[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
The Truth Comes Out


Before all of that, minutes after Jasper Odair had been transported from the Ministry for Magic, Charlus Potter had used the floo network to Hogwarts castle and popped from Minerva McGonagall’s hearth, stumbling over the rug in her office and falling into a chair before her desk. McGonagall, who had been peacefully drinking tea and sitting at the desk, reading, looked quite startled by his appearance. Soot clung all over the man from having moved so quickly through the network - a large splotch of it went across his nose.

She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a handkerchief and held it out.

Charlus wiped the soot from his face. “Minnie, I need to see Edgar Odair. Right away. Before the post arrives with the Prophet and the news and --” he stared at her. His voice was shaking.

Minerva’s voice trembled. “You don’t mean to say that -- the Odair boy --?”

Charlus held the handkerchief to his face. “Bloody hell, Min. It was a steamroller. They didn’t give a damn about justice - they didn’t even listen. They didn’t care about evidence or anything. Barty just plowed him down, like it wasn’t a boy before him - like he was looking at You-Know-Who himself.”

Minnie covered her mouth.

“I’m not finished fighting, I’m not. But… but Jasper asked me to talk to his brother and I intend to fulfill his wishes.” Charlus looked at Minerva with pleading eyes.

“Of course,” she replied. She clapped her hands and with a CRACK, a house elf in a pillowcase with the Hogwarts crest appeared before her on the desk. He stared at her with his wide eyes. “Mr. Lonny - please go and fetch Mr. Edgar Odair from the first year dorms in Gryffindor tower.”

“Yes Headmistress,” Lonny the elf answered, bowing, and with another CRACK, the elf was gone.

Minerva waved her wand and a second tea cup appeared, filled with red tea - Charlus’s favorite - and a spinning silver spoon. He took the cup from the air and held it in his hand, the spoon clicking against the cup as it spun. Minnie stood up and went to the window, behind her, staring out the panes, across the courtyard below.

There was a knock on the door of the office and Minerva turned around. It was too quick for it to be Edgar Odair already… “Come in,” she called.

The door opened and Professor Urquart entered, his eyes flickering. “Minerva, I’ve just received word from my contacts at the --” he stopped. “Oh.” His eyes had landed on Charlus Potter. “I see you’ve already received word yourself from your own contacts at the Ministry. Hello Mr. Potter. It’s been a fair time since I’ve seen you last.”

“Indeed,” Charlus answered, nodding.

“I’ve your son in my Defense Against the Dark Arts course,” Professor Urquart said, “Moment he walked into the room, I said to myself -- that there, that is Fleamont Potter’s son. Spitting image of you.”

Charlus smiled, “Actually, I go by Charlus now, Elphie, if you don’t mind…. And yes, I’ve heard that before about James, the poor lad.” He smiled crookedly.

“There are worse things he could be, Mr. Potter,” Professor Urquart answered.

Wanting to get back to the important topic at hand, Minnie cleared her throat, “Is there evidence, Charlus, against Jasper Odair?”

“Other than the wand’s priori incantantum -- not a lot,” Charlus replied. “Fabian Prewett was the lead investigator the night of the murder and he said when he arrived at the Odair house… well, the way the scene was there was just no telling who did what. But Barty Crouch pointed out the boy’s a muggle-born. There were only two wizards on the premises at the time of the murder - Jasper and his brother Edgar…”

McGonagall sighed, “Well, that’s it, isn’t it? An eleven year old boy with the power to --” she stopped midsentence as Charlus Potter’s eyes went out of focus. “Charlus?”

“Beater’s Bat!” he said, putting down his tea cup abruptly. “Oh beater’s bat to the head! I can’t believe -- what an idiot I am -- didn’t see -- but of course!” He looked at Minnie. “Protecting his brother!”

Minnie looked confused… then she caught on to what Charlus Potter was saying - at exactly the same time as Professor Urquart did. She paled. “He wouldn’t -- you don’t mean to say that he -- to keep the boy safe…?”

“I’ve seen it before,” murmured Urquart, and his eyes moved to Charlus.

Charlus kept his focus very carefully away from Urquart’s.

Minnie’s throat tightened. “But… Merlin.” Her had absently clutched at her neck uneasily. She looked at Charlus, then back to Professor Urquart. “What do we do?”

