Chapter 2
The rain had not stopped pouring for the last two days. Hermione lazily got out of bed with a sense of dread and foreboding. The British rain was bound to depress anyone she reasoned to herself. But it was the day of Malfoy's trial and she was nervous. Nervous to recollect and narrate the events that filled her nightmares, nervous to appear in front of a full jury and defend the boy that tormented her for years but mostly nervous to face the journalists and cameras for they always seemed to twist her every word or action for a breaking news article.
"HERMIONE! TIME FOR BREAKFAST" Ginny yelled from the bottom of the staircase. With a small puff, Hermione ironed out the front of her dress with her hands, straightened up, grabbed her wand and headed downstairs, her beaded bag safely hanging on her shoulder.
As Hermione entered the dining room, she was struck by the happy atmosphere : Ginny attempting to feed Teddy by pretending the spoon was a zooming wand, Andromeda laughing at the way Ron was eating, Ron attempting to win the Guinness World Record for stuffing his face with pancakes at an impossible rate (had there been a record for that). She glanced at Harry who was staring at his food sombrely and was hit with that sense of apprehension once more. "Try the pancakes, Hermione" spluttered Ron in between bites. Hermione smiled as she sat next to Ginny.
Atleast things between Ron and her were finally good. He had expected the breakup, although she wondered if it could be called a breakup if they never dated to start with. When they had the talk, he had given her a huge hug and confessed that he was relieved. It had been too much pressure and he was not ready for a serious relationship but he had promised her that he would always love her. Hermione had found herself crying then, as she made the same promises but also felt a great weight had lifted off her. The last 2 days had been fun, reminding her of the days before the war, days she had never thought she could get back.
Teddy reached out for Hermione murmuring in-cohesively. Ginny pulled Teddy away despite his scream of protest. "Don't get Aunt Hermione dirty buddy, she has an important day today" she coo-ed at Teddy who was no longer interested in eating and was trying to cathc the magically charmed spoon that was zooming near him. He caught the food end of the spoon, splattering baby food all over Ginny's jumper. "MERLIN" she yelped and ran for the kitchen with Teddy in her arms. Andromeda who had finished eating by then, rushed over to help leaving Hermione alone with the boys.
"You guys ready for today?" asked Ron softly gulping down pumpkin juice. Hermione helped herself to some maple syrup as Harry answered "Dunno if I can ever be ready for this but I will be happy to be done with it finally".
"Do you reckon they will send him to Askaban?"
Neither of them responded to Ron's question for a bit. Finally, Hermione looked up and said "He deserves to be punished, sure. But more so for his bullying than for his circumstances."
Harry grinned. "If it was upto Hermione, I bet she would make him write 15 inches about The Goblin Revolution of 1772."
"Oh that would be too easy" Hermione grinned back. "I would make him Hagrid's apprentice for a year". Ron bellowed at that as Ginny came back.
"What are you guys talking about" she asked. She had changed her jumper but had clearly missed the giant spot of baby food on her skirt. Hermione decided not to point it out. "Malfoy's punishment if it were up to us" Ron said. Ginny looked as if she was thinking hard. With an evil smile she proclaimed "Well, I would suggest that he be the practise dummy in our Defense classes" as she cast Tarantallegra at an imaginary Draco. As they were all snickering to an imaginary dancing Malfoy, Kreacher announced the arrival of ministry officials.
Quickly gulping down some water, Hermione grabbed her bag and made her way to the living room, the others in tow. "Harald Perkins at your service" proclaimed a small old man with fluffy white hair with a wide smile. "Mr Potter, Ms Granger, Mr Weasley, Ms Weasley", he bowed oddly as he lifted his hat for each of them". "You work for Dad" gasped Ron with zero tact. "
Yes, I used to, Mr Weasley, but now most of us are working to create order in the ministry once more, helping with the trials and capturing stragglers". "Death eaters" he added in case his point wasn't clear enough. "Magda Wyscon was supposed to accompany me, but unfortunately some muggles were attacked late last night near Brownpool Valley and since we don't have sufficient aurors, she had to go to help apprehend the attackers. She should be here anytime to accompany us, perhaps we could wait for a few minutes?" he asked.
"What happened to the muggles?" Hermione asked shocked ignoring his question.
"They were roughed up but no one died. Simple job of obliviating after making sure they are alright ofcourse."
"Who did this" questioned Harry. "Are there a lot of death eaters still on the loose?"
"They are not necessarily death eaters who are creating chaos. Things have changed a lot. The two most powerful wizards of our time are gone" Perkind said alluding to Dumbledore and Voldermort, "and everyone who is anything is trying to fill that void".
Seeing their confused faces, he waved his arms, "I don't mean to bore you with this."
"No, go on"
"Don't stop"
"I understand, please continue"
"Its not boring"
Four voices sounded at the same time. Hermione realised that they had all be so absorbed in trying to get their lives back to normal that they had stopped paying attention to what was going on in the outside world. Reading false news about their lives everyday had made them stop reading the newspapers. Even Hermione who was usually interested in knowing what the media were reporting, had started ignoring the newspaper, after the Daily Prophet released an expose about how Hermione was a direct descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw and that she wasn't really Muggleborn.
"Muggles have better technology, they are more in number and they have always threatened our existence" Perkins said. "You must have read all about the witch trials and revolutions. But we have always depended on them. Whether it is for production, technology or labour. For instance, he pointed to the chairs in the living room, these are muggle made. They must be, because no wizard or witch has ever made a chair from scratch for sale. Most products even in this house has a muggle beginning which means a lot of wizard businesses depend on muggles. With the weakened state of the ministry and existing pro-muggle sentiments, there is great fear that more muggles will become aware of our existence which is causing even ordinary people to act suspicious and offensive to muggles."
