Hello Lovely Readers!
Right, before we get into this, I have a few apologies to make. The first goes out to EVERYBODY who's been dying for another chapter. This story is far more complex than my other ones and so it's going to take a little longer for the chapters to come out.
My second apology goes out to all those who end up reading this chapter. It can be a little confusing in places, so if you end up getting lost anywhere, feel free to let me know and I'll try to clear things up for you. There are going to be a few laws made up here and there so if need be, I will post the laws that are made up in an authors note so that you guys can get it. Again, I apologise if you get confused.
Thanks guys, I hope you enjoy it, even if it does make your brain go *poof!*
Chapter two: Warrant Requisitions
Hermione, Rabastan and Harry landed on a windy and whether eroded platform in the middle of the North Sea. The impertable charms they had used were barely holding in the stormy weather and the fog from the dementors was already sending chills up their spines. Hermione had had to visit this place a few times before but not once had it seemed this menacing, this horrid. Perhaps it had something to do with who she was visiting but she didn't really care. The point was that the minister had gotten his bloody wish and despite the fact that she shouldn't, she really wanted a drink because of it.
A door opened in front of them and a weedy looking wizard emerged. He had the hugest smile on his face with wispy grey hair and a few points of stubble on his chin. He approached quickly, a levitating lantern following behind him, trying as hard as it could to avoid his wild robes.
"Miss Granger!" He yelled over the wind, "Lovely to see you again."
"Wish I could say the same Smithy," she yelled back.
"Can we get inside now?!" Rabastan yelled, "I'm freezing my balls off here!"
"And mine are being blown away!" Harry yelled, just as irritated. Smithy lead them inside and all though the wind was gone it didn't make the temperature any better.
"Side effect of the dementors I'm afraid," Smithy laughed as they walked inside, "They're such sad sacks. Me and Martha have tried to cheer them up but they just won't budge."
Rabastan and Harry looked at Hermione in confusion. Who the hell was this old coot?
"The ministry employs people who are obscenely happy to take care of the dementors," she sighed, "Smithy is naturally flamboyant and cheerful by nature so he's perfect for the job. It helps of course, that the ministry altered his memory so that he can't remember anything bad in his life and meddled with his primary brain functions so that he never feels angry or sad or anything of the sort. This stops them from getting out of hand. They can't over power someone who can't feel anything bad and doesn't remember a crappy childhood."
"Did he volunteer for this?" Harry asked her quietly as they were lead through the main entrance to the prison.
She shook her head.
"No," she told him, "None of the guards do. They're taken from their families and forced into this life. A little ministry cover up that I discovered when I was first employed. I doubt that Kingsley knows what's going on but after I've dealt with Malfoy I plan on rectifying this mistake."
"Trust you to take on the big fish," Harry smirked.
"Trust her to be an idiot," Rabastan muttered, "No one's ever sued the ministry before and won."
"There's a first time for everything Lestrange," she smirked at him. They were led down a long winding corridor made of black marble and obsidian. They could hear the screams and taunts of the prisoners on the other side of the wall and the dementors feeding on them as they went. They were finally stopped outside a door and Smithy turned to them.
"Malfoy's in here," he smiled, "If there's any trouble, don't hesitate to call."
Harry, Hermione and Rabastan all stared at his retreating back as he whistled over the screaming and sang 'I love rock and roll'.
"Nutter," the three of them said simultaneously before turning to each other.
"Harry you need to stay out here," she told him, "Malfoy will be weak and I'll have Lestrange with me."
"Right, and having you in the same room as two Death Eater's is safe how?" He asked snidely. Rabastan sneered at him and then looked at Hermione pointedly. Harry wasn't helping.
"Harry, this is not a discussion," she told him pointedly, "You will stay out here or you will leave the prison. Make your choice."
He hated it when she told him what to do but he wouldn't object here. She was the boss this time; he had to follow her lead. If she said it was safe then he had to believe that it was. Rabastan opened the door for her and together they entered the tiny little examination room.
Malfoy was certainly a sight to behold. He was much too skinny, his hair was thin and messy, his complexion was grey and his eyes were gaunt and hollow. He was but a shell of the man he once was. He was breathing heavily with great iron shackles around his wrists and ankles and he was leaning against the table he sat at, using it to hold himself up right. The dementors had certainly taken their toll.
"Mr Malfoy," she said loudly to draw his attention to her. He snapped his head from the varnished wood of the table and looked at her. His expression was blank, almost dazed, such a contrast from the cruel and harsh looks she normally received from him.
