Location — Wizengamot, Court no. 10, Ministry of Magic, beneath Whitehall, London
Date — 14 November, 1981
Prancer's POV
As I moved towards the center of Wizengamot, I was a little bit of anxious. I looked at the bag in my hands in which Pettigrew was kept and thought that it will surely prove Sirius innocence. It was an irrational fear in my mind. Proving innocence of Sirius is very important for me as well as the entire WDA. Once Black's innocence is proved, WDA has plans for entering the British wizarding world.
British wizarding world was considered as the most conservative of all Magical countries. They still classify many intelligent magical beings as creatures. They still have that insane blood theory floating around, which have no scientific or magical basis. And that very same theory became the root of the civil war that rocked this nation.
I knew that WDA is not an organisation which is completely innocent. WDA have always used underhanded methods to take control of situations that can escalate further and cause more harm to common people. Sometimes you have to choose which is less worse.
Magical Britain was connected to two major wars that had caused lot of civilian casualties, first the Grindlewald war and second this Voldemort's war. Hundreds of innocent lives taken just to prove whose blood is superior!
Fucking Fools!
"Please call for Peter pettigrew so that we can check him for polyjuice or any other potions." An Auror asked me.
I smiled, "There's no need for calling him. He's already here with me."
I put my hands into the bag and picked the cage with a brown rat inside it.
"Here is Peter Pettigrew." The entire chamber was filled with murmurs of surprise but before I could explain myself, Crouch's voice registered its presence, "Do you have no respect for this Honoured Wizengamot and its members."
Crouch looked at Dumbledore, "Chief Warlock, This is a grave misconduct by the defence & specially by Detective Prancer."
"Detective Prancer has done nothing wrong." Mr Anderson quickly interjected before Crouch could increase his verbal rampage.
"Order, order, silence in the court room, please." Dumbledore banged his gavel and looked at me with a series expression, "can you explain why you are holding a rat instead of Peter Pettigrew?"
" I would have, if Mr. Crouch wouldn't have Interfered. Mr. Peter Pettigrew is an Animagus. If you don't believe me, you can use Animagus reversal spell on this rat and see for it yourself." I gave the cage to the Auror and moved back.
Dumbledore looked at me with a hardened expression , "If this rat is not Peter pettigrew, then you will be facing a prison sentence for contempt."
"Auror Samson, check the rat but before that make sure he is stupefied." Dumbledore ordered the Auror who quickly fired a stupefy at Peter & removed him from the cage.
Auror looked around in the courtroom as the entire court went silent and watched. Auror Samson took a deep breath and used the Animagus revealing spell at Peter.
The entire courtroom had a pin drop silence as the Brown rat took the form of supposedly dead Peter Pettigrew. And then, All hell broke lose. People in the courtroom started to shout filth for Peter who was still under the effects of stupefy.
But Nobody was more loud than Sirius Black. As he saw Peter Pettigrew, he stood up with a loud shout of 'Fucking Rat' and tried to go towards Peter, but before he could do what he wanted to, he was stopped by Auror Samson who petrified him.
"Silence, silence…." Dumbledore fired 2 cannon blast charms to stop the noise inside the room.
"Defence Counsel, please control your Client. If he tries this again, he will be chained ."
Mr. Anderson nodded and whispered something in the ear of Sirius whose petrification is reversed.
"Quickly check him for Polyjuice or any other potion." Auror Samson nodded as he started to check Peter. After few minutes passed, he looked up and stated the obvious.
"I have not found the presence of either Polyjuice or any other Potion. He is undoubtedly Peter Pettigrew." As Auror Samson announced this in his gravelly voice, the whispering in the courtroom again grew loud. The shouts of 'Traitor' or 'betrayer' were clearly heard as the Aurors and Dumbledore tried to regain the control of the room.
I looked around in the courtroom as my part in the entire trial has ended.
I saw multiple people that I have read about during my preparation for Magical world. People with substantial amount of power, People who were fighting from Voldemort's side and had the brains to hide their tracks well and People who were fighting from the side of so called 'Light'.
I could see how 'Light' Alliance and 'Dark' Alliance has exhausted each other in their Civil war and now the only Major Power Block that was left inside Wizengamot is 'Grey'.
With number of empty seats in Wizengamot, it could be easily understood, how devastating their Civil war was for the British Magical World.
