A/N So sorry if this took a while, I got a bit distracted! I hope that you find this chapter worth the wait. Please enjoy and keep in mind that this chapter has not yet bee read over by my BETA.

Chapter twenty-one Death Eater Trials & a Dispute

Friday, June 19, 2015

12:04 PM

Once all of the marked death eaters had been taken to the Ministry holding cells to await their trials, and each and every injury and casualty had been dealt with Serenity sat alone in her father's dungeon quarters deep in thought. She felt deep remorse for what she had done even though the horrid muggles had deserved the brutal punishment that she had personally dealt out to them. She was glad that she had finally got to see her brother smile and hear him say her name, but she was very worried about what the Ministry would say when she turned herself in to them for her crimes. She opened her father's trunk and placed a hand over her belly and smirked as she flicked her wand and shrunk all of his personal books, cauldrons, and other personal effects before making them fly into the open trunk.

She had already packed away his clothes that he would wear under his robes, but she had taken to wearing his black robes just so she could smell his scent and feel as if it wouldn't be long before she saw him again, even if he would start his new life as her son. She had just closed his trunk after placing the last of his things inside and locked it when there was a knock at the door. "Enter." she said as she packed her own trunk with a flick of her wand with her back to the door.

"Serenity can we talk?" asked Draco from the door.

She stiffened and lost her concentration on her spell and everything fell to the stone floor when she heard Draco's voice. "No Draco, there is nothing that you can say that will change my mind about this." she said as she swished her wand and sent everything that had dropped flying into the trunk violently, before she slammed down the lid and locked it.

"Serenity, I don't want to marry Daphne Greengrass, I want to marry you!" he said as he attempted to pull her into his arms only to get a stinging hex to his hands.

"Draco, please don't touch me. This is hard enough as it is. Other than what I've done by liking the muggles that raped and abused me every day of my young life, there is something that I've done that you'll hate me for and I don't want the last time that I see you to be with you angry at me, so just leave me alone, and go away please." she said before she called out to one of the Prince Family house elves.

"Serenity, I love you, there is nothing that you could have done that I won't forgive." said Draco as he pulled her back into his chest and pinned her wand arm against her body so that she couldn't hex him again.

"You're only saying that because you don't know what I've done." said Serenity not looking him in the eyes. There was a pop that made Draco look up to see a house elf wearing a blue and silver tunic with the Prince family crest on it.

"Winx is here Mistress Prince. What would Mistress wish of Winx?" asked the elf bowing low.

"Winx take my father's old trunk and my trunk back to the manor and put them away. I shall not be home for quite a while I'm afraid. By the time that I return, I wish for everything to be put in its proper spot. Father's books are to be placed into the library, his cauldrons and potions ingredients are to be placed into eh potions lab, and his black robes are to be hung in my closet. The rest of his clothes are to be packed into the trunk and put away in the attic. That will be all for now, you may go." she said as Draco held her in his arms refusing to let her move.

"Yes Mistress, it shall be done as you wish." said Winx before she snapped her fingers and disappeared taking the trunks with her.

"Serenity, Please tell me what you fear I'll hate you for." said Draco making her look into his eyes as he tilted her face up to meet his gaze.

Serenity sighed and attempted to look away from his hypnotic silver eyes. "Fine, Sit down because this is not going to be easy and I'd rather not see you hit the floor when I tell you this." she snapped as her magic flared and her skin heated up making him release her. Once he was seated on a sofa she sat in her father's favorite armchair and looked very much like her father at that moment as she debated on how to tell him what she had done without making him completely lose it.

"Draco, do you remember the night before the war had hit Hogwarts?" she asked as she toyed with the hem of her sleeve distractedly.

"Which part?" he asked with a smirk.

"Draco, please be serious about this. You want to know why I'm doing all of his and why I am saying that I can't marry you. Please be adult about this and listen to me." she growled grumpily.

"I am being serious, let's just say that what I keep on remembering about that night is like something out of an enchanted copy of play wizard." he smirked remembering the night of passion that they had shared before the battle broke lose.

Serenity rolled her eyes before she spoke at his expression. "Draco has anyone ever told you that you are a sex fiend?" she asked upon seeing the lecherous look in his eyes.

"If I'm a sex fiend, than you only have yourself to blame. I just can't stop thinking about you ever since that first night that you came to my room and gave yourself to me, even though I did think you were the weaslett at the time." he laughed.

"That is not the point. Draco I don't know how to say this without upsetting you, so I have to just say it and get it off of my chest no matter what you think." said Serenity attempting to remain calm.

