[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]
Third Person POV
Ministry of Magic.
...
...
While people settled into their places, with a group that had been with Severus outside also climbing the stairs and choosing seats among the crowd.
Severus simply walked forward into the Wizengamot Chamber, ignoring the sound of people sitting all around, with the last few still making their way to their seats. His steps began to quiet the place, and the sound started to echo.
The conversations began to fade, leaving only the sound of the last members searching for a place. He kept walking, with everyone staring at him, as he approached the defendant's chair, which had been replaced by a pulpit, or wooden stand, placed at the center of the circle of wizards in the elevated stands. Surrounded by judges, jurors, witnesses, and guests.
Most of the people in front of him, in those stands near the defendant's chair, wore black robes with the symbols of judges and their names, but it was also impossible to ignore the large circle of Aurors in the lower area in front of every side around Severus, prepared, all with wands in hand, staring at Severus cautiously.
He stopped in front of the pulpit, lifting his gaze to face each person present.
Dumbledore was climbing up to the main tribunal at the highest part before him, while Rosaria found a seat beside Bellatrix Black and the Black family.
"You came here with him?" snarled Bellatrix, as Rosaria stared at her, keeping the cloth at her nose.
"What did you expect? I am his fiancée." said Rosaria.
"I am too!" snarled Bellatrix.
"Please, Bellatrix, do not speak loudly." her grandmother's voice came from beside her, as Bellatrix shrank back and turned her gaze away from Rosaria. Astraea looked at Rosaria.
"Miss Valenstein." said the elder, as Rosaria only nodded and returned her gaze to Severus below.
Silence spread as everyone stared at him. It felt as if the place had held its breath, no one dared to exhale the air from their lungs.
The supreme chieftain sat at the main bench of the judges' tribunal in the highest seat, Dumbledore sat to her right and the Minister of Magic of Great Britain to her left. The entire IWC staff was positioned behind them, along with the members of the Sentinels, except for the three who had to leave urgently for some reason.
Severus stared at them, his piercing gaze cutting through each one. Once again, he knew what it was like to be feared when everyone shrank before him.
Not only was the High Court there and high-ranking Ministry officials, but also the noble families among the guests. The Black family was present, along with others he recognized from past conflicts: families he had faced when hunting dark wizards, and even later, when he had invaded houses in search of information.
In some invasions, he was so swift that they did not even notice his presence in their homes, as with the Potter family itself. Despite his disagreements with the Potter brat, Severus never did anything beyond searching the Potter mansion merely to check if their magical portraits held portals to dungeons.
On the other side, however, what they saw was not just a criminal, but rather someone very dangerous. And the fact that he was so arrogant the entire time after everything he had done, showing that he was calm being judged there before them.
A man who had started by stirring up fights among teenagers at Hogwarts, eliminating followers of the Dark Lord, then invading houses in search of magical portraits. They could not deny it: Severus was an anomaly surrounded by powers no one understood.
This atmosphere was finally broken when Vicência Santos's gavel struck against the main tribunal, drawing everyone's attention. A chorus of relieved sighs echoed through the vast chamber.
Severus turned his gaze toward her, and she stared back firmly. He had to admit: she was a strong woman, not easily shaken by anything, and he liked that.
"Well, we are all gathered here today to judge Severus Prince, formerly known as Snape, for all the crimes and disturbances, both in violation of the Statute of Secrecy and the very laws of the magical community." She paused.
"We would like to hear from you, for we have so many accusations against you, Severus Prince: from theft, invasion of private property, destruction of others' magical property, to kidnapping and murder." she began, while everyone swallowed hard. It was no secret to anyone that Severus had done all this.
As everyone paid close attention to see what Severus's reaction would be, he kept his calm gaze fixed on the spokeswoman. "Do you deny that you are involved in all these kinds of accusations?" she asked.
Severus stared at her for a few seconds and simply gave a smile.
"No. All the accusations are correct." he said, his voice resounding through the entire place like a wave, making murmurs explode right after.
"So you deny nothing, even though we have not yet presented each of your crimes?" she said, looking at him with curiosity.
Certainly, that figure was very interesting. If it had been any other man saying such words, everyone would have called him crazy, yielding to being imprisoned, for no one would admit their crimes in such a way. Yet, this boy admitted them and did not seem to care in the slightest, even in a place full of Aurors, with magical protections prepared in case he tried to escape, limiting any magic within the circle at the center of the chamber.
And everyone there feared him. Their eyes seemed to pray that no conflict would break out in that place. Even with all the gathered power, no one had any guarantee it would work against that being.
Severus did not care, but he looked toward his uncle among the guests, representing the Prince family that had arrived before him; he seemed a little worried. Severus merely nodded at him, signaling that everything would be fine.
"Well, since you already admit it, let us begin to examine each case, so that we may understand every detail of your illicit activities." said Vicência, as she began taking up some papers. She started to read them before turning back to Severus.
"Your first criminal activity was directly in Hogsmeade, when part of the group known as Death Eaters sent fifty dark wizards to torture Muggle-born children from Hogwarts. Is that true?"
"Yes." Severus said.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened and what the reasons were for you to act that way? They say you were just waiting for the attack to come?"
"That should not even be a question, Lady Santos. After all, children were being targeted by adults with wands, using Unforgivable Curses. Do I need reasons to react that way?" Severus asked, causing another wave of murmurs.
