Authors note: This is the 2nd chapter, I hope you enjoy
Disclaimer: I don't own!
Harry let out a sigh as he saw two of the guards escort Malfoy into his office. He honestly had no desire to go through with this but he knew he really had no choice if he did not want to risk losing all credibility in the ministry. Like he had told Hermione, giving up your fist case would be frowned upon and it would give off the image that he was weak and useless; not a very good image for an aspiring ministry advocate.
It was still ironic, he would be defending the person who he wanted to see spend the rest of his life in Azkaban. He did not want Malfoy to get off, he did not want Malfoy to get leniency, yet he would have to fight for just that. Part of him was contemplating purposely botching the defense to assure Malfoy got the maximum sentence but he knew deep down his guilt complex would never let him live something like that down. In addition, if something like that ever came out his career would be ruined, even if it was done to some as universally hated as Malfoy.
He could just think of several people in the department who would love to try to prove Harry had sabotaged a trail, including the very one who assigned him the case in the first place. He wondered if that might have been the reason Hatler had given him this case, knowing how much Dumbledore had meant to him and expecting Harry to try and use the case to get revenge on Malfoy. Harry knew that Hatler himself would do that to someone, maybe the man thought it was human nature to do things like that, maybe he was right. But self preservation was also in human nature and Harry knew in order to keep his name intact, which in turn dictated his life, he would have to defend his client to the best of his abilities, but he sure as hell wouldn't like it.
Sighing, he tried to break himself out of his thoughts and pay attention to the scene before him. As he looked at the guards man handle Malfoy had to admit the amount of force being used was a bit redundant. Malfoy had always been a skinny little thing so what was he really going to do without a wand. And even if he wasn't so weak the only person he could think of that would need to be carted in with that much man power was Hagrid and even then it would have been a tad on the over kill side.
"Um...you can let go now," Harry said.
Harry really did not care about Malfoy's comfort in the least but he could not bear to look at such a ridiculous site any longer. They guards were acting as if they had some wild tiger in their grips. Malfoy was the upset of wild and fierce, especially now...wow.
The former Gryffindor finally took a good look at his high school enemy; he looked like crap to be quite blunt. It seemed that the blonde did not even bother to comb his hair or get clothing that properly fit him, which was good, considering that the Malfoy he knew was such a pounce when it came to his appearance.
"Mr. Potter....oh I see your, er...client is here," his secretary said knocking into Draco on her way in. "Well I have some more files for you."
"Thanks" Harry said reaching out to take the files.
She shrugged "not that they would help him at all, he is pretty much cooked and served on saucer."
Harry rolled his eyes. He really hated that he could not hire his own secretaries because the one that they supplied him had the IQ of a fish, a baby fish, a very dumb baby fish. There was something to be said for maintaining a certain level of professionalism even in matters pertaining to a git like Malfoy.
"He is pretty much standing in the room," Harry said trying to keep the annoyance out of his tone the best he could.
"Oh yes I see...it's just a shame you are going to lose your fist case, Hatler did this on purpose you know..." she said giving him a sympathetic look.
Well she was sure as hell right about that, Harry thought, but this was hardly the time or the place to be talking about that.
"Please leave Julie so I can meet with my client," Harry said, this time being unable to hide his frustration.
Sighing for about the third time, he looked back at the boy he hated and gave a curt nod "Good afternoon Malfoy" he said a lot more bitterly than he would have liked to.
It did not take long for Draco to put two and two together and realize that Harry was the person assigned to defend him Harry Potter. Just my luck to get landed with that tosser. I stand even less chance of staying out of Azkaban now.
Draco didn't look up to meet the eyes of his old enemy, but instead kept his gaze directed at the floor. He no longer cared how pathetic he looked to Harry, he doubted that would change their opinions of each other anyway.
"Potter," he muttered, nodding back slightly.
Harry was surprised to hear the tone of Malfoy voice; it was not inviting by any means but it did not have its normal bite to it. Harry recognized it as a voice of indifference. A voice that he himself used regularly, especially during some of the rougher times....wait no, there was no way he was comparing anything Malfoy did to himself, not even tone of voice. He was going to squash those type of thoughts right away.
Focusing his attention back to the git in his office, he noticed that the shaggy haired blonde seemed to be fixated at the door.
"As your advocate " he made sure to add a sarcastic emphasis on the word advocate. "I can assure you that would not be a good idea," he said nodding to the door. "Typical people want to know what they are facing so I guess I might as well go along and tell you" Harry said picking up the chart, he actually did not know, he knew it was Azkaban but he did not know the maximum sentence.
Finding the right page, he began to quickly read it in his head before verbalizing it "If found guilty of all counts the minimum sentence would be life in Azkaban, the maximum sentence would be..." he paused, wow, even he had to admit that was harsh "The dementors kiss".
