Everyone had breakfast in the Great Hall except Narcissa, who was safely back at Malfoy Manor. In an ironic twist of fate, Lucius had given her the job of bringing Wormtail in her pocket. A surreptitious owl sent by a trusted house-elf let the assembled know that all was well on her end, and they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Harry and Ron kept winking at Hermione, but she wasn't giving them the satisfaction. Severus witnessed the whole juvenile thing, but said nothing at all, though if they were still students he'd have half a mind to assign detention. Albus watched the whole thing with amusement.
It was amazing, really, how lighthearted the mood was considering they would surely be battling for their lives in a couple of hours. If anything went wrong, people would die. If everything went wrong, the entire war would probably be lost before the battle even started. Voldemort's followers didn't have the restrictions on them that Albus placed; they could kill and maim with no moral compunctions.
At the Ministry, Arthur Weasley and Mad-Eye Moody stood outside the courtroom taking wands from the gallery as they entered. Naturally, each of the Gryffindors handed bogus wands from the Weasley twins' collection to them and kept walking. Each one of the graduated Gryffindors was there, and ready for anything. George, Fred, and Ginny Weasley also walked in together, sitting behind their compatriots in the second row of seats.
Lucius and Narcissa arrived with the lawyer for their son's defense, and were seated at the head table. Narcissa looked very out of it.
Severus was crouched in an out-of-the-way corner of the room under the famed Potter Invisibility Cloak. Out of a corner of his eye, he could see a familiar tabby cat pounce on something and crouch low in the shadows. One obstacle down.
Voldemort was certainly in the room. He'd stake his life on it. But where? It was one of the variables, but he could feel the Dark Lord's presence. He just had to hope that the strong Obscuring charm that currently surrounded his Mark would stay in place until the trial was over. Having Lucius and the elder Goyle both present in the room would help with that. The Dark Lord couldn't feel individual marks, only the presence of one of his own nearby. The door would be warded after Draco entered to keep anyone from leaving, including anyone with an invisibility charm or cloak, so Voldemort could not kidnap Draco and leave without detection. And of course, Apparition would not work inside the Ministry.
Severus's eye fell on Hermione. He tried to squash down the tide of disgustingly romantic feelings that welled up inside him. Ludicrous. She looked particularly regal at the prosecutorial table flanked by Harry on her left and Ron on her right, and the lawyer that Dumbledore had retained. He was amazed at her strength and composure. She simply was not a child anymore; not that he'd doubted that fact after waking up in her arms this morning…
Fudge, the fat idiot, was nervously twittering around the judge. Stupid fool. After this, I don't doubt you'll be replaced as Minister of Magic; you won't be able to deny Voldemort's existence when he's in your bloody prison, now will you?
His eyes flickered to Albus. He nodded almost imperceptibly in Severus' direction. Showing off his omnipotence again, Severus thought.
Then the doors opened, and Arthur Weasley and Mad-Eye Moody brought the prisoner in.
Draco looked very different than the self-possessed, simpering twit of a boy that had stalked the halls of Hogwarts only a week before. He was clearly nervous, and looking pleadingly at his father and mother. His father only looked away, but Narcissa continued to watch him blankly. Draco met her eyes, and something passed between them. Draco looked even more frightened, and faltered in his step. Moody put a hand under his elbow, and seated him between his mother and the lawyer.
The court was called to order, and a very large Sneakoscope was set up near the judge. It was a precaution; if it spun enough, the witnesses would be questioned with the help of Veritaserum. The Sneakoscope immediately began whirring and going crazy, and the judge rolled his eyes and ordered the Veritaserum brought in. Snape himself had prepared this batch, to ensure that foul play did not befall anyone in the trial, least of all Hermione. They all knew the Sneakoscope would have been useless here, since there were at least two Animagi, two crouched under Invisibility cloaks, and a team of Gryffindors with wands at the ready; a traitor to the Dark Side sitting calmly next to her evil husband, and two separate plots afoot to disrupt the proceedings.
The Fat Lady was placed on the stand. Portraits couldn't lie, so this was easy. She testified to the events of the night in question, including the bruises and signs of physical distress Hermione had evidenced. Draco's lawyer tried to intimate first that she was drunk, and then that she was still rattled from the Sirius Black incident several years before. It was useless, though, because portraits were not capable of lying. It was a shame that there were no portraits in the room where Draco had dragged his victim, or this would have been over without much of a trial.
