Astra

LXXIV - The Trial of Rita Skeeter

Ron promptly nodded his head, making Hermione smile slightly.

"Yes, he deserves to know, I get that Hermione, but he can't! First of all, James and Lily don't agree -"

"Once again, what is going on here?" This time, they all glanced to their previous professor in the doorway, Hermione looking slightly sheepish. None of the kids seemed to want to answer, but in the end, Luna did.

"Hermione was trying to write a letter to Harry," she said dreamily, even though Hermione glared furiously at her.

Remus sighed, "We can't do that; Dumbledore says -"

"I've heard what Dumbledore says," Hermione retorted angrily, immediately slapping her hand over her mouth as she realized she had talked back to her old professor.

Remus chuckled slightly, "It's dangerous to send things with the ministry's position, and Astra says that Lily doesn't think he should know yet. Either way, the Order meeting's starting soon."

With that, he turned around and left the room, Astra already heading to the door, Hermione exaggeratedly sitting down next to Ron, and Luna innocently casting an 'incendio' to the piece of parchment.

***

The week passed sooner than Astra had thought, and she was once again escaping through the window to head to the Ministry of Magic, this time for the actual trial of Rita Skeeter.

She went through the visitor's entrance, still trying to cover her face with her hood and scowling at some of the Daily Prophet articles hung up on the walls. She went to the lifts, this time having to go up to the tenth level for the courtrooms.

Everything was prepared, and there were spells to show a person's animagus form, so there really wasn't anything to worry about. However, with Fudge doing everything in his power to keep Skeeter with him and against Astra, she still had a few worries.

She walked into the courtroom, but halted when everyone was already there, including a furious Rita Skeeter.

"You're late," chuckled Fudge, and Astra noticed Amelia Bones rolling her eyes and sighing. 

She cleared her throat. As far as Astra was aware, she was half an hour early. "The trial is supposed to start at 10 a.m."

"It changed," Amelia stated, "To 9:15."

Immediately, Astra understood. She turned to Fudge and Rita, both obviously slightly frustrated that she had showed up anyway. "I wasn't aware of the change."

She moved to her own seat, towards the front, aware that all eyes were on her. "She was late!" Fudge exclaimed, "We shouldn't have waited either wa-"

"Cornelius, being an unregistered animagus is a serious crime, and there is a thirty-minute wait period for every trial. Miss Black is well within that."

With that, Amelia Bones shuffled through her papers again and cleared her throat. 

And the trial began.

***

"1 year! 1 year! That shouldn't be allowed!" 

It would be an understatement to say that Astra was angry.