"Miss…Granger?" he whispered. He tried to stand from his seat to greet them, but his knees gave way and he collapsed to the floor. Hermione's protective nature kicked in quickly and she instantly rushed to his side, seeing that he was unconscious. She conjured a pillow out of thin air and laid it behind his head whilst turning him on his side so that he could breathe easier.
"Get Smithy in here now!" She yelled at Rabastan.
He didn't move. He stood there, staring at Malfoy, watching him just lye there, dying before his very eyes. He had this cold hard look on his face that told her he needed reminding of what he was doing here.
"Do you want your daughter to be free or not?" She asked him harshly. His eyes flicked to her equally hard expression and he suddenly softened. He was out of the room in an instant, yelling down the corridors "SMITHY!"
Harry then entered the room.
"Shit Hermione," he smirked, "I didn't expect you to kill him that quickly. You might have left me a piece though."
"I didn't do anything," she told him sternly, "He tried to stand and then he collapsed."
"Well at least now you don't have to defend him."
"He isn't dead."
"He will be though," he told her, "St Mungo's won't do anything for him. None of the healers will touch him."
With a jolt, she knew he was right. People from all walks of life had been affected by Malfoy's crimes, including healers and medi-witches. If they had any sense in them they wouldn't go anywhere near him without the intent to harm him not heal him. Smithy and Rabastan were back with in minutes.
"Oh dear," the old man laughed, "You are in a pickle."
She didn't even hear him. She had her eyes set on Malfoy's face, contemplating her options. In her opinion, she really only had two. The first was to leave him there to die, be cruel and let him suffer for his own cruelties. It would bring her satisfaction for sure, to see him die a painful death and pay for what he had done. But that wasn't why she was here. That was why the second option was more appealing. She could take him back to her home and heal him herself...at least enough to save him. She wasn't a healer by any means, but she knew enough for emergencies.
"I need clearance to take Malfoy out of prison," she told him quickly, performing a few diagnostic spells as she did so, "It only has to be temporary."
"I don't have the authority to do that," he told her lightly. She sighed heavily in frustration. She knew he didn't have the power to give her what she wanted. Only the Wizenagmot could give Malfoy his temporary release, and it had to be all of them. One vote unaccounted for and he would stay exactly where he was. This was her impasse. She couldn't let him die and yet she couldn't move him without potentially throwing his case out the window. She looked at him again. He was getting paler and paler by the minute. Well, if he had the choice, what would it be? Would he prefer to rot in prison even more, or would he like to die a painful death in the very place he was trying so desperately to escape?
Hermione stood from her kneeling position and looked at the other two, almost pleading for their understanding.
"There's no other way," she told them as she cast a levitation spell.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked her, looking completely horrified.
"He needs medical attention," she said as she walked out the door.
"St Mungo's won't take him!" Harry yelled at her as she walked out the door with a levitating Malfoy behind her.
"Then I will help him," she told him.
"The Wizenagmot could charge you for this," Rabastan told her as he followed, "And the prosecution could use it against us."
"There won't be a prosecution if we don't have a defendant!" She yelled at the both of them before turning back to Smithy, "Where's your nearest fireplace?"
"About a hundred and fifty miles away," he laughed, "The ministry put us in a right hole they did."
Hermione suddenly clutched onto Malfoy's body as tight as she could and then turned to Smithy.
"Lower the apparation wards."
"Hermione you can't apparate him!" Harry told her, "It'll kill him faster!"
"And if I don't get him out of here, he'll die anyway!" She roared at him and then turned back to Smithy, wand in hand, "Lower the damn wards or I'll hex you into next mellenium!"
Smithy just gave a light chuckle, seeming to be enjoying himself immensely. He then pulled out his wand and flicked it once in the air.
"Hermione this is mad!" Harry yelled.
"Do you have any other ideas?" She asked him snidely, "Didn't think so."
She squeezed her eyes tightly and concentrated on her destination as much as she could. With the amount of Death Eaters she had had to prosecute and defend, this situation had been bound to come up, though she had always thought that the positions would be reversed somehow. With a familiar tug on her naval Hermione felt herself being pulled through space. The dark corridors were replaced by a stone grey room lit with a few floating candles that never extinguished. The floor was covered in rich red carpet and the walls were decorated with tapestries that were thousands of years old.
Hermione felt herself being thrown from her passenger and into a wall as soon as she arrived. She felt the back of her head collide with the wall but didn't stop. Malfoy was now her first priority. She lifted herself from the floor and ran to him, kneeling before him on the floor once again. She felt for his pulse in the hollow of his neck and found it, but it was weak and erratic. He wouldn't have much time left if she didn't hurry. With a flick of her wand, she levitated him to the bed in the corner of the room and ran over to the potions laboratory in the middle. She found everything she needed there.
