Early in the morning of the trial, Sirius changed into decent clothes at the Black ancestral home and slowly walked to the door of his house.
There was a portrait of an old lady hanging near the door. When she saw Sirius, she snorted softly, then turned around and disappeared from the frame, as if she didn't want to see the actual heir of the Black family.
"Sirius, have you made your mother angry again?" Regulus' voice came from the far staircase. "Why did she suddenly run upstairs from the portrait downstairs?"
"She keeps nagging me to marry a pure-blood wizard. Wouldn't you be annoyed if it were you?" Sirius shouted upstairs casually. "Her expression is as if the Black family is going to be extinct."
"Is there something wrong with what Mom said? You can't let my corpse body carry on the Black family's lineage, right?" Regulus shouted.
He walked out from the corner of the stairs and looked a little surprised when he saw Sirius, who was rarely sloppy anymore.
"Hey, what's wrong with you today?" Regulus looked Sirius up and down, "Why are you suddenly dressed like a decent person... Are you really planning to go out with a woman?"
After all, Sirius had been in Azkaban for more than ten years and had long since stopped caring about his image and dignity. He stayed at home in a sloppy state every day, which made Mrs. Black in the portrait scold him whenever she got the chance.
However, today Sirius suddenly changed into formal clothes and trimmed his hair and beard, revealing his originally handsome face.
Regulus naturally found this very strange.
"Of course it's not because of this." Sirius said impatiently, "I will meet my godson today, at least I can't leave too bad an impression on him."
As he said this, he walked up to Regulus and posed.
"How do I look like this? Will Harry like it?"
"Anyway, compared to your previous appearance, you look quite human no matter what you wear." Regulus chuckled softly, "I remember now, it's that... Peter Petillo is going to be tried today, right?"
"Yeah." Sirius nodded, his eyes gradually becoming fierce, "If those scums in the Ministry of Magic dare to declare that dead rat not guilty, then I will personally kill him in court."
Regulus looked at his clenched fist and frowned slightly.
"You don't have to do that." He said seriously, "Killing someone in front of the judge and many Wizengamot members. Do you really want to make the Black family extinct?"
"But I can't let him get away like that!" Sirius raised his voice, "I've already done enough to offend James and Lily, I have to avenge them!"
"I didn't say I wouldn't let you take revenge." Regulus frowned even more tightly, "But you have to find a suitable method... There are only a few direct descendants of the Blake family left, you can't let anything happen to you."
"What can I do?" Sirius laughed at himself. "Even Dumbledore follows those scum's rules. What can I do?"
Regulus was suddenly stunned.
"I seem to know someone who doesn't care about the rules." He said slowly, "Before the court starts, you might as well go to Hogwarts to beg Mr. Dracula for help. That gentleman should be willing to go to the court to watch a good show."
…
The trial of Peter Petillo will officially begin at 9:30 in the morning.
Dumbledore brought the parties, Harry and Ron, to the Wizengamot courtroom at the bottom of the Ministry of Magic, which was the court where the case was heard.
After Sirius left Blake's house, he went straight to Dracula's office and asked him to appear in court as a witness.
Dracula had long wanted to go to the Ministry of Magic to have fun, but Dumbledore's attitude had always been unclear, and he was always delayed by other things, so he never made the trip.
This time, with the excuse Sirius gave him, he naturally agreed readily and walked into the fireplace leading to the main hall of the Ministry of Magic with the masked Sirius.
The green flames fell, and what came into view was a long, narrow, and magnificent hall.
The hall was so long that you could hardly see the end of it. The floor was a dark wooden floor that was polished to a brilliant shine, and the peacock blue ceiling was inlaid with glittering golden symbols that kept moving and changing, like a huge bulletin board in the sky.
There were many gilded fireplaces embedded in the walls on both sides. From time to time, wizards would walk out from the green flames of the fireplaces and come to the main hall.
"Hey, move aside a little, the guy in front is blocking the road." A voice sounded behind Dracula and Sirius.
It turned out that neither of them knew which way to go, and they remained silent for a long time, blocking the exit of the fireplace.
Dracula and Sirius stepped out of the way and looked at each other.
"I thought you knew where the Wizengamot courtroom was." Dracula said expressionlessly.
"Ahem... I forgot about that. I should have let Dumbledore take us there." Sirius seemed a little embarrassed, but he was wearing a mask, so it was impossible to tell what his expression was.
"The Ministry of Magic is so big, but there is not even a signpost. I don't understand how these employees manage not to get lost." Dracula curled his lips and prepared to randomly use the Imperius Curse to select a lucky passerby to show them the way.
Just then, he saw a pink-haired witch suddenly walk out of the fireplace opposite, and his eyes moved.
"Tonks, this way!" Dracula waved to her.
Tonks turned around and had a surprised look on her face when she saw Dracula.
"Professor Dracula, why did you think of coming to the Ministry of Magic?" She trotted to Dracula and asked cautiously.
She was a little tense, as if she was afraid that Dracula would suddenly blow up the Ministry of Magic.
"Do you know where the Wizengamot courtroom is? We seem to be lost." Looking at Tonks' nervous expression, Dracula shook his head with a smile, "Don't worry, I'm here to attend a trial."
"Oh, I see." Tonks breathed a sigh of relief. "That's easy. Come with me! There are just a few minutes left before work starts, so I can take you there."
As she spoke, she glanced at Sirius and felt that the masked man looked familiar, so she asked curiously, "Is this also a professor at Hogwarts?"
"No," said Dracula, "this is Sirius Black."
"Oh...ah?" Tonks jumped up suddenly. "He...he is..."
"Shh—" Sirius was startled and glared at Dracula in dissatisfaction, then quickly gestured to Tonks to make her quiet down, "Tonks, keep your voice down..."
