..... 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."

Boet pulled a folder out of his carrying case and handed it to Harry. "These papers you need to sign as soon as you can so that the foundation can get started."

"What about the shelter for them especially during the full moon?" Harry took the folder and gave the contents a cursory look.

"I had one of my people and one of Gringotts best wizards check out the Black properties as you requested." Boet told him. "The best choice for a place for them to stay especially during the full moon would be Blackmoor Isle. The castle there, while it needs some work, is easily the size of Hogwarts. Given that it is on an island, it will be easiest to ward so that they can only leave it when they are human. That way they are safe and they don't have to be confined. They can run free on the nights of the full moon and I have been told that wards to insure they can't leave the island while in wolf form will be easy to put in place."

"Good," Harry was pleased with the arrangements. "Once the foundation is up and running, let the werewolves know there is shelter and employment there. I will pay them for repairing the castle."

"Did you want an article in the Daily Prophet to let them know about the foundation and the offer of work and shelter?" Boet wanted to know.

"Have the head of the Foundation hold a press conference and invite every paper, since werewolves are everywhere." Harry decided. "Remind the Daily Prophet that it is best not to bite the hand that feeds them, given that between all those families inherited from I now own about an eighty percent controlling interest in their paper. Make sure the Prophet understands that if they slant this story the wrong way, they will be shut down the minute it hits the street. Also make sure they understand I will no longer tolerate them being an extension of the Ministry. If they have no proof about what they print, it will not be printed. No longer will they be allowed to print innuendo and half truths."

"They are not going to like that." Boet observed.

"I don't give a damn." Harry countered. "I'm sick of them getting away with destroying people's lives. Oh and on that topic, make sure you put anti-animagi wards around the interview area. We don't want Skeeter to get any information on this and put her own special slant on it."

"That woman is a bit slimy snake, isn't she?" Boet commented and then caught on to what Harry had implied. "Are you saying that Rita Skeeter is an animagus?"

"Yep. An unregistered beetle animagus to be precise." Harry told him "Whatever wards are put up at the press conference, make sure they are set to trap any animagi who may try and sneak in. Rita won't be able pass up a story like this one. I have no doubt she will feel compelled to give it her own special touch. And if she does show up I want her exposed."

Boet made some notes to be passed on to those who would be doing the press conference to let the wizarding world and werewolves know about the Foundation. The two of them continued to discuss the Foundation through lunch.

"You said had some information on that family I asked you about?" Harry changed the subject as they started on dessert.

"Yes, I have what little information there is, right here." Boet pulled another folder out of his carrying case. "I had one of my people get the name from Ollivander and check out the records in the Ministry. There isn't much on the Weyland family."

"Isn't that one of the names on my inheritance list?" Harry inquired.

"Yes it is." Boet confirmed. "Gareth Weyland was condemned to the Kiss as Mr. Ollivander told you and it wasn't until after the Kiss had been performed that they found out he hadn't been working for Grindelwald, that it was another wizard who was almost his twin. Weyland's wife was killed during an air raid in Muggle London. That left a boy of nine Kerr and his two sisters Gwyneth who was three at the time and their baby sister Mari who was only about a year old. No wizarding family would take them in. The taint of the original accusation was too strong, even after their father was proven innocent. None of them wanted to take another potential Dark Lord into their homes and families."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Harry wanted to know. "The wizarding world creates its own problems with those attitudes of theirs. I'm just glad I won't have to deal with it after this year. What else do you have on the family?"

"Not much more," Mr. Boet told him. "The Ministry confiscated all their property, but couldn't touch the vaults at Gringotts since the Weylands were the main heirs of Ravenclaw line and her vaults were protected by magic far older than the Ministry, so they couldn't get near them and the goblins weren't going to hand them to the Ministry. The confiscated property was given to the families of those Gareth Weyland had supposedly wronged and even after it was proven that he wasn't guilty, the Ministry made no attempts to get that property back and give it to the children. Nor did those who received the property offer to give it back."

"That was probably part of what drove Kerr into Voldemort's camp." Harry commented.

