ministry Aurors murdering an innocent Muggle in cold blood for the purpose of framing Harry Potter.
If this ever got out to the general wizarding public—if the newspapers got hold of this story, the British Ministry of Magic would be finished. Its authority, its reputation, its very legitimacy would be gone forever.
Sunken deep in his cage of golden fire, Fudge had fallen into complete and utter despair. The fight had gone completely out of him. He understood now that there was no more room for hope.
With Amelia having just established through testimony that it was Dawlish who had actually killed the Muggle postman, the next question would inevitably be: who had given the order?
And everyone in the room already knew the answer.
"So, it was you, Dawlish!"
But just at that moment, Umbridge, standing rigid at Fudge's side in her own cage, suddenly found her voice again.
She immediately cried out with all the dramatic outrage she could muster
"So it was you all along, Dawlish—you who orchestrated this entire terrible scheme! You who deceived and misled me and dear Cornelius! We trusted you!"
Umbridge's face contorted hideously with apparent shock and betrayal. She stared with wide, bulging eyes full of false disbelief, and the finger she leveled accusingly at Dawlish trembled at its tip.
"We placed our faith in your investigation, in your judgment, and you—you betrayed that trust! You fabricated evidence! You manipulated us!"
"That's right, exactly so!"
Fudge froze for just a moment, his instincts were just a moment slow to catch up with Umbridge's desperate gambit. Then understanding appeared across his face, followed immediately by a flood of sudden relief.
"So it was... oh, yes, of course. You fabricated everything, didn't you, Dawlish? You made us target the wrong person!"
His voice took on an injured, betrayed tone, as though he were the victim in all this.
Dawlish's entire body gave a shudder, as though he'd been struck by lightning. He stood utterly frozen for several seconds, staring blankly at his two former superiors as they hurled their accusations at him like filth from a gutter.
He could hardly believe that anyone could sink to such shameless depths.
It was so brazen, that he couldn't even find words to respond.
"Ah…"
Up in the stands, Remus let out a heavy sigh that seemed to carry the weight of profound disappointment in humanity. He shook his head slowly, all spirit and energy was draining out of him as though someone had pulled a plug.
"Nothing to sigh about, Remus!"
Moody gave a scornful laugh.
"Stay in the Ministry long enough and you'll find this sort of thing is nothing out of the ordinary."
"But they shouldn't have gone after Harry!"
Sirius's grey eyes were shot through with red veins, bloodshot with rage. He glared ferociously at the three people now tearing at each other like dogs fighting over scraps.
"Just wait. Now it's their turn to taste Azkaban! See how they like it when Dementors are the ones asking the questions!"
Unlike the others, whose faces ranged from disdainful satisfaction to open vindictive pleasure, Arthur Weasley had buried his face in his trembling hands, sunk deep in misery and shame. His shoulders shook slightly.
'So this was the truth of it.'
Without realizing it, Harry had risen from his chair, staring at the three figures who were quarreling beyond all hope of stopping, screaming accusations at each other with increasing desperation.
Deep within those emerald eyes, a tinge of red was slowly seeping in.
Sensing something in the atmosphere, Dumbledore's silver eyebrows and long beard gave a faint tremor. He glanced at Bryan.
Bryan understood immediately, reading the concern in Dumbledore's eyes. He raised his wand with a swift, decisive motion, and the three figures who had nearly blurted out every incriminating truth in their frantic arguing found themselves abruptly silenced again.
Their mouths continued to move furiously, their faces twisted with rage, but not a sound emerged. They squirmed in muted fury like fish gasping on dry land, screaming silently at Watson, hurling curses that no one could hear.
"Madam Bones. Esteemed witches and wizards of the Wizengamot tribunal—"
Bryan's voice rolled through the chamber like a thunderclap, jolting Harry in whom a murderous intent had been steadily rising out of his dark thoughts.
Harry blinked, shook his head as though waking from a dream, and dropped hastily back onto the bench. His heart was pounding, his hands were shaking with the aftershocks of rage.
Bryan crossed the chamber to Lawrence's side and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Lawrence had been bearing enormous pressure throughout all of this.
"I trust that all present now have their answer—regarding the Ministry's prosecution of Harry James Potter," Bryan said clearly. "And regarding the truth behind the killing of that innocent Muggle postman."
'What a scandal. What an absolute catastrophe.'
Every person with any connection to the Ministry felt the same thought echoing through their minds.
"The charge of murder against Harry James Potter—I call on the Wizengamot tribunal to cast their votes now on this specific charge."
