Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I will never own Harry Potter.

"You are the most insufferable…" Hermione trailed off in anger, unable to continue. It was lunch time at the Burrow and her and Ron were having their first fight as a couple. Ginny watched them with amused indifference. Harry sighed heavily and continued to butter his toast.

"Wart?" He supplied. "If you didn't have to be perfect at everything we wouldn't even be arguing!"

"We're not arguing!"

Ron threw his hands in the air. "Merlin Hermione. I'm sorry I messed up but it was a tiny issue."

"A tiny issue?" Hermione's eyes sparked, hair seeming to crackle with electricity. Her multitasking brain wondered if her magic was strong enough to cause that to happen. That would be a trip to the library later. "You sent my resume to Malfoy Enterprises instead of The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. How does that even happen? How did you accidentally write Malfoy Enterprises on the label!"

Ron winced. "Well…I didn't exactly write it." Hermione gave him a thunderous look.

"Explain." She hissed between her teeth.

"I used the spell Bill showed me, only I was thinking about the trial and it wrote Malfoy on it by mistake. It was a mistake Mione." Hermione's eyes narrowed. He only used that nickname to mollify her and she knew it.

"How could you be so careless oh, right, that's your whole MO." She mocked him.

"What the bloody hell is an MO?" Ginny snorted.

"Modus operandi. It means your particular brand of doing things. It's the word law enforcement use to describe the habits of criminals. You should know that since you're going into law enforcement."

"I don't think they picked me for my knowledge of what I assume is a muggle acronym." Ron argued.

Hermione blew a strand of hair out of her face. "We've gotten off topic. Sending them my resume is a big deal because it could jeopardize my involvement in their trial if anyone in the auror department finds it before we do!"

"Harry and I will go." Ginny said quickly, rising from the table. Harry frowned at her. "Harry will be under his cloak and I'll knock on the door."

"And if no one answers?" Hermione asked her. Ginny gave Hermione a Weasley twin smile and she decided she didn't want to know.

"Why not them?" Harry complained. "And why do I have to be under the cloak?"

"Because if any of you three get caught it could destroy your credibility for this trial and any future ones. Come on." This last part was to Harry who was looking mournfully at his treacle tart. Ginny rolled her eyes and stuffed it in his hand before dragging him out of the room.

"I'm sorry." Ron said quietly, and she softened.

"It was an honest mistake." She replied.

He took her hand. "Maybe you should send your own mail from now on."

She giggled and sat down in the chair beside him. "It's a plan. I'm sorry too. I'm just wound a little tight." She never explained her emotions to anyone but she knew Ron wouldn't judge her. More than that, she trusted him with them. "I have to testify for Malfoy tomorrow and they're going to ask me about that night."

He rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. "If it helps you won't be entirely ware of what you're saying under veritaserum."

"How do you know that?" She asked curiously, and his eyes lit up as he snickered at some memory.

"Fred and George fed some to me to find out who stole their broom. I had no idea, but I suspected it was Ginny. They tried to drug her with the stuff too but she was smarter than me. They never caught her, but their brooms never appeared to be missing again. Anyways, when they asked me it was like I was saying it but I wasn't. I wasn't feeling my emotions fully, it was sort of like a trance."

"Like the Imperius?" She questioned. He looked surprised at the connection.

"Yeah, I reckon so. They're pretty similar if you think about it. Compelling someone to act versus compelling someone to tell the truth. I'll be in the crowd, keep your eyes on me when they dose you."

They say there in silence for a while. She dropped her head on Ron's shoulder and he put his arm around her shoulders. His company was reassuring. She couldn't really explain it but just his presence made her feel more at ease and calm. Well, when he wasn't pushing her buttons.

Ginny reappeared in the middle of the kitchen with a letter clutched triumphantly in her left hand. Her right hand was invisible, presumably holding Harry's hand as they apparated. She was breathing heavily and she grinned as Hermione raised an eyebrow at her.

