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Chapter Twenty-One-Ever Strung

"I don't understand why you accepted Malfoy into the bloody Black family."

"You don't? Really?" Harry puts down his cup of tea that he's sprinkled Firewhisky into and gives Ron a look of slight concern. "And here I thought the lessons in politics with Hermione were going so well."

"Suck your politics up your arse. What part of political genius is getting yourself captured and then giving up the chance to punish one of the people who captured you and killed someone?" Ron flings himself into the chair across from Harry and glares at him.

Harry spends a little more time drinking his tea and then sighs and says, "All right, since you want to know. I know Draco didn't kill that Muggle. I spent time talking to him about it and Draco was practically babbling at the chance to convince me. Lucius killed him. Draco can't stand the sight of blood or spilling it himself. That was why the spell they used to try and contain me was so weak."

"But he still stood back and let it happen!"

"I know. That's why he is going to participate in bringing down the pure-blood way of life he loves so much and isn't going to have a choice about that."

Ron blinks. "You would trust that little coward with our plans? When you feel like you can't even trust Ginny with them?"

"Of course not. Although I'll remind you that Ginny declared herself against me and Draco is currently slobbering at my feet with eagerness to make up for what he's done."

Ron thinks about that for a second, his own cup of tea so precariously balanced in his hand Harry thinks it'll spill. But that's nothing a simple Cleaning Charm can't take care of. "So, what they did in the past really-doesn't matter to you?"

"It matters in that it lets me predict what they'll do now. Draco was horrified and sick at what his father did to that Muggle. Not enough to stop it, no, or stand up to him, because he's also a coward. But he'll go along with me because he knows that I'm not going to force him to kill or do something else he finds distasteful. And he'll do whatever I want him to do in sheer gratitude."

"And Ginny?"

"She's stubborn and a bad enemy. I wish I could convert her, but she seems to have taken it as a personal grudge that I did something to Simon. Does Ginny with a personal grudge let up or come back to that person's side?"
Ron pauses, then shakes his head. "The only time I can think of was with Percy, and he had to do a lot of groveling."

"Which I won't be doing."

"Mate. Do you ever think sometimes that the cost is-too much? That we should just backtrack and accept that the Ministry will always be corrupt and our friends will always get the worst of it?"

"No," Harry says. He watches Ron frown, and holds up a hand. "Hear me out. We tried ten years of the 'right way.' We negotiated and we persuaded and we worked on legislation and we turned people in when they took bribes and we handed out pamphlets and we got the worst examples sacked. And what happened?"

"People praised our work and still didn't convict pure-bloods. And none of our legislation passed."

Harry nods, hearing the undertone of anger in Ron's voice. "Not one victory. And now we know part of the reason why. The Sun Chamber was controlling the Wizengamot like an oligarchy the entire time. Of course they could always bribe new people and call on family connections and the reverence people like Kingsley have for them to overturn convictions and legislation."

Ron swallows and says nothing. Harry leans forwards. "Do you want to go back to that? Only not completely back, because now we know about the Sun Chamber and we won't have the same kind of hope that maybe someday someone would start listening to us. Is that what you want, Ron? For us to be-"

"No, damnit!"

A few candles in the room go out, a flare of accidental magic that's rare coming from Ron. Harry nods. "Neither do I. Which is one reason that we're going to push forwards and destroy things and then you can help build up the new wizarding world if you want. Ginny can help if she wants. Simon can be a Lord if he can convince people to call him that. I'm just going to make sure that the Sun Chamber and the Wizengamot and the corrupted bodies that are real right now are going to cease to exist."

"You're not going to help rebuild?"

"Hell, no. I deserve a holiday after saving the world bloody twice, right?"

"They might demand you do-"

Harry grins and drops some of the holds on his magic, letting a flare of wandless fire rise above him and nearly scorch the ceiling. But he pulls it back before it can. He doesn't want to set his personal house on fire. "Do I look like I can be pressured into this?"

