Chapter 6
To the Potter’s, their release date had taken an eternity to come, but finally, Sirius and Remus were allowed to picked the couple up and get them home. Their first task was to gain the whereabouts of their kids, however they first needed to make themselves presentable least they wanted to go to court in white hospital robes. Since there was nothing left of their cottage, they decided to floo to James’ parents place, somewhere he hadn’t been since his parents had died.
“Woah,” James let out a shakey breath, they had been planning on moving here after Daisy was born, but they hadn’t had the chance before …
“Master James! Pearlie knewed Master James would come home! And Master James brought James’ friends! And a pretty girl! Pearlie kept Manor clean for youse!”
“Hi Pearlie, could you please get two of the best dress robes, and please make it hasty, we need to get back our children?”
Pearlie popped away with a snap, coming back to them in less than a minute. She had her arms filled with fancy robes - his dead parent’s, James shook his head trying to rid himself of that thought.
“Thanks Pearlie, while we’re gone can you please do up two rooms, make it nice and cozy but plain as well allow the kids to decorate.”
“Pearlie will makes them! Master has come back!” With a gleeful squeal, the house elf popped away.
“Well she’s certainly eager,” Lily laughed, already going through the pile of robes
***
James decided Pearlie must’ve known not to grab robes that his parents had often worn, most of the garments James didn’t even recognise. James had decided to wear a buttery yellow robe that had puffy sleeves (James preferred to have his cuffs fitted to his wrist) and had multiple layers. The robe had been his Father’s but one the man hadn’t worn as he had preferred darker colours. Lily was wearing a robe James hadn’t even seen before; It was a sage green with a lace up corset built into it and short flowy sleeves, the skirt had multiple layers, a mix of shades of green and lace, the top layer of the skirt had light pink and blue flowers embroidered into the material.
James fell in love all over again.
Remus and Sirius had always put on their own dress robes to accompany them. Lily’s magic snapped dangerously around her while James’ was anxiously flickering, he could also sense the tension in Remus and Sirius’ magic. Nobody was talking, too caught up in their thoughts but they remained physically close to each other. ‘what if their kids wanted to stay with whoever they grew up with?’ James nearly started crying at that thought.
It didn’t take long for them to get to the Ministry thanks to the floo system. It took a while for them to get someone’s attention and it probably would’ve been longer if not for the parent's angry magic sizzling and cracklings. They were met by a tall chubby woman with wavy dark blonde hair.
“Hi everyone! What can I help you with my darlings?”
“We need the location of our children. Hadrian and Daisy Potter.” Lily demanded, her voice leaving no room for argument.
“Im sorry, their location is unknown to everyone except the minister and Dumbledore,”
“We are their parents” James stated, voice cold and firm, so very unlike him. “You better get them here right now.” Sirius growled and Remus’ eyes flashed yellow.
The lady stepped back, visibly frightened of the groups dangerous aura. “I-I’ll try t-to g-get them,” the lady stuttered, stumbling over her words.
“GET TO IT” At Lily’s outburst the lady ran off, her high heels clicking against the tiled floor.
An hour later, the lady returned and beckoned the group to follow her, she lead them down multiple hallways and up to the top floor before they entered the Minster’s office. In the room, the Minster and Dumbledore sat behind a large fancy desk, the pair on the surface look happy, however Dumbledore didn’t have his usual glint and the minister seemed stressed if the way he was fiddling with fingers meant anything. The four sat in the chairs in front of the desk and glared at the two, a thick tension filled the air.
“Give us our children. NOW.”
*****
After much debating and threats of lawsuits, an emergency court hearing had been called, it took an hour before everybody had arrived. The anger they felt at being called to court with no warning had disappeared once they found out why it was called. The round room was large and dark, black and gold patterned tiles covered the floor, the walls had black arches in front of them making the gold walls only partly visible. Around the walls were black stands set up as a large circle, the only break in the stands was the entrance, it was designed so that no matter where you sat you had a perfect view of where the lawyers, victims and suspects sat.
Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and their Layer; Sarah Gelby, sat down with Mrs Gelby on the end closest to the judge’s stand. Mrs Gelby was a petite woman with dark hair and dark eyes, She’d been Sirius’ and Remus’ lawyer for years and was the reason the two hadn’t been arrested for ‘harassment’ since according to Dumbledore harassment means trying to gain custody of your godchildren. On the other stand Dumbledore sat alone, usually in cases this important the minister would be the judge, however due to a bias claim by Mrs Gelby. The new judge was a stern looking man with long grey box braids with dark skin and wearing a silky light yellow cloak.
“All rise. Department 1 of the Ministry Of Magic: Supreme Court is now in session, Judge Garret presiding, all please be seated”
Judge Garret stood up and cleared his throat. “Good afternoon all Wixen presented today, Calling the case for the guardians Potter Children: The Potters vs Professor Dumbledore. Are both sides ready?”
“Yes your honour,” both Dumbledore and Mrs Gelby replied.
“Will the clerk please swear in the Jury?”
“Will the jury please stand and raise your right hand?” The judge waited the jury to comply. “ Do each of you swear that you will fairly try the case before this court, and that you will return a true verdict according to the evidence and the instructions of the court, so help you, God? Please say ‘I do’” once again the Judge paused and waited to the Jury to do as he asked, once done he finished “You may be seated”
The first thing the Judge did was administer Veritaserum to everyone on trial, the jury seemed pleased when there was no fighting it, a rare occasion. Lily’s service familiar sat quietly on her shoulder, ready to aid her witch whenever necessary.