"More than likely, given that he had no one to stand up for him and his sisters and insure they were treated fairly." Mr. Boet agreed.

Harry was silent for several minutes. "I have a good idea what happened to Kerr given that according to Mr. Ollivander, he joined Voldemort, but do we have any idea what happened to his sisters?"

"Unfortunately not," Mr. Boet told him. "Those times were very unsettled in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds and it was far too easy for people to disappear for good. Tracking what happened to two little girls is going to be impossible. However given that you are the heir to the Weyland's vault and it is a documented fact that Kerr had no children, it is reasonable to assume that he took his sisters out into the muggle world after a bombing and left them where they could be found and those who found them would assume that their parents were dead killed in the bombing. Kerr may have wanted to protect them from the prejudice he had already experienced in the wizarding world, even if it meant he never saw them again. I do know they never attended any magical schools. At least they didn't under their real names, and if they did go, they were probably thought to be muggle-born."

Harry looked thoughtful. "I wish we had more than that, but you're right it would probably be impossible to track what happened to them, given that it happened nearly sixty years ago. Is there any way to find out what properties were confiscated? I want them back. They should have been given back, once my great-grandfather was proven innocent. Since those who received the properties weren't honourable enough to return them to the children they rightly belonged to, they will be forced to return them to their heir."

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When they returned to Courtroom One after lunch, Harry saw the room had undergone significant changes.

The raised dais where the tribunal had been seated earlier was no much larger than before and there was a heavy chair halfway between it and the tables he and Umbridge had sat at. In the room, there appeared to be about twenty witches or wizards, besides Madame Bones and Miss Glendowling the court scribe.

Once Madame Bones saw them, she called the hearing to order and nine of the older witches and wizards joined her on the dais.

"Given that a member of the Wizengamot is on trial here today along with Professor Snape, there will be more members to the tribunal." Mr Boet told Harry as they took their seats at the table on the right. "It is supposed to give the appearance of impartiality."

Harry snorted in disbelief at that statement. "And the chair?"

"You will sit in it when giving you testimony."

Madame Bones again went through the identification and confirmation of the participants for the record, and then instructed the court scribe to read the charges.

"Professor Severus Augustus Snape is charged with repeated assault and mind rape upon the person of Mr. Harry James Potter during his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These assaults occurred from January to May in 1996 and were done under the guise of teaching Mr. Potter Occlumency."

The court scribe paused briefly as she saw the name on the next charge. "Headmaster Albus Percival Brian Wulfric Dumbledore is charged as an accessory to the crimes of Professor Severus Augustus Snape for failing to properly supervise the Occlumency lesson that he forced Mr. Potter to have with Professor Snape, even though he was well aware of Professor's Snape's dislike for Mr. Potter."

Harry looked down at the table in front of him until he could get his face schooled back into an expressionless mask. He felt like laughing at their choice of words. 'Dislike' was not quite the word he would have chosen. It sounded too polite. 'Loathed' or 'despised' were closer to the mark in Harry's opinion, but then again the loathing was mutual.

"Mr. Boet, since your client is the one bringing the charges, you may begin." Madame Bones told him.

"Thank you, Madame Bones." Mr. Boet stood and called, "Mr. Talisin Nighbert, would you please take the witness seat?"

An ancient balding wizard who looked even older than Dumbledore came up and sat in the heavy wooden chair.

"Please tell us you occupation and current place of employment, Mr. Nighbert?" Mr. Boet requested.

"I am a Master Occlumens." Mr. Nighbert told them. "For the past twenty years, I have been training Unspeakables in the arts of Occlumency and Legilmency."

"Mr Nighbert, I would like to place a hypothetical student before you. This student must be trained quickly so that he/she can protect their thoughts from a dark wizard, but has had no training in the mind arts. How would you begin to teach this student?" Mr. Boet wanted to know.

