Chapter 5
On the morning of the trial, Hallie had come downstairs especially early. It was hardly a quarter till six. Eleazar hadn't expected her to be down so early, but one look at her face made it clear why.
She looked as though she had hardly slept and she sat quietly at the table as he made breakfast. He wanted to say something to make her feel better, but in the moment he wasn't sure what to say.
She had been just as quiet yesterday too. It wasn't hard to see that the upcoming trial was weighing heavy on her mind. She had hardly nodded yesterday evening when he told her they would need to be at the Ministry at 8 a.m.
He set their plates on the table and sat down to eat. When he saw she was hardly poking at her toast, he knew he would have to say something.
"You need to eat. It won't do you any good to be hungry."
She glanced up at him briefly, "sorry... I know."
"Imagine how distracting it would be for the council members to hear your stomach rumbling during the hearing, they wouldn't get anything done." He sat his fork down, "on second thought, you've had a brilliant idea. Let's both abstain from breakfast, shall we? That'll really give them something to talk about."
He sat back in his chair, grinning at the smirk on her face that he had earned himself.
She shook her head at him and he was satisfied to see her start to eat her food with a little more enthusiasm now.
****
When they had finished their breakfast and the plates had been cleaned and put away, Hallie and Professor Fig made their way into the sitting room to await the time they would need to leave.
Professor Fig explained that they would be using Floo powder to travel to the Ministry.
"You'll want to take a pinch of the powder and throw it into the flames of the fireplace. You'll step in and-,"
"Step in!? Into the fire!?"
"-yes, it wont hurt you. The flames are warm, but harmless with the Floo powder in it."
Hallie looked at the flames apprehensively.
"State where you want to go very clearly, 'Ministry of Magic' and it will take you there. I'll go first so you can see how it's done and that way you can just be sure to get out at the grate where you see me, alright?"
"Okay," she answered, fidgeting nervously.
"Be sure to tuck your arms in tight and squint so the soot doesn't get in your eyes."
"Yes, sir."
All too soon, it was time to go. Professor Fig pulled a small leather pouch out of his coat pocket and opened it. He took a pinch of glittering powder for himself and held the pouch out to her for her to take some too.
Once she took some for herself, she watched as he threw his powder into the flames and they roared upwards, transforming into a brilliant emerald green.
Professor Fig stepped into the flames and announced, "Ministry of Magic!"
He was gone in an instant.
Hallie took a steadying breath and tossed her own powder into the flames and followed him.
The flames felt fine, but Hallie wasn't a huge fan of the spinning. She could hardly see as fireplaces whizzed past her. After what felt like too long, she spotted Professor Fig's grey hair and she stretched foreward, tumbling out of the fireplace.
A hand grabbed her by the back of her shirt and wrenched her upright before she could collide with the shiny, dark wooden floors.
"Does it have to be so ... spinny," she asked, gripping her head in her hands.
"I'm afraid so," Professor Fig chuckled out as he released her.
If Hallie wasn't so scared out her wits right now, she might've found it more in her heart to view the Ministry as one of the most incredible places she had ever laid eyes on.
The enormous hallway they stood in featured high, dark walls, lined with golden fireplaces and a beautiful arched blue cealing with golden cymbols dancing across its surface. At the center of the hall was a very large and golden fountain. It featured a witch, a wizard, a centaur, and two other creatures that Hallie couldn't recognize. All of them looked very happy and water shot from various points on each of them.
Despite its size, the hallway was crowded with people bustling in every direction. People were heading in and out of the fireplaces and darting past her with very busy looks on their faces. Hallie followed Professor Fig nervously through the crowd, where he led her to the end of the line of fireplaces and towards a long curved desk with several witches seated in a row down it.
Professor Fig approached one of the women and informed her of what they were here for and she handed him two square silver badges. He handed Hallie her's. Hallie Edmund, Disciplinary Hearing, was scrolled across it in black curvy lettering. Professor Fig's was pinned to his chest. Eleazar Fig, Disciplinary Hearing, was scrolled across his in the same way.
Hallie gave him a questioning look and he responded with a look of his own that said all too clearly that he had been dreading the look she had just given him for some time. He began to explain as he walked her to the other end of the hall where a set of large golden gates stood high.
"The Ministry doesn't typically get too involved in family matters, Hallie. Orphans are, of course, sent to orphanages and in the event of deaths, children are taken in by or sent to family members or friends, but the Ministry doesn't usually step in and remove children from active homes. Witches and wizards are a tough sort and often set in their ways. The Department of Magical Education handles a fund for students at Hogwarts in special circumstances so that they can recieve school supplies, but beyond that, they typically let things be when it comes to families."