"No one answered." She declared, delighted. Harry chuckled fondly, emerging from the cloak and folding it into his back pocket.

Hermione took the envelope and used her wand to erase the address and changed it to the proper ministry department. The ministry had told her to apply with the stipulation they would accept her after her N.E.W.T. results came through. Hermione hoped that would be well after they had found her parents.

The rest of the day she busied herself with chores around the Burrow, delivering food to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's door. They barely came out of their room anymore. Hermione hadn't seen them since Fred's funeral. She knew their children were worried about them but no one wanted to say anything to them and it certainly wasn't her place to do so. Her heart hurt for them. Her heart hurt for all of them. They were hiding it remarkably well, but she knew Fred's death was hard on each and every one of them.

She knew it was the reason why Bill and Fleur and Charlie were still here, despite having other places to be. The reason why Percy couldn't go back to the ministry, why George walked around looking as if the world would never be whole again. It was why Ron cried at night, why Ginny hadn't touched a broom since the war. The burden of everyone who had died weighed on Harry, but she knew Fred's was one that he blamed himself most for. It was why Hermione broke down in the pantry by herself or against Ron's chest as he grieved for his brother.

She almost walked into Percy and mumbled an apology as she made her way out to the garden. She knew she was thinking of all of this in an effort not to think about the fact that she was testifying for Draco Malfoy tomorrow morning. It was the right thing to do, but she didn't want to face him. She had seen him a couple of times from afar, but she had never been close enough to see his eyes. The eyes that haunted her dreams. Helpless, sick, silver eyes that ached with empathy as his Aunt tortured her in his home. She shuddered despite the heat. Would his father be there or had they already sent Lucius Malfoy to Azkaban? She had zero desire to see him. His cold grey eyes had watched her with indifference and a bit of glee. Narcissa had not spared her a glance.

The pain. Merlin, she had known, but she'd had no idea. It had been like nothing she had ever experienced. The pierce of the dagger as it carved the filthy word in her arm had been a relief in contrast. She knew she wouldn't have been alive without the sound of Ron's voice. She stood up suddenly, and made her way inside. Ginny was washing dishes by hand and Ron and Harry were drying them.

She met Ron's eyes and he seemed to realize the emotions that swirled there because he put down the dish and the towel and opened his mouth to speak her name. She threw herself into his arms as understanding dawned on his face. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear it over the memory of her own screams. He pulled her gently out of the room and up the stairs without ever removing his arms from around her. Whatever he was murmuring was beginning to pierce through the memory.

"I love you." He whispered over and over like a prayer. They made it to the bed and she began to cry.

"I love you too." She managed after her crying subsided.

"You don't have to do this. If it's too much…"

"No." She interrupted him and he frowned but didn't protest. "He doesn't deserve Azkaban." She said after a moment. "He had no choice."

Ron nodded unhappily. "If you must, then."

She slept fitfully, more than once feeling Ron's hand rubbing her arm or back gently in the silence as he lay there with her, half awake. Eventually he fell asleep from pure exhaustion and a couple hours later so did she. After what felt like way too little time, the alarm on her side of his bed rang piercingly through the stillness. She groaned and rolled her shoulders as she sat up. Neither of them said a word as they got ready that morning.

It smelt entirely too clean in the ministry and entirely too quiet. They had removed the Magic is Might statue, but she saw it there nonetheless, entirely too sharp in her mind's eye. She gripped Ron's hand tightly once before letting it go to follow Harry but Ron grabbed her arm before she could leave.

"I'll be there the whole time. You are so brave." She nodded once, not trusting herself to answer as her eyes welled with tears. She cleared her throat and shook her head, a small smile on her face.

"I love you." She managed before jogging to catch up to Harry.

"You don't have to do this." He said, echoing Ron's words from last night.

"Yes. I do." She responded and he nodded in understanding, gesturing with his arm for her to enter the chamber first. She had never been in a courtroom, but it looked like the one Harry had described to her in the summer before their fifth year. Just like then, entire Wizengamot was present.

