Disclaimer: Oh yes, of course they're mine. Just as the sun is made of ice
and money grows on trees. Miss Rowling? If you wish to sue please find
someone else, I can't even afford a lawyer let alone a settlement.
Warnings: Ah, the beauty of friends turning on each other.
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Blood & Nails.
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Part Twenty Seven. Home Sweet Home.
"Don't bother, I won't lie." Harry said softly. He was sitting on that dreaded chair with the chains. The one he'd first seen when he was fourteen, in Dumbledore's Pensieve. Thankfully though, the aforementioned chains were not done up on this occasion, though his hands were bound together and resting in his lap. The presiding judges were currently talking amongst themselves about whether or not it was worth all the trouble of giving him Veritaserum.
They looked at each other sceptically and then after a few shrugs, motioned for the drug to be taken away. Judge Acerb raised his quill for attention. "If I may?" No-one objected, but Harry dearly wished to. "Would the defendant please give his testimony, in relation to the charges."
Harry nodded sullenly. "I fabricated the whole story about witnessing the separation of a spirit from Draco when he was imprisoned."
"How?"
"What?"
"My records show that you were given Veritaserum. How did you lie when you were under its influence?"
"I didn't, I only conditioned my speech before I went to them. They just didn't ask the right questions."
"Hmmm. Verbal misdirection." Acerb wrote something on his parchment. "Another disgusting habit you must have picked up from Dumbledore."
"What?" Harry scowled briefly before returning his gaze to the floor.
"How did you set the scene up?"
"Draco was going to be executed. I went to Sir Nicholas de Mimsy and ....."
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Gryffindor ghost at Hogwarts. I went to him and asked if he could put me in touch with a ghost that would help me with Draco. The Bloody Baron offered his services to help out a fellow Slytherin. I told him the plan and he agreed. I cast the spell to suppress Draco's memories just as the Baron passed through him, therefore leaving me quite capable to say that magic crackled through the air and I saw a spirit rise from Draco's body. I conditioned myself to say that and only that if you somehow had worked out a way to give me truth serum." Harry felt a slight twinge of satisfaction as even the judges muttered amongst themselves in surprise.
"And your reason for this horrific crime?"
Harry raised his eyes for another glare. "You were going to kill him. I wasn't just going to sit back and watch."
"He was found guilty of capital murder. Twenty seven counts of first degree murder." Acerb raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Do you have any reason to believe he was innocent?"
"A small part of me refused to ever believe that he did it." Harry gave a sneer to the judge in question. "The rest of me just didn't care."
"So let me see if I have his right. You, in all your wisdom, released a convicted serial killer therefore allowing him to continue with his preferred past-time, all because you were sleeping with him?"
"I did it because I love him."
"You allowed a convicted murderer to be released, where he went on to attack nine people. That we know of, that is. There could be more. A crime such as this *must* be handled carefully. The council will now retire to the conference room to deliberate."
They stood and walked out as an Auror walked over to Harry to lead him to the side. Dumbledore had taken to sitting on the first level for this trial, making him just behind Harry. The elderly wizard lent over and placed a hand on his shoulder, earning him a small smile. "And how are you today, Harry?"
"Fine, sir. Just fine." Was the tired reply.
"Best to get comfortable. The council could take hours to decide on what to do."
"I'll bet I can guess what Acerb wants."
"You can't be positive, though."
"Bullshit. He's always had it in for Draco."
"You are not Draco."
Harry glared back at the floor. "Close enough in his mind."
"I'm sure things will not be too bad. You will most likely receive only a short sentence. Your past actions will undoubtedly be in the back of most of their minds."
"Things shouldn't work like that."
"No, they shouldn't, but usually they do."
"And what of Draco?" Harry looked around as he slouched in his boxed chair. "What will happen then?"
"When he is found, his previous sentence will be carried out."
Harry turned his face away from his old professor. "I hope they never find him."
Dumbledore again patted Harry's shoulder. "His execution would probably be for the best, don't you think?"
"No." Harry sulked back.
Dumbledore straightened himself in his chair and gave the back of Harry's head a sad smile. "Young love, so stubborn."
Harry didn't reply, only looked around the audience as best he could, the torches making some parts rather difficult to see. He spotted Professor Snape near the back of the second tier and briefly wondered if he had been wrong about Draco going there. Hermione had told him that they had searched every single speck of dust and still found nothing.
To his right and down a little, he saw Hermione sitting next to Morgan. His old school friend still had not forgiven him, and Harry doubted that she ever would. Morgan gave him a smile and a wave and he raised his hand in return. Hermione smacked the younger Auror in the arm and he glared at her, saying something that Harry couldn't hear.
