A/N: This bonus chapter is dedicated to new reader albus potter-greengrass.

-C

Draco did his best to ignore the whispers as he went through his day, but he knew that many of the students were busy gossiping about how his father was trying to get Hagrid fired. Draco stayed out of it, not wanting to draw any attention more to his case than necessary. He didn't need to have any distractions from his schoolwork, and he didn't want to have to defend his father's somewhat overzealous behavior.

"I hope they call me as a witness," Pansy Parkinson was saying on the way down to Care of Magical Creatures. "I submitted my name, you know. I think it's terrible that he can keep teaching until the hearing."

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing that even his father wasn't desperate enough to call Pansy Parkinson as a witness to the case. Madam Prewett would dismiss her testimony in a heartbeat. It was a little bit too clear how eager she was to say terrible things about Hagrid and the hippogriff.

He didn't catch Hagrid's eye when he arrived at the lesson, which consisted of flobberworms – potentially the most boring thing to exist in all the earth – and feeding them lettuce. And really, in Draco's mind, nothing was more boring than lettuce, except perhaps flobberworms.

"I hope you're pleased," Weasley said bitterly. "This class was fun before you went and screwed it up."

Draco raised an eyebrow at Weasley and had just opened his mouth to retort when he saw Harry shake his head slightly. Of course, Harry was right. All that would be achieved by it was to get in a fight, and that wouldn't make matters any easier on Hagrid. It certainly wouldn't quell the rumors.

"Lettuce again, no doubt," he said dryly, tossing his bag on the ground. "It's terrible."

A few other students looked at him and frowned, and Draco ignored their disapproval. He'd always been pretty good at ignoring the disapproval of others, using his mother's advice about thinking about how small they were compared with his heritage. It helped him hold his head up high, even though he knew he could never get away with say such things out loud.

He glanced over at the flobberworms and winced. It wasn't really fair, and he hadn't even wanted to file any kind of complaint, but he knew what he could expect from his father. At least he knew that Madam Prewett was favorably disposed to creatures' rights, and he'd heard Hagrid and Professor Dumbledore discussing that whoever was advocating for the hippogriff and Hagrid was quite formidable. Plus, any witnesses they took from the class – apart from Pansy – would speak on Hagrid's behalf, and Draco really didn't mind. He knew he'd been told not to insult the hippogriff. He knew that it didn't injure him in any way that Madam Pomfrey couldn't fix quickly.

He just also knew that his father was going to make everything difficult, because, as his mother said, that was just what his father had to do. It was the only way he knew he was doing anything he saw as useful.

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Rhea sat down with Catherine, going over their notes for History of Magic.

"Describe him," Rhea asked after Catherine talked about a mysterious man showing up at Selwyn Manor and talking to her parents while Mr. Potter made the kids to a snowball fight for ages.

The description would have been fairly generic, but when Catherine started talking about the expression on his face, Rhea knew it was the same man, the historian who had talked to her mother at their house.

"He's an historian," Rhea said, shrugging. "He interviewed my mum as well. But I don't really know what to think. Apparently he's just writing about the war."

Catherine raised her eyebrows and said, "Seriously? But my mother didn't do anything interesting during the war. She didn't fight or anything, she just got married and remodeled Grimmauld Place."

Rhea raised her eyebrows, wondering what there was about Madam Black that her own children didn't know, because there was no way this man interviewed her for no good reason.

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Remus inhaled deeply as he stood before the tribunal, led by Dorcas, who had to show no signs of impartiality. It was ridiculous that it even made it to this point, the whole case, but Lucius Malfoy was still a very powerful man who could get very many things his way.

"The tribunal recognizes Remus John Lupin," Dorcas read out, "professor, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"That is I," Remus said, speaking a little louder than natural in order to be heard by the whole tribunal.

"Your expertise?"

He nodded and said, "I am a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, specializing in defense from Dark Creatures."

"The nature of you gathering this expertise?" Amos Diggory asked, making notes for his reference.

"Well, I am a werewolf, for a start," Remus said calmly, watching Diggory flinch. In spite of the wonderful reforms Dorcas had put in place, many of their generation and older struggled with the old prejudices. "I also have spent a great deal of time studying and working with creatures of all sorts."

"Hippogriffs included?" Dorcas asked.

"Not usually," he admitted. "However, I did receive a N.E.W.T. in Care of Magical Creatures upon becoming fully qualified, and my training then did cover hippogriffs in theory."

"What can you tell us about hippogriffs pertinent to the case at hand?" Amos Diggory asked, frowning at him thoughtfully.

Remus cleared his throat and said, "Well, on hippogriffs I can say that they are generally not aggressive creatures unless threatened or insulted."

"Insulted."

"Yes."

"Verbally?"

Remus smiled and said, "Like a great number of magical creatures, Mr. Diggory, they are highly intelligent. Whether or not they understand human speech as you or I do, they certainly can understand tone of voice."

A few other members of the tribunal laughed, and Lucius Malfoy bristled.

"You teach the student in question," Dorcas said, "Draco Malfoy."

"I do."

"Tell us about him as a student."

