Pencil

After having lunch at the Ministry of Magic with his family, Allen Apparated home and changed into the standard robes of a Wizengamot member—a plum-colored robe embroidered over the left breast with an exquisite silver W. Though this was Allen's first time attending a trial in this capacity, trials themselves were hardly unfamiliar to him.

When he returned to the Ministry of Magic and pushed open the doors to the courtroom, Allen and more than twenty other Wizengamot members filed in. This was not, after all, some major trial; there was no need to mobilize the full complement of nearly fifty members, and Albus Dumbledore, whose status as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot had already been restored, had not come to attend this trial either.

Lenn Harris, as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was already seated in the middle of the front row of benches before the Judgment Seat. He would preside over this trial.

The Aurors brought seven prisoners into the courtroom, and Barty Crouch was among them. He had not been bound in chains, but two Aurors stayed behind him at all times.

The prisoners were seated one by one on the chair in the very center of the courtroom to receive judgment from the Wizengamot members. In truth, those heinous criminals who had been recaptured by the Aurors were still being held in the Ministry of Magic's temporary prison, while these escapees who had turned themselves in voluntarily were the first to stand trial—Percy Ignatius Weasley, once again serving as trial recorder, sat off to one side, looking at his old superior among the prisoners with a somewhat complicated expression.

Lenn glanced at Albert, who had come to observe the trial, then had the Aurors bring Barty Crouch forward first for questioning.

"Under those