"No." Ron smiles reluctantly at him. "I know that Luna and Rolf are interested in rebuilding, although I think Rolf is still too interested in the old order. And Ginny is-too moderate. She'll think there has to be something good about the old world just because she can't believe it's that corrupt."

"And you?"

"Me? I'm like Hermione, mate. With you until the end." Ron stands up and gently nudges at Harry's shoulder. "Whether it's right or not."

"The trial of Lucius Malfoy begins today."

Harry sits on a chair near the back of the Wizengamot's gallery reserved for witnesses, watching in interest as Malfoy walks to the chair in front of everyone that Harry has sat in more than once. He's apparently decided on dignity. He doesn't look to left or right, and once he's seated, he stares over everyone's head at the wall.

Well, he does look at one person. His eyes lock on Draco, sitting at Harry's side, and widen in disbelief for a moment before he controls the expression and looks away.

Draco squirms. "Are they even going to believe me?" he whispers to Harry. "They believed him every other time, when he claimed to be under the Imperius."

"They did at that," Harry says, and smiles at his new ally. "They won't now."

Draco doesn't look convinced. Harry turns forwards and listens as Lord Abbott brings the case in front of the Wizengamot. He describes the letter he got from Lucius and what he arrived to find: the twisted negotiations that insisted they would kill Harry if they didn't get what they wanted from him and the rest.

Narcissa takes over the narration then, making it clear, with lowered eyes and tone of voice more than any words, that she and her son felt intimidated by Lucius and unable to stand up to him because he controls many more Dark Arts than he's ever let them know. Draco swallows and slowly stands when the Wizengamot's attention turns to him.

"Is this true, Heir Malfoy?" The Wizengamot has started using titles since the existence of the Sun Chamber became common knowledge.

"It is." Draco's voice seems to be firm only when he's not looking at his father, but that's all right. Harry can still use an ally like that. "My father killed a Muggle to create a Sacrificial Verdant Fire that would let us gain access to Lord Potter's home."

There's more than one gasp at that. Harry grins a little. More people in this room have performed Dark Arts than would ever admit to it, but even they would prefer to use their own blood or an animal sacrifice, not a human one. Lucius has crossed a line of taste, which is more important to them than lines of law.

It's a stupid reaction, but where Harry can use it to his advantage, then he will.

"And you had nothing to do with this killing?"

"I didn't speak up when I should have, to save the victim's life." Draco's voice is low. "I'm ashamed of that."

"And he should be arrested as an accessory, since he stood by and did nothing," Lucius adds in a low, drawling voice that makes Draco cringe in mortification.

"It is true that Draco Malfoy was an accessory to the crime," Harry says, and stands. He watches people flinch in discomfort as they look at him. He does manage to keep from smiling. "But he turned witness for me afterwards, and he has offered Pensieve memories of the killing if the Wizengamot wishes to see them. In addition, he has agreed to exterminate the Malfoy family Lordship by taking the name of Black."

Whispers and mutters run the course of the Chamber. Harry keeps on smiling. They want to place Lords and Ladies above other people and let them do whatever they want? Then they have to let a Lord administer his own justice, too.

"Lord Potter." At least this Wizengamot member, a man with sleek black hair that Harry knows is named Alfred Megobairn, seems uncomfortable speaking the title. "You should not-you cannot demand such a price."

Harry shrugs. "They kidnapped me and held me in the dungeon, Mr. Megobairn. They were attempting to extort several other people as the price to keep me safe, as you've heard. They killed someone as a sacrifice to fuel the Dark Arts that allowed them to break through my wards." He lets his voice descend and growl, and some people in the chamber are watching him with shining faces. Not enough, not yet, but he might pick up some recruits from the Wizengamot the way he did with the Aurors. "Law and custom give me the ability to demand a price from them. Draco Malfoy willingly became a Black."

"I did. I'm ashamed of what my family did."

And he wants to stay safe. But honestly, if Draco is insincere about his shame, Harry can't tell from his face or voice.

