The Ministry of Magic

Bella folded her arms as if cold. "Two days ago, November 13. It was about lunch time...13:00 or so."

Mongaven sighed. "As you can see, if was obviously an event that took place."

---

Eglantine hissed softly, trying to see the three people from her rather unique position under the chair. If Sevastyan's robes stayed out of her line of vision it would have been much easier. Moving the heavy cloth with a paw, which was a rather odd thing for a cat to do, she peered out, wondering what Kiara would say in response.

Kiara turned to the judge after hearing Bella's answer.

"Your honor there is no possible way what Miss Rosier say is true i was in the Great Hall at the time mentioned and I can also have most of hogwarts and it's entire staff to claim back that alliby up. I don't doubt that Miss Rosier believes what she is saying or the oath wouldn't work. Perhaps while we all theroizing here, that Miss Roiser has had her memory altered in some way so she can tell us what the opposition want this court to believe without actually lying herself. As the date she mention happened after the death of Daniel Lestrange..."

Turning back to her seat Kiara said "I have no further questions"

Mongaven looked shocked. "Miss Rosier, is it possible you saw two other staff members engaged in this moment?" He pulled out a list of the Hogwarts staff. "Maybe Professor McKevin and Professor Viper? Professor DeLanquar and Professor Flitwick? Or possibly one of the accused with a different person?"

Bella laughed. "Viper and McKevin? I think I'd remember that. No, it was definitely Headmistress Kiara and Professor Kaminski. But I suppose it could have been someone using a potion. My brother says it is quite easy to pretend to be someone else."

Mongaven sighed. "I am willing to accept that it is possible that my theory is wrong. However, it would be helpful if we could question Miss Kiara about her staff. Will you allow such questioning, Your Honour?"

The judge nodded. "Please keep your questions simple."

Mongaven nodded. "Headmistress Kiara, what is your relationship with Professor Sevastyan Kaminski?

Kiara answered the question without hesitation "My friend and collegue"

Mongaven sighed. "How about Professor Horatio McKevin?" He was obviously trying to explain Bella's having seen two professor's kissing.

Kiara paused alittle longer on this one Horatio was still new and she was still getting to know him "Same, friend and collegue, though he is still a bit new on staff"

Mongaven bit his lip. "Do either Professor Viper or Professor DeLanquar have a relationship other than professional with any of their fellow colleagues?"

Eglantine sighed, yes cats sigh. Of course she did not have a relationship with anyone!

Kiara raised her eye brow "Not that I am aware of Mr. Mongaven, Friends is the closest kind of relationship you will find on the staff of Hogwarts"

"Unless it was Lasharna and Kazimir.... Now that would be a sight with their winning personaities" Kiara thought privately to her self. Inside she was laughing histericly at the thought.

Outside she was perfectly calm.

((lol I just had to))

Mongaven sighed. "I am willing to concede to the fact that Miss Rosier did indeed see a couple engaged in a moment, however I do not believe it was Miss Kiara or Professor Kaminski. I will drop the theory."

Bella left the witness stand to disappear into the other room and Mongaven continued. He was far from done.

"However, it is still my belief that Mr. Lestrange was murdered."

---

Eglantine finally tired of sitting under the chair, straining her poor little neck to see. Hoping Sevastyan had nothing against cats, she leapt up into his lap, forcing herself to act in cat fashion by purring softly and rubbing her head against his arm. Ah, she thought settling down. Much easier to see.

Sevastyan watched the goings on silently, allowing the Headmistress to do what she did best. It was his opinion that he was not cut out for the courtroom: he was more a man of action than of debate. But he wasn't going to admit this at the moment to anyone. As Miss Rosier was excused from the witness stand, Sevastyan briefly calculated the odds of there having been something fishy going on. Why swear under a wizard's oath to something one did not see, especially after a thorough review of all of the possible pairings... with the exceptions of their international guests... proved inconclusive?

'Still on that theory, are ve?' Sevastyan thought gruffly, though jumped about a good three inches the moment an unexpected visitor leapt onto his legs. Hoping he hadn't caused the whole courtroom to go into panic mode, Sevastyan feigned a cough to explain the sudden movement. Uncertain, the Russian man glanced at Kiara for the briefest of moments before pretending as if this wasn't unusual for him. Sevastyan gently scratched the feline behind the ears. Perhaps his docile response to the cat would work in his favor somehow... fate worked in mysterious ways, after all.

Kiara looked over at Sevastyan when he jumped and saw the cat. One she recognised very much.

"You..." she started to say but then she heard Mr. Mongaven continue with his accusations of murder.

Giving the cream coloured cat a look that said "We will talk soon"

She stood and adressed the court again.