“It’s destruction either way,” whispered Charlus. “The Ministry’s out for blood…”

“Probably would send them both to Azkaban if they found out,” murmured Professor Urquart.

“Send both who to Azkaban?”

The new voice came from the doorway and all three of them turned to look to find Edgar Odair standing in the door, his school uniform half done - the tails of his oxford shirt sticking from beneath his Gryffindor jumper, his tie in his fist instead of ‘round his neck. He stared up at the three adults in the room and his eyes flickered to Charlus, who put his teacup down and stood up. He recognized Charlus as the man that Remus had told him would be his brother’s advocate - the father of James Potter, Remus Lupin’s friend - for James really did look exactly like his father after all… and he saw the fear in the man’s eyes as he looked down at him, and the nervous quiver to Professor McGonagall’s lower jaw… the soft apologetic expression of Professor Urquart…

“No,” Edgar said, putting the pieces together. “No, my brother’s not been sent to prison… no.”

Charlus walked over swiftly and took Edgar by the shoulders as he knelt down before the short boy. His gentle eyes stared up at Edgar and he said, “Your brother… was so brave during his trial, Edgar.”

“No,” Edgar said, shaking his head.

“He told me --” Charlus’s voice cracked. “He told me to tell you he loves you… he told me to tell you he loves you very much.”

Edgar was shaking his head still and he covered his ears with his palms. “No - no no no!”

“He said to tell you that it would be alright, that everything would be alright.”

“It can’t be alright!” Edgar cried, “It can’t be alright without Jasper!” His tears were threatening to fall. “How long? How long will he be in jail for? How long ‘til he can come back?”

Charlus’s voice shook, “Edgar... I - I’m sorry… he… he’s not coming back.”

“What do you mean he’s not coming back?” Edgar’s voice rose even more. “What do you mean? He’ll come back when they free him, when he’s done being jailed up!” He looked desperate.

Charlus Potter said, “He isn’t… coming… back, Edgar. He isn’t… he isn’t going to be freed.”

These words sank very slowly into Edgar. And the deeper they sank, the paler the boy got.

McGonagall, who had teared up, came ‘round her desk and started over, but Urquart stopped her as the boy’s tears spilled over his cheeks. “They’re killing him? They’re killing my brother? No - no - no they can’t, they can’t. They can’t kill Jasper!”

Charlus said, “Well… they’re not killing him, they’ve - he’s been sentenced to a life term in Azkaban…” he didn’t know how to comfort the boy. There was no comfort - no gentle way to break such horrible news, other than to hold the poor boy’s shoulders and speak the truth.

Edgar shook, “No… no, no… Not Jasper, not Jasper.”

Charlus’s eyes were tearing up with empathy for the boy as he offered, “I can take you home to your mum, Edgar, I’m sure that you’d like to see her and be with your family at a time like this and--”

“NO!” Edgar shouted, a terrified flicker going through his eyes. “NO! PLEASE! Don’t send me back there! Don’t send me home! PLEASE! Not without Jasper there! Please, don’t send me home! Please!” He backed away quickly from Charlus, truly panicked now, “You can’t take my brother away and then send me there - she’ll beat me! She’ll beat me if she knows Jasper isn’t coming back! PLEASE!”

Surprise at the words lit up Charlus Potter’s face and Professor McGonagall pushed around Professor Urquart’s arms to catch the boy before he could leave. He flinched away from her and she stared at him with a hurt expression, “Edgar, me boy, I’m no’ ‘bout to hurt yeh!” her accent was thick with her emotion.

Elphinstone Urquart’s eyes flickered as he stared at Minerva’s back… that trait - when her accent became impossibly thick the more emotional she got - he’d missed it so much during the years they’d spent apart...

Edgar was sobbing. “I can’t go home, please don’t make me, Professor.”

“I wouldna make yeh do it if yeh didna want to,” McGonagall answered.

“She threatened me all summer after he was gone, kept saying she’d beat me and I’d tell her Jasper would come back soon and if he found out she’d beat me again he’d - he’d do her in!” Edgar sobbed, “She hates us, she hates me and Jasper, she hates us so much! Dad did too. Dad beat us all the time before Jasper was magic. Jasper protected us, he kept us safe, Jasper kept us safe… Please don’t make me go back there alone. I don’t know the magic Jasper used to protect us!”

Charlus looked up at McGonagall, then over his shoulder at Urquart.