Hallie's mouth felt dryer and dryer the longer he spoke. What was she doing here then?
"The day you arrived at my home, I sent a letter to the Ministry and spoke with that Ministry Official, who had come by to question me that day, on your behalf. I pulled some strings and you are going to be allowed to speak before the Council of Magic Law during my hearing. You'll be allowed to tell them about your circumstances and we will make them see reason in stepping in."
He stopped walking and turned to place his hands on her shoulders with a pleading look, "Hallie, I didn't tell you before because I didn't want you to worry. I hope you'll understand. I promise you, I am going to do everything I can to make sure you don't have to go back to that place ever again."
Her heart was thundering inside of her chest. This place made her skin crawl and the last thing she wanted to do was walk in there and speak, but a part of her believed deeply in her professor's words. She could trust him, and she could dig up some courage from somewhere and face this Council.
"What will I tell them," she asked, a bit of fear and uncertainty creeping into her voice.
"The truth. Just tell them that and I will handle the rest."
She put on the bravest face she could muster and nodded.
To the left of the golden gates at the end of the hall they were checked by a security guard and then they were allowed through the gates. Beyond those was another, smaller hall in a similar color pallete to the main hall. Roughly twenty golden lifts lined each side of the hall.
Professor Fig guided her to one of the open lifts and they clambered inside between several wizards with arms overflowing with parchment. The lift descended and in no time at all, the golden gates of the lift opened and a cool woman's voice rang out, "Department of Mysteries."
Professor Fig guided her off the lift and into the dark and barren corridor. The only thing here was a large black door at the end of the hall, but rather than go through it, they turned left down a flight of stairs and into another dark hall. This hall had dark brick walls and a row of ten large wooden doors down it.
They stopped at the third door.
"This is us, Courtroom Three," Professor Fig said. "Are you alright?"
Hallie felt anything but alright at the moment, but instead of saying that, she tried to muster up her courage and nodded.
Professor Fig opened the door and the two of them stepped inside.
The inside of the room was dimly lit. At it center were two plain wooden chairs. To each side of the room and in front of them, there were benches in rising levels. The room was not full, fifteen witches and wizards dressed in dark robes sat in the high benches around the room. Many of them spoke in hushed conversations, causing a low murmor throughout the room.
The conversation died as a thin man, seated at the center of the highest bench that faced the chairs, spoke up, "Excellent, right on time. Have a seat."
Professor Fig and Hallie stepped foreward and seated themselves in the chairs at the center of the room.
"Eleazar Fig, you have been brought before myself, Justus Pilliwickle, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and selected members of the Council of Magic Law, under offences relating to the Statue of Secrecy in which you used the Banishing charm, the Levitation charm, and the Incarcerous spell, on a muggle. The Magical Law Enforcement Patrol was dispatched and an Obliviator was sent to deal with the situation. The Improper Use of Magic Office has already presented evidence of this to us."
Pilliwickle listed off his speech in a bored tone. Disinterest was written clear across his face as he looked down his nose at a parchment in his hands. Hallie was feeling rather clammy. If the man wasn't even interested in the case and they had already been presented evidence against Professor Fig, how could they expect this to go in their favor. She didn't dare look at Professor Fig. If he wasn't feeling confident in their case, she didn't want to see it on his face.
"The muggle man in question is a direct relative and guardian to a child enrolled at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, so fortunately for you, you haven't completely broken the Statue of Secrecy. However, as per section ten of the Statue of Secrecy, use of magic of any kind on a muggle is still a crime."
Pilliwickle glanced up briefly from his parchment and at Professor Fig. At his next words, his voice contained slightly more interest, "The Ministry Official dispatched to question you about the incident in question, reported back with the belief that there may have been more to the event than the initial investigation let on. You'll be allowed to speak on this and afterwards we will give our judgement forthwith. So tell us, what happened?"
Professor Fig cleared his throat, "On the date of the incident, I arrived at the home of Miss Edmund here and found that she was being attacked by her guardian-,"
Pilliwickle interjected skeptically, "the muggle?"
"Yes, he had the girl in a chokehold and by the time I had found them, she had already gone blue and slack and he wasn't letting go. She had been beaten and she was bleeding from wounds he had caused by throwing her through glass. I used the Banishing charm to separate him from her and when he lunged in our direction again, I levitated and bound him."
"You feel it was necessary to break the Statue in order to intervene?"
"I believe the Statue allows, in clause seven, for the use of magic in extenuating circumstances, including those that threaten the life or lives of a witch, wizard or muggle. There was no time to do anything less."
