On Tuesday morning Charlus made his way to the Ministry early. He wanted the opportunity to see how all the other warlocks were reacting as they came in. He signed in at the reception desk and then found a convenient place that was out of the way but would let him people watch.
There were a number of people who were rather happy. Warlocks like Nott and Selwyn who were known to often butt heads with Dumbledore politically were rather gleeful about the opportunity to bring Dumbledore down a peg or two. Warlocks Griselda Marchbanks and Tiberius Ogden, two people Charlus was fond of because they showed him the ropes when he first joined the Wizengamot, both shot Charlus angry and disappointed looks as they walked passed. They were long time supporters of Dumbledore and he was going to have a real uphill struggle to convince them of Albus's guilt, but it was possible as the two were principled. Unlike Warlock Diggle, as it was an open secret / unconfirmed rumour that he and Albus were an item. Albus would have his vote no matter what evidence was presented.
Then there were the neutrals, like Warlocks Greengrass and Smith who were the hardest to predict. They had no strong opinions of Dumbledore or Charlus, and their votes would come down to their own personal sense of justice. Though Charlus was sure that Harry had earned enough good will from the House of Greengrass that their warlock would vote in Charlus's favour once he heard the charges.
Eventually the Changs and the Delacours arrived, joining him in his people watching. "So what's the lay of the land looking like?" Yufei Chang asked when he and his wife Mei sat on the stone of the Fountain of Magical Brethren next to Charlus.
"Honestly mixed. Dumbledore is a polarising figure, so there are plenty that will vote against him without any pushing on our part. On the other hand we have a real uphill struggle with those who support him. In the end I think it may come down to the neutrals. They are the ones who will evaluate the evidence on its merits, and luckily enough for us they hold a large enough portion of the seats that with the votes from those who don't like Dumbledore it's enough to reach a majority.
"That's not to say I'm putting all my hopes on that. With the evidence that we have and by presenting it all at once, I think we can probably convert a few of his supporters. It helps that the Potter family is considered a lighter family, a lot of Dumbledore's allies are people who politically consider me one of them. It may just be enough of a wedge to split his support," Charlus explained.
"Sounds like you have this all planned out," Apolline Delacour said as Miss Twist also walked up to them.
The six adults chatted for a bit as they watched the other members of the Wizengamot arrive. As it always would when a group contains a teacher and a parent of one of the teacher's students, the conversation quickly turned to how Cho was doing in potions. Luckily she was almost a straight O student and Charlus predicted that the young Miss Chang would likely score an Outstanding on her O.W.L.s at the end of the year, so Yufei and Mei were both happy.
Soon enough it was time for them to make their way to the Wizengamot chamber. Charlus had to split from everyone when they got to the chamber; as a sitting member of the Wizengamot, he was expected to sit in his official seat. The Changs, Delacours, and Miss Twist were unfortunately required to sit in the visitors section until they were called to the floor to speak.
As this was a civil matter brought by a Warlock to the Wizengamot and not by the D.M.L.E., the rules were different. Most importantly, this matter was held in the Wizengamot chamber and not in a courtroom. Fudge took the role of the Chief Warlock for the day, as they were meeting on an issue where Dumbledore was the defendant. Given how much the minister was in the pocket of Malfoy, but also respected Dumbledore and had been involved with illegally trying to execute Sirius without a trial (though whether it was knowing that it was without a trial was up in the air), it was impossible to tell which way the minister would lean. As laughable as it was, this actually may be a case of a man being so corrupt that, with all the different elements pulling him in their direction, he could genuinely be neutral.
The trial was opened, and a lot of the annoying boring procedural stuff was gone through. Once they finished marking dates, names, ages, blood status, charges, and the shoe size of everyone in the room, it was finally time for the trial of Albus Dumbledore to begin.
"Will the accusing parties please make their way to the floor," Fudge said, obviously enjoying sitting in the big chair for a change. Charlus, Yufei Chang, Sebastian Delacour, and Anne Twist all left their seats and made their way down into the speaking well that was at the centre of the round room.
Once they were all there Fudge spoke up again. "Whom do you accuse and what grievance do you wish addressed?" The words were more traditional than actually needed, everyone already knew who and why they were here, but the tradition had persisted even after they started requiring notice to be given to the defence so that they had adequate time to collect the evidence to refute the charges.
