When the seasons change will you stand by me? - wolfstar

The trial

Remus's entire body ached as he ran down the stairs to level 10 of the Ministry of Magic. The night's transformation had been one of the worse and he had woken up with his shoulder dislocated, several broken bones, a large gash across his torso, and a rather nasty hip. Being a werewolf for 20 years had, however, resulted in the knowledge of quite a few healing spells and potions, and so his bones were unbroken, his shoulder put back into place, and his gash (hidden under layers of bandages) healed to appear a week older than it was. Yet his body was terribly sore, and his energy drained from the exhaustion of the transformation.

He was one of the last to enter the court room and sat down in the first empty seat he could find. He broken out into a cold sweat in his run owing to his ill health, so he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand thanking Merlin that he hadn't received a new addition to his face scars that night.

After a while, the door to the court room burst open and in entered two Aurors dragging Sirius inside. Sirius looked to be in an awful state – his head seemingly too heavy to keep upright and his body so famished that it shook with the weight of every step. Remus wondered what had changed during the night, he was sure that Sirius had looked much better even in Azkaban.

For a moment, the image of Sirius's battered body emerging in Potter house after suffering several rounds of the Cruciatus curse by his family's hands came to Remus's mind. Sirius had been starved for the summer holidays and had seemed so weak and tired, but that was nothing to what he looked like in the present.

But this had been deserved, Remus reminded himself. Sirius had murdered 15 people; punishment was necessary in such circumstances. And yet Remus couldn't help but feel compassion for Sirius. And with compassion meant suffering with someone (the root "passio" meaning suffering) and in this, Remus thought he could feel every pain inflicted upon Sirius as though his own. It was like Sirius's nerves were directly connected with Remus's brain.

Remus shuddered; one man's pain was enough for him.

The Aurors bound Sirius to the chair in the centre of the room and withdrew to the shadows of the room.

Amelia Bones cleared her throat and called for the room to quiet. "Murder trial on the sixteenth of May 1985 into the offences committed under the Decree of Homicide, the Decree of association with terrorist organisations with magical aid, the Decree of safety of the nation of Magical Britain, and the Stature of Secrecy by Sirius Orion Black, resident of Azkaban."

"Interrogator: Amelia Susan Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Court scribe: Ebenezer Smith. Defence: Helena Montague. Prosecution: Corban Yaxley."

Madam Bones found a paper on her desk and began reading, "The charges against the accused are as follows:

"That he knowingly, deliberately and in full awareness of the illegality of his actions joined the ranks of the Death Eaters serving as their spy, revealing vital information about the resistance, the ministry, and the kingdom itself, which constitutes and offence under Paragraph C of the Decree of association with Terrorist Organisations with magical aid and Paragraph A of the Decree of the Safety of the Nation of Magical Britain.

"That he of his own free will revealed the location of the Potters of Godric's Hollow to Voldemort leading to their murder, which constitutes and offence under Paragraph B of the Decree of Homicide.

"That he, following the murders of the Potters of Godric's Hollow, blew up a busy muggle street on the second of November 1981 at twenty minutes past three, resulting in the deaths of twelve muggles and one wizard, Peter Pettigrew, Order of Merlin First Class, which constitutes an offence under Paragraph A of the Decree of Homicide and Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statue of Secrecy" Madam Bones looked up from the sheet of parchment.