When they all calmed down enough for her to be properly heard over the noise left, she said, "I'm not telling you this as a threat; or that Lord Potter is threatening to do this. I'm telling you this is going to happen if this case is allowed to proceed!
"Lord Potter is required, by our own laws, to provide Lord Black with his best efforts in defending him. The evidence that Lord Potter has gathered from public records, both in the wizarding world and muggle, will accomplish that.
"Therefore, he is now bound by our laws to present his evidence. The only way we can stop it from happening is if I drop the case.
"However... the case can then only be dropped if Lord Potter and the rest of the Defence accept the offer to drop. The Defence can refuse it. If that happens Lord Potter will present his evidence and fifteen hundred plus witches and wizards will be arrested; and Saint Mungo's, the Hogwarts Express, the Knight Bus and the little red public telephone box that sits as the public entrance to the Ministry, will all be seized as evidence of blatant breaches of the Statute for Misuse of Muggle Artefacts.
"There is no other possible outcome!"
"Oh, Merlin's left quaffle!" moaned Ogden.
"Those were roughly my sentiments, too," she replied.
"This is ridiculous," said Caracticus Nott. "We simply rule those items all exempt from the law and proceed from there!"
Harry immediately stood up from where he was still perched on the edge of the desk and stepped forward. "Really?" He asked. "Then what about the following? Kings Cross Station is a muggle artefact. You, yourself, have been there. The Ministry created a portal located between the existing muggle platforms of nine and ten to allow witches and wizards to pass through to Platform nine and three-quarters. That portal, plus its Notice-Me-Not charms and the like, mean that the artefact has been enchanted. That's illegal under the definitions stated in the Statute.
"In the village of Godric's Hollow, Devon, a muggle war memorial dedicated to the loss of life of muggle soldiers in muggle conflicts, as recently as only thirteen years ago, under the direction of this very body, was enchanted to show visiting wizards and witches the sacrifice of their lives made by my parents in destroying the one most recently called the Dork Lard, or some such nonsense. Therefore, it is an enchanted muggle artefact and a breach of the Statute. And you people sat there and voted for it to happen! That means you lot were all conspirators in breaking the law. Blatantly!
"The building known as The Leaky Cauldron is another artefact of muggle construction that has been enchanted, so are many of your homes. All illegal as per the Statute.
"There are similar items in this very room, right now. Many of you have them on your persons." He then indicated Bones and said, "For example, Madam Acting Minister Bones has a monocle. It is of muggle construction. I believe it would be discovered to have at least self-cleaning, unbreakable and the like charms on it. That makes it an enchanted muggle artefact; and, according to the law she just got through doing her damnedest to shaft Lord Black with, makes it illegal."
"Oh, bugger!" she quietly sighed.
"I find it pretty amusing she is prosecuting a case of breaking the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Statute when, all along while doing it, she had on her face a similar item.
"Madam Marchbanks has been quietly sitting up there and gently tapping her cane on the floor in amusement. She might have purchased that cane from a reputable wizarding vendor. However, if she does not know... for a fact... that the cane was not sourced from a muggle manufacturer, if she has then placed enchantments upon it she has breached the Statute."
That had the old woman laugh. "He's right, you know. And I have placed enchantments upon it."
"Shall I go on proving what a bunch of nitwits you're all being; or, will you shut up, crawl back into the hole from whence you emerged and let those who have a clue talk this out? There is no 'exempting' that is going to get you out of this. There is far, far too many items in use throughout wizarding Britain... right now... that breach the Statute.
"Your only course of action is to suspend it, if not outright strip it from the books of law. Your excuse to do so is that it has been proven to be both unworkable and unenforceable in its current state. Then, the Wizengamot is going to write a completely new one; one that is enforceable and not such a completely daft, moronic piece of legislation.
"So, do I continue with my case or are you people going to use your brains, decide for yourself you're in a situation of your own making that will effectively grind wizarding Britain to an immediate halt if I continue as I currently have to, decide that only your own undoing of it is going to get you out of it and strip the Statute away? Or not?
"Decide!
"Once they have... Chief Adjudicator... please announce and call the vote. If this body does not vote in the affirmative to strip the Statute away, I stand ready to continue to defend my client - as I am required by law to do."
After much whining, moaning and angry complaints about it, the Wizengamot, sitting as they were in judicial review, voted to strip the Statute from the books. They even asked Harry to provide the words for the reasoning.
"I've already given it to you," he replied. "It is unworkable and unenforceable in its current state."
Due to there no longer being a Statute for which Sirius supposedly illegally broke, the case was then aborted - the Defence 'magnanimously' allowed it.
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