allendalepharm Chapter 233 Let me see
Chapter 233 Let me see
Chapter 233 Let me see
The earth-shaking explosion gradually subsided.
Dust billowed, and fragments of rocks rolled down the hillside.
After a long while, a huge crater was finally revealed in the very center of the explosion, along with a massive ball of earth in the very center of the crater.
The earthen ball twitched rapidly, then suddenly unfolded like a flower, crashing down in all directions to reveal the figure standing inside.
Professor McGonagall flicked the dusty sleeves of her wizard's robe and strode forward, casting spells to scan her surroundings. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief and looked back at the young wizards and Aurors behind her.
Finally, their gaze fell upon the figure who had pinned Peter Pettigrew to the ground with his knee.
Sirius Black…
The figure paused for a moment, then slowly raised its head, a smile appearing on its pale and haggard face. "Professor McGonagall!"
"You're Sirius!" Harry exclaimed in surprise, attracting Sirius's attention. Sirius turned around and stared at Harry, his eyes reddening and tears streaming down his face.
picture!
The person in front of me looks so much like LeBron James!
Except for his eyes, Harry's eyes are like his mother's.
"James..." Sirius's voice choked with emotion.
They were all about to say something when the Aurors reacted, tightly surrounding Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. One of the Aurors shouted, "Put down your wands!"
"He's not a bad guy!" Harry shouted immediately. "He's been framed! You all know we've caught the culprit, Peter Pettigrew!"
Sirius Black looked at Harry's expression and laughed. He tossed his wand to the Auror beside him, raised his hands, and let them arrest him, but his face showed a very gratified smile.
"Professor McGonagall!" Harry quickly called out to Professor McGonagall for help.
Professor McGonagall walked over and shook her head at him. "Dumbledore will be waiting for the Wizengamor trial. Don't worry, everyone will give him justice."
This sudden attack obviously attracted the attention of the Ministry of Magic, and a large number of people rushed over to bring them all back to the Ministry of Magic.
"This is absolutely unforgivable! I cannot allow such a thing to happen!"
Minister of Magic Fudge was furious and gave Scrimgeour, the head of the Auror office, a severe dressing-down.
"They actually dared to come inside the Ministry of Magic and attack our people, right in the corridor outside the Wizengamot courthouse! Completely lawless! I'm going to have them all thrown into Azkaban! No, I'm going to have you execute them on the spot! I'm going to sign documents authorizing you to use the most vile magic!"
The entire Ministry of Magic seemed to be alarmed, and many people rushed towards the courtroom on the tenth basement level.
The crowd grew so large that Barty Crouch, who was in charge of maintaining order at the meeting, had to use the Unseen Stretch Charm to expand the interior space.
People were talking loudly everywhere, and the entire courtroom was as noisy as a market.
Professor McGonagall led Harry and his two friends to Dumbledore's side, and the young wizards were pleasantly surprised to see the familiar figure beside Dumbledore.
"Professor Lockhart!"
Lockhart turned around, smiling at them. "You guys went through a lot while I was away from school!"
The three had so much to say, but Dumbledore was clearly getting annoyed with the noise in the trial room. He picked up his wand, pressed it to his throat, and shouted for everyone to be quiet.
"Order! Silence!"
"Order! order! order!"
Old Deng's words were undoubtedly more effective than those of Old Barty, Fudge, and the Aurors. Soon, the noisy conference room quieted down.
He glanced around with a deep look in his eyes, but ultimately said nothing and walked toward the chief judge's seat.
Barty quickly called the Aurors forward to maintain order and escorted Sirius and Pettigrew to their seats in the dock.
The rows of seats looked down on the two men in the trial bench. The Wizengamot members, including Dumbledore, wore crimson robes with an exquisite silver W embroidered on their left breasts. Their gazes were fixed on them, making Peter Pettigrew tremble with fear.
However, most of the people on stage focused their attention on Sirius Black.
Aside from Dumbledore, whose expression was obscured, most of the others were generally disgusted.
They don't care about a criminal's psychological state. In their eyes, today's trial is not about clearing a name from wrongdoing, but about someone who took the blame for his brother, confessed to all the crimes, and went to jail. Now he's unhappy about it, first he escaped from prison, then he caught his brother to prove that the other man was the one who made the mistake and wanted to overturn the case.
Many members of the Order of the Phoenix even had a very bad impression of Sirius because of this. People like Kingsley, who didn't have much of a relationship with Sirius, only thought about how Sirius had taken the blame for more than ten years, giving Little Starpie the opportunity to lie low in the Weasley family for so many years and leak countless secrets of the Order of the Phoenix.