The invigoration draught and Merlin's Fifth Healing draught were already premade. Once she had administered those she knew that he could hold on for a few hours while she made what ever else he needed. She instantly started working on the Strengthening Solution and Pain Killer Elixir just to make sure he wouldn't die on her. She had seen this kind of thing in her clients before. The dementors took away their will to live and subsequently all their strength as well. The dementors had done their job, torturing his mind and his soul, possibly to insanity and Hermione had no doubt in her mind that Bellatrix and Rodolphus were doing their best to make Lucius physically miserable as well. They were the masters of torture; surely they could inflict pain without a wand.
She thought while she worked. She thought about he subsequent consequences of her actions and what would happen to Malfoy's case now that she broken the law quite severely. Would the Minister pass it on? Hardly. He had spent so much effort on trying to get her to take it, she very much doubted that he would just give it away to someone else who would more than likely botch it up. But how could she possibly defend him when the prosecution now had ammo against her now too? She had already known that they would attack Rabastan for his background the moment she hired him. That she could handle. But the moment this made headlines, every person in the wizarding world would be poisoned with it, including the Wizenagmot, who would be her jury. The moment they saw what she had done, their vision of her would be tainted also. She had just made her job ten times worse.
It was when the Pain Killer solution was done that he began to stir. She looked back at him with reproachful eyes and then down at the steaming bottle in her hands. Surely it wouldn't hurt him to go through a little pain, after all the dementors weren't here to make it ten times worse. She shook her head at herself. It wasn't his fault that he was about to die in there…well, in a round about kind of way, it was, but she still shouldn't take it out on him. He gave a bit of a groan and tried to open his eyes but she was there with a cold compress over them within seconds.
"If you open your eyes you'll go blind, do you understand me?" She asked him, "You must wait for the dementor's side effects to disappear first."
She was surprised that he actually listened to her. He didn't try to take it off or get out of bed or even speak for that matter. He simply lay there and listened to her every word. When she brought the Pain Killer Solution to his lips, he drank; when she told him to sit up, he sat up; when she told him to stay put, he did so without question. This kind of subservient behaviour was not at all what she expected from her new client at all. At best, she hoped for a slightly subdued Lucius who would respond to pain at best, but to have him taking orders from her was a definite change.
It was about half an hour later that he said his first words.
"Am I to assume we are no longer in Azkaban?" He asked her hoarsely.
"We're in my basement," she told him curtly as she kept working on a Blood Replenishing Potion, "It was the best place for the both of us."
"For the both of us?" He asked curiously.
"I took you out of the prison without clearance," she explained, "My estate is heavily guarded and there is no doubt in my mind that I'll have a few hundred Aurors trying to get through my wards at any moment."
She pulled up a chair beside his bed and watched as he downed the vial concoction she had placed in his hands. Her Blood Replenishing Potions had never tasted all that nice but they got the job done. He winced slightly as it ran down his throat but said nothing against it.
"I have to say," he spoke softly, "These are much easier to swallow without dementors around."
"Things generally are easier to swallow when you aren't in fear of your soul being sucked clean from your body," she seethed. She said it in such a way that he knew her anger was more directed at the dementors than him; he didn't need to see her to register that.
"How much of my squandering fortune did the minister offer you to take my case?" He asked her quietly.
She snorted and stood from her seat to turn of her cauldron fires.
"Your fortune isn't all that squandering Mr Malfoy," she told him, "And even if it was, I wouldn't want any portion of it. The Minister didn't buy me off."
She saw him raise his eyebrows from underneath the compress and she knew what he was asking.
"He subpoenaed me," she told him flatly, "What ever you said to him has put him so on edge that he is incapable of hearing the word no."
"So he does want to know if there's a threat on his life," Malfoy smirked, "I thought as much."
She looked at him confusedly.
"What are you on about?" She asked him, seeing as he couldn't see her expression.
"Among several plans that were made in case of the Dark Lord's demise, there was discussion of a few assassination targets. The minister knows this much and probably wants to know if he's on the list," he told her smugly.
"And that's how you managed to make him go all funny on me," she said disgustedly, rolling her eyes, "Thank you so much for ruining my life."
"How could I possibly have ruined something that hasn't even begun?" He asked idly. She didn't even want to contemplate anything that he meant by it and instead chose to jab him with a very large needle full of muggle antibiotics for any infections he may have caught while in prison. He winced slightly and scowled beneath his compress but said nothing. Half an hour later she had him walking again and three hours after that he was able to take the compress off of his eyes and see the world around him once again. Hermione distantly wondered as she watched him read a book she had offered for entertainment, what was taking the ministry so long to turn up to her place to take him back to prison. Perhaps Harry had done something? Or maybe Rabastan?