Remus took a deep breath and trained his eyes away from Lucius Malfoy, knowing that he was about to incur at least some wrath.

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Aeson frowned as he heard his father speaking in a very low, very angry tone. It was his parents speaking, which meant that his father was furious with his mother. That tone was reserved for serious mistakes, so whatever his mother had done, his father thought it was incredibly significant. He thought he should walk away, but he couldn't resist the temptation to press his ear to the door for a moment.

"What on earth possessed you, Delia?" his father said, cool, calm, furious.

"It was the right thing to do."

"For who?" his father said. "You don't have the right to determine what's the best thing for Cara, or her children."

"Don't you think she has that right, Rabastan?" his mother asked. "Why is it always down to you and Sirius?"

Aeson decided that whatever this was, he was definitely not supposed to hear it, so he went upstairs to find his brother. Maybe he could goad him into a game of gobstones or something of that sort.

As he walked, though he couldn't get the conversation out of his head, and he couldn't stop wondering what his mother had done, and what it was supposed to mean for the Blacks.

He thought about writing to Caroline to ask her what was going on, but she might not know, or his father might find out. Judging by the snippet he heard, nothing good would come of such a letter being discovered. Best not to start it.

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Remus cleared his throat and said, "Draco is a highly capable student. He works very hard and is quite intelligent. He has some good aptitude for my class, although more for spellwork than creature identification. I would say he is not my most…empathetic student."

"Explain," Dorcas said.

"How is this relevant, Madam Prewett?" Diggory asked.

Remus said, "If I may, Mr. Diggory, it is quite important, when dealing with creatures, to have empathy. It cuts down considerably on dangerous mistakes. For example, when a teacher tells students not to insult a creature and why, students with empathy are far more likely to respect and remember this discuss than those who struggle with empathy."

"And this is the case with the younger Mr. Malfoy?" Dorcas asked.

"Yes, I would say so," Remus said. "It isn't a case of him being incapable of developing the required empathy, but he is currently slightly deficient in the trait to be dealing for long periods of time with the more dangerous creatures."

"So you think Professor Hagrid was in the wrong to expose third year students to such dangerous creatures?" Diggory asked.

Remus felt his nostrils flare and he fought the urge to say the first thing that came to his mind. All the things he could say from youth to put Amos in his place, but this was a tribunal, and he had to be careful. Everything was on the record.

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Ourania was pestering Damon as he tried to read, but he didn't really mind. He was annoyed that their mother was at work, but he knew it wasn't her fault that she was called to a tribunal. Still, he felt slight resentment he couldn't seem to get rid of.

"You know, Rhea said she has a friend who has a Firebolt."

Damon wouldn't exactly call Harry Potter Rhea's friend. Maybe a friend of a friend. But it wasn't really important.

"I wonder if he's let her use it."

Damon doubted this, but he licked his lips and turned the page of his book, letting his eyes skim the picture in the upper left corner of the right-hand page. Some goblin he'd not yet read about, but he was probably about to learn all about.

"Maybe, when I go to Hogwarts, he'd let me use it."

He definitely didn't think that would happen, but he was trying to find information about this goblin, so he didn't bother telling Ourania that there was no way Harry Potter would let her ride his Firebolt. If he was smart, he wouldn't let anyone ride it.

"Damon, d'you think we'll be in Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw?"

He looked up at his twin and blinked at her, for a split second wanting to tell her she was going to be a Slytherin just to see how she would respond, but she was looking at him so earnestly that it didn't seem right.

"You'll be in Gryffindor," he said. "I'm not too particular where I end up."

"You need to be with me," she said, almost sadly. "I don't think I could be in a House you weren't in."

"Then I'll be in Gryffindor."

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Remus sat down and watched the discussion from his seat next to Albus.

"You spoke very well," Albus said gently. "All that we can do now is trust in Dorcas's formidable ability to persuade her peers."

"I don't really seem them as her peers," Remus muttered. "She basically owns them."

Albus chuckled as they waited for the verdict. Remus could see the appeal of Lucius's argument, and it was well-delivered.

Dorcas stood, cleared her throat, and said, "After much consideration, firstly, this tribunal declares and finds that Rubeus Hagrid is not neglectful as a professor and a caretaker of children, having given the student in question ample warning that the behavior would lead to the result incurred. By reacting promptly and appropriately to the situation, he did not further endanger the child beyond reasonable consideration. He will retain his job at Hogwarts, as requested by Professor Albus Dumbledore."

Hagrid relaxed slightly, but Lucius sat up straighter waiting for the verdict on the hippogriff, which was what he'd really been after, anyway.

Dorcas glanced over the next piece of paper before saying, "Secondly, this tribunal declares and finds that the hippogriff known as Buckbeak is not a peculiarly dangerous or aggressive hippogriff, as he demonstrated prior to the incident a great ability to be used within a classroom setting and has had no prior nor subsequent issues of this type. The hippogriff is found to have behaved within accordance of its breed and instinctive behavior, and not excessively responding. The student was not harmed in any permanent manner, and this tribunal finds that it would be prudent for this student to learn to behave more carefully around creatures of this classification, and thus this course will be very good for him. Adjourned."