"Okay, I'm listening." smiled Draco.

"After that night and the meeting in the great hall when all of the Slytherin's except for you tried to hex me when I protected all of the other students, I woke up in the hospital wing about an hour later when the real fighting had begun. It was at that time that Madame Pomfrey told me that I was pregnant by one day, and that I should be very careful with what kind of magic that I performed as it could affect my child." she started not looking at Draco for a reaction.

"you're pregnant with my child?" said Draco in a soft tone as he quickly moved and knelt at her feet so that he could look into her black eyes with a look of joy and wonder on his face.

"Yes, and no! It was your child, until I chose to cast an ancient spell that has been lost since the time of the founders to save my father' and give him a second chance at life." she said finally looking him in the eye.

"That spell allows the spirit of one who was recently killed to be reborn using either something similar to act as a host or the life of an unborn child. So in some ways that child is yours while in other's it's not. My father's spirit now resides within the beginning stages of the unborn child that I'm carrying." she explained. Draco frowned as his mind raced with what she had done.

"Serenity, are you completely mental. It's bad enough that you basically exchanged one life for another using our child, but you intend on turning yourself in to the Ministry for crimes against muggles that deserved what they got. Did you even stop to think about the possibility of our child or your father shall we say, being born while you were imprisoned?" he asked with a hint of rage turning his silver eyes the color of stone.

"I did consider that possibility. That's why I've cast an equally ancients spell that will prevent the development and birth of my child until I am free and it is safe to bring a child into the world." said Serenity angrily.

"My father agreed to it before his spirit entered the offered container. He said that I am too smart and should have been placed into Ravenclaw. If he hadn't agreed to it, than I still had the charm on the baby to prevent it from being harmed or born until my release. I'm not a fool, Draco! Because of my training as a healer and my explorations of Salazar Slythin's chambers, not to mention the fact that I have been able to speak, read and write in parcel tongue since before I could even preform magic I know more spells than even Voldemort was aware of. Now unless you have anything else to say about this, I have to hand in my resignation to the Headmistress before I go to the Ministry." she said as she got to her feet and crossed the room to the door to leave.

"Serenity, I'm not too happy about what you did, but I can't hold it against you because of why you did it. I will never stop loving you, and respect you more for what you are trying to do. I still don't think that you belong in Azkaban, and I know that I'm not the only one who feels that way. Does your brother know what you are planning on doing?" asked Draco as he grasped her hand to stop her from leaving him alone in the empty room.

"Yes, and you are right, he doesn't like or agree with what I'm doing either. I understand why you both feel that way, but you both have to understand that I feel as if this is just something that I need to do." she said as she placed a tender kiss on his cheek before pulling away and walking up to the headmistress's office.

Draco refused to leave her side and followed her up the spiral staircase that led to the headmistress's office. She knocked at the door and found that Harry, Hermione, and Ron were also waiting in the office as she entered the room. "Headmistress, I've already handed in my resignation as a healer to Saint Mongo's, and I now wish to do the same with you." she said as she looked at the portrait of Dumbledore and her father sitting side by side on the wall instead of looking at her brother or her friends who were there.

"Sis, I'm not going to let you do this. Sure you did what you did, but after what was done to you and the fact that you never saw a mind healer that I'm aware of it was bound to happen. We are all quite certain that considering what they did to you and the pensive memories of both you and the ones that your father,, er, um Snape gave me along with our testimony will be enough to clear you of all charges." said Harry in a firm tone.

"Your brother is right, Healer Prince. I'm also quite certain that they will take into consideration the fact that you turned against the Dark Lord and helped to destroy him into account. You are just as much a war hero as your brother and Professor Snape was. You don't deserve to sit in Azkaban Prison." said Minerva in a crisp tone.

"You are all making this harder on me than I wish it to be. You are all forgetting that I've broken the Healer's code of conduct. The fact that I'm not dead and can surprisingly still use my magic is till confusing to me. I've killed the muggles that raped me and killed the Dark Lord. Even if they do decide to not keep me in Azkaban, I can never go back to being a healer. What am I supposed to do with myself? "I'm not worried about money because I have more than enough with what I was left by my birth parents Lilly and James Potter, not to mention what I was left by Lady Eileen Prince and my adopted father Severus. I'll go crazy without something to do to feel as if I'm giving back to the wizarding world." said Serenity as she kept her eyes on her father's portrait.

"Headmistress if I may make a suggestion on my daughter's behalf." said Severus's portrait as he glared at his stubborn daughter with his black painted eyes.

"Yes, Severus, what do you suggest?" asked Minerva turning to face the portrait.