It was Charlus's job as the highest ranked (as a sitting member of the Wizengamot) to answer, so he did so. "Acting Chief Warlock Fudge, I accuse the Chief Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Warlock of the House Dumbledore, of endangering the young witches and wizards entrusted to his care in his role as Headmaster of the most prestigious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In this matter, I and the people with me request an address of grievance and that Warlock Dumbledore be barred from ever holding a position of authority over a minor for the rest of his life."
"Very well. Warlock Dumbledore, how do you respond to these charges?" Fudge said as he looked to Dumbledore, who was himself seated in the visitors' area as he did not have a seat on the Wizengamot itself.
Dumbledore stood and addressed the whole room, though he directed his words to Fudge. "I of course refute the charges and accusations, Acting Chief Warlock."
Fudge just nodded as that was the expected answer and said, "Then Warlock Dumbledore, please proceed to the speaking area, as I declare there is deviation in opinion and call for trial so that the truth can be ascertained."
The formulaic intro to the trial completed, it was now time to get down to the business of actually presenting the case, and for that law witch Twist took over. "Acting Chief Warlock, Warlocks of the Wizengamot, I will now present our list of charges:
Warlock Dumbledore is culpable in one act of kidnapping, namely one Harry James Potter on 1st of November 1991.
Warlock Dumbledore did knowingly ignore the wills Of Lily and James Potter and appointed himself as magical guardian of one Harry James Potter.
Warlock Dumbledore abandoned his responsibility as magical guardian of one Harry James Potter.
Warlock Dumbledore failed to facilitate wizarding child services to perform any wellness checks for one Harry James Potter and failed to perform any such wellness checks himself.
Warlock Dumbledore is responsible for medical neglect of one Harry James Potter by not getting him inoculated to magical diseases.
Warlock Dumbledore did knowingly put all the students of Hogwarts school in danger by using the school to hide a magical artefact that he was aware a known killer was trying to obtain.
Warlock Dumbledore violated the parental rights of Yufei and Mei Chang when he put their daughter Cho Chang in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament without even seeking their approval, risking the life of a minor.
Warlock Dumbledore violated the parental rights of Apolline and Sebastian Delacour when misrepresenting the danger of the second task, by not disclosing the presence of merpeople in the Black Lake in order to gain their parental consent to allow their eight year old Veela daughter to participate in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Warlock Dumbledore attempted to violate the magical guardian right of Warlock Potter when he attempted to place Miss Hermione Jean Granger, ward of the House of Potter, in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.
It is our intention to show the Wizengamot that Warlock Dumbledore is responsible for all these things and that every act was done knowing it was dangerous and illegal." Law witch Twist finished her speech.
"Warlock Dumbledore, how do you answer these accusations? And do you have a legal representative? I don't see one," asked fudge.
"I have decades of experience leading this chamber. I do not feel any need for a representative, Acting Chief Warlock," said Dumbledore. Charlus couldn't help but smile at that, it was often said a man who represents himself has a fool for a client, and if Dumbledore wanted to hamstring himself like this then he wasn't going to complain.
Dumbledore continued. "I of course have an answer for every charge levelled and only wish they had asked me about everything before all this. It would have saved the esteemed warlocks their time in attending this trial when they could be at home with their families." He had the air of a man who didn't have a care in the world. Charlus would have been nervous if he hadn't seen the man's control in the past. You don't judge a book by its cover, and similarly you couldn't judge the emotional state of one Albus Dumbledore by the look on his face.
"Then I will start with my first charge. Warlock Dumbledore, what legal authority did you have to take custody of Heir Potter on the first of November nineteen ninety-one?" Law witch Twist asked.
"Officially none but unofficially the law of common decency, was I supposed to leave a child crying and alone in a destroyed building? No, it was better to have him out of that situation as soon as possible."
"Yet the man you sent refused to surrender Heir Potter to his godfather and legal guardian," Twist countered.
"Mr. Hagrid is a good man who is a rather loyal and committed friend of mine, but he is not the most intelligent of people. Thinking on the fly and changing the plan are not his strong suits. Hagrid didn't know who he could and couldn't trust, so in the interest of Harry's safety he decided to follow the instructions he already knew would keep the child safe. Is it not better to protect the child first, and then let the people who know more about the situation make the decision where the boy is to stay long term after everything has calmed down? Mr. Hagrid had never seen a document that said Sirius black was the boy's godfather. Imagine what would have happened if the wrong person had turned up claiming to be the child's godparent and Mr. Hagrid had believed them and surrendered the boy to them? It doesn't bear thinking about.