"But we can't allow Lords to run around and do whatever they want, either."

Harry grins. He sees Lord Abbott and some of the others here tense, including Lucius. "An excellent idea. I don't think anyone should be above the law. So should we get started with applying the Veritaserum to Lord Malfoy, and then we can move on to some of the other Lords and Ladies here?"

"Excuse Alfred," says a woman who Harry knows is related to the Shafiqs. She gives Megobairn a stare that makes him wilt, and turns to Harry with a motion that resembles a bow on the edge of a curtsey. "We are merely curious about the stated terms of your recompense, Lord Potter. You could demand money from the Malfoys, or you could have turned Heir Malfoy over to the Aurors along with his father. Why did you decide to have him shed his last name instead?"

Because this is part of ending all that. But Harry only widens his eyes and asks, "Why wouldn't I? Lord Malfoy values his family name more than anything else-far more than he values his actual son. This is the end of that for him."

He sees some people in the audience flinch. Well, good. Maybe they'll see the sense of what he's saying and stand aside.

"I-see." The woman doesn't look especially pleased, but she turns back to Draco. "And you are willing to show us these Pensieve memories of the killing?"

"Yes, I am."

Harry stands with his arms folded as the memories are gathered into a Pensieve by an Auror-they haven't let Draco have his own wand since he walked in here-and then enchanted to rise up as transparent images, visible from all sides no matter where you stand. It's a neat piece of magic that only started being perfected in the last few years. Harry has no doubt that it's because that was when a rash of pure-blood teenagers got in trouble. God forbid they perfect it for people like him, when he was fifteen and on trial and could have simply shown the memories he had of the Dementor attack in Little Whinging to his political enemies.

He becomes aware that his nails are driving into his palms, and makes himself stop.

More than one person gasps or makes retching noises as they watch Lucius Malfoy kidnap the man from a Muggle alley, bring him to the sacrificial stone that he's set up, and drive the blade into his chest. He collects all the blood, while Draco hunches behind him, pale and sick to the most unobservant eyes. Harry watches without expression. There are wizards baiting Muggles every day, and the Aurors and Obliviators come along and cover it up without doing anything else. This is merely bringing the harm face-to-face, where the Wizengamot can't turn away from it.

Harry thinks that's what causes the sickness they're experiencing, more than the death.

Then Draco has to step forwards in the memory and take up control of the spell that his father has created with the blood sacrifice. Harry shakes his head a little as he watches more cringing filter through the ranks. Most of the people in this room have given the Malfoys a pass on Muggle-baiting and torture and murder through two wars now. It's true that Lucius didn't do as much in the last one, but he still cast the Unforgivables more than once.

You don't like seeing what you're wrought? Then you shouldn't have wrought it in the first place.

When the memory ends, a profound silence fills the courtroom. Harry stares at them. He wonders what comes next. Denial, an attempt to sacrifice Lucius and no one else so that they can keep acting as if pure-bloods are mostly innocent, accusations against him?

What happens, instead, is Alfred Megobairn clearing his throat and asking, "How close would you say the Verdant Fire came to killing you, Lord Potter?"

"Very close," Harry says honestly. "It's a confusing spell in and of itself, and it had broken through my wards, so I was dealing with the effects of that as I woke up and also trying to evaluate the situation and decide how I could survive."

Megobairn gives him a measured look. "But you are here, and you are prepared to forgive the man who wielded the spell."

"Not the one who created it or who killed an innocent to do so."

Megobairn sighs in a way that means he does indeed see an escape route closing in on him, and nods. "All right, I see what you mean, Lord Potter. Then we will hear the testimony of Lord Longbottom and Lady Bones, and then we will vote on Lucius's guilt."

Harry sits back down, and gives a reassuring smile to Draco, who seems in a daze at the thought that he might get the protection that Harry promised him. Harry, of course, never intended to have this happen any other way. If by some fluke they do decide Lucius is innocent, then he'll deal with the man some other way, but he'll still keep Draco as part of his plans and the ending of the Malfoy line.

