Chapter 320: Mock Trial

The day after lunch, Hannah suddenly ran over to find Harry.

"Professor Snape asked me to tell you that the Potions remedial lesson this Thursday is cancelled." Hannah said. "He is lying in the school hospital."

"School hospital?" Harry was taken aback; he didn't realize Snape was so heavily injured.

"It's alright, he just had a little mishap while testing a spell; Madam Pomfrey said he just needs to rest for a week." Hannah tilted her head. "Oh right, he also asked me to tell you that he will be discharged next Monday and will continue the Potions remedial lesson next Tuesday."

"Alright, I roughly understand." Harry understood that Snape was still hinting to him that neither he nor Slughorn would be at the meeting on the weekend. "However, why did you come to tell me?"

"Oh, I went to visit Madam Pomfrey and happened to see him." Hannah said very easily.

Harry and Luo En looked at each other; he thought that he would actually be very happy to use his free time to visit Hagrid, but unfortunately Hagrid only came back for a short while before hurriedly going out again.

If Snape wasn't on his mind, then school life would be quite fulfilling and interesting. In the blink of an eye, Friday arrived, and Harry was invited to participate in the mock trial debate as a juror. Arnold promised that starting next week, students who performed excellently in the mock trial would have the opportunity to go to the Ministry of Magic for an internship. Initially, for Harry, his participation in the mock trial was just to fill the quota of three clubs, but now, he suddenly felt that perhaps Humphrey or even Hake would be quite worthy masters of Occlumency to consult.

Harry stepped into the classroom that had been arranged as a mock trial, and Arnold signaled him to put on the purple-red robe hanging at the entrance of the classroom, with a silver "W" embroidered on the left chest of the robe. Luo En followed closely behind; they sat down on the two long benches and looked curiously at the defendant's seat.

In the defendant's seat was the defense team wearing blue robes; Harry noticed unsurprisingly that Hermione and Ailiya were both sitting among them: if one wanted to select some people who were excellent enough to be the main defense attorneys, then their selection was very reasonable.

Correspondingly, sitting between the long benches, the plaintiff team wearing green robes, also unsurprisingly, Harry noticed that Draco and Pan Xi were both among them.

"Alright, since everyone is here, we can begin." Arnold waved his wand, and a half-human-tall rabbit doll landed on the plaintiff's seat.

"As everyone can see, the defendant, Miss Babbity, has arrived, so I will begin to state the case..."

"Objection!" Ailiya suddenly stood up.

"What's wrong?"

"Is the defendant a rabbit, or a human?" Ailiya asked.

"A very smart question, Miss Transfer Student," Arnold was not angry at all because of being interrupted. "As everyone can see, this is just a rabbit doll, but in fact, please imagine it as a Muggle-born little witch. Using a rabbit doll is because I don't want anyone to be truly injured because of the mock trial, even if it's just role-playing."

Harry nodded; this was a very smart way to handle it.

"Alright, then let's continue to try the case of Miss Babbity Jane Rabbitt, who lives in Little Whinging, Surrey, for allegedly violating the 'Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery' and the 'International Statute of Secrecy'." Arnold said unhurriedly. "The defendant had previously received a written warning from the Ministry of Magic due to similar accusations, and this time, knowing full well that the behavior was illegal, she knowingly committed the offense on January 4th at 9:23 PM, in a Muggle residential area, in front of a Muggle, and cast a Patronus Charm. This behavior violated the 'Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery' and the 'International Confederation of Wizards Statute of Secrecy'. Therefore, the Improper Use of Magic Office of the Ministry of Magic has filed a public prosecution, requesting the penalty of expulsion, destruction of the wand, and three months of detention for Miss Babbity."

"So, the plaintiff is the public prosecution?" The students whispered to each other.

"Ahem, ahem!" Draco coughed pretentiously, but the people in the jury box didn't give him much face and were still whispering. And Arnold just watched all this with a smile.

"So!" Draco raised his voice, making it loud enough to drown out the whispers in the jury box. "The defendant had previously received a formal warning for illegal use of magic three years ago, is that correct?"

The jury box quieted down. Hermione looked through the case file in her hand and answered for the rabbit: "Yes, we do not deny this point."

"What was the illegal magic used three years ago?" Luo En asked loudly.

Draco revealed a smile; he was very happy that someone could ask this question for him. "Three years ago, Miss Babbity, because of some quarrels, used the Engorgement Charm and the Levitation Charm on her aunt in a fit of anger, causing her to float in the sky like a balloon, which alarmed the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad of the Ministry of Magic before it could be resolved."

A strange feeling surged in Harry's heart; he couldn't help but want to see if Zhang Qiu had come.

Luo En muttered and sat down; he seemed to not be optimistic about Hermione's situation.

"And, she cast the Patronus Charm again on the night of January 4th, and she knew that she was not yet seventeen and was not allowed to use magic outside of school."

"Yes." Hermione admitted generously, and she even added: "And the defendant cast a complete Patronus Charm, and the Patronus existed for more than half a minute."

"Knowing that she was in a densely populated Muggle residential area, and there was a Muggle nearby, she still let it last for more than half a minute—" Draco continued triumphantly.

