"Dove son leggi, Tremar non de hi leggi non infranse. - Where there are laws, he who has not broken them need not tremble."(Vittorio Alfieri)
Lucius Malfoy was woken by a loud bang. For a moment he groped blindly for his wand in order to curse the impudent house-elf who had dared to disturb him, then he remembered where he was. There were no house-elves in Azkaban, and he certainly did not have his wand. There was no bloody point to getting up either. He contemplated just playing dead for a while, but finally curiosity won out and he opened his eyes with a sigh.
He looked up at aurors Moody and Tonks, who were standing in front of his bunk and stared down at him. "Hello Uncle Lucius," said Tonks. He bared his teeth. "Don't you dare uncle me, you insolent mudblood," he snarled at his niece. "If it weren't for you and your miserable friends, I would not be here." The auror shifted a piece of bubblegum into her other cheek and smiled. "And a good thing, too," she told him. "Anyway, we're here to get you all dolled up. Today's your big day. Gotta go to the wizengamot to get your wrists slapped for being a bad Death Eater."
"Sit up," commanded Moody and bent down to unlock the iron collar. Lucius ran his hands along the raw skin on his bare neck, stood up and stretched. He had almost forgotten what it felt like not to have that damnable thing weighing him down. "Okay," said Tonks. "Come with me. We'll get you cleaned and back into the robes that you came in." She turned. "By the way, don't try anything," she warned him over her shoulder.
Lucius shook his head. "Try what, mudblood? Curse you? Escape? Come on, how stupid do you think I am?" "Oh, moderately stupid, I'd say," she replied. "Otherwise you'd think twice about calling people names when they have a wand and you don't." They walked down the corridor outside his cell in silence. He was annoyed at feeling actually grateful, but to be free of the tristitia spells and able to walk further than six paces seemed like pure bliss. Moody left them after telling Tonks he'd be waiting in the courtyard.
A little further down the hallway the young witch opened an unbarred door and Lucius followed her into a small room filled with shelves and boxes, where another auror was waiting for them. "There's a bathroom over there," said Tonks. "We'll just get your stuff."
When Lucius got back he caught the end of an animated conversation between the two aurors. "Well, I won't do the scrubbing," said the man. "Me neither," replied Tonks. "I guess it's got to be spellwork after all." Before the wizard had time to object, two wands were raised at him and it rained incantations. The first vestimentascedo had his prison uniform lying on the floor by his feet. "Depediculosus!" shouted Tonks over his hollered protest. "Detergeo!", "Capillavo!"
Eventually Lucius just gave up. He put his fists on his hips and simply endured the barrage of cleaning magic that crawled over his skin. Finally Tonks released a last "Ungues concisio!" and lowered her wand with a flourish. She looked over at the other auror. "Hey, what you think you're doing, Will? Change that back at once!" she said.
Lucius looked down at himself in alarm, only to find that a strand of hair that fell to the side of his face as he did so was now colored a deep electric blue. After weeks of humiliation and abuse this was too much provocation to bear. He suddenly didn't care that he was naked and unarmed. He simply wanted to wring the man's neck for his insolence.
"Uh, coloreverso!" cried the auror in alarm, just as the wizard caught up with him. Tonks jabbed the tip of her wand at Lucius' chest. "Sorry uncle," she said. "Sometimes happens with hair cleaning spells. I'm sure it was just an honest mistake." Lucius clenched his teeth. By Azrael, he had never missed his wand more. "Yes, sure!" he snarled.
Tonks reached behind her and offered a parcel of black cloth to him. "Here's your stuff," she said, obviously intent on making peace. Lucius shook out the garments. "My old Death Eater robes," he said unbelieving. "You're really going to make me wear those?"
His niece shrugged her shoulders and blew a gum bubble at him. "That's what you were wearing when you came in. Obviously you weren't ashamed putting them on to go after Harry, so you should wear them in court with the same pride." He flinched in disgust at his relative's filthy muggle habits and bent to put on his pants, boots, shirt and coat. Then he carefully layered his robes on top. If he was going to go before the court wearing his crimes on his sleeve, so to speak, he'd at least look as dignified as possible doing it.
Finally he turned to the two aurors, tossing back his hair. "I am ready," he said. Tonks grinned at him. "Hardly," she said, but they walked him out of the dim corridors and into the central sunlit courtyard, where Alastor Moody was waiting with a Ministry portkey.
