The Master of Death

Chapter15: The Trial

The next morning, Harry left a sleeping Ron on his bed and went down to the kitchen, wearing his new outfit and Death around his shoulders. Mr and Mrs Weasley, Sirius, Remus and Tonks were all sitting at the table. Tonks whistled and wriggled her eyebrows. Today she was blonde. "Harry, you look like a fancy pureblood heir. I hope you don't try to act like one now."

Meanwhile, Remus looked at him with an odd expression on his face. Apparently, Sirius hadn't thought too long about whether he should share some stuff.

"Nah. We already have Sirius, I think that's enough drama for us all," Harry joked.

Sirius gasped dramatically and stuck his nose into the air. Remus grinned. "How dare you Harry James Potter," Sirius said in a fake offended voice, "Insulting the head of the noble and ancient house of Black. This won't do your future connections any good. I know who isn't going to be invited to my next soiree." Now it was Harry's time to look offended. Tonks was curling with laughter. In his best impression of a young Draco Malfoy, Harry snorted pretentiously and rushed past him without a second glance.

After breakfast, everybody wished him good luck and then he followed Mr Weasley. "Harry, why don't you leave-"Mrs Weasley gestured at Death as if she didn't quite know what to call him -"Your snake-"

"Grim," Harry told her and Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Why don't you leave Grim here. I don't think that it's a good idea to take him with you. What if he gets lost?"

"Yeah, sure," Harry turned to Sirius and smirked mischievously. "Can you look after him, as long as I'm gone?" he said and stretched out his arm. Harry felt Death's amusement echo in his mind when Sirius leaned as far away from Death as he was able to.

"Ah, know what? I'm just going to put him on the floor. He'll find his way." Death remained on the ground for a few moments and then slithered into the shadows, just to appear next to Harry in his human form. If Harry wasn't mistaken, he looked even more different now. Older again, more similar to Harry in his twenties and he had changed his nose. Also, he wore a different shirt and trousers. Probably the oddest of all things.

After they had used the long and awkward Muggle-way to go the ministry, they finally arrived in the atrium. "Well your trial starts at 9 am, so we've still got a little over an hour left," Mr Weasley said, as they walked past a group of busy looking witches.

Unlike Mr Weasley though, Harry knew that the ministry had moved his hearing to 8 am. They only had about fifteen minutes left to be on time.

How could he do something about it without raising too much suspicion? Harry closely observed the witches and wizards passing them. When they stopped in front of an elevator, a few more people joined their group to wait.

"Everything 'lright Arthur?" The voice had come from a bearded wizard who was carrying a box. Harry held his breath for a moment. This was the sole opening that he needed. He wanted to laugh at the irony of what he was going to do. He used the same trick, he had when speaking to Mr Malfoy. He hid his hand in the folds of his cloak and called the elder wand to his hand. He looked at the man and then cast an imperius.

A dark rush took hold of him as a warm feeling trickled down his hand. For the slightest second, the eyes of the wizard stared into nothingness. Thankfully Mr Weasley was busy as he was inspecting the box with a curious look.

"What do you have here?" Mr Weasley asked.

"Oh, nothing in particular. An experimental charm gone wrong, but Arthur?"

"Hm, yes?" Mr Weasley said raising his head.

"Don't you have to go downstairs?"

"Why's that?"