Chapter Twenty Five
Bated Breath
Hermione wasn't terribly familiar with the Muggle court system, despite having grown up in the Muggle world. Even with such a lack of knowledge on that particular subject, she knew that it certainly had to be superior to that of the wizarding world. For at least the little she knew of the Muggle court system showed that there was some chance of success. From the scene she was witnessing, Hermione felt as though they had lost before they had begun.
Draco's trial was one of great magnitude and one of great interest to the wizarding world. As such, what should have been a moderate sized audience was bordering on the ridiculous. It was a plea for a boy's life, not a rock concert, after all. Another thing that struck Hermione as inferior to the Muggle world was that there wasn't a shred of dignity to be found in the circular room.
No matter the outcome of his trial, they had already succeeded in immortalizing Draco as a gaunt, petrified boy, arms bound palm up by golden snakes, his Dark Mark beckoning for his condemnation.
The Draco she had come to love was not this boy. Not the evil coward they intended to incriminate him as. He was stronger than any of them knew, and only she had ever been allowed to witness him in such a right state. To have such an audience for his undoing rubbed her so terribly wrong that she found herself biting back tears before he had even taken his seat.
His silver eyes searched desperately for something, but hers were on his trembling hands. It would do no good to meet his eye. The wizard in charge of his defense had ordered her hidden, so as not to impede the trial. She had reluctantly agreed, only wanting the best chance of winning. But now, seeing how wretchedly lost he looked, she wished for nothing more than to be right there beside him whispering comforting words into his ear.
"Just breathe, Draco, just breathe," Hermione mumbled under her breath repeatedly. The anxious witch relaxed minutely when she felt an arm drape over her shoulders and pull her close. Harry's familiar scent engulfed her as she leaned into him.
She was immensely grateful to the boys on either side of her. George and Harry hadn't let her leave their sight since they left the Burrow at the crack of dawn. Cassie had bid them a tearful farewell, deeply upset that she wasn't able to join them. She only let Harry leave her side when he promised to send an owl the minute it was over. Hermione was regretful that the younger girl wasn't with her.
It would not have helped the Malfoy case to have the discarded member of the family show up out of the blue, especially since she was known to be dead. Even her own mother didn't know she was there. Narcissa was too nervous to go to the trial at first. She had already seen her husband convicted. Though, she admitted to Hermione that she was happy to be rid of him. Hermione was more than a little harsh on the regal woman. She wasn't the one facing Azkaban, Hermione had argued. The least she could have done was show her face to support him. And so, coerced by the feisty Muggleborn, Narcissa Malfoy was sat in a sea of red hair, looking out of place and out of her mind with worry.
Hermione tried to take a calming breath. In a shaky voice, she whispered, "Harry, I'm so nervous."
"Just breathe, Hermione, just breathe," he instructed in a know-it-all voice.
She smacked him irritably, but couldn't completely keep a small smile down.
"Draco Malfoy," a booming voice started, a dead silence falling over the boisterous crowd. "You are here today under scrutiny of the wizarding world due to your grievous acts of treachery against it. You are charged with being a known and active Death Eater, fleeing the country to evade arrest, use of Unforgiveables, supplying Death Eaters with an entrance into Hogwarts, the kidnapping of Hermione Jean Granger, and the murder of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore."
A few moments had to be taken in order to quell the maddened spectators and magistrates alike. Draco had never looked smaller. He had never felt more insignificant and worthless in his life, which is to say a lot as his life was not a particularly pleasant one.
With Hermione and himself the only living people who knew their true story, Draco knew there wasn't any hope of him winning. Though he had put on a brave face for Hermione the last time he saw her, he was nothing but a riotous mess on the inside. He did not want to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban. But as the only two living people who knew the truth, neither of them could tell it. Draco briefly wondered whether the realization of his fate would have been easier to accept had Hermione never stumbled across his path. If he had truly committed all those crimes, unchanged by the amazing witch, would he have cared? Surely it would have hurt less if he had actually committed the crimes he was being accused of.
Draco watched the trial with detached horror. The shock of the abysmal scene before him contrasted with the delirious happiness he had experience over the last year was mind boggling. He felt a spectator to his own life, for surely this was not truly his life. Hadn't he agreed to do what he did to avoid this particular outcome?
Damn that man for making him take an Unbreakable Vow. Damn him for helping him gain a life only to leave him with no way to defend it.
