I neither own nor claim to own Harry Potter and co.

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"He pleads temporary insanity, my lords and ladies," a dishevelled and harried-looking Severus said from his low bow in front of the much diminished Wizengamot's emergency evening session.

Dumbledore drew himself up in the layers of chains they'd draped over him once he'd turned himself in, "I am in possession of my full fa-"

"Ongoing temporary insanity," Severus interrupted.

The once grand governing body muttered amongst themselves, a few snide remarks coming across a little too clearly for one of the headmaster's character witnesses.

"He saved the Wizarding World and freed an innocent man!" Harry exclaimed heatedly, clutching Sirius's hand unabashedly in his, "And he saved my life! He should be lauded, not locked up!"

"He did it by breaking numerous laws and restrictions," the presiding Madam Griselda Marchbanks looked over her spectacles at him, "We do not smile upon vigilantism, Mr. Potter."

"As you shouldn't," Severus broke in smoothly, with a glare Harry's direction. It was returned. "Yet there were extenuating circumstances. The headmaster is not… in full control of his actions at this time. He… You'd have to see it to believe it." The last sentence was wry, more to himself than to the esteemed Wizengamot, but he pushed on, "May I be allowed to present the defendant with something? I assure you, it would clarify matters."

Madam Marchbanks eyed him, but waved him over to have the small, unmarked sack inspected. The Auror who looked into it gave the dour man a concerned stare before tapping it with his wand and handing back the bag, declaring it harmless, muggle, and unaltered by magic or potion with an uncertain tone.

"Here you are, Albus," Severus gently placed the bag in front of the Headmaster, who opened it and gasped.

"Oh, Severus… But wasn't Bassett's destroyed?" Tears were trickling down into his long, white beard, and big blue eyes looked up, almost unwilling to hope and be disappointed.

"I took care of it," the potions professor replied curtly, hands clasping behind his back as he exchanged a glance with Madam Marchbanks that said merely, Watch and wait.

"I thought I'd never have these again," Dumbledore dreamily pulled a lemon sherbet from the sack, lips trembling in a watery smile of gratitude. He popped the sweet into his mouth with relish and for a moment there was only bliss on his face as his eyes slid shut.

A long moment, actually.

The Wizengamot sat in impatient, confused silence until Dumbledore's eyes opened once more and he jerked back in his seat, chains rattling and causing the respected members of the Wizengamot to react in kind.

"What are you all doing in my office?" he asked, eyes landing on a long-suffering Severus in the next moment, "Severus? What in the world is going on?"

"Douse him with veritaserum," Severus informed Marchbanks dryly, ignoring his employer, "and he will tell you himself he has no clue what's transpired over the past day. As you all can see."

"Temporary insanity," Marchbanks echoed in a faint voice.

"Temporary insanity," Severus confirmed.

And thus it was that Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore walked bewilderedly free to a happier, safer wizarding world. A world in which Severus was finally able to quit teaching snot nosed brats, Minerva had to round up and return a group of abducted children that came happily back to Hogwarts the next year to blast previous years' first test grades out of the water, Bassett's was declared a worldwide magical dead man's zone, and Harry Potter was just another teenager in possession of immensely powerful magical artifacts-

Oh, right.

Well...

That's another story.

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