A/N: Here is the next chapter, it is finally done! But this has occurred only due to the fact that we have no school today, because the sky decided the ground would look much better dressed in white… 16 inches of it! (A lot of snow) So you'd all better thank the being you believe controls the weather! Wahoo! :D (Plus my Birthday is in a couple of days, so this chapter is a gift from me to you ;))
Also, thank you very much for the reviews, I always love to hear your opinions! ;)
Read on, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own it!
The room was deathly silent…
Chapter 3- The Brain Boggling Request
"So… When they say 'Draco Malfoy', you don't think they're talking about the pompous git we spent our school years with? You know, the ferret boy who always starts every other sentence off with 'my father'?" Ron attempted to joke about the whole situation, trying to lighten the tense and morose mood that set in after the reading of the article.
"What other Draco Malfoy, who is a Death Eater, whose mission it was to kill Dumbledore, do we know?" Hermione stated the rhetorical question softly, as if afraid of being heard. The room went quiet again.
While everyone else was stuck in their own dark thoughts, Harry was trying to figure out the best way to phrase his request.
And so, he started off with this: "Isn't this the first time one of the Trials has been announced before it already occurred?"
This caused some thinking to occur to those few people inhabiting the room, but it was Hermione who beat them all in voicing their thoughts aloud to the room at large. "Yes, that is very true, Harry, down to the last word. But-"it was evident that Hermione's brain was kicking into overdrive now- "isn't it absolutely obvious what happened?" At everyone's blank looks, she continued, " Well, think of it like this: After the War, a whole lot of families suffered losses, if they weren't wiped out totally, and everyone blames Voldemort- stop being such a little baby Ron- and his followers for all of the suffering. These families want to make the ones who caused such grief and devastation to pay. They're out for blood. But, sadly for them, Harry here, took out Voldemort – Ron – already, and, therefore, the only beings left to blame for their suffering, are his followers. The Death Eaters.
"Once the Final Great Battle was over… You all remember how we all helped in the hunt to round up the remaining Death Eaters, to prevent them from… ah… taking out their grief on the… ah…citizens of England," Hermione stammered, trying to find how best to word it before it left her mouth. "They then, thusly, placed said Death Eaters in Azkaban.
"But placing them in there obviously wasn't enough for some. They then began to call them to these 'Trials', where they would either have their chance at freedom, death, or the Dementor's Kiss." Hermione broke off her tirade, so she could inhale some much-needed oxygen.
In an effort to encourage his girlfriend to continue, Ron said, "Right, go on!" He even made a shooing sort of motion with his hands.
Hermione then plowed on relentlessly, "But those Trials are a big old farce! They shouldn't even be deemed 'trials' at all! First off, the Death Eaters don't have a say in whether they want to do it or not. Second of all, they go in without lawyers, no Defendants, no one but themselves to try to prove their innocence. Besides, if they're Death Eaters, they would have committed crimes, no way of escaping that while with Voldemort – thank you Ron. This is just so the Ministry will have an excuse to subject them to the Dementor's Kiss! There would be no way for them to win the case, even if they were only a spy for the Order! The crimes the spies would have committed to keep their cover would be the only things the Court would see, and would still give them the Dementor's Kiss. Any evidence Death Eaters might have of being forced into serving Voldemort, would be taken in as codswallop, especially coming from the Death Eater's own mouth.
"But coming back to your question, Harry; it does seem quite odd. This is the first time the Ministry has broken out of its pattern. They would announce the Trial only after it had already occurred. But it is unbelievably obvious as to why they're announcing the Malfoy's Trial like this, unlike all of the others," Hermione said bitterly, stopping the pacing she had started somewhere in the middle of her rant. "The other Death Eaters they had on 'Trial' had family and friends who didn't take sides, therefore neither good, nor bad, and the Ministry didn't want them to come to defend their friend or family member. They didn't want their chances of taking out the Death Eater ruined by a Defendant or a lawyer.
"But the Malfoys are a different story. Their relatives all took sides, and the ones who might have been even slightly interested in defending them, are dead; all of their 'friends' were made out of fear of the Malfoys, and everyone strongly detests, if not hates, them. The Ministry knows this, and is not afraid that someone might defend them, because they don't believe anyone will. In fact, they probably announced their Trial so that more people would come than usual, and watch it all with spite, conviction, and malice in their hearts. Maybe people would go as far as to jeer at them. It is completely disgusting and barbaric!" Hermione concluded her speech with a giant huff, which she felt didn't emphasize her feelings enough.