He was going to the court to give the Wizengamot members a surprise. It would be funny if he was caught by the Ministry of Magic before reaching the courtroom...
"Don't worry, Sirius is not a bad guy. I am here to help him clear his name." Dracula chuckled and said, "Don't you believe me?"
"Of course I believe you, Professor Dracula. But..."
Tonks looked at Sirius again and again, feeling both fear and curiosity. Her face turned pale and blue, and it was unclear whether it was the effect of the Disguisemagus or her own expression.
"Since you trust me, then don't ask for buts. Just lead the way." Dracula interrupted her.
Tonks' words got stuck in her throat.
She now regretted agreeing to let Dracula lead the way...
Led by Tonks, Dracula and Sirius followed the crowd to the end of the main hall of the Ministry of Magic.
At the end of the main hall, the narrow space suddenly widens into a spacious circular plaza. In the middle of the plaza is a fountain, and several huge golden statues stand in the middle of a circular pool.
The tallest of the statues was a wizard, his wand pointed straight up in the air.
Gathered around the wizard were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin, and a house-elf, the last three looking at the two wizards in adoration as streams of glittering water from the fountain flowed from the ends of their wands.
Seeing the fountain, Dracula frowned slightly.
"Magic Brothers Fountain? Ha..." he sneered.
Although he didn't like the centaurs very much, he also knew that they and the goblins were all very arrogant and would not associate with wizards at all.
The goblins had rebelled several times in the past few centuries, and they still had not submitted to the wizards; not to mention the centaurs, they even refused to accept the identity of "humans". It would be a fantasy to expect them to look at the wizards with the kind of worshipful eyes depicted in the statues.
"Professor Dracula, what's wrong?" Tonks looked at Dracula in confusion.
"It's okay, let's go." Dracula waved his hand with a mocking look on his face.
The greatest stupidity of mankind is self-righteousness.
Thinking in this way, wizards like Dumbledore, Sirius, and Regulus who were able to treat werewolves, house-elves and other races equally are indeed remarkable.
Dracula paid no more attention to the fountain and stepped into a magical elevator with Tonks and Sirius.
The metal folding door of the elevator closed with a "click". With a creaking sound and a cool breeze blowing in from time to time, the three of them arrived at the ninth underground floor of the Ministry of Magic.
The style here is very different from the main hall. The entire building has only a simple corridor leading to a black door. The floor and walls are covered with dark tiles. There are no windows or doors on both sides of the corridor, which makes it seem even more quiet.
Two rows of torches were inserted into the dark tiles on the wall, flashing blue and white light, adding a sense of mystery to the entire space.
"The courtroom is quite special. To get there, you have to walk from the ninth floor to the tenth floor underground, and then you have to walk a little further," Tonks explained to Dracula.
Then, she led the two of them around a corner and prepared to walk towards the stairs leading to the tenth floor.
At this moment, Dracula suddenly stopped.
He suddenly turned his head and looked at a lonely, black door at the end of the corridor. The door seemed to contain a power that he was very familiar with, but it disappeared in an instant.
"Where is that door?" Dracula asked softly.
"That's... the Department of Mysteries." Tonks was stunned for a moment, glanced at the lonely black door with some evasion, and whispered, "Professor Dracula, that is a top-secret agency of the Ministry of Magic. I don't have the authority to know what's inside."
"Department of Mysteries?" Dracula fell into deep thought.
Nicolas Flamel told him that the time-turner was manufactured in this department, and this department also invited Flamel, the master alchemist, to help them with their research on time energy.
Could that breath just now be the energy of time
"Professor Dracula, what are you thinking about?" Tonks' voice sounded in Dracula's ears.
Dracula looked up and saw her looking at him in panic.
"Professor Dracula, please don't set your sights on the Department of Mysteries!" Tonks said aggrievedly, "I brought you here this time. I don't want to be fired from the Auror Office..."
"Don't worry, I have no intention of attacking the Department of Mysteries." Dracula shook his head with amusement, "Who do you think I am?"
Tonks's worries were not without reason. After all, he had just had the idea of going in for a look...
But helping Sirius crucify Peter was a more important crime.
Now that he knew the exact location of the Department of Mysteries, he could teleport there at any time. It was obvious that the Ministry of Magic's crude anti-Apparition spells could not stop him!
…
Walking through the corridor outside the Department of Mysteries, Tonks took Dracula and Sirius to the tenth underground floor via the stairs.
There is no elevator that leads directly here.
Compared to the previous floors, the tenth floor looked like an unfinished architectural sketch, with rough stone walls and old-fashioned torches stuck on brackets on the walls.
The doors leading to the courtrooms on both sides of the corridor were heavy wooden doors with iron bolts and thick keyholes.
With Tonks' introduction, Dracula learned that there were a total of ten courtrooms in the Wizengamot, and the doors of the courtrooms with different numbers were opened depending on the importance of the case.
This case involved Peter Pettigrew, a First Class Order of Merlin who had come back from the dead, and Sirius Black, the first person to escape from Azkaban, so naturally Courtroom No. 1 was opened.
"This is Courtroom No. 1. I won't take you in." Tonks escorted Dracula and Sirius to the door of Courtroom No. 1 and whispered to them, "I dare not let Minister Fudge see me."
"Okay, thank you." Dracula nodded slightly and walked into the open heavy wooden door with Sirius.
A depressing atmosphere was overwhelming.
The walls of Courtroom No. 1 were made of ink-black stone. The light from the torches was dim and eerie. There were rows of densely packed benches on all four sides, arranged in a stepped manner. The chained chair in the middle could be clearly seen from all the seats.
At this moment, Peter was sitting huddled in the chair, sobbing softly.
…
…