She sat on the defence's side, next to Harry, as opening remarks and introductions were made. She smoothed her professionally crisp black skirt and crossed her ankles, the base of her heels clicking together slightly at the movement.

She saw some friendly faces in the crowd. Lucius Malfoy was nowhere to be seen but Narcissa, recently acquitted and put on house arrest due to Harry's testimony, sat beside her sister who was rocking a pram gently in front of them. Narcissa must have been given special permission to come to her son's trial.

Ginny, Ron, Arthur, and Molly had come as her and Harry's moral support. She was feeling too many things to be elated that it got Ron's parents out of the house. There were a lot of Slytherin's present as well. The Minister himself was in attendance and the room was filled with aurors. The biggest surprise was Slughorn sitting next to Harry. She figured he must be testifying as well.

Harry was called to the stand and her attention was drawn back to the proceedings. He was honest but compassionate and there was no whispering about ulterior motives in the crowd. She listened to everything he said, but everything she had ever known disappeared from her mind as her name was called. She climbed the stage and ignored the stares of the massive crowd that was filling the room. Harry gave her an encouraging smile on his way back to their seats.

Apparently, the wizarding world had attorneys. She swallowed deeply and let out a breath as they asked her if she consented to being given veritaserum. She forced herself to appear outwardly calm. This should be a cakewalk next to everything she'd been forced to do in the war.

Her eyes found Ron's across the room and never left them. Her mind went fuzzy, emotions dulling slightly. She was grateful that some of her nerves drifted away with the potion.

"Please state your name for the court." Malfoy's lawyer instructed her.

"Hermione Jean Granger." It was strange, it was as if she was watching herself from behind a sheet of glass. She could feel emotions but they were distant cousins of their real counterparts. Her voice was dull, her eyes vacant. Ron held her stare.

"You are here to testify that Draco Malfoy is not guilty of his crimes, is that correct?"

She didn't spare a glance at said defendant. "Yes." She answered flatly.

"Tell us why, please."

"Draco Malfoy was forced to be on the side he chose. Forced to take the Dark Mark and let murderers live in his house. A bully he might have been, but Death Eater he was not." She was telling the truth as she knew it, still in her own intelligent voice.

"Mr. Potter told us that you and Mr. Weasley refused to believe his assertions that Mr. Malfoy had taken the Dark Mark in your sixth year." A question disguised as a statement.

"Yes. It was inconceivable to me that he could be a Death Eater, even then." She answered honestly. Merlin, Harry had been insufferable when he'd been proven right.

"After he fled with Mr. Snape, you did not see him again until Easter in 1997. Could you tell me about that night at Malfoy Manor? Just the events after you were captured and arrived at the house, please. Mr. Potter already told us how you came to end up there."

"Narcissa told the snatchers who captured us, which included Greyback, that Draco was home for Easter and would be able to identify us. Draco came and he looked beyond terrified. They asked him if it was us and he lied. He said he couldn't be sure. But he knew that it was us. Harry's face was disfigured, that's true, but there was no mistaking Ron or myself. Draco's father," she wouldn't say his name, even under veritaserum, "made him come closer and still he denied it. Draco was specifically asked to identify me and he only gave them a maybe in response. He was forced to concede that it could be us. Bellatrix was the one to identify me."

The attorney looked at her in sympathy as she asked her next question. "Thank you for that account, Miss Granger, but we already knew all of that. If you would please tell us of the period of time where Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley were locked in the basement."

"Bellatrix found the Sword of Gryffindor in our affects. It was the real one, she had a fake sent to her Gringotts vault by Snape at Voldemort's behest. She sent Ron and Harry to the prison to await Voldemort so she could question me."

"Bellatrix?"