The Bloody Baron was next. Like portraits, ghosts were not capable of lying, which made them excellent witnesses. The Bloody Baron was able to testify that Draco was missing until 2:30, which was the same time that the Fat Lady had testified that Hermione had arrived in her dormitory. He also added the detail that Draco's hand was bloody; you see, the Bloody Baron, true to his name, was attracted to blood and could see it on anyone immediately.
Hermione was next, and testified in very graphic detail under Veritaserum. Snape shifted uncomfortably thinking of his lover being subjected to that idiot boy's sick ministrations against her will. He supposed the feelings he was having were his penance for having, when he was a young stupid Death Eater fresh in the fold, participated in a few revels and taken a few Muggles against their will. He'd done enough self-flagellation for one lifetime, according to Albus, but that didn't make him any more revolted at what he had been.
Half the courtroom held their breath, hoping that the defense attorney would not ask for details on where Hermione went after the rape, or what she had done since the rape. She would have a hard time not blowing their cover, and this was probably the most dangerous part of all the planning Ron had done. There had been no way to rig it so that Hermione received something other than Veritaserum on such short notice. Fortunately, the attorney wasn't concerned with those details; he knew he was defeated, and didn't press. Besides, the elder Malfoy had told him to get it overwith as quickly as possible, and he wasn't one to cross Lucius Malfoy.
Draco was next. He sniveled his way through his ridiculous rationale for raping and sodomizing the girl, and hesitantly admitted that he had used the Cruciatus on her to confirm her account. He was doomed. Even with a good lawyer, the Cruciatus alone would get you thirty years on a first offense if you were caught; rape was easily a 20 year-per-count offense. He was looking at life in Azkaban for a simple stupid night. He looked desperately at his mother, and saw something he had never seen in her eyes, not once in his entire life.
Love, and hope.
The Veritaserum must be having a worse effect on him than he thought. His mother never had cared, once, in his life, no matter how much he wished it. What had changed? He walked over to sit in his seat next to her, and await his sentence. He had never known fear as Lucius Malfoy's son, as the chosen heir to Voldemort's Dark Empire, to be coddled and protected. But, he realized, all he really wanted now was to crawl in his mother's lap and be told that it was all right, that the bad men could never hurt him.
It was an appalling revelation, but accurate nonetheless.
"I'll adjourn to consider my decision," the judge was saying. Lucius got up and walked behind the judge, apparently hoping to try a last-ditch plea for leniency. The lawyer got up to stretch his legs, and Hermione, Harry, and Ron sat perfectly still.
Snape silently watched Narcissa lean over to her son. "You can still escape this fate, my son."
"What do you care, you old hag? I know your life will be much easier without me to worry about. Oh, I forgot; you don't worry about me anyway."
"Stop, Draco. Just stop. There will be time for recriminations later. You can save yourself, if you'll simply renounce your father and his Dark Lord. Just do that, and you will live."
"Why should I believe you? I have half a mind to believe that my father will rescue me, just as he always has, and I'm not worried about Azkaban."
"You're not as tough as all that, son. I'm merely giving you the option to do the right thing, to right the wrongs that you've perpetrated. I've let you believe for nearly eighteen years that you are your father's son. I'm here to tell you today, that you are not just Lucius Malfoy's son. You are my son, and the power you possess comes from me, not your father." She was taking a calculated risk in exposing herself, and Draco could just as easily turn her in to his father now; Lucius would not think twice about murdering her in the struggle that she knew was coming.
He looked at his mother carefully, as if seeing her for the first time. "You never loved me."
"Son," she whispered, "I loved you too much to face what I had done. I made a horrible mistake that I'll be paying for for the rest of my life and I don't expect you to understand this now, but we both have a chance to break free. You'll not be remembered as a rapist and you'll not be a Death Eater if you will simply be my son. Don't make a mistake here that you will regret the rest of your life. Follow my lead, my son, and do the right thing."
Before he could respond, Lucius rejoined them and the judge walked in. It was the moment of truth.