"Miss Granger?"
She switched her brain back on in that moment and looked at him again.
"Yes?"
"How long could I expect to stay here?"
"I have plans to keep you here during your trial," she told him as she gazed at the opposite walls, "Once the ministry shows up I'll ask for an emergency hearing, get my charges dropped, whatever they'll be, and get you to stay here under house arrest. If we're going to win this, then I need you to be able to form coherent sentences and not pass out every five minutes."
"So you intend to try to win?" He asked her conversationally.
She scrutinized him for a moment but supposed that it was a natural question to ask. With their pasts being intertwined such as they were, there was bound to be lack of trust on both sides. She wouldn't trust him as far as she could throw him and he…well he didn't exactly have any reason to trust her either. They had been bitter enemies for so long and to be suddenly thrust into a partnership which required trust and loyalty was rather daunting.
"I intend to try, yes," she answered, "I'm not guaranteeing anything, after all, your case has to be the most difficult I've had to deal with thus far and I haven't exactly made any better by breaking you out of prison."
"You tried for Narcissa did you not?" He asked her.
"Yes but her case was based on straight forward morality and that she saved Harry's life," she answered passively, like she would to any other person, recounting the trial with perfect clarity, "The fact that she didn't have the mark on her arm was a big help."
"Dear Bellatrix was the only woman to receive the mark," Lucius informed her. She couldn't help but note the undertone of disgust in his voice, whether for Bellatrix or the fact that she had a mark on her arm, she couldn't be sure.
"Your case," she continued as she got up from her seat and began pacing, "Is going to be about anything but morality. Your past is too chequered for that argument."
She tried to ignore the strange little smirk on his face as she said this.
"So if you are not going to base our argument on morality," he asked her, "What will you base it on?"
"That's something to discuss when my staff arrives," she told him.
He blinked at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Did you really expect me to go into this blind and alone?"
"No," he shook his head, "I just did not expect others would wish to help you free a convicted Death Eater."
"It took a lot of favours," she grumbled. There was a sudden ringing in her ears. Lucius looked at her curiously for a moment as she screwed up her face and tried to block it out.
"Do you hear that?" She asked him and he shook his head. It was then that she really groaned, reached for her wand and flicked it lazily in the air.
"And what was the purpose of that?" He asked, indicating her wand.
"The ministry is finally here," she told him when the ringing finally stopped, "And they've brought an army with them by the sounds of it. That was my wards going off. Stay here, I'll sort this out."
He looked indignant at being told to stay like a dog but said nothing to her about it and simply nodded as she ran up the basement stairs and into her main foyer. She stopped herself in front of her great oak doors, smoothed out her robes, took out her wand again and breathed.
"Ok Hermione," she said to herself quietly, "No matter what happens, you will not kill anyone, no matter how idiotic they turn out to be."
She opened her doors as gracefully as possible and was greeted with the scene of at least twenty wands in her face. The Aurors had arrived, each and every one of them looking pissed at her for even contemplating what she was doing. She distantly wondered where Harry was as she gazed at all of their faces.
"Do you lot have any idea what time it is?" She asked lightly, "Who's in charge?"
None of them answered and continued to stare at her with blazing fury. She rolled her eyes at each and every one of them.
"What are you going to do?" She asked them sarcastically, "Curse me?"
"Was thinking about it, yeah," the one closest to her said. She rolled her eyes again, gave a lazy flick of her wand and every Auror cried out in surprise when their wands were stripped from them and they were trapped in nets that hung in mid air.
"It took you hours to get through my wards," she goaded them, "Did you really think that I wouldn't have extra spells on my front porch? Now who is in charge of this raid?"
"I am."
Hermione looked in the direction of the net that had given her her answer. Sitting there, looking rather sullen inside his net, was Blaise Zabini, Auror Extraordinaire and Harry's second in command. Hermione smirked.
"I had a feeling I'd be seeing you Zabini," she said to him as she walked in his direction and stopped before him, "Though I didn't expect it to be so soon. Do you have a warrant or was this just a passing fancy? Did you even inform Harry of this?"
He pulled a small piece of parchment from his pocket and slipped it through one of the holes in his net, squirming at the mention of Harry's name. He had obviously chosen to by pass that little bi-law in warrant requisition then. She took a look at it in the moon light, noting that it was a warrant for Malfoy's arrest and her own. She had expected her name to be on that piece of paper, but it still ticked her off to see it.
"Who signed this?" She asked him briskly.
