AMPHIGORY of THE MIND
2
The first time he saw her (in the metaphorical sense) was during his trial.
His hands were bound with magic and he was being escorted into the chamber where in a few minutes, he knew would be sentenced to life in Azkaban.
The chamber was cold and damp, much like the mossy forest where he stayed in hiding for a number of months after the Dark Lord had fallen to the haughty Boy Who Lived, until he decided he could not take it anymore and just wanted to die.
He was found ultimately by the dogs of the ministry and when he faced them he cast away his wand in surrender and simply smirked. "Took you long enough."
He was taken to a detention chamber and kept there for three days before they told him he would be kept in Azkaban until he was to be tried for war crimes.
And today was the day. The day they would pass a predetermined judgment on him just to make themselves feel better. He gave up thinking about the hypocrisy of the ministry ages ago. In a war both sides took lives, both sides tortured for information. After the war, how is it that the side that won had the privilege of convicting and judging blindly just to justify that they too destroyed lives?
What did they know? It's not them who housed a barely human entity in their own houses for months and were sick with fear and sleeplessness knowing one wrong move could mean their lives. They did not know how wretched he felt knowing he had to kill to keep his parents alive. They did not know his mother had been tortured anyway regardless of how much he killed for her. . . They did not know, and yet today they saw him as nothing but scum who did not deserve to walk the streets of the wizarding world.
"Tsk" he scoffed "Figures…"
"Silence Malfoy" grunted the bailiff as he was pushed into the room where a number of people and the Wizengamot had convened.
He did not fear the people in the room anymore. What was there to be afraid of if the uncertainty of his sentence was not there? He knew what would happen today and he would welcome his fate with open arms in utter and complete silence.
He kept his head down; he did not care to see which dogs of the ministry were there. He did not care to hear what they had to say and did not care to listen as they read out his crimes. All he wanted was to get everything over with so he could be carted off to Azkaban and start living his life sleeping on a mangy cot with someone else's urine.
The Minister of Magic was about to speak. This was it. This was his sentence… He closed his eyes in nonchalant anticipation.
"Wait!" said a strained feminine voice. He opened his eyes and looked for the source of the interruption.
"Draco Malfoy cannot be sentenced to life" continued the voice. The owner of it stepped forward out of the crowd of spectators with her trademark bushy brown hair and bright hazel eyes. "On September 21, 1998, I came to London with a few others," she started tentatively. "to gather supplies for the Order, when we were … ambushed"
He saw her brow furrowed in concentration and in anguish at the memory. "Every single one of my companions were brutally murdered… torture curses… flying everywhere…"
"Malfoy uncovered me under the bodies of my slain companions. . .and clearly seeing that I was alive draped a dead body over me concealing my identity." She finished with a breath.
"He saved my life…" she said looking at him directly. He blinked and swallowed abruptly. The room echoed in an uproar with the sudden revelation. The minister was surrounded by members of the wizengamot giving their advice and the audience seemed crazed with intrigue.
He didn't care about the noise. He drowned them out as he looked at her intently as if to ask "Why?"
"Silence!" boomed the minister as he continued to say he has come to a decision to reconvene due to new evidence presented. Draco did not know what was said… he was lost in his thoughts and the anger welling up inside him.
That was the day he hated her the most.
Because that was the day he thought he knew his fate for sure. And that was the day she changed it.