"As you've all said, Serenity is a war hero, and the Ministry will take all of her actions into account. However, I know how she feels on this subject having spent lots of time with her for all of those years. My daughter is forgetting her first love of potions and the fact that she has a mastery in that field as well. Perhaps once she has accomplished what she has set out to do, and has spent some time under the care of a mind healer, it might be prudent to give Horas Slughorn the retirement that he seeks, by offering the post of Potions mistress, and professor, and head of Slythierin house to Serenity." said Severus giving his shocked daughter a look that told her that the subject was not open for debate, even if he was only a portrait on the wall.

"I think that, that's a wonderful idea Severus. She'd be as good as you were in that post." chimed in Albus from his frame with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Stay out of this Albus, you old manipulative goat! None of what happened to her would have happened in the first place had you listened to either me or Minerva years ago. One more word out of you and I'll come over there and give you the thrashing that you deserve." snapped Severus drawing his wand to prove his point as he stood from his painted chair knocking his teacup that was on the painted desk to the ground to shatter on the floor with a crash.

"Severus, calm down!" ordered Minerva giving him a cross look. "He's right Albus, this all could have been avoided. If you two can't get along, I'll have to have you moved to another section of the office so that you are not so close to each other. Now both of you behave." she snapped making both of the painted men settled themselves down.

"Don't move him anywhere near me or I'll finish the job that Headmaster Snape wants to start on him." snarled Finius Nigellus from his frame across the room. Minerva gave the other portrait an exasperated look.

"We're not letting you do this alone, Serenity." said Hermione as she stepped forward and placed a calm hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, Serenity, your our friend, and friends don't let friends go through hard times alone." said Ron as he also stepped forward and smiled at Harry's sister.

"If they don't see it the way that we want, and let you go free, then I'll spare no expense and hire the best barrister in the wizarding world to take up your case, Besides I don't want anything to do with Daphne Greengrass. She's not my soulmate, you are." said Draco as he wrapped his arms around her possessively and kissed her cheek making her blush over the fact that he had just done so in front of everyone including her brother.

As promised they went with her to the Auror's department to speak to the new head Auror on Serenity's behalf. They all went home depressed that Serenity had as she had said that she would turn in her wand and turn herself in for what she had believed in her heart that she had did wrong. The last thing that she heard was Draco's scream of rage and Harry and his friends holding him back as she was taken into the holding cells in the Ministry. She was luckily kept away from the death eaters who were still awaiting trial for fear of what they would have done to her, and was the only person held in the bowels of the Ministry that was visited daily by all of her family and friends.

The dementors attempted to draw near to her but moved away when they came upon a rather large black dragon in the cell instead of a human that they fed upon. She was there for what seemed to be a month before Lucius came with his very expensive barrister to speak to her and to take her to attend her trial which they had finally managed to get pushed up. The Auror who accompanied them gasped in shock when he tripped over the end of what appeared to be a large black dragon tail that was sticking out of her cell. "What in Merlin's name?" he spat as he got to his feet and looked into the cell to see the large black dragon listlessly blinking at him.

"I don't understand this, there's not supposed to be a dragon in this cell. How in the Hell did a dragon even get in here?" he sputtered.

"She's a very powerful witch who is able to change into her animagus form without her wand. Dementors don't have any effect on animals. The Minister has been made aware of this fact and had a ward to prevent prisoners from changing into their animagus form added to Azkaban Prison. Lady Prince, will you please change back into your human form, it's time for your trial." said Lucius calmly.

"She's an unregistered animagus! This should be added to her charges." said the Auror as he glared at the dragon before she changed back into her human shape.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but I am most certainly not unregistered. I am registered in France where I learned to transform at Beauxbatons Academy of Witchcraft. If you had checked over the last page on your clipboard, you would have noticed that fact for yourself." said Serenity as she crossed her arms angrily glaring back at the Auror in disgust.

The Auror flipped to the last page and his eyes widened as he saw that she was telling the truth about being registered in France. "Fine, fine, place your hands out in front of you and step forward inmate 11-121979." he said harshly on finding that he was indeed wrong on his assumption. Serenity stepped forward with her hands out in front of her as she was told and winced as cold iron shackles appeared on her wrists.

"Honestly she is a none violent offender, surely these chains aren't necessary." frowned Lucius as he and the barrister followed the Auror as he pushed Serenity roughly through the narrow corridors that led under the court rooms and sat her down in the chair that would rise into the court room above flicking his wand making the chains wrap around her binding her tightly too the chair.