Elphinstone Urquart stepped in then, and although he was retired from the Ministry’s law enforcement department, his professional instinct kicked in as he cleared his throat, “Edgar, are you saying that your parents abuse you and Jasper? That they strike you?”

Edgar nodded, tears pouring over his cheeks, “I’m not supposed to tell… I’m not supposed to tell, but Jasper’s gone and I can’t do it alone… Please.”

“Is that why Jasper killed your father, Edgar?”

Edgar shook head to toe. He shook his head no.

Charlus stared at Edgar for a long moment, and then, he asked quietly, “Is that why you killed your father, Edgar?”

Edgar choked, “He was ch-choking Jasper, he was k-k-killing Jasper. He w-was gonna k-k-kill him! Mum was - was hurt and Jasper w-was bleeding so m-much and dad was gonna k-kill him and I - I was s-so mad I don’t k-know the spell I didn’t sa-say a spell I just - I grabbed the wand - and - and the w-wand did it, the wand k-killed him, I just held it! I just held it and I wanted him to stop hurting Jasper! I wanted Jasper to be - be okay and the - the wand killed him, the wand killed him and now Jasper’s g-gone and it’s all wrong - it’s all wrong!”

Urquart turned to the floo and took up the jar on the mantle that held the powder, tossing it into the hearth, he shouted, “Barty Crouch’s office!” and the fire blazed green and he stepped into it.

Edgar gasped as he watched Urquart disappear -- he’d never seen the floo network before and it frightened him.

McGonagall stared after Urquart’s disappearing form and then turned back to Edgar, “We shall see it is taken care of my boy, we’ll get this fixed my boy.” She hugged Edgar close, “Why didna yeh tell us sooner?”

“J-Jasper said I wasn’t to t-tell anyone about mother and father and what they d-do to us,” he sobbed, “I - I wasn’t to tell anyone and if he said something - if he s-said a lie to c-cover for something that happened then I wasn’t to g-go against his word. Because he knew best. Because he knew how to keep us safe and he - he never - he never messed up before, he kept us safe always but now I - I dunno what to do without him, please.”

Charlus took the boy’s hand. “We’re going to help you, Edgar. We’re going to keep you safe. I promise.”




Elphinstone Urquart appeared in the hearth of Bartemius Crouch’s private floo network connection. He walked through it with a certain dignity that was unexpected if you judged him by the wild-haired look about him. Urquart walked with purpose across the room to the desk as Bartemius Crouch was signing paperwork. Bartemius looked up. “Mr. Urquart,” he said in surprise at seeing the man who had once, several years ago now, actually been his boss, working the very position that he himself now held (at least temporarily until Alastor Moody decided to come back - if Alastor Moody ever decided to come back), “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to correct a wrong you’ve done!” Urquart replied and he stood before the desk, his hands in his robe pockets cooly. “This Jasper Odair that you’ve just sent to Azkaban for life - do you have any idea the full story of what happened?”

“The man killed his muggle father, Mr. Urquart, it’s cut-and-dry,” Bartemius Crouch replied stiffly. He lowered the glasses that rested on the tip of his nose and put them down on the desk top before him. “He was given the proper sentence of a murderer.”

“The boy did not kill his father, Mr. Crouch,” Elphinstone replied.

“Investigative evidence says otherwise.”

“His kid brother killed their father, Mr. Crouch, not Jasper but Edgar. I’ve only just come from a confession in the headmistress’s office at Hogwarts,” Elphinstone said. “It was in self defense, Barty, the boys were abused… It was self defense. If you come back to McGonagall’s office with me, you’ll see that --”

Bartemius Crouch’s voice was sharp as he interrupted Elphinstone Urquart, “Convenient, isn’t it, that the boy happens to come up with this tale only after the sentence has been handed down?”

Elphinstone Urquart replied, ‘The boy was afraid to --”

“The boy, Mr. Urquart, is a liar,” Bartemius said coldly. He sighed, “I suppose this is why you were asked to retire, Mr. Urquart, because your intuitions about these things just aren’t what they used to be…” He shook his head, “Odair confessed before a panel of over 200 witches and wizards, sir, he confessed to the murder.”