Neville tells the story quietly, and gets all the details right, from the way that Malfoy contacted him to how he invited Hannah's cousin to come with him. Then Susan stands up, so pale that Harry eyes her.

"I don't—I don't understand what's going on here," Susan says loudly.

Harry waits. Just like with the Wizengamot, he wants to see what she's doing before he decides how he needs to move.

"You're willing to excuse murder," Susan says, and turns to stare at Draco. "Heir Malfoy participated by taking control of the spell that allowed him to pass Lord Potter's wards, even if it's true that his hand didn't hold the knife. How can anything be just if you let anyone get away with it? Punish both Lord Malfoy and Heir Malfoy, or let them both go free."

So that's it. She's still too black-and-white in her thinking.

"There's merit to what Lady Bones says!" someone in the crowd calls out, the way Harry knew they would.

"And was Heir Malfoy making absolute free, unbiased choices?" Harry asks smoothly. He's happier than ever that he read all those books with the rules of behavior for Lords and Ladies of the Sun Chamber through. "Given that a Lord or Lady can say in a word that an Heir or Heiress is unworthy and dismiss them, how can we be sure that Heir Malfoy was doing what he did of his own free will?"

Draco picks up on the hint quickly. "My father has always said that he felt I was unworthy and he was willing to dismiss me, only there was no one of the proper blood," he says, and stares directly at Susan. "And my name is Draco Black now."

"You were Heir Malfoy at the time!"

Draco shrugs mostly with his eyebrows. "Now I'm not, and I'd appreciate some consideration for that, Lady Bones, consideration of what I gave up. Besides, giving up titles is one of the punishments that someone in the Sun Chamber can undergo when convicted of a crime. It's just not one that's used very often."

"You should suffer worse than your title being taken away," Susan hisses at him.

"It's also all the money and properties that the Malfoy line owns." Draco looks at her with such a neutral mask that Harry honestly has no idea what hides behind it. "They can only be held by someone who's a blood member of the family and approved of by the current Lord. We—the Malfoys can't even leave their property to someone else who was accepted into the family the way that the last Lord Black did. I'll be penniless except for Lord Black's generosity."

"That's not enough!"

"What would be enough, Lady Bones? Azkaban?"

"Yes! The same as Lord Malfoy is going to receive!"

"We actually don't know that he's going to receive that," Harry says, because he wants to remind Susan of what her interference might mean. "The Wizengamot hasn't made up its mind yet."

Susan glares at him. "And you could press charges equally for both of them trying to kidnap and extort you, but—"

"I have chosen not to, because only one of them showed repentance for it."

Susan shakes her head, her red hair shining about her shoulders. "It should be equal justice."

"Even when the crimes aren't the same? Should we have the same punishment regardless of circumstances?"

"That isn't what I meant! Simply the same punishment for the same crime, regardless of whether the person is a Lord or Lady or wealthy or not!"

Harry raises his eyebrows a little. She's done it now, although she doesn't seem to realize she has. The people in the Wizengamot who are related to old pure-blood families or the members of the Sun Chamber are staring at her in disbelief. "Then I suspect we will have to revisit a great deal of the old trials, and make sure that no one was given a pass who should have gone to Azkaban simply because that person had wealth or pure blood."

Susan folds her arms, but says nothing. Harry turns to the Wizengamot. "Is there anything else you want to hear?"

In the end, when it becomes obvious that Susan isn't actually going to say what Lucius contacted her and said, the Wizengamot does vote. They do convict Lucius. Harry gets resentful glances. A lot of them come from Susan.

Harry stares back at her, willing her to understand. We are on the same side. But you can't get there by attacking the basis of the Sun Chamber's power at one moment and then insisting that it's legitimate at other times. Make the leap, Susan. See this for what it really is.

She can't do that yet, but Harry is more hopeful than he's been in some time.