The excruciating wait seemed to last for days but it was actually only a matter of hours. As the council came back in, Harry was lead back to the chair in the centre. As he followed, he looked to the judges and had to allow a small smile. Acerb was furious about something and Harry had the idea that probably meant they weren't going to execute him. He sat in his seat and looked at them expectantly. One of the judges to the left stood at his bench without sitting down, obviously having been the one to announce the decision.
"The members of this court have heard what we can only assume to be the truth from the defendant. However, we have been unable to agree on what the outcome should be. A case as complicated as this could take any number of days for us to reach an acceptable decision that we can all adhere to. Therefore, we have no choice but to announce that we shall be remaining here and discussing this until such an agreement can be reached. During this time it has been decided that, due to the defendant's strong reaction to the Dementors, he shall be placed under strict house arrest for the length of our conference."
There were many gasps and mutterings of surprise and Harry couldn't blame the audience for it. He had no idea what the hell they were doing either. But the council appeared to have said all they were going to as they once again left for the conference room. Harry was lead towards the row of chairs where Hermione and Morgan had been sitting. Hermione was already talking to the boss and seemed to be fighting with him about something.
"There's not a chance in hell that'd I'd help him to escape!" Harry heard her practically shout as he got closer.
Harry was pulled to a sudden stop in front of the slowly growing group of Aurors. It seemed that Hermione wished to be one of the guards to watch over Harry, something that didn't fill him with relief. He knew very well how awful it could be when Hermione was enraged. In the end, Hermione was granted partial guardianship along with two other Aurors that Harry didn't know. Morgan offered to come along anyway and be some company which Harry accepted gratefully, although he felt guilty when the young man received a few glares from other work mates.
When they arrived, Harry thought his apartment felt cold and awful without the chance of Draco coming home. That was one of the things he had hated the most when they had arrested him all those months ago. Hermione roughly pushed him in the direction of the couch and he saw no reason to not sit down. The three Aurors assigned to watch him went through almost all of his and Draco's thing, making sure there was nothing he could use to his advantage. Setting up new wards, making it impossible for him to leave by any means.
Hermione even removed the phone that was in the bedroom and chucked it onto the dinner table. "No calls, no television, no radio, no writing, no leaving the presence of any of us at any time, no wand," She didn't need to say that, it was still at the Holding Department. "No going near the windows, no reading, no cooking and please, try not to talk to me, I can barely tolerate looking at you."
"I noticed Ron wasn't at my trial." Harry said softly.
"Can you blame him?" She scowled again. "He's gone to help out Bill in Egypt for awhile. Until he calms down."
Harry nodded. His rubbed his wrist once the bindings were removed and looked to Morgan.
"Cheer up Harry. I'm sure things will go okay." The young wizard wasn't very convincing, not even to himself.
"Hopefully not." Hermione spat as the two other guardians shifted uncomfortably where they stood. "With a little luck, they'll execute you too."
"Hermione!"
"Don't you dare take that tone of voice with me, Morgan, he deserves nothing less."
"She's right." Harry sighed. "But she's also biased."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be angry because you allowed my fiancee's attacker to go free? Malfoy nearly killed him! And you, you turned your back on your best friend to save your lover?"
Harry scowled. "They were going to kill him! What? If it had been Ron, you would have just sat back and done nothing?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I choose my partners better than you. *My* boyfriend sure as hell wouldn't get off on slaughtering people as if they were cattle. You should have just let him pay his due and found someone else to fuck!"
Harry snarled. "I love him, and guess what, I'd do it again too! Would you like to hear the awful truth, Hermione? When I found him, holding the knife to Ron's throat, the first thing I thought of was that I might have to cast a memory charm."
Hermione took a step back. "What?"
Harry help his head up stubbornly. "It was simple, once everything had sunk in. I'd talk Draco down and then make it look as if we found him like that. Wait for Ron to wake up, see if he could remember who attacked him and if he did, wipe it out. But no, then you had to turn up and ruin it all. I knew there wasn't a chance I could convince you to not tell anyone."
"You would have covered it up at the start? You sick bastard!"
"Don't give me that bullshit, Granger. You would have done the exact same."
"Yeah, well if Ron tried to hurt Malfoy, you would have killed him on the spot. Maybe you should be grateful I didn't. It left him free to go on and kill more innocent people."
"The evidence was circumstantial."
