Chapter Eleven
In which Severus Snape is tried
The entrance corridor was dark and empty. Everyone only awaited their arrival to begin. Hermione clutched her heavy satchel of notes and documents in one hand and laid the other upon Severus's arm. At least she was not walking alone. At least she knew where he was, for the moment, and that he was all right. Those small comforts meant so much to her.
When they entered the courtroom, a legal aide from her office, a recent Hogwarts graduate wearing a Gryffindor pin, took her satchel for her as she led Severus to the chair in the center of the room. A court wizard was waiting there with a tiny pre-measured bottle of the Truth Potion known as Veritaserum. Hermione, not to mention Snape, could tell that it was a very strong dose of a very strong potion. The effects would be uncomfortable for Severus, to say the least, and very unpleasant to witness, Hermione realized.
Severus sat down the chair and tried to relax as the restraints came alive and bound him fast. They did not twist or tighten unmercifully this time. Hermione saw vague relief in his eyes. He nodded that it was all right.
Then the court wizard pressed the tiny, clear, sparkling bottle into her hands. She had nearly forgotten that it was her duty to administer the potion. She looked at it for a moment, hoping that ... no, dreading, that someone had changed bottles. There was no way to tell.
"It's okay." he whispered as he watched the doubt creep into her eyes.
Hermione stepped closer and gently put one hand behind his head as he opened his mouth. She placed the bottle at his lips and tipped the contents between them. He swallowed the bitter draught without flinching or complaint. Someone, the court wizard, she imagined, took the empty bottle from her hands as she stood over him, watching his pupils dilate and his eyes grow glassy. All cunning, all nobility was washed from his features in a matter of seconds, replaced by a blank expression. He began to perspire, a thin sheen of sweat coating his skin. Hermione wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of her robe, worried that the dose had been too high.
She could hear murmuring and tittering laughter from the galleries. Though she herself had never laughed, she had murmured a snide comment to a friend on the day that Lucius Malfoy had been tried in similar fashion. He had been taken to the chair kicking and screaming. The draught was poured down his throat by a court-appointed attorney while he struggled, tearing his robes and cutting his hands on the restraints. She had called it cowardice, his Slytherin nature, then, and she knew that was what those voices above her were saying as she comforted Severus.
"Oh, no." he moaned softly.
Hermione looked down to see a dark patch forming on his robes, whether from fear or Veritaserum poisoning, she was not certain. She hushed him softly and said a cleaning and drying spell as quietly as possible. The din above her grew louder with laughter and ridicule. She smoothed his robes as she felt her face grow hot with anger.
"Ms. Granger, if you're quite finished, we have a court to run here." said the loud and impatient voice of Arturo Blood from the gallery above and behind her.
"Go." managed Severus, cutting off whatever harsh reply she was about to make.
She stepped away from him, turned, and made her way up the stairs to her appointed bench. As she walked by them, Harry and Ron touched her hands. The expression on their faces said that they too were struck by the callousness of the proceedings.
"Good luck, 'Mione." Ron whispered.
The worst part of the opening statements for Hermione was looking down at Severus in the chair and watching him suffer. From time to time he would raise his head and look around, almost as though he didn't recognize his surroundings. His eyes were full of confusion and undisguised apprehension.
The prosecuting attorney, an older wizard who did not sport the insignia of any school or house, came to his feet once order had been established and began speaking in a slightly accented voice. There was nothing particularly sinister about the man, but Hermione sensed there was something rather unwholesome about him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She had worked under many attorneys in the Ministry during her time as a legal aide and as a co-counsel, but this man was a stranger to her.
"Durmstrang. I hear he's a professor of law there." someone a few rows behind her whispered a bit too loudly.
"Admitted to the English wizarding bar just a few months ago, right?" came a whispered question.
"For the last of these horrid trials. Everyone else had lost the stomach for it."
"And it is our duty to keep monsters such as this from our midst. It is not a pleasant duty. But it is our duty nonetheless to see that the guilty are punished, that the guilty do not go free to corrupt others and to engage in heinous acts right under our noses. That duty is what has brought all of us here today." said the prosecutor, finishing his statement.
