A night of love

Judgment

With two wives to occupy his time, Harry didn’t have time to give any thought to either Ron or Dumbledore. He wasn’t even aware of all that was going on elsewhere while he was occupied with school matters and matrimonial matters. Well, not many boys his age would have been more observant.

Yet things were happening, and not quite slowly. The aurors didn’t even need to use Veritaserum on Ron, as he blurted freely all that he knew or thought he knew. His testimony incriminated both Dumbledore, as the initiator of the doping and the supplier of one of the potions, and Molly, as a more than willing helper and the supplier of the love potion.

Molly was so furious about her son’s treatment by “that ungrateful brat,” that she disclosed her part in the plot quite willingly, feeling sure that having done everything in concert with Dumbledore made it right.

Interrogating Dumbledore was much more difficult. He used every trick he could think of, call on every favor anybody owed him and used all of his supposed influence to stall the investigation and eventually stop it. He failed. The auror corps under Madam Bones was not subject to political or other influences. After too long a time that Albus managed to keep away from the truth, he was given Veritaserum and started revealing his secrets. This proved more overwhelming to the investigating aurors than anybody could expect.

Dumbledore told them of his plan to make Harry weak and dependent so that he could take control of his fortunes and use them for “the greater good” – which was finally discovered to be just whatever Albus wanted, regardless of any moral or other restrictions.

The use of potions on Harry was one of his minor misdeeds, though. Dumbledore had used loyalty potion freely on most staff members at Hogwarts and on many politicians as well. He had used “Imperius” on more than one occasion to further his goals; he had knowingly sent a few people to their unnecessary deaths during the first war against Voldemort; he had used legilimancy on practically everybody who came to his office. Luckily for Harry, most of his family fortunes were managed by the Goblins, and they didn’t let Dumbledore take control of anything unless explicitly stated so in the Potter will, the same one that Dumbledore had sealed precisely so that he could do whatever suited him.

Knowing the effect Dumbledore’s trial could have on the magical community, Madam Bones let some information leak to the press, just enough to cause people doubt the man without making their opinions swing drastically one way or the other. She knew that gradual changes can be beneficial, while abrupt ones may bring chaos.

The Weasley family was torn apart. At first, Arthur didn’t want to believe that his wife for almost three decades was using love potion on him, yet when the evidence became clear, he had to admit that his love was really fake. He was more deeply disturbed by Ron’s lack of minimal common sense, blaming himself for Ron’s failure. His elder sons supported him, with Charlie coming for a prolonged vacation from Romania, just to help his father through the crisis.

Arthur also contacted Minerva in order to get her help in setting a public apology to Lord Potter, but Minerva declined, telling him of Ginny’s public apology and how it was accepted.

With the investigation reaching its conclusion, a date was set for the trials and Lord Potter-Black, Lady Potter and Lady Black were kindly asked to come and give their testimonies.

They left Hogwarts as soon as they finished their end of term Potions exam. Hermione was still worried about how she did it, and neither Harry nor Padma could do much to calm her. They Floo’ed to the Ministry’s atrium, where a young auror was waiting to escort them to their seats in the court room.

“Hello, my name is Tonks,” she said formally, “and I’m here to help you find your seats and instruct you about the procedures during the trial.”

Harry and Hermione had already met her and greeted her warmly. Tonks lost her formality almost immediately. “When I first heard about you I thought it was a joke. Nobody goes to bed with two virgins and wakes up married to both.”

Harry paled. “I thought we’ve kept it a secret. How do you know?”

Tonks smiled, changing her hair color from pink to orange and back. “I’m an auror, trained to dissect as many facts from as little information available. I knew they were both virgins before that – it was not a secret. They are now both magically wed to you, both during the same night. Magical wedding need s*x to happen. So – Bingo! And you’ve practically confirmed it now.”

Harry smiled. “Well, you’re right, and I think it’s time to introduce lady Black to you.”

Padma shook hands with Tonks, who smiled brightly at her. “He really has good taste in women,” she added, making Padma blush.

As they approached the court room, Tonks said, “I hope you don’t mind that I saved a seat for my boyfriend near you.”

Harry frowned. It was too late to protest, but he really didn’t like some random stranger to sit with them.

They entered the room, led by Tonks, and Harry was soon engulfed in a hug. “Congratulation, Prongslet, I’m sure your father is very proud of you now, and so is Sirius.”

“Remus? What are you doing here?”

Remus smiled. “My girlfriend thought it was a good idea to have someone familiar near you during the trial, and it looks like I’m the only one to fit the bill.”

Harry looked confused, yet Hermione understood immediately. “You and Tonks? Congratulations! You really deserve to have somebody to love you.”