He knew that he should have been paying attention. After all, it was his life at stake. But Draco only wanted to catch a glimpse of Hermione. He knew he wouldn't. She was too well disguised to be spotted, even by him. And though he agreed to it originally, he regretted it deeply. If he was to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban or receive, Merlin forbid, the Kiss, then he wanted to spend every last second of freedom gazing into Hermione's honey brown eyes.
His trial began with petty arguments and statements from former classmates that easily painted him as a bully. His representative quickly dismissed that nonsense as trivial and irrelevant to the charges presented. Though they were dropped, the negative depiction of him had certainly not earned him any friends among the Wizengamot.
Both he and Hermione dreaded the moment when he would have to admit that he could not, in fact, tell the truth. The minute he admitted to that, he knew he was a goner for sure. And sure enough, the moment their undivided attention was trained on him, Draco delivered the devastating blow to his case.
"And what have you to say of these charges, Mr. Malfoy?"
Harry was convinced that Hermione would break his hand if she held it any tighter.
"I-I'm afraid I have nothing, sir," Draco admitted weakly, the defeat in his voice evident.
Minister of Magic Kinglsey Shacklebolt grimaced. "Do you plead guilty then?"
"No," Draco managed to say somewhat confidently. Curious murmurs grew into a rush of speculation and bewilderment.
"I'm sorry. What is it you mean to plead?"
"Well," Draco sighed, his voice shaking, "While I can say I'm not guilty, I can't say I can explain everything."
Another member of the Wizengamot threw in her own demanding question. "Boy, what is the meaning of this? Why can't you just answer?"
A new voice entered the stream of questions. "May I speak?"
Excitement fell over the room as Harry Potter, the very boy who vanquished the Dark Lord stepped forward. Hermione's heart flutter as she watched Harry make his way down the stairs toward Draco.
"Mr. Potter, we are in the middle of a trial!" a woman cried in outrage, "You cannot waltz in just because-"
"Matilda, let the young man speak," Kinglsey insisted calmly but authoritatively. The irked witch scowled but silenced herself.
Harry took a deep breath before he launched into his speech. "Before I explain, I insist the murder charge be dropped. You were all there when I gave my account of what happened. You saw my memories, you saw Severus Snape's. Draco Malfoy did not kill Dumbledore and everyone in this courtroom knows that. You should be ashamed of yourselves for blaming him for it."
There was a disquieted stir among the room. He continued. "Also, the reason for Malfoy's inability to explain himself is rather inconvenient. I'm afraid that he and the only other person who know his true part in this war took an Unbreakable Vow to never speak of it in order to protect them both."
Before the din of the crowd got to unmanageable, Kingsley responded. "I find this terribly convenient, actually. You cannot expect us to be lenient because of this factor. We cannot merely take the word of a Death Eater, as I'm sure you understand," he said quite seriously. Both Harry and Draco nodded sadly. "What of your charges can you talk to us about, Mr. Malfoy, if there are anything at all?"
Draco cleared his throat, his mind reeling, his hands shaking, his heart pounding.
"I didn't kidnap Hermione Granger."
From the faces of the Wizengamot, it seemed as though that were not the charge they expected him to speak of.
"Then, Mr. Malfoy, how do you explain these pictures?" Matilda questioned. Magically displayed above her head for all to see were the pictures from Rita Skeeter's article that had originally claimed kidnapping. The one with Hermione slung over his shoulder. "Is this or is this not you and Miss Granger?"
"It is," Draco answered readily.
"If you didn't kidnap her, then how do you explain this photograph? Did you not kidnap Miss Granger and flee to Australia to avoid capture?"
Draco really wished he could see her face. He needed a little support. It killed him to out their love to the whole world this way.
"I did no such thing, Magistrate Tisday. And if the jury would like to see the memory of that day, then I am willing to share it," Draco offered willingly. Or at least he hoped he sounded willing. He was, in fact, very reluctant. He was a private person by nature and upbringing. And to share his intimate moments with what seemed like half the wizarding community of Britain was like stripping to his bare bones for all to see.
The harshly featured woman nodded once in agreement, resulting in an elderly wizard to make his way painfully slowly down to Draco. His nerves had his heart racing out of his chest as the wizard withdrew the memory Draco offered. With a whispered spell, the memory played out like a movie above his head. He couldn't even watch it fondly, reminiscing of a happier time. He felt raw and exposed and wishing the world would swallow him whole.
"Come on, Hermione, we have to go!" Draco insisted, tugging her along. The reluctant witched dragged her feet after him. Her sour expression didn't suit the lovely weather of the day. Draco, for once, seemed to be the bubbly one.
