Order of the Sphinx... Why should HP get to have all the fun?

Chapter 39: I'm Innocent

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or his world. Nope, not mine.

I don't make any money at all from this. All I get from this is a perverse enjoyment and a strange emotional attachment to original characters.

Chapter 39: I’m Innocent

The blood was pounding in my ears relentlessly, like someone had placed a large band drum in my head and was going crazy in tribute to some unknown God. As the Aurors all but dragged me into the courtroom, my ears were burning, as were my cheeks. I knew my hair was rumpled and I probably looked like I had just been spat out by a dog; I had fallen asleep waiting to get called back into the court room and I was roughly shoved awake by an excited Auror who was so keen to get me into the court room that he refused to pause to let me run my fingers through my hair.

The nerves were terrible. The questions running through my head never paused, just kept panting their way through the butterflies. What took them so long to decide on the verdict? Did they believe me? How is this fair? I am only 18 and yet here I am being tried for a crime I never committed.

When the doors to the court room finally loomed into sight, I was ready to faint, and the only things keeping me up were the Aurors and the sheer MacKay stubbornness. As the doors were thrown open, I could see the same crowd which had been there during the main part of the trial, only, it seemed to have increased tenfold. There was a sea of people and I felt dizzy with the barrage of thoughts which crashed into me like a steam train.

Most of the crowd present looked as worse for wear as I did, and it seemed that no one had been expecting such a late call back. It was 3 am and it seemed most people had expected the sentence to be read sometime the next morning. It had taken the Wizardgamot the rest of the day at the end of the trial plus the day that had just passed to attain a verdict, and it was clear that none of the Wizardgamot had slept since the trial.

I searched desperately for familiar faces, and I found them near the door, the Order of the Sphinx were all present, even Dumbledore was there with a grave look on his face. My friends all looked at me with looks of horror, nerves, and overwhelming guilt. Alice looked furiously at the seated Wizardgamot members like she was about to rip them apart.

My mother, father and sister was there too; As soon as mum saw me she burst into tears sobbing something about her baby girl being stolen from her. Dad hugged her protectively, giving me the saddest look I had ever seen grace his face. Roxie was crying silently, her pretty little face twisted with remorse.

And another unexpected was there; I was very shocked to see him. Severus Snape sat next to Dumbledore, his eyes fixed on me with an unusual intensity. I hadn’t seen him in the trial, but I realised that he must have been there, lurking in the shadows. When I saw him, I channelled a plea into my eyes, Help me! But the only sign that he recognised it was small; the downwards twitch of his lips and the tightening of his eyes.

I was roughly pushed into the same cold stone seat and the chains were placed again around my legs, sealed with magic and holding me in place. I looked warily up at the Minister, and gave a thick swallow. My life was resting in the palm of this bozo’s hands and that thought scared me shitless.

I began to pray to God, begging him to get me out of this alive. My prayers were interrupted by the banging of a gavel. “Order! Order!” Bellowed the Minister as he slammed the gravel over and over again. Silence quickly descended in the court room. Out of the corner of my eye I could see my hands shaking as they rested against the arm rests. I clenched them into fists in an effort to stop the horrendous shaking.