Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!
–Damian Hawthorne–
He cursed himself for the fact that he hadn’t arranged something that would get him out of Hogwarts for a small period of time, like a week or something. It was possible, if only he had involved William or someone else in it. Nobility got away with a lot of things in magical Britain. What was a kid skipping school for a week in comparison to literally killing wizards and not having to face any of the consequences?
Now, it was Monday, and he had no possible way of knowing what was happening inside the Ministry or if something was even happening or not. Dumbledore's demeanour that day suggested that the man was truly sorry about the whole thing, and from what he knew of the old man, he would not try to back out of the whole thing, even if the whole thing blew up in his face.
But Dumbledore was not the be all and end all of the Magical Britain justice system, even if he had the potential to tilt the scales heavily in his favour. There were many other factors that Dumbledore would have to factor into his calculations if he wanted the trial to go properly. On top of that, he hadn’t even asked for a time and location for him to drop Sirius or Peter. Without either of them present, it would be very hard to do everything properly.
He wondered what the old man was thinking about that. Without the evidence physically present, all they had was circumstantial evidence at best. The real clincher was Peter’s continued survival, as well as Sirius’.
No matter how he looked at it, Dumbledore was destined to fail. He had no living witness, and without it, his case was very weak. Unless he suddenly decided to develop the characteristics required to force something like that, there was very little chance that the trial would go through.
For one tempting moment, he was contemplating asking William to get him out of the school on an urgent basis, but he quashed that urge immediately. Sirius getting his justice was necessary, but he couldn’t let himself lose sight of his goal. He had exactly 10 more months until the exams, until he got out of the Wizarding community and entered the adult realm.
Kamar Taj was the goal. Getting Siriuis justice would be nice, but he had a hunch that the man would be just as happy if he got to personally snuff the life out of Peter, enjoy the rest of his life in some Caribbean country without anyone knowing about his whereabouts, and met Harry on a semi regular basis.
There was no need to risk his position as a student here for that.
With that clarity in his mind, he continued listening to the absolutely mind numbing history that came from their History teacher, an actual ghost.
__xx__
It was night, and he had just slipped out of Hogwarts, risking far too much for what was just his curiosity, but alas, the saying about curiosity killed the cat was true for humans because, for some reason, he just couldn’t control his curiosity. He wanted to see if Dumbledore had done something or not.
There was nothing in the newspaper so there was that, but there were other thighs he could check. Flying to Diagon Alley, his eyes widened as he saw the Leaky Cauldron, full of people, even at this late hour.
He knew that Tom closed down his bar later in the night. He saw multiple Aurors guarding the entrance, as well as walking in and out of the place. Curious, he was about to slip inside, only to pause and fly up, as his last known place on the ground was suddenly covered in a white glow that was caught by all the Aurors.
Everyone’s gazes snapped to the ground as over a dozen wands were whipped out at once, as they began casting spells all over the place. Something must have happened. Something drastic for Aurors to just swarm the entrance to Diagon Alley, something that was mostly used by non magicals.
His eyes sharpened as he flew away, knowing that this was yet another one of those Ancient Relics that Dumbledore must have hoarded in all his long life. He could have checked a couple of other places, but all of them ran the risk of being discord, especially if Dumbledore had booby trapped them. Plus, it was not considered wise to break into the HQ of the Daily Prophet at any time of the day, let alone at a time when they would be on high alert.
Because whatever it was that had happened, it was sure to be big. The official payphone entrance to the Ministry also had multiple wizards moving about in casual clothing.
Dumbledore really had locked everything down. Damn.
Now, he was really curious as to what he would read from tomorrow’s newspaper.
___xx__
It was the next day, and he was just standing in the common room of the Ravenclaw dorm, waiting for the daily drop of newspapers to reach the dorm. It happened before anyone woke up, and he had an idle curiosity about how it happened. Was it an enchantment, or was it a job assigned to one of the House Elves?
He supposed he could get the answer to that today as well.
And what do you know? A pop sound left multiple newspapers behind. The clock also struck 5 AM. It was definitely a House Elf Duty then. It made sense. The castle had so many of them that it must be tough to find enough jobs for every single house Elf to be busy all the time.
Opening the Daily Prophet, his eyebrows rose as he read the first page news.
Mystery session at Wizengamot called in by the Chief Warlock. Record breaking 16 hour session still continues. No Media presence allowed. Ministry Building as well as Diagon Alley closed for the day.
Heavy Auror Presence throughout all entry points at the Ministry, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Hogwarts.
Rumours swirl about the urgent summons of many Heads of Ancient and Noble houses.
What is Dumbledore doing? Why all the Mystery? What are they hiding from the public?
This Rita is right outside the Ministry building, waiting for the session to end! You, my dear readers, will be the first to know!
“Son of a bitch,” He whispered as he read through the rest of the article. Dumbledore called in an emergency session yesterday, using his powers as the Chief Warlock, and then personally summoned the few members absent, enough to make sure that over 85% of the assembly was present.
Then, he just closed everything down. No one went in or out of the Assembly. Of course, since it was Dumbledore, who had apparently decided to use his power for once, he did not need any Auror to maintain order, which is why there had been exactly zero leaks.
No one knew what was happening inside the assembly. Everything was sealed tight, and the Aurors had arrested more than one spy inside the Ministry who tried to breach the chamber doors. Moody was apparently the one who was standing guard right outside the door, and no one was crazy enough to test that particular brand of crazy Auror.
Setting the newspaper down, he went back to his dorm, too restless to sleep as he went kind of giddy at the thought of Dumbledore finally laying down the law and using his power to do so.
He couldn't wait to find out what exactly Dumbledore had done.
Forced Truth Serums? Mind reading? Pensieve use?
It would seem that seeing Sirius in that mental condition, being forced to confront the living embodiment of one of your greatest failures, had broken something inside the old man.
And instead of just bending his principles a bit to get the desired result, the old man had gone crazy and just outright skipped multiple steps to get what he wanted.
He loved it!