"The next charge is in three parts." The court scribe recited from her list. "Madame Umbridge is charged with attempting to give veritaserum to an under-aged wizard. First without getting the Ministry's approval to administer a truth drug she is not qualified to dispense. Secondly of attempted murder due to the fact that too much veritaserum was used in her first attempt and that might have killed Mr. Potter by overdose because she failed to follow the instructions of the school's Potions Master in administering it. Thirdly she requested additional veritaserum to use on the same student at a later date, again without Ministry approval but due to the fact that the Potions Master of Hogwarts had none available she was unable to try again."
"As a Ministry employee Umbridge, you know that veritaserum is only to be used with Ministry approval and to be given to any person to be questioned only by someone authorized to prepare and dispense it." Madame Bones spoke up when the court scribe had finished. "I know from your records madam that you are neither of those. You failed to get an OWL in potions when you were going to school. Did you request Veritaserum from Professor Severus Snape?"
Knowing that if she denied requesting the veritaserum, they would just bring Professor Snape, who was a respected Potions Master in to confirm that he had indeed given her veritaserum to use on Mr. Potter and that she had requested a second vial from him, Umbridge decided to admit to this charge. She would however not accept the attempted murder charge. "I did request Veritaserum, but I did not intend to murder Mr. Potter with it."
"When I questioned Professor Snape about this matter, he advised me that he did instruct you as to its use and that you should place no more than three drops in any liquid. He will answer to charges for giving veritaserum to someone not licensed to use it." Madame Bones countered. "Given that fact that you knew how much the dosage was supposed to be, why did you feel compelled to use the whole vial he gave you? Did you think you knew more about how to use it than someone whose job it is to dispense veritaserum? Or did you just not care because this was Harry Potter a boy you were trying to silence and if he died while you were getting the truth from him, well it was no great loss?"
"That was not my intent, Madame Bones," Umbridge was sweating slightly. "The boy had information on two wanted criminals and it was desperately needed to try and stop the Deatheaters and to keep Dumbledore from destabilising the government. Sirius Black was a known Deatheater…"
"Who has since been cleared on all charges," Harry put in.
"Are you aware Miss Umbridge of the reason why we do not give Veritaserum to under-aged witches and wizards?" Madame Bones asked. "What made you think that you could get around Ministry rules? They are there for a reason."
"Yes ma'am I am, but I felt the knowledge that would be gained far outweighed the possible risks." Umbridge told her. "I felt that Mr. Potter's potential discomfort was far outweighed by the risk to the wizarding world if he were not interrogated under veritaserum."
" Discomfort! " Bones couldn't believe the woman could be that stupid. "You call the potential loss of Mr. Potter's magical gifts as strong as they are and possible brain damage, discomfort! I would have used far different words, madam. Catastrophe or the complete and utter destruction of the wizarding world would have been my choice, given that a prophecy that has since been revealed showed that Mr. Potter was the only one who could defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
Umbridge paled at the thought of if fate hadn't intervened, she might have taken out their only chance to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all.
"Read the last charge," Madame Bones instructed the scribe as she just glared at the idiotic woman.
Miss Glendowling read, "Headmistress Delores Umbridge did attempt to use of the Unforgivable Cruciatus curse on the person of Harry James Potter."
"I never cast any Unforgiveables." Umbridge told the tribunal.
"Only because you were stopped by Granger." Harry pointed out. "She had started to cast the curse before Hermione interrupted her with a shout."
"Is this true, Miss Granger?" Madame Hill asked.
"Yes ma'am it is." Granger told her.
"And why don't you tell them what you did to me leaving me at the mercy of those half-breeds in the Forbidden Forrest after you tricked me into going out there with you." Umbridge countered, wanting to take the two of them down with her. It was fairly easy by now to see that this tribunal was going to make sure she went down and went down hard.
Suggero Malium Radix - Provide injury source
Reverto ut tribuo si iniustus donatus - Return to the giver if unjustly given
….. But She Can't Be Fooled For Long
"To justice done." Mr Boet raised his glass of wine in a toast after the waiter had brought their orders.
"It's pity there are no more Dementors for Umbridge to spend time with at Azkaban. If anyone deserves them she does." Harry touched his glass to the solicitor's in acknowledgement, but to him justice wouldn't be done until all of those who had betrayed him had paid for their crimes. Then he observed, "Given that she was sentenced to over a thousand years in Azkaban, I wonder if they will wall up her cell when she dies, to make sure no one removes the body before her full sentence is served?"
Mr. Boet wisely made no comment to either statement by his client.
Before taking a bite of his meal Harry asked, "Alexander, what do think the chances are that Dumbledore will go down with Snape?"
After a moment's consideration, Boet replied. "Not very likely. He'll probably get probation. Also the Wizengamot may require some kind of monitor on his activities at the school for while. I spoke with Madame Bones the day I brought in your charges and your pensieve and she told me that the wards around Hogwarts should have alerted him to both Umbridge's activities and Snape's. That means he either ignored the warnings or has ignored so many previous warnings that Hogwarts is no longer alerting him to potential problems because he's given the castle the impression he doesn't want to know."
"Probably the latter." Harry commented, thinking back over his years at Hogwarts. "Any ideas about the possible punishments they could give Snape, if they decide to find him guilty?"
"Not many," Boet told him. "He is very skilled Potions Master and there are very few of those around, so if they do find him guilty, the punishment they give will not deprive them of those services for very long. One thing I will push for is that the man be banned from ever teaching again, unless it is to an apprentice and then that the master apprentice relationship be very carefully supervised."
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/Sonic_Spectre
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon