If my calculations were correct, I've been here 16 months. Where am I you ask? I, Hermione Granger, am one of the most notorious prisoners of Azkaban. Only a few days after the war ended, Author Weasley, who was Minister of Magic, was assassinated. And somehow all clues led to me being a traitor and feeding information about Mr. Weasley to the few remaining deatheaters. Of course it's not true. The evidence was circumstantial but strong, manufactured by whoever was the true traitor in the Order.
What amazed me was how quickly they all turned on me. No one was willing to believe that I had been framed. Ron and Harry had testified at my hearing and Ginny had been especially cruel. The things she said about me at sentencing still haunt me. Half of me understood their need to blame someone for their father's death but the half was bitter that all those years of friendship meant nothing.
I was lucky in a way. The dementors no longer worked the prison, but the male guards had a leering eye and were eager to take advantage when they could. I probably had it worse than most because of my infamy.
We weren't allowed to talk to one other. I had no visitors and my only letters came from Professor McGonagall. She was never convinced of my guilt and Dumbledore's portrait agreed. Her letters were rare however. My parents had been murdered in the war, so I never understood why they would believe I would side with my parent's killers.
So here I sat, day in day out. The prison was freezing; it was approaching the holidays if right. I woke up this morning with a strange sense of warmth. Perhaps it was the possibility of decent meal soon. Last year's Christmas dinner was meager by Hogwarts standards but bountiful for Azkaban. But that didn't seem right. Something was different, like there had been a change in the wind.
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It was finally the day I had been waiting for, in some ways since I was a first year at Hogwarts. The Ministry finally had Draco Malfoy in custody and Harry and I were going to participate in the interrogation.
"Hey Ron. Ready to question the little ferret?" Harry greeted me as I entered the office. Behind the one way mirror was Malfoy, he was smirking…I just wanted to rip his face off.
"Have they administered the veritaserum?" It was allowed in extreme cases and this certainly was one.
"Just a few minutes ago, should be in effect in about three minutes." Said a fellow Auror.
"Finally, some real answers." I replied, taking a deep breathe as Harry and I entered the room.
"I would have thought they would have sent in senior Aurors to deal with me, not two rookies." Malfoy sneered.
"Oh, they figure they owe it to us." Harry retorted.
We began the questioning. It seemed to actually pain Malfoy that everything coming out of his mouth was the truth and not another one of his lies. It had now been several hours. At each break we would go outside to find out who was following up what lead and if any arrests had been made. Finally the subject of my father's assassination had arrived, as I knew it would. I not only lost my dad, but the love of my life, I thought. I had always been working up to tell her, but I was so happy that I never did. She probably would have used it to her advantage. I hated her for what she did and she never had the decency to confess. After she was first imprisoned, she would send letters that I refused to open. After a while she just stopped. I hoped she was rotting.
"Yes, your father's death. Quite a good one there; essentially killed two birds with one stone as they say. Well, one is in prison but it's just as good." Malfoy began to laugh at this.
"Care to explain yourself." Harry demanded.
"It worked better than we thought, we were almost certain you two would stand behind her. The Order was so gullible and so quick to blame someone, anyone for the death of their leader."
Harry and I looked at each other both thinking the same thing. I began to panic. "Tell me who the traitor in the Order is." I wanted him to confirm Hermione or I was going to throw up.
"Why, it was little Dennis Creevey of course. Quite a magnificent actor and he planted all the evidence against your precious Hermione. Apparently, Luna was at the meeting where you revealed the Minister's itinerary. She had been secretly having an affair with Creevey and he used pillow talk to pump her for information." He smirked at his pun. "After everything that happened to Hermione, Dennis began to panic and when Luna started suspecting him we had to take care of the situation. So we had Dennis and Luna killed. Now that little mudblood has been in there for almost a year and a half. I hear she is a favorite play thing among the guards."