"As to kidnapping, while I may not have had legal authority, I placed the boy not in my care but in the care of Lily Potter's sister, young Harry's closest living relative. One I could guarantee that, as a muggle, had absolutely no connection or affiliation to any member of the terrorist organisation calling themselves the Death Eaters. It seemed the best possible and most reasonable course of action." Dumbledore finished his defence to the charge of kidnapping Harry.
Charlus looked around the room and saw people nodding along with Dumbledore's words, but wasn't bothered by this. The kidnapping charge was always their weakest line of attack. They almost didn't include it, especially as it didn't paint Hagrid, someone Harry was quite fond of, in the best light. But when they had spoken about it with Miss Twist, she had insisted on keeping it not because she thought she could win it but because it set up a pattern in front of the Wizengamot.
"What did Harry's aunt, Mrs. Petunia Dursley, say about holding her nephew until legal custody could be determined?" The law witch asked. Immediately Charlus understood why Miss Twist had insisted on pursuing the kidnapping case.
"Well I never actually spoke to her." Dumbledore said.
"Oh I understand you're a busy man after all. It's only natural that you may have needed someone else to speak with them. Can you tell us who it was who spoke with them and what it was they reported to you about what Mrs. Dursley said. Don't worry about it being hearsay for now." Miss Twist asked him in a pleasant and respectful tone. Charlus had to really fight to keep from laughing, she was actually going to force the old bastard say it himself.
"Ah well… that is to say… I handled the drop-off myself, only there wasn't really any opportunity for any real discussion. I wasn't there for very long you see, only a few minutes." Dumbledore was now being very careful with his words.
"Surely they said something. I assume you just told her that her sister was murdered by a Dark Lord and her nephew had killed him. People tend to react to news like that. Did they have any concerns about housing the boy?"
"Like I said, I was only there for a few minutes, everything happened pretty quick," Dumbledore said, saying nothing.
"Well if you won't tell the Wizengamot, I most certainly will. You didn't speak to the Dursleys at all did you? No, you arrived in the middle of the night and left a toddler on a muggle doorstep, in November, with nothing but a letter telling the Dursleys that Harry's parents were dead and that it was now their responsibility to raise Harry. No mention of any legal proceedings to determine who was rightfully the legal guardian. A boy left on the doorstep like a pint of milk!" That had a few members of the Wizengamot gasp in shock that Dumbledore, the man entrusted with all of the wizarding Britain's school-age children for decades, had left a child on a doorstep.
"The boy had plenty of charms on him to keep him warm and safe. You make it sound far more dramatic than it was."
"Oh really, tell me how long those charms would have lasted? Maybe eight hours? Would it surprise you to learn that the Dursley often visited the sister of Vernon Dursley, Vernon being Petunia's husband and the uncle by marriage of Harry Potter? It takes the Dursleys six hours of travel each way to make that visit using muggle methods of transportation. Because of that, it was common for them to spend the night at his sisters and travel back the next day. Did you even take the opportunity to check if anyone was even in the house?" This was mostly fabrication and exaggeration on Twist's part. Yes, the Dursleys visited Marge occasionally, but spending the night there was uncommon and certainly didn't take them six hours to travel. It was just a convenient narrative to showcase a very realistic possibility that the Dursley family may for some reason have not been home.
"I did, a quick Homenum Revelio charm was enough to tell me they were in the house. While my methods may not have been the most socially acceptable, given the constraints I was working under there was never any risk to young Mister Potter," Dumbledore said, sounding annoyed at the implications.
Charlus once again watched the crowd. There was definitely more than one person who he would have considered on team Dumbledore that was looking at him like he had lost his mind. Charlus didn't think it was enough to get them to vote on this in his favour, but it had done something important. It had burned through a lot of Dumbledore's good will among his supporters. This first attack wasn't about winning the war that this trial had become, it was a strike to wear down the defences and leave the old bastard vulnerable to what was coming.
With the arguments presented, the Wizengamot voted and unsurprisingly found in favour of Dumbledore. While he hadn't had the legal right and had done it in a most questionable manner, the truth remained that he had placed Harry with his blood aunt, someone who could in no way be connected to the troubles of the wizarding world. Of course, that Dumbledore had now admitted that he placed Harry there without assessing the suitability of the Dursleys, to the Wizengamot itself, was going to bite him in the ass in a few charges if Charlus was reading Miss Twist's strategy correctly.