"It was not Murder it was self defense, and I can prove it"

Turning to the judge she asked "Your honor I ask for a short resess to prepare final touches to my case"

The judge banged his gravel on the desk and rose. "We will continue with Headmistress' Kiara's evidence after a short recess."

Eglantine did not see the look Kiara shot her, having focused her attention on the lawyer. He looked vaguely familiar and she had been trying for the past few minutes to figure where she had seen him before. Still purring and tail twitching, she was the picture of a content cat. Resting her head down on her paws, she closed her eyes and waited for something to happen.

A recess! Her head popped up. Now she noticed Kiara, who would no doubt notice her when she returned to her seat. Torn between fleeing and staying on the DADA Professor's lap, which was the perfect level to see the court from...Eglantine began to lick her paws. Decision made, she awaited the wraith of her friend.

Kiara approched Sevastyan after the Judge called the recess.

"Come on we need to talk before we continue with this I need to fill you in on afew things, and please do bring the cat with you, she is not what she appears...."

Looking at Eglantine "You sneaky feline" she whispered.

Kiara led them to a quieter part of the court room and putting up privacy spells so she wouldn't be overheard.

"Well it is our turn to defend our selves now, and push whatever case they think they got against them. However to do that I will need to over every detail of what happened. You will most likely be asked about the spell you used to kill him.... Sevastyan Mongaven will be burtal and will try to ues its dark nature against you. If there is anything about the spell I can use to defend you, you need to tell me now" Kiara said. She was concered the spell he used may be the only thing the oppsition could get him on.

Sevastyan looked to the Headmistress with a countenance of confusion. 'Bring the cat?' he mused, looking down at the creature. With a shrug he made to pick up the feline, making a kind of clicking noise with his tongue in hopes to coax it from his lap and into his arms.


He followed Kiara's lead, and once it seemed clear they wouldn't be overheard listened with rapt attention to what she had to say. "I vill tell you all I know: in brief, it is a Russian variant and combination of the Cruciatus and Killing Curses. My great-grandfather created the spell, and the family has alvays used the learning of this spell as a Rite of Passage vonce ve finished school at Durmstrang," Sevastyan began, not quite sure whether or not this information would help.

"He vos in the medical profession, but his tvin vos into Law. Russian law is somevot different, I think, than here: ve have nothing against the creation of new spells... vhereas your Ministry does. Ivan - the tvin that vos into Law - managed to make it legal to use vorldvide provided that the caster is licensed to use it and deems that no other options vere available; the license lists the three most common accepted terms. There's an obvious loophole to exploit here: in the heat of the moment, I vos none too happy to see Lestrange hurting you. It vos intolerably cruel vot he vos doing. As both your colleague and your friend, I couldn't let it go on and it angered me beyond vot vords are able to describe to see vot I saw. In addition, ven dueling him myself, I thought there vould be no other vay to protect you or get myself out of vot I had happened upon. Yes, I made a smart remark about last vords, but I vos so ... ****ing enraged, if you vill excuse my choice of vords ... that I used it vithout a second thought, knowing that it vould either be him or us."

"It vould be no different than having used the original Killing Curse, vould it? I still killed him, because I vos ensuring ve didn't meet a similar fate. It vos reflex to use the curse from my origins - you have seen for yourself that a foreign speaker vill often revert to their mother tongue out of habit." Sevastyan's accent got thicker as he hastened his speech, additional and subconscious proof of this aspect displayed right before their eyes. Or, rather, their ears. "I even have a license to vield the curse as I see fit," he added, removing an aged square of parchment bearing all of his statistics - and a picture for easier means of identification - that declared precisely what he'd said: that he was able to wield the curse so long as no other option occurred to him at the time of its casting, as determined by logical deduction, self-defense, or an extreme emotional state. Sevastyan held it out for Kiara to examine: it still had another 2 years before it expired, and translated itself the moment someone that spoke something other than Russian touched it.

"Another thing that may help is the vay in vich ve as a whole have alvays legally defined the term 'Dark Magic': it is not be the inherent nature of the spell but the intent of the caster that determines such a thing.

"It is just like the muggle 'vands' known as guns is it not: they are used to kill vone another, and only the intent of the user really determines guilt or innocence?" The man's eyes held a mixture of emotions, the two most prominent being regret that he killed and conviction that he'd done so out of self-defense. The guilt he'd felt closing in on himself the several days prior to today had vanished now that he had time to think over the options he'd had in the heat of the moment. There hadn't been many, and he wouldn't have done anything different.

