Harry's own trial came seemingly rather quickly for him, probably because he'd thrown himself and Ron into preparing for it in order to get their minds off of Hermione, because Ron wouldn't eat otherwise. The Weasley boy had lost a great deal of weight since Hermione's incarceration, and had a tendency to push his food around on his plate rather than shovel it into his mouth as if he were afraid it would disappear which, when the Weasley Twins were brought into consideration, was a very real possibility.

Ron wasn't very bookish, which meant that the boy had to focus twice as hard on the dusty books he had to than Hermione who would've listed off all the pertinent information as well as any number of unimportant facts she may have picked up after her first read-through. This was good because he wasn't able to focus on anything else when he was reading, and would absent-mindedly eat anything that was placed in front of him, which Molly Weasley took full advantage of, giving him a grateful smile every time she did so.

As he stood in front of the court who had sentenced his friend to beyond life in prison for sticking that Skeeter bint whom he'd be getting revenge on in a manner that would prove exactly why the hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin in a jar a few weeks after his arrival at Grimwauld place and subsequent discovery of Hermione's incarceration, he felt nothing but hatred for these people who sat there about to let the Ministry railroad him as well despite the fact that he'd broken no laws. Aside from the few Death Eaters he could see in the crowd, he knew none of these people, aside from the fact that they were the sort who had believed that Skeeter bint and her ilk and had sent Hermione hate mail last year before convicting her in this kangaroo court where Justice wasn't even a consideration.

Ron may have been no Hermione when it came to research, but being a pureblood, he knew certain quirks of Wizarding society that he and Hermione who'd been raised outside of wouldn't have, quirks that people had likely not taught him since they took them for granted, and he might take advantage of now that he was aware of them. Looking over the crowd, he noticed things he likely would not have noticed before he'd been given a crash-course in Wizarding body-language by his red-haired friend, such as the fact that several members of the Wizengamut were not happy to be here at all. Seated behind the Minister looking very ill indeed was Ron's brother Percy who had broken with his family earlier that Summer, but was reportedly making tentative overtures to his father that most of the Weasleys seemed suspicious of, especially since the boy had all but admitted to being in the corrupt Minister's pocket.

He did his best to stand how Ron had showed him, so he didn't appear either weak or dishonest. It was tricky, because he preferred to be out of view and stood in a way that reflected that. Being noticed had almost always meant trouble for him in the past.

During the trial, the Minister and his cronies did their best to railroad him, not even letting him defend himself no matter how often he'd tried to get a word in edgewise and say what he and Ron had prepared beforehand. Fortunately, Dumbledore had arrived to the proceedings with Mrs. Figg in tow before the court could give him the Hermione treatment. The look on Percy's face when Dumbledore had mentioned that he and the owl that had supposedly been sent to him must've crossed had been indecipherable. In the end, after Mrs. Figg had given her testimony, he'd been freed after a little more than half of the room had voted in his favor, and as everyone filed out of the courtroom, Percy followed the Minister with a closed-off expression on his face.

The look of relief on Ron's face and the enthusiastic hug the other boy had given him when he returned to Grimwauld place had torn at his heart. Two of his friends should've been there to greet him, not one, and none of his friends should've feared that he would not return like the other. He would do everything in his power to get his revenge on the people who did this to Ron and Hermione, even if it killed him.

There had been a bit of a special to-do at dinner celebrating his having won his case, but it was a somewhat subdued affair, since everyone at the table remembered that there was one who should've been there but wasn't because she hadn't won her case before the court. Constantly eying the spot where Hermione should've been, neither he nor Ron had much of an appetite for their meal that night. And, without his court case to distract them, the evening dragged on for the both of them. Sirius tried to comfort them to no avail. Having spent twelve years in Azkaban, he knew there was little hope for Hermione who had not yet learned the Animagus transformation, and it showed.

That night, as he listened to Ron cry in his sleep, he was startled out of his light doze by a tapping against the bedroom window. When he opened it, a familiar owl flew in and offered its leg. Taking the letter, he noticed that the handwriting on the envelope was familiar, though he couldn't quite place it. As he looked the envelope over for more clues, the owl stood there, obviously having been instructed to wait for a reply.

He opened the letter, hoping all the while that it wasn't a trap, and that he wasn't making a stupid mistake in doing so. When the letter failed to burn his hands, explode, or transport him elsewhere, he read it.

Dear Harry,

Knowing you and Ron, I know that the two of you are likely making plans to free your friend from Azkaban. Having seen the corruption of the Ministry I serve, and the injustice that has been heaped upon both you and Miss Granger, I wish to aid you in this endeavor. Any resources I or the Ministry has are at your disposal.

Percy Weasley

He stared at the letter in shock, read it, stared at it again, read it three more times, and then mentally started composing a reply. After grabbing a quill, ink, and parchment, he wrote his response to his friend's older brother's letter.

Percy,

If this is a trap, I will kill you.

Harry

After his reply was written and properly dried, he folded it and tied it to the leg of the waiting owl who promptly flew off with it, disappearing in the night. Closing the window, he smiled for the first time in a while.

He had an escape to plan.

The next morning when he got up, he felt more optimistic, the way he often did when he had a course of action set before him rather than being left to hang at the whim of the world around him. He had a definite goal, and a definite way of achieving that goal as well as potential resources he hadn't had when he had been sent to bed the night before. With Percy on board, he could get little things like the plans to Azkaban prison as well as maybe a map with its exact location so he could have at least have some idea of what he was getting into before he stormed the castle.

As he sat at breakfast, his appetite renewed, he started scratching ideas out on a piece of paper. Most of them were inane and a couple were just scribbles that looked a bit like Dementors, but a couple of them looked a bit sound.

C-4? Where the hell would I get it? That stuff's used by the military, right?

Nitro? Didn't Ace make that stuff on Doctor Who? She blew up a school lab didn't she? Which means...

Thank Doctor Who for being the show that all of the Dursleys had loved, which meant that he could hear it clearly through the cupboard door without Dudley whining for his parents to change the channel, and Uncle Vernon never forbade him from glancing at the t.v. when it was on and he was out of his cupboard doing chores like handing his family snacks. In fact, the show's cancellation had been the reason Dudley had put his foot through the screen of his first television.

"Why are you so happy?" Ron asked when he dragged himself into the kitchen for a couple of bites of breakfast in order to get his mother to stop nagging at him.

"Because I know how we're going to get Hermione out of prison." he replied. "I just have to get a couple of Science books, and Percy just has to come through on his end, and we're golden."