When the professor from Durmstrang returned to his seat, Hermione left hers, holding a draft of her prepared opening statement in her hands, which would not stop shaking.
"Monster, indeed. One might find that characterization of my client slanderous." she commented. "But we have more weighty matters before us, do we not?" she questioned rhetorically before beginning her statement.
Hermione made it through her opening statement without faltering, without hesitation, though Blood and much of the jury looked unmoved when she had finished. Ginny, Ron, and Fleur, however, applauded, earning a steely look from Blood and a few of the court wizards. Hermione could almost feel the color draining from her face and hands as she returned to her seat and she allowed her eyes to rest on Severus again. His expression was still blank, but he was looking up at her as though she were the only person in the crowded room.
"Professor Zlotnikov, would the prosecution please call the first witness." instructed Blood.
"Of course." said the legal expert from Durmstrang. "The prosecution waives its right to examine all those who testified at the previous inquiry and moves that their statements be resubmitted without further questioning on the part of the prosecution." said Zlotnikov.
"Why that arrogant bastard!" fumed Hermione silently, practically leaping to her feet.
"The counsel for the defense may, of course, cross examine them at her leisure." added Zlotnikov with a smirk.
Hermione paused and reigned in her rising temper. What good would it do them to cross examine Sirius Black or Mad-Eye Moody or the rest. They were dead set against Snape walking free and would probably do anything to hurt his chances. It might be for the best not to allow them to give voice to their hostilities a second time, especially since there was little that she could do to prove that they had it in for Severus or to challenge their statements. As the record stood, the two sides were about even as far as the weight of those statements went. Harry and Ron had said enough to cast doubt on Black and Moody's bitter words and only partially founded accusations.
"Well, Ms. Granger?" asked Blood.
"The defense waives the right to cross examine those witnesses." she replied.
"Has the prosecution any new witnesses?" asked Blood, turning to Zlotnikov.
"The prosecution calls upon Severus Snape to give testimony."
"I only wish that we were allowed to 'plead the fifth'." thought Hermione grimly, remembering the phrase from a muggle-law extension course she had taken two years before with a visiting professor.
Something of the opposite was about to transpire. Not that it had always been that way ... Following the final downfall of Voldemort, the wizarding world had been in chaos and the Ministry had been desperate to round up the last of the Death Eaters and other vehement supports of the Dark Lord. And they had resorted to Veritaserum and other methods to do it, sinking nearly as low as their enemies.
"Tell us your name for the record." said Zlotnikov as he leaned over the railing of the gallery and peered down at Severus.
"Severus Snape."
"Occupation."
"Former professor of potions, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." he answered in a weary voice with no will behind it.
"You have stated for the record that you did not murder the Aurors Ames and Tibbs nor the shopkeeper Angelos Weatherall. Were those statements true?"
"Yes."
"Then did you or did you not take any lives during the time in which you served Voldemort?"
"I did."
There was a quiet murmured throughout the courtroom. Even Harry and Remus looked taken aback. Hermione could tell by the look on the prosecutor's face that he believed he had struck gold.
"Who did you kill?"
"Don't know." Severus answered, struggling weakly against the bonds.
"A wizard?"
"No."
"A witch then?"
"No."
"A muggle?"
"Yes, a muggle woman."
"How?"
"Tor... Torture." he said in a strangled voice.
"For the record, you tortured a muggle woman to death?" questioned Zlotnikov with a gleam in his eye.
"Yes."
"Were there others?" he asked after the courtroom had settled down again.
"No, there were no others."
"The prosecution rests." said Zlotnikov.
"Your witness, Ms. Granger." said Blood.
Hermione took a deep cleansing breath before she began to question Severus. He was trembling, no amount of potions able negate the turbulent emotions that coursed through him: guilt, shame, fear, regret.
"Mister Snape," she said, choosing to address him formally, "how many lives did you save while you were employed at Hogwarts?"
"I don't know."
Severus had avoided that question, feigning that he had not kept track of such things and that he didn't know. He had never liked to consider himself in a heroic role. He had never considered himself worthy of praise or honor or even simple thanks.
"Can you guess? Or better yet, tell me the names of the people you saved and I'll help you come up with a total."
"Harry Potter."