"Circumstantial? The blood on his clothes and shoes, the fact that he never had an alibi, his background in torture and pain!"
"Oh, don't bring Voldemort into this you stupid bitch! He did what had to be done, even the Ministry had to clear him of that. And Acerb wanted him to burn for it."
"Well mark my words, Potter, Acerb will get what he wants this time. I only wish I could be the one to kill him. I'll have to shake the hand of the witch or wizard who does it."
"Do you honestly think he'd let himself get killed? I'm not the one who sleeps with the idiots in this world."
"So it's not enough you were going to stand back and watch him die, you also think Ron's an idiot?"
"He's marrying *you*, isn't he?" Harry spat back.
Hermione's eyes narrowed and then she jumped as the recently disconnected phone fell from the table with a thump. "Morgan! I though you were going to get rid of that BLOODY CAT?"
Steel jumped down from the table as Hermione walked over to close the window he had used for an entrance. The feline hopped up onto the couch arm and then moved across, settling himself in Harry's lap. He purred as Morgan reached over to scratch his head.
"I think he can tell there's something wrong with you and Draco." The young Auror muttered. "He's been a right little prat ever since that night. I couldn't even find him yesterday when I came to collect him, I was supposed to return him to Severus."
"I guess Steel wants to stay here." Harry was starting to calm down as he rubbed the cat's stomach. "It's okay, I don't think Professor Snape will mind. But when they take me to prison, he'll have to go back then. There'll be no-one left to care for him here."
Steel stretched out, rubbing himself on Harry's legs and then curled up, ready to go to sleep.
"Oh, no you don't, if you're going to sleep, I'm moving to the bedroom. You can sleep on the pillow." Harry picked him up and ignored Hermione as he walked passed. Morgan followed, as did the male Auror, Edwards. Harry lay down, placing Steel on Draco's pillow and shifted his legs for Morgan to sit at the foot of the bed. Edwards took the chair in the corner, irritating Harry with his silence.
They sat there quietly for awhile, Steel shifting every now and then and looking at Harry as if to check he was still there. Hermione came in after a few minutes looking smug. "Well, Harry. Rationalise this one. The results are back from the blood. It wasn't easy but they managed to separate some of the energy residue." She tossed the report to the bed. "It's Malfoy's. Your cute little lunatic is Jack the fucking Ripper."
Harry just continued to stroke Steel's tail, as if he hadn't heard.
To Be Continued.
Warnings: Ah, the beauty of friends turning on each other.
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.
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Blood & Nails.
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Part Twenty Seven. Home Sweet Home.
"Don't bother, I won't lie." Harry said softly. He was sitting on that dreaded chair with the chains. The one he'd first seen when he was fourteen, in Dumbledore's Pensieve. Thankfully though, the aforementioned chains were not done up on this occasion, though his hands were bound together and resting in his lap. The presiding judges were currently talking amongst themselves about whether or not it was worth all the trouble of giving him Veritaserum.
They looked at each other sceptically and then after a few shrugs, motioned for the drug to be taken away. Judge Acerb raised his quill for attention. "If I may?" No-one objected, but Harry dearly wished to. "Would the defendant please give his testimony, in relation to the charges."
Harry nodded sullenly. "I fabricated the whole story about witnessing the separation of a spirit from Draco when he was imprisoned."
"How?"
"What?"
"My records show that you were given Veritaserum. How did you lie when you were under its influence?"
"I didn't, I only conditioned my speech before I went to them. They just didn't ask the right questions."
"Hmmm. Verbal misdirection." Acerb wrote something on his parchment. "Another disgusting habit you must have picked up from Dumbledore."
"What?" Harry scowled briefly before returning his gaze to the floor.
"How did you set the scene up?"
"Draco was going to be executed. I went to Sir Nicholas de Mimsy and ....."
"I beg your pardon?"
"The Gryffindor ghost at Hogwarts. I went to him and asked if he could put me in touch with a ghost that would help me with Draco. The Bloody Baron offered his services to help out a fellow Slytherin. I told him the plan and he agreed. I cast the spell to suppress Draco's memories just as the Baron passed through him, therefore leaving me quite capable to say that magic crackled through the air and I saw a spirit rise from Draco's body. I conditioned myself to say that and only that if you somehow had worked out a way to give me truth serum." Harry felt a slight twinge of satisfaction as even the judges muttered amongst themselves in surprise.
"And your reason for this horrific crime?"
Harry raised his eyes for another glare. "You were going to kill him. I wasn't just going to sit back and watch."
"He was found guilty of capital murder. Twenty seven counts of first degree murder." Acerb raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Do you have any reason to believe he was innocent?"
"A small part of me refused to ever believe that he did it." Harry gave a sneer to the judge in question. "The rest of me just didn't care."
"So let me see if I have his right. You, in all your wisdom, released a convicted serial killer therefore allowing him to continue with his preferred past-time, all because you were sleeping with him?"
"I did it because I love him."
"You allowed a convicted murderer to be released, where he went on to attack nine people. That we know of, that is. There could be more. A crime such as this *must* be handled carefully. The council will now retire to the conference room to deliberate."
They stood and walked out as an Auror walked over to Harry to lead him to the side. Dumbledore had taken to sitting on the first level for this trial, making him just behind Harry. The elderly wizard lent over and placed a hand on his shoulder, earning him a small smile. "And how are you today, Harry?"
"Fine, sir. Just fine." Was the tired reply.
"Best to get comfortable. The council could take hours to decide on what to do."
"I'll bet I can guess what Acerb wants."
"You can't be positive, though."
"Bullshit. He's always had it in for Draco."
"You are not Draco."
Harry glared back at the floor. "Close enough in his mind."
"I'm sure things will not be too bad. You will most likely receive only a short sentence. Your past actions will undoubtedly be in the back of most of their minds."
"Things shouldn't work like that."
"No, they shouldn't, but usually they do."
"And what of Draco?" Harry looked around as he slouched in his boxed chair. "What will happen then?"
"When he is found, his previous sentence will be carried out."
Harry turned his face away from his old professor. "I hope they never find him."
Dumbledore again patted Harry's shoulder. "His execution would probably be for the best, don't you think?"
"No." Harry sulked back.
Dumbledore straightened himself in his chair and gave the back of Harry's head a sad smile. "Young love, so stubborn."
Harry didn't reply, only looked around the audience as best he could, the torches making some parts rather difficult to see. He spotted Professor Snape near the back of the second tier and briefly wondered if he had been wrong about Draco going there. Hermione had told him that they had searched every single speck of dust and still found nothing.
To his right and down a little, he saw Hermione sitting next to Morgan. His old school friend still had not forgiven him, and Harry doubted that she ever would. Morgan gave him a smile and a wave and he raised his hand in return. Hermione smacked the younger Auror in the arm and he glared at her, saying something that Harry couldn't hear.
The excruciating wait seemed to last for days but it was actually only a matter of hours. As the council came back in, Harry was lead back to the chair in the centre. As he followed, he looked to the judges and had to allow a small smile. Acerb was furious about something and Harry had the idea that probably meant they weren't going to execute him. He sat in his seat and looked at them expectantly. One of the judges to the left stood at his bench without sitting down, obviously having been the one to announce the decision.
"The members of this court have heard what we can only assume to be the truth from the defendant. However, we have been unable to agree on what the outcome should be. A case as complicated as this could take any number of days for us to reach an acceptable decision that we can all adhere to. Therefore, we have no choice but to announce that we shall be remaining here and discussing this until such an agreement can be reached. During this time it has been decided that, due to the defendant's strong reaction to the Dementors, he shall be placed under strict house arrest for the length of our conference."
There were many gasps and mutterings of surprise and Harry couldn't blame the audience for it. He had no idea what the hell they were doing either. But the council appeared to have said all they were going to as they once again left for the conference room. Harry was lead towards the row of chairs where Hermione and Morgan had been sitting. Hermione was already talking to the boss and seemed to be fighting with him about something.
"There's not a chance in hell that'd I'd help him to escape!" Harry heard her practically shout as he got closer.
Harry was pulled to a sudden stop in front of the slowly growing group of Aurors. It seemed that Hermione wished to be one of the guards to watch over Harry, something that didn't fill him with relief. He knew very well how awful it could be when Hermione was enraged. In the end, Hermione was granted partial guardianship along with two other Aurors that Harry didn't know. Morgan offered to come along anyway and be some company which Harry accepted gratefully, although he felt guilty when the young man received a few glares from other work mates.
When they arrived, Harry thought his apartment felt cold and awful without the chance of Draco coming home. That was one of the things he had hated the most when they had arrested him all those months ago. Hermione roughly pushed him in the direction of the couch and he saw no reason to not sit down. The three Aurors assigned to watch him went through almost all of his and Draco's thing, making sure there was nothing he could use to his advantage. Setting up new wards, making it impossible for him to leave by any means.
