Crouch felt that his gavel was about to be broken.
The people in the gallery were whispering to each other, like a swarm of bees that had been stabbed into the nest, buzzing one after another.
The pens in the reporters' hands were blurred.
The female reporter wearing glasses was so excited that she knocked the ink bottle over the pants of her colleague next to her.
But the colleague didn't notice it at all.
Crouch knocked the gavel again.
"Quiet!"
His voice echoed in the courtroom, but with little effect.
He couldn't help but glance at Lin Ze sitting in the back row of the auditorium.
When this young man came to him yesterday with the visitation permit to sign, he just thought that the other party might want to get more information about Death Eaters from Black.
But he never expected that overnight, the case would completely change.
The Mr. Black sitting in the middle of the courtroom dropped two bombshells as soon as the court session started today.
First: He is not Secret Keeper from the Potters, the real Secret Keeper is Peter Pettigrew.
Second: Peter·Pettigrew may still be alive.
If what Sirius said is true.
That means that the person who leaked the secret is not Black.
And the real Secret Keeper is the sinner who betrayed the Potters and betrayed the entire Wizarding World...
What's ridiculous is that Wizengamot was still discussing whether to posthumously award Order of Merlin, First Class to Pettigrew a few days ago.
Lin Ze leaned back in his chair, looking at the messy scene in front of him, and couldn't help but yawn.
When he and Kingsley went to visit Sirius yesterday, they just had the attitude of giving it a try, but they didn't expect the effect to be so explosive.
"You don't seem surprised at all." Kingsley turned his head slightly and lowered his voice.
"What are you surprised about?" Lin Ze pretended not to understand.
"The words you said to Black yesterday were as if you already knew that Peter was Secret Keeper."
"I just made a bold assumption."
Lin Ze said calmly, "Look, a person like Black is as proud as a peacock. If he really became a traitor, he wouldn't pretend to be crazy in court. He would just hold his chin high and say, 'Yes, I did it.'"
Kingsley thought for a while, then nodded slowly. "Your grasp of human nature... is very accurate."
"What's the point? Which of those old fritters in the ministry are not human beings? They are far worse than me." Lin Ze waved his hand.
On the trial bench, Crouch finally gave up and continued beating with his gavel.
He took a deep breath, put his wand against his throat and shouted, "Quiet! If you continue to act like this, I will have Auror clear the place!"
This sentence is more effective than a gavel.
The people in the court gradually became quiet, leaving only a few reporters who were still writing their manuscripts frantically.
Crouch looked at Sirius, his brows twisted into a tight knot.
"Black, can you provide evidence for what you just said?"
"No." Sirius said.
"Then do you have any witnesses?"
"No." Sirius answered simply.
"Then why should I believe what you say?"
"I think you made a mistake, Mr. Crouch." Sirius stared straight at Crouch with burning eyes.
"Huh?"
"Now you are accusing me, not me accusing you. Therefore, the one who should provide evidence is not me, but you."
There was another discussion in the audience.
"Dong dong"
Crouch didn't bother to shout this time, and just knocked the gavel twice, regardless of whether it worked or not.
"If you want to imprison me Azkaban, then bring out the evidence of my crime. Just based on the finger at the scene, how can you judge that it was me who bombed that street? Was it me who killed those Muggle?"
Sirius changed from yesterday's decadence, today he is full of aggression.
The congressman next to Crouch said something in Crouch's ear, and Crouch nodded.
"Okay, since you want evidence, we will test your wand. If it is found that you cast the spell, then your evidence of guilt will be nailed."
"Of course, I'm looking forward to your test results." Sirius raised his head.
"Okay, so today's trial ends here. The trial court will continue to collect evidence in this case. Once the results are available, we will notify everyone of the court opening time and disperse."
Crouch's gavel fell, and the echoes of the end reverberated in the courtroom.
The crowd in the auditorium swarmed out like ants that had been poked into their nest.
Several reporters stepped on other people's feet and pushed forward. One of them, a chubby male reporter, was squeezed off his hat. He bent down to pick it up, but was pushed by the people behind him and staggered, and fell into the back of the chair in the front row.
"Is what Black said true?"
"Who knows, but he dares to let people test the wand, which in itself means something, right?"
"Maybe it's a bluff, people from Black family are the best at acting."
"His crazy look yesterday was completely different from today's..."
Lin Ze stood up from the auditorium and stretched his neck.
Kingsley followed him, and the two squeezed out of the courtroom one after another and walked along the corridor toward Special Operations Team's office.
"What do you think the results of the wand test will be?" Kingsley asked.
"What could the result be? Of course nothing can be measured."
Kingsley nodded.
When the two returned to the office that had been converted from a utility room, Ben was lying on the table writing furiously, with a somewhat crazy expression on his face.
There are piles of documents half a person's height on the table, and the top pile is shaky and may collapse at any time.
"You are finally back!" Ben raised his head.
"Moody came here just now and said that Crouch has approved our application for action this week, but requires that all actions must be reported forty-eight hours in advance."
"And a detailed action report must be submitted within 48 hours after each action. The format refers to the standard template of Auror Office, in triplicate, and submitted to Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Wizengamot and Minister's Office respectively."
"Forty-eight hours?" Lin Ze raised his eyebrows.
Ben slapped the quill in his hand on the table, "Yes, this means that not only do we have to arrest people in the future, but we also have to stay up late to write reports!"
"Look on the bright side, at least you can practice your writing skills and lay the foundation for publishing books in the future." Kingsley patted Ben's shoulder.
Lin Ze was thinking about other things.
He is thinking about Fudge.
Fudge This person is very interesting.
In the original work, he will take over Minister for Magic after Bagnold steps down, and then there will be a series of breathtaking operations on the resurrection of Voldemort.
First, they refused to believe that Voldemort was back, then they tried their best to suppress Harry Potter, and finally turned the whole Ministry of Magic into a huge joke.
It's just that those things happened more than ten years later, and now Fudge is only the deputy director of Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and also serves as the acting director.
A middle-level official who has been in the ministry for most of his life, has thinning hair, a slightly bulging belly, and looks like a peacemaker with a smile on his face when he meets everyone.
His popularity in the ministry is quite good because he doesn't offend anyone and doesn't take a stand on anything. His greatest specialty is making peace between all kinds of conflicts.
However, the materials Lin Ze found in Records Management Office told him that Fudge was not as harmless to humans and animals as it seemed on the surface.