Nighbert was silent for several minutes before he answered. "Even though there seems to be some urgency in teaching this student, they would need a solid grounding before they can begin to master Occlumency. I would give him or her basic books on meditation and Occlumency so that he/she is able to understand the goals of the lessons. At the same time I would start teaching this student how to meditate and calm their thoughts. If a student can't learn to calm their minds then they will fail at Occlumency. It is not something everyone is capable of learning because it requires a great deal of focus, at least at first. Once a student is able to keep their minds calm, I would start teaching them how to protect their thoughts."

"And how do you teach them to do this?" Boet inquired.

"The techniques I use will vary from student to student." Nighbert told the assembled group. "Those with poor visualizations skills, I would teach how to build layered mental shields similar to domes. For those who are very good at visualization, I teach them how to hide what they don't want found, how to set traps or deflect Legilimens probes away from those thoughts. Once they have mastered that aspect of Occlumency, then I teach them to drive the invading mind out."

"Would there ever be a time when you would, oh say," Mr Boet paused as if looking for the right words, "stand a student of yours in the middle of the room on their first lesson and just say 'clear your mind' before repeatedly firing the Legilimens curse at them?"

"Of course not!" Nighbert seemed shocked at the very idea. "That wouldn't teach anyone how to protect their minds. In fact that would have the opposite effect on the student. Repeated exposure to the Legilimens Curse, without knowing how to rebuild the barriers in your mind could easily erode what natural barriers the mind does have, making it easier for someone to get in. It would also prove very painful for the person on the receiving end of the curse."

"Could permanent damage be done?" Madame Bones wanted to know.

"I don't know." Nighbert told her honestly. "It's not exactly something you would want to experiment with, just to find out. Knowing what I know about how the curse works, I know that the brain will react as if injured if repeatedly exposed to the Legilimens Curse. The person on the receiving end of the curse will at the very least experience very severe migraine headaches."

"Mr. Nighbert," Dumbledore spoke for the first time. "Is there any other way that you know of to quickly teach someone Occulmency, if there is not enough time to go through the method you proposed?"

"There are no shortcuts to teaching someone Occlumency unless you don't care about the person your teaching being sane at the end of the lessons. And if that is the case, then it would be far kinder not to teach them at all and just kill them with poison or a knife." Nighbert asserted. "You should know that, Headmaster. I understand you are a Master Occlumens yourself."

"One last question, Mr. Nighbert." Boet told him. "Would you ever teach someone you disliked?"

Nighbert gave the matter a lot of thought before answering. "Only if I couldn't avoid it, and then it would depend on how much I disliked the person. If it was someone I hated, then I would asked that they be given another teacher, because I know that I might not be able to put my feelings aside and do a good job teaching them what they needed to know."

"I have no more questions for Mr. Nighbert, Madame Bones." Mr. Boet concluded.

"Does anyone else have any questions for Mr. Nighbert?" Madame Bones directed the question to the Wizengamot members and then looked toward Dumbledore and Snape. When they all indicated they didn't, Madame Bones told the elderly wizard. "Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Nighbert."

"Madame Bones," the ancient wizard bowed slightly toward her in respect and then turned and bowed toward Harry giving him a slightly deeper bow before he returned to his seat.

Harry just nodded.

"Next I would like Headmaster Albus Dumbledore to take the witness seat." Mr. Boet requested. "Also Madame Bones, since Headmaster Dumbledore has been known for keeping secrets from my client as well as the rest of the wizarding world, I must ask that he be given Veritaserum as well as swear a magically binding oath, to insure that we get the truth and not just what he wants us to hear. Given that Headmaster Dumbledore is a very powerful wizard it is possible he may be able to overcome most if not all of the effects of veritaserum."

"Are you implying that the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot would lie to us?" One of the wizards on the panel demanded.

"No, not lie, just not tell us the whole truth." Boet countered smoothly. "For the past almost twenty years, Dumbledore has been keeping secrets from my client, deciding how much my client had the right to know, when he should have been told the whole truth the first time he asked about it. But Dumbledore didn't want to risk destroying his Great Experiment. The Muggles call it the Nature vs. Nurture Theory."

"The what vs. what theory?" Another member of the panel asked.