A few of the heads in the high benches were nodding at Professor Fig's words.
"Yes, we are aware of clause seven." Pilliwickle turned his eyes from Professor Fig onto Hallie, "this is the girl in question?"
"Yes," Professor Fig said, looking at Hallie.
"As a witness, is the story Eleazar Fig told the Council true to your perspective," Pilliwickle asked her.
Hallie felt like she had swallowed several large stones and so her voice was small when it answered, "Yes, that's what happened."
Pilliwickle shuffled his parchment a little, looking down on it with raised eyebrows. A curious look came over his face and he looked back up at them and said, "You sent a letter to the Ministry requesting that we hear testimony from this child during your hearing. You are requesting we step in and remove the child from her guardian."
A large and rather round man with thick bushy black eyebrows and a long greying beard spoke up. He sounded irritated and impatient and he had a booming voice, "You want us to interrogate a girl about her home life? This has nothing to do with the case in question."
As he spoke a haughty looking woman with a thin and tightly stretched face nodded in agreement.
Hallie watched nervously as the Council members talked amongst themselves. A thin woman with auburn hair disagreed with the man. "Perhaps it does, if Fig truly intervened as a result of the child's circumstances."
Pilliwickle raised his hand, silencing the murmor that had started amongst the small crowd. His voice carried a dismissive tone when he spoke, "the Ministry does not intervene in family matters. Although we can see how the events of that particular day pertain to this case, anything beyond that is personal and of no concern to the Ministry. If it doesn't pertain to magic-"
"It- it does," Hallie quickly interjected.
Many sets of eyes fell on her all at once, including Professor Fig's. She swallowing hard. She couldn't go back now. She continued, "the day my magic made it's first appeared, I caused all of the glass in the kitchen to crack when my brother shoved me towards the hot oven. He locked me in the cellar for six days when I couldn't explain how i'd done it. He said if I ever did it again, he'd make me wish i'd never been born... that- that counts doesn't it?"
A few murmors started back up amongst the benches. Hallie thought she heard someone say 'obscurial', but that's not a word, so she must have misheard. Someone to the left murmured something about Hallie's age and magic.
Some of the council members still looked annoyed like the first man and woman that had spoken, but others had leaned forward with raised eyebrows, staring down at Hallie with a vague curiosity.
She felt like a tiny little bug being observed by scientists. She shrank slightly in her chair. Now would be a great time to be invisible, she thought.
Pilliwickle himself, had leaned forward to look down at her from over his large nose. He murmured so quietly that she almost didn't catch his words, "Yes, we wouldn't want another obscurial on our hands. It would be a bigger mess for us if we didn't... "
He spoke up, "i'll allow it, then. It's not every day we hear something like this, perhaps the girl has something of significance to tell," he said.
They were speaking about her as though she was some vaguely interesting curiosity; Openly gossiping about her in front of her. And what was an obscurial? None of this was making any sense. A small part of her felt annoyed at their nonsensical words and dismissive attitudes. This was her life they were discussing, but they didn't seem to care.
"This was not an isolated incident then?"
"No, it's happened many times," she answered.
The woman with the tight face spoke up this time, "How do we know what the girl says is true? There is no evidence."
Hallie had no answer for this. She had nothing but her word. The auburn haired woman had an answer though. "What of her memories? We could be sure of the truth and if they had been altered we could easily tell... as well as determine the threat of an obscurus," she said.
A few heads nodded at this. Pilliwickle nodded as well. He took out his wand, and with a wave, a shallow and shiny basin appeared before Hallie.
"Well, go on," Pilliwickle told her.
Hallie didn't have the faintest clue what to do or what they meant. Thankfully, Professor Fig did. He leaned over and briefly explained, "place your wand at your temple and focus on your memories, anything your brother has done and especially what you have told them, and pull at them with your magic.
Hallie did what he asked. Flashing through her mind- she clung to the cellar door, calling out - her feet tumbling over a ledge, she was falling to the ground below- hands clenched around her throat, glass surrounded her. After a moment or two, she felt the strangest sensation, like her thoughts were being sucked away.
She opened her eyes and from the tip of her borrowed wand, a thin silvery-white line clung to it. She directed it into the basin and put her wand away.
Pilliwickle waved his wand and the basin drifted over to the benches. The minutes dragged by as one-by-one, each of the fifteen, looked into the basin of the silvery-white substance.
When they had all finished looking, Pilliwickle leaned back and crossed his arms, "Well then, I think we have heard enough. We'll start with Fig. In this case, charges will result in a fine of forty Galleons. Those in favor of clearing the accused?"