The room was busy digesting all of this. Harry, if anything, was encouraged by all of it, if I could just get Hermione on my side…
It appeared that no one was planning on saying more at that moment, so Harry took his chance. "Why don't we defend Malfoy?" He asked his question with bated breath. The reactions he received were quite intriguing, and would have found them quite humorous if the situation hadn't been so serious. Hermione looked shocked; Ginny appeared to be wondering if George had snuck Harry one of his newest prototypes for his shop; George seemed to be considering whether or not to ship Harry off to St. Mongo's, stat; while Ron looked as if he was about to keel over, either that or grow really old, really fast, and then proceed to have a heart attack.
Surprisingly, Ginny was the first to find her voice, "Wha-what? You're joking, Harry, right? You aren't seriously suggesting that, right? I-I mean-"
Ginny broke off as Harry calmly stated, "I'm serious."
"Why?" Softly, Hermione this time.
"Err… Hero complex?" It came out as a question more than an assured statement. Harry then and there, made a pact with himself to think before he opened up the big fly-trap he called his mouth.
"Hero complex…" Ginny repeated with disbelief. It was prominent on all of their faces – they were practically screaming at him 'DO YOU HONESTLY THINK WE'RE THAT STUPID?!' without having to say a word.
"Okay…" Harry back-tracked and tried to edit his words, "Well… it's just…" Harry let out a big sigh, and gave a weak smile of defeat. "I never really could hide anything from you guys, could I?" Ginny shook her head and mouthed the word 'no', as if her vocal cords would not allow her to say the word.
"Not true, Harry. Not true," George began. "I mean, there was that time when… no. We found that out.
"What about when… no. We ended up tripping over you and blowing your cover.
"Ooo, ooo, I got one! What about the time when… no… that one kid got eaten…
"How about… *sigh* No. If I didn't know about it, I wouldn't be able to reminisce about it. Alright. I give up!" George threw his hands in the air in feigned exasperation, "You're right, you can't hide secrets from us." Then, with the wicked signature grin of the Weasley Twins, "Lucky us."
Harry collected himself and told them all the real reasons for his desire to defend Malfoy, "Well… even if he was an insufferable little ferret, and a horrible git to the lot of us, we still know him. We went to school with him for all of our years at Hogwarts. He didn't really kill Dumbledore. He was trapped and imprisoned, and tortured by Voldemort. He didn't really say who we out-right were to his parents, even though he could've gotten rid of us for good, and get out of trouble with Voldemort, when we were captured and bound on his floor.
"When we were in the Room of Requirement, it was as if he was, in a way, giving us more time to escape, when he was arguing with Crabbe and Goyle on not killing us. Well… that excuse is a bit of a long-shot, I suppose," Harry admitted, seeing the incredulous looks his friends were giving him. "But you've got to keep your mind open in these kinds of things…
"Anyway… we did risk our lives trying to save him and Goyle in the Room of Requirement when Crabbe set it aflame. It would have been such a wasted effort if he were to either get the Dementor's Kiss, die, or rot away to nothing in Azkaban.
"We weren't able to help Goyle, or any of the other Slytherns we know, because we always found out about the Trial too late. I want to… I just can't sit around here, know about the Trial, and know that I'm doing absolutely nothing about it! I need to help him! To help someone! Even if that someone was my enemy, the Ice/Dark Prince of Slythern, Draco Malfoy.
"Plus, the Malfoys aren't as bad as the Prophet leads them to be. Voldemort would have found out I was still alive back in the achromantula clearing, had not Mrs. Malfoy, the one chosen to check if I still lived, told Voldemort I was dead. I am still grateful, and in debt to her for this, even though I knew she only did it so she could see her son. I figured what better way to pay her back than to rescue them from the clutches of Azkaban?
"But, the thing is, I need all of your help. Like always, I won't be able to do this without you guys. Please… will you help me?"Harry not only pleaded with voice, but eyes as well.
"You were right the first answer you gave us. Hero complex," Ginny said weakly.
"You seriously want us to defend that rat bitten, ferret-Death Eater of a scoundrel?! And what is all of this about a bit of light possibly in him? If you ask me, you're looking in a very dark cave, for that light. Oh, and while we're at it, how about we give him the 'Not-As-Much-Of-A-Bastard-Trying-To-Kill-Us-As-You-Could-Have-Been-Medal'? If you haven't noticed, we all really don't get along that well either. And-"Ron cut himself off momentarily in favor of more air. Apparently, even though they had been disgusted by the prospect of another Trial, they also weren't very comfortable at the idea of defending the Death Eaters on Trial either, judging by the bizarre looks they had on their faces, and Ron's outraged outburst.
Ron, upon suddenly seeing the current expression on his best friend's face, softened. "This is really important to you, isn't it?" When Harry slowly bobbed his head, Ron gave a defeated sigh, "Alright. But you'd better help me out the next time Hermione's mad at me." Ron and Harry exchanged a small grin with each other.