After a brief moment of disorientation Lucius found himself standing in a torch-lit circular space surrounded by steep tiers of stone benches on all sides. A hushed murmur of voices rose towards the high domed ceiling above him and swelled in volume as people became aware of his presence.
He cast a quick glance around to orient himself, then lifted his chin in defiance and stared straight ahead without betraying any emotion. 'Déja-vu,' he thought, despising those who had come to watch and gloat. He had stood in that very same spot fifteen years ago, and he had made it out unscathed. He would play them all yet again.
The aurors had taken their place on either side of him and behind him and walked him forward towards a high-backed chair in the center of the room. At their command he sat down and felt chains on the legs and armrests of the seat snake up, encircle his wrists and ankles and bind him fast. After that his guards left him and disappeared into the shadows of the high chamber. Tonks did not speak to him again.
He felt anger and outrage at being deprived of movement yet again, at his peers not even trusting him to have the self-discipline to stay in his seat, but there was nothing he could do about it. He made an effort to suppress any outward reaction. He would not give anyone the satisfaction of seeing him either furious or despondent.
As his eyes adjusted to the light he found that if he raised his head he faced the still empty judges' bench. Off to the side was a separate seating box for witnesses where he saw Harry Potter and the children that had been part of the battle at the Department of Mysteries. He also recognized the werewolf. They were regarding him gravely and speaking to each other. Over the heads of some of the other children he met Potter's serious green eyes with an icy stare of his own and had the satisfaction of seeing the boy lower his lids and look away.
He glanced further along the tiers of seats and found Narcissa and Draco. His impeccably dressed wife was looking down at him sidelong with an unreadable expression, but Draco was leaning forward, and lifted his hand in a timid wave as he met his father's eyes. He looked exhausted and nervous. Lucius also caught a glimpse of the Malfoy signet ring and realized that Eleanor had obviously had a chance to talk to his son. He was relieved to see him still alive. It seemed that Voldemort had not yet made a successful move against his family.
Next to Narcissa he spotted Ambrosius Greenleaf, the advocatus. Strangely enough the young wizard was wearing his formal robes as if he was attending in some official capacity. He avoided Lucius' eyes and turned to Narcissa instead for a whispered comment. She seemed to assent to what he was saying.
Lucius locked eyes with Draco once more, and then continued his survey of the room. On the other side of the judges' bench he saw Eleanor. She sat by herself, her red curls tied up away from her face and wearing a high-collared blue tunic and cloak. She met his glance openly and held it, and he saw a small encouraging smile play around the corners of her mouth as she nodded at him and mouthed his name.
Advocatus Tethering was nowhere to be seen, but Lucius recognized Fudge and a host of Ministry officials staring down at him. The general atmosphere in the courtroom felt very hostile.
Just then an auror walked into the center of the room. "All guests and members of the court rise for the judges," he called loudly. There was a general scuffle and rustle of robes as everyone stood up and the seven presiding judges walked in. They took their seats on the bench with three of them flanking Albus Dumbledore on either side. A little after that the Public Interrogator and Advocatus Tethering entered and both took their places in the arena. The auror left and closed the heavy, creaking doors of the courtroom, taking his position before them. The session had finally started.
Lucius looked at the Interrogator clad in his blood-red official robes as he opened proceedings with the speech of accusation. "Wizards and witches of the magical community of Great Britain. Before you stands Mr. Lucius Malfoy, accused of attempted robbery of a prophecy at the Department of Mysteries, accused of the reckless endangerment of under-age wizards and witches, and accused of conspiracy with You-Know-Who. To these grave accusations, how do you plead?"
The man stepped back and ceded the floor to Advocatus Tethering robed in black with the deep emerald green surplice of defense, who briefly acknowledged his client and then stood facing the panel of judges.
"Honorable judges," he said with a deep bow to the bench. "On behalf of my client I am authorized to plead guilty on all three charges." The Interrogator looked rather dumbstruck and the chamber erupted with excited babble, until Dumbledore brought down the gavel with in a series of loud cracks and commanded silence. "However," continued Tethering. "In the following proceedings we will point out a series of extenuating circumstances that we hope will have a bearing on your judgment."