"Muggle Psychologists have been debating for years on which is stronger." Mr. Boet explained. "Whether it is the inherent nature a person is born with that makes them what they are? You know whether a person is born good or evil. Or is it the way they are raised that makes them what they are? Ever since the death of Mr. Potter's parents, it is my belief that Headmaster Dumbledore has been conducting this experiment, using Mr. Potter as the lab rat, to try to prove to himself that nothing he could have done would have stopped the person who eventually became Voldemort from going Dark. His actions insured that Mr Potter was raised in a similar environment to the one Voldemort was raised in."

After the expected flinches at Voldemort's name, Mr. Boet continued, "This may explain why it was so easy for him to believe that Mr. Potter had indeed killed Neville Longbottom. He thought his experiment had failed, and so he wanted to get Mr. Potter to somewhere he could be contained, so he couldn't cause any more damage. But this has little to do with the matter before this court. I have requested that Headmaster Dumbledore be given Veritaserum, so we can get the whole truth of the matter before us and I don't believe he will give it all freely. I also give my Wizard's Oath I will ask no questions except those which I believe pertain to the matter before us."

There was a brief conference between the Wizengamot members on the panel, before Madame Bones announced, "Your request for Headmaster Dumbledore to be given Veritaserum is granted as well as swearing him in under a magically binding oath."

Dumbledore looked very reluctant to take the witness seat, once he heard that Boet was going to be allowed to question him under Veritaserum and that he was going to be bound with a magically binding oath, but from the look on Amelia's face he knew he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of it. He also had no choice about refusing to take the witness seat, since he had been called.

Once the oath and Veritaserum had been administered, Boet asked a few innocent questions until he heard the flat tone that indicated the veritaserum had finally taken hold. Dumbledore had fought the good fight against the potion though but Boet could tell that by the sweat on his forehead and the slightly glazed look in his eyes that the potion had finally won the battle.

Boet chose his first question with care. "Headmaster Dumbledore according to Mr. Nighbert you are a Master of the art of Occlumency, is this correct?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said nothing more.

"Why then did you send Professor Severus Snape to Grimmauld Place shortly after Christmas in 1995 to tell Mr Potter that he would be teaching him Occlumency?" Boet asked.

"I could not take the risk of seeing Mr. Potter face to face." Dumbledore replied in a monotone. "I knew the anger he was feeling wasn't all his, though some of it was because I had kept him in the dark and prevented his friends from writing to him or telling him what was going on. Voldemort was using the link between them to try and take control of Harry or at the very least to gain information from him without his knowledge"

"And you chose not to tell Mr. Potter that you thought that Voldemort was trying to use him to gain information, is this correct?"

"Yes."

"Why not? Surely if Mr. Potter had known the reason behind the need for the lessons, he might have been more willing to learn what Professor Snape was going to teach him." Boet pointed out.

"I couldn't take the chance of Voldemort finding out, that I knew about his attempts to influence young Harry or use the link between them to gain information." Dumbledore told them.

"Given that you are a Master Occlumens yourself, why did you not teach the boy yourself? Surely knowing how Snape felt about Potter you should have known that you would be a better choice to teach him than Snape," Was Boet's next question.

"I couldn't take the risk that Harry might master Occlumency as quickly as he had the Patronus Charm, because then he might learn things I wasn't ready for him to know," was Dumbledore's answer. "I was the only one who knew the whole of the prophecy and I wasn't ready to tell it to Mr. Potter yet. If he stumbled upon it accidentally, I might lose what control I did have over him, especially if he told his godfather to contents of the Prophecy. I also couldn't take the chance of Voldemort using him as a conduit into my mind, if he learned from Harry's thoughts that I was teaching the boy how to protect his mind."

"Why did you assign Severus Snape the task of teaching Mr. Potter Occlumency?" Boet moved onto the next topic, even though there were a number of questions he would like to ask about why Dumbledore wanted to maintain his control over Potter, but his Wizard's oath wouldn't allow it since it had nothing to do with the matter of Snape's abusive actions toward his client.