The next charge was that Dumbledore ignored the wills Of Lily and James, so Fudge called on Miss Twist to give her opening argument for the charge. "The wills of Lily and James Potter had a number of provisions in regards to their son and how he was to be taken care of in the event of their death. The late Potters left three known copies of their will. One in a safety deposit box at Gringotts that was stored along with other important documents, one with the Warlock Potter at Potter Manor, and one on file in the Ministry's office of probate. Yet despite all of this, the wills Have still not been probated.
"The copy at Potter Manor was inaccessible as the war wards wouldn't allow any non-Potter through. The copy at Gringotts was locked away until whomever had the key retrieved it. And finally, the copy that was legally required to be read and executed by the ministry itself was never opened. When I and my firm investigated, we found the document sealed under the authority of the office of the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.
"Albus Dumbledore abused his authority as Chief Warlock, the result of which was that there was nothing to contest where he illegally placed Heir Potter. Heir Potter's godfather, the then-Heir now-Warlock of the House of Black, was wrongfully accused of being culpable in the murder of James and Lily Potter, as the evidence of his innocence was in the will, preventing Sirius from being able to take custody of Harry Potter. Most disturbing of all, the Potter will expressly forbid the Dursley family, who were known to have an anti-magic worldview, from ever having custody of Harry Potter." Miss Twist passed out a bunch of documents that supported everything she had just said.
"All this evidence seems to point at Warlock Dumbledore abusing his authority to prevent the natural course of law in our society to impose his own disturbing vision of how things need to go onto everyone, and hang the consequences. So what if an innocent man had to endure over a decade in Azkaban, so what if the boy whom this country owes its very freedom never knew love growing up, so what if our laws were completely ignored, doesn't Warlock Dumbledore know what's best for everyone?"
Then it was Dumbledore's turn to answer. "I admit I made a mistake there. But I beg the indulgence of the honourable warlocks as I explain why I made such a mistake. I was sure the Potters' wills had names in it that could look after little Harry. I can even tell you some names I knew were in there. Charlus and Dorea Potter, both were believed to be dead. Alice and Frank Longbottom, Alice being Harry's godmother, who would have been perfect if not for the actions of a few Death Eaters only a few days after the death of the Potters. And of course Sirius Black, the man I had been told had confessed to being responsible for giving Voldemort the locations of the Potters.
"Given the situation, is it not understandable that I believed that the Potters' judgement was compromised? Remember at the time we were still discovering Death Eaters who had been able to hide their identity. Who was to say that the next name on the list wasn't just as disastrous as I believed Sirius Black to have been? But muggles were safe; they weren't Death Eaters, that at least I could be sure of. And the more people who were attacked or brought in as Death Eaters, the more I was proven to be right that the best place for Harry was with his mother's sister. Maybe I did the wrong thing, but I did it for the best of reasons."
Charlus listened as Dumbledore spoke, and even he was almost swayed by the man's words and believed that Dumbledore had broken the law for the right reasons. The vote was close for this one, but it actually broke against Dumbledore. Even so, it was obvious that Dumbledore had won some of the people he had lost on the first charge back.
Fudge called a fifteen minute pause in the proceedings at that point so that everyone would have a chance to stretch their legs and use the facilities. Charlus and the others all had to take that opportunity as well, but while they were walking Charlus turned to Miss Twist and asked. "How do you think this is going?"
Miss Twist looked him in the eye and gave him a smile. "Exactly as I planned. Remember our main goal here is to get the man away from children. We are burning through all his good will and political favours, the next three charges I will tackle as one and by the end of what I have to show the Wizengamot, they most definitely won't feel inclined to vote in his favour." Charlus couldn't help but smile back. The smile Miss Twist had flashed him was that of a hunter that was hounding her prey exactly where she wanted them before she went in for the kill. He had known a few women that had that same smile sometimes. He had respected each and every one of them. Of course he had also married one.
Charlus had just enough time to order a cup of tea from an elf, and with a little magic to immediately cool it to drinking temperature, he was able to finish it before it was time to make his way back into the hall. There was a few minutes of waffle as the scribe took down a few bits about the fact that was a break and how long it was for. Charlus had no idea why that information was noted down, but there was apparently some rule that said it had to be there. Then Fudge once more turned the meeting over to Miss Twist to continue with the allegations.