Putting the folder down he looked back up at Malfoy. "I am also supposed to make sure you know your charges."
Harry was trying his best to sound mono tone but he knew he was coming out cross and bitter, he even suspected that a slight hiss was being added to his S's thanks to his parlesmouth skills that had a habit of coming out when he was angry.
Well hell, Harry said to himself on second thought. There were no rules that he had to be nice to his clients and it was not as if Malfoy could really find anyone who would care if he had a go at the blonde, he had to defend him he did not have to do it in a kind fashion.
"Do you know your charges Malfoy?" Harry said, this time making sure to add a hiss to every letter he could."Do you Malfoy?"
Draco simply grunted, not willing to make a response if Harry was going to talk to him like that. To be perfectly honest he was finding the former Gryffindor's mannerisms to be quite childish. He could accept that hatred wasn't going to just disappear overnight, and would've been equally outraged if it had, but they were meeting on neither of their own terms, and Harry was supposed to be the professional in this situation. Well fine, if Harry wanted to be a git let Harry be a git, he was not going to justify any of his childish antiques with a response, the former Gryffindor could just talk to himself for all he cared.
"Oh I see you've digressed to a state similar to those two body guards you use to pal around with...how delightful," Harry said in response to the grunt like noise Malfoy made.
If he had seen this version of Malfoy in front of him during any time before the end of sixth year he would have felt sorry for him. He might have even swallowed his pride and offered him help but now, well now he had to admit that he liked seeing the sate Malfoy was in and this was something that disturbed Harry greatly. He had never been one big for revenge: even when Sirius had died he found himself unable to cast a crucio on his killer, of course he eventually managed to cast it quite well two years later, that was beside the point. Harry had always been the type that believed in forgiveness or at the very least letting bygones be bygones, he never actively wanted to hurt someone outside of defending himself and those he cared about. Furthermore, he had never wanted to see people in pain, Harry hated pain.
Right now, that was not the case though. The former Gryffindor loved the Malfoy in front of him, the Malfoy who had been stripped of everything and was about to be hang out to dry. Harry was not thinking about how to ease the pain like he normal did he was thinking about how to add salt to the wounds and somehow he knew that was a problem.
"Might as well explain your charges, since you are too ignorant to speak I'd rather not take anything for granted" Harry snarled. "I'm not going to lose my job for not defending you properly, I think I've lost enough because of the likes of you."
Draco let out an audible sigh as he stood there being insulted by Harry, he would have loved to tell him where he could shove it but he was rather depended on Harry right now and it seemed that the he was willing to defend Draco if nothing else but for the sake of his own job. Draco was not about to mess that up so he bit his lip, willing himself to stay calm. It seemed that if he'd learnt one useful skill during his time as a Death Eater, it was the ability to control his emotions. This was something he was finding himself more and more grateful for as the meeting advanced.
Harry pulled out the chart and began reading down the list: "You are being charged with the murder of Albus Dumbledore, participation in five death eater raids that resulted in the deaths of over fifty muggles and muggleborns, use of the unforgivable and use of torture techniques."
Draco listened, feeling a mixture of guilt and disbelief, as his charges were read out to him, making a mental list of whether he was guilty or not of each crime he was accused of.
The murder of Albus Dumbledore. He'd done that. It was out of fear for his own life, and that of his family, and completely against his will, but he'd done it, and he hated himself for it to this day.
Participation in five death eater raids that resulted in the deaths of over fifty muggles and muggleborns. Draco tried to think. Had it really been that many? No, it couldn't have been. He'd played a part in three, at the most. He was sure of that.
Use of the unforgivable and use of torture techniques. He'd used more unforgivable curses than he cared to think about, and tortured countless people. He bit back a whimper as he remembered the first time he was forced to use the Cruciatus Curse. He remembered praying that it was something you'd get used to the more you did it. It wasn't.
For the first time, everything Draco was ashamed of had been read out to him at once. For a fraction of a second he considered pleading guilty and giving in to the Dementor's Kiss. Living without a soul couldn't be much worse than living as he was at the moment.
He let out another sigh and closed his eyes, lifting his head towards the ceiling. Taking the time to breathe seemed to force some sort of intelligence into his thoughts, and he quickly dismissed the idea of accepting the kiss.