Even worse...
Just thinking about how Ron lived in the same dormitory room as Harry Potter, with Peter Pettigrew and them attending classes together, and how many opportunities he had to hurt Harry, makes me shudder.
Little Pettigrew has so many opportunities.
The Weasley brothers took Harry away from his blood family and away from his magical protection to the Burrow, unaware that Peter Pettigrew was present. The Weasley parents had their own things to do, and at that time, Peter Pettigrew, this powerful wizard, really only had a few junior wizards by his side.
Not to mention the time Harry and Ron rode in Arthur's flying car on their adventures, when there were only Harry and Ron, two first-year wizards who had just graduated, and Peter Pettigrew in the car.
There are countless other examples like this; the little wizards' fondness for nighttime outings is something adults also experienced in their childhood.
So...
People couldn't help but have their doubts.
Whether Sirius Black betrayed James Porter back then, or whether he cooperated with Peter Pettigrew to provide cover, is an unavoidable question.
Such doubts can only be judged by Dumbledore.
Such a judgment cannot be made simply by being kind-hearted. Being willing to believe that Sirius is innocent means that Sirius and Harry will have more time alone together in the future, and that Sirius will return to the Order of the Phoenix and stand with his comrades.
Even worse, considering Harry's unpleasant blood relatives, Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, undoubtedly had the right to fight for Harry to live with him.
What if it's a misjudgment...
Dumbledore's life was not without betrayal, and he suffered the consequences of betrayal. Those corpses that were once full of hope but became cold and lifeless were the greatest lessons.
Just thinking about how one mistake of his could one day lead to seeing Harry's gruesome death and the massacre of the Order of the Phoenix by Voldemort...
Dumbledore was always willing to be lenient; if it were Grindelwald, he would have found an opportunity to kill Sirius Black long ago and been done with it. This is called "better to kill the innocent than the guilty" for the greater good!
You can't blame Grindelwald for making that choice.
Sirius Black sat slumped in his chair, sneering at the Wizengamo members on stage with an air of provocation and restlessness that made it hard to feel any goodwill towards him.
In the vast courtroom, perhaps only Harry and his two friends genuinely hoped that Sirius would be exonerated soon.
Oh, and Lockhart too.
Lockhart did believe in Sirius and didn't have any ill feelings towards him, but he didn't have the standing to stand up for Sirius.
Sirius Black is too impulsive and quick-tempered. If he endorses Sirius Black, he's bound to have a lot of trouble in the future.
If it were Lupin, Lockhart would have stepped up long ago.
So at this point, all we can do is rely on Dumbledore's over 100 years of life experience and wisdom, as well as Legilimency, which is always criticized by netizens from the previous life but is actually only used at such crucial moments.
Deng Xiaoping's ability in this area is extremely formidable.
No one knew that he had already cast this powerful spell on certain people, easily peering into their hearts and observing the emotions hidden behind every thought and the magical nature of those emotions.
This is an extremely advanced spellcasting state.
Low-level spellcasting is merely about prying into one's inner thoughts, but such thoughts are always tainted with personal bias, and too many frightening evil thoughts will inevitably emerge from a person's mind.
At this point, it's not enough to make a judgment based on just hearing a so-called heartfelt statement.
You need to observe whether this thought truly matches the other person's behavior. The way to observe is to see if this thought resonates with the depths of the soul and stirs up magic, and what the characteristics of magic are.
There is no standard; one can only judge it based on life experience.
For example, Dumbledore sensed more than once that Snape wanted to strangle Harry Potter, but he could tell that Snape was just thinking about it.
In practice, it has been found that many mothers have even had the thought of strangling their own children, but it is only a fleeting thought.
The trial began quickly.
Harry, Dumbledore, and his two friends were called up to the stage in turn to make statements and answer questions. Many truths about the past were slowly revealed to everyone, but in fact, many people were watching Dumbledore, waiting for a decision.
The world works differently than Harry and his friends imagined.
It doesn't distinguish between right and wrong; it only depends on the attitude of the strong.
Because right and wrong are sometimes very ambiguous.
Right and wrong are merely concepts of judgment, and the standard for judgment lies in the hands of the strong.
Sirius Black could be considered wrongly accused, or he could not, because he took full responsibility for the crime before going to prison, and could even be convicted of harboring a criminal and imprisoned again.