"Professor Snape was the only other master of Occlumency available to me." Dumbledore reported. "All the others were at the Ministry and given the fact that the Minister was trying to destroy me, Mr. Potter, and Hogwarts, I didn't feel it was a good idea to ask the Minister to let me use one of their Master Occlumens to teach Harry."

"What made you think he would be able to put aside his anger long enough to teach Mr. Potter how to block his mind from Voldemort? Surely you knew he hated the very fact that Harry Potter existed." Boet knew the one problem with Veritaserum was that you had to know the right questions to ask, because if you didn't you might not get all the information you needed.

"I was certain that Severus would be able to put aside his anger toward James Potter for the greater good." Dumbledore countered. "After all he wanted Voldemort gone just as much as the rest of the wizarding world."

"Are you certain of that?" Boet couldn't help asking.

"Of course I am."

"Did you ever attend any of the Occlumency lessons that Professor Snape gave to Mr. Potter?" Boet already knew the answer to this, but it was leading up to his next question.

"No, I did not." Dumbledore admitted.

"Why didn't you monitor their sessions, Albus?" Madame Bones asked the next question. "Even I knew that Professor Snape hated Harry Potter. Why would you allow him free access to Mr. Potter's mind, unsupervised?"

"I had to keep the Ministry from finding out that I was having Mr. Potter taught Occlumency." Dumbledore told them. "If I had gone down to the Potions lab where Harry was supposed to be having Remedial Potions, and the High Inquisitor found out that the sessions weren't remedial potions lessons, then the Minister would have known something was going on. As for Severus violating Harry's mind, I knew he wouldn't because he knew that Harry was just as important to the side of Light as he was."

"So basically it would be safe to say that you the Headmaster, who was responsible for the physical safety and well-being of all the students in your charge, decided to leave a young man's mental health and safety in the hands of man who hatred of the young man's father was damn near as legendary as the hatred between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Is that correct?" A witch on the panel asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed.

"I have no further questions." Mr Boet told the panel.

The panel apparently had no further questions for the Headmaster either, because the antidote was quickly administered and he returned to his seat looking thoughtful.

"The next witness called will be Harry James Potter." Boet spoke up. "Since he is now old enough for there to be no harm to his mind or his magic, I also ask that he be given Veritaserum and I had already had from Mr. Potter his permission to administer a magically binding oath, so that Professor Snape can not claim later on that he was lying in his testimony."

Harry took the seat without a moment's hesitation then after swearing the oath and answering a few questions from the Potions Master, who was going to be dosing him with the truth drug, swallowed the three drops that were placed in his mouth.

After the first few questions Harry could feel the potion take hold and it gave him a kind of floaty feeling like he was there and yet really wasn't.

"Mr. Potter, when were you first told about the Occlumency lessons you were to attend?" The question seemed to come from a great distance.

"It was a couple of days after Christmas." Harry responded. "Snape had stopped by Grimmauld Place and after insulting Padfoot for a few minutes, he told me I would be learning Occlumency in the upcoming term."

"Did he tell you why you were to receive these lessons or what they were to do?"

"He said it was a magical defence of the mind against external penetration. I assumed he meant possession, but then I thought he had to be wrong, because we had all agreed I wasn't possessed when I saw Nagini attack Mr. Weasley." Harry told them. "The only reason he gave me for my being taught Occlumency was that Dumbledore had ordered it. He also said no one was to know about the lessons."

"How did you feel when you were told that you would be learning Occlumency from Professor Snape?" Boet wanted to know.

"I felt like the Headmaster had just punched me in the gut with a bludger." Harry admitted. "I also couldn't help wondering what I had done to be condemned to spending more time with Snape. I couldn't understand why Dumbledore would leave me in the hands of someone who hated the very ground I stood on, for something that wasn't even my fault."

"What happened during your first lesson with Professor Snape?" Boet inquired.

"I had no sooner come in the door and Snape started insulting me." Harry reported matter-of-factly. "After explaining some of the reasons why I needed to learn Occlumency, he told me to stand and take out my wand. I was instructed to try and disarm him or at least to defend myself while he tried to break into my mind. He wanted to see how well I could resist."