"But that was a Patronus!" A voice interrupted him; it was Ernie in the jury box. "We all know that the Patronus Charm is a very profound spell; wanting to release a complete Patronus, and also having it last for more than half a minute, I mean, many senior Aurors can't do that."

"Yes, Ernie, quite profound." Draco said with an unhappy tone. "And in this kind of situation, the more profound the spell, the worse it is. If she had just used a Repelling Charm or something, it could still be explained, but the Patronus Charm, this kind of high-level magic that relies on Muggle means and is absolutely impossible to realize, appearing in front of Muggles, will be a huge harm to the Statute of Secrecy."

"I believe the defendant's situation applies to the principle of necessity," Hermione immediately retorted. "When she cast the Patronus Charm, there were two Dementors around, and they had already launched an attack on another Muggle present. First of all, any wizard has the power to protect their own or others' legitimate rights and interests from dangerous harm, and the Patronus Charm did not exceed the necessary limit for resisting Dementors, so the principle of necessity can be applied; secondly, because the Muggle fainted due to the attack, the Patronus Charm had no confirmed witnesses, which is to say the Patronus Charm did not cause substantial harm; finally, even if there were third-party witnesses, and it indeed formed harm to the Statute of Secrecy, this responsibility should be borne by the person who caused the Dementors to appear."

Luo En quietly leaned over to Harry and asked: "Why isn't it self-defense?"

Harry whispered to explain to him: "Because Dementors have low intelligence and are no different from beasts, and self-defense must be launched against illegal infringement committed by people."

"Besides, the Dementors launched the attack on the Muggle first, and it cannot be judged whether it would continue to attack Babbity." Harry added. "And the judgment of self-defense is quite strict, and it often fails because it is not the victim themselves; conversely, necessity is much looser, and because the Patronus Charm itself does not have attack properties, it can be easily steered in that direction."

"If the existence of Dementors is acknowledged, then Hermione's argument is almost irrefutable." Harry concluded.

"We want to present a piece of evidence." Draco said. "The evidence shows that on the night of January 4th, any Dementor in Azkaban had a duty record. In other words, either there were no Dementors around the crime scene, or what appeared were wild Dementors."

"But we are sure that Dementors appeared around the crime scene." Hermione said decisively. "We need to summon a witness."

Under Arnold's control, a half-human-tall cow doll walked into the classroom and began to tell in a hoarse old woman's voice how she witnessed Dementors attacking two boys.

Generally speaking, Muggles cannot see Dementors, and this Mrs. Dally, represented by the cow, claimed that she was a Squib, so she both lived in a Muggle community and had the ability to see Dementors. Unfortunately, her description of the Dementors was quite vague, and she seemed somewhat unconfident under Draco's several inquiries, which made Harry somewhat doubt the authenticity of this witness testimony.

However, Hermione and Ailiya fought for every inch, insisting that the Dementors were real and had attacked Miss Babbity. They slapped the table one after another and shouted "Objection!", and Ailiya also pointed her hand at the judge's bench from time to time; this confident and high-spirited tone undoubtedly strengthened their credibility.

"Alright, then, if we trust the witness's testimony." Seeing that he couldn't handle it, Draco suddenly turned the topic around slickly. "Assuming these two Dementors really exist, but the Ministry of Magic has never sent any Dementors, which is to say—they are naturally formed wild Dementors, just accidentally appearing in that place."

"Ob—" Ailiya still wanted to stand up, but Hermione pressed her down.

"According to the necessity ordinance, if the danger is caused by natural reasons, then if the measures taken for necessity are improper or exceed the necessary limit, so as to cause undue harm, the person acting out of necessity needs to bear appropriate civil liability." Draco said. "And according to the Ministry of Magic's report, more than twenty Muggles claimed to have 'seen unusual silver light' that night."

"Now I would like to ask, how long does it take for a Patronus to appear to drive away two Dementors?"

One or two seconds is enough, Harry thought to himself; if the Dementors are close, perhaps half a second is not needed, and as soon as the Patronus appears, it will knock them apart.

"Therefore, we have reason to conclude that after the necessity was completed, the defendant thought that she was very proud of summoning the Patronus, which is why she let the Patronus stay for as long as half a minute." Draco announced. "This is a very serious manifestation of contempt for the Statute of Secrecy."

In the end, the first verdict of expulsion and destruction of the wand was not passed, but the second verdict of one month of detention and deduction of fifty house points was passed by half.

Hermione was obviously very dissatisfied with this result; their goal from the beginning was to go for an acquittal. Now that it was only changed from a criminal penalty to a civil penalty, it didn't meet her psychological expectations at all.

"Why?" When Harry wanted to step forward to comfort her, he heard her dissatisfied complaint. "Why can the Minister of Magic openly transfer to become the Minister of Defense, while students cannot maintain the Patronus for half a minute more when encountering life-threatening danger?"

Many students echoed, and even Draco and Pan Xi generously acknowledged that the design of this case was unreasonable. And Arnold, who had truly written this unreasonable case, still wore his unchanging light smile, watching the children leave one after another while discussing. ===== CHAPTER 321 =====