DISCLAIMER: Once again, I own nothing!
Author's Note: Thank you so, so much for the two kind reviews! :) I'm very sorry for the delay.

"Well, Baudelaires, I hate to argue, but we don't have all day." the voice of Jerome Squalor snapped my siblings and I out of our frenzy. I blinked a few times, wiping my tears away. It brought me joy to know that all the tears I had shed were all for naught, as for once in my life; luck had prevailed. Originally, I had thought fortune had prevailed, but that didn't sound right; seeing as my siblings and I were only this terribly unfortunate because of the famous Baudelaire fortune. It's odd how something fortunate, like a fortune, can bring so many unfortunate events.

It was Violet who replied. I was too busy thinking about words with fortune in them, and Sunny was thinking about who knows what. Her voice seemed to be contained as she spoke, as if she were filtering out a number of things from the sentence to be said. "Jerome, could we have a moment with Dewey?" she asked in a polite voice.

Jerome Squalor's reply would come as no surprise to anyone who had heard about him before. "Well, I suppose you can," he said. "I don't know how long you should be able to have, but I'd hate to argue." Jerome and Justice Strauss then proceeded to leave, leaving my sisters and I alone with Dewey, whom we believed to be dead just a few short minutes ago. Change comes quickly, I suppose, just the way one moment my sisters and I were living a delightful, wonderful life, and the next we were desperately attempting to run away from he dreadful villain who had made an obsession of hunting down our fortune: Count Olaf.

I looked around the room; making sure that nobody could be listening in. My stomach gave a small lurch as I realized that Hotel Denouement was where numerous VFD members were staying, and VFD members were brilliant eavesdroppers. Despite the fright of it, I looked at my sisters and back at Dewey Denouement, and remembered the confidence of which Count Olaf displayed when speaking about the court. It was worth the risk, especially given how many people had taken risks in order to help us. We Baudelaires were pushed into incredibly unfortunate circumstances with incredibly unfortunately horrible villains, but not everyone was horrible. Back when Count Olaf was our guardian, Justice Strauss had always lended us a hand and let us use her magnificent library, if she wasn't a bit oblivious to the villainy of Count Olaf. Uncle Monty was a brilliant man, the one guardian that would have traveled far and wide to make sure my sisters and I were safe and secure, not to mention an amazing herpetologist. Aunt Josephine, despite all her fears, was a kind woman at heart, and would never mean any harm. Sir might have been a horrible boss, but Charles was a friendly and well-meaning man who happened to have delicious peaches. Lest I forget the three Quagmire children, the three people who my sisters and I were automatically able to empathize with and get to know. Isadora Quagmire, an outstanding poet, and Duncan Quagmire, an excellent journalist had risked their lives when they disguised themselves as Violet and I to let us study for the exam, and Quigley Quagmire, an exceptional cartographer, was the sole reason we had reached Hotel Denouement. Looking back, there was someone - or something - good about every place my sisters and I had been.

"Do you know if anything fishy is going on with the court?" I asked, fixing my glasses out of apprehension.

Dewey dropped his voice low, "Yes, and I was meaning to talk to Justice Strauss about it before it commenced, but now I suppose that's not an option." Violet gestured for him to go on. I followed his gaze intently, and Sunny gave a comprehending nod. "I don't know why anyone would have such an utter nonsensical idea, but Justice Strauss and her judges have decided that in honor of the phrase 'justice is blind,' everyone will be blinded."

Surprised and slightly horrified, I turned and looked at the faces of my sisters. Violet, like me, looked very confused, but Sunny looked like she was onto something, whatever it could be. Why would a judge in favor of Olaf being arrested make a decision like that? Were the judges just plain dumb, or were they giving Olaf the upper hand on purpose?

"Beard hair," I was once again surprised by how fluently my baby sister - well, not baby anymore, little sister - was able to speak now. I was also surprised by her theory, but it could possibly be the right one. Justice Strauss had mentioned that her fellow judges were very interested in our case, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. If they were interested in it in a good way, then we would have somehow heard of them, but we hadn't. It was also interesting that Justice Strauss hadn't mentioned their names, as if they didn't have names that they used. Sunny had been referencing back to the Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard, who both didn't go by a proper name.

I nodded thoughtfully. "That's a good theory, Sunny. I'm sure there's a law book somewhere in the library that will say that no trial should be held without everyone being able to see clearly. It sounds like a given, but some people are plainly stupid." I sounded a tad grumpier than intended, but it was insane of Justice Strauss to go along with an idiotic idea such as the one she had in fact gone along with.

Violet was tying her hair up in a ribbon. "And," she began, "if I could just access the blindfolds, I'm sure I could invent something that would make it possible for everyone to see even with the blindfolds on.

"Bite off," Sunny said, which meant something like "if those don't work, I can always bite the blindfolds off of those who refuse to take them off." I let a chuckle escape my mouth, hoping that it wouldn't be necessary for Sunny to bite anyone's head.

Dewey was clearly thinking, as well. "Now, Baudelaires. I'm not sure if that will be necessary. If Justice Strauss listens to good sense, I'm sure I can just object to the idea of blindfolds in the first place," he said, and Violet, Sunny, and I all exchanged uneasy looks for the same exact reason. Dewey Denouement had proved to be much more helpful and intelligent than most adults we'd met in the past, but all the same, he sounded just like all the other people who had gone to let my sisters and I down. His face seemed to say "let the adults handle it," which, after all our experience, was not in the slightest reassuring. It was a curious thing, the superiority that adults felt to children, and it wasn't always intended. Dewey, for instance, was a very resourceful and qualified person, but it might come as second nature for him to believe that the elders were the superiors.

"Really. I know your experience in the past, but I don't think it's smart to interfere like that with a trial this official," Dewey said, more confidently. "Well, I hope it's as official as Justice Strauss made it out to be," he said, sighing. "I would let Klaus research the guidelines surrounding trials, and Violet inspect the blindfolds, and Sunny bite people's heads off, but we just don't have any time. Olaf is ready, and so are the judges. We have to go."