Chapter 7

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed. She knew that she had the look of a deer caught in headlights on her face.

"Hermione," he repeated. "What are you doing here? You can't follow me to work like this!"

"I didn't follow you to work!" she said, feeling shocked at his assumption. "I came to see the trial."

"You brought your baby to a murder trial?" his voice was just dripping with skepticism.

"Well, I don't really have anywhere else to leave her, now do I?" Hermione said, putting her hand on her hip.

"No, I suppose you don't," he said, giving Diana a quick glance.

Hermione wondered briefly if he had any lingering feelings for Diana. Even if he had had his doubts since the beginning that Diana was his, one would think that he would have become a little attached to her over the last few months. Hermione knew though, that Ron had only spent a handful of hours with Diana and probably hardly knew the baby at all.

"Anyway, I should really eat my lunch and then get back down to the courtroom if I want to find a seat again," she said, taking a bite of her sandwich.

"You really just came here to see the trial?"

"Yes Ron, really."

"Why?" he asked simply.

"Well, you've only been talking about it for the last year, I thought I'd come down and see it for myself."

He seemed to believe this and Hermione was suddenly ashamed at how good she had gotten at lying to him. Ron may not be a great husband, but he didn't deserve her dishonesty. She knew that she couldn't tell him the truth though. He would be livid if he found out that she was here to have a meeting with Draco Malfoy.

"Alright then," he said finally. "I'll give you a call sometime soon. I don't suppose you've found a place yet?"

Hermione was startled by the coldness in his voice. "No Ron, I haven't found a place to stay yet. It's only been a day."

"Ok," he said, taking a step away from her. "Be sure to tell me as soon as you do. We have a lot of things to sort through."

"Of course," she said, trying to match the wintry tone of his voice.

"Enjoy the trial," he said as he walked away from her.

Hermione looked down at her sandwich and found that she had suddenly lost her appetite. She tossed it into a nearby trash bin and wheeled Diana's stroller out of the crowded cafeteria.


As the crowd began filing back into the courtroom, Draco tried to clear his mind of everything but the trial. He just could not stop thinking about the conversation that he would be having with Hermione in a few hours. He hadn't been able to spot her in the crowded room that morning but he knew that she was somewhere up in those stands. If Hermione Granger said that she would be somewhere, she would be there.

Draco had managed to hold it together during the first morning of the trial, even with his mind in turmoil. Although this trial was really just a legal formality, it was still important for him to get everything right. He couldn't leave any loose ends. He didn't want Lestrange to get off because of any small mistakes that he made. He glanced over at Cade Greenwater, Lestrange's lawyer. The man looked half asleep and had barely appeared to be listening during the questioning of the first two witnesses. Draco couldn't let his guard down though, he didn't want Greenwater to come back at him when he wasn't expecting it. He had to treat this as seriously as any other case.

Chatter began to fill the courtroom as the seats began to fill. People could only sit silently for so long and Draco knew that the cafeteria would have been filled with conversation about the trial. It would take a few moments for everyone to settle back down again. The Wizengamot was entering now and the afternoon proceedings were about to begin.

"Order!" called Gumboil in a booming voice. "Order in this courtroom." He banged his gavel to know avail. "Silence!" he finally yelled.

Silence rippled across the crowd until the room was nearly quiet. All of the talking had ceased. Draco could still hear noise though. Carrying through the stadium-sized room was the sound of a crying infant. All of the eyes in the room turned in one direction and Draco finally caught sight of Hermione. She was desperately trying to calm the child and was obviously embarrassed by the attention she was getting. Draco finally saw her wave her wand and he knew that she was casting a Muffliato spell so that no one would be able to hear her or Diana anymore.

A thousand sets of eyes finally swiveled back around to the front of the room. Gumboil put his gavel down and sat down heavily in his seat. Draco took this as his cue to proceed and called his next witness to the stand. This witness was very important to the case. She was also a very rare kind of witness because she was a muggle. It was almost unheard of for muggles to be allowed into the Wizengamot's proceedings. Generally they would have their memories wiped of anything that would be useful for a criminal trial.

Sofia Brown was a different story. She had a close cousin who was a wizard and had grown up well aware of the magical world. She had also been witness to many horrible things. She ran an animal shelter in London that had been taken control of by Rodolphus Lestrange for many years. She was there to testify to the horrors that she had witnessed during that time.

"Miss Brown, please explain to the Wizengamot how Mr. Lestrange came to be at your animal shelter."

"Well," she said, her voice shaking a little. "He came in one day and started to try and control all of my staff using his magic. I was aware of what he was doing because of my experiences with magic in the past. I was able to avoid his control while he occupied the shelter. I was unable to do anything to stop him though for fear of revealing what I knew and causing him to turn on me," she put her head down in shame. "He did horrible things to the animals in that shelter and I was too afraid of him to do anything to try and stop it."

