Hello everyone,

welcome to the second chapter.

Disclaimer: I haven't owned them in any of my one-shots and it's not different here.

"Fuck!" I curse as I kick the first thing I come across in the hallway of Grimmauld place, a wooden chest, which promptly earns me a hurting toe in addition to the already shitty day.

But on the other hand my loud arrival (banging the door too) has called my two best friends out. The two have not been at the trials, instead helping with either rebuilding or family matters. We agreed to meet up in the evening so they have been waiting for me in the house I inherited from Sirius. It takes no less time than for me to take off my coat and throwing it over a hook to the side, for both Hermione and Ron to storm into the corridor.

"What's wrong, Harry?" she asks, looking at me worriedly.

"It's not fair. He didn't deserve that!" I growl, shoving past them to get to the firewhiskey in the living room cabinet.

"Who didn't deserve what?" Ron yells after me while the two follow.

"Oh," Hermione has caught up faster, "Was Malfoy's trial today?"

Ron stares at her strangely while I snort into the drink I have poured myself, "It was less of a trial but more of condemnation."

Sighing the brunette lets herself fall down on the sofa beside me and takes my hand, "What happened, Harry? What punishment did he get?"

"Lifelong Azkaban," I growl, drawing a gasp from her and a frown from Ron, "On the lowest level."

Hermione swallows, skin paler than before, "That's… harsh…"

"It's unfair," I correct, "Draco didn't even commit most of the things they charged him with. And there was no way he could have defended himself either. I am sure the decision was set before he even stepped into the courtroom."

"Mate, not to be impolite," Ron breaks in, "But that's Malfoy we're talking about. He's an arsehole. He let death eaters into Hogwarts, killed Dumbledore and nearly killed me."

"That with you was an accident and as much to blame on Slughorn as Malfoy," I rub my hand over my face, "And he didn't kill Dumbledore, Snape did. Malfoy did only take his wand. He couldn't kill him."

"Harry, I understand you want to help him. But maybe he really did what they said…" Hermione trails off when I throw her a look.

"You didn't see him that evening. He could not kill Dumbledore. He could never kill anyone in cold blood. He may have done some awful things while under Voldemort's reign but I believe that he would never do it on his own free will. Taunting, teasing, playing pranks and insulting or throwing punches, yes. But nothing that would warrant any worse punishment than social service. Like I said, I am aware he might have committed smaller crimes, but nothing that is enough for what he is suffering now. And the worse stuff he did was forced anyway, I saw that," I rant.

Hermione smiles sadly, "I get it, fine. But didn't he try to defend himself? What about the Veritaserum?"

"He tried to, but the judge wouldn't even let him say more than that he didn't do it. And he refused the potion. God knows why."

She smiles strained, "Well, maybe he has a very important secret to keep."

"Or he is just too proud," Ron snorts but I ignore him.

"What could be more important than clearing the wrong accusations and receiving a just punishment instead of what he got now?" I sigh, downing the rest of my glass.

"I don't know," Hermione says, "Maybe you could speak to him?"

"I tried, but before the trials there was too much of a chaos and now… I asked, only to have them say that as the criminal he is I can't be allowed to talk to him until he is in safe confinement."

"Until they have broken him enough, I guess…" she looks sad.

I hum in agreement and reach for the bottle, but am stopped by the girl's hand on my arm, "No Harry. You had enough for now. I understand that you are angry about what happened to Malfoy, but drinking won't help. You should rather think of a plan on how to get him out again. Or at least lighten his punishment."

I sigh but nod.

"No offence, mate," Ron suddenly speaks up again, "But I don't really get why you care so much. It's still Malfoy, the bastard who tormented us for the most part of our years at Hogwarts."

I glare at him, "But he is also a boy who has been forced into his role as much as I have. I am pretty sure neither his father nor Voldemort ever asked whether he really wanted to be a death eater. I can understand him in that," I shake my head, "Besides the fact that the court was simply not just. I can't let it stand like that. If we start with isolating and being unfair to the death eaters now, we are not much better than them, who did the same thing to muggleborns."

"But we are not torturing or killing them," the red head protests.

"Malfoy's punishment is not much different than that," Hermione says silently, "Living down there is practically torture until one day he is going to be so much of an empty shell that he could very well be dead."

I nod and sigh, "I am not sure why, but I really want to get him out of there."

At that the brunette throws me a look which seems unnervingly knowing and nods, "I will help you. Maybe I can find some kind of loophole in the laws."

"Thanks," I say, letting my head rest on her shoulder.

Two weeks later there is no solution in sight yet. Granted none of us has had much time to look into it because we are still working on rebuilding everything. My favourite place is still Hogwarts despite the memories of the final battle now connected to it. I am clearing some hallway from rubble when professor McGonnagall approaches me.

"Mr. Potter, good that you are here."

Dusting my hands off, I turn around, "Hello Professor. What is it?"

"Can you do me a favour?" she asks.

I frown but nod nonetheless, "How can I help?"

"It's about Dumbledore's old office. The majority of his files and papers has just been pushed into the storeroom next to it, since at that time no one wanted to go through it. It would be a great help if you could look at them. You know, throw away what is useless and decide what we should keep."

"Why me?"

She shrugs with a sad smile, "You were someone he trusted and I feel like he would have wanted it like that."

I sigh and grab the jacket I had put away for the work, "Fine, where is it?"

She smiles at me thankfully and leads me towards the tower in which the headmaster's office resides, making small-talk while on the way. To my surprise this tower seems to have sustained little to no damage during the battle. But she explains that there are stronger wards around it which kept it from being accidently damaged. Stopping halfway up the spiralling staircase (which hasn't been repaired to move again yet) to the old office, she opens an unsuspicious wooden door which I never noticed before even though I went up there quite a number of times. When she steps aside, I want to enter.

Only to do a step back instead. The chamber which is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside is literally stuffed with papers, folders and boxes with more files. In the front and the middle of the (barely noticeable) walkways are free sheets, thrown around randomly and folders which look like they have been just left in there without looking. Boxes with more papers are everywhere and the shelves are stuffed as well. I gulp.

"That is going to take a long time. Do I really have to do this?"

Professor McGonagall shoots me a look I am still familiar with from my own school time, "I would very much appreciate it. Unfortunately Dumbledore was never one for much order or tidying up and well, the people after that just didn't have the time," she then frowns, "Mind you, that these aren't only school papers here. Some of these sheets contain information about or for the Order. This room can only be seen and entered by members of the Order as well. That's why I need you to sort this out. You have to separate the papers for the school from those for the Order."

I sigh dejectedly, "Fine. How exactly am I supposed to do that?"

She nods thankfully, "Give information for or about the Order to Mr. Weasley or his wife. They know what to do with it after that. What belongs to the school, please pack back into the shelves. And if you find something that was solely important to Dumbledore, you can either collect it or simply burn it. I am sure he had the bills for his sweets orders somewhere in here," she shakes her head, "And it would be best if you could at least look through the files in the shelves and boxes too. Pull out those for the Order."

Still eyeing the mass of paper with wariness I nod, "Okay. But don't expect me to be available for anything else anytime soon. This is going to take some days."

"I know, Mr. Potter. Thank you, I really appreciate the help," she says before walking down the stairs again.

"Alright then," I say to the empty room, "Let's see how fast I can bring this mountain of paper down."

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

Please review and see you next time.