Recess is Over, Roland

Khaat eyed Thaor. She didn't particularly care that he seemed to be swaying with the breeze. From what little she knew of Thaor, he tended to do that anyway. Her father believed in his loyalty to the Lupin family, and she had, at least so far, believed in that. From what Khaat was seeing, though, Thaor could be politically swayed with a small breeze. That was liable to put him in a precarious position if he decided to side with her father and Roland at the same time.

"Deputy Minister," Khaat greeted him formally. "Some of the members of this court are aware of your involvement and your service to the MInistry. Some, however, are not." Thaor's allegience had already come into question, and Khaat had responded by trying to keep the Roland matter on track. Thaor was not on trial, and she had proceeded as such. "I am well aware of the law, Mr. Elldir and who bears the burden of proof. The members of this court have before them copies of Mr. Roland's employment record as well as the writings he did prior to the takeover of Gellert Grindelwald.

"Since Mr. Roland has decided to mount his own defense of the charges, whether or not he elects to enlist your support, then the court will indeed hear your testimony," she said.

((Should I wait for Thaor's reply or should James continue?))

(I think thaor is waiting on you. i should have written it with khaat having the presumption that roland might need any assistance he could get since there doesn't seem to be a great long line of people waiting to back him in that courtroom! my apologies to both you and thaor!! my bad!)

James' eyes narrowed and a weedy smile flashed across his face momentarily. "And so the proceedings have already proved false!" He shouted, looking around the room at the assembled peers. "Clearly Madam Warlock does not hold value to the presumption of innocence. I ask you whether or not Gellert Grindelwald was ever ordered officially to never stand for office in these United Kingdoms? No. I can answer that question for you, he was not given any such order." He spat out, feeling the sway of the case tug against him once more.

He then opened his mouth in preparation for further rebuke, however he was cut off by the interruption of Thaorson.

He frowned a little then nodded as the scene unfolded before him. "Alright," He agreed, crossing his arms and 'relaxing' as he stared at Thaor. "I'll bite, go ahead Mr. Elldir," he continued

Thaor stood and walked to the center of the room before clearing his throat. ladies and.gentleman of the wizengamot, for far too long, we have sat back and watched things we know shouldn't happen, happen. Well I for one, will not let this man go to azkaban. Mr Roland could have had no way of knowing what Gellert was about to do. However, there are two of us in here who knew exactly what was going to happen. Mr. Potter, and myself. If the minister were here, his name would be on that list as well. It is really us who should be on trial. Robert and I had many long conversations about gellert before he took control of the ministrry, and we just let it happen. Thaor said, glancing back to James.

you say mr Roland is guilty of treason? You say he knew of the evil grindlewald would do? Well if all you can say is he knew, and bear no proof, I say you've failed your duty, and have not ridden yourself of the burden of proof. Only those close to grindlewald knew what was truly going to happen, and mr roland was not one of those close to him.

Khaat felt like her eyes had just been opened. She sat, completely expressionless. If there ever was a time to not betray one's thoughts or feelings, it was now. Thaor Elldir, one of her father's most trusted friends, was, when all was said and done, an enemy. He was telling only twisted half truths. There was just enough of a grain of truth in it to look virtuous. And since when did a farking Slytherin and past leader of the Death Eaters ever toss himself under the proverbial bus for 'the greater good'?

No Slytherin did. No Death Eater did. And Elldir was both. The motivation became crystal clear to her. He was a traitor in their midst. And he could only have one possible reason that she knew of. Elldir did not need money. He had enough cash. Elldir wanted her father's job. And he was going to do whatever it took to get it--including backstabbing her father with a handy frameup. She felt herself getting a tight muscle spasm in her wand hand the more she tried to keep it perfectly still, to keep it from snatching her wand and hitting him squarely with one Avada Kedavra. She'd put up with too many threats to the her family and the people who truly wanted peace in their world to allow anyone do what men like Grindelwald had already done. She wasn't prepared for that to happen once more.

And to make matters worse, she wanted to be able to depend on her friends, her allies, to depend on them to know the truth, to trust her. But Potter didn't seem to give one flying pile of horse manure about what the truth really was. Righteous Jess Potter, although he was a good fighter, was being sucked into the wrong side of this soap opera. He didn't trust her anymore. The truth was going to fall on deaf ears.