The Interrogator next took his former place and began reading extracts from Lucius' Azkaban confessions. He spoke in a rather unmodulated monotone and the blond wizard, tired and exhausted from his imprisonment found his mind wander as he relived the interrogations. He heard again the events from the battle at the Ministry, and if anything, he felt relief that obviously Tethering had done excellent work and had managed to have the rest of his statements suppressed for the trial. He vaguely recalled some of the things he had revealed to the aurors and knew they would have earned him an immediate death sentence.
While he listened with only half his attention engaged, he watched Eleanor, who now leaned forward in her seat, paying close attention. She had clasped her hands so tightly that her knuckles were outlined in white against her skin, and Lucius wondered whether she was feeling distress at having to hear his frank admission of his crimes. He was still surprised how after his arrest she had stepped up to his side as a matter of course. Loyalty born from anything but fear was not a gift he had received very often in his life.
Finally the Interrogator came to the end of his excerpts and now launched into a made-up diatribe against the crimes of the accused. Lucius barely suppressed a smirk as his own terse and concise style of speech from the interrogation protocols was replaced with the official's own florid and pathos-laden prose. The man waxed so melodramatic that the wizard felt an almost irresistible urge to laugh out loud, despite his predicament.
"This monster in human form that you see before you manacled and humbled, stooped to threatening mere innocent children in the prime of their youth with the horrible unforgivable curses. He brought with him an overwhelming force of Death Eaters, his despicable partners in crime that our brave aurors are at this very moment guarding in the impenetrable fortress of Azkaban, risking their very lives for all of our protection.
He bears for all to see on his arm the horrid mark of shame that You-Know-Who uses to brand his devotees. And I will in the course of these investigations show it to you, so you can see for yourself the hellish oaths he took and condemn him for his evil deeds.
Hear now in the words of our young and defenseless witnesses the terrible transgressions committed by this very demon upon their helpless persons. I am calling forth first Harry Potter, the boy who lived, an excellent young wizard who once proved the bane of You-Know-who."
Lucius watched with a bored sneer as Potter was sworn in and made his statements. Surprisingly the boy was short and quiet in his responses and the blond wizard had to give him credit for sticking to his facts, even though the interrogator tried to lead him on in his deposition to the extent that Tethering had to launch a couple of angry interventions which were condoned by the judges, but met with hissed disapproval from the audience.
Finally the interrogator was done and the advocatus stepped in to cross-examine. "Now, the Interrogator said Mr. Malfoy used the unforgivable curses on you. Did you hear him cast any such curses?" Potter stared at him for a moment, his face set and angry, but then slowly shook his head. "No, sir. He himself did not cast any unforgivable curses."
Tethering seemed to consider. "In fact, did he not stop one of the other Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange from harming you and your friends? Did he not grab her by her robes and rebuke her for attacking you." Potter's eyes flitted over to the accused. "Yes, but he did it only to…" The advocatus interrupted immediately. "Did he or did he not stop Mrs. Lestrange? A simple yes or no will suffice." The young wizard looked quite upset now. "Yes," he answered angrily.
Tethering whirled round, facing the panel of judges with a dramatic sweep of his robes. "There you have it. Not only did Mr. Malfoy refrain from using any of the unforgivables himself, in fact he did not personally harm any of the children, but he even intervened preventing his 'partners in crime' as the esteemed Interrogator named them, from inflicting any damage on the young wizards and witches. He showed remarkable restraint and consideration. I would therefore submit that had it not been for Mr. Malfoy's presence, the harm done to these innocent children would have been severe. He prevented the worst."
Dumbledore's gavel smashed through the excited babble that erupted in the courtroom at that rather outrageous statement. Lucius curved his lips in a thin smile of triumph as he saw Potter stare back at him from his seat in the witness box in anger and disgust.
Tethering continued to score as the Interrogator next tried to pin the murder of Sirius Black on the wizard. Unfortunately both Professor Remus Lupin and Neville Longbottom had to admit that Lucius Malfoy had already been out cold on the floor hit by several hexes when Sirius had died, and had been incapable of casting any spells at all.
