Authors Note:

Hey guys, I'm very new to actually publishing stories on , so any constructive criticism of my work would be greatly appreciated!

I have loved the pairing of Hermione and Draco for a while now, but could never seem to find a fic that described how I think Draco would be after the war. Most are about him being some kind of uber confident "sex god", but I really wanted to move away from that stereotype of Malfoy and write something I felt to be more real.

As I said, I am very new to this, so I can't even be sure I'm doing this right but, anyway. The first chapter is short and sweet.

(p.s. J.K. Rowling is my saviour; all the characters etc. are hers.)

The Consequence of the Witness Stand

Chapter 1: Pen-ultimatum

Hermione Granger lay awake staring at her plain white ceiling, thoughts flowing rapidly through her mind. It was finally here. The trial of the Death Eaters began tomorrow and she did not know if she would be able to bare the reminders of friends who were dead due their twisted actions. Hermione was only making one official contribution to the trial. To the shock of many, to ensure Draco and Narcissa Malfoy were cleared of any previous crimes.

It was common knowledge that the Malfoy family had fled during the battle of Hogwarts and turned their backs on what many called 'the dark side'. Hermione and Harry had already discussed how they would explain Narcissa's complete change of allegiance. Although Harry would have to explain the excruciatingly long and complex story of Voldemort's horcruxes and how Harry had managed to survive the Avada Kedavra curse for the second time, it would be worth the wait and numerous questions and confusion, to allow the truth to be known by all. After Narcissa's declaration that Harry was 'dead', when she knew perfectly well he was alive, this gave Harry the chance he needed to destroy Voldemort, ultimately freely the wizarding world from the most dangerous dark wizard of all time. In Hermione's eyes Draco's Mother was deserving of her freedom.

However her train of thought fell swiftly onto Ron and his outright refusal to contribute anything towards the trial. Despite her pleading and particularly lengthy explanations of why it as right that they should be defending them; Ron would not even partially accept her reasoning and couldn't understand why she would possibly want to help them out after all she had been put through. Ron's narrow mindedness was one of the reasons Hermione was beginning to regret the spur of the moment kiss they had shared in the Chamber of Secrets during the battle. Hermione had being staying at the Burrow ever since and day by day the awkwardness between Ron and herself grew tenfold. He had not mentioned anything to her since they had arrived back.

Hermione had assumed he would pluck up the courage soon enough, but months on and he had still made no effort in showing his feelings. However, when she really delved into the deepest crevasses of her mind, she wasn't so sure that she wanted that to happen now. Their constant bickering and Ron's slow minded comments infuriated Hermione and, as much as she loved Ron in a brotherly, friendly way, the feelings she thought she had felt in the past few years may have just been, in hindsight, an over-extended childish crush.

Turning to the cold side of the pillow, Hermione's mind further drifted to the boy she was defending tomorrow. He had protected Harry during their hunt for the Horcruxes, and was going to explain this to the Wizengamot tomorrow. She pondered who was now chief Warlock, and how many members of the Wizengamot would be present, although she knew full well it would likely be all, part of her hoped that the turn out would be less, just to calm her nerves.

Her mind fell swiftly back to the boy in question. She knew that Draco had truly been envious of her throughout their school years. He wanted to be as clever as her; he wanted to be as quick-witted. But unfortunately although Malfoy was not stupid, or slow, he was never as good as Hermione. She beat him in every exam. The only way Draco could feel superior to her was using his 'high' blood status to mock her 'low' blood status. Hermione saw it now. But blood purity meant nothing. Most, if not all, wizards or witches who were serious about enforcing a hierarchy were currently in Azkaban or dead. Although undeniably there were still some pureblood wizards who would prefer their sons and daughters to marry only within the 'sacred 28'.

Hermione was curious to see what the war may have done to Draco. During sixth year on his death sentence from Lord Voldemort to kill Albus Dumbledore, she saw him slowly becoming more dishevelled and eventually looking so exhausted his skin seemed to have become grey by the summer term. She could hardly imagine what a year in Malfoy Manor following Voldemort's orders, being a low rank death eater and watching people, herself amongst them, being tortured would do to him. From what she remembered he had looked even more frightened when she had seen him at the manor.

Hermione knew that Draco had just stood there and watched her being tortured by his mad Aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange. However Hermione also knew that Draco was incapable of preventing it, watching this torture was forced upon him. If he had tried to stop it, she was positive that Bellatrix would either have hexed him, or tortured her even more cruelly, or both. In addition to this it would have fully revealed their identities. She could not be sure that this was the process in Draco's mind at the time, but she didn't feel Draco deserved to be sent to Azkaban for his 'crimes'. Draco was only but a victim of circumstance.

Turning over once more, Hermione glanced at the clock that read 3.20am. She could hear Ginny breathing deeply beside her but other than that the house was deadly silent. Taking a shallow breath and squeezing her eyes shut, Hermione tried to relax; eventually falling into an uneasy sleep filled with dreams of death eaters, unforgivable curses and the dementor's kiss.