"And was he successful at breaking into your mind?" A woman's voice that Harry identified as Madame Bones inquired.

"Yes ma'am," Harry told her. "I finally managed to drive him out when he started getting very close to a personal memory."

"Then what happened?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"He insulted me some more by telling me I had wasted time shouting and that I needed to remain focused, so that I could drive him out with my mind and not my wand. I pointed out to him that I was trying, but that he had never told me how to do it. He then told me to close my eyes and clear my mind and let go of my emotions, but he still never told me how I was supposed to accomplish that. He attacked me several more times with the Legilimens curse." Harry recounted the rest of the first lesson.

"Was each lesson like this?" Harry recognized the voice asking the question as Dumbledore's.

"Pretty much." Harry admitted. "After the first lesson, every time I came into the Potions Lab he would tell me to take my wand out and clear my mind and then fire the Legilimens curse at me over and over, insulting me and my parents in-between rounds of the curse. Every night I would leave there feeling as if my head had been a target for the bludgers."

"You were never given any books to study so that you could learn how to clear you mind and calm your thoughts?" Another unfamiliar voice asked.

"No," Harry told them simply. "Why would Snape bother telling me if there were any books on the subject, when it was clear from the first lesson that he considered the whole thing a waste of his valuable time?"

"What finally brought the lessons to an end?" Madame Bones asked.

"I had a look at Snape's memories in the Pensieve Dumbledore had given him and he got mad at me for looking at my father's humiliating him in front of the whole school." Harry told them. "At the time I thought it was only fair. He'd been poking around in my memories for months, so why shouldn't I be allowed a look at his. Personally I think he was looking for an excuse and since Dumbledore wasn't there to force him to continue the lessons, he just stopped them, using my looking into the pensieve that he left out as an excuse. I was kind of glad even though I had seen how much of a bully my father was to him. It reminded me a lot of Dudley's 'Harry Hunting'. I was just glad I never had to go back."

"What is Harry Hunting?" It was Dumbledore's voice again.

"That has nothing to..." Mr Boet spoke up, but it was too late.

Harry had started answering the question. "It was a game my cousin invented. He and his gang would hunt me and if they found me they would beat the crap out of me. Once I was going to Hogwarts and wasn't around quite so much they started hunting the other smaller kids in the neighbourhood and beating up on them."

There was silence in the courtroom for several minutes, before Madame Bones said, "I think we've heard enough from this witness."

Harry returned silently to his seat. He wasn't pleased that he had mentioned the 'Harry Hunting' but it was a little late to worry about it now. It wasn't like those in the wizarding world would do anything about it. On the whole they were highly ineffectual at anything even remotely resembling true justice. He wasn't too worried about that. He would see justice done to Dudley. Even now he had a private detective following Dudley around and taking pictures of his activities. Dudley wasn't back at Smeltings this year. He had been expelled at the end of the previous year for assaults on the younger boys. It had taken a sizable chunk of Vernon's money to cover it up, but he had managed to avoid his son going to jail. Vernon and Petunia were still very blind to all of Dudley's faults and misdeeds. If the detectives he hired were efficient enough then he might have himself a wonderful Christmas present from the Dursleys for the first time in his life, when nothing Vernon could do would prevent his son from going to jail.

Harry had been so involved in his daydream of seeing Dudley get what was finally coming to him, that he missed seeing Snape take the witness seat and taking the oath and Veritaserum.

Boet was asking his first question. "Professor Snape, we have heard from Mr. Nighbert how he would teach a student who had no experience in the mind arts how to master Occlumency. And we have heard from Mr. Potter how his first lesson with you went. What I want to know is why you didn't use the method recommended by Mr. Nighbert on with Mr. Potter?"

"Because Mr. Potter should have already known how to clear his mind." Snape answered, managing to sound snide even under truth serum. "He is a wizard after all. He should know the proper meditation techniques to clear his mind. I shouldn't have to start him off at the beginning."

"Would you have taught say Miss Hermione Granger the same way?" Boet inquired.