The attempted robbery of the prophecy was struck down as well, as it became quickly obvious from the statements of several Ministry witnesses, that prophecies could not be removed from the Department of Mysteries unless they were collected by the subject of the message. "Why would Mr. Malfoy attempt to steal an item, when he knew that the very attempt to do so would leave him incapacitated and close to death? My client is not here under any charge of terminal imbecility, is he now?"
Several nervous titters erupted around the room at that, and Lucius realized that his lawyer had begun already to sway opinions in his favor. He allowed his tense muscles to relax. 'Malfoys always deserve and get the best,' he thought to himself. 'Even when it comes to the law.'
Next the Interrogator concentrated on the conspiracy charge. He again quoted from Lucius' statements with regards to Voldemort and then asked for the prisoner's left wrist to be released. He lifted the wizard's black-robed arm and exposed the dark Death Eater mark on his skin with an exclamation of outrage and triumph. "Here is proof irrefutable that his man has sold his soul to committing the vilest of depravities in the name of the foulest of black wizards who ever walked the earth. Look at his horrid black robes, look at this nauseating mark! He judges himself. His loathsome character is written on his very body, inscribed in his very clothes."
Lucius balled his hand into a fist and ripped his arm out of the Interrogator's grip with a snarl while the hall erupted in yet another explosion of shock and excitement. "How dare you touch me without my permission!?" he hissed at the Ministry official under cover of the noise. "You will pay for this insolence!" The Interrogator took a surprised step back. "He threatens me! Do you hear?" he called, but his voice was lost in the general commotion.
When Dumbledore had finally restored order, Tethering stepped forward with bored nonchalance. "Oh, the black mark, that old chestnut," he drawled. "As I recall there was a case 15 years ago where another hotshot interrogator exposed that very mark to us. Some of us may even have been around to see it then.
As I recall, Mr. Malfoy was cleared of all charges at that time and found to have been forced into the service of the Dark Lord. So why should another showing of the mark make a difference now? We have all heard in Mr. Malfoy's confession that he freely admits to being a Death Eater. So the mark is not a surprise. Don't fall for cheap blatant tricks to manipulate your clear judgment.
However, may I remind you that when we first saw that very mark, Mr. Malfoy had been recently handfasted to a beautiful young witch of the noble house of Black. She was sitting in this very courtroom, almost nine months pregnant with their first child.
You may remember Mr. Malfoy's heart-wrenching tale of how You-Know-Who had threatened to kill his beloved wife and unborn son, in order to make him do his bidding. Coerced also by an imperius spell Mr. Malfoy complied in order to secure the lives of those he cherished and had sworn to protect above all others. It was weakness, yes, but a weakness all of us who have ever loved spouses and children can understand.
Now as we see this mark again, the past repeats. Up there in the seats is Mrs. Malfoy!" Tethering raised his hand in a dramatic sweep to point out Narcissa, and the audience followed him with a collective gasp. "Next to her sits their then unborn child, their only son and heir Draco, now the pride and hope of their family, a promising wizard of the highest aspirations, best student at Slytherin the fourth year running. Look at him. If you were his father, his mother, would you not do anything you could to protect him?"
Lucius bit his tongue to keep himself from breaking out in laughter. Oh, this story was priceless! Tethering almost had him believe this drivel. So much for cheap blatant tricks… He had not thought that he would find his own trial amusing in any way, but his advocatus was a diamond among sophisters.
Just as he craned his neck to see Narcissa's and Draco's reactions to suddenly becoming the center of sympathetic attention, Tethering moved in for the killer punch. "However, as my esteemed colleague is so keen on exposing marks on my client's body, I would like to show you a few new ones, you have not seen before." He approached the wizard. "Allow me, please," he said as he opened the Death Eater robes at the shoulders. Lucius who could by now guess at the advocatus' intentions used his still freed left hand to unbutton the top of his shirt.
Slowly and gently as if he wanted to minimize the pain Tethering lifted the wizard's robes and hair away and exposed the scabbed and abraded flesh left by the iron collar which stood out quite dramatically from Lucius' otherwise pale skin.
"Our esteemed Interrogator has based his whole case on his quotes from Mr. Malfoy's supposed confessions. I submit to you that my client was tortured physically and mentally in prison and made these statements under duress. Look at this outrage. These are the marks you really want to see! This is the justice system you trust?!"
Very gingerly Tethering closed the robes again and secretly winked at Lucius as he did so. "Glad they didn't magically remove them. Was a bit of a gamble," he whispered.
