The High Council conferred for a few moments, and Dantes announced. "It is agreed that Minister Fudge did intentionally or not abuse the power of his office, by exercising authority he did not have to arrest Rubeus Hagrid and confine him to the prison of Azkaban, given he hadn't even been accused of a crime. Compensation will be paid to Mr. Hagrid, from Cornelius Fudge's personal accounts for the harm done to him, said amount to be determined by this court at the end of the hearing. Please move on to the next charge Madame Bones."
Bones wasn't really sure how to phrase a question about this charge that wouldn't make Fudge look guilty. "When you were told by both Mr. Harry Potter and Miss Hermione Granger that you had the wrong man and that Sirius Black wasn't guilty of the crimes he'd been imprisoned for, why didn't you delay ordering the Dementor's Kiss and instead order a new trial?"
Fudge was silent for several minutes not wanting to sound like a fool again. "There was no reason to. Severus Snape, a man Dumbledore trusted, was an eyewitness to the events. Snape's testimony, that Mr. Potter and Miss Granger had been threatened by Black and the way the pair acted once they had regained consciousness, made it quite clear that he had managed to place them under a confundus charm to make them believe he was innocent. The man was guilty. He'd had a trial twelve years ago. Crouch was the one who saw to that. After all he presided over almost all of the prominent Deatheater trials, including his own son's. I saw no need to waste Ministry funds on a new trial when he had done such a thorough job the first time around."
"You were aware were you not that Snape and Black hated each other while in school almost to a level to rival Snape and Potter's hatred of each other. Why would you take his word, since he would've loved to remove the man from his life for good?" Bones wanted to know.
"Given that Dumbledore has spoken so highly of Snape over the years and about what an honourable man he was, I saw no reason to think he would lie, given a man's life was at stake." Fudge told her.
"Did Snape tell you he was unconscious or not present for most of the events that occurred in the Shrieking Shack that night?" Delacour inquired. "For that matter, since you apparently didn't wish to listen to the children who had been present, why didn't you at least delay the Kiss until you could speak to the only other adult who had been present… the Defence teacher Remus Lupin?"
"That werewolf!" Fudge couldn't believe the man. "We have never accepted the testimony of Dark Creatures in a trial involving someone who uses Dark magic. It is well known that they will side with the Dark Magic user."
Delacour looked at the ceiling for a moment. "And some wonder why Magical Britain seems to produce the most Dark Lords. Fudge, prior to his destruction by Lord Potter, how many so called Dark creatures had joined the Deatheaters?"
Thinking he wanted a listing, Fudge told him, "The giants did. So did the Vampires. As well as the werewolves led by Fenir Greyback."
"Did every member of those races you listed join the Dark Lord, or was it only those who were tired of being treated like they were little more than animals in the eyes of wizards and witches?" Delacour wanted to know.
"How should I know?" Fudge didn't understand what he was getting at. "I don't know each individual werewolf or vampire. I would assume so, since it is a well known fact that dark creatures tend to gravitate to those who practise Dark magic."
"Not all werewolves joined Greyback at the Dark Lord's side." Delacour countered. "Lupin never did. He spent his life trying to serve the Light and wizardkind, but you in magical Britain wouldn't let him. Dumbledore also trusted him. You claimed that you accepted Snape's testimony as fact even though he was not conscious through all the events that happened simply because Dumbledore spoke so highly of him. Why wouldn't you extend Lupin the same courtesy? He had done the same many times for Lupin, why didn't you give him the same courtesy and at least delay giving Black the Kiss until you could speak with him, or since there was some question about his guilt, why didn't you interrogate him at Hogwarts. There was a Potions master on staff who was licensed by the Ministry to produce Veritaserum for the Ministry. It would have delayed things maybe thirty minutes, but you would've known for sure you were indeed executing a guilty man."
"And let's not forget, we still do not know how Black escaped." Dantes spoke up. "I would have thought the Ministry even then would've wanted to know how he'd done it. Or weren't you curious enough to delay a man's death long enough to find that out, so that you could prevent it from happening again? Not to mention the fact that Black at least according to reports I have heard, was in fact sane even after over ten years in Azkaban's Maximum Security wing and that is definitely not supposed to be possible. I would've thought you would've been curious about that as well so you could deal with it."
"The decree to have Black kissed was issued by the Wizengamot and there were no extenuating circumstances provided to delay it. He was to be Kissed as soon as a Dementor could be brought to him." Fudge countered. "I was not about to go against a legal decree."
Harry muttered, but not loud enough for anyone but Delacour to hear him. "Why not? You've done it before when it suited your purposes."
There was a longer discussion this time and from the gestures coming from the High Councillors behind the silencing ward, it was also getting quite heated.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/Sonic_Spectre
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon