Harry Potter & the Price of Mercy

by: NecessaryEvil

Chapter Eighteen: The Boy Imprisoned

Disclaimer: Not mine, wish they were. I could use the money.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers. Sorry for the delay. I've been working on other projects outside of the fanfiction realm.

blackdragonofslytherin: Thanks for the love. I forgot all about polyjuice potions. Damn that'll be a possibility I'll haveta bring in later.

RyuLong: You think this is one of the few stories worth reading? Wow!! I'm blushing. I never blush. Well unless I'm talkin' to a pretty bird, but that doesn't count.

Dragoon knight: Well my writing now continues.

linky2: It's a possibility.

crabb: No. Hermione did not kill Sayuri. I don't think so anyway. I am currently tracking down my plan for this story.

Roxoan: You may be partially right. And I'm glad you actually remembered that line. I was proud of that line. Not as proud as I am of one that I'm gonna use later in the story, but still proud.

Krazy lunitiK: A very telling name you have there mate. Don't worry, I just reread it and I barely get it myself.

Sarah R Potter: Thanks for the encouragement luv.

On with the show ne?

Harry Potter sat staring glumly across a disturbingly neat table at a Cheshire cat like Cornelius Fudge, who was looking between Harry and the charge sheet in his hand like Christmas had come early and it just happened to coincide with every other gift giving event there was. Harry really didn't see why the Minister looked so happy, after all obviously this was a case of great seriousness. Harry decided to take this up with the man himself as neither had spoken yet.

"What are the charges against me again Mr. Fudge?" Harry said in the least acidic voice he could manage.

If possible Cornelius Fudge's smile widened as he answered with the list of charges against Harry (which seemed to grow with each persons listing them), "You, Mr. Potter, are charged with three counts of murder, the victims being Himiko Sayuri and Hinano and Cedric Diggory, abetting in the escape of Sirius Black, a convicted murderer, two counts of interfering in pursuit of convicted felons, being Sirius Black and the Hippogriff named Buckbeack, having an un-registered animagus form, performing Magi magic without a license, apparating without a license, I could go on and on. Let's just say Mr. Potter that you are going to be in prison for a very long time. There are over twenty-nine charges on your sheet and you have been convicted of half of them,"

"I'm convicted? Aren't I suppose to have a trial before I am convicted?" Harry asked angrily.

"A law passed sixteen years ago allows us to try people suspected of Death Eater activities without any obligation to any rights that must be given during trial. Therefore all charges relating to assisting Sirius Black are not necessary to be tried in the normal way. A law passed three hundred years ago allows me to pronounce judgment immediately on anyone suspected of having Magi powers, therefore all charges pertaining to that are up to me completely. That adds up to at least seventeen charges, and seeing as one of your friends has already given you up on nearly all the other charges, and your Magi teacher has already agreed to help us prevent you from escaping. Mr. Potter you are very much going to jail,"

"Why does this please you so much Cornelius?" Harry spit the name.

"You will address me as Mr. Fudge or Minister! And your predicament pleases me because I very much think that you deserve this Mr. Potter," Cornelius beamed, "Whether the claims against you are true or not. You have caused enough trouble in your time Mr. Potter. I will not have your claims of the return of he who must not be named undermining my term as Minister. The Dark lord is dead. You saw to that when you were still innocent Mr. Potter. A long time ago."

"Now, Mr. Potter, this nice man will be taking you to your new home. Seeing as you are accused of abetting Sirius Black you will not be taken to Azkaban because he could have told you how he escaped from there. You will therefore be taken to Kingdom Magical Prison in California. Your teacher Genkai has provided us with a way to bind your Magi powers and we of course have a way to bind your Animagus form. There will be no escape from responsibility this time Mr. Potter."

The grim faced Auror who had first taken Harry into custody came up to him and fastened a gold choker around his neck and a gold bracelet around his wrist before taking his wand and pulling him to his feet.

Harry didn't struggle as he was led to a room at the end of the hall. He decided to strike up conversation with the man that was escorting him, "So what's your name?"

The man smiled and shook his head, "What do you think I'm stupid? I know what you do to Aurors who do things you don't like. What you did to poor Himiko Hinano and her daughter Sayuri because she turned in your worthless Godfather."

"I didn't kill her because she turned in my godfather," Harry yelled in frustration.

The man looked at him, sensing some truth in what he said, "So why did you kill them?"