As the Voices began to fade in the Courtroom, Mr. Anderson stood up and commanded the attention of the Courtroom, "Chief Warlock, This is Peter Pettigrew, the person who was supposedly killed by my client, Sirius Black. This already puts the arguments offered by Prosecution in jeopardy. It also puts the entire 'Sirius Black is a Traitor' story in question. But for the sake of everyone in the room, I think that we should hear the story from Mr. Pettigrew. So, I demand Veritaserum to be given to Mr. Pettigrew. I know that Veritaserum is not completely reliable and can be resisted by Good Occulomencers, but Mr. Pettigrew doesn't have such kind of occulumency skills. Veritaserum will work on him."
Dumbledore leaned back into his chair, as he started to discuss the proposal with Minister Bagnold. After few seconds, Dumbledore moved forward, "Rennervate Mr. Pettigrew and give him Veritaserum. Only Mr. Crouch, Mr. Anderson and Chief Warlock would question Mr. Pettigrew. Anyone else asking question other than named people will be putting contempt of Court against them."
As Dumbledore ended his remarks, Auror Samson called for Veritaserum. Another Auror came with a bottle with completely clear solution of said potion. As Peter was renervated, he came to his senses.
Before Peter could have taken in where he was, he is petrified and three drops of Veritaserum is put into his mouth.
As Veritaserum took effect, peter's eyes were glazed.
Dumbledore took the reign of questioning,
"What's your name?"
"Peter Pettigrew "
"Were you sorted into Slytherin."
"No."
"Then, what was your house during Hogwarts?"
"I was sorted into Gryffindor."
"Looks like he is ready for questions pertaining to the Case." Dumbledore looked at both Mr. Anderson and Crouch, "Both Prosecutor and Defense Counsel can ask questions, But remember, Ask Only those questions which are related to the Case."
Mr. Anderson asked the first and perhaps the most important question of the Case, "Mr. Pettigrew, Who was the secret keeper of Potters?"
Peter answered in his monotonous voice, "I was the secret keeper."
Crouch looked pissed and undercurrent of anger was easily heard in his voice, "Then Why everyone including Dumbledore thought that Black was the secret keeper."
"Because Sirius thought that he would be an obvious choice, so Dark Lord will come after him, he will play a final prank on Dark Lord. He made me Secret Keeper because Nobody will ever suspect me ."
The whispers which had started since the start of questioning rose in its intensity as people in the courtroom quickly got realisation of what actually happened.
"When and how did you joined hands with You-Know-Who?"
"About a year ago, I was taken away by death eaters from my home. And then I was put in front of The Dark Lord. He wanted me to join him as a spy. I didn't want to die so I accepted."
"What happened on the night of 31st October, 1981?"
"I was asked by the Dark Lord to provide him information on James and Lily. So, I told him the location of James. I don't know what happened at Godrick's hollow. I just heard at Leaky Cauldron that Dark Lord and the entire Potter family is dead. I became afraid, as I knew Sirius will come after me. I ran to muggle London after that."
"What happened when Sirius found you?"
"Sirius was angry at me. I was running as fast as I could to get away from Sirius. But Sirius found me first. He started to scream at me. He was not giving me any chance to explain myself. I knew he will kill me if I stay there so I fired a Bombarda at a gas pipeline and cut my finger. People would have thought I died at the hands of Sirius and I could run away."
After the end of Peter's testimony, the Courtroom became silent but then slowly the voices in the room started to increase in intensity. The calls for Azkaban and Dementor's Kiss could be easily heard across the room.
Dumbledore silenced the Courtroom with the help of blasting charms and then asked Auror Samson to give Antidote to Peter.
I took a deep breath as my job was complete. Dumbledore ordered the release of Sirius Black and Peter, who after coming to his senses, was crying uncontrollably and begging everyone and their mothers for mercy, was sentenced to Life imprisonment in Azkaban.
After getting freed, Sirius came near me and said, "Thank you, Detective Prancer. If you hadn't helped me, I couldn't even imagine what would have happened to me."
"No Problem Mr. Black, Just remember our deal." I gave a genuine smile to him. Just as we were about to leave the courtroom, We heard a Voice calling Sirius.
We turned back and Sirius whispered, "Remus.."
I looked at this newly introduced Remus. He was shabby person with his face looking like he was very much tired. But the biggest thing was My instincts which were telling me that this person was a Predator.
I tried to control my instincts of attacking this guy, and decided to leave Sirius with him for some time. I told Sirius about it and left before he could have introduced me to Remus.
Time to go back to Headquarters and tell Head Command that we have taken first step into the British Magical world. Soon, we will be able to deal with this pure blood nonsense, Soon….