It was Sunday afternoon; the clouds partly covered the dirt road as the six figures approached the Hogwarts gate. Professor Dumbledore stood at the gates with a solemn look on his face. His grey eyes lacked their normal spark, as he was about to send a student to the wolves in the court room.
“As much as I wish this never happened to you, Shara but this will be your biggest challenge to date. I am unable to go with you as I am needed here at school. Since Professor Snape, Oliver Wood and Harry Potter have been summoned to be testifying in court, they’ll be going with you but Sirius Black and Remus Lupin wanted to be by your side as well. I have already booked four rooms for all of you at the hotel at Diagon Alley,”
“Thank you, professor. I wish this didn’t happen either.” Shara said, gently looking at the headmaster.
“Headmaster, we should be going.” Snape whispered.
“Yes, the Knight’s bus should be here.” Dumbledore said, as he raised his wand hand up.
BOOM! A loud triple-decker, violently purple bus appeared out of nowhere and slid to a stop in front of the gates. The doors opened and the conductor came out of the bus seeing Dumbledore standing there, he spoke, “Hallo professor Dumbledore. Where are we taking you to this fine evening?”
“Hello Stan, take these six to Diagon Alley,” said Dumbledore, looking at him and looking over the three students, eyes staying on Shara the longest.
“Aye, we’ll take them there we’re heading there right now for dinner before the evening groups of wizards and witches start demanding us. Let’s get the bags up, shall we?” asked Stan, looking at Snape and Black.
Soon, the bags were up in the compartment and they were all sitting on the beds. Shara was lying on her back as Sirius shifted into his dog form and laid his head by her right hand. Lupin, Wood and Potter were watching as the scenery flew past then as they sipped their hot chocolate. Snape was pacing the aisle with his wand out.
“Severus, please come and sit down. Pacing will do nothing for you,” Sirius said as he shifted to human form.
“Pacing will do me good,” Snape growled off. But then he looked at the others and knew that he was only one who was doing it. He went to the bed near to Shara and laid down on it, soon he fell asleep on the bed.
“Is he?” whispered Wood.
Sirius walked over and looked down. “Yes, Snapey-poo is asleep.”
“Sirius, that’s not nice,” hissed Remus.
Sirius in his dog form look like he was smirking as he curled up and slept in his dog shape knowing it would be the best as making jokes about Snape wouldn’t be too much fun or talk about James and Lily to Harry.
The Bus stopped at the Red Lion Inn, the biggest witch and wizard hotel in London. Severus and his party walked into the hotel and got their three rooms, each room was connected to each other. Shara was unpacking her bag and putting the clothes into the dresser.
“Why do you look so worried, dearie?” asked the mirror.
“I’m worried that I will mess up and free someone who tried to kill me,” Shara said, looking at the mirror.
“Don’t worry, everything will go the way you want it. Just believe in yourself,” the mirror said.
“Hungry, Shara?” asked a soft voice coming the doorway.
Shara glanced to the door to see Harry standing there looking at her. She smiled softly, “I am a bit hungry,”
“I’ll tell Remus,” he turned and walked back into his room. “Remus, Shara’s hungry,”
Remus nodded. “The public defender for the Ministry will be here shortly. I’ll order some food,”
“I agree, we all should get some food in our stomach before he arrives,” Severus said. He poked his head into Shara’s room and asked if she would step into their room to talk about dinner.
It was a few minutes after she entered and they figured out what they wanted, Remus ordered it. The witch on the other end stated it would be there in twenty minutes. Oliver started to talk about Quidditch which got both Shara and Harry talking. Sirius noticed how calm Shara got as she bantered with the two boys. But then, something odd started to be noticed about both Shara and Harry. ‘Nah, they’re gone just like Peter is.’
Five minutes before the take out arrived, Remus and Shara decided to go down to the main lobby to wait for the take out order. It was not too long after they arrived in the lobby did the take out witch arrive. Remus was paying the witch who had delivered the meal, while Shara was checking the food to make sure that they got everything that they ordered before the witch left.
“I want this trial over with quickly. I want to find everything about that mudblood witch, that you can use against her! Every mistake, every lie she ever told! I want to make sure she is disbelieved when we cross-examine her!” snapped a voice.