"I am going to cover the next three charges all at the same time. This is because a lot of the events all happen together and it will save me either having to split things up in a confusing way or from being needlessly repetitive. The charges are that Dumbledore abandoned his responsibility as magical guardian, that he prevented wizarding child services from performing mandatory assessments, and that he was actively neglectful of his responsibility of care.
"I have here sworn statements from Petunia Dursley and Vernon Dursley, confirmed under the influence of Veritaserum, and a magically sworn statement from Harry James Potter. From the time he was left on the doorstep of the Dursley resistance up until Heir Potter received his letter of acceptance into Hogwarts, and apart from the occasional random magical who happened to recognise Heir Potter when he was out shopping with his aunt, the family had no contact whatsoever from the magical world. In the almost ten years that young Mr. Potter lived in that house, not one magical person, including the man that had appointed himself Harry Potter's magical guardian, ever visited them.
"Please consider the duties a magical guardian is required to perform. Teaching the child about our world. How to recognise an Auror and call one in an emergency. How to get to St. Mungo's in an emergency. How to Floo. How to call the Knight Bus. And most importantly, our most sacred law of all, how not to breach the Statute of Secrecy. Every child born of our world is taught to hide their powers from non magical people. Warlock Dumbledore failed to do this, and it resulted in a major breach a number of years ago when Heir Potter had a feat of accidental magic and vanished the glass of a reptile enclosure at a mundane zoo. Unknown to those who didn't know he was a wizard or even that magic was real at the time, the whole event was caught on muggle security cameras.
"Luckily for us, the magic was seen by another wizard who then reported it and an Obliviation squad was dispatched before the footage could be distributed and our world exposed. The ministry had an open file on this until just a few weeks ago, looking for magicals who had fled the scene instead of informing the Aurors. Because of the nature of the incident, it was suspected that a muggleborn was responsible, and because of that Mr. Potter was never suspected to be involved. It was only through luck that this incident was not a major breach that could have massive ramifications on our way of life."
Charlus took the opportunity of the pause in Miss Twist's speech to stand up and say, "I would like to note that the case has now been closed and the fine has been paid by the Potter family, and Harry Potter himself is very apologetic about the whole incident. All our children have such outbreaks, that is just a fact of life that we deal with everyday. This incident only came about due to ignorance, and it is the assertion of the House of Potter that the blame for that ignorance lays solely on the shoulders of Warlock Dumbledore." And with that he returned to his seat.
Miss Twist nodded at Charlus and took over the talking again. "Ignorant is a good way to put it. No child can learn that which has been purposely hidden from them. And just as Heir Potter didn't know how to call the Ministry to report an issue, nor was he shown how to get to St. Mungo's. I beg the indulgence of the Wizengamot again here and ask that everyone here who taught their children how to get to St Mungo's in an emergency while they were visiting for their inoculation potions, please light up your wands."
Soon almost everyone in the room was holding up their wand with a glowing tip. There were only nine people in the hall who hadn't. The Changs and Delacours hadn't had their children vaccinated in St. Mungo's, having had them done in other countries. Dumbledore and Doge were known to be gay and didn't have children, and the rest were like Miss Twist, a little on the young side for parenthood yet. Every other person seemed to agree that the time to teach your child how to get help if they were hurt was when you took them for their potions. It's not like it was difficult, a wave of a hand to summon the Knight Bus and tell the driver you need an emergency drop-off at St. Mungo's. It was free and you would be dropped off there first, jumping to the front of the queue.
"I would ask warlock Dumbledore why he didn't instruct Heir Potter the same time everyone else learned, but I already know why he didn't do it when Harry was inoculated. Because the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, was never inoculated while Warlock Dumbledore was his magical guardian!"
A loud gasp shot around the room, which was full of witches and wizards who were parents, all of whom having had it drilled into their minds by healers that the inoculations were important if they didn't want their child to die. All it would take is one outbreak of dragon pox or spattergroit and the boy would probably have died. As parents, they found it completely irresponsible not to vaccinate a child. Miss Twist felt a warm glow of satisfaction as the crowd started to turn on Dumbledore, and she was reminded of a line that she had heard a lot on the TV growing up: 'I love it when a plan comes together.'