Harry Potter And The Betrayal

"*cough* Malfoy *cough* *cough*" Harry muttered from his seat in the row behind Delacour's table.

"Lord Potter, please let the man testify on his own without any comments from the gallery." Lord Perrivor requested though Harry thought there was a slight grin on his face.

"Minister Fudge, you do realise just how stupid that sounds don't you?" Delacour pointed out. "You took a man who had little more than a third year magical education and hadn't been convicted of any crime from Hogwarts one of the safest locations in Wizarding Britain and you put him in Azkaban. Even if they weren't in the section of the prison where he was to be confined, how was Hagrid protected from the Dementors, given their effect can be felt throughout the whole prison even the levels where minor prisoners are kept? He could have just as easily have been placed in protective custody in one of the unused towers of Hogwarts or in one of it's dungeon chambers. Or if you didn't want to leave him at Hogwarts, why didn't you place him in a Ministry holding cell? And if you really thought he might be a danger why didn't you take any Aurors with you, in case he tried to make a break for it?"

"I didn't need Aurors," Fudge said pompously. "Dumbledore had accompanied me and given that he took out Grindelwald, I felt he should be able to handle Hagrid if he got out of control. As for why Azkaban, my advisor suggested it so that we could show the public we were doing something about the situation at Hogwarts."

"And who was this foolish advisor that suggested you should imprison an innocent man in hell without a trial?" Lord Longrim wanted to know.

Fudge muttered something too low for them to hear.

"Speak up Fudge." Longrim ordered. "You always manage to talk loud enough when you have nothing to say."

Fudge finally said, "Lucius Malfoy was the one who suggested it. He said it would make people feel safer about their children remaining at Hogwarts."

Dantes gave him a disgusted look. "And you can honestly sit there and say that it didn't cross your tiny little mind that you were about to do something illegal? Nor did it apparently occur to you that you didn't have the authority to arrest and send someone to Azkaban. Not to mention that it was an abuse of the powers of the office of the Minister to place someone there who hadn't been found guilty of any crime."

Fudge looked at Dantes with a dumbfounded look. "Of course I can. I'm the Minister, and if I think someone is guilty of a crime, I can have them arrested or even do it myself."

"But he wasn't guilty was he?" Delacour put in. "You had an innocent man arrested and sent to Azkaban without trial. You may have put a polite face on it by calling it protective custody, but we all know what it really was."

"The Ministry had to be seen to be doing something." Fudge burst out tired of the accusations. "There was a lot of public pressure to get the situation resolved. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement wasn't moving fast enough and so I took steps to get them more time and reassure the public. That is part of my job."

Lord Longrim commented dryly. "I would like to see where in the job description for Minister of Magic it says when the public starts demanding action on a situation the Minister must find a convenient scapegoat, even if they aren't guilty of any crime so the public can feel better about the government."

"It isn't in the job description," Fudge countered stiffly. "It is one of those things you learn on the job. Do whatever it takes to keep the public calm and under control. Whether it is listening to some old pure bloods waffle on about how the muggleborns are ruining our society and how they were kept under better control when they were younger, or listening to the complaints of a Muggleborn about how they aren't treated fairly in wizard society. The situation at Hogwarts was getting out of hand and Dumbledore didn't seem to be able to do something about it, so the Ministry had to give the appearance of having done something."

"By arresting an innocent man." Lord Kieran reminded him yet again. "I have a feeling you wouldn't be quite so cavalier about it if it had been you or a member of your family treated that way by the Minister of Magic."

The High Council conferred for a few moments, and Dantes announced. "It is agreed that Minister Fudge did intentionally or not abuse the power of his office, by exercising authority he did not have to arrest Rubeus Hagrid and confine him to the prison of Azkaban, given he hadn't even been accused of a crime. Compensation will be paid to Mr. Hagrid, from Cornelius Fudge's personal accounts for the harm done to him, said amount to be determined by this court at the end of the hearing. Please move on to the next charge Madame Bones."

Bones wasn't really sure how to phrase a question about this charge that wouldn't make Fudge look guilty. "When you were told by both Mr. Harry Potter and Miss Hermione Granger that you had the wrong man and that Sirius Black wasn't guilty of the crimes he'd been imprisoned for, why didn't you delay ordering the Dementor's Kiss and instead order a new trial?"

Fudge was silent for several minutes not wanting to sound like a fool again. "There was no reason to. Severus Snape, a man Dumbledore trusted, was an eyewitness to the events. Snape's testimony, that Mr. Potter and Miss Granger had been threatened by Black and the way the pair acted once they had regained consciousness, made it quite clear that he had managed to place them under a confundus charm to make them believe he was innocent. The man was guilty. He'd had a trial twelve years ago. Crouch was the one who saw to that. After all he presided over almost all of the prominent Deatheater trials, including his own son's. I saw no need to waste Ministry funds on a new trial when he had done such a thorough job the first time around."

"You were aware were you not that Snape and Black hated each other while in school almost to a level to rival Snape and Potter's hatred of each other. Why would you take his word, since he would've loved to remove the man from his life for good?" Bones wanted to know.

"Given that Dumbledore has spoken so highly of Snape over the years and about what an honourable man he was, I saw no reason to think he would lie, given a man's life was at stake." Fudge told her.

"Did Snape tell you he was unconscious or not present for most of the events that occurred in the Shrieking Shack that night?" Delacour inquired. "For that matter, since you apparently didn't wish to listen to the children who had been present, why didn't you at least delay the Kiss until you could speak to the only other adult who had been present… the Defence teacher Remus Lupin?"

"That werewolf!" Fudge couldn't believe the man. "We have never accepted the testimony of Dark Creatures in a trial involving someone who uses Dark magic. It is well known that they will side with the Dark Magic user."

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