"I wouldn't voluntarily teach that arrogant little know-it-all Occlumency, but if I was forced to by the Headmaster of course I wouldn't use the same method, I did with Potter. She's muggle-born, she wouldn't know the first thing about the proper meditation techniques." Snape responded.

"And Mr. Potter was raised in the Muggle world so how does that make him any different from her?" Boet sounded as if he were confused by the logic.

"Because he's a Potter of course." Snape answered as though that should have been obvious. "They are always different."

"That still doesn't explain why you expected him to know the proper meditation techniques to calm and clear his mind. Things that he would have learned only if he had grown up in the wizarding world and not the muggle one." Boet continued to sound puzzled. "You do remember that Mr. Harry Potter had no contact with the wizarding world, until he attended Hogwarts don't you?"

"Yes I of course I know that." Snape growled.

"I put it to you, Professor Snape that you really didn't want to teach Mr. Potter how to block Voldemort from his mind." Boet suggested. "That you took the chance of having unrestricted access to Mr. Harry Potter to pay his father back for what he did to you while you went to school. What I want to know is why you would attack a student who has never done you any harm?"

"So what if I did?" Snape countered. "The arrogant little brat deserved to be taken down a peg. Waited on hand and foot in the muggle world and then lording it around Hogwarts just like his father did when he was in the wizarding world. Acting so smug and superior, even when he was clearly in the wrong."

"So you admit to using the Occlumency sessions to deliberately attack Mr. Potter?" Madame Bones wanted clarification.

"No, I did not attack Mr. Potter." Snape told her. "I wanted to show him he wasn't special. It was up to him to find the information he needed to succeed in learning Occulmency on his own. If he couldn't, then it was his own fault if he suffered for it."

"Did you even tell him there were books or other things that needed to be done to succeed at Occlumency?" Madame Bones asked.

"I told him to clear his mind." Snape told her. "He should have been able to figure it out from there, after all he's a Potter."

"And what teaching method would you have used if I had been there, Severus?" Dumbledore sounded disappointed. "Would you have used the same method or would you have changed it because there was a witness?"

"Of course I wouldn't have used the same method." Snape admitted. "You didn't want your precious golden boy hurt and that would have taken three times as long to teach."

"You've heard him, Madame Bones," Mr. Boet pointed out as Snape was given the antidote. "He doesn't even feel that he has done anything wrong. Professor Snape feels that he was perfectly justified in attacking Mr. Potter and why, because he is a Potter. Instead of burying the grudge he still feels for Mr. Potter's father, and doing what was necessary to help Mr. Potter protect his mind, Professor Snape admits to repeatedly attacking him."

As Snape returned to his seat at the table, the Wizengamot members conferred. Nothing was heard because of the silencing charms that had been put up by Madame Bones. They even spent some time reviewing evidence from a pensieve

It was nearly fifteen minutes before the silencing charms came down and the oldest wizard present on the panel, Martin Bellacote stood to give their judgement. "Professor Severus Snape has been found guilty of deliberately and repeatedly attacking Mr. Harry Potter. It is this panel's belief, that Professor Snape should have been able to put aside his grudge against James Potter long enough to teach his son what he needed to keep He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out of his mind. Professor Severus Augustus Snape, you are hereby sentenced to serve five years in Azkaban for the assault and mind rape of Mr. Harry James Potter. You will also serve one additional year for being willing to provide Veritaserum to Delores Umbridge who was neither licensed to have or dispense this potion, so that it could be used on the person of Harry Potter."

"I did not provide veritaserum to Umbridge." Snape countered. "It was distilled water."

"Was it indeed?" Bellacote looked at him in disbelief. "Madame Umbridge was not aware of that fact. She acknowledged that you provided her with veritaserum upon her request for it."

"I told the Headmaster upon his return to the school what I had done." Snape told the panel.

"Be that as it may," Bellacote countered, "given your rather well displayed hatred of Mr. Potter, I think that the only reason you probably provided her with fake serum was to avoid the possibility she might dose you with it, or learn some things you didn't want her to know, not because you were trying to protect Mr. Potter. The sentence stands."

