date: 2026-10-10
date_world_start: 2008-10-31
date_world_end: 2008-11-01
role: public
summary: "Halloween night, and the Ministry's case against them was heard by Cordelia Ashcroft at the Hogsmeade courthouse. At the recess the judge was found poisoned at her desk, every door opened onto black, and nobody could leave. Through a long night of dead jurors, a Lethifold in the jury room and a locked drawer that only answered to Gaelic, they worked out that the killer was the quiet Hufflepuff witness, Alana Braxton. Otto pinned her to the floor, the party spoke the words that opened the house, and McGonagall came through the door with the Ministry behind her."

The hearing came to Hogsmeade on Halloween night, moved there at McGonagall's insistence and placed before Cordelia Ashcroft, an old friend of the Noxleys. Tuft read his case at length and Cordelia cut him to pieces one question at a time, then leaned forward and spoke to Otto, Finlay and Caoimhe by their first names. She called a recess for supper and promised a ruling at seven. She never gave it. When the hour was up she was dead at her desk, soaked in sweat with her face set in terror.

The courthouse had sealed itself, and the night became a long one. Hester Pogue, the clerk, was nervous from the first minute and the party suspected her for most of the evening, and Juniper and Miriam for some of it. They searched the judge's chambers, where a brass plate on a keyless drawer held four Gaelic words, and the library, where an old history of Hogsmeade told of a sealing in 1612 and the Founder's face in the chamber wall. In the rafters they found the killer's stash: a recipe on grey paper, a phial of a violet draught, and a torn page about the Founder with a note in a round, neat hand.

The killings did not stop while they worked. Mortimer Gribble, the solicitor, died in the jury room, and when the party went in after him a Lethifold came off the wainscot at them. Finlay's Patronus drove it back and Caoimhe pinned it to the bookshelf with Sagittario. A village farmer, Dorcas Pell, died in the library. Nobody could say how, and everyone was afraid of everyone.

In the end it was the handwriting and the quiet girl. They put it to Alana Braxton and she ran. She tried to Apparate and the barrier held her, so she snatched Callum's wand and bolted around the building. Finlay's Colloshoo glued her boots to the floor, the wand went skittering, and Otto brought her down and held her there.

Then they went back to the chamber, put a wand to the Founder's stone face, and said the words: "Curia Surgit". The black lifted off the windows and the front doors opened onto the high street, where McGonagall had been standing for hours. She sent the three of them, and Callum, back to the castle, and stayed with the Ministry officials who came for Alana.