Shara looked up and saw the silver hair of a tall man and then the short cropped hair of a teenager. ‘Oh Merlin’s beard please let it not be Draco!’
The teenager turned to look up at his father and Shara gasped as she grabbed Remus’s arm tight and actually whimpered loud enough to where he heard her.
“Shara, what’s wrong? I’m almost through paying,” said Remus.
“He’s freed, Remus, he’s freed.” Shara whispered, as her head watched the young boy from behind Remus’ tattered old cloak.
Remus looked down at her and noticed where she was gazing at. That moment, the young boy gave a profile of who he was. Remus moved quickly and wrapped his cloak around Shara hiding her from the silver blond haired boy. He turned to the food and picked it up. Remus and Shara walked towards the stairs just as the three Wizards vanished into the elevator.
Remus placed his hand on Shara’s shoulder and whispered, “Don’t worry, we’ll beat them. Let’s get this up to the room.”
Remus and Shara got back to the room. Snape felt the fear in Shara before anyone else did and was starting to get up to a standing position when Shara bolted from the comfort of Remus’s cloak into his arms knocking him back to a seated position. Snape stroked her hair. “Remus, what happened?”
“Draco’s here.” Remus stated. “We saw him and his father in the lobby a few minutes ago.”
“WHAT!” yelled Sirius, Harry and Oliver.
Remus told them what they saw and how Draco acted. The three Professors started to wonder if they could keep her protected.
The door knocked as Harry peeked out to see a man standing there looking at some files in his hand. “Remus, I think this is the public defender.”
Remus walked over and looked out the peephole. He opened the door.
“Remus J. Lupin?” asked the wizard.
“Yes, are you the public defender for the Ministry?” asked Remus.
“Yes, I am, I’m Kit Soladarus, may I enter? I’ll feel better if I was not talking the case out here.” Mr. Soladarus stated, as he looked at Remus, through the eyehole.
The door opened. “Sorry about that, we had to be sure.” Remus said, as Kit showed him the Ministry badge that stated who he was.
The young public defender entered the room to see Severus, Sirius and Oliver standing in front of a young red haired witch. He waited till Remus walked past him and put a reassuring hand on Sirius’s shoulder.
“Shara P. Shade, I’m Kit Soladarus, I’m your lawyer. All right let’s get this going. I want to know what happened that day and anything that the defense could use against you Shara,” Kit said, looking at her.
Shara sighed and told what she could without really revealing everything. Shara looked at her hands when she got finished. “I hope that helps. There is some that I cannot reveal or I’ll be forced to Obliviate your memories.”
“Like what?” asked Harry.
Shara shook her head and got up as she stared out the window. She had some secret that they couldn’t learn, if they did, it would mean trouble for her family and she didn’t need to give her family trouble. “I cannot say. I am sorry but I cannot.”
“All right, Shara, I would need to question you like the lawyers for Mr. Malfoy would and see how good of a witness you will be on the stand and see if you will break under their questioning,” Kit Soladarus stated, as he opened the legal pad and brought out a quick-quill. He cleared his throat and spoke, “Pre-trial questioning of main witness – Shara P. Shade.”
The quick-quill wrote exactly what Kit had stated down right to the letter. Harry never had seen a quick-quill before and he was seeing a very professional quick-quill do a very good job in writing down what was said by Shara and Kit. He wondered if he should get that pen for classes the next time he’s in Hogsmeade.
Kit placed the pad into his case. He picked up his cup of tea and took a sip from it. “I’m very impressed.”
“What do you mean?” asked Harry.
“Well, if Shara states everything that she said tonight, we will surely be sending Mr. Draco Malfoy to Azkaban for life.” Kit stated calmly. “But Shara, you must realize that we will have to know these secrets of yours, before the defense team yanks them out of you totally.”
“I can’t. I have my reasons, Mr. Soladarus.” Shara stated, as she finished off her meal.
“Very well, I must be off. I will see you all in the courtroom at 8am sharp. The court proceeding will start at 8:15. Good night and sleep tight,” Kit said, as he stood up and shook Remus, Sirius and Severus’s hand before walking out of the room.
© Copyright 2003 Beth Brownell