The Other Black Book 5

Chapter 8 - The Woes of Mrs. Weasley

Aurora waited with Harry while he stared after Dumbledore, who had already left.

"Do you think we can leave?" Harry asked her quietly as the Wizengamot were all getting to their feet, talking, and gathering up their papers and packing them away.

Aurora stood up, followed by Harry. Nobody seemed to be paying them the slightest bit of attention except the toadlike witch on Fudge's right, who was now gazing down at Harry instead of at Dumbledore. Aurora looked up at the judges, wanting to ask if they were free to go, but Fudge seemed quite determined not to notice Harry, and by extension Aurora, and Madam Bones was busy with her briefcase, so he took a few tentative steps toward the exit and when nobody called him back, broke into a very fast walk.

Aurora followed him out the door, taking the last few few steps at a run, and almost collided with Mr. Weasley, who was standing right outside, looking pale and apprehensive.

"Dumbledore didn't say —"

"Cleared," Harry said, pulling the door closed behind Aurora, "of all charges!"

Beaming, Mr. Weasley seized Harry by the shoulders.

"Harry, that's wonderful! Well, of course, they couldn't have found you guilty, not on the evidence, but even so, I can't pretend I wasn't —"

But Mr. Weasley broke off, because the courtroom door had just opened again. The Wizengamot were filing out.

"Merlin's beard," said Mr. Weasley wonderingly, pulling Harry aside to let them all pass, "you were tried by the full court?"

"I think so," said Harry quietly.

One or two of the passing wizards nodded to Harry and Aurora as they passed and a few, including Madam Bones, said, "Morning, Arthur," to Mr. Weasley, but most averted their eyes. Cornelius Fudge and the toadlike witch were almost the last to leave the dungeon. Fudge acted as though Mr. Weasley, Aurora, and Harry were part of the wall, but again, the witch looked almost appraisingly at Harry as she passed. Last of all to pass was Percy. Like Fudge, he completely ignored his father and Harry (although he gave Aurora the slightest nod); he marched past clutching a large roll of parchment and a handful of spare quills, his back rigid and his nose in the air. The lines around Mr. Weasley's mouth tightened slightly, but other than this he gave no sign that he had noticed his third son.

"I'm going to take you straight back so you can tell the others the good news," he said, beckoning Harry and Aurora forward as Percy's heels disappeared up the stairs to the ninth level. "I'll drop you off on the way to that toilet in Bethnal Green. Come on. . . ."

"So what will you have to do about the toilet?" Harry asked, grinning.

"Oh, it's a simple enough anti-jinx," said Mr. Weasley as they mounted the stairs, "but it's not so much having to repair the damage, it's more the attitude behind the vandalism, Harry. Muggle-baiting might strike some wizards as funny, but it's an expression of something much deeper and nastier, and I for one —"

Mr. Weasley broke off in mid-sentence. They had just reached the ninth-level corridor, and Cornelius Fudge was standing a few feet away from them, talking quietly to a tall man with sleek blond hair and a pointed, pale face.

The second man turned at the sound of their footsteps. He too broke off in mid-conversation, his cold gray eyes narrowed and fixed upon Harry's face.

"Well, well, well . . . Patronus Potter," said Lucius Malfoy coolly.

Aurora glanced over at Harry, whose attitude he'd had since they left (which had been a bit joyful as he realized he'd been cleared of all charges) had suddenly seemed cold. He looked almost winded.