"Thanks mate. I knew I could count on you to come through," Harry said, all choked up that Ron was there for him, even when it was Malfoy he was helping with. Someone then cleared their throat, and Harry turned to face Hermione.
"Well… you're going to need a pretty decent witch to help argue your points and get you all organized and everything, right?" Hermione stated with a little smile upon her lips.
"And don't forget a good arguer now," Ginny added.
"Oh, Hermione, and Ginny too. I – Thank you," Harry had trouble getting the words out of his mouth, due to the obstruction that was now forming in his throat.
"Well, I guess I've been out-voted then. But y'all know the saying 'if you can't bring back their sanity, join them in their insanity'. Something like that. But don't forget that Fred" everyone gasped, because this was the first time he'd said that name in months " was killed because of the Death Eaters, and I'm still slightly bitter about it; so don't expect me to have my whole heat thrown into this thing. I'm only doing this for you guys, not the Death Eaters, because I care about you," George shrugged. He then called out mischievously, "About now would be a good time for a group hug, don't you think?" He waggled his eyebrows up and down for good effect; it looked as if two red caterpillars were doing the Funky Worm.
"We think we'll pass on that one. We're not allowed to all go soft at the same time!" Ginny giggled.
"You – all of you… You don't know how much this means to me. You're amazing friends, and I'm lucky to have you. I don't know what I'd do without you. Thank You," Harry gave them all his best smile.
Ron then jumped up and said, "I've got it!"
They all looked quizzically at him, like a bunch of senior citizens questioning the town psycho as to why he'd replaced the steering wheel, and horn in their car with bicycle handlebars and a bell.
"Er… Got what, exactly?"
Ron sighed as if it was completely obvious, "If we're on a rescue mission, and we're a group, we should have a name for ourselves, and, luckily for us, I've got the perfect one!" While crossing and waving his arms in front of him, in a make-a-rainbow sort of motion, Ron said, "Draco Malfoy Rescue Squad! Or, just DMRS, for short!"
Hermione, seeing what she thought was her perfect chance for revenge said, "Dmrs?" She said it so it sounded like "Dim-ers".
Ron cackled in triumph (Harry made a mental note on how creepy Ron's cackle really was, and to tell him of it later) "Ahh, but Hermione, my acronym isn't as easy to say as spew was. It is so much simpler to say 'Dee, Em, Are, Ess'." Ron dragged out the 's' longer than was really necessary, so it sounded like a demented snake hissing.
While Ron and Hermione continued to bicker, Ginny told Harry, "I'll talk to Luna and get her to tell me how the Malfoys treated her, while she was in their dungeon, and I'll document anything good I can find. Plus, there are a couple of things that occurred while you, Ron, and Hermione were away, hunting for the Horecruxes, at Hogwarts. They would also be favorable for the Malfoys."
To Ginny, Harry said, "Thanks" and to the room at large, Harry announced," Alright, everyone, we only have five days to get our evidence together and be prepared. We can do this, right?" All of the suddenly serious faces nodded their agreement and excitement.
"Hermione," Harry turned to the aforementioned witch, "You'll help Ginny document, collect and organize the evidence, and put together the defense, okay?" When she shook her head in agreement, Harry turned to George," You'll help make a list of witnesses, and convince them to come to the Trial to vouch for the Malfoys."
As Harry was turning toward Ron, George interrupted by saying, "You know, Harry, you being the Harry Potter, the vanquisher of the evil Lord Voldemort, and all, I bet if you were to walk into that courtroom and say 'They're innocent! Release them!', they will not question you, and do that right away." George's Harry impression was so good, Harry began to no longer wonder why that random guy in Diagon Alley ran out of the public restrooms yelling to the world, 'Harry Potter spoke to me! To me! He told me I would look less ugly if I went to Weasley Wizard Wheezes to buy one of their rag-doll hats! Yippee!' even though Harry was just about to head for the restrooms, and had never seen the guy in his life until that unfortunate moment in time.
Harry shook that thought off as he turned back to his attention neglected friend, and told him that he and Harry would be looking into the past Trials and their outcomes, to get an idea of what they would be up against when their time came to Defend Malfoy.
They all had only five days to complete their tasks.
~TBC.~
A/N: That's it for the third chapter in DMRS! It was probably one of my longest chapters yet. I hope you liked it! Please give me your opinions and how you think this story will turn out. I am very curious, to say the least. So please review!
Other Disclaimer: Plus, I got the idea of the-bastard-trying-to-kill-us-medal thing from Avatar: The Last Air Bender's line of "Lets give him the Not-So-Much-Of-A-Jerk-As-You-Could-Have-Been-Award!"~ Katara. I just couldn't resist!
Next Chapter: More on a very depressed and haunted Draco Lucius Malfoy!
