Behind Dumbledore, sitting on the front row of chairs were senior officials from the Ministry of Magic, including Cornelius Fudge, Amelia Bones, Barty Crouch, and Dolores Um. Richie was among them, and behind them sat the directors of various functional offices as well as celebrities and leaders from all walks of life in the magical world.
Amosta hesitated for a moment, a little unsure of where he should sit, but fortunately Amelia waved to him.
"Come here, Amosta--"
The Wizengamot also has its own unique rules of the game. Amosta knew that the first row was obviously not the place he should be. However, Fudge smiled and gestured at himself. After a moment of silence, Amosta smiled freely. , ignoring the many strange looks, walked up the stairs to the high platform.
The atmosphere here was very solemn. After Amosta sat down next to Amelia, he just nodded to the familiar people and kept silent.
Dumbledore looked back at the rows of seats behind him, and after confirming that he was not absent, his eyes fell on Barty Crouch, who exuded a cold aura next to Amosta, and said gently,
"You're going to be in charge, Barty?"
Barty Crouch stood up without saying a word and walked to the podium with a sullen face, while Dumbledore took the seat that had just been vacated.
"Let's start now."
Barty Crouch said coldly, with a hint of humiliation in his voice.
Boring——
Amosta, who had been watching the reaction of the Ministry of Magic's senior officials with a cold eye, suddenly felt uninterested. This huge trial was just a farce, and the winner had already reaped the benefits.
Opposite the high platform was a room where prisoners were temporarily held. After Crouch announced the start, the iron gate of the small room rattled, and one iron pillar after another slowly lowered into the ground. Peter Pettigrew's hands were He was restrained by ropes and had at least five wands pressed against the back of his head.
All the flesh that Peter had gained in the Owlery had disappeared during the most torturous months of imprisonment, and he now looked like a broomstick with only a few branches.
Peter walked from the darkness into the dim light. When he saw Barty Crouch on the high platform opposite and the people sitting on the first row of benches, he immediately started to tremble and made a small noise uncontrollably. He was sobbing, and if it weren't for the wands behind his head forcing him to move forward, he might have collapsed on the ground.
Amosta heard the noise around him suddenly become much louder, and most people stared at the dirty Peter with angry eyes, both for the Potters and for the fool they had suffered.
Dumbledore, who was beside him, let out a heavy sigh, and his back, which was straight just now, suddenly became a little rickety. Many people were observing Dumbledore's words and deeds, and there was a man with a beard on his face. The wizard said in an angry voice,
"He deserves no sympathy, Albus-"
"I agree with your point of view -" Dumbledore blew his nose, his blue eyes filled with sadness, "but I can't pretend that I have no responsibility, Cordier, this should have been avoided."
The noisy discussions around him became much quieter. Some people sighed heavily, while others secretly cast sarcastic and disdainful glances at Dumbledore.
At this time, the sound of heavy stones rubbing against each other came from the room that Peter had walked out of earlier, and then, Delis escorted Sirius out.
We haven't seen him for nearly a month, and Sirius's complexion is much worse than before. This is natural. He has been detained in the Inquisition at the deepest part of the Ministry of Magic for so long without seeing the sun, and he has to endure one wave of interrogations after another. No one can be in a good state.
These days, the Daily Prophet has disclosed the truth of that year. Everyone here knows that he is innocent. The gazes of the congressmen towards him are not fearful but mostly curious. There is only one exception, and that is this time The trial's presiding officer, Barty Crouch.
"Despicable traitor, shameless coward!"
The so-called enemies were extremely jealous when they met. For so many days, the Ministry of Magic had been keeping Sirius and Peter in separate custody. Today was the first time that Sirius saw Peter. He immediately forgot to follow the man who greeted him with his eyes in the stands. Mosta, after an angry roar, desperately pounced on the frightened Peter.
However, Sirius' attempt to tear Peter apart failed. Seeing him rushing over, the several Aurors guarding Peter immediately turned their guns and pointed their wands at him with cold expressions.
"If you attempt to disrupt the order of justice again, I will declare you guilty, Sirius Black!"
Barty Crouch responded to Sirius's angry glare with indifferent eyes and said without mercy.
Both Sirius and Peter were pressed on the stone chairs raised from the ground. The difference was that Peter's entire body was restrained by Ding Ling's chains that grew out of the chair.
"Trial on February 27th," Barty Crouch opened the folder in front of him. Even though he knew that after today, his reputation would plummet, his figure remained stable and straight.
"Interrogator: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, President of the International Federation of Wizards and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Cornelius Oswald, Minister of Magic Fudge, Barty Crouch, Director of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Amelia Susan Burns, Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Senior Undersecretary Dolores C. Umbridge. Trial transcript Member: Eric Munch——"
Amosta twitched his eyebrows in surprise, and then noticed Eric sitting upright in an inconspicuous corner, his lips trembling with excitement.
"The defendant, Peter Pettigrew--"
Barty Crouch looked away from the folder in his hand and pointed at Peter, who was paralyzed on the chair like a bug.
"You are accused of revealing the whereabouts of the Potters to a mysterious person in October 1981, which directly led to the murder of the Potters. Do you have anything to argue for yourself?"
Debating aside, Peter seemed to be in a state of trance, huddled in his chair as far away from Sirius as possible.
"The person previously charged with this was Sirius Black--"
In the trial seat, a witch in the back row suddenly raised her hand and spoke. She attracted the attention of many people, including Dumbledore. The witch nodded and smiled at Dumbledore and asked,
"Mr. Dumbledore has previously provided evidence that Sirius Peter was the Potters' Secret Keeper, but now the Ministry of Magic is suing Peter Pettigrew for leaking the Potters' whereabouts. We need to know what happened."
The Ministry of Magic has mastered the truth of these matters, but according to the rules, Peter or Sirius must explain it to the jury, and Peter was no longer able to speak. Sirius could only stand up and said through gritted teeth,
"Back then, when we learned through intelligence that the mysterious man in Voldemort was planning to kill James and Lily, Dumbledore suggested using the Fidelity Charm to protect their whereabouts, but James believed me more and decided not to trouble Dumbledore. And let me be their secret keeper.
But at the last moment when the spell was activated, I proposed that this lowly traitor should replace me. People knew that the Potters' best friend was me, and I thought that if I became the Secret Keeper, You-Know-Who would have foreseen it, so I suggested James and Lily—"
A breath was stuck in Sirius's throat, and he could not continue speaking. However, the members of the jury present all guessed the whole story.
In fact, when people saw that Peter Pettigrew was still alive, many things were concluded. However, the Wizengamot could not rely on conjecture to determine whether a person was guilty. They also needed evidence.
"This is a recorded confession. After the Auror Office captured Peter Pettigrew, we used Veritaserum during the interrogation to obtain a reliable confession-"
Delis, who was guarding the queue of Peter Pettigrew, presented the confession recorded by magic to the inquisition.
This confession solved most of the doubts, including the whole process of leaking secrets to the mysterious man, including how he escaped from Sirius' pursuit afterwards, including how he had concealed his whereabouts for the past twelve years. These things sounded awe-inspiring. Most members of the Sengama Judgment Team felt chills in their hearts.
They couldn't imagine that the frightened Peter Pettigrew, who was currently curled up in the chair, had done such terrible things.
"Arthur doesn't know yet--"
Amosta heard someone whispering behind her,
"It's so scary, I bet Arthur won't let any of the rats in the house go after he finds out about this!"
(End of chapter)
