Rita Skeeter smiled as she exited Minister Fudge's office. If that little Granger chit thought that she could outsmart her, she had another think coming. That ugly girl did not know who she was messing with. While she often printed lies and half truths in order to produce whatever emotional reaction she cared to in the general wizarding populace, she had a tendency to hold back the best real truths for situations like this. She'd had enough real dirt on Fudge to get him to sign an order to have the Granger girl remanded to Azkaban for the rest of her life.
She and Fudge weren't entirely stupid though, the girl would have her day in court, and she would be found guilty on all charges. Covering up the fact that Sirius Black hadn't actually had a trial was hard enough for Fudge. She helped out because it was one particularly valuable piece of blackmail that she held over several people's heads. If there was no evidence of a trial for the Granger girl who had a very famous and powerful friend who would undoubtedly look into things and call public attention to them, people might start wondering who else didn't get their day in court. It wasn't like the girl was innocent of what she was accused of anyways. She had indeed kidnapped someone and coerced them into taking a magical oath against their will after all.
She hadn't needed to threaten Fudge all that much to bend him to her will this time which was somewhat unusual, but then again, since the girl was close to the Potter boy whom Fudge currently had a beef with, it wasn't as surprising that it could have been.
Whistling a merry tune, Skeeter happily made her way out of the Ministry of Magic, having gotten her revenge on the stupid child who had thought she could defeat her.
The first clue Hermione got that something she had done may have backfired on her and gotten her into trouble had been when about a half-dozen red robed Aurors had burst into her family home in the middle of dinner and arrested her. Before she could even ask what was going on, she found herself being portkeyed to the Ministry of Magic. Normally, if it was her first time being somewhere, she would want to explore and see if she could learn what the new place had to offer. This time however, she had neither the time nor the inclination to do so with the Ministry of Magic. While her mind was furiously trying to work out what was going on, she was dragged downstairs too quickly to get any actual sense of her surroundings. Once downstairs, she was dragged into a massive stone room which could potentially seat hundreds but actually only sat five. Three in an official looking panel, and two seated behind the Minister. Out of the five, she only recognized the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, and a rather apologetic looking Percy Weasley who was holding a roll of parchment and a quill.
"The Granger girl, Minister." one of the Aurors said as they forcibly seated her in a strange chair that automatically chained her down.
"Miss Granger, you were given adequate time in which to arrive for your trial and defend yourself in court." the Minister said as soon as she was bound to the chair. "The fact that you chose not to do so shows your contempt for this court, and the Ministry as a whole."
The Minister then turned the proceedings over to the man who was seated next to him.
"Hermione Jean Granger, this court has examined the evidence presented and found you guilty on the charges of Kidnapping, False Imprisonment, Coercion of a Magical Oath, Contempt of Court, and Resisting Arrest. We hereby sentence you to a sentence of no less than two-hundred years and no more than five-hundred years to be served out in the prison of Azkaban." the strange man who was seated in the middle of the group, and therefore probably the chief judge on the panel said.
"But I..." she started, trying to defend herself, beyond shocked that something like this mockery of justice was happening to her.
It was unfair! It was unjust! She wouldn't stand for it! She'd never received any word about a trial whatsoever, and had never been given any sort of chance to defend herself against the trumped up charges of which she'd been convicted.
"We don't need to hear anything from you Mudblood." the woman who was seated to the left of the man said. "Take her away!"
Before she could get another word out, the Aurors who had dragged her from her home, and the exceedingly rare dinner where the entire family was present freed her from the chair, dragged her out of the room, and portkeyed her to another location.
Behind her, unbeknown to her, the panel of "Judges", and the toad-like woman she'd left behind, one Percy Weasley was having a crisis of conscience as he wondered if this was really the Ministry he'd signed up to serve. What he'd just seen happen to his little brother's friend wasn't justice, and it was so far from being right it wasn't even funny. Perhaps, his father actually did have a point about the people he was working for after all...
Percy's crisis of conscience didn't do Hermione any good at that moment though, as she was currently standing several hundred miles away on a dock that extended into the North Sea.
When Dumbledore had gotten the news of what had happened to the Granger girl later that afternoon, he had nearly had a heart-attack from the shock. While he wasn't fond of the Granger girl because she had a dangerous tendency to get Harry to stop and think, and the safety of the Wizarding World depended on Harry's unthinking willingness to die in order to completely dispose of Lord Voldemort, he would not have disposed of the poor child in such a cruel manner. In fact, the reason that Hermione was still Harry's friend despite the danger, was because he hadn't had the heart to separate Harry from one of his few true friends, nor the will to separate Hermione from the only friends she had in the Wizarding World.
Hermione Granger's incarceration did have one very faint silver lining despite the fact that it was a veritable shitstorm, and that was that with Harry so focused on his friend's plight, he would be less likely to get himself tangled up in Order plans that he had no business messing with. With Harry out of his hair and tied up with studying for whatever legal appeals he could make on behalf of his friend, he would be safely out of danger and well away from the trap he was setting for Voldemort in the Ministry with that self-fulfilling prophesy as bait. The last time the boy had gotten involved in one of his Voldemort traps, he had nearly gotten himself killed far too soon, and under the wrong circumstances.
Weeks later, Harry came to Grimwauld place, prepared to yell at his so-called friends over their lack of contact, especially after he and his cousin had nearly been kissed by Dementors. That all got thrown out the window however when there was only a rather despondent and unhealthy looking Ron waiting to greet him.
"What's wrong Ron?" he asked, looking at his gaunt friend who looked as if he hadn't eaten or slept in weeks.
"Hermione's in Azkaban." Ron said, pale and shaking. "They got her on some bullshit charges and threw the book at her."
Harry found that he couldn't be upset over the lack of contact from his friends while he was going through a rough time anymore. One of his best friends was going through a far rougher time than he was, and it looked like the other could barely function on his own. Yelling at Ron because he had failed to write and give him whatever trivial information he had wanted seemed both cruel and pointless now. They both of them had bigger fish to fry, such as how they were going to get Hermione out of Azkaban. He knew full well that they couldn't go through the proper legal channels to do so since it had been the beyond broken and corrupt legal system that had put her there in the first place, but he would find a way to do it somehow.
"Don't worry Ron, we'll get her out." he said, as he drew his often volatile but for the most part loyal friend into a hug which he clearly desperately needed.
The hug was rather awkward since they were both guys, he wasn't used to giving hugs, and Hermione was usually the one who usually provided the physical gestures of affection in their friendship, but it had clearly helped his friend who had started crying on his shoulder.
If it was the last thing he did, he was going to get Hermione out of prison, and make the bastards who put her in there pay for what they did.