The room went quiet. Hermione had never heard such a ridiculous thing before. She knew most wizards and witches were prejudiced. Even the Weasleys appeared to be terrified when they were in Muggle London, but to respond in such a manner? Now, she wished she hadn't thrown that ridiculous article about her being Rowena Ravenclaw's descendent away. Perhaps that had also been propaganda. Propaganda to counter previous articles about the most powerful witch - Hermione Granger, a muggleborn.
"What - " started Harry when Madga Wyscon entered via floo. A tall skinny witch with bright red hair, she tripped over the carpet and exclaimed "Hello all. I am so sorry for my delay. We are terribly late and its all my fault. Let's go!" She appeared to be covered in feathers and as she came closer the smell of chickens and eggs surrounded them. She could hear Ginny gagging behind her in response to the stench. "I am sorry for the smell, the muggles were chicken farmers" Magda explained to Perkins. She then handed out floo powder to all of them "The connection to the ministry has been opened. Just call for 'The Ministry Foyer' she added.
Perkins smiled apologetically at them, grabbed some floo powder, walked over to the fireplaces, shouted "The Ministry Foyer" and disappeared in a cloud of green smoke. With a kiss to Ginny and a wave to Ron, Harry went next. Magda turned to Hermione and beckoned her to go next. Rubbing her palms together, Hermione prayed that her nervousness would quiet down. She smiled at Ron and Ginny who were telling her encouraging words, took the floo powder and stepped into the fireplace. As she said her destination and threw down the floo powder, she found herself enclosed in green smoke and when she opened her eyes, she felt the camera flashes go off. She was surrounded by several journalists and photographers shouting out to her.
"How do you feel being back here Ms Granger"
"Are you really here as a witness for Mr Malfoy"
"I heard you were tortured in the Malfoy Manor"
"Is it true that Mr Malfoy and you were secret lovers?"
"Are you related to the Ravenclaw family Ms Granger?"
"Did you go back in time and play with dinosaurs? she heard another voice. "What?" Hermione spun to her side to see a grinning Harry. "Well I think my question is as valid as any other" he added. Smiling, they posed for a few pictures together before Magda who had emerged from another fireplace nearby shooed the journalists away and apologising led them to the front desk.
With new shiny name tags that had their name and designation "Witness for Mr Malfoy" they were led away towards the elevators. "Never thought I would wear a badge with Malfoy on it. I bet he would never wear one with my name on it" whispered Harry. Hermione was reminded of the time Malfoy wore "potter stinks" badges but refrained from commenting. There was a time and place for everything and right now, she couldn't wait to get the trial over with.
There was no one else in the elevator but them. Perkins chose the courtroom button and the lift lurched left, right and then shot down ridiculously fast. It stopped suddenly and Percy Weasley walked in. "Hello Harry, Hermione" he muttered, managing a smile. "Glad to catch you here. I was coming down to the courtroom to find you both." He managed a quick nod to the ministry officials before adding "Dad is very sorry that he couldn't make it but he just had to take the new job at the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He should be back from France in a week. Anyway, here you go" he said handing them two folders. These are the charges against Malfoy. The yellow highlights are the charges that you will be witnesses for, Harry, the green yours, Hermione. His lawyer is excellent - he has won several impossible cases and is the reason that Lucius Malfoy never went to prison in the First Wizarding War." When is his trial" Harry asked "Lucius I mean". "Next month I think" said Percy "they are negotiating with all the full fledged death eaters at the moment to find all their secrets, find stragglers and prevent revolutions. Draco is the first intriguing case in front of the Wizengamot. All the previous ones were directly sent for the Kiss or to Azkaban for a life sentence. This trial has all the media attention and is definitely a turning point for political allegiances" he noted.
Hermione who had been perusing the folder made a quick mental note to talk to Percy about this later. Just as suddenly as it had started, the lift lurched forward and came to a stop. "Welcome to the Wizengamot" exclaimed Perkins. They exited the elevator to a corridor jam packed with wizards in witches in plum coloured robes who turned to stare at them as they walked passed. As they moved towards the main doors, Harry noted that he had never been to this particular court room before. On reaching the impressively large wooden doors, Perkins opened them with a spell and Harry and Hermione were once again enveloped in white flashes as cameras clicked. The room was impressively large. It was full of people, the Wizengamot members, media journalists, photographers, the public. Hermione even saw Xenophilius Lovegood in the corner. There were so many people that she could have imagined for a second that they were all there for a Quidditch match.
Suddenly, they heard a whimsical voice go "Hi there Hermione, Harry!" Luna appeared out of thin air. She was wearing her own "Witness for Malfoy" name tag and was a carrying a similar folder. "The witnesses have to sit there" she pointed. Giving Perkins a quick look to make sure it was okay, they followed Luna to the stands. "How are you Luna?" asked Harry conversationally. "Its very depressing here" she replied "The air is full of panicking parpletts. They are affecting the temperature". Sure enough, the room was freezing. "Also Malfoy looks very sad" she added.
"When did you see Malfoy" asked Harry.
"Oh there he is" said Luna as she pointed at a metal cage right in front of the Wizengamot that somehow they had all missed.
Maybe it was the fact that he was sitting down, or perhaps it was because of the fact that he was tied to his chair or perhaps it was the fact that he looked like he hadn't showered ever. His robes that may have once been a light shade of brown, now looked like he had spent days rolling in the mud pit. His dirty blonde hair covered his face and he looked like he had had his spirit destroyed. Hermione heard Harry gasp softly next to her. But try as she might, she couldn't relate this broken wizard to the boy she knew. Draco Malfoy, it appeared may have already been punished enough.
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