"Please tell the Governors what you told the Aurors," Fudge bid. "This would be the first pair of Aurors on the scene, not the ones who subsequently completed the investigation."
Belladonna practically curtseyed, which Harry thought really odd, and when she spoke it was in a soft, almost lyrical voice. "Begging the Minister's pardon," she began, glancing at him before turning her full attention to the Board, "but I don't know as I really have much of use to contribute. I can't say that I know Draco pushed Pansy out of the Owlery. I can't say anything of the kind, as I simply wasn't there to see it."
"Yes, yes, but you did see something. Just tell the Governors that, Miss Uwannawich. And have no fear, you are not the one on trial here."
"Ehem!" Dumbledore broke in with a fierce glare.
"Rather, you are not the subject of this disciplinary hearing," Fudge said, revising his earlier wording... though not without curling a disdainful lip at the headmaster's point of protocol.
"I was going up the Owlery stairs to send off a letter," Belladonna began, her features strained as she gestured to the boy standing with her. "Erik came along as we were talking over the class we'd just left. This was in the late afternoon, one week ago today. The day of the... murder. And who should I meet coming out of the Owlery but Draco. He... he seemed in an awful rush, too. He all but careened down the stairs--"
He was unconscious and under an invisibility cloak, Harry thought. You couldn't have seen him at all. You're lying. You're in on it, somehow....
"Had a guilty look on his face!" Erik put in with a gleam of malice in his eyes. "Babbled out something nonsensical, too. Didn't think much of it just then, but looking back it seems like panic, pure and simple."
And you're in on it, too, aren't you....
"I... I can't say as I agree with that," Belladonna corrected, lacing her fingers together and then unlacing them. "That is, Draco did seem in a hurry. I can't say that it was born of panic, but he did pass us at almost a run. I remember feeling rather afraid that he would fall and take a nasty spill... And then, before Erik and I could even climb up to the top and go into the Owlery, we heard the most awful screaming start up from below. The... the body had been found. And that's all I know."
"Have you anything to add to that, Mr. VanVelzeer?"
"Just that Malfoy had an awfully guilty look on his face," the seventh-year sneered.
"Why was this information not taken into account when the Aurors wrote their report?" asked a witch with red hair, the question clearly directed at the Minister of Magic, not the witnesses.
"Perhaps because Draco Malfoy's own cousin was one of the Aurors empowered to investigate the matter."
He said it with an air of triumph as he glared at Dumbledore, who stared impassively back.
Shite, Harry thought. That's the part that's going to unravel... Dumbledore had pulled all sorts of strings to get Order Aurors on site, but to Fudge it might just look like the headmaster had been trying to get Tonks specifically...
For all Harry knew, Fudge might actually think Draco guilty; this hearing might not only be about toadying up to the Malfoy millions. The thought didn't make him like Fudge any better, but it did make him worry more for Draco.
"The boy's own cousin! Why would the Ministry allow a conflict of interest like that to occur?" questioned the wizard in the pointed hat, his gaze even more pointed as it centred squarely on Fudge. "Doesn't Magical Law Enforcement have safeguards against this sort of thing? Well? Answer me!"
"We were dealing with the Dark Mark over Parliament Square," Fudge said, a sheen of sweat coating his forehead. It looked like he was realising he might be held to account for MLE procedures. "A few details may have slipped through the cracks--"
"Hmmph," said the wizard.
"Be that as it may..." Wiping his brow, Fudge resumed. "Be that as it may, the Ministry is now endeavouring to correct any errors that may have occurred, by assuming full oversight over the matter of the expulsion."
Several of the witches and wizards were nodding by then, a vague chorus of affirmatives echoing in the boardroom. Harry heard mutterings, too. "Boy's own cousin... Auror corps ought to be ashamed... Veritaserum isn't foolproof, you know..." and the one that was the final straw, at least for Harry. "Potter must be off his head to be cooking up an alibi for a boy who murdered another student. But you know, he's been off his head before--"
And all the while, Lucius Malfoy looked like the cat that had got the cream as he sat there, smarmy as can be, a devious little smile curling his lips.
"Have the Governors anything to ask these students?" When there was no reply to that, Fudge nodded at the pair. "Very well. Thank you for your time and patience. You are hereby dismissed."
An idea zinged into Harry's head. A bad idea, maybe. But it looked to him like Draco was about to get voted out of Hogwarts, and he'd do anything to prevent that. Snape was going to be furious, and Harry had to admit that his father would have a perfect right to be, but none of that mattered, not in that instant of realising that he didn't have to just sit and watch.
Harry leapt up and took three big steps across the room until he could touch the wizardspace, or whatever it was, making up the images. Several Governors were talking at once by then, and Fudge was banging his gavel, so there was probably enough noise to cover Harry's own words.
At least he hoped so.
Snape was going to be mad enough as it was.
Thinking so exclusively of Snape had changed the image on the wall, in any case. The Potion Master's head and back now occupied almost the entire expanse of stone. Interesting that the viewing plane wasn't showing the man's face, Harry thought, but then again, he didn't really want to see Snape's expression, did he? The enchanted wall was sensing that.
Stepping even closer, until he could actually see a wavering image of the potions lab behind the wall, Harry whispered into his father's ear. "Call Ron and Hermione to testify."
Snape jerked as he sat there, his hand actually upsetting the ink pot on his table. Then his whole back stiffened. It seemed to Harry he was leaning back a bit, his head tilted at an odd angle as though to catch anything else Harry might have to say. But by then, the room was beginning to quiet down.
"Call them to refute those two lying Slytherins," was all Harry dared to add. The minute he stopped speaking he wished he hadn't put it quite that way, but there was no opportunity now to rephrase things.
"We will next hear from the mother of the victim," Fudge began saying, "who has requested leave to speak."
Snape's back receded as the viewing plane appeared to back away from him and swing to the side once more so that Harry could see the entire room.
"A moment, Minister Fudge," Snape broke in, his deep drawling voice bringing the proceedings to a halt as he stood up. There was no ink on his table now, so Harry supposed he must have evanescoed the mess away, pot and all. "Please detain Mr. Vanvelzeer and Miss Uwannawich. I have witnesses to summon as well, ones who will shed some light on the testimony just proffered."
Erik Vanvelzeer gave Snape a nasty glance at that. Belladonna didn't react as much, though she did stop walking, her hands twisting around and around as she tried to hold them clasped and failed.
"I summon Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger," Snape announced.
Belladonna flinched then, her gaze panicked as it shot to Lucius Malfoy's.
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, but then wrote something on a slip of parchment. Tapping it with his wand, he sent it wafting across the room to the Minister of Magic.