CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Hearing

Morning came much too fast for Hermione, who had been up with Harry much of the night trying to work out some sort of solid defense for themselves. There was no defense for breaking the underage magic decree, unless they convinced the panel the use of magic had been necessary to save someone's life. But then that would bring up the spell they had cast and that would certainly not be seen as an acceptable use of magic. Hermione had searched thoroughly but had found nothing stating that type of magic was illegal, but because it dealt with unimaginable power and potentially dark magic, it was openly forbidden by society, which was almost just as bad.

Lupin had gone through their options with them. If they pleaded guilty to the charges, the panel might be a bit more lenient with them because they were admitting their guilt, but they would not receive anything less than expulsion. If they pleaded not guilty, Lupin wasn't sure what the outcome would be, only that it would take a compelling case to convince the panel they were in fact innocent.

Ron stumbled out of bed at seven o'clock to wish them a bleary-eyed good luck and then they were off. They walked with Lupin for about half mile, before their former professor thought they were a safe enough distance away from the house and pulled out his wand. Seconds later the purple Knight Bus appeared and the three of them boarded it.

There were very few passengers aboard the Knight Bus this early in the day. There were two wizards in the back huddled together in conversation, and there was a single witch sitting near the front who was staring fixatedly at Harry before winking at him.

"It's Tonks," Hermione whispered in his ear.

Sure enough when Harry looked back at her, she grinned broadly at him before turning her attention back to the open copy of Witch Weekly in her hands.

"Are you nervous?" Harry asked her.

"A little," she admitted, looking out the window, seeing the dizzying pace at which they passed everything.

"I already know I can't go back to Hogwarts. I'll tell them – "

"You're not going to tell them anything we didn't go over, Harry," she silenced him. She was not going to let him take all the blame for this, even when her school career and future were at stake. She sent him a look that said if he tried anything like that he was going to spend the rest of his life regretting it.

Much too soon they arrived at the Ministry. Tonks got off the bus with them, while the other two wizards remained onboard. The Knight Bus was off again before Harry's feet had barely touched the ground.

"Tonks will take you the rest of the way," Lupin said to them.

He tried to say it in an off hand sort of voice, but it wasn't that difficult to see how much it bothered him. For a place that prided itself on being fair and just, the Ministry of Magic was anything but that with its anti-werewolf laws.

Tonks guided the two of them to the broken down pay phone, and once she had entered the correct access code and announced who they were, the floor in the phone booth retracted and started taking them below ground.

"It's just a formal inquiry," Tonks was telling them as they hurried along a winding corridor. "They can't charge you with anything except breaking the underage magic rule. Anything else, and they'll have to conduct a full trial. Don't worry, it won't come to that," she added seeing their expressions.

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked.

"All I can tell you is that things are changing around here," she said cryptically but did not elaborate further.

Harry couldn't help but notice Tonks was making them take the long way to the courtroom. She had taken them on a path that would not lead them by the Department of Mysteries. Though she was trying to spare him from any unpleasant memories, just being in the ministry was painful enough for Harry.

They arrived outside a great pair of oak doors with brass knocker handles.

"I'll be here when you get out," Tonks told them. "It's going to be fine," she said reassuringly.

That did little to stop the massive anxiety that had been weighing in their stomachs all morning. The feeling multiplied the moment Harry turned the handle and they walked inside.

As the door clicked shut behind them, Harry and Hermione found they were the only occupants of the large room. In the dim lighting, they found their way to a large desk with a piece of parchment floating in front that read 'accused'. Shrugging, Harry sat down at it and Hermione joined him. They were seated directly in front of a massive bench that rose high above the floor. He estimated there was enough room to fit in eleven panel members.

Before he could begin fidgeting nervously, a door opened to their right. Eight wizards and three witches clothed in black robes filed inside simultaneously, each taking their designated seat on the bench. They wasted no time in getting things started.

"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger the charges against you are as follows: breaking the law of underage wizardry and performing an unpracticed form of a sacrificial spell," the ancient looking wizard in the center spoke. "A plea of not guilty has already been entered for you, so we will proceed."

Harry didn't look at Hermione but knew she must have been thinking the same as him. Who would have entered a plea for them? There was no time to dwell on it because the lead panel member was already moving on.

"On the night in question, you both disregarded the underage wizarding laws and used magic against several different individuals on a reoccurring basis. Your statements to the Auror Alastor Moody, were that the magic was used in self defense against a group of Death Eaters, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir," they both answered simultaneously.