"Good. That's one ..."
"Francis Kim." said Snape, naming a student who had wandered in the Dark Forest during Hermione's fifth year.
"That's two."
"Lee Jordan."
"Three." said Hermione. His count had taken him as far as the final battle. She made a mental note to ask him about that one at a later time.
"Harry Potter ... again."
"That makes four ..." she nodded. "Well, three on a technicality." she thought to herself.
"There aren't anymore." he said blankly.
"So you saved four lives?"
"Yes."
"Were you ever a spy against Voldemort?"
"Yes."
"Were you of any help to our side?"
"Albus Dumbledore ... said that I was."
"Were you ever tortured because of your role as a spy either because of Voldemort's suspicions about you or because of other circumstances involved in that role?"
"Yes."
"How many times?"
"I'm not sure."
Hermione had never managed to get him to nail down a figure. And she had not pressed the point. It was not a comfortable subject for either of them. His eyes would grow darker, glassier, and her stomach would begin to feel unsettled. The conversations always came to nothing.
"More or less than ten times?" she questioned.
"More."
"Twenty?"
"More."
The crowd began to murmur slightly. They had not considered how much the black-hared man in the restraining chair had risked and suffered for their side during the wars.
"Thirty?"
"Less."
"A lot then." she said, mostly for the benefit of the jury,
"Yes." he replied.
"Do you feel like you have paid your debt to wizarding society for the crimes of your youth?" she asked him.
The room grew pin-drop quiet as they waited for Severus's answer. Hermione bit her lip as he looked up at her with tears in his eyes, bright tears that slowly worked their way down his pale cheeks.
"I don't know." he answered.
"The defense rests." said Hermione.
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A/N: I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the previos chapter or chapters, Christine, linnetjo, Corina (Mako) Borsuk (thanks for reviewing multiple chapters!), Michelle, travelgirl, cloudshape, Dinky, Jenni, and manda-bear.
My legal experience is limited to this: a few ill-remembered episodes of 'Matlock' as a kid and my mother wanting me to be a lawyer (which wasn't/ isn't going to happen).
In which Severus Snape is tried
The entrance corridor was dark and empty. Everyone only awaited their arrival to begin. Hermione clutched her heavy satchel of notes and documents in one hand and laid the other upon Severus's arm. At least she was not walking alone. At least she knew where he was, for the moment, and that he was all right. Those small comforts meant so much to her.
When they entered the courtroom, a legal aide from her office, a recent Hogwarts graduate wearing a Gryffindor pin, took her satchel for her as she led Severus to the chair in the center of the room. A court wizard was waiting there with a tiny pre-measured bottle of the Truth Potion known as Veritaserum. Hermione, not to mention Snape, could tell that it was a very strong dose of a very strong potion. The effects would be uncomfortable for Severus, to say the least, and very unpleasant to witness, Hermione realized.
Severus sat down the chair and tried to relax as the restraints came alive and bound him fast. They did not twist or tighten unmercifully this time. Hermione saw vague relief in his eyes. He nodded that it was all right.
Then the court wizard pressed the tiny, clear, sparkling bottle into her hands. She had nearly forgotten that it was her duty to administer the potion. She looked at it for a moment, hoping that ... no, dreading, that someone had changed bottles. There was no way to tell.
"It's okay." he whispered as he watched the doubt creep into her eyes.
Hermione stepped closer and gently put one hand behind his head as he opened his mouth. She placed the bottle at his lips and tipped the contents between them. He swallowed the bitter draught without flinching or complaint. Someone, the court wizard, she imagined, took the empty bottle from her hands as she stood over him, watching his pupils dilate and his eyes grow glassy. All cunning, all nobility was washed from his features in a matter of seconds, replaced by a blank expression. He began to perspire, a thin sheen of sweat coating his skin. Hermione wiped the sweat from his face with the sleeve of her robe, worried that the dose had been too high.
She could hear murmuring and tittering laughter from the galleries. Though she herself had never laughed, she had murmured a snide comment to a friend on the day that Lucius Malfoy had been tried in similar fashion. He had been taken to the chair kicking and screaming. The draught was poured down his throat by a court-appointed attorney while he struggled, tearing his robes and cutting his hands on the restraints. She had called it cowardice, his Slytherin nature, then, and she knew that was what those voices above her were saying as she comforted Severus.