"Order!" shouted Vicência, striking the gavel. "We know you used an extreme solution to solve the problem, that is the problem..." she said, before taking a deep breath and continuing: "Still, we want to hear your reasons and everything about what happened that day. It would be good for you to tell us everything you can." she said, in a calm yet stern tone.
"All right." Severus nodded. "I had received information that there would be an attack and that I would also be a target of a group of dark wizards in Hogsmeade. I knew the day, and I simply prepared myself while waiting for the damned wizards to appear. When they started the attack... well, I did what I did." Severus replied.
"They say this was where you began to have conflict with the students of your own house at Hogwarts. You said they were after you, given the connection you had with many Death Eaters, intending to follow the same path as many of your peers before. Can you tell me about that and do you also believe that your constant fights with the other students of your house made you a target?" she asked, curious.
"Yes. I intended to become a Death Eater..." he said, making many gasps echo. "But I realized it would be a mistake, so I did not go through with it... I am not in favor of that pureblood ideology, that is magical Nazism." he said, pausing.
"Due to the constant humiliations and the lack of power to control myself after not following the script placed inside Slytherin... a large part of the members of my house turned against me, especially those who would become Death Eaters, who idolized Voldemort." he said, startling some by pronouncing the name "You-Know-Who." Even after Voldemort's death, people still clung to superstitions. And they seemed to forget that it was Severus himself who had killed the dark wizard.
"Can you tell us exactly how you fought fifty dark wizards alone and killed them? That number is not small, even more so when it comes to a student being responsible for it. No one in the wizarding world could do such things." she said.
"Dark magic! He used dark magic!" shouted someone from the tribunal seats.
Severus turned his gaze toward the person—an elderly man who immediately shrank back when stared at by him.
"In fact, I used only two kinds of spells." Severus replied, still staring at the man before turning back to Vicência.
She arched an eyebrow at the statement. "Are you saying that with only two spells you defeated fifty wizards!?"
"Transfiguration, turning anything into swords, mainly using the city's debris as the dark wizards destroyed the place or even stones from the ground... and also a spell I invented myself. A new kind of teleportation, different from Apparition. Much faster and silent. Although it does not have a long range, like teleporting to the other side of Great Britain, it is extremely efficient in combat. I called it shadow teleportation." Severus explained.
"You are saying that with only that you killed dozens of wizards who were torturing children?" someone exclaimed, astonished.
"Yes. My teleportation helped me a lot to cover the battlefield. I could attack most of them by surprise, without giving them time to react." said Severus. "If you want to see, I can give a demonstration right now."
Everyone looked at him uneasily.
"If you think these magical protections around me will stop me from doing anything, you are mistaken." he added, causing a new wave of murmurs.
"Order!" exclaimed Vicência, striking the gavel.
Dumbledore, however, kept a calm and amused expression beside her, watching Severus with interest.
"If you want to demonstrate this ability, then go ahead." said Vicência at last, curiously willing to understand better. However, she did not ask anyone to cancel the protections.
Severus, who was not holding his wand, in an instant, his body vanished, leaving only a shadow for a few milliseconds. He appeared two meters in front of Vicência, and then immediately teleported back to his initial position. The silent shadows he left in his trail impressed the witnesses, who stared at one another in astonishment.
"You are saying you created this magic, Lord Prince?!" asked Dumbledore, curious. He had already seen Severus use it a few times, especially in the fight they had months earlier.
"Yes, you had given me permission to use the Restricted Section. One of the times, in the tomes I began to read, I found reports and ideas about spatial magic. From that, I created this technique in just a few months." Severus explained.
"Is that really true, Dumbledore?" asked Vicência, unable to hide the tone of surprise at the statement.
"Yes. Well, we had a few disagreements at the beginning, but Lord Prince showed great interest in studying. I saw no reason not to give him permission." said Dumbledore. That had only happened thanks to some clever blackmail Severus had used against the headmaster at the time.
"Wait, where is your wand! The chamber should also have anti-Apparition protections!" someone noticed, while Severus only shrugged amid all the surprised looks around him.
Severus was reminding them all the time that it was not so simple.
"Well, in any case, you admit that you killed fifty wizards in Hogsmeade, then?" asked the Minister of Magic.
"I would say he only saved a bunch of children, instead of saying he killed fifty wizards!" someone shouted.
Severus turned his gaze and saw a lady accompanied by a couple. He immediately recognized the younger woman: none other than Alice Longbottom, his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts.
She was known as the woman who broke the curse that hung over the subject, though she never suspected that, in truth, it had been Severus who was responsible for that. For this reason, that year, she had returned to Hogwarts to reassume the position of professor of the subject once more.
Some Hogwarts professors had been summoned to attend the trial, while others remained at the school to keep classes and students' minds occupied. Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn were also present, as Severus had noticed from the beginning.
The one who made the comment was Frank Longbottom's mother, which soon earned some nods of agreement, showing that part of the audience shared her opinion.
"Well, let us leave that confirmed for the end. In any case, do you admit that you had your participation in the event, as you told us, correct?" asked Vicência.
"Yes. I do not deny it." Severus answered calmly.
"All right, then let us proceed to the next accusation." Vicência continued, consulting the extensive list of actions that Severus had committed. Each of them would need to be meticulously debated.
He would not deny what he had done. He was not concerned with hiding anything, after all, to him, it no longer mattered. He only hoped that the tribunal would proceed with the judgment.
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