Chapter 225: Chapter 225 L can't believe this is a defense?
Dumbledore had taken the plaintiff's seat with Harry and Ron in the deep Wizengamot courtroom.
There were about fifty people in the room, most of them dressed in fuchsia robes with an elaborate silver "W" embroidered on their left breast.
Few of them cared about Peter, the defendant, but instead they all looked down at Harry in the plaintiff's seat, some slightly more restrained, others not hiding their inner curiosity about the boy who had survived the ordeal.
Harry and Ron, who had rarely seen such a scene, both looked a little apprehensive at the moment, moving as close as they could to Dumbledore at their side, their eyes occasionally glancing back at the chained chair in the very center of the courtroom.
Peter was sitting in the chair with his hands chained to it, a big, fat, rough face scrunched together, wincing and balking as he sobbed.
To Sirius' surprise, however, the Merlin Medalist of the First Class, who had risen from the dead, was not alone.
There was an elderly woman standing nearby, quietly looking at Peter's cowering form amongst the chairs with a look of some sadness, but more of a broken determination.
"This is Peter's mother ... Why is she here?" Sirius walked into the judgment room and frowned after seeing the old woman.
"It's normal for a mother to come and be with her son when he's going to be put on trial, isn't it?" Dracula said with concern.
"That's not true." Sirius shook his head, "Out of the four of us who were robbers in the first place, Peter's mother was the hardest to deal with besides the old mom who kicked me out of my Brecker ancestry.... I'm afraid she's going to pull some kind of stunt."
"It doesn't matter, since I promised to help you, I won't let anyone else make any waves." Dracula glanced at the old woman and coldly quirked the corner of his mouth, "I'd like to see what she can get up to."
Sirius nodded softly, straightened his collar slightly nervously, and walked slowly over to the plaintiff's seat and stood next to Harry.
He then gently removed the mask from his face.
Harry, as the recognized savior of the wizarding world as well as the boy who banished Voldemort from the Great Disaster, had always been one of the people who received the most attention in the entire courtroom, and the seat beside him naturally gained more than its fair share of gazes.
Sirius' movements instantly attracted the attention of many of the Wizengamot members.
"Wait, is that, Sirius Black?!" A witch sitting in her jury seat, who had been sizing up Harry, inadvertently caught a glimpse of Sirius' face and exclaimed.
"What? How did he get here?"
"What's he doing here?!"
"..."
The middle of the judgment room became chaotic in an instant.
Some people began to talk to each other loudly; some were looking back and forth between Sirius and the door of the courtroom with scornful eyes, as if looking for the best escape route; some timid jurors were even so scared that they fell out of their seats ...
"Sirius ...," Harry looked up at Sirius with some concern.
"Don't worry Harry, your parents' revenge will soon be avenged."
Sirius recoiled from the many questioning, scrutinizing, and fearful gazes and smiled softly at his godson, looking tantalizingly toward Connelly Fudge, who was located at the very front of the courtroom.
During the important trial ceremony, the Minister of Magic would preside over the entire trial as the Chief Wizard of Wizengamot.
Fudge was also taken aback at Sirius' arrival.
He subconsciously thought that Sirius was here to make trouble, and almost twisted his head to look for Auror to protect him.
It wasn't until he saw the calm eyes Sirius was looking over that Fudge realized he was standing in the plaintiff's seat and clearly didn't want to solve the problem with violence.
"Ahem ... all quiet!" Fudge coughed somewhat facelessly, then shouted in exasperation, "This is the Wizengamot courtroom! What's wrong with all of you making a lot of noise?"
"Of course there is evidence!" Mrs. Pediru exclaimed, "Our Peter is a First Class Merlin Medalist, he is the recognized hero of the magical world who rebelled against Sirius Black, it's impossible for him to do that kind of thing of defecting to the Mysterons!"
"In addition, Peter has no motive to defect to the Mysterons at all! On the contrary, Sirius Black, their Black family has produced a lot of Death Eaters, his cousin and his own brother are the backbone of Death Eaters, his defection to the Mystic is completely in line with the expectations ..."
"Just a moment, Mrs. Pettigrew." Dumbledore interrupted with a raised hand, "With all due respect, there is absolutely no evidence in the words you are stating in defense of Peter Pediru-"
"It has been proven that the Order of Merlin, First Class was simply a misunderstanding and that he had every motive for defecting to Voldemort, which was the fear of death! If you still can't come up with reasonable evidence to prove Mr. Pediru's innocence, then why don't we start by stating the eucalyptus case."
Dumbledore gave Mrs. Pediru an icy look and continued calmly.
"This is Mr. Ronald Weasley." He pointed to Ron, "Peter Pediru cut off one of his fingers after blowing up an entire street, turned into a rat with an illegal Animagus, and has been a pet in the Weasley household for over ten years."
"I object!" Mrs. Pediroux's eyes lit up and she exclaimed excitedly as if she had caught a loophole, "What proof do you have that Peter would use Animagus? How could he possibly learn to use the Animagus when he is so weak and not so gifted as his friends?"
"I naturally have a way of transforming him into Animagus form." Dumbledore said calmly.
"Who can tell if you'll secretly do something to Peter with human morphing?" Lady Pediru retorted, "The entire wizarding world knows that you are a powerful arch wizard and the best at shapeshifting, you could totally fake Peter into an Animagus!"
"So how would you like to do that, Mrs. Pettigrew?" Dumbledore said softly, "You haven't produced any substantial evidence in Peter's defense from start to finish, and such verbal statements are invalid."
"But ... but Peter doesn't have the Black Devil mark on his arm, which completely proves that he's not a Death Eater!" Mrs. Pediroux argued forcefully.
"That's only because something happened before Voldemort had a chance to carve the Dark Mark on him." Dumbledore said as he had Sirius pull up his sleeve as well, "As you can see, Sirius does not have the Dark Mark on his arm either. Doesn't this conflict with your previous testimony?"
"You ... you ..."
Just when Mrs. Pediru was almost rendered speechless, Fudge suddenly snapped.
"Both plaintiffs and defendants, please don't take care of an argument in the courtroom, and take care of the jury's emotions."
He emphasized the word 'emotions'.
Dumbledore frowned slightly and gave Fudge a cold look.
Mrs. Pettigrew took the hint and immediately realized that the final outcome of the trial would be decided by a vote.
She knew what she should do to save Peter's life.
"I ... understand that, according to Dumbledore's reputation in the wizarding world, the adults present are surely inclined to believe him over a bad old woman like me ..."
Mrs. Pediru's haphazard appearance suddenly changed as she pulled out a handkerchief from her coat pocket and wiped the corners of her eyes with extreme sadness.
Mrs. Pediru's sadness was indeed genuine, the tears could not be stopped from falling down, and it was so infectious that the entire atmosphere of the trial room quieted down with her.
"I'm old, I don't have much of an eloquent tongue, and I can't find any tangible evidence ..." she choked out as she wept, "but I really can't afford to lose Peter! "
"You have no idea how sad I was when I received his bones with only one finger left, and how proud I was of him when I learned that the Ministry of Magic had posthumously awarded him the Order of Merlin, First Class ..."
"A few days ago, I suddenly got a message telling me that Peter wasn't dead! I was so excited that my body seemed to be energized, but immediately I learned that Peter might be sentenced to death ..."
"This up and down mood is killing me as an old woman!"
Mrs. Pediru wiped tears from her eyes and spoke in a touching tone, and the eyes of many of the emotional Wizengamot members gradually softened.
Harry and Ron watched the scene dumbfounded, their heads filled with question marks.
There was actually this kind of operation?