They entered the courtroom and Sirius was led to the chair in the centre of the floor, he had given Harry his wand for safekeeping so they couldn't take it off him. Sirius sat there alone, quietly contemplating the things that could go wrong today but safe in the knowledge there wasn't any way Harry would accept anything other than an innocent verdict.
If the Wizengamot tried to screw with him today they were in for a rude awakening, he had a slight chuckle to himself as the security guards had totally dismissed Dan and Emma as any threat. If it came down to a fight he for one was glad they were on his side and wondered what the effect would be amongst the purebloods if that cannon Dan carried was fired in the chamber.
Dan Granger's attention was on the red head that had been seated at the other side of the court, smart lady that Amelia Bones. He had heard descriptions of the Bulstrode girl but he had taken those with a pinch of salt, seeing her in the flesh left him wondering if those same descriptions weren't on the flattering side.
If ever there were to be a campaign against marrying close family members then Millicent Bulstrode would be the poster girl, though it would have to come with a government health warning. She totally dominated the boys every action and even at one point spat into a hanky then proceeded to wipe a dirty mark of the side of his face, Dan remembered his late mother embarrassing him by doing the exact same thing but he was about four at the time.
It suddenly struck Dan that the boy was exactly like his father, anytime Molly was around Arthur's entire conversation consisted of "yes dear" with the word 'no' never being uttered. This girl had just replaced his mother as the person who issued the commands that he blindly obeyed, as they were betrothed he was going to be dominated by this person for the rest of his life.
He felt his wife's hand find his as they both reached the same conclusion, his punishment for trying to enslave their daughter was to end up in this one sided relationship where she dictated every facet of his life. Millicent was treating him like a possession in a similar fashion to celebrities with their little dogs; he would be dressed and paraded up and down on her arm but definitely under her thumb and anything else she desired.
Harry and Hermione were ignoring Ron; they had more important business to attend to. Using Voldemort's stored knowledge they were able to identify every death eater who came into the courtroom, the place was packed and had turned into a real media circus – Lord Harry James Potter and Lord Sirius Orion Black in the same place was big news.
All the Institute staff were sitting together and if trouble started they would do their best to finish it, the exercise eight all wore armour under their robes and Sirius knew to get over there as quick as possible if spells started flying.
Amelia entered last with the raised platform of Wizengamot members now filled as the court settled down, her two favourite aurors walked in front of her before taking their places standing on the floor at either side while she sat on the raised platform.
Shacklebolt was earmarked to take over from Amelia as the head of DMLE but wanted to make sure his boss lived long enough to get the reforms they wanted passed through this court, their estimated timetable was two weeks and he was prepared to wait longer if necessary.
The trial developed exactly as they hoped and the Wizengamot retired to reach a verdict after only three hours of watching pensieve memories from the shrieking shack and questioning Sirius under Veritaserum. It should be a mere formality based on the evidence presented, Harry couldn't shake the feeling of imminent danger and had slipped Sirius his wand when the Wizengamot members left to deliberate on his innocence.
They filed back in and Harry could read from Amelia's expression that he was going to like the verdict but the feeling of apprehension just wouldn't go away, the new minister started speaking and had just pronounced Sirius innocent when the shit hit the fan.
Harry noticed that one of the death eaters he was keeping an eye on was not following proceedings but instead looking at a wizard sitting to the right of Amelia, this wizard's sudden movement forced Harry and Hermione into action. The wizard had his wand pointed at Amelia and was uttering a curse as Hermione fired a stunner at him while Harry tried to summon the minister out of the curse's path.
Amelia felt herself being pulled out of her seat just as a beam of green light hit her now vacant chair and large splinters of wood smacked into her back, both legs caught the barrier in front of her but the force of the exploding chair tipped the new minister over the barrier as she felt at least one of her legs break from being trapped.
Shack and Tonks had been watching the crowd but when Hermione fired off the stunner both whirled round just in time to see their boss come head first over the banister, thankfully Kingsley was able to physically catch Amelia before she hit the floor.
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