As the reactions from the audience slowly died down the advocatus strode back in front of the panel of judges. "Unless the Public Interrogator has any other ridiculous and unfounded accusations to make, I have declared my case," he pronounced confidently.
Dumbledore cast a questioning glance at the Interrogator, who looked quite deflated and shook his head. He had obviously regarded the case as very straightforward and a sure win and seemed shocked and appalled to find his assessment wrong.
"Very well," declared the chief of the wizengamot. "We will take a 15 minute recess. Then both officials may make their closing statements after which we will render our judgment." The auror opened the courtroom door and the judges left. The buzz of excited conversations filled the hall as wizards and witches discussed the recent developments. Lucius watched Narcissa and Advocatus Greenleaf confer in low conspiratory whispers. Draco obviously tried to listen in, but his mother seemed to rebuke him, after which he sat back sullenly in his seat and regarded his father gravely.
On the other side Eleanor smiled down at him and made a small gesture of relief. Lucius raised his still unbound hand in acknowledgement. Between her, his son and his hired advocatus as the only people on his side he hadn't done too badly so far. Tethering distracted him after that, as he came up to him with a cup of water for which Lucius was quite grateful, especially since he had been forced earlier to skip the rather revolting swill that counted for breakfast in prison.
"We'll get exile for sure now. Too much reasonable doubt, even despite your confessions. We'll go for humble and contrite and ready to accept your sentence. You acknowledge you deserve punishment for your weakness in going back to Voldemort, but you did it for your family and to do as much good as you still could, like saveing Harry and the children from worse. We'll have witches in the seats up there sobbing into their handkerchiefs, wishing their husbands were more like you. It will be a thing of beauty to behold. And it will throw the door wide open for your eventual rehabilitation."
Lucius looked up at his family advocatus with a genuine smile. "You are entirely ruthless, Marcellus, which makes you truly the best." The lawyer bowed politely. "From someone as free from compunction as you, that's the highest compliment I could possibly receive."
Just then Lucius felt the man's hand touch his unfettered left, and with a soft crinkle of parchment he slipped a small vellum-wrapped packet into the wizard's palm. "For outside," he whispered at the blond man's cocked eyebrow. Lucius quietly pocketed the gift, making sure no one had witnessed their exchange.
The closing statements after that seemed hardly surprising to the accused Death Eater. The Interrogator remained all bluster and rhetoric, and Lucius amused himself with plotting the intricate and physical particulars of his eventual revenge on the stupid oaf. Tethering skillfully expanded on the strategy he had outlined to his defendant during the break and really had some of the female members of the audience in tears as the wizard could clearly observe.
With the same uncanny predictability the judges conferred for a little while and then Albus Dumbledore rose to pronounce the sentence. Aurors called to the audience to stand, and even the chair bindings retracted to allow Lucius to face his doom on his feet.
"Wizards and witches of the magical realm of Great Britain, hear now the verdict of the wizengamot. For his crimes of the attempted robbery of a prophecy at the Department of Mystery, the reckless endangerment of under-age wizards and witches, and conspiracy with Lord Voldemort, to which Mr. Malfoy has freely confessed, the confessions having been heard by this court, he is being sentenced to exile from the magical community.
His wand will be broken, his magical abilities will be taken from him, and he will have to live as a muggle among muggles for the rest of his natural life. No wizard or witch may henceforward help him or hinder him under threat of imprisonment in Azkaban for at least one entire year. This court has rendered its judgment. So mote it be."
Dumbledore banged his gavel until the uproar in the room had died down, then looked down at the accused. "Do you have anything to say before this sentence is carried out?" Lucius swallowed the words of arrogance and defiance and the threats that arose in him unbidden and concentrated on Tethering's script.
"I would like to humbly thank the court for their wisdom and mercy in rendering this judgment," he said, allowing his voice to vibrate a little with emotion. "I have indeed strayed from the path of righteousness and served the Dark Lord since his return, but I have done so not for selfish reasons. I have done so to keep those that I love from harm. I have been as reluctant in my service as I could be, trying to do as little harm as I could without being discovered. If you seek to understand my true aspirations, think back on the countless donations I have made to support our community and to the tireless service I have rendered to the Ministry for many years."