That's when I did throw up. Harry punched Draco and began screaming and yelling, almost incoherently. I was overwhelmed with guilt and rage. I pulled Harry away and began to flail on Malfoy. Officials came in and broke it up.
"It was you that sent her there Weasley, you wouldn't believe her when she said she was innocent." He yelled at me as they dragged me out of the room.
What had we done, she had to be released, I needed to see her. "Shacklebolt, we have to get her released immediately."
"Yes, Tonks has already run upstairs to begin the paperwork. Don't blame yourself, the evidence was there and it was very convincing." He placed a comforting hand on Ron's shoulder.
"I don't care, I loved her and I'll never be able to forgive myself." I was close to tears, everything I said at her sentencing, all the things I had said about her since were filling my ears. I began to heave again, but there was nothing left.
"Ron, I'll go home and let Ginny and your mum know. What's the next step?" He asked the senior Auror.
"Well, there will be a hearing and she'll be released likely with some sort of restitution. It should take a few days."
"That's not good enough." I demanded. "I'm going to Azkaban to visit her and let her know what's happened. Beg her forgiveness, but I don't blame her if she spits in my face."
Harry looked sympathetically. "Ok, I'll tell the family."
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"Granger, you have a visitor." The guard approached her cell. "Who would want to see a filthy little mudblood whore like you?"
The door opened and I was led out and to the visiting area. I had never been her before. Maybe it was a reporter or hopefully Professor McGonagall. You could imagine my shock when the door opened and Ron was sitting at a small table. I feared what he wanted to say and hovered in the doorway. The guard roughly pushed me inside. "Have your fun with her" and slammed the door behind me.
Ron hushed to help me up. They had bound my hands behind me and Ron said a spell under his breath and my hands were released.
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I saw her in the doorway and the guard pushed her in making a rude comment. She was thin and pale. I realized her hands were bound and I quickly released them. She seemed afraid of me. She wouldn't speak or look me in the eye. I decided I needed to start it off.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here. Truth is I don't know where to start. I hope you'll be able to forgive me." With that she turned her head and gave me a curious look. She walked over to the window to look out at the cloudy sky.
I continued. "We finally caught Malfoy." She was unaffected and continued to look out the window. "We administered veritaserum and the truth behind my father's death came out. It was Dennis Creevey and unknowingly Luna who had been the traitors Hermione. I'm so ashamed for not believing you. The paperwork is going through to have you released; you're going to be free."
She turned and looked at me, then rubbed her throat. When she began to speak it was scratchy and almost inaudible. "I hoped the sky would be blue. But I haven't seen a cloudy one in 16 months either so it's just as beautiful."
The comment was like a punch in the face. While I had been out living my life she had been a prisoner. "Didn't you hear me; you're going to be free."
She started to talk again but nothing came out so she cleared her throat and rubbed it. "We aren't allowed to talk unless we are asked a question or have visitors, so excuse me if I'm rusty." Again guilt was over me like I had been dropped in a bucket of ice water. "How soon?"
"A few days at most." I went toward her wanting to embrace her, but she recoiled.
"Good, I'm ready to get away from all this. Try to forget." There was a loud bang on the door and it opened.
"Times up pretty one." The guard said, and then he realized her hands were untied and he ran to her and knocked her to the ground. "Did this manipulative bitch get you to undo her hands? Why you..."
I ran over and lifted her from the ground. Hermione didn't speak but just looked to the ground like she was programmed. "I'm Auror Weasley and I undid her binds. For your information she is innocent and will be released in a few days. If her treatment has been anything less than appropriate you will answer to me."
He smirked, "of course, sir, we always treat her well." He dragged Hermione behind him. He whispered in her ear, but loud enough for me to hear "looks like we'll have to have a going away party."
The door slammed behind him, I tried to open it to rescue her, but it was locked. The door on the other end, that I had entered through opened. A small guard told me my time was up and that I needed to leave. I ran out to the apparition point and tried to calm myself before apparating to the Burrow.