"No, we don't," Hermione argued irritably, stealing his usual scowl. He grinned at the sight of it, pleased that he seemed to have rubbed off on her. "We're never going to find them, so what's the point?"
Draco halted in his tracks and spun around to face her. Startled by the abrupt change in pace, Hermione bumped into him, surprise wiping her irritable expression clean. He cradled her face gently in his hands and forced her to look up at him. "We are going to find them. I swear on my life, love, we'll find them."
"How can you be so sure?" Hermione sniffed, exhaustion creeping over her, the stress of the search getting to her.
"Because we're together," he said simply. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. "And we both know that when we work together, we can accomplish quite a lot."
Overwhelmed by emotion, Hermione simply placed a chaste kiss to the corner of his mouth in gratitude for his reassuring presence. Pulling back, she whispered, "I'm still not going."
Amused by her sass, Draco smirked and let her think she won, watching her retreating figure appreciatively. He called out her name and threw her up over his shoulder as she turned to face him. She shrieked indignantly as he made his way up the stone pathway to their flat. "Draco Malfoy, you put me down right this instant!"
"No. I don't think I will. You're going to go inside, put on clothes that aren't covered in sand, and meet me back here in ten minutes," he said, ignoring her demand entirely.
"You know, any other boyfriend would carry their girlfriend in their arms. All romantic like and what not. Certainly not thrown over their shoulder like a sack of potatoes," Hermione huffed indignantly.
Draco craned his neck over his shoulder. "I'm not any other boyfriend."
Her twinkling laugh warmed his very soul. "And thank Merlin for that!"
Following an intense silence, the court room descended into a madness that refused to relent for an outrageous amount of time. Kingsley struggled immensely to bring things back into order. It seemed no silencing spells would be enough to keep people from exclaiming over the apparent fact that Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger were a couple.
The chatter was still somewhat out of control when the questioning resumed.
"Mr. Malfoy, you mean to tell the court that you and Hermione Granger are romantically involved?" Kingsley asked. Draco nodded in the affirmative. "How did this relationship come to be?"
Draco looked pained as he answered, "I-I can't tell you that."
Kingsley sighed deeply. "Can you tell me why the two of you were in Australia?"
"Hermione's parents. We were looking for them. I found her just weeks after the final battle and we agreed to go look for them together," Draco explained. "I didn't know I was 'fleeing the country to evade arrest'. All I knew was that the war was over and she needed my help."
Kingsley showed no emotion, though he did turn to his fellow magistrates, explaining, "Miss Granger's parents were, uh, relocated to Australia to ensure their safety during the war."
Magistrate Tisday, who clearly held a great personal disdain for Draco, scoffed, "A safety measure that was only necessary because of the likes of Mr. Malfoy, here."
Draco suddenly found himself tasting the bitterness of his own blood. The inside of his cheek suffered as he struggled not to blurt out the truth. Just like during the war, to tell the truth was to die. The irony of the situation was not lost on him. It stung.
"How are we to be sure that these feelings Miss Granger has for him are real? Stockholm Syndrome is not uncommon among kidnapping victims," Tisday suggested with a suspicious glare sent Draco's way. It was not an accusation he had been unprepared for. "She may be a strong witch, but anyone subjected to the cruel ministrations she was likely to have endured-"
Finally, it was time.
"While I thank you for your concern, Magistrate Tisday, I can assure you that Draco Malfoy neither kidnapped me nor held me against my will."
Hermione remained strong even as every eye in the room turned to the owner of the voice. Shocked gasps rang through the room as they came to the realization that two thirds of the Golden Trio seemed to be defending the Death Eater.
"Miss-Miss Granger," Tisday stammered. The elder, straight-laced witch had not expected the girl's appearance. She had assumed she would come to testify against the boy and take her leave. Even before the war, the witch had her eye on Hermione as a prospective protégé. She was brilliant and righteous and certainly the formidable force the Ministry needed. To see her take the stand in favor of the Death Eater on trial was a shock to the system. For the first time in decades, Magistrate Matilda Tisday was speechless.
"I'm afraid that my testimony is quite as limited as Draco's, but I can assure you that he did not kidnap me," Hermione stated bravely, wincing as she registered how entirely weak their defense was. "It's not lost on me that this trial is doomed, seeing as the truth is locked to us. But I want it to be known, at least, that Draco Malfoy is innocent of my kidnapping. We decided together to move to Australia because we couldn't stand the thought of being apart any longer. It was my misguided notions that led us to leave the country without consideration that there might be repercussions such as this."
