Chapter 26.5- Doom Days

“Mr. Potter clearly knows who you-know-who is. The objection is baseless” Forswythe replied, not looking amused at all.

“I can not infer knowledge on Mr. Potter that he claims to lack, and I can not assume that the distinguished representatives of the ICW all have the cultural context to understand this niche reference. Objection sustained. The witness will tell us who he refers to” I swore I could see a glimmer of vicious satisfaction in Dumbledore’s eyes as he said that. We both turned to Fudge, the man looking everywhere but straight in the crowd.

I pitied him, I really did. As far as he was concerned, Voldemort was dead, but somehow as a testament to just how unsafe magical Britain was, that didn’t mean it was okay to say his name. People didn’t just flinch at the name out of inherited trauma. Even after his death, those who said his name had still turned up dead for years afterwards. Saying it now could be placing a target like that on his back. But the fact that that risk was enough to make him hesitate, was a good enough sign that he had no business being in charge of magical Britain.

“The Dark Lord”

“Objection— does he speak of Gellert Grindlewald, Herpo the Foul, or the thousand other dark lords we have been plagued with.”

“Objection sustained. Be more specific, Minister Fudge.”

He flushed, going red and staring at me so hard I worried his eyeballs would pop out of his head. Yup, I’d burned that bridge beyond all hopes of repair.

“Vol-vol-vol-demort. I mean Voldemort” He finally said.

“That will be enough for this witness” Forswythe said with a sigh while looking over at me. That was the look of a man that knew he had lost. Fudge was rattled and would be easy pickings.

“How often do you visit Azkaban?”

“Every year”

“How many times did you speak to Sirius Black in your visits”

“Only once. When I informed him of the impending trial”

“Why did you not accelerate the trial? If you found out a man had been kept in Azkaban for eleven years and saw the squalor he lived within, then you must have felt a way when you realised he had never been found guilty by the Wizengamot.”

“I did the best I could”

“Your best seems to have been inefficient. Can you tell us why you are lying today?”

“Excuse you”

“Under oath, Sirius Black said he had no such conversation with you regarding any trial. So how can you both have opposing recollections about the same event.”

“Like I said, he’s found some way to cheat the oath.”

“Are you familiar with Occam’s razor?”