"Yes." Hermione confirmed, voice still expressionless. "She wanted me to stay there. Ron…" her voice faltered and they gave her a little more of the veritaserum. "Ron begged them to take him instead." She continued. Tears were falling down Ron's face as he sat there in the crowd. Afterword it would occur to her this was as difficult for him as it was for her. Later she would remember all of the Weasley's being greatly affected by her testimony. "Bellatrix asked me where we got the sword and I told her we found it. She tortured me mercilessly."

"I am very sorry for that Miss Granger, but could you tell us Mr. Malfoy's reaction to this? Was he in the room?"

"Yes." She whispered, tears falling down her face despite her emotions being foggy, despite the veritaserum. "He was horrified. He was the only one who met my eyes, who saw me as a person rather than a thing to be tortured. His eyes never left mine. They were helpless and as tortured by the events as I was. He wanted to stop it."

"You got this from his eyes?" The lawyer asked incredulously and a few people snorted in the crowd.

"Yes. I could read every emotion in them. Empathetic, sympathetic, terrified, trapped, helpless. There was nothing he could do except hold my gaze and let me know he didn't want to be there either."

"Do you think you were simply reading into that?"

"No. The sight of his eyes haunt my nightmares alongside his Aunt. He was just as trapped as we were." Tears were flowing freely down her face.

"Did you see him again after that night?"

"Yes." She responded. "During the war. He and his cronies, well former cronies, emerged to stop Harry, Ron, and I. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle intended to drag us to their master and they fired the killing curse at us to achieve that. Malfoy was forced to be there and he didn't use Unforgivables. We saved him and Goyle from death but Crabbe had already fallen into the fiendfyre that he had created. The last time I saw him before today was sitting in the Great Hall with his parents on May second of this year."

"Could you state for the court why you testified for Mr. Malfoy today when you were known to loathe each other in school?"

"Because he had no choice, same us as. Because he was just a kid, same as us. He doesn't deserve Azkaban for being forced into every bad action he took in the war. He doesn't deserve to be in Azkaban because of who his parents were."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Afterwards, Hermione would admire the intelligence of Malfoy's attorney.

"If he hadn't been born to Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy there is no way he would have been a Death Eater. Not to say that it was his parents' fault. His father was put in Azkaban when he became one and Harry testified yesterday proof that his mother never wanted him to become one. But because of what he was born into, because of the environment he was a part of, he had no choice. Some will say there is always a choice. But sometimes there isn't one. A good example is when your parents' lives are threatened." She could feel Narcissa watching her but she couldn't move her eyes from Ron's. She wondered if he was the only thing keeping her together.

"Thank you very much Hermione, you are excused." Ron offered her a watery smile and she responded with a similar one, drying her eyes as she sat next to Harry. He patted her hand briefly. Slughorn testified about Draco at Hogwarts the year they had been on the run, and then Malfoy himself took the stand. He defended himself but not too much, saying everything Hermione already knew.

But then he described that night at Malfoy Manor.

"I let down my Occlumency shields and used a little legilimency." He said flatly, but intently, meeting her eyes. "I let her see all of my emotions so that she knew there was someone there who wasn't a heartless bastard. So that she wouldn't feel so alone."

"Why?" His lawyer asked. "Because when my Aunt Bella," he snorted derisively, "tortured me, my mother doing that for me was all that kept me alive."

When the veritaserum ran out he continued to sit on the chair, awaiting his verdict. She stared at him, waiting for him to look at her. Finally, he did. She nodded in gratitude to him and he returned it, silver eyes swirling with emotions she couldn't determine. She took a shaky breath and steadied herself.

Finally, the Wizengamot reached a verdict. The judge cleared his throat. "Cleared of all charges." Hermione allowed herself a small smile and a final nod to Draco before she made her way to Ron, took his hand, and walked composedly out of the courtroom. The old, ruthless Hermione would never have done what she had just done. But she was no longer that person. This Hermione would never forget the small kindness Draco Malfoy had shown her that night. It would factor in greatly to her opinion of his son.