Bellacote turned his attention to Dumbledore. "Albus, it is you I am most disappointed in. I realise that you tend to expect the good out of everyone around you, but Professor Snape's hatred of Mr. Potter is very well known. How could you allow him to have unrestricted and unsupervised access to a student he has shown nothing but hatred for since before he even started school? It is believed that you have too many things to oversee, Albus as evidenced by your neglect of your duties to Hogwarts and the students there who should be your primary responsibility. Given past issues, such as the Dark Lord and his minions gaining access to your school not once but several times, it has been decided that for the next five years Hogwarts shall be monitored by the Wizengamot. There will be unannounced inspectors and inspections of all teachers and their teaching credentials. Don't worry this won't be like when Fudge tried to take over your school. Also for the same five year period, your duties as Head of the Wizengamot shall be delegated to others so that you can focus on your primary responsibility the students at Hogwarts."

Mr Boet stood up at this point. "Esteemed members of the panel I would like to request two further additions to Professor Snape's sentence."

"And those are?" Madame Gwendolyn Hill inquired.

"First that Professor Snape's teaching credentials be removed." Mr Boet told them. "If you check with the Board of Governors of Hogwarts you will find there have been a number of complaints about the man's teaching methods over the years. He has terrorised any number of students to the point where those who might have considered a career in Potions decided otherwise out of fear. I am not saying that Professor Snape should not pass on his skills, but it is just quite clear the man should not be teaching in a classroom environment. He may have better luck one on one, but if he does take on an apprentice, then I strongly recommend that the Master/Apprentice relationship be carefully monitored."

"And your second request?" Madame Bones spoke up.

"It involves the delicate matter of an unpaid life debt." Mr Boet told them. "Professor Snape incurred this life debt when Mr. Potter's father saved his life in their fifth year. Whether it was because he was saving his own neck or not, James Potter did put his own life at risk when he saved then fellow fifth year student Severus Snape. That life debt was transferred to Mr. Harry Potter when it remained unpaid at the time of James Potter's death. Technically, Professor Snape's unjustified attacks on Mr. Potter could be considered a violation of that debt if Mr Potter wanted them to be and he could suffer the loss of his magic. However Mr. Potter has told me what he would consider fair restitution for the life debt and the violation of that debt. Once he is free and for the remainder of Mr. Snape's life, every month near the time of the full moon, he must make all the wolfsbane potion necessary for the Remus Lupin Foundation."

"That's preposterous!" Snape declared loudly. "That life debt was paid during Mr. Potter's first year. I saved him from falling to his death when Professor Quirrell who was possessed by the Dark Lord jinxed his broom."

Harry coughed before saying, "Actually that was Granger. She knocked Quirrell into the seats in front of him, in her hurry to reach you to set fire to your robes. That's what saved me. She broke his eye contact with my broom."

"There is an easy way to settle the matter." Bellacote told them, taking out his wand. " Geall eadaraibh Snape anoar Potter. If there is no debt owed, then there will be no bond of light between you. Also the one owed will have a glow around them."

A few moments later a thread of yellow light appeared, joining Snape to Potter and Potter was the one surrounded by a glow.

"Yes, you have attempted to repay the life debt Professor Snape, but since you are still bound by a thread of it to Mr Potter, those attempts have not been completely successful in releasing the debt."

The members of the panel conferred for several more minutes, before Martin Bellacote announced, "Both requests are valid. From this day forth, Professor Severus Snape's teaching credentials are suspended. The only kind of teaching relationship that the Ministry or the Wizengamot will sanction for Potions Master Severus Augustus Snape is that of master to apprentice and that teaching relationship will be carefully monitored. Also it is laudable that Mr. Potter doesn't wish the world to suffer the loss of a great Potions Master, so the terms of Mr. Snape's repayment for the remainder of the life debt will be as requested by Mr Harry Potter. Every month once he has served his sentence and for the remainder of his life, he will make all the wolfsbane potion necessary for the Remus Lupin Foundation."

"This hearing is adjourned." Madame Bones pounded the gavel on the bench before her.

Geall -debt

Eadaraibh - between

Anoar - and