Chapter 486 - Pyrites Trial Ⅱ

"If you would please, Mr. Flint," Dumbledore instructed as Flint carefully prods the memory with his wand.

With a lurch, the wisps of clouds arose as a scene began to play there before them. A girl wakes up and begins to talk with her supposed boyfriend to only send him flying across the infirmary. She runs fearfully barefoot across the stones until she comes across the caretaker. There she whirls around to face her attacker to only be struck in the shoulder. A vast pain can somehow be felt as she stuns her opponent and the caretaker knocks the polyjuiced figure unconscious.

There is a tense silence as Madam Marchbanks angrily says, "A mere girl facing all alone a dangerous wizard like that, what is the world coming too?"

Turning her eyes onto the accused, Madam Marchbanks sneers and says, "Yes, I can see exactly what kind of Dark Lord, you serve, Pyrites. A coward." Pyrites eyes narrow into dangerous slits imprinting her old face into his mind. He would have his revenge.

The tall, powerfully built figure of Albert Runcorn smirks rather coldly. "I do, however, have a question, Dumbledore. How precisely was the identity of Pyrites reveled? I am told he was instantly taken away, but a polyjuice potion take several hours to fade away?" Said, the gravelly voiced, dark haired, bearded wizard.

"It indeed does," Dumbledore replied without hesitation. "But Georgine Prince's talents lay in ward and spell breaking. I did not believe it was possible either, but she forcibly broke the effects of the Polyjuice Potion."

"Oh, how interesting," Albert Runcorn said. "What a coincidence that the Madam Prince broke through such a potion. I wonder if it isn't at all a Slytherin scheme to garner our attention." A burst of whispers burst in the room at his words as Pyrites had a rather satisfied look on his face at those words.

"You are still a stupid boy as ever, Runcorn," Elphias Doge snapped earning a wrathful glare from Runcorn. "We all heard the testimony from those present and Reginald Prince blasted his way through that enchanted maze. Anyone of us here except for Dumbledore would bloody well have a difficult time with such a maze. Do you have any idea the sheer power that it took to do so? Well, Do You?!"

Runcorn's lips twitch into a snarl as the hunched up, bald wizard, Doge triumphantly says, "Exactly. And it isn't just that, why else do you think the Prince twins were apprenticed early on? They are practically crackling with power before they should be. If they are not as powerful as Dumbledore or their grandfather, once grown, I'll eat my hat!"

"I stand corrected," Runcorn stiffly said. "Nevertheless, even if that is not the case, it still bares looking into."

Doge happily slumps down into his seat as Dumbledore says, "Then let us hear the accused now. Mr. Crouch, if you'd please remove the magical bindings on Pyrites?"

"Yes, Chief Warlock," Crouch unhappily said as he pointed his wand at the defendant and the magical binding was removed from his mouth.

Pyrites reflexively stretches his mouth and licks his dry lips. Grinning at them he says, "Why hello everyone. A pleasant day, we are having. No? Oh, well so much for small talk at least I can say I did try."

The Wizengamot blankly stares at Pyrites for a moment. It must be the first time in the Wizengamot's entire history that the prisoner treated them so nicely. Not to mention for the defendant attempting to be polite and make small talk as though as he was at a social gathering.

The short plumb wizard with enormous thick glasses glares at Pyrites. Bob Ogden, current Head of the Auror's coolly says, "Pyrites, you do understand that you have been revealed to be a murder with a second failed attempt? Do you understand the charges before you?"

"Oh yes, I very much do," Pyrites purred. "But it's a shame I didn't kill the girl." Pyrites flashed his white teeth in great emphasis. A burst of shocked and angry whispers fills the courtroom as no one can believe that the defendant is not even attempting to lie.

"And just what is the purpose of your Dark Lord?" Ogden cleverly asked.

"As the Slytherin heir to reclaim his rightful place," Pyrites proudly said.

Ogden mockingly says, "But the Prince's are his legitimate heirs and they can prove it both with physical heirlooms and a family tree. Can yours do the same?"

Pyrites shakes with anger and he hisses, "All fabricated lies! I have seen it with my own eyes, the Dark Lord is a parselmouth just like Salazar Slytherin himself!"

A burst of whispers burst among the courtroom as Ogden hides his satisfaction. "Ah, but the Prince's still have a ghost speaking parselmouth still existing at Prince manor," Ogden countered.

Pyrites sneered and drew back in his chair. "Ah, but they have Merlin's blood as well. Dirtied for his muggle loving ways. Why the old Prince's actions prove my words as he accepted his half-blood grandchildren as his heirs."

"Ah, but their father was a squib the last living descendant of Helga Hufflepuff and Godric Gryffindor," Ogden said with pleasure. "Squib mixed with muggles or not, the Snape bloodline is now one of the most coveted bloodlines to have."

Pyrites lips twitch derision as he knows he cannot counter that argument. Squib, muggleborn or not, Tobias Snape would have been one of the most eligible bachelors in the wizarding world. The pureblood families would have fought fiercely tooth and nail to tie their unwed daughters to him and bear a living descendant with their bloodlines.

Calming himself, Pyrites instead changes the subject. "Still I will not be openly charged for the attempted act against Rowan Prince, but rather the murder of Professor Lye, will I not? Why else is the Wizengamot holding a private trial rather than a public one?"

Pyrites smiles with evil glee at seeing the truth in several of the Wizengamot's faces. Sitting back in satisfaction and in control, Pyrites says, "Well to Azkaban it is I presume? Or is to be the Dementor's kiss?"

Glancing around, Dumbledore says, "Then the final judgment shall begin. Who finds Dearil Pyrites guilty on all charges?" Scores of hands go up as the court scribe Tiberius McLaggen jots the numbers down as only a few hands did not rise. Most notably among them is that of Albert Runcorn, who is somewhat irritated.

"Who finds Dearil Pyrites not guilty?" Dumbledore asked as zero hands went up. Those that did not vote were considered absentee voters.

"Dearil Pyrites will be sentenced to life in Azkaban," Dumbledore quietly stated.

Pyrites proudly smirks as the chains fall off him and the four Auror's proceed to escort him out the room. The Wizengamot watches him go with various expressions as the doors loudly knell shut behind him like a final bell toll. The four Auror's split up as two of them lead him away, while the other two prepare to transport the prisoner. Once, ready, they lead Pyrites via a tunnel to an apparition point.