“First to the Stand: Adora Snim, the head nurse in charge of the Potter’s care.” The tall woman stood confidently at the stand, waiting for questioning. “Please state your name and the events leading to Mrs and Mr’ Potter’s wakening.”
“I first noticed something was happening when their blood pressure rose, it was still safe so we decided to keep an eye on it. A few days pasted and James had more movements such had muscle twitches, head rolls and nose scrunches, Lily’s eyes opened and kept blinking slowly. We ran tests to make sure nothing bad was happening and found their vitals and brain waves were becoming more like a conscious person. The day they woke, their magic became very active and had an almost explosive burst of accidental magic. We instantly ran more tests and alerted the proper authorities, as well as those with the power of attorney.”
“And who was that?”
“For Mr Potter it was Mr Sirius Black, for Mrs Potter it was Mr Remus Lupin” Nurse Snim stated, pointing to the men.
Adora Snim was allowed to take her seat once again, and was replaced with Auora Abernathy, who was one of the first on scene that Samhain night. Followed her was a number of other Auora’s who had been involved in the Potter’s case. Finally was the Inform-Auora Goldberg, who was a type of Auora who didn’t go on field and instead gathered information by interviewing witnesses, victims and suspects, as well paper work. Goldberg had kept very close tabs on the Potters, not only because it was a high profile case, but because it was his first high profile case he’d ever been given.
The court session went for hours before they even asked Sirius or Remus to come to the stand, questions had been thrown at the many of those who stood at the witness stand. Finally, the judge asked Remus to the stand.
“Please state your name and how you know the Potter’s”
“My name is Remus Lupin, I befriended Lily and James in first year, we became incredibly close and James, Sirius, Peter and I pulled many pranks and called ourselves the marauders, while the others weren’t close to Lily until sixth year, I was close with her since first year. They accepted my lycanthropy and comforted me after full moons,”
“And you are registered, correct?” The judge asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Yes, I’ve been registered since I was four.”
“Please continue what happened that Samhain night,”
“I received a patronous from Sirius, hysterical saying how Peter betrayed us, that the Potter’s were unconscious, he didn’t know if they would make it and told me to meet him at St Mungo’s. I instantly apparated and waited, after a few minutes I saw healers surrounding two floating bodies, there was so much being said I couldn’t tell what they were saying. I saw Sirius and immediately went to my Mate. Since then we visited them multiple times a week, we tried to be there daily.” Remus finished talking, visibly emotional from the memories.
“Thank you Mr Lupin, please take your seat. Next is Mr Sirius Black, the first on scene,”
Sirius was visibly shaking, for years he had been repressing those memories. With a reassuring nod from James and soft smiles from Lily and Remus, Sirius went up, putting on his best ‘perfect pureblood’ mask. Taking a deep breath, he began.
“James, Remus, Peter and I set up a system, where if there was a break in to one of our houses, a patronous immediately would be sent to all of the others. I received James’ Patronous and immediately apparated to the front of our house, it was completely covered with fire and gave multiple extremely powerful magical signatures, I regognised James’, and Lily’s immediately as well Euphemia Potter’s and Fleamonte Potter’s, the others were unknown.” Sirius took a deep breath. “I saw James’ body first, he was so still, so injured I thought he was dead despite not feeling our bond break-“
“Bond?” A lawyer interrupted, irritating Sirius imensly.”
“In seventh year, James, Remus and I decided we wanted to bond our magic, we asked Peter as he was part of the Marauders but he refused. Remus and I were already connected through our mateship. We found an ancient ritual with powerful spells needed for it and began studying and improving our power. After five months, we proceeded with the ritual.”
“And why did you choose to do this?”
“James’ family was more of a family to me ever since I was 11. When I was disowned by my biological family, the final already incredibly weak bonds broke. At that time I was only bonded to Andromeda, my Great Uncle Leo and Regulus” Sirius choked at this part. “Over the years, my bonds with my family broke, from having dozens of bonds, to to none, caused my magic to go into shock, and I became very ill, weak and depressed”
“Continue with your story of Halloween night.”
“I broke down, I clung to him sobbing, I-I hugged him to my chest and begged Merlin for this to be a nightmare, that’s when I felt a heartbeat. I was euphoric I jumped up and thanked Merlin, that’s when I remembered Lily and the kiddo’s , I ran up, saw Lily’s body and pulled Lily to my chest to see if I could feel her heartbeat: I could. I could hear the babies crying and went to check on them, Harry had a cut on his forehead and that was it. I cried in relief, well technically I never stopped crying, I pulled my godchildren close to me and sung their favourite Lullaby. It took me a few minutes to think to send a message to St Mungo’s, The Order, and Remus.”
The Lawyer leant forward and squinted her eyes. “If you three had this security charm with your animagus’, why did you need to send one to him?”
“The night before was a full moon and Remus was resting, James’ Patronous is incredibly respectful and shy and Remus is almost impossible to wake, plus I wanted to let him know James and Lily were alive.”
“You may be seated Mr Black.” Judge Garret states. “Court dismissed for a five minute break.”