He took a deep breath and decided to close his statement with a bit of ambiguous truth. "As I now need to part ways with you, you will be in my thoughts, and I sincerely hope that your great struggle against the forces of darkness will be crowned by success. I hope my son will grow up to be an honorable man and a beacon of pride to the house of Malfoy. My greatest pain and punishment will consist in not being able to accompany him on his path as a father should."
He lowered his head not to let his amusement show as some members of the audience actually started to clap at his words and to protest the harshness of the sentence.
However, the judges were hardly swayed by this development and a few minutes later they had formed a circle around him. An auror instructed him to sit back in the chair which bound him again. He saw Tonks bring in his snake cane. "Lucky bastard," she mouthed at him, then stepped back.
Dumbledore took it and slipped the plain unadorned ebony wand from its core. He held out the magical weapon for all to see, then pulled it from the silver snake head that held it at the top and with a swift movement cracked it over his knee. The wand broke with an odd animal cry of pain, and the old wizard cast the two pieces at Lucius' feet, his blue eyes looking deeply into the Death Eater's grey.
Lucius tried to mask his distress with hatred. He had possessed his wand since his eleventh year and it had never left his side. His father had accompanied him when he had picked it out, and Lucius still recalled a rare smile on Octavian Malfoy's narrow lips when he had caused old Mr. Ollivander to almost fly to the back of his own store when he had pointed the polished ebony at him. His father had known then, that he had sired a powerful son, and he had been proud.
However, a moment later Lucius' reminiscences were interrupted as the judges quietly began to intone the secret incantations that would block all of his magical powers for the future. The force of the spellcraft of seven vastly experienced wizards held Lucius in a vortex of energy that crackled over him with painful intensity, and when the collective curses finally took effect with a rather spectacular display of hissing purple fire, he needed all his self-possession not to cry out in agony.
He slumped over in his seat for a few seconds, feeling blood fill his mouth where he had bitten the inside of his own cheek, then stretched and forced himself to face the crowd again in defiance. His bonds finally fell away from him. Obviously the chair now deemed him no longer a threat of any kind. The judges retreated. "Take him and escort him out of the Ministry," Dumbledore instructed the aurors.
However just as his niece laid a hand on his shoulder, he noticed that Advocatus Greenleaf had cornered one of the judges in the arena and was conferring with him over a piece of paper. They approached Dumbledore, and eventually the chief of the wizengamot held up a commanding hand. "Silence," he called. "A matter has to be brought to my attention that will need to be resolved now, as Mr. Malfoy will not receive any other communications from the wizarding world in the future. Please be seated, all of you."
There were suppressed murmurs from the crowd and Lucius caught Tethering's expression of surprise as the advocatus shrugged his shoulders to indicate he did not know what was going on either. The judges made their way back to the bench and settled in, and finally Dumbledore instructed Mr. Greenleaf to make his announcement.
The young lawyer smoothed a small piece of parchment and then stepped carefully back as far as he could from the center of the room until he was flanked by two aurors. Nervously he cleared his throat.
"We wish to make an announcement on behalf of Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy, born of the house of Black. Mrs. Malfoy wishes her husband Lucius Malfoy to know that in the light of the most recent developments she is revoking her handfasting to him. She regards it as a grave dishonor to be considered married to a man who is now a muggle and an outcast. She will retain full possession and control over the Malfoy property and holdings in the name of her son Draco, until he has come of age and can continue the family line with honor."
Greenleaf avoided looking at the black clad man facing him and folded up the parchment. For a moment Lucius Malfoy stood perfectly still while the courtroom remained utterly quiet. Then he heard the agonized voice of his son cry out above him "Mother! How could you?!" The next moment he had ripped his snake cane out of Tonks' hands and in the racket that broke out as everyone erupted in surprise at the scandal that had just unfolded, he steered a direct course towards Advocatus Greenleaf to beat the miserable little lawyer to a pulp.
Some useful elementary cleaning spells for wizards:
Vestimentascedo - (contracted from vestimentas ascedo) - I am getting rid of (my) clothes
Detergeo - I am washing (myself)
Capillavo - (contracted from capillum lavo) - I am cleaning (my) hair
Ungues concisio - I am cutting (my) nails
Coloreverso - (contracted from colorem reverso) - I am changing the color back