Harry Potter And The Betrayal

Ron couldn't help the smug smile that appeared on his face after all it was he who reminded these high and mighty Lords that Fudge has still had someone Kissed by a Dementor without sanction. Ron got the additional pleasure from knowing that an additional charge regarding using a Dementor to silence someone could be added to the already massive list of charges against the Minister. Ron really didn't care one way or another that Crouch had been kissed he was a Deatheater after all, but he disliked Fudge and had since the end of his fourth year at Hogwarts, when the man had refused to believe that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back.

A quick summoning spell pulled one stack of parchment that the testimony had been written on to the High Councillors table. It took a few minutes to find the relevant section of Harry's testimony.

Lord Kieran glared at Fudge. "Did you really bring a Dementor into Hogwarts without the sanction of the Headmaster of the school?"

"It was my right to bring protection into a dangerous situation." Fudge blustered. "I had just been told a dangerous Deatheater had been captured on the school grounds and so I summoned a Dementor to accompany me and protect me, just in case."

"You didn't trust the Staff of Hogwarts to keep you safe?" Lord Longrim asked the next question. "I mean earlier you testified that you took no Aurors with you to arrest Mr. Hagrid, because you had Dumbledore with you, and you felt then he was protection enough. What changed your mind about Dumbledore being enough protection?"

"Of course not!" Fudge seemed indignant. "They'd just captured a Deatheater within the very walls of the school. I wasn't about to trust my safety to them. As for Dumbledore, the Deatheater had been impersonating a close friend of his for over nine months and he hadn't caught on. It was clear that his abilities to protect the Wizarding world were beginning to be highly overrated."

"Then why didn't you summon a pair of Aurors? That would have been a far more appropriate choice." Lord Altren wanted to know.

"Why would I expect them to be able to defend me from a Deatheater that managed to get past Dumbledore?" Fudge countered scathingly.

"You expected them to be able to defend you later on, once you finally admitted the Dark Lord was back." Perrivor reminded him. "I for one would like to know why you would bring a Dementor as a bodyguard to Hogwarts when you were simply there to judge the last task of the Triwizard Tournament?"

"I didn't," Fudge countered. "I summoned it once I was told about the Deatheater currently being held prisoner in the castle by Snape."

"Even though you knew that Dumbledore would not approve of such a creature setting foot over the threshold of Hogwarts without a valid reason." Lord Altren couldn't believe the stupidity of the man to actually bring a Dementor into a school full of children.

"It was my right to have protection with me when questioning a dangerous prisoner." Fudge gave them the same reasoning he'd given in the Hospital Wing the night of Crouch's death and Voldemort's resurrection.

"And did you order the Dementor to Kiss Barty Crouch Jr before he could be questioned?" Dantes asked.

"No!" Fudge was aghast that they would think so. He had always followed the law, except when it came to Potter.

"What do you mean no?" Potter spoke up from where he was seated.

"I didn't order the Dementor to Kiss Crouch." Fudge protested, not realizing that the person who'd asked the question didn't have a right to expect an answer.

"Lord Potter," Dantes spoke up after a whispered conversation with Lord Perrivor. "You are here as a witness today not a member of the Council. Please do not interrupt the proceedings again or we will have to silence you."

"Now Fudge, you say you didn't order the Dementor to Kiss Barty Crouch that means it was a rogue? Did you bother to report it to the department that is supposed to deal with dangerous magical creatures so it could be destroyed?" Perrivor inquired. "That is the law you know."

Fudge paled when he realised he had forgotten to order the Dementor he had taken into Hogwarts destroyed. "No my lord I did not. In all the confusion afterwards I forgot to do so and simply sent it back to Azkaban."

"Am I to understand that you, the Minister of Magic, failed to report a rogue Dementor and also failed to order its destruction?" Longrim wanted to make sure he had his facts straight. "Thereby endangering the lives of the prison guards and others who routinely visit the facility because they had no way of knowing the Dementor was a rogue."

