Aftermath part 2 - Trial, speculations and results

Two days after the incident - Ministry of Magic - Level 10 - Courtroom Ten

The room was square with benches rising in levels along each wall. It was made by black stone and lit by torches. The room held at least 200 people, including 50 at the far wall which had the highest rising benches. At least two doors led to the room, one opposite the high benches which led to the dungeons outside, and one in the corner from which the accused was brought in. In the center of the room was 12 chairs for the defendants, with chains on the armrests that would bind down whoever sat in it.

In the middle of the high benches was a single podium where the chief warlock conducted the trials. The front row benches on either side of the podium were designated to the heads of the departments, who wore red hats and red robes with different crests engraved on them and the ones behind them sat the senior staff of each department, who wore black hats with black robes with different crests engraved on them.

"The court is in session, bring in the accused. Albus, I hand over to you," announce the current minister of magic, Millicent Bagnold, who were standing on the podium. When she left the podium, Albus Dumbledore, the Chief Warlock took the stand.

The 12 witches and wizards were brought in by auror, once they sat on the chairs, the chains on them came alive and attached themselves on the limbs of the person sitting on it.

"Thank you Minister. Naming the accused from left to right, Toby Crabbe, Albert Goyle, Arlo Smith, Beatrice Bell, Mason Scott, Wren Hall, Jaxon Harris, Hugo Phillips, Nora White, Thea Baker, Luca Anderson and Carter Jackson. You were brought in, no, lets correct that, you were thrown at the ministry, naked might I add, for the participation of an illegal sporting clubs that had been set up by Voldemort. The ministry cleared announced that all items and events related to the dark lord must be destroyed or cease in activity. Do you plead guilty?" said the Chief Warlock, few people had noticed that they were being accused for having dealings with You-Know-Who and not for torturing muggles.

"I-I plead guilty" one by one they all pleaded guilty, they had already given their confession due to truth serum and knew their fates was seals. To make matters worse, they did not have magic, this made them expendable and useless to their fellow "blood-purists". By pleading guilty they hoped to get a lesser sentence.

"Since you all plead for participating in unlawful acts, Hence I, as the chief warlock, here by sentence th__"

"Hold on a second," said Lucius Malfoy, "Not all of us have seen this so called evidence, Dumbledore, perhaps once we see it we can discuss more in detail how to not let this happen again?"

"I second that" said Cornelius Fudge, who was sitting next to Lucius Malfoy. The dark lord had fallen eight and a half years ago, and since then, Lucius had been working extremely hard to keep and strengthen his weak presence in the court, one of the "lackeys" he got on his side was Fudge.

"Very well, all those in favor of seeing the memory, please raise your hands," announced Dumbledore. The majority of the court raised their hand.

"Kingsley, why don't you pour the memory into the Virtual Memory Stone," said the chief warlock. Senior Auror Kingsley who was standing at the side of the accused walked to the center of the room, drew his wand out and waved it. A cylindrical stone detached itself from the floor and floated in front of him, Kingsley pours the content in the memory capsule into the cylinder, it then dropped down and socketed back into the floor. Few seconds later, the entire court room vanished, even the people in it became partially transparent, then the memory of the event that happened in the sporting club started to play for all to see.

There were many who gasped in horror when they saw Kenneth's appearance, most of the blood-purist faction had they blood run cold when they saw what Kenneth did to his victims. Amelia Bones who were watched the reaction of the court could almost guess who the session would go.

"So K.B. was the one that saved Astoria? Thank god we did not meet him, otherwise, we probably would not have let him touch our daughter," whispered Oscar to his wife Charlotte who was sitting next to him. Charlotte frowned and nodded.

As soon as the memory came to an end, Lucius Malfoy stood up and shouted, "We must get rid of that monstrosity."

"Calm down Lucius, first let us deal with the issue at hand. Since the dark lord had fallen 8 years ago, I will assume that this club was conducted during the whole period. So I say 10 times that period, 80 years, in Azkaban is a fair. Although, I wonder, now that you have no magic, would you live that long? Anyway, all those in favor," said Dumbledore as he raised his own hand. Following him, the majority also raised their hands.

"Then, as the chief warlock, I hereby announce you all guilty. Kingsley, please escort these criminals to Azkaban," said Dumbledore.

Charles Nott, stood up and said, "Now that matter is taken care of, let talk about how we will get rid of this creature."

Arthur Weasley thought it was a good time to bring up his muggle protection act and said, "Before that, can no one see how how these wizards and witches was torturing muggles? Lucius Malfoy proposed that we see the memory so we can not let it happen again. All those present know that I have been trying to put forward a Muggle Protection Act, I wish to bring this matter forward to the discussion."

Lucius could not refute him as Arthur had used his own words against him, however, Charles Nott jumped in and said, "No one here wants to hear your words, Weasley, we have more important things to talk about, you should go back and play with your muggle artifacts."

"Then what about mine, Nott," said Amelia Bones with a stern, cold voice, "Even though you pleaded that you were under the imperious curse, don't forget that you were in cahoots with the dark lord and that was only 8 years ago. The only reason the likes of you and Malfoy sit here is because you are part of the sacred 28, and not because you, yourself achieved anything great. So I would drill that into your skull before you talk down to one of those under me, Nott."

The Notts and few other families was fuming with anger, they wanted to argue back.