"You believed that he wouldn't be brought to justice?"
Hermione took a moment to answer, instead gazing at Draco. He offered her a weak smile, the kind he used to sneak her way during their sixth year. The kind of smile that comes when you feel like you would be sobbing instead if you didn't at least try. She steeled her shoulders and agreed with Kingsley's statement wholeheartedly. "What Draco did during the war…well, it shouldn't have resulted in this spectacle, that's for certain. So forgive me for believing that we had gotten through the horror of it at last once Voldemort was gone."
Kingsley ignored the shudder that rippled through the court room at the sound of the dark wizard's name. He asked what everyone had begun to wonder, "And why, Miss Granger, can you not be the one to vouch for Mr. Malfoy? You seem to know the information that he apparently cannot speak of."
Harry, who had remained silently by Draco's side, finally spoke up. In a reluctant voice, Harry said, "Minister, Hermione is the only other person that I mentioned before. She, too, took an Unbreakable Vow."
"How unfortunate," Magistrate Tisday tsked in a tone that sounded eerily familiar. Harry had to shake of thoughts of Dolores Umbridge as he composed himself.
"Be that as it may, if the two of you cannot provide someone that is able to speak on your behalf, I'm afraid there is no choice but to convict Mr. Malfoy of his crimes," Kingsley said rather hesitantly. Try as he might to be emotionally unbiased and detached from the case, he could feel Hermione's desperate eyes on him, begging for help. "Before I call the first session to an end, is there anything further you wish to say in your defense, Mr. Malfoy?"
All eyes moved to Draco with their undivided attention. It didn't faze him, for the boy had eyes only for Hermione. She could barely look at him. Because when she did, all she saw in those grey eyes was guilt. He was trying to beg her for forgiveness. The chaos of the overly crowded court room melted away into an easy silence in her mind. She watched him with bated breath, afraid she knew exactly what he was thinking. He mouthed the words, "I'm so sorry."
"No!" she cried, unable to control her sobs any longer, "No, Draco, please! You can't!"
"What else can I do, love?" he murmured miserably. There was nothing he loathed more than causing her pain. "Maybe it won't work. Maybe nothing will happen."
Hermione shook her head frantically. "But it will! Please, don't do this!"
But the stubborn boy had already decided. He would not live in Azkaban. He would not subject Hermione to that miserable life of his mother. Always waiting, always worried. No. He would finally take control. He would finally make a stand for himself. For what was right. Even if it killed him.
Even if it killed him.
In the wake of Draco's following declaration, Hermione was ushered from the court room along with the rest of its occupants. In a sea of strangers, Hermione's already fragile heart shattered, the brittle pieces kicked and scattered to the winds by the emerging masses.
The Weasley family and Harry stood in a loose circle around their favorite brunette witch. She was locked in a protective hug from George with Harry trying to console her. Both of their efforts were in vain. There's was nothing to say that would make her hurt less.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron scoffed at the bawling Hermione, strolling over to the rest of his family.
In that moment, the contempt George felt for his younger sibling went against everything his playful nature stood for, but there was no denying his current hatred.
"Draco's just agreed to take Veritaserum," Harry said gravely. Ron raised a disinterested eyebrow and scoffed. "The git probably built up an immunity to it during the war. Fat lot of good that'll do."
No one saw Hermione's vicious right hook coming.
Ron struggled to pick himself up off the ground. He spat a mouthful of blood onto the pristine floor in disbelief.
As Hermione was shaking with so much fury that she couldn't form a coherent sentence, George stepped in with a deadly calm voice. "For your information, Ronald, as I know you weren't listening to a damn word, Draco and Hermione both made an Unbreakable Vow not to speak of their part in the war."
Ron blinked rapidly. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. His eyes flicked from the crestfallen George to the anguished Harry to the vengeful Hermione and back again. "You-you mean…"
"That by agreeing to take Veritaserum, Draco has essentially agreed to die."
A/N: Please don't stop reading this now! I swear it gets better! I mean, this is listed under Romance/Friendship, not tragedy. Just remember that. Nobody dies, I swear (except maybe Ron's dignity). I'm nervous to end on this because I'm afraid you guys won't want to read ahead, thinking the worst will happen. I promise there's more to the trial! Please, please keep reading!
And please, please keep reviewing! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :) We're almost at 100 reviews! How crazy is that?!
Also, fear not! There won't be a long wait time for the next update. I'll probably only make you suffer for a day or two ;)