Harry calmed down and said "I didn't kill them. I never killed anyone,"

The man looked at Harry just as he was turning the knob on the door to the room they had been heading towards, "Dunno why, but I believe you Potter," he turned the knob and opened the door and pushed Harry in, "but I still have a job to do whether I do or not,"

Harry nodded as he looked around saying, "I understand,"

The room was round and had a round symbol in the middle with several symbols he recognized from around Genkai's training arena. He moved slowly to the middle of the room, knowing what was expected of him.

He turned around when he reached the middle of the room and looked at the man a moment.

The man looked at him in return before saying, "My name is Romulus Lupin. I wish we could have met under better circumstances,"

Harry nodded and looked the man over, "Tell your brother 'Hi,' for me and please tell Ron Weasley that I know what he did and that I don't hold it against him and not to feel guilty,"

"You really are innocent aren't you Potter," Romulus said quietly as he began activating the port room that would take this boy to the second worst wizarding prison there was.

The last thing he heard Harry say was, "I wish," then the boy was gone.

Cho, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Cecily sat with their backs to a tree on the edge of the Lake with somber expressions on all of their faces. Cho just couldn't believe it. Harry had been arrested. She just couldn't believe it. She decided that since it had come into her mind it had probably come into the others minds as well so she decided to voice her thoughts to get some conversation going.

"I just can't believe that they arrested Harry. I mean it's Harry," her voice broke off a little at the end of the sentence.

Ron just looked at her, a tiny bit of a glare in his eyes, before saying, "Why shouldn't they arrest him. He killed someone. Obviously they had sufficient proof,"

Cho, Cecily, and Hermione looked at Ron like he had just sprouted antlers and he was just about to ask what they were looking at when out of nowhere Ginny slapped him hard. A resounding smack echoed off the lake sending the Octopus swimming swiftly away. "HOW DARE YOU RONALD GREGORY WEASELY!! He was your friend. He always trusted you and time after time you turned on him for no other reason than you believed the rubbish being spread about him and you still haven't learned your bloody lesson. HOW DARE YOU!!!!"

Ginny was standing over Ron getting in his face as she could only do when he was sitting and she was standing. Ron was a little taken about her ferocity and Hermione and Cecily were pulling her back while she attempted to fight them off to get at Ron and punch him in the nose. She was almost winning until Cho grabbed onto her arm and took a pull at it, before being given a great shock and recoiling in surprise. Cho lay motionless on the grass her eyes wide open. Everyone turned to her and rushed over to her in worry. Hermione felt a pulse and sent Ron to go get a teacher to help them, while Cecily conjured up a magical stretcher to carry her unmoving form.

Twelve hourse later Madame Pomfrey exited the Hospital Wing with a relieved look on her face to find Hermione, Cecily, Ron, Ginny, and a very worried Padma waiting in the hall. She smiled at them and said, "She's awake. I don't know what happened to her and neither does she, but she's going to be alright. Seems that the last thing she remembers was going to help you to restrain Ms. Weasely here from injuring her brother. First thing she knows she's about to make her move the next thing she's coming to in there. You can go in to see her. I know how much you three especially feel the need to visit the patients,"

The five of them made their way into the Hospital wing and to the bed where Cho was sitting up and gathering her things. She looked up when she heard footsteps and found herself looking at all of her friends, their faces taking on that confused look that she got so often. They looked at what she was packing and saw that it looked like she was packing for a trip, not for leaving the medical ward.

"I think something has happened to Harry. That's the only explanation. Something happened to Harry and I got part of it as a fringe benefit of trying to talk to him while it was happening. I feel a little bit of a haze when I try to remember what happened and that usually means that there is another memory interposed over whatever I actually remember."

Padma put her arm around the now sobbing Cho and said, "Of course something has happened to Harry. He was arrested Cho. You know that," Cho let out a very loud choked sob and lay her head into Padma's shoulder while Padma whispered quietly to her that everything would be ok. That everything would be perfectly alright.

Harry felt that he would be nowhere near perfectly alright. He had been framed for three murders and had been sent to jail for those and other things that he actually had done which were good things really. And now his oldest and best friend thought that he had killed his girlfriend and he was being led down a stone passageway in a jail without his wand and with all but the most minimal of his powers bound by a spell created by his teacher.