Harry took in Malfoy's posture, he could not help but noticed the boy or was he a man now, seemed to look almost....ashamed, no not ashamed guilty, the former Slytherin looked guilty which he was. It was not remorse on his part, it was the realization that he did all those crimes and was going to have to pay for them, well doesn't that just suck for poor baby Malfoy. Putting down his folder, Harry ran over few defense techniques in his mind, reminding himself that like it or not he had to defend that thing. He could probably get the last charge thrown out on the premise of double jeopardy being as the torture techniques would go hand in hand with the use of unforgivable. The first one, well he might be able to attack that one based on the lack of evidence, unfortunately that was the charge he least wanted to defend Malfoy on but he would have to, especially considering the dementors kiss was being sought. If he could get those charges commuted to involuntary manslaughter, it could very well save the blondes life, which was after all his job.
"I'm fairly confident that I can fight the use of torture techniques off the table considering as it would be essentially be the same as your other charge of using the unforgivable...if I can find away to lessen your murder charges I might be able to stop them from seeking the dementors kiss" he explained. "But you are going to have to give me something to go by on that one."
Draco tried to take in everything Harry was saying (and he used that term lightly, as the words were being spat at him more than anything else), knowing that it would all be important eventually.
When he was asked for information about Dumbledore's murder, however, he drew a blank. That night had been pushed to the back of his memory, it was something he never wanted to think about again. It was if he wanted to pretend it never happened. Draco cursed himself for having such a child-like attitude towards the whole ordeal. Trying to show slightly more maturity than Harry, he took a deep breath.
"What do you need to know," Draco muttered, fiddling with the cuffs of his robes once again.
Harry sighed but he knew full well that it came out as a hiss although he honestly had not meant for that to happen. He just could not help it, he was enraged, enraged to be sitting in the same room as someone who had killed one of the few people he truly cared about in his life. He was starting to think Hermione had been right about him not taking on the case. This was a huge conflict of interest and Harry was doing everything in his power not to strangle the blonde git in front of him, and he had barely even opened his mouth. What happened when Malfoy started sneering and fling insults, would Harry murder him? Would he find himself in someone lawyers chair trying to defend himself?
No, Harry would never soil his hands with blood, not even the blood of Malfoy. That is what made him a better person. There is nothing anyone could do to him that would make him stoop down to murder, nothing. He was going to get through this case and he was going to come out stronger because of it.
"Is there anything" he finally began to speak. This was the hardest part, trying to find away to justify Malfoy's actions, yet as a defense lawyer he had to do that. "Is there anything I can use to provoke sympathy for you...like for instance when a woman murders her husband a defense tactic might be that the husband was abusive or if a patient is mentally ill one might argue that the crime was beyond their control."
Draco yet again felt another surge of hatred for Harry. He sat there like some sort of saint, looking down on Draco. He never was one to take criticism well, and no matter how much he knew he deserved it, he was finding it almost unbearable to stand back and accept it from his rival, he almost screamed as Harry began to talk again.
"Basically to get the dementors kiss your crimes has to have three main factors: it has to be done in cold blood, it has to be planned and has to be done in a moment of sanity. Without those factors the maximum sentence they could go for is life imprisonment...." He sighed yet again; he couldn't believe he was actually preparing to defend Malfoy.
He really hated this, he really did. Malfoy deserved the dementors kiss, he took people's lives why should he get to keep his soul. Somehow Harry had to try not to think about it and just do his job. "Your trail isn't going to be much different than the others, they paint all the Death eaters in the same way: cold, calculating, heartless, power hungry you get the point. You have to prove that you don't fit that profile or I have to prove that you don't fit that profile as I am your lawyer but you have to help me".
There is no help for me, he felt like screaming. How in the world could help the savior of the Wizarding world who was forced to defend a guilty as hell death eater.
Draco began to take deeper, louder and more frequent breaths, doing anything he could to suppress the urges he had to smack Potter. He once again turned to look at the door behind him. He'd pretty much been told he had no chance. Making a run for it would just be the icing on top of the cake. Maybe it would all be over quicker that way.
That's the cowardly thing to do. So what? Killing Dumbledore had been the cowardly thing to do. Becoming a Death Eater was the cowardly thing to do.
He dragged his eyes away from the door and back to the former Gryffindor that sat before him. He thought for a moment, trying to take in everything Harry had just said. He had the horrible feeling he was about to pour his heart out to the man he loathed. "The Dar-, I mean, You-Know-Who didn't give me a choice," he stammered, but forced himself to continue.
"He said either I kill Dumbledore, or he killed me, my mother, my father, everyone. My whole family. The murder was planned, yes. But I don't think it was in cold blood. I didn't want to do it. I hate myself for doing it, I really do. I wasn't insane, but I wasn't thinking straight either. Killing Dumbledore was the only way out I could see. I needed to get out. I didn't want to do it."
As Draco spoke, his voiced possessed a certain tone of desperation. He could hardly bear sharing his moments of weakness with Harry, but he needed to make him understand. He was far from innocent, but he didn't deserve the Dementor's Kiss. He continued to speak.