Eglantine had been carried in her animagus form often enough in her life to not feel too awkward as Sevastyan carried her over to a secluded area.
She had blinked her eyes at the "sneaky feline" remark on Kiara's part, but for the most part listened intently to her colleague's explanation of the curse.
As he continued, she eventually laid her head on his arm in sleepy feline fashion and took a cat nap, pretending to have paid no attention to anything said. Nothing could be further from the truth as she repeated every word in her mind for clarity.

Kiara listened to what Sevastyan had to say about the curse he used.

The information was invaulable to their case, Kiara wrote the information Sevastyan told her. She stopped aburptly when he mentioned his feelings when she saw what Daniel had been doing to her.

She closed her eyes tight as she fulled with guilt, the same guilt that had been plaguing her for a while and preventing her from sleeping.

Her. it was all because of her, that Sevastyan was in trouble right now... and she hated it. If it wasn't for her he wouldn't be in this mess. Wishing more and more she could have protected her self, she raised her shaky hand and continued to write the information. Though her eyes were alittle more darker this time.

Sighing she couldn't help but mumble "I am sorry"

She nodded her head and examined all the information he had given her including his lisence to preform the spell.

"This should help wonderfully Sevastyan thank you, as for our other evidence I have Daniels wand, and my blood test results that list all that was wrong with me at that time. We have a strong case it is likely we will win."

"But if by some chance we don't, I have another card up my sleeve, as headmistress I will take your place if they accuse and charge you of murder" Kiara thought. She could legaly do it. It happened on Hogwarts grounds and he was under fire becasue of her inablity to fight Daniel off. At the courts insistense, should she have to, she would take his place and take whatever punishment he would have been given. She had the life debt on her side there would be nothing anyone could do about it. Niether Sevastyan nor Eglantine could stop her once she claimed it.

It Only as a last resort of cousrs

Then she turned to Eglantine "and as for you, mind telling how you found out about this? and why you are here?"

She waved her hand and conjured a chair "Eglantine Delanquar" she said, though there was amusment in her voice as she looked at the cat,

Sevastyan vaguely wondered how the cat seemed to be so comfortable in the arms of a stranger, but there were other things brewing at the forefront of his mind.

Concern filled the Russian's gray eyes in response to her hearing what he had to say on his feelings the day that Daniel gasped his last. Though it was mumbled, he caught her apology as though she'd spoken normally. "Don't be. I did vot vos necessary to protect a friend and colleague in need. Chances like that don't come round very often. Look at my cousin, Nikolai..." Sevastyan countered, knowing he had discussed the cousin whom he'd been very close to with Kiara at one point or another. He found both situations almost uncannily similar, only he'd been able to do something this time. Perhaps, by having done this, Sevastyan earned himself a bit of forgiveness. In the past few days he even felt slightly lighter; as though some of the invisible baggage he carried around had been indefinitely lifted from him.

"Good. After all of this - including that ludicrous accusation - I think ve deserve to vin this case after jumping through all these hoops like hippogriffs in flight training," Sevastyan sighed. The statement could have been summed up quicker by saying something like 'I need a drink, let's go win this,' but he selected the longer version for its lack of possible alcohol references depending on how one interpreted the word 'drink'.

Sevastyan quirked a brow at Kiara's questions and had been about to nicely remind her she'd already asked them of him when she mentioned a different professor's name. Then, it hit him like a ton of bricks: this was no mere strange cat that decided to spring into his lap to watch the case. Professor DeLanquar, apparently, was a feline animagus. Sevastyan set Kiara with a 'you must be joking' kind of look before assessing the feline form of the professor, waiting to see if the Headmistress was correct. He hadn't much to add and was rather speechless in regards to this newest discovery.

Eglantine leapt down and sat primly on the conjured chair, curling her tail around her body and cocking her head to the side.
After making sure no one was in the general vicinity, she morphed back into her human form.
"As for me?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow. "How I found out about your secret court case is my own business and as for why I am here, that should be fairly obvious. It is my duty as your Transfigurations professor and Head of Gryffindor to make sure you do not become the executed martyr." Looking up at Sevastyan, who looked fairly speechless, she paled.
"It was difficult trying to see the case through your robes." she offered as means of explanation.

Kiara nodded solumly, her eyes sofened when Sevastyan had mentioned his cousin, Nikolai.. the very reason Sevastyan turned his back on the dark arts..

"Fine I will thank you again'

Kiara sighed and let out a small smile when Eglantine turned back into human form"Well I can't say I am surprised, it is true what they say after all It is impoosble to keep a secret at hogwarts. It must be a actual curse,, I swear"

Kiara let out a laugh at the imanined image of a cat trying to see through the wizards robes. "Well arn't we going to make a unusal sight in court huh?"