"Oh, no." he moaned softly.
Hermione looked down to see a dark patch forming on his robes, whether from fear or Veritaserum poisoning, she was not certain. She hushed him softly and said a cleaning and drying spell as quietly as possible. The din above her grew louder with laughter and ridicule. She smoothed his robes as she felt her face grow hot with anger.
"Ms. Granger, if you're quite finished, we have a court to run here." said the loud and impatient voice of Arturo Blood from the gallery above and behind her.
"Go." managed Severus, cutting off whatever harsh reply she was about to make.
She stepped away from him, turned, and made her way up the stairs to her appointed bench. As she walked by them, Harry and Ron touched her hands. The expression on their faces said that they too were struck by the callousness of the proceedings.
"Good luck, 'Mione." Ron whispered.
The worst part of the opening statements for Hermione was looking down at Severus in the chair and watching him suffer. From time to time he would raise his head and look around, almost as though he didn't recognize his surroundings. His eyes were full of confusion and undisguised apprehension.
The prosecuting attorney, an older wizard who did not sport the insignia of any school or house, came to his feet once order had been established and began speaking in a slightly accented voice. There was nothing particularly sinister about the man, but Hermione sensed there was something rather unwholesome about him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She had worked under many attorneys in the Ministry during her time as a legal aide and as a co-counsel, but this man was a stranger to her.
"Durmstrang. I hear he's a professor of law there." someone a few rows behind her whispered a bit too loudly.
"Admitted to the English wizarding bar just a few months ago, right?" came a whispered question.
"For the last of these horrid trials. Everyone else had lost the stomach for it."
"And it is our duty to keep monsters such as this from our midst. It is not a pleasant duty. But it is our duty nonetheless to see that the guilty are punished, that the guilty do not go free to corrupt others and to engage in heinous acts right under our noses. That duty is what has brought all of us here today." said the prosecutor, finishing his statement.
When the professor from Durmstrang returned to his seat, Hermione left hers, holding a draft of her prepared opening statement in her hands, which would not stop shaking.
"Monster, indeed. One might find that characterization of my client slanderous." she commented. "But we have more weighty matters before us, do we not?" she questioned rhetorically before beginning her statement.
Hermione made it through her opening statement without faltering, without hesitation, though Blood and much of the jury looked unmoved when she had finished. Ginny, Ron, and Fleur, however, applauded, earning a steely look from Blood and a few of the court wizards. Hermione could almost feel the color draining from her face and hands as she returned to her seat and she allowed her eyes to rest on Severus again. His expression was still blank, but he was looking up at her as though she were the only person in the crowded room.
"Professor Zlotnikov, would the prosecution please call the first witness." instructed Blood.
"Of course." said the legal expert from Durmstrang. "The prosecution waives its right to examine all those who testified at the previous inquiry and moves that their statements be resubmitted without further questioning on the part of the prosecution." said Zlotnikov.
"Why that arrogant bastard!" fumed Hermione silently, practically leaping to her feet.
"The counsel for the defense may, of course, cross examine them at her leisure." added Zlotnikov with a smirk.
Hermione paused and reigned in her rising temper. What good would it do them to cross examine Sirius Black or Mad-Eye Moody or the rest. They were dead set against Snape walking free and would probably do anything to hurt his chances. It might be for the best not to allow them to give voice to their hostilities a second time, especially since there was little that she could do to prove that they had it in for Severus or to challenge their statements. As the record stood, the two sides were about even as far as the weight of those statements went. Harry and Ron had said enough to cast doubt on Black and Moody's bitter words and only partially founded accusations.
"Well, Ms. Granger?" asked Blood.
"The defense waives the right to cross examine those witnesses." she replied.
"Has the prosecution any new witnesses?" asked Blood, turning to Zlotnikov.
"The prosecution calls upon Severus Snape to give testimony."
"I only wish that we were allowed to 'plead the fifth'." thought Hermione grimly, remembering the phrase from a muggle-law extension course she had taken two years before with a visiting professor.