Jack was too new to even probably have a clue who to believe. And Nemo? Well, who knew about him, really? Depended on how the drugs and the alcohol voted. Her mind raced now to the safehavens they had used. Perhaps it was time to let the powerhungry parasites like Elldir have it all. Just walk away from England and never come back. Let it all rot to hell. Her family had more than enough money. They didn't need to do this. They didn't need to fight for something nobody else seemed to want. Screw them alll. Quiet sunny beaches were sounding worlds better right now than another fight.

She couldn't see the point anymore. What was the use? What were they still trying to mount a fight for the right thing for when it didn't appear there was even still one witch or wizard outside her own family who wanted it? She saw Brian look at her, and she knew what he was silently asking her. He wanted to know if she wanted to ask her father to come and assist. She did not. She was perfectly prepared to stand her ground and follow the legal process. She was finding more and more legal right to declare a mistrial because of repeated irrelevant information that was prejudicing the Roland charges and making it impossible to reach a fair verdict towards Roland.

"You are not the determiner of what makes a burden of proof and what does not," she told him. "I am. You have no standing in how this court conducts business. If you would like to confess that you yourself are responsible for allowing an overthrow of our government, then I will be happy to immediately relieve you of your post and find a cell for you. I do, very much, have the power to convict you and sentence you. As for your other allegations, we are not here to discuss Mr. Potter or the Minister. If the Ministry needs to investigate that, it shall. If charges arise from it, they will be heard in the appropriate time and manner. The charges against Roland stand. Your statement, although well meaning, has little bearing on the issues that have been posed, specifically, to Mr. Roland's statements and conduct--nothing more. We shall focus ourselves upon that, or I will not hesitate to declare a mistrial and Mr. Roland will simply sit in Azkaban until the new hearing. And any attempt to divert this trial again down yet another rabbit trail will result in charges of contempt of court or a mistrial. Am I making myself perfectly clear?"

Now. Jack was no politician. But she had a feeling that this was a very strange court case.

As Khaat replied to the bombshell Thaor had dropped, she felt the need to say something rise. "Khaat," she said, leaning forward. When she thought she had her attention, she said, not afraid to say it so all could hear, "In a moment we well continue on to hear about Roland's charges, but if our job is to find out those responsible for allowing the takeover of Grindelwald, I think it will be imperative that we hear from those Tha- Mr Elldir. just mentioned." She paused, glancing at Jess. "Even if only to allow them to refute such claims."

She paused. "Also. While I have you all on the subject, I would like to know if there is any evidence in this trial. Something I can see or touch. Everything so far has been rhetoric." She smiled at Khaat, trying to lessen the weight of her words. "Rhetoric gets tiresome to me."

OOC: hey, guys, this thread doesn't make sense to me for us to continue it. roland's player isn't here and might not be for awhile. that, and it is so far off track and devoid of having all court members regularly participating in it, that i am most likely going to, ic, declare it a mistrial so we can move forward with other site plots and interests.

for me, the bottom line is that its just not working for me. its not proceeding like a wizengamot trial should be, and i honestly think we need to stop it now.

((I would like to continue it, actually, if you don't mind Khaat. I'm so sorry for being away, but as long as we can all distinguish between OOC and IC for the remainder of the trial [I see it turning nasty, fast on an IC level] than I think that it can continue to be an intriguing little political RP.
Personally, I think that Khaat the character overreacted, because Thaor is inclined to tell his truth in court - if that's what he believes then that is what he should have said. He didn't accuse Robert, Himself of Jess of aiding him, he just said that they were the highest on his list, in his opinion.

If you all disagree with me, we'll cut it, but if it's only one person who wishes for proceedings to end, I say we push on.
Thoughts?
Also. i understand that we might not get a reply here anytime soon - I doubt you guys check this topic much anymore ))

this is an edit from my original here.

bottom line is that you and i need to talk, jessy, before we do anything else.

i was pretty harsh in my first post here, and didnt mean to come across that way, so...edit, edit, edit....

yeah, we gotta talk.

k.