Lucius Malfoy stood as though about to call for an appeal, but Dorcas raised a challenging eyebrow at him and he sat back down, his jaw tight with thinly retained dignity.

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It occurred to Astoria Greengrass, as she watched Draco read a letter about the verdict of the tribunal his father had been launching against the hippogriff, that he looked almost relieved to find that Hagrid still had his job and the hippogriff had been cleared of all charges.

"Oh, no," Pansy said, stupidly. Astoria schooled her face to a neutral expression, but she watched Draco's with interest. "Will there be an appeal? Surely there will be an appeal. I told you they should have called me to give my testimony of the event."

"Why, so you could lie?" Draco said dryly. "The beast wasn't guilty of anything dire, and Hagrid even less so. To say otherwise would be a lie, Pansy, and there's no point in calling an appeal for you to break the law. Anyway, there's no appeal and I don't want one."

Astoria was impressed with his attitude, although perhaps he could have been a little less brutally honest to Pansy, but they'd all been itching to say it out loud.

Pansy looked stunned and hurt, and then she left, Daphne following her to their dormitory, probably for Pansy to cry and Daphne to tell her something that was a blatant lie.

Draco looked up at Astoria as though he expected her to follow them, but when she just stared back at him levelly, he looked back down at his book and said nothing further to her.

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Sirius grinned as Remus told him about the tribunal, about how Dorcas put Amos Diggory in his place. He'd wanted to go, but he couldn't get the time away. He couldn't stand Diggory.

"Well, it's nice that Draco didn't ruin Hagrid's life," Sirius said, stretching out. "I think I would have murdered my cousin-in-law if that happened. Might do it anyway."

He saw Remus frown slightly, probably wondering if Sirius would actually murder Lucius.

As tempting as it often was, Sirius would never do that to Narcissa. Unless she asked. Then he would do it without hesitation. He supposed thoughts like that should scare him, but they really didn't anymore. The right things were what mattered. The reasons. And for family, he realized, he would do pretty much anything.

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Blaise changed into his pajamas and said, "So have we suddenly befriended the younger Greengrass?"

"Hmm?" Draco asked.

"Astoria Greengrass," Blaise repeated. "We didn't try to chase her off when Pansy and Daphne left us alone. I presume you had a reason."

In truth, Blaise wasn't sure what was up with the curious look Draco had given the young, and remarkably confident, girl. Still, she was tolerable.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Draco said, and Blaise decided to ignore the lie. For now.

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Fabian listened to Dorcas explaining the tribunal and how frustrating Amos Diggory had been.

"Well, you've gotten him to be more reasonable about sentient creatures," he reasoned, shrugging. "Things thing sometimes have to happen in small steps, dove. The important thing is that you and Remus were able to save Hagrid's career and an innocent creature."

"Yeah," she said, sighing. "I just wish we could get Lucius Malfoy on board a bit more with…everything. His looking over his shoulder is good for keeping him in line for the most part, but he pushes back everywhere he thinks he can, and that just makes life difficult."

Fabian understood his wife's frustration, but he had no answers for her. He also knew she wasn't confiding in him for answers. When she wanted his input on something, she was very straightforward about it.

"No, I think I'll have to talk to Narcissa and Rabastan," she said, running her hands through his hair. "They at least have some idea of how to handle him. Fabian, do you have some idea of what we're going to do for Cora when she gets her letter?"

"Definitely we need to have Gideon over to celebrate," he said, smiling at the thought of how doting his brother was with Cora. "He'd never forgive us if we didn't."

"Well, of course."

"Otherwise, we probably shouldn't make too big of a deal of it," he said, stretching out across her lap and sighing as she turned off the bedside lamp. "Imagine what it'll be like trying to celebrate the twins if we make too much of a fuss out of the other ones."

Dorcas sighed and agreed, moving down so that they were more even with each other so that he could tuck his face into her neck. He couldn't manage to say what he'd been about to say about the twins, because he forgot it when he could smell her perfume in a fresh wave, and he thought about how much he loved being wrapped up in her.

"You're not tired, are you?" he asked, frowning slightly as he realized she'd turned the light out. What if her work day had been too tiring and she wasn't interested in sex? His heart began to pound rather rapidly as he felt the anxiety rush over him in a wave.

"Not quite," she said, almost playfully, and he felt another wave, this of relief, as she pressed a kiss to his lips.

A/N: So, Buckbeak is redeemed, Astoria intrigues Draco, and Dorcas is frustrated with Lucius. This is the last one from me tonight unless I get three more reviews in the next few hours. Then you might get another bonus!

Review Prompt: Another friendly reminder to let me know if you want a Part 3! Also, d'you think Lucius Malfoy is beyond serious redemption, or could he still change?

Q&A:

Q: I thought Kitty had grey eyes? (Guest)

A: *cough* If I said that, it was a mistake. She's got brown eyes, like her mum. The other two have grey. Tried to find my original notes on this, but couldn't. Sorry if that was puzzling.

Cheers

C