He ignored her. She rolled her eyes and poked her wand to his arm where the tip seared through his robes to his open flesh.
"Who. Signed. This?" She asked him again.
"Delores Umbridge! Delores Umbridge!" He said hurriedly trying to get away from her wand. Delores Jane Umbridge had somehow managed to snake her way back into the ministry and back into the Wizenagmot after the war had ended and she had been a thorn in Hermione's side ever since. She hadn't been there for any of Hermione's earlier trials but for cases like the Lestranges and Severus Snape, she had tried her best to make her job difficult.
"Merlin Granger, since when are you into torture?" Zabini complained.
"Since the person I'm torturing wants me tossed to the dementors!" She yelled at him.
"You're harbouring a fugitive!" He shot back.
"I saved a man's life!" She countered, "Last time I checked, that was a good thing!"
"Not if it was Lucius Malfoy," he sneered, "That man hasn't got a right to live and neither does anyone who tries to help him!"
"Everyone has a right to live Zabini," she told him firmly, dangerously, icily cold, "If they didn't, we would still have Voldemort trying kill off innocent people left, right and centre!"
He shivered at the name but said nothing more.
"How long ago did you file for this?" She asked him.
"Smithy sent an owl to the ministry telling us of his sudden departure," one of the other Aurors told her, she didn't really care who, "The owl came to us first. It didn't say anything about your visit. We went to the Department of Traces and Trackers and it said that he was here. We thought at first that he had some how over powered you and taken you hostage but then we heard that you had taken his case."
"We went to several Wizenagmot members," another continued with scorn in her voice, "None of them would sign the warrant. Then we went to Umbridge and we got what we wanted."
"Of course she did," she whispered, looking more and more peeved by the minute, "That would have taken little under two hours. What have you been doing for the last three?"
"Trying to get through your guard dogs," one of them muttered. She looked at him quizzically…until she heard a loud bang from her front yard. Three tall male figures and a petite female came running into her view and she found herself breathing a sigh of relief as she saw them. Lavender, Harry, Rabastan and Severus. A very unlikely combination and yet the very combination she needed most.
"How badly were you out numbered?" She asked them as they got closer and stared in wonder at her handy work.
"Six to one," Lavender told her, "How did you-"
"Entrapment wards on the front porch that go off when I wave my wand or feel threatened," she explained, looking at each and every one of them, "I only have twenty of them here. Where are the rest?"
"We dealt to them," Harry told her looking quite aggravated, "I'm ashamed to say that my entire department is down here," he turned around to look at Zabini, putting his finger in his face pointedly, "You're fired."
"What the hell for?!" He asked incredulously.
"For going on a raid without informing me and going behind my back to get a warrant!" Harry roared back. Who knew he had so much authority in that calm voice of his, "All warrant requisitions have to go through the head of department before you even think about going to the Wizenagmot! In fact, who signed it?"
"Umbridge of course," Hermione told him with a bored sigh, handing over the parchment.
"Is Umbridge going to be a problem for us?" Rabastan asked her with concern.
"She may be if we don't handle this with delicacy," she told him before turning to Severus, "Could you please go inside and check on Malfoy while we sort this out?"
"Wouldn't it be best if he came with you for this?" He asked her patiently.
"No," she shook her head adamantly, "This is more about me than anything else, and the actions I took this afternoon. I need him away from the Wizenagmot as much as possible until his trial. If there's any more trouble while we're away, let me know."
She wasn't quite prepared for him to listen to her as he did. She knew that he didn't agree with her methods, but he knew that she would do all she could to defend her client.
"Lavender," she said as she turned to the girl, "I'm not going to need any research for this but it would be most helpful if you could go and wake up Kingsley Shaklebolt and have him bring an emergency trial together for me. If he asks why, just tell him that I need some help and he should come running. And tell him that he should get opposing counsel for Malfoy's case up as well. No doubt they'll want to see this."
"Is that really wise?" Rabastan asked her.
"I'm not taking any chances. There could be evidence in this that they might try to punish me for not giving to them," she told him before turning back to Lavender, "If you don't know where to go, get Harry to show you after he's dealt with his stupid department."
Harry gave another glare at Zabini at her words but said nothing more as Lavender swept off. If Hermione were a different person, she would have informed him that she could bring the idiot to court on counts of treason against the ministry…but she wasn't a different person, no matter how much she wanted to be.
"What are we going to do?" Rabastan asked her.
"We're going to my office to prepare," she told him, linking her arm with his before turning to Harry, "Come and see me once you've dealt with this lot."
She had only seconds to register his nod of ascent before the familiar sensation of apparation took over.