"Is it also correct that Ron Weasley suffered a life threatening injury at the hands of Lucius Malfoy, and you used a restricted spell to save his life?"

"Yes, sir."

"Were you also aware that any restoration or sacrificial magic is restricted for use because the effects are far too unstable to predict?"

"Yes, sir."

"And yet your disregarded that knowledge and performed a spell well beyond the capabilities of someone even twice your age, ignoring the potentially damaging effects the spell could have had on the victim as well as yourselves."

This was not going well at all. Judging by the hardened looks on the panel members faces, they already had their minds made up and they were only proceeding with this inquiry because it was procedure.

"Unlike your predecessors, you were able to perform it correctly," the wizard continued, "saving Ronald Weasley's life in the process."

There were mumbled murmurings among the panel members and each one of their expressions changed. They were now staring at Harry and Hermione in a sort of awe.

"It is the opinion of this panel that you both be found not guilty of performing illicit magic and guilty of the charge of breaking the wizarding decree for underage magic. This session is now adjourned."

The panel members stood up one by one and filed out of the door they entered from.

In a stunned state, Harry and Hermione left as well, finding Tonks waiting where she had left them.

"Well?" She prompted them, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. "How'd it go?"

"They found us guilty of breaking the underage wizarding decree but not guilty of performing forbidden magic," said Harry both astounded and confused.

"Told you it would all work it," she to them, grinning in triumph.

"I don't understand," Hermione said in disbelief. "How could they find us guilty of that but not the other charge, which was clearly much more severe."

"Let's just say the ministry has had a change of heart where Voldemort's concerned these days."

"It was Dumbledore who entered the plea of not guilty for us, wasn't it?" Hermione said knowingly.

Tonks nodded. "With Fudge finally on the way out, the ministry is doing what it can to make up for the way it's treated Dumbledore – and Harry for that matter – these last couple of years. They couldn't let you go without any sort of punishment, but if they had found you guilty of the forbidden magic charge it would go on your permanent records. The underage magic charge will disappear once you're seventeen."

Harry was still marveling at how lucky they had been, while Tonks was already leading them out of the sparse hallway and back to the lift. He still had not fully gotten over his anger at Dumbledore, and maybe never would, but he couldn't deny he was grateful for what the Headmaster had done for them, especially for Hermione. Unlike him, she had a bright future that would have been tarnished with a charge like that on her record.

They picked up their wands from the security wizard in the atrium and then made the short trek back up to the surface.

They stepped out from the phone booth, finding the cloud cover from early morning had dissipated, replaced by bright sunlight. Lupin was standing a short distance away, as if he had known they would emerge from the ministry at that exact moment.

He was not alone. Another man stood with him, his identity unmistakable to Hermione. That man was her father.

They sat on the patio of a small muggle café, their tea barely touched and almost cold now. Her father had said very little up to this point, and Hermione hadn't offered much more than one or two word responses. It was like two people who were almost strangers had sat down for tea, instead of a father and daughter who had been in each other's lives for sixteen years.

Harry had wanted to stay but Tonks had taken him back to the summer home. Lupin had stayed, but he was keeping a respectful distance away at another table so the two could talk in private.

"Mr. Lupin was attempting to explain to me that you and Harry were in some kind of a court proceeding this morning. That this Ministry of Magic was going to charge you with breaking their laws."

"It's more complicated than that, dad," she tried explaining to him. "You don't have all the facts. What we did we didn't have a choice."

"I don't need to have all the facts to know my daughter could have gone to jail today."

"Dad, that never – "

"Hermione, these are exactly the sort of things I was trying to protect you from. You have the chance at a brilliant future but here you are throwing that all away."

She was finding it increasingly hard not get angry at him. He had no right to tell her she was throwing her future away when he was talking about things he didn't understand. And she most certainly wouldn't classify saving Ron's life as throwing her future away.

"We've been through this already, dad," she said, her patience wavering. "My life is here now. I'm not throwing anything away if this is what I want to do with it."

"Do you know what I went through when I came home and found you gone? I feared for you life. I thought they had reached us even all the way in Luxembourg. Then one of them showed up at my door and said your were safe in Britain. They wouldn't even let me come after you because they said it wasn't safe. For days I had to sit around wondering if you would meet the same fate as your mother."

"I'm sorry," she said, her tone losing all her anger. She knew what running away would do to him, but she also knew what it was doing to her living in that house.

"Hermione, all your mum and I ever wanted was what was best for you. We worried constantly about your safety here the last couple of years, and now it's quite clear to me you'll never be safe here – that you're quite literally a target. And that's why I'm begging you to leave here with me."