They were voting already!? Just like that!? It had happened so quickly. Hallie looked around the room, counting hands as quickly as she could. There were eleven hands raised. Even the grumpy large man with the thick eyebrows had raised his hand. The thick knot in her chest loosened. Professor Fig would not be facing any more consequences on her behalf.
"Council has voted in favor of clearing the accused of charges." Pilliwickle leaned forward and peered down at Hallie, "Now, those in favor of the Ministry taking action on this child's behalf?"
Hallie's eyes scanned the room. Both the grumpy large man and the haughty woman from before had their hands down, but the auburn haired woman's hand was raised and so was the hand of a small plump woman on the end. Hallie counted eight hands raised. Just slightly a majority.
"Very well, the Ministry will intervene. The muggle man's custody of Miss Edmund is herby terminated and the Ministry will relocate her to a new home in due time. An Obliviator will be dispatched to his home and any memory he has of magic or Miss Edmund will be altered or removed. No contact is to be had with him beyond this. For now, Miss Edmund-,"
"If I may," Professor Fig interjected. "Miss Edmund has been staying with me since the date of the incident. I am responsible for tutoring her until the next term begins. Perhaps it might be best for all involved to allow her to remain until term."
Pilliwickle looked at Professor Fig with raised eyebrows at this, but he nodded his head thoughtfully as he considered his words.
"It would allow the Ministry some time to decide how to address this and make arrangements for the girl," he said, rubbing his chin. "Very well, for the time being, Eleazar Fig, you will be awarded temporary guardianship over Miss Edmund until such time as the Ministry arranges care for her elsewhere. You are both free to go now."
Professor Fig and Hallie rose from their chairs and made their way to the door. She felt numb. Everything had happened so quickly. Her mind felt like a jumbled mess. Worse than all of that though, was that everything suddenly felt so very, incredibly real.
****
When they arrived back at his home, Hallie stepped out of the Floo behind him and darted past him at a run.
"Hallie?"
She had thundered up the stairs and gone before Eleazar had even made it out of the sitting room. Somewhat alarmed, he followed her up the stairs and made it to her door just in time to hear her vomiting in the bathroom.
He waited in the hall by the door to her room and when she reappeared in the doorway, white-faced, he asked, "are you alright?"
She hesitated for a moment and then simply shrugged in respone.
"No lessons today. If you'd like to rest, you should."
Looking more than a little relieved at his words, she nodded and turned back around to go back into the bedroom.
He let her be and went back downstairs. He wasn't foolish enough to think that it was a coincidence that she had struck ill immediately following the hearing. He knew the two were connected, but what precisely about it had caused it, he couldn't place. It wasn't exactly the reaction he had expected.
Of course, he knew the hearing had to have been taxing on her. He had seen well enough previously that when her thoughts lingered on her history with her brother it affected her greatly. She had revealed more during the hearing than he had known previously. It was the first he had heard about what happened when her magic had come in and he had not seen the memories she put into the pensieve, but he did not want to imagine them.
Knowing what he did, he felt glad enough that he had intervened when he did. No child should have to live like that. He also felt relieved that the Ministry had seen fit to intervene. Even if it had only been to save their own skins from the trouble of dealing with a potential obscurus incident.
Admittedly, he had wondered about the possibility of that himself at first; But it was exceptionally uncommon for a child with an obscurus to survive so long and entirely unheard of for one to wield magic. He'd seen no signs that would lead him to believe she had one.
She didn't come back downstairs for the remainder of the evening.
When dinner rolled around it had taken some coaxing to get her to come down and eat. She had little red rings under her eyes when she sat at the table. Partway through dinner he made a tentative offer.
"If you'd like to talk about today, or anything at all, I am here for you if you need me," he said carefully.
She responded with a weak smile and nod that didn't give him much confidence. Her shoulders did relax a bit though, which gave him the impression that his words had at least somewhat of a positive effect.
He could only hope that if she needed to she would accept the offer at some point. Her reaction to the hearing was worrying him. At least she was here and he could keep a close eye on her to be sure she would be alright.
When the Ministry had started to move to place her, he had jumped to suggest she stay for the time being without much thought. He knew the Ministry had no idea at the moment of where to send her and he really believed she would be better off staying for now anyway.
When dinner was done she vanished again and he did not hear from her again until he was making his way upstairs for bed.
He could hear her crying softly as he passed her door. He paused for a moment, debating on if he should knock and try to console her. It occured to him that she may not have wanted him to hear though and he thought better of it.
He laid in bed wondering what damage he must have caused by dragging her into that hearing and altering her life in such a profound way. He could only hope that this was merely a shock that would pass in time. He sighed. Miriam would have known what to do.