“Oh, I’m not sure about that,” Tonks commented in mock seriousness. “You see, he still has a lot to learn to earn his love, but he looks like a fast learner.”

Harry felt much better with these two at his sides. Unnoticed by him, Minerva and a few other teachers also came to attend the trial, sitting much farther in the back.

They didn’t need to wait too long for their testimonies to be presented. Harry was called first.

“Care to tell us how you found out about the potions?” the prosecutor asked him

“A girl approached me and asked for a favor. I said that my girlfriend would not approve. She said that our relations seemed suspect and asked if I minded to have her check me for potions. When she did, I glowed blue with red fringes, indicating it was both love potion and loyalty potion. I had my friend Hermione do a similar test on me, giving the same results, and she asked me to check her, finding only love potion in her. We then used another spell to find out the perpetrator. It was Dumbledore, for the loyalty potion, and Molly for the love potion.”

“Did you do anything about it?”

“Not immediately. We both took a potion to flush all others out of our bodies and learned a revealing spell to find if our foods or drinks were laced with any potion. Once we got suspicious, it was easy to find that Ron was administering the potions to both of us.”

“Did you do anything to him?”

“No. We just tried to keep our distance and not let him near out food or drink. We still didn’t want anybody else to know we’ve already found out.”

“Then what happened between you and Mr. Weasley?”

“When I introduced my wives in the great hall after our bonding, Ron got angry, stating that Hermione was his by right, and he tried to kill me. Luckily, my wives and I were faster, stunning him before he finished the curse.”

“You didn’t use your wands, though, according to eye witnesses. How did you do it?”

“Lady Black suggested that whoever tried to control me with potions might have also bound my magic and Hermione’s – Lady Potter. She checked us with a spell and our magic was really bound. After unbinding, we found we could even do some wandless magic, as Lady Black was already able to do before. Stunning wandlessly was quite easy, actually.”

“Did you try to talk with Mr. Dumbledore?”

“No. He would have probably denied everything and I thought it would be better if somebody neutral found any evidence there was.”

The attorney for the defense asked, “How do you know it was Mr. Weasley who administered the potions? It could be any of your classmates.”

Harry sighed in frustration. It was actually expected that he would be asked this question, despite the answer being perfectly clear. “I saw him holding the vials. Once I got suspicious, it was quite plain to see, as Ron was not so discreet about handling them as he thought he was. I believe the aurors also found some vials in his robes and in his trunk.”

“Those could have been planted there, don’t you agree?”

“They could, but not likely. I didn’t plant anything on him – our confrontation was public and I didn’t even go close to him.”

“Maybe somebody else?” the attorney suggested.

“I can’t think of anybody who’d likely do such a thing. Besides, some signs are bound to be found.”

“The only signs found on the vials were Ron’s, Dumbledore’s and Molly’s,” the prosecutor added.

The girls’ testimonies were even shorter. Harry looked at the accused the whole time. Dumbledore looked sad, as if disappointed, yet not taking any blame. Molly looked indignant, as if sure she was doing the right thing and angry for being accused. Ron looked angry and confused, not really understanding what was going on. Well, Hermione would no longer help him understand.

There were many other testimonies. Harry was surprised when he saw Minerva giving a testimony of finding loyalty and compulsion potions in her body, after becoming aware of Albus’s liberal use of potions, as did Professor Sprout and two other teachers.

It took practically the whole day. Dumbledore looked sadder as time passed, and Molly’s expression also changed to fright, realizing that she could not escape punishment. Only Ron seemed not to understand what was going on. He looked bored and rubbed his stomach occasionally, in what Harry knew as his way to show ‘I’m hungry.’

It was past dinner time when the verdict was finally given, after a very short discussion of the judges. “We find the three defendants guilty of all charges. Albus Dumbledore, as the main mover behind these crimes and many more, as shown in this court, is sentenced to a hundred years in Azkaban and removal of all his official titles. Molly Prewett is sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment. Her son, Ron, will serve ten years in prison, after which his magic will be bound and he will be oblivated of the magical world and set free as a muggle.”

Harry thought Ron’s punishment was the harshest. Ron could barely live as a wizard, with his lack of talent and his refusal to learn. Without magic, he’d be completely lost and would not survive for long. It almost looked like killing him would have been more merciful than his stated punishment.

Remus Lupin took them to dine at a nice muggle restaurant before sending them back to Hogwarts. None of them felt happy about what happened. They all would have preferred not to have any reason to put these people, whom they had previously trusted, on trial, yet they felt satisfied that justice was done.

Once back, none of them felt like frolicking in bed. They only hugged each other and cuddled closely together, feeling secure in the love they shared, and then fell asleep.