Hermione even removed the phone that was in the bedroom and chucked it onto the dinner table. "No calls, no television, no radio, no writing, no leaving the presence of any of us at any time, no wand," She didn't need to say that, it was still at the Holding Department. "No going near the windows, no reading, no cooking and please, try not to talk to me, I can barely tolerate looking at you."
"I noticed Ron wasn't at my trial." Harry said softly.
"Can you blame him?" She scowled again. "He's gone to help out Bill in Egypt for awhile. Until he calms down."
Harry nodded. His rubbed his wrist once the bindings were removed and looked to Morgan.
"Cheer up Harry. I'm sure things will go okay." The young wizard wasn't very convincing, not even to himself.
"Hopefully not." Hermione spat as the two other guardians shifted uncomfortably where they stood. "With a little luck, they'll execute you too."
"Hermione!"
"Don't you dare take that tone of voice with me, Morgan, he deserves nothing less."
"She's right." Harry sighed. "But she's also biased."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be angry because you allowed my fiancee's attacker to go free? Malfoy nearly killed him! And you, you turned your back on your best friend to save your lover?"
Harry scowled. "They were going to kill him! What? If it had been Ron, you would have just sat back and done nothing?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I choose my partners better than you. *My* boyfriend sure as hell wouldn't get off on slaughtering people as if they were cattle. You should have just let him pay his due and found someone else to fuck!"
Harry snarled. "I love him, and guess what, I'd do it again too! Would you like to hear the awful truth, Hermione? When I found him, holding the knife to Ron's throat, the first thing I thought of was that I might have to cast a memory charm."
Hermione took a step back. "What?"
Harry help his head up stubbornly. "It was simple, once everything had sunk in. I'd talk Draco down and then make it look as if we found him like that. Wait for Ron to wake up, see if he could remember who attacked him and if he did, wipe it out. But no, then you had to turn up and ruin it all. I knew there wasn't a chance I could convince you to not tell anyone."
"You would have covered it up at the start? You sick bastard!"
"Don't give me that bullshit, Granger. You would have done the exact same."
"Yeah, well if Ron tried to hurt Malfoy, you would have killed him on the spot. Maybe you should be grateful I didn't. It left him free to go on and kill more innocent people."
"The evidence was circumstantial."
"Circumstantial? The blood on his clothes and shoes, the fact that he never had an alibi, his background in torture and pain!"
"Oh, don't bring Voldemort into this you stupid bitch! He did what had to be done, even the Ministry had to clear him of that. And Acerb wanted him to burn for it."
"Well mark my words, Potter, Acerb will get what he wants this time. I only wish I could be the one to kill him. I'll have to shake the hand of the witch or wizard who does it."
"Do you honestly think he'd let himself get killed? I'm not the one who sleeps with the idiots in this world."
"So it's not enough you were going to stand back and watch him die, you also think Ron's an idiot?"
"He's marrying *you*, isn't he?" Harry spat back.
Hermione's eyes narrowed and then she jumped as the recently disconnected phone fell from the table with a thump. "Morgan! I though you were going to get rid of that BLOODY CAT?"
Steel jumped down from the table as Hermione walked over to close the window he had used for an entrance. The feline hopped up onto the couch arm and then moved across, settling himself in Harry's lap. He purred as Morgan reached over to scratch his head.
"I think he can tell there's something wrong with you and Draco." The young Auror muttered. "He's been a right little prat ever since that night. I couldn't even find him yesterday when I came to collect him, I was supposed to return him to Severus."
"I guess Steel wants to stay here." Harry was starting to calm down as he rubbed the cat's stomach. "It's okay, I don't think Professor Snape will mind. But when they take me to prison, he'll have to go back then. There'll be no-one left to care for him here."
Steel stretched out, rubbing himself on Harry's legs and then curled up, ready to go to sleep.
"Oh, no you don't, if you're going to sleep, I'm moving to the bedroom. You can sleep on the pillow." Harry picked him up and ignored Hermione as he walked passed. Morgan followed, as did the male Auror, Edwards. Harry lay down, placing Steel on Draco's pillow and shifted his legs for Morgan to sit at the foot of the bed. Edwards took the chair in the corner, irritating Harry with his silence.
They sat there quietly for awhile, Steel shifting every now and then and looking at Harry as if to check he was still there. Hermione came in after a few minutes looking smug. "Well, Harry. Rationalise this one. The results are back from the blood. It wasn't easy but they managed to separate some of the energy residue." She tossed the report to the bed. "It's Malfoy's. Your cute little lunatic is Jack the fucking Ripper."
Harry just continued to stroke Steel's tail, as if he hadn't heard.
To Be Continued.