Then she though of something Eglantine didn't know about the curios that had been placed on her by Daniel.

She debated with herself about telling her.
"She will find out later anyway, may as well"

"Eglantine, now that you are here there is something you should know about our evidence. There are spells that he used that support our case of self defense and that Sevastyan had no other choice in what he did...."

Kiara paused not really wanting to tell Eglantine, but she was here with no way of making she leave.

"Daniel used Curico on me two times, and attempted to use Septumsempra......I didn't want you to know, but now that you are here it is better I tell you now, then you finding out in the court"

She turned her eyes not wanting to see Eglantines reaction.

"It's fine," Sevastyan nodded to Professor DeLanquar with a slight smile. "I have nothing against cats - my sister had vone ven ve vere growing up."

"And I vonce again vill say that you are velcome, despite that vot I had to do caused all of this," he replied to Kiara's thanks. There was a light overtone mixed with the gravity, but once again there was no guilt to be found.

He had to laugh lightly at the jokes Kiara had made: both about Hogwarts' curse regarding secrets, and about being an unusual sight at court. However, he didn't really have much to add to this part of the conversation.

When Kiara began to speak of evidence, particularly about something Professor DeLanquar didn't apparently already know, Sevastyan became serious again. Certainly she had heard him explain the details of the incantation that had killed Daniel. It seemed that the Headmistress was just as much an internalizer as Sevastyan was, if where he thought this conversation was headed was in any way accurate.

Whereas Kiara averted her gaze, Sevastyan locked his eyes onto the other professor and nodded once in the utmost seriousness to confirm what had been said. His suspicions also confirmed, Sevastyan steeled himself for whatever outbursts may or may not result now that almost all the cards were figuratively on the table. The physical evidence that Daniel had attacked first would simply be the icing on the cake.

The blood drained from Eglantine's face and she gripped the chair's arm rest to remain upright in the chair.

"Daniel used Curico on me two times, and attempted to use Septumsempra... Kiara's words echoed through her mind with painful clarity.

two times...

She closed her eyes. How could she had been so blind? Of course there had been more than a bruised neck and an elevated pulse...deep down she had figured there had been more. But maybe selfishly, she had ignored the signs. If she could force herself to believe Kiara was well and unharmed, the result was much more favourable than the reverse.

"Then you should have no problem convincing the court that he was indeed intent on killing you..." Eglantine's voice had lost its former jovial tone that she had assumed when speaking about peering through Sevastyan's robes under the chair. Now it sounded empty and hollow.

Eglantine's thoughts were rather dark as she imagined how much simpler everything would be now if she had used Excessum on Daniel, instead of transfiguring him. The blame neatly led back to her and it was painfully agonizing to know that both Kiara and Sevastyan were now suffering because of her mercy. Never before had she shown mercy...and now the one time she gave it, it's results had been horrendous.

Without further comments, she morphed back into her animagus form and leapt down from the chair, rubbing her head up against Kiara's leg.
"I am so sorry, Kiara. Somehow I will make this up to you..." she thought.

Kiara bent down and ran her hand over Eglantines feline head.

"Not to worry, we'll sqush the opposition like a bug..... and to think he thought he would have a easy time of it.. Come one the recess should be over soon. We should be getting back"

Sevastyan didn't have much to add, so instead nodded when each of his colleagues had something to say. Deciding to follow the Headmistress' lead, Sevastyan rose from his seat and followed. Every so often he would glance down at his footsteps, making sure he didn't trample Professor DeLanquar while she was in her animagus form. 'It must be vonderbar for her... not having to contend vith the veelchair...' he mused with a small smile on his face. It would not have been quite so grim an expression had they not been in a courtroom, though.

Eglantine hurried along with Kiara and Sevastyan, keeping close to their robes to keep from tripping passing wizards and witches. Wondering if she would be allowed in the court if either the judge or those assembled saw her, she suddenly felt small fingers curl around her belly, lifting her into a extremely tight embrace.

"Mama, look, a kiwy!" Shrieked a small boy maybe 2 or 3. Hie mother ignored him, being verbally engaged with another witch.

The judge returned to his seat "Court is now in session! Headmistress Kiara do you have your case ready?"

Kiara nodded "Yes you honor, As I said before Daniel Lestrange's death was a result self defence it was either him ot us."

Removing a wand an placing it on the table she continued "This was Daniel Lestranges own wand, one which he used to curcio me and duel Professor Kaminski."

Flicking it she cast a spell that revealed the last few spells cast by the owner.

"A blasting curse, a curcio, a sectumsptra, another Crucio and a silencing spell he used to silence me to prevent me from calling for help" she listed off.