"Very well." After a full five seconds of silence, the voice rang out again, though Harry could tell that its earlier vigor and superiority were gone. "Sit down first."
Harry and Sirius sat in the two chairs on the lower platform in the center of the room.
Harry had been a little nervous when he first entered. The room looked rather like the courtrooms he had seen on television, only larger. The circular tiers of seats around him also felt very oppressive.
But after Sirius snapped back at the speaker Harry could not see, and the other man seemed to back down a little, Harry felt considerably more at ease. He began studying the people around him.
Most of the people in the room wore plum-colored robes, though some wore other colors. All of them, however, were dressed in very formal wizarding robes. A beautiful silver emblem was embroidered on their chests.
Harry raised his eyebrows slightly.
The Wizengamot?
Harry had once deliberately looked into the Potter Family, to which his father belonged-after all, this father he had acquired had died protecting him, and even in death had left him an extraordinarily substantial inheritance.
During his research, he had noticed a particular designation.
Several of his ancestors had been mentioned as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. Harry had therefore made a point of looking into the term and learned that it was the highest court in the Wizarding World of United Kingdom.
It held legislative, judicial, adjudicative, and law-enforcement powers.
The Wizengamot's identifying attire consisted of plum-colored robes and an emblem on the chest. So, was he being tried by the Wizengamot now? Over something as trivial as using magic?
Harry found it utterly ridiculous.
Another thing that concerned Harry was that, as far as he remembered, Dumbledore should have