Not to mention the terrible consequences of escaping from Azkaban; too many law enforcement officers wanted to kill him regardless of whether he was guilty or not.
Unfortunately, Dumbledore ultimately chose to believe Sirius Black.
Then there's nothing more to say.
Peter Pettigrew's Order of Merlin First Class, which he was posthumously awarded for "being killed by Sirius Black, a traitor to the Order of the Phoenix," has been revoked.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by Azkaban.
Also, because Sirius Black used Animagus to escape Azkaban, Peter Pettigrew will be sent to a specially made prison to prevent such a problem from happening again.
Sirius Black, who was wrongly accused, received compensation from the Ministry of Magic under Dumbledore's supervision.
That is to award the Black family's ancestral home to Sirius Black.
This is no easy task, because Sirius Black has already been expelled from the family and is no longer considered a member of the Black family. It would be improper for him to take over the Black family's assets.
A family is never just a matter of blood ties. Many pure-blood families cannot accept that those who are unwilling to inherit the Black family banner and aspirations, and who do not make any effort for the family's achievements, have stolen the assets accumulated by the family over generations.
Once someone is removed from the family register, it means they are no longer a member of the family or the same group. Even if they share the same bloodline, it means they are no longer connected to the family.
But since there were no other male members left in the Black family, even Sirius's brother-in-law Lucius Malfoy didn't want to get involved.
This seems like a happy ending for everyone.
The real criminals received their due punishment, and the wrongly accused were proven innocent. Harry and the others were overjoyed. If the Aurors hadn't been guarding the passageway so closely, they would have jumped up and rushed over to find Sirius.
However, just as Peter Pettigrew was about to be escorted to Azkaban by the Aurors, he suddenly screamed shrilly, "I have a secret to tell! I have a secret to tell!"
Immediately, everyone who was about to leave stopped in their tracks, the entire interrogation room fell silent, and they all looked at Peter Pettigrew, who was being held up.
"Give me a reduced sentence, and I'll tell you this secret!"
Someone glanced at Dumbledore, only to find that the old man was just silently looking at Pettigrew without saying a word.
In the end, Fudge stepped forward and shouted at Peter Pettigrew, "A reduced sentence is out of the question, but I can make things less difficult for you in Azkaban. You can choose to talk or not."
Peter Pettigrew kept begging for a reduced sentence, but eventually realized no one was paying attention to him anymore. With Fudge waving him off, he was led back into the dark, gloomy tunnel, screaming hysterically.
"He's not Sirius Black!"
"He's not Sirius Black!"
Everyone was stunned. The Aurors who were freeing Sirius from the Judgment Chair quickly pointed their wands at him again and used spells to make the Judgment Chair extend chains to bind him.
"Let me go!" Sirius shouted. "Peter, even now you still want to frame me? After how I treated you before..."
An Auror cast a spell directly at him, and in an instant, Sirius's upper and lower lips seemed to grow together, leaving him only able to struggle and make strange whimpering sounds.
"Really, I'm not lying!"
Pettigrew yelled, finally getting the Auror to pull him back into the dock. Relieved, he muttered, "Did you think I was caught so easily? Before I was discovered, I had just fought Sirius Black. I was badly injured, but I also bit off his left ear!"
"This guy isn't Sirius at all; he's not injured at all!"
"I swallowed his dog ears long ago!"
"It's still inside me right now!"
Is this reasonable?
This is completely unreasonable!
The world's two most outstanding magic masters are right here. How could Sirius not recognize them?
Dumbledore was visibly taken aback for a moment, then looked at Grindelwald, who had appeared there without him noticing—Am I old? Did I misjudge him?
He just used Legilimency to conduct a thorough investigation of Sirius's mind; how could he be wrong?
Grindelwald shrugged, indicating that he didn't believe the person in front of him was someone else in disguise.
"Let me see!"
Lockhart stood up excitedly. He had finally found a bit of fun in today's depressing and boring trial. He excitedly pushed past the people next to him and moved forward.
Several Aurors stood in front of him, but after being glared at, they swallowed hard and ultimately gave up their firm resistance. They merely pretended to block him and were easily pushed aside by Lockhart.
"Let me see, this is so interesting!"
Lockhart looked down excitedly at Sirius on the chair, licked his lips, gently pulled his wand from his pocket, and slowly pressed it against Sirius's forehead.
In an instant, the entire courtroom fell silent, as if everyone was holding their breath, excitedly watching the scene unfold before them.
Is this exciting?
Is there a reversal?
(End of this chapter)