"I'm not like the others. I never truly wanted to be a Death Eater. I know this doesn't change things. I'm still guilty of everything. But no, really. I'm different." He was almost pleading with Harry by the time he'd finished saying what he had to say. He blinked back the tears he could feel stinging his eyes.
In a way, simply to say it out loud had caused every bad feeling, every insecurity he felt during the war to resurface. He was being forced to relive his darkest moments, and the whole situation was getting the better of him.
Harry had to admit Malfoy was semi convincing with his I really had no choice bit, he himself almost had to stop and think about the other mans claim for a moment, almost, not quite. Contrary to popular believe, Harry was not naïve and easily trusting, in fact if anything he was slightly cynical, you don't come out of a war like he did and not learn a few things about life. He had looked evil in the eyes on more than one occasions and he was doing it again right now.
So no, Harry was not impressed in the least by Malfoy's little sob story, if anything he found it to be rather pathetic: the blonde had even looked like he was contemplating adding some water works to the mix. Harry would never buy something like that, but a jury might, none of them would have seen what Harry had, in fact, there are not many people alive who would have possibly saw what the horrors he had.
"Ok so that's a good story, you were seventeen so that is believable...normal seventeen year old like their parents so it's believable that you'd want to protect them, I suppose" he said in biting drawl.
"Work on the whole tear thing though," he said rolling his eyes. "Ether pretend to cry or don't....that whole shaking thing and pretending like you are going to cry but then not actually doing it just looks weird."
Harry opened his desk to grab a piece of gum out and popped it in his mouth. He really wanted this meeting to be over, he really did. He could not bear to look at the blondes face anymore but he knew he had to. He had to endure; if he could endure Voldemort surely he could endure someone as trivial as Malfoy.
"Anything else you want to tell me?" Harry said before making a popping noise with the gum.
"Yeah, there is. I want to tell you you're being a selfish git." Draco spat before he headed towards the door, wondering whether it'd been locked behind him or not. Sighing, he turned back to look at Harry, hand still outstretched towards the door "That was not an act, a story, or whatever you want to call it. I'm hardly proud of spilling out my life story to you, nor am I happy about showing any sign of emotion in front of you. Do me a favor and keep your sarcastic remarks to yourself."
How dare he dismiss all of that as some stupid little act, thought up to keep me out of jail? He couldn't control it any longer, and marched forwards, intent on hitting Harry.
Deciding at the last moment that hitting his lawyer would be unwise, he settled for knocking some things off his desk. The noise of them clattering on the floor satisfied him, and the crashes were punctuated by Draco swearing loudly.
Harry could have kissed the person who invented rolling chairs at the moment because rolling back was the only thing he could think to do as Malfoy had approached him looking ready to kill and then ended up throwing off just about everything on his desk.
"Maybe we should go with that insanity defense, that one might actually be true" Harry spat before realizing how close Malfoy really was to him.
"Get out of my face before I hex off the only Malfoy jewels you have left" might as well, it's not like he would be filling any pureblood rituals with them anytime soon. "Don't you think you are a little old to be having temper tantrums Malfoy?" he hissed, trying to play off the fact that he had just been scared senseless mere seconds ago.
Having caught his breath Harry sat up straight in his chair again. This action proved to be a waste of time as it finally clicked in his mind that Malfoy had called him selfish git. Feeling his anger overflow, the former Gryffindor shot out of his chair and throw the only thing that Malfoy hadn't tossed off his desk straight towards the blonde's head. "How dare you call me selfish?"
SLAM!
A glass mug landed right at the blonde smashing in a million pieces pulling an ear curdling scream from Draco as hot coffee burnt through his skin. He quickly flinched in attempts at avoiding the glass. A few shards still managed to hit his face however.
"Potter, you're an even bigger prat now than you were the last time I met you," he said heading towards the door.
"The minute you walk out there they are just going to stun you, most likely rough you up and then make it look like you struggled so they get away with it" Harry said as if he was talking to a five year old. "Have you learned by now what happens when someone like you does something impulsive...remember the Hippogriff incident idiot?"
Oh that was it, thought Draco. He hadn't come here today to be laughed at and ridiculed by Potter. He'd fully expected to be reminded of his crimes over and over, but he'd hoped it'd be done on slightly friendlier terms. Draco twisted the door handle, feeling some childish need to disobey Harry despite the consequences, "I'll take an Aura beating over you any day" he spat, before leaving the room.
He didn't know how far away the Aurors were waiting, but he only intended on waiting outside in the corridor anyway. He just needed to get away from Harry for a while.
He slid down the wall right outside Harry's office, and sat on the floor. He waited for someone, be it an Auror or Harry himself to come and drag his back into the
office to finish the meeting. He certainly wasn't going back inside by his own free will.
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