Chapter 25.2- Doom Days

 I took my seat, and turned to see that McKinnon had begun to redden in rage. It was only for a second or two, before his expression returned to normal.

“I move for a recess so that someone more apprised with the matter can take over. The allegations raised by Mr. Black’s representative are very serious and the Ministry has the right to defend itself” The man said. Of course, Dumbledore granted the recess.

“We will recess for forty-five minutes to allow Warlock Mckinnon return to England and come back here with the required documents and personnel. For this purpose, the British Representative shall have access to my personal portkey terminal” Dumbledore said, banging the gavel.

“That was so good, Harry. You just ate him up in seconds. Didn’t even let him think to come up with a reply” Sirius gushed, and I smiled at him.

“Yeah, but he was easy. The man is grieving his daughter and is not a qualified barrister by any means. If Fudge has any sense about him, he’ll send the best Barrister that they have on their employ, and that will be a whole different ballgame” I cautioned.

“But you said that we wouldn’t need to hire one and that you’d be enough” He said.

“Well, no barrister would have agreed to take this case. While there might be repetitional gains from arguing and winning before the ICW itself, there’s the threat of ministry retaliation— besides we’d never have been able to be absolutely certain that any barrister we hired wouldn’t just go and report the whole thing to the Minister” I said, sensing that had worried him. I could empathise. He could see his freedom in his grasp, and anything that threatened to snatch that away would be an unacceptable danger.

“What about that lawyer-client confidentiality thing that Lily was always going on about?” Sirius posed. I wanted to ask when my mother would hever have needed to even mention that, but I held off for now.

“Only works if the client isn’t actively committing a crime. While escaping from Azkaban is no crime, running from a warrant is sure enough a crime. Don’t overthink it, Sirius. I just wanted to manage your expectations. To be completely honest, I’m going to run circles around wherever the Ministry sends.” I said with my most confident smile. It didn’t work.

“I know you’re good at Magic, Harry. But this is different”

“Not really. For one, I’m smarter than anyone dumb enough to work for the British Ministry of all places. For another, you’re innocent. We are in the right here, and the world itself will come to know it. There’s no case that’s ever going to be as easy to win as this one” I pressed, fibbing a bit, but doing it for the greater good. Being innocent didn’t matter one whit when it came to trials. In my early career as a defence attorney, I’d even found that guilty clients were easier to defend than innocent ones— when they were being honest at least/