"Now?" Amelia looked at Bryan with surprise. "There are still numerous matters to be clarified regarding the Muggle's death. I think we—"
"With respect, Madam Bones," Bryan interrupted smoothly, "the primary suspect in the murder of the Muggle postman has shifted conclusively from Harry James Potter to Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, Dawlish, and Danforth. I submit that this case ought to be tried separately as its own matter and should not be conflated with the charges against these three students that brought us here today."
He paused, noting the hesitation on Amelia's face and among several of the more traditional Wizengamot members who were clearly uncertain about the proper procedure for such an unprecedented situation.
Bryan added with composure,
"This concerns Cornelius Fudge and Dolores Umbridge—the Minister of Magic and his Senior Undersecretary. We must tread very carefully here, Amelia. The Ministry's dignity and the public's faith in our institutions cannot be allowed to completely collapse."
"Bryan's still worrying about the Ministry's reputation after everything they did!" Sirius was practically vibrating with frustration and anger.
"We don't need Fudge and his corrupt Deputy Minister—you're right about that, Sirius," Moody said gruffly, looking at Bryan with unmistakable approval and a hint of respect. "But we do need the Ministry itself as an institution."
His scarred face was serious, his magical eye was fixed on Sirius.
"Without the Ministry behind us—without the Auror Office, the Department of Mysteries, all the resources and manpower they represent—we alone cannot hope to fight You-Know-Who's growing forces! We need functioning institutions, not a power vacuum that descends into chaos!"
Up on the platform, Madam Bones grasped Bryan's reasoning immediately. Her sharp mind cut through the emotional turmoil to see the practical necessity.
Bryan did not want Cornelius and Dolores's case—the full extent of their conspiracy and corruption laid bare in this setting.
He was absolutely right to be cautious. Outside the courtroom, hundreds of journalists were waiting in anticipation for the verdict.
When Scrimgeour had led his Aurors charging down here earlier, the press corps had certainly noticed the commotion. Even a fool could deduce that something extraordinary and unprecedented had happened inside the courtroom. The longer they were kept waiting, the more wild their speculation would become.
This explosive situation could not be allowed to spiral any further out of control. Damage control was essential.
The verdict was about to begin!
Down in the dock, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had at last recovered a fragile thread of their scattered wits after the absolutely staggering sequence of revelations that had unfolded.
Shell-shocked, exhausted, barely able to process everything, they looked up with desperate, beseeching eyes at Professor Watson and Professor Dumbledore, who were making their way up the stone steps to the high platform to talk privately with Madam Bones.
The murder charge had been washed clean, revealed as the fabrication it always was.
But the three of them had still technically violated wizarding law by sending magical items to Muggles, and there was simply no getting around that undeniable fact. Some penalty would surely follow, even if murder was off the table.
What would happen to them now?
About five minutes later, Bryan and Dumbledore descended from the platform. Madam Bones remained behind, discussing in hushed tones with several more senior members of the jury.
Finally, Amelia straightened in her seat and cleared her throat.
"This court finds—"
She raised the ceremonial gavel high above her head and brought it down with tremendous force, striking the wooden surface of the table before her with a sharp CRACK that echoed through the chamber.
In that single moment, her figure seemed to grow taller and more formidable in Harry's eyes, towering over all of them.
"In the trial convened on this twentieth day of July—regarding the Ministry of Magic's prosecution of Harry James Potter, Ronald Bilius Weasley, and Hermione Jane Granger on charges of violating the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery—the charge of murder against Harry James Potter is hereby found: not proven."
The three defendants had barely drawn breath, barely begun to feel relief flooding through their exhausted bodies, when Madam Bones continued without pause, her voice was resounding with undiminished authority.
"However—given that the three defendants are found to have violated both the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery through their actions in sending magical items to a Muggle institution, the following penalties are hereby imposed by this tribunal:
Harry James Potter is fined three thousand Galleons. Ronald Bilius Weasley is fined one thousand Galleons. Hermione Jane Granger is fined one thousand Galleons. All three defendants are required to remit the above fines in full to the Ministry of Magic before the end of July.
Furthermore, following consultation with the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the Director of the Student Safety Office, the Ministry hereby formally withdraws its earlier decision to expel all three defendants from Hogwarts."
Amelia looked around the chamber, meeting the eyes of Wizengamot members, Order members, and the imprisoned officials in turn. She straightened herself up and solemnly announced.
"On the above verdict, I ask the members of the Wizengamot tribunal to raise their hands and vote."
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