Something of the opposite was about to transpire. Not that it had always been that way ... Following the final downfall of Voldemort, the wizarding world had been in chaos and the Ministry had been desperate to round up the last of the Death Eaters and other vehement supports of the Dark Lord. And they had resorted to Veritaserum and other methods to do it, sinking nearly as low as their enemies.
"Tell us your name for the record." said Zlotnikov as he leaned over the railing of the gallery and peered down at Severus.
"Severus Snape."
"Occupation."
"Former professor of potions, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." he answered in a weary voice with no will behind it.
"You have stated for the record that you did not murder the Aurors Ames and Tibbs nor the shopkeeper Angelos Weatherall. Were those statements true?"
"Yes."
"Then did you or did you not take any lives during the time in which you served Voldemort?"
"I did."
There was a quiet murmured throughout the courtroom. Even Harry and Remus looked taken aback. Hermione could tell by the look on the prosecutor's face that he believed he had struck gold.
"Who did you kill?"
"Don't know." Severus answered, struggling weakly against the bonds.
"A wizard?"
"No."
"A witch then?"
"No."
"A muggle?"
"Yes, a muggle woman."
"How?"
"Tor... Torture." he said in a strangled voice.
"For the record, you tortured a muggle woman to death?" questioned Zlotnikov with a gleam in his eye.
"Yes."
"Were there others?" he asked after the courtroom had settled down again.
"No, there were no others."
"The prosecution rests." said Zlotnikov.
"Your witness, Ms. Granger." said Blood.
Hermione took a deep cleansing breath before she began to question Severus. He was trembling, no amount of potions able negate the turbulent emotions that coursed through him: guilt, shame, fear, regret.
"Mister Snape," she said, choosing to address him formally, "how many lives did you save while you were employed at Hogwarts?"
"I don't know."
Severus had avoided that question, feigning that he had not kept track of such things and that he didn't know. He had never liked to consider himself in a heroic role. He had never considered himself worthy of praise or honor or even simple thanks.
"Can you guess? Or better yet, tell me the names of the people you saved and I'll help you come up with a total."
"Harry Potter."
"Good. That's one ..."
"Francis Kim." said Snape, naming a student who had wandered in the Dark Forest during Hermione's fifth year.
"That's two."
"Lee Jordan."
"Three." said Hermione. His count had taken him as far as the final battle. She made a mental note to ask him about that one at a later time.
"Harry Potter ... again."
"That makes four ..." she nodded. "Well, three on a technicality." she thought to herself.
"There aren't anymore." he said blankly.
"So you saved four lives?"
"Yes."
"Were you ever a spy against Voldemort?"
"Yes."
"Were you of any help to our side?"
"Albus Dumbledore ... said that I was."
"Were you ever tortured because of your role as a spy either because of Voldemort's suspicions about you or because of other circumstances involved in that role?"
"Yes."
"How many times?"
"I'm not sure."
Hermione had never managed to get him to nail down a figure. And she had not pressed the point. It was not a comfortable subject for either of them. His eyes would grow darker, glassier, and her stomach would begin to feel unsettled. The conversations always came to nothing.
"More or less than ten times?" she questioned.
"More."
"Twenty?"
"More."
The crowd began to murmur slightly. They had not considered how much the black-hared man in the restraining chair had risked and suffered for their side during the wars.
"Thirty?"
"Less."
"A lot then." she said, mostly for the benefit of the jury,
"Yes." he replied.
"Do you feel like you have paid your debt to wizarding society for the crimes of your youth?" she asked him.
The room grew pin-drop quiet as they waited for Severus's answer. Hermione bit her lip as he looked up at her with tears in his eyes, bright tears that slowly worked their way down his pale cheeks.
"I don't know." he answered.
"The defense rests." said Hermione.
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A/N: I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the previos chapter or chapters, Christine, linnetjo, Corina (Mako) Borsuk (thanks for reviewing multiple chapters!), Michelle, travelgirl, cloudshape, Dinky, Jenni, and manda-bear.
My legal experience is limited to this: a few ill-remembered episodes of 'Matlock' as a kid and my mother wanting me to be a lawyer (which wasn't/ isn't going to happen).