Draco knew that this had to be very difficult for the woman. While she had seen magic while growing up, she was completely unaccustomed to be surrounded by so many magical people and had probably not felt so trapped since she had practically been held hostage in her own animal shelter by Rodolphus Lestrange.

"Can you tell us what Lestrange did while he was in your shelter?"

"He was testing things on the animals."

"What kinds of things?" Draco prompted.

"Well, he started out by testing spells and potions on them to see how they reacted. He soon moved on to genetic testing."

"What do you mean by genetic testing?" Draco asked. "What was he trying to accomplish?"

"I believe that he was trying to create new beasts," she explained. "He was breeding them and casting mutilated spells on them. He was trying to create animals that could fight for him, he was trying to create a completely submissive army."

A soft murmuring fell over the crowd. This was something that had never been heard of before. No Death Eater had ever done this, it wasn't something that any of these people had even considered before. They were shocked and appalled by the idea of it. Draco knew that this was going to be a very important testimony for the case. All of the people gathered here were scared of Death Eaters, and with good reason. This would give them a new reason to be scared, a new reason to come clean with any information that they might be holding onto about others like Lestrange.

As Sofia continued her testimony, Draco stole a glance up at Hermione and Diana. He could see that Hermione was still cradling her baby and trying to get her to calm down. He knew that this meant that her charm was still up and he was glad for it. He knew how Hermione felt about animals and he thought that it was for the best that she wasn't hearing this particular testimony.


Diana simply would not stop crying. Hermione knew that it was too good to be true that Diana had behaved so well during the trip to the Ministry and during the morning testimonies. She couldn't expect the baby to remain silent or sleeping for the whole day. She had already changed Diana's diaper before coming back into the courtroom so she knew that it wasn't that. She simply held her daughter and stroked her back and her hair, hoping that these things would settle her.

She knew that she was missing the trial. She could tell by the looks on the faces of the people behind her that she was missing a doozy of a testimony right now. She would have to ask Draco later what this muggle's testimony had been about. She could see the witness standing up now and leaving and she briefly wondered if she should leave as well, take Diana into the hallway and try to calm her down. She quickly dismissed the idea, she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself and she wasn't sure that she would be able to maintain her Muffliato spell and levitate Diana's stroller down the steps.

A strange sensation came over Hermione and she looked down to see the next witness being brought into the room. She was surprised to see that he was being brought in by Dementors. Was this a Death Eater that was testifying against one of their own? Hermione squinted down at the man but couldn't quite make him out beyond his blonde hair. As the witness drew closer to Draco she looked from him to this man and made the connection. It was Lucius Malfoy.

Hermione's blood ran cold and she felt her muscles tense up. She wished that she would be able to listen to the testimony of the man that she blamed for ruining her life and her marriage.


As his father was led into the courtroom, Draco wondered if it had been a good idea to let him testify. He had allowed it for partly selfish reasons. It had been more than two years since he had seen his father. Now he was thinking that maybe it had been better that way. He didn't like seeing his father, the most powerful man that he knew, reduced to this. He was practically skin and bones and his blonde hair hung limply over his sunken cheekbones.

Draco had been surprised to learn that Lucius wanted to testify against a Death Eater. His memories of his father portrayed him as a very loyal man, one who would never betray his fellow followers. This was just another reminder to Draco that his parents had been wrongfully imprisoned. They had changed their ways and were more than willing to help in the fight against the remaining Death Eaters.

He could only hope that this would help his parents when he was finally able to build his case. He vowed to himself once more that if it was the last thing that he did, he would get his parents out of Azkaban. Thinking about it reminded him that he had not spent nearly as much time on their case recently as he should have and that he was really no closer to getting them out of jail than he had been a year ago. He still needed to figure out who it was that had pressed the charges against them so that he could get them to drop them somehow.

Draco sighed and turned his attention back to the courtroom. Lucius had been sworn in and was looking patiently at him. How long had he been lost in his own thoughts? Everyone was clearly waiting for him to begin the questioning. He rustled the papers in front of him and settled in for another long and gruesome testimony.


Hermione was finally able to lower her muffling charm just as the day was ending. All of the day's witnesses had been heard and Gumboil had decided that they had all heard enough for the day. They would reconvene the following morning at nine. Hermione stayed in her seat as the courtroom emptied out.

The room was getting loud and she prayed that Diana would remain calm while everyone slowly left the room. It was taking a very long time for the thousand people in the room to leave. After not being able to talk during the whole day of the trial, people were now mingling around and discussing all of the testimonies in great detail. Hermione strained her ears to try and hear anything about Lucius Malfoy, but people seemed to be more interested in the muggle who had testified before him.

Hermione tried to be patient. She knew that if she moved she would never be able to find Draco. She still planned to wait until the room was empty in the hopes that he would see her. She craned her neck and found that she could not see the front of the room at all because of all of the people standing there and she certainly couldn't make out any individuals.