"Protocol is protocol." he said before stepping back and standing by the wall waiting for the prisoner that was currently in the court room to be lowered down after sentencing.

Serenity gazed up at Lucius's face with an arched brow over his anger toward the guard with dull black eyes and shook her head. "I can see now, where Draco gets his temper from Lord Malfoy. He looks just like you when he's angry or upset." said Serenity making Lucius stop giving the guard a death glare.

"Speaking of Draco, he's angrier than a mother Hungarian Horntail. Why didn't you allow him to visit you? "I've never seen him so angry." said Lucius giving her a look.

"He knows why! It's bad enough that your family is attempting to get me out of here, I can't and won't bring shame upon your family by allowing Draco to marry someone who has committed murder. I did what I felt was right at the time, and wouldn't take back what I've done. He knows that I won't marry him for that exact reason. That's why he's so angry." said Serenity as she watched the chair of the other prisoner being lowered to the ground.

Lucius just shook his head as he watched two large Aurors drag the screaming wizard into the floo that led to Azkaban. "Don't worry about that now. We'll see you in a few seconds at the trial. Come along Lord Malfoy, it simply won't due for her defense to be late to the trial." said the Barrister calmly. Serenity watched them go and lowered her eyes to her lap as she waited to be taken into the court room. Suddenly the chair started to rise and she shivered as she felt a cold rush of air and heard the sounds of people muttering.

"We are here on the 29th day of July 1997 to observe the case number 11-121979, Wizengmont verses Serenity Rose Prince, A,k.A. Serenity Rose Potter, A.K.A. Renata Mignonette Prince. The accused has agreed and consented to take Varitus Syrum of her own free will, is this statement true?" asked Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Yes I have Minister." said Serenity looking up into the Minister's eyes.

"Is your chosen name Serenity Rose Prince, born on July 31st 1980 in Godricks Hollow?" asked Kingsley as he looked down at the parchment in his hand.

"Yes." answered Serenity looking calmer than she truly felt.

"It says here that you voluntarily turned yourself in for crimes that you believed yourself to be guilty of. The accused has turned herself in to the Ministry stating at the time of her confinement that she was guilty of the murder of five muggles who it had been previously determined had been imprisoned in Azkaban for the rape and obviously attempted murder of a magical child. She has also confessed to at one time wearing the dark mark and following the orders of the Dark Lord, and has confessed to what she perceived as the murder of the dark Lord. It has come to our attention that in fact although she was rescued by her adopted father Severus Tobias Snape, and given a new chance at life and a home filled with love that she was never to our knowledge taken to a mind healer."

"Evidence has been given in the form of pensive memories from the accused and her departed adopted father as well as verbal and written testimony from those who were present on the day of the battle of Hogwarts, that clearly shows everything that led up to her actions that led to the death of said muggles. After reviewing this evidence we have decided that Lady Serenity Rose Prince shall be cleared of all charges, and shall be awarded the order of Merlin first class for her part in ending the war and her defeat of the Dark Lord Voldemort. Furthermore she shall be awarded two million gallions and all properties, titles, and holding that was left to her by both her birth parents and her adopted parents shall be returned to her immediately. Serenity Rose Prince you are hereby free to go. Your family is waiting for you with a fresh change of clothes." said Kingsley as he flicked his wrist and the chains on the chair released her.

As the chains loosened and the heavy irons around her wrists opened, Serenity rubbed her wrists and got to her feet. Harry and Ginny came up to her and Ginny handed her the robes and other clothing that she had been wearing the day that she had turned herself in to the ministry. Harry watched as his wife walked his sister to the nearest ladies room to change before turning to Lucius Malfoy. "Thank you for helping us get her out, Mr. Malfoy." he said holding out his hand to the older man in gratitude.

"Don't mention it Mr. Potter. My family owes her more than she is willing to allow us to ever repay. I'm just happy to see her free and able to move on with her life. Draco isn't happy with her choices and is still trying to work out a way to change her mind, though considering how stubborn I know she is, I don't see that happening any time soon." he said with a smirk as Ginny and Serenity stepped out of the ladies room with Serenity dressed in what he knew well to be Severus's old robes. She looked happier but there was still something that he could see was clearly bothering her.

A/N the chapter that will be after this may or may not be the last chapter of the story. There will be a pole up on my page that will give you an option to vote so what you would like to see . Please take advantage of this way I can decide if I should end of the story where it is after you read the chapter that will be posted next onth or if I should go ahead and write a sequel . thank you for reading for reading please leave a comment if you wish. Chapter twenty two Rebirth and Family will be up next.