Disc.: My plot.
A/N: I think I've been watching entirely too much Law and Order at night, when there isn't much radio traffic. I think it bleeds out here.
Chapter Nineteen
Mr. Green placed his hand on Lily's shoulder. She looked at him with a smile, and he smiled back at her. In the two weeks of the ministry-housed holding, Lily had remained in bed except to use the restroom or clean up. Susan and she had talked a lot, mostly sticking to either the case or nothing of importance. She didn't push for information, though Lily knew that she was curious about the baby. The closest she came to even really mentioning it was during the time she felt the baby moving. She had wondered aloud, more to herself than anyone, if the father was missing out.
"We're going to do great," Mr. Green promised. "This'll be over with before you know it, and you'll be home with your son."
"Okay," Lily nodded.
"Ready?" Susan asked her.
"Do I have a choice?" Lily grinned slightly as she hoisted herself up out of the chair. She had gained quite a bit of weight in the two weeks of resting and eating. She could still feel her bones if she touched them hard enough, but with the added nutrition came a growth spurt. She looked down at her stomach, no longer able to see her toes. She wiggled them anyways. The ministry was going to love this.
Lily walked between Mr. Green, who was leading, and Susan, flanked on the sides by Mr. Green's guards. Lily was glad to be up and moving. It was hard being immobile. She caressed her stomach and Susan removed her hand. Lily dropped her hands to her sides. The whole pregnancy was going to be brought up in a spectacular witches-rights counter suit, that they were going to be requesting during opening statements. Lily followed the directions Mr. Green had prompted her. She'd sit, standing only when directed to, moving forward to the chair in the middle of the room when it was time.
Lily didn't look around. She didn't know who would be there, and the nerves would have just built if she saw a lot of people so she sat immediately in the chair next to Susan. Mr. Green took her other side. He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Lily glanced over to the minister of magic, Minister Parker, despite her better judgment. He was sitting beside Draco Malfoy, who looked very unhappy about it. The minister was looking right at her. She refused to look behind him, knowing from the chart that Theron, Scorpius, and Damon would be among the witnesses behind them. She knew she couldn't lay eyes on her son and not go to him.
Her hand twitched slightly as she went to rub her stomach and instead she leaned forward and placed them on the table, willing them to mind her. The Wizengamot filed in to their seats, Lily lost count of them and rather focused on the Chief Warlock. She had paid enough attention in school to know that typically the council leaned with the side of the Minister. She hoped for leniency.
After the official reading of the charges, the prosecution side went into their evidence that Lily had not only done what she had done, but that she had a disregard for the magical laws set forth to protect and serve them all. Lily watched, gripping the table as they marched her little boy to the stand. He focused on his hands and mumbled a lot. It broke her heart to see her son look so nervous. The minister asked him questions himself, about the incident that occurred before his first year of school. Theron answered the questions. He looked up briefly, his eyes falling on his mother. He looked so lost and Lily wanted to go to him. She felt Mr. Green's hand on her arm, a gentle reminder, and she remained sitting.
Mr. Green stood, walking around the table until he was a few feet from Theron. He looked at the boy for a minute, the steel-colored-eye boy blinking up at him. Mr. Green eased down, leaning with his elbows on his knees.
"So, Theron, how do you like Hogwart?" Mr. Green asked. Theron looked confused.
"It's good," he replied hesitantly.
"What's your favorite subject?" Mr. Green inquired.
"Quidditch, probably," Theron answered. A few people chuckled.
"I wasn't aware they taught that," Mr. Green responded. Theron grinned at him.
"No, but the rest of the subjects are kind of boring," Theron admitted. "I guess of my official lessons, flying would be my favorite."
"Before you went to Hogwarts, had you flown a broom before?" Mr. Green asked him. Theron shook his head. "Please note that the witness is indicating that he'd not flown a broom before. Why is that, Theron?"
"My mum said that it wasn't allowed, that I could get in trouble," Theron confessed. He rolled his eyes. "Mum's a stickler for rules."
"Now, you got into a little