"Dad, I can't," she said, her voice starting to choke up, "and you can't force me to either."

"No, I suppose I can't," He said, looking to have expected that response from her. "I'm going back to Luxembourg tomorrow," he started slowly. "I don't intend to come back. So if you still want to stay it's your choice."

He was making her chose between the two things no one should ever have to choose from – the life they want or their family. He was asking the impossible of her, even when they both already knew what her answer would be.

He pushed his chair back and stood up, dropping several small bills onto the table. He didn't say anything – didn't even look at her as he walked away.

She had no voice to shout at him to stop, to make him understand that she couldn't bear to lose him too. But he kept walking, becoming a blurry spec as her tears completely clouded her vision.

"Is everything all right here?" The voice of the waiter asked.

She couldn't answer him. She just wished that he and everyone else there would disappear and leave her alone.

"We're fine. Would you mind grabbing us two more teas?" Lupin said to the man. While he left with their order, Lupin pulled out a handkerchief from inside his jacket and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she mumbled, using it to dry her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to become a public spectacle in front of all these people that knew nothing about her or her life.

"He'll realize eventually what a mistake he's making," he said gently.

"I don't know about that," she responded, her voice still quivering.

"He's just lived through every parent's nightmare – not knowing where their child is or if they're safe. And he's still grieving for your mother. Once he's had a chance to live through the decision he's made, he'll know the last thing he wants is to live without his only daughter."

"Professor, I – " she stopped herself and shook her head. More than anything she wanted to believe what he was saying, but that was a difficult thing to do when her heart was screaming something completely different at her.

Harry was lying in the den, listening to a Quidditch match on the wireless, but not really hearing the commentator excitedly shout about the brilliant goal scored by the Puddlemere chaser, making the ninety Point Puddlemere comeback complete. When he heard the front door open he got up to investigate.

Lupin and Hermione were removing their cloaks when he joined them in the hall. Judging by the somber looks on both their faces he knew the meeting with her father had not gone well.

"Tonks came back and brought some food by," was all he could think of to say. He didn't want to put her on the spot by asking her how it had gone with her father.

"I'm not really hungry," she said to him. "I think I might actually take a nap."

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

She nodded and gave him a brief smile, but he had known her too long to take that at face value. He didn't want to push though, so he let her walk upstairs without another word.

When he was positive she was out of earshot, he said to Lupin, "is she really okay?"

"Not at the moment, but she will be," he replied, moving into the kitchen. He used his wand to set the kettle boiling. While he poured the steaming water into a mug he said, "something on your mind, Harry?"

There was always something on his mind, but right then there was just one thing in particular he wanted to speak to Lupin about.

"I want to enlist in the Auror program."

Lupin put the kettle down and turned around. "How much have you thought about this?"

"At school, the majority of my classes were requirements for becoming an Auror. I mean besides Quidditch the only other thing I'm actually good at is Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"That's not true, Harry. But you also need a lot more then just defense skills, no matter how highly skilled you are at them. I'm sure Moody's engrained in your brain how hard the Auror program is just to get into."

"I know they make you take these tests before they'll even consider you for training. And of the few people that make it into the program, even fewer qualify to become Aurors."

"I'm not even sure they would consider you given your age, not to mention that you haven't graduated. They've never taken on anyone who didn't achieve NEWT level marks."

"I know all that," said Harry, slightly frustrated, "but I can't stay locked up in this house while everyone else gets to live their life, and with all those Aurors that got dismissed for their involvement in what happened with me, I don't think the Ministry can afford to pass any candidate up. Dumbledore thinks it's too dangerous for me at Hogwarts. Well, the only way I can make sure what happened with Lucius Malfoy doesn't happen again is if I'm properly trained." He never wanted to be caught that vulnerable or powerless again. He never wanted to relive the horrible nightmare of his friends being tortured because they had come to his aid. "You can't ask me to stay here and do nothing, while the Order is out risking their lives for me every day."

"The Order is risking their lives for the entire wizarding world, not just you Harry," Lupin reminded him. "I'll talk to Alastor and see what he says," he said after a moment's consideration. "But I can't promise you anything, Harry. Even if Moody can help, you would still have to have Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, until he feels you're strong enough to protect your mind yourself."

He was going to hate working with Snape again, but he knew Lupin would be good on his word, and since Moody was always telling them they needed to be able to protect themselves if the need arose, he didn't think the Auror would be against his decision either.