"Yes sir," Fudge hung his head trying to look pitiful over his failure.

"My Lords," Bones spoke up. "You have to take into account that Minister Fudge hasn't had to face death day in and day out, like an Auror does. He was probably in a state of shock at the Dementor's actions when he failed to report it."

"He got over the shock fairly quickly." Dantes commented dryly. "Given that a short time later he was able to claim the death of the younger Mr. Crouch as 'no great loss' according to the testimony we have here from Lord Potter."

"It is still possible that he was in shock." Bones continued with the only argument she had to get this charge negated before it could be added to the growing list.

"Professor Snape," Dantes spoke to the former Potions professor seated against the wall between a pair of Aurors.

Snape rose to his feet and spoke in a low voice that carried. "Yes my Lord."

"You were with Minister Fudge the whole time from when you told him about Mr Crouch to when he left the Hospital Wing were you not?" Dantes decided to settle this once and for all.

"I was." Snape agreed.

"And while not a fully licensed medi-wizard, you have enough medical knowledge to recognize the symptoms of shock do you not?"

"In about nine out of ten cases, yes," Snape told him. "Sometimes the symptoms can be missed, if the shock is a subtle one."

"And in your opinion would someone seeing a Dementor use its most lethal weapon be considered a subtle or sudden shock?" Dantes inquired.

After a few moments of silence Snape finally answered. "If they had never seen it happen before, then it would be a sudden shock. And if you are going to ask if Fudge exhibited any symptoms of sudden shock, then I must answer unequivocally no he did not."

The silencing ward went up again and there was an even longer conference between the Councillors than there had been over the issue of Sirius Black.

Finally the ward went down and Dantes gave them the decision of the High Council on this charge. "While we will not be adding a charge of murder by Dementor to the list against Cornelius Fudge, we do herby find him guilty of the crime of failing the report the rogue Dementor to the proper authorities so that it could be put down. We also add the charge of endangering the warders of Azkaban Prison, because he failed to report the action to them as well, so they could take steps to isolate the rogue from the rest of the population within the prison walls. We are also adding a charge of deliberately endangering the lives of the children attending Hogwarts."

"I didn't endanger the children at Hogwarts!" Fudge protested.

"Oh really," Lord Kieran countered. "What do you think that Dementor would have done if it hadn't been satisfied with the soul of Barty Crouch? It would have killed you and Snape and then because the Headmaster didn't know it was within the walls so he could ward off the dormitories, it would have had a free run at the pride of the next generation."

"You admitted brining it in… without letting Dumbledore know it was coming." Perrivor reminded him. "If that rogue had killed single child you would have been held accountable; legally, morally, and financially and if you had been Kissed then your heir would have been made accountable for your actions. While that did not happen, thank Merlin, the situation should not have occurred in the first place. That Dementor should not have been brought within the walls of Hogwarts without the Headmaster's knowledge and consent."

Fudge gulped at the thought of the Dementor actually Kissing him as well. It was quite clear to those watching that the thought of that happening had never occurred to the man. Personally, Harry couldn't see why the idiot was so worried about a Dementor Kissing him. He doubted there would be any real change in the man given Fudge had no soul to lose.

Harry shuddered slightly at the thought of Fudge having kids. The image of Fudge as a proud father was only slightly more appealing image than the thought of Umbridge as a mother. Now there was an image that should be the stuff of nightmares. Umbridge as a cooing mother!

"The judgement stands," Dantes told him. "Let's move on to the next charge shall we; the failure of your office Fudge to notify all participants of the change in time for the trial you had ordered for a simple under-aged magic charge. Since you were listed as the lead interrogator that responsibility rested solely with your office Fudge. As well as the secondary charge that goes along with it of abusing the power of your office to have it held before the full Wizengamot, instead of a simple three member panel from the Department of Magical Education, which is the normal procedure in such a case."

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