"Esteemed members," Dumbledore's voice echoed in the council hall. "Those who think Lord Olario's actions were correct and whatever he did was a necessity."
The method of voting was simple.
If you supported the Chief Warlock's statement, you have to raise your wand with a white light glowing at the tip. It was a yes. Affirmation.
If you opposed it, you again have to raise your wand but with a red light glowing at its tip. It was a no. Rejection.
And if you did neither of the two, it meant you were abstaining.
As Dumbledore had expected, wands began to rise across the hall. Edmund Bones and his allies lit their wands white.
Arcturus Black and most of his faction followed suit. But there was one supporter Dumbledore had not anticipated. Charlus Potter. The broad shouldered man's wand was glowing bright, and Dumbledore's eyes narrowed in thought.
On the other side, Barty Crouch, Alicus Marius, the Lestrange and Malfoy lords, and their allies voted red. The Minister himself also opposed and voted against Antonio.
There were few notables abstains too. The Longbottom, the Greengrass and the Weasley being the most prominent one among them.
Even so, Antonio's supporters clearly outnumbered his opponents.
Dumbledore himself held multiple votes. As Lord of House Dumbledore, as Chief Warlock, as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and as a recipient of the Order of Merlin.
Yet he rarely used them. Unless absolutely necessary, he abstained, in most of the cases. Doing nothing. Taking no action. Let things happen on their own was, after all, his specialty.
He was about to call for the count when a movement caught his eye. It was Minerva. Slowly, deliberately, she was raising her wand.
He had advised her to abstain before she had decided to attend the hearing. This in itself had been a strange request but he had not thought much about it. And now his advice had clearly been ignored. He had been defied and people not heeding his advice was not something he liked.
A white glow appeared on her wand. She had voted in Antonio's support.
He clenched his fist in frustration as he took a couple of moments and his Occlumency to calm his nerves and smooth his expression.
"Count the votes," he announced.
Two clerks stepped into with a difta quill and parchment floating behind them.
When the dicta quill finally stopped, they gave a brief nod towards Dumbledore.
"Adjourned," he announced and the members of the council lowered their wand as they began to rise from their seats.
This was an old age tradition where the council was adjourned after counting the votes. It was an adjournment of very few short minutes.
This was the time used to match and tabulate the total votes. With the dicta Quill, it was only recorded which person has voted in favour or against the statement. Different members had different number of votes and few had multiple votes too. Thus, a calculation had to be done to arrive at the final tally.
The adjournment was not necessarily required now as new spells had been formulated which could do all these things at the same time. But since this had been a tradition for a long time, it continued to be followed. Albus Dumbledore was one of those who was in favour of doing away with these obsolete traditions and advocated heavily for it.
The time was also used by the Chief Warlock to author the judgement of the Wizengamot as per the voting.
Antonio stepped back into the corridor from where he had entered in the well and Amelia naturally followed suit and was his only companion.
"You did wonderful, Lord Olario," Amelia said with a visible happiness and wide smile on her face as soon as they were out in the corridor.
Even though the tally was still to be made, it was an easy task to guess that the vote count was greater in Antonio's favour.
"I guess so," he replied a bit awkwardly. He was not used to such praise.
Amelia chuckled at his response and added, "Father will want to meet you after the hearing is over."
Antonio nodded in agreement.
"Was the man you had referred to who would vote in my favour was Lord Charlus Potter?" He asked.
"Yes," Amelia beamed. "He hates death eaters, just like my own father and he did not need a lot of convincing to vote in your favour."
While Antonio and Amelia were busy in their chatter, the members of the council had exited the council hall into a small lobby. The lobby was there for the members to relax and talk among themselves. There was incessant chattering and a lot of whispers and mumbling going on among them.
One figure among them, Alicus Marius, was standing alone in corner of the lobby near a pillar. He seemed heartbroken. Like everybody else, he knew that Antonio Olario was to walk the hall unpunished.
Though a lot of members had supported him, no one had more than few sympathetic words for him.
His only son had been killed. He was well aware that his son had been a Death Eater and though he himself had not joined the service of the Dark Lord, he did not really differ from his ideology.
He supported what the Dark Lord and his son had been trying to achieve. And now his only son, his heir, had been killed. He could only clench his fist and think of revenge.
"There is no doubt that Antonio Olario will walk scot-free," he heard a whisper coming from behind a pillar.
The people talking behind the pillar were not visible to him, and they too were not aware of his presence. He ignored it at first but their further conversation had his full attention.
"It is given," the other voice replied.
"So, he will not be punished?" the first voice asked as if he was slightly disappointed.
"No," the reply came. "At least not legally."
"Lord Marius may take revenge and even kill Antonio Olario, but this cement Olario's image even more and a lot of people will see him as a martyr."
"Though," the voice continued with an edge in it, "there is one way to punish Antonio without breaking any law, and that in front of the whole world."
"What is it?" the other person asked, and this was the very same question Alicus wanted to shout.
"Honour duel," the reply came, and Alicus did not need to hear anything more. His mind had clicked and he knew what was to be done.
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