The next several days went by like a blur for Harry. He spent the day helping clean the house, one that people no longer needed to tiptoe around ever since Harry ripped Sirius’ mother’s painting to shreds, and he spent some time every night practicing with Sirius till eventually he could practically control the power without much hassle.

Finally on Wednesday evening during dinner, Mrs Weasley turned to him and said, “I’ve ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight, too. A good first impression can work wonders.”

Harry nodded and continued to eat, to pause a moment later. He recalled how the time of the hearing was changed and they had to rush just for him to arrive late.

“How will we be getting there?” asked Harry.

Mr Weasley turned to him and said, “You’ll be going with me to work and then we can go to the hearing. It’s really not far from my office after all”

Harry nodded, “We should probably reach there at least three hours in advance, maybe more. You never know when something unexpected might happen”

“Something unexpected?” asked Mr Weasley, cocking an eyebrow.

“We are talking about Fudge here” said Harry. “He might try to do something just so that Dumbledore doesn’t show up to defend me”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t-” started Mr Weasley only to be interrupted by Sirius.

“I think he’s right Arthur” said Sirius, “It’s better to be safe”

“Oh alright then” said Mr Weasley, “We’ll leave early then”

The night went by in a flash. The next day, Harry woke up rather early, got ready and wore the newly ironed clothes after which he quickly made his way towards the kitchen.

In the kitchen, just like last time, he saw Mr and Mrs Weasley, Lupin and Tonks sitting at the table.

“M-morning, Harry” said Tonks, yawning.

“Morning, late night?” asked Harry.

“You have no idea, Dumbledore really does know how to make people work” said Tonks, tiredly.

“What will you have, Harry?” Mrs Weasley quickly got up and asked, “Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and eggs? Toast?”

“Bacon and eggs sound lovely” he replied.

Mrs Weasley quickly whipped up a plate and placed it in front of Harry who promptly dug into his meal.

Mr Weasley looked at his watch and said, “Harry we should leave now if we want to get there as early as you said we should”

“Ah of course Mr Weasley” replied Harry and quickly wolfed his breakfast down and got ready to leave.

They made their way to the Ministry in the regular non-magical way, taking muggle transportation, eventually reaching a red telephone booth in the heart of london.

Getting in, Mr Weasley dialled a number and the telephone booth confirmed their reason for visit and popped a badge out for Harry, as a visitor.

The two then made their way towards security and finally made their way to Mr Weasley’s office, all the way down to the second level underground.

The moment they stepped into the office though, a timid, elderly man approached Mr Weasley, visibly flustered.

“Arthur, thank goodness!” he said, “You need to hurry, there really isn’t much time left”

“What are you talking about Perkins?” asked Mr Weasley with a confused look.

“The Potter boy’s hearing! It’s been changed to eight o’clock in the old courtroom Ten -”

“What!?” exclaimed Mr Weasley. “Thank goodness we’re early. Come along Harry, if we rush we can make it there in time”

So they made their way back to the Atrium and down to the Courtroom Ten. Luckily, unlike last time, Harry managed to reach there fifteen minutes early.

“Go on in, Harry” said Mr Weasley while pointing to the door.

Harry nodded and stood in front of the door. He held the handles, then took a deep breath to ready himself then opened the doors and walked in.

“You’re ra-rather early” said a voice, sounding a little flustered.

Harry looked up and saw a portly man sitting in the center of the stands, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. Harry looked around and saw that there were around fifty of them.

Harry turned his attention back to Fudge who had spoken and with a soft smirk he replied, “Of course, wouldn’t want to miss this for the world. Though, you do sound surprised that I made it on time, Minister. Why might that be?”

“Never you mind criminal, now take a seat” he replied with face turning red in anger.

Harry walked confidently towards the chair in the center and sat down, making himself as comfortable as he could in that wooden chair with chains that he had once seen in the Pensieve.

He stared straight in front of him and noticed the broad square-jawed witch, Madame Amelia Bones, sitting to Fudge’s left.

To his right sat another witch who he couldn’t see clearly but knew was Dolores Umbridge.

“Very well,” said Fudge. “The accused being present - finally - let us begin. Are you ready?” he called down the row.

“Yes Sir!” said a voice from down the row. Harry looked towards him and smirked. Percy, who wasn’t expecting such a reaction from Harry was rather taken aback and looked incensed.

Fudge however, continued without noticing.

“Interrogators: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic; Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; Dolores Jane Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister. Court Scribe, Percy Ignatius Weasley - ”

“Oh Madame Bones!” Harry said, interrupting Fudge. “Might you be related to Susan Bones?”

Amelia Bones looked a little surprised at him interrupting Fudge but still decided to reply, “Yes, she is my niece”

“Oh! We’re not too familiar with each other but as a fellow Hogwarts student I must say, she is rather brilliant” said Harry then continued with a confident smile, “I’ll have to tell her all about meeting her aunt when I get back to school”

There was an almost imperceptible smile on Amelia’s face at his words. Fudge on the other hand looked like he might blow up.

“Mr. Potter! This is a hearing on your-” he started to say however, he was quickly interrupted by Harry once more.

“In a minute” said Harry, “So, Madame Bones, correct me if I’m wrong but it seems to be quite the full house today, on such short notice in fact, is that normal for a case of underage magic?”

“The case is no simple underage magic, is what I gather. Violation of the Statute of Secrecy is much more serious than a simple case of underage magic” replied Amelia.

“I see. Is it also policy to expel students and confiscate their wands and destroy them before a hearing has been granted?” asked Harry.

“Of course not. The ministry has no authority over the students of Hogwarts and whether they are expelled or not. Not to mention, a wand can only be confiscated once a person has been convicted” she said with a frown. “What does this have to do with anything Mr Potter?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if the entire ministry was incompetent or if it were just the Minister” said Harry with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Preposterous! Who do you think you are!?” screamed Fudge.