Kingdom couldn't be nearly as bad as Azkaban. That was the only upside that Harry could think of since the only good thing he could see was that this prison didn't employ Dementors. There was however almost no light and almost every cell he had looked into as he passed had mold on the bedding and half starved Wizards in them howling in agony or insanity, he couldn't tell which. This was not a good sign he decided.

The friends were just about to leave the hospital wing together when the door opened and a man came in and looked around a moment before spotting the group and saying, "Is Ronald Weasely here? I was told I could probably find him here,"

Ron stepped forward, "I'm Ron. Who are you?"

"I am Romulus Lupin. I was asked to relate a message to you and as prisoners are granted messages to the outside world if they can find someone willing...anyway, Harry Potter asked me to relate to you that he and I quote, 'know what he did and that I don't hold it against him and not to feel guilty,' that is the entire message and that being delivered I'll be going now. Goodbye Mr.Weasely,"

Romulus Lupin left the room and Ron grunted, "So that's Professor Lupin's brother I suppose," but no one else was quite thinking that at that moment. It was Cho who came forward first.

"What did he mean that he knows what you did, Ron?" her voice was a little bit angry, but only slightly.

"Who knows. Obviously not in his right mind. Homicidal maniac and all," but Ron voice let surface a little bit of guilt and so Ginny asked.

"What did you do?" her voice on the other hand was straight on pissed, "What did you do to Harry?"

Ron looked up at them, "I turned him in. I found evidence that he killed Sayuri and I turned him in. I TURNED THE MURDERING BASTARD IN!!!"

Everyone looked at Ron in shock before turning away from him and walking out the door in silence leaving Ron alone, with a sense of guilt he didn't know why he had, in the middle of the darkened Hospital Wing.

Harry lay on his cell's cot in a fitful sleep. The cell wasn't as bad as some of the cells he had passed and it certainly wasn't as bad as some of the places he had slept when in the care of his Aunt and Uncle, but it was no picnic and it wasn't as comfortable as he had gotten used to over the last five years. There was one window the size of a hardcover novel, a cot that was too short even for him, no blanket or pillow, but fortunately not mold or rats that he could see.

And it was in this room that Harry slept unsoundly. Ice forming around him that had nothing to do with the cold conditions of the cell and really not characteristic of being in the middle of California.

Harry stood on the edge of the precipice with Cedric beside him giving him instructions on how to going about putting his plan into action. He looked away from the precipice and whispered, "Cecily. Can you hear me Cecily,"

And then he was at Hogwarts in the Gryfindor Commons Cedric still standing beside him, but now someone else was there. Cecily Diggory looked up and he heard her think, 'Harry?'

"Cecily it's me and Cedric. I need you to believe me I didn't kill Sayuri,"

'Oh my god. You're dead. They put you...'

"NO!!! I'm alive and in prison," Harry hissed.

Cecily turned and looked at him, 'Oh my god I can see you,'

Harry frowned slightly, "Couldn't you see Cedric?"

'Not before this time,'

"Weird. Anyway I need your help. You're my only way to contact the outside world. I need you to tell the others thst I'm innocent,"

'They all already think that..well, except Ron, but you know he turned you in right. There was that message from you,'

"Yeah. Listen tell Cho and only Cho that you're talking to me," Harry paused a minute and considered something that just came to mind he didn't know why, the words You can't always trust who you want to, but when you really need it sometimes you can trust the ones you don't.

"And you can tell Malfoy. If they need convincing tell Cho that I can't die yet and tell Malfoy that I'm still gonna take over the brotherly roll if he forces me. They'll both know what I'm talking about. I haveta go now, but I'm leaving some of my strength to Cedric so you can see him. Not like I'm gonna be using it anytime soon,"

Harry woke finally after much shaking by the other boy in his cell with him. He shook off the ice frosting over his irisis and looked to see none other that Will Finn standing over him. Harry looked at him quizzically and Will smirked before frowning and saying mostly to himself, "What have you gotten yourself into Potter,"

"Look I can't get you out of here because I'm not strong enough to carry you and your can't do it yourself or you would have already done it, but I came to try and found you covered in ice and with almost no pulse, not breathing. I figured I should try waking you at the least. Now I need to go. If you ever get out of here look me up will ya. I've got a surprise for you," and with that Will Finn was gone.

A/N: Again sorry for the delay, but I hope this is longer than my other chapters and will somewhat make up for it.