Hermione could only imagine the bottleneck that was happening at the lifts now and was glad to be waiting in here and not trying to take Diana through that. She was hoping that Draco wanted to go somewhere nearby to talk, she didn't enjoy the idea of trying to make her way through the overloaded Floo Network anytime soon.

Finally after nearly a half an hour of chatter, pushing and shoving, the room was almost completely empty. Hermione could see that the Wizengamot was long gone, they had probably left as soon as they had been dismissed. The witness stand was bare, the defense lawyer was gone. Hermione still couldn't see Draco. There were actually cleaning staff coming in now. They walked slowly along the rows, picking up bits of trash. The one nearest to her gave a look that told her she needed to leave so they could do their jobs.

Hermione swore under her breath as she began to levitate Diana's stroller back down the steps. Why hadn't she and Draco come up with a meeting place for after the trial? She might not be able to find him now and she really didn't want to put this meeting off any longer. She sighed as she headed back out into the hallway. It was empty now, which didn't help. She had hoped that Draco would be out here.


At the end of the afternoon, Draco left through the back exit with the members of the Wizengamot. He just needed to grab a quick drink to sooth his aching throat and then he could go back into the courtroom to meet Hermione. He hoped that she would wait where she had been sitting during the day so that he would be able to find her quickly when he went back out.

Draco knew that he had some time before the courtroom cleaned out. Big trials like this one always caused a lot of unnecessary chatter. This many witches and wizards in one place was also bound to cause some catching up and reminiscing. He figured that he should have about a half an hour until the room was empty enough to make his way over to where Hermione had been sitting.

As he walked through the Wizengamot's quarters, Draco found that he was starving. He stopped over by their buffet table and helped himself to some nachos and salsa. After washing it down with a glass of water he found that he was already feeling better after the long and difficult day. He ate a little more and made small talk with the people around him. He glanced down at his watch and realized that it had been more than a half an hour since he left the courtroom.

"Excuse me!" he said to the man he had been talking to. "I've got to go, I'm supposed to be meeting someone."

The man waved his goodbye and then turned back to the overloaded buffet table. Draco spun on his heel and almost ran right into Alastor Gumboil, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.

"Terribly sorry sir," Draco said, stopping in front of the man. "I'm just in a bit of a hurry."

"Draco Malfoy," Gumboil said. "Just the man I was looking for. I was hoping I could talk to you for just a moment about the trial."

"Well sir I-"

"Perfect. I wanted to talk to you about your choice of witnesses. Don't you think that some of them are a little inappropriate for such a public trial?"

That caught Draco's immediate attention. He momentarily forgot his rush and turned back to Gumboil.

"Inappropriate?" he asked.

"Well yes, those gruesome stories, the muggle, the Death Eater…"

"The man on trial is a Death Eater! Of course his trial is going to be gruesome! The public should know that and if they don't want to hear it they shouldn't have come to the trial. If you think it's such a problem, maybe you shouldn't have made the trial public in the first place!" Draco was trying very hard not to raise his voice, but the idea of toning down a trial like this one for the sake of the audience was ludicrous.

"Well, I would like you to keep what I've said in mind for tomorrow," Gumboil said, as if Draco had never spoken at all. "This trial is really just a formality anyhow, we all know that Lestrange will be going to Azkaban."

Draco couldn't believe how flippant the man was being. "I'm trying to get him more than a sentence in Azkaban! I'm trying to get him the Dementor's Kiss! And if the people sitting in on this trial learn a little more about Death Eaters during this, maybe more of them will come forward with more evidence against some of them and we can punish them all as much as they deserve."

"Well, I see that we're not going to see eye to eye on this matter. I would like you to tone down the witnesses tomorrow," Gumboil insisted.

"I can't tone down the witnesses," Draco explained, feeling exasperated. "All I'm doing is asking them questions. They are answering with the fullest amount of truth that they can, which is exactly what they should be doing. It just so happens that, in this case, the truth is a little more gruesome and hard to stomach than most court cases."

"Good afternoon Mister Malfoy," Gumboil said and walked away.

Draco stood there fuming for a few minutes. Had that man even heard a word that he had said? Draco had always thought that Gumboil was a reasonable man, now he knew that he was just as ignorant as many of the other people who worked in the Ministry.

Draco finally forced himself into motion. He desperately hoped that Hermione would still be sitting in that courtroom. He wouldn't even know where to begin to look if she wasn't in there anymore. He hurried back out into the massive courtroom and looked around.

"Damn!" he swore, causing the head's of the cleaning staff to turn his way. Besides them, the room was empty.


AN: Thank you all for waiting so patiently for this chapter! As soon as I got back from vacation I become very sick. I could barely even think let alone write anything that made sense. After I was feeling better, it had been so long since I had written that I had trouble just jumping back into it. It was made doubly difficult by how boring this chapter is. I'm looking forward to writing Draco and Hermione's conversation next chapter! Anyway, thanks, as always for reading and reviewing.

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to any of my Canadian readers!