“He was a liar, Mr. Crouch,” Elphinstone snapped, leaning on the desk so he was looming over Bartemius Crouch in a threatening sort of way. “Jasper was the liar, Jasper was trying to protect his younger brother from --”

“Jasper Odair is a murderer,” Bartemius said. He stood up, too, staring Elphinstone squarely in the eyes, “The wizarding world is uneasy, Mr. Urquart, and with that sort of unrest there needs to be measures taken to reassure and calm the fears of the people. Jasper Odair being sent to Azkaban is exactly the sort of thing that the community needed and the evidence stacked against him --”

“One shred of evidence is hardly a stack, Mr. Crouch,” Elphinstone snapped, “Perhaps a dictionary would do you some good.”

“-- and he CONFESSED!” Bartemius yelled.

“TO PROTECT HIS BROTHER!”

“NOBODY DOES THAT!” Bartemius shouted, “Nobody does that when facing Azkaban!”

“CHARLUS POTTER DID IT FOR HIS SISTER!”

“That was an extreme case!” Bartemius snapped, “That was a very different situation - a very different time!”

“Why can’t you just give the boy a fair trial?!”

“HE IS NOT A BOY! HE IS A MAN!” Bartemius replied.

“He was seventeen less than twenty-four hours when his brother killed their father! Did you take that into consideration? His birthday was a Wednesday, he was arrested on a Thursday in the wee hours! This happened on the boy’s seventeenth birthday!’

“But seventeen nonetheless!”

“Okay, say it was Jasper that did it,” Elphinstone said, “If he was seventeen nonetheless, then why was the Trace still on him to know what happened?”

“You know the laws about the trace are played loosely. You know we don’t look into every case of accidental magic like we ought to. You know. You were the one that let them taper off weren’t you? Protecting your friends.”

Elphinstone’s jaw tightened.

“Protecting Minerva McGonagall.”

Elphinstone’s eyes flashed.

“The Restriction for Underage Sorcery needs to be tightened up, the Trace needs to be monitored more tightly, the punishments for underage sorcery outside of Hogwarts needs to be enforced as they should be. This I have already posed to the Minister. There was a back up in removals - I already talked to the Daily Prophet of it. Paperwork wasn’t being pushed through properly down there. We believe Jasper Odair was still under the trace as an oversight.”

“Did you check? Did you actually check on the date that his trace paperwork was effective?” Elphinstone demanded, “For there would be another bit of evidence for you to add to you bleeding pile!”

Bartemius stared at Elphinstone.

“OR MAYBE YOU’RE TOO AFRAID YOU’D FIND THAT THE PAPERWORK WAS FILED!” Elphinstone shouted, “MAYBE THE TRACE WAS LIFTED FROM ODAIR - MAYBE EDGAR, THE ELEVEN YEAR OLD WIZARD WHO WANTED TO PROTECT HIS BROTHER FROM THE SEVERE BEATING HE WAS RECEIVING -- the evidence of which exists in the condition from his booking if I recall correctly -- THE ELEVEN YEAR OLD WHO WOULD LOGICALLY BE UNDER THE TRACE STILL -- MAYBE HE IS THE ONE THAT KILLED THEIR FATHER! MAYBE….. JUST MAYBE…… YOU ARE TOO AFRAID OF WHAT HAPPENS IN THE TRUTH COMES OUT THAT THE MINISTRY IS JUST AS HELPLESS AND SCARED AS EVERYONE ELSE!”

“Jasper Odair confessed,” Bartemius Crouch said, “And he has been sentenced to Azkaban. Have you any idea how bad the Ministry would look if we were to retract a sentence in such a controversial case? If we were to say that we were wrong? Have you any idea the sort of uprising would occur if the Ministry for Magic made a mistake such as that? In a time like this?”

Elphinstone Urquart, “Have you any idea how much I do not give a flying fuck about how it would look for the bloody Ministry?”

Bartemius Crouch’s eyes leveled with Elphinstone Urquart’s. “You can leave or I can have you shown out.”

Elphinstone Urquart started at Bartemius Crouch right back. “Are you going to have me sent to Azkaban? For standing in your office?”

Bartemius reached for the button on his desk that would alert the aurors office to come to his aid.

“Save their energies Mr. Crouch,” Elphinstone said, heading for the grate of the hearth, “You’ll need them for picking up innocent teenagers to hide your incompetence behind.” And he chucked a good deal of powder into the flames and when they roared green, he stepped through, leaving a ringing silence behind him.

“BAH!” shouted Bartemius Crouch, waving a palm at the fireplace.