{Courtroom 1, 2nd Floor, Ministry of Magic, London}
{30th Oct 1991}
{Rigel's POV}
...
"Hem Hem~"
My head whipped around as I stared at the lady in the pink cardigan. She was now sitting next to Fudge. Even in a world filled with beautiful witches, Umbitch stood out. She was a little stout, her face swollen, though unlike my assumptions, she didn't resemble a toad—not unless you squinted your eyes to look at her.
"Thank you, Dolores," Fudge thanked his secretary as he turned to the now quiet courtroom; Pettigrew was either under a silencing charm or he was taking this really well.
"Madam Bones, we can begin." Fudge spoke as he started the proceedings. I turned to look at Amelia. She nodded and turned to look at Pettigrew... waiting for him to be secured in the cage in the middle. She maintained a neutral face despite not taking it all too well from what Sirius had told me.
I turned to look at the man in question. He looked disheveled and pitiful, reflecting his cowardly nature. He was a small man with thinning hair and watery eyes that darted around nervously. His hands trembled as he was placed in the chair, and the chains clinked ominously as they bound him.
'Yup, he's definitely under the Silencing charm; otherwise, he would be pleading his innocence by now.'
While I was expecting Amelia to bring forth the charges, apparently, it was Albus's duty to begin the proceedings as he was sitting under a different post today.
"Peter Pettigrew, you stand accused of heinous crimes against the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. The charges levied against you are as follows: the betrayal of James and Lily Potter, leading to their deaths; the framing of Sirius Black; the murder of twelve Muggles and faking your own death and participation in the torture and murder of countless individuals as a Death Eater. How do you plead?" Albus spoke. His tone was a lot different than what Rigel was used to; it was commanding as he exuded a presence of firm control as he stared at Pettigrew, who wilted under the stare.
I sensed the auror standing next to Pettigrew move as he cast the countercharm on the animagus. With the silencing charm gone, everyone could hear the raspy breath as Pettigrew stuttered, "N-not G-guilty..."
I felt a simmer of magic from Lucius and the rest of the Pureblood faction as they were fuming. If Pettigrew had accepted these charges, then the trial would have proceeded quite easily to his sentencing, and he wouldn't have been interrogated. Now, they were at risk as well.
Albus looked at Pettigrew's visage sternly before he turned to Almeia and spoke, "Madam Bones?"
"Thank you, Chief Warlock. The evidence against Peter Pettigrew is overwhelming. We will now hear testimonies from key witnesses, including Rigel Black, Sirius Black, and Minister Fudge himself, who will attest to the depth of his betrayal and the consequences of his actions." A murmur went throughout the room at the names being called out loud. I felt Amelia look at me, and I nodded.
'Right, I have rehearsed my story. Now I need to stick to it,' I thought as I stood up. Everyone's attention turned to me. There was no need for me to walk over and stand in a separate box, as the Magical courtroom worked a little differently than the rest. I sat back down after signaling where I was. If I were a more prominent member of the Winzengamot, I wouldn't even need to stand up.
"Before you begin wondering what a Hogwarts student is doing here and the defense starts tearing into my testimony, I'll just clarify things. Everything that led up to today was because of my own curiosity. You see, most of you must have gone to Hogwarts and are familiar with its rumor mill..." My words elicited agreement from the majority of Light and Neutral factions. It seems I'm not going to be winning over the pureblood.
Still, the start of my testament was like a story that was done on purpose. Everyone was interested, so at least there were no interruptions from the crowd. "Every day, there are countless rumors floating around, and the start of my curiosity began with my entanglement with the Weasley twins. For those of you who have children still studying at Hogwarts in recent years, they must be familiar with the Twin terrors, as we Slytherins like to call them."
Getting a few more nods in return, I continued, twisting the story a lot as I explained, "I managed to make a deal with the twins... to stay out of their radar, you know. But I was still curious: how come two students could make so many different pranks come true, pranks that senior students had trouble solving when they were supposedly at the bottom edge of their class? During this research, I learned about Scabbers, the pet rat of the Weasley family."
"From what I found out, Scabbers has been in the family for more than 7 years already, when a common house rat's lifespan is 2-5 years. Scabbers was also remarkably healthy for someone who should have been on the deathbed. So I devised a simple and easy plan to... how to put this delicately, steal the rat?" My words were met with a soft chuckle from a handful of Light faction. Maybe they remembered some of the simpler times during their school days.
"Now, as you know, I'm a Slytherin, so I have several precautions in place. One of them was to stun the rat and use the anti-animagus charm... You know, just in case." My words this time got some nods from the Dark faction, and it seemed like not everyone there belonged to the Death Eater camp either.
"And that's how I met Pettigrew. In an abandoned classroom, unconscious on the desk. An unregistered animagus who was hiding was a big deal, so I talked to Susan, who helped me connect to Madam Bones, and here we are..." I wrapped up my testimony. The tale needed to be spun because I wanted to avoid mentioning the map in front of the Winzengamot. It would most positively be destroyed, as it technically violated everyone's privacy.
'There were some holes in my story, but none that anyone could actually use. My words, according to Amelia, were necessary as I was the only link as to how Pettigrew was found. The actual story before was just useless and was just to get the crowd on our side...'
...
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AN- A little late today. 50+ advanced chapters on P.atreon!