At this time, Oscar Greengrass stepped in to pacify the two sides and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, what Arthur said have its own merits. 80% of the witches and wizards in Magical Britain are half-bloods who have close relations to muggles, with 15% being pure-blood and 5% being muggle-born. When the daily prophet announces the news of what took place, it would be extremely detrimental to the ruling and the standing of the ministry. I suggest we pass the Muggle Protection Bill."

"I second that," said Charlotte Greengrass.

A lot of those present took a deep look at the couple, the Greengrass family that normally stood in the sidelines had picked a side. Dumbledore's blue eyes sparkled as he thought they had decided to team up with his faction. Oscar Greengrass's next sentence disappointed his expectations.

"That being said, we do need to take some sort of action against this K.B.," said Oscar Greengrass.

"All those in favor of looking at the muggle protection act, please raise their hands," said Albus Dumbledore. As the majority was made up of the Dumbledore's faction and those that are like the Greengrass Family, the motion was put forward.

The minister of magic, Millicent Bagnold, said, "Very well, Arthur, please send the copy of the bill to each department and to my office. We will all have a look through it and decide on the matter in the next meeting."

"I will have it done by tomorrow, Minister." said Arthur happily.

"Now can we talk about this K.B.? or is there anything else we need to take care of?" asked Lucius.

Millicent Bagnold said, "I heard that K.B. addressed another letter to you, Madame Bones, could you please read it to the rest of us?"

"Certainly," said Amelia Bones and proceeded to reading the content of the letter.

"It feels like he is very fond of you Madam, perhaps you have been working with this monster?" said Lucius, to which Amelia just raised her eyebrows. Everyone in the room knew how Amelia was, so no one took his comment seriously.

Albus Dumbledore cut in and said, "If you don't mind Madam, let us see the memory."

Amelia Bones handed the memory capsule to her assistant who when and poured its content to the Virtual Memory Stone. The entire slaughtering of the Bones family was displayed in front of all those present.

When the memory stopped playing, one of the people from the most noble house of Abbott exclaimed, "Preposterous! Magic has already been deteriorating and to add to that, an entire pure-blooded family massacred just because they were in the way of You-Know-Who!"

There was a lot of agreement throughout the room, after all, most in the room was related to a pure-blood family or was part of one. The likes of the Malfoys and the Notts did not dare say a single word in oppose to the direction of the conversation, not when they were branded as ex-death eaters.

Amelia Bones looked at the heated room and thought to herself, "Is this why you wanted to bring this memory up, Kenneth? to create a anti-dark wizard movement? To tell us all that if we don't unite we will all end up like the Bones Family? Well my dear nephew, hopefully now, those that stay in the sideline will chose our side," If Kenneth had heard her thoughts, he would have just rolled his eyes and said, "Heat of the moment will pass and everyone will return to how they use to be, driven by their own motives. Only you and few others, my dear aunt, would think like that. I, just like them, have my own motives and simply wanted some justice served for my family."

After the heated discussion died down, Lucius Malfoy finally pitched in, "So what of this K.B.?"

"And which law did this K.B. break exactly?" asked Amelia Bones coldly.

"Oh for Merlin's sake Madam, he has the ability to turn witches and wizards into squibs," said Lucius Malfoy.

"A very appropriate punishment if you ask me," she replied, "And if you haven't notice, this is the first time anyone has seen this kind of magic, there is no law against it! At most what we can do is to announce a ban on this magic, if this K.B. uses it again, only then we can take action against him."

"No," said Millicent Bagnold, "We have had this discussion before, if we ban every magic with negative effects then there won't be any spells the magical community could use to protect themselves. Madam Bones was right, the punishment was appropriate. If this K.B. uses this magic wantonly, then we will reopen this discussion about making it a forth unforgivable curse."

"So nothings will be done about this Vigilante?" asked Charles Nott, looking around the room coldly.

"Mr. Nott, if you have any clue to who he is, please let me know," said Albus Dumbledore, "Of course, I will not apprehend him. I just find the magic that is able to turn wizards and witches into squibs very intriguing, I would love to have a cup of tea with him. Besides, did you not see how accomplished he was with magic? He was able to transfigure himself into that, and wandlessly and wordlessly cast spells that could take down 12 pure-blooded witches and wizards in a matter of seconds. I think pulling someone to the side of the ministry is very beneficial, I'm sure others would think the same as me."

Charles Nott looked around the room again and could see that the majority of the people had the same view as Dumbledore, so he snorted and stayed silent.

"Now if there is no other topics to discuss about, I must take my leave, the end of the years exams are coming up and things are busy at Hogwarts," said Albus Dumbledore.

Everyone cleared out of the room, Amelia Bone was making plans to visit Azkaban to talk to the Snyde, she wanted to know of Kenneth really was K.B. When she was making her way back to her office, she heard, "Please, if you have a moment, Amelia."

Turning towards the figure she said, "What can I do for you, Albus."

"The memory of the that night stopped quite suddenly, was it like that when you received it?" said Albus Dumbledore.

Amelia Bones thought to herself, "This old fox."

"It was like that when I received it," she lied.

"Are you sure?" asked Albus Dumbledore, as he peered at her from above his eye-glasses, his eyes sparkling blue.

Amelia immediately pulled out her wand and pointed at the headmasters face and said coldly, "Don't try it on me, Albus, next time you try this stunt, I'll make sure you stay at St. Mungo for at least a month."

Dumbledore was taken aback as he said, "Sorry Madam, its a bad habit of mine, can't get rid of it to save my life." Amelia snorted and left the headmaster as he called out to her and commented, "I would really like to meet K.B., his talents could benefit the magical world greatly." A comment, Amelia readily ignored.