“I agree, Mr Potter” said Amelia, “this is highly inappropriate”

“Perhaps” said Harry, still not taking his eyes off Amelia, completely ignoring Fudge who continued to scream. “However, would you fault someone trying to question the Ministry’s competence when they cannot even keep a leash on their own dementors?”

“What do you me-” started Amelia but stopped and frowned because of the racket Fudge was creating. “Minister, will you please quiet down for a moment?” she said sharply, shutting Fudge up. “Now, what do you mean, Mr Potter? What Dementors?”

“As the Minister would no doubt love to disagree on, much in the colourful manner he has been so far, but there were two dementors who attacked me and my cousin. Which is what led to the underage magic. A patronus to be exact” said Harry.

“A patronus?” asked Amelia with a raised eyebrow. “A corporeal one?”

“Hm? Yes, a stag. Always been a stag so far” said Harry with a proud smile.

“Always?” asked Amelia even more surprised. “How long have you been able to cast one?”

“Since my third year, Professor Lupin taught me since the Minister, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would be extremely wise to have dark creatures, known to suck the souls out of people, into a school full of young children” replied Harry with thinly veiled contempt.

Fudge on the side looked redder and redder by the minute, he was clearly on the verge of exploding.

“Mr Potter, the situation during your third year aside. It is rather difficult to take your word on this Dementor attack” said Amelia.

“Is a defendant allowed a witness?” asked Harry. “Seeing as how I’ve basically been put on a criminal trial”

“Of course, every defendant is entitled to produce their witness” replied Amelia.

“In that case, if someone could send for a squib by the name of Arabela Figg, she should be able to recount the events. Seeing as she was there” said Harry, paying close attention to both Amelia’s and Fudge’s expressions.

As he had expected, Amelia nodded but Fudge, on the other hand, looked flustered and then angry.

“I want this finished today! I will not have you waste everyone’s time by pulling non-existing witnesses just to delay the inevitable” screamed Fudge.

“So, what Minister Fudge is trying to say, is that you deny me my right to a witness and would like to proceed to convicting me, despite the fact that you, yourself, have broken several laws?” asked Harry with a smirk.

“What laws have I broken!?” he yelled back, causing Harry to flinch from the noise.

“Could you please stop shouting? I might go deaf before we reach the verdict” said Harry, putting fingers in both ears. Several people in the stands giggled at that, though some seemed to be offended by his actions.

“You! Unlawful!” yelled Fudge. “This is not the only time you have broken the rules!”

Fudge then continued with a triumphant grin. “In your second year, you used a levitation charm”

“That would be the work of a house-elf” replied Harry with a straight face.

“A house-elf! Ha!” said Fudge, “A likely story”

“That house-elf is employed at Hogwarts, you could just have Dumbledore summon him and ask him yourself”

Fudge grit his teeth and then continued, “You blew your aunt up the very next year!”

“Yet, when that happened, you told me that the best wizards can lose control of their emotions and then you proceeded to buy me ice-cream” replied Harry with a smirk.

Amelia interrupted, “Minister, Mr Potter is entitled to produce a witness”

“So we should just wait here? All fifty of us? While he goes around getting some random woman off the streets!?” Fudge yelled back.

“No need to worry about that” a quiet voice spoke from behind Harry. “I have the witness with me”

Dumbledore strode towards Harry’s side and stared deeply at Fudge, making the Minister quake in his boots.

The hearing proceed much the same afterwards. Dumbledore presented Mrs Figg, who described the feeling of a dementor rather accurately. This was followed by Fudge trying his hardest to overturn that witness’ account but failing to do so.

Umbridge, the true mastermind behind the Dementor attack, stood up at one point and tried to prove Dumbledore wrong but failed as well.

Eventually, Harry was cleared of his charges and Dumbledore quickly left the courtroom, not that Harry tried to stop him. There was plenty of time to contact Dumbledore, it was much too soon to meet him.

Harry looked up at the stands and saw that everyone seemed to be getting ready to leave. No one looked towards Harry except for Umbridge, who kept staring at him.

Harry locked eyes with her and felt a few prods in his consciousness.

‘Heh’ smirked Harry, ‘Trying to use Legilimency on me are you?’

Harry quickly put his shields up and just as Umbridge showed surprise at his defense, he quickly countered her.

“Arghhhhhhhhh!” she screamed loudly, falling to her knees.

Everyone turned to look at her, a few rushed to her side and helped her up.

“You!” screamed Fudge and pointed his wand at Harry.

Harry faked a surprised expression and raised his hands in the air. “What happened to her?” he asked confused.

“Don’t play dumb with me! You did this to her!” he screamed and pointed his wand at Harry, ready to fire magic at him.

“Are you out of your mind Minister!?” Amelia yelled at him, readying her own wand and pointing it at him.

‘What’s up with Fudge? I didn’t think a simple counter against the toad would get him this riled up’ thought Harry.

Fudge, having realised the situation he put himself in, put his wand back into his robes and walked away in a huff.

“Are you alright Mr Potter?” Amelia asked, looking towards Harry, clearly concerned about his safety.

“I-i think so. Did the Minister finally snap or something? That was scary” Harry heaved a sigh of relief.

“I’m not sure, but rest assured. He will be judged very severely for this” she said with a frown. “You are free to go”

Harry said nothing, just shook his head and started to walk away before he paused and spoke in a voice which was rather clear to everyone in the courtroom.

“I can’t help but wonder what tomorrow’s headlines will be. ‘Minister for Magic tries to attack unarmed teenager’ sounds about right” said Harry with a chuckle, “Assuming it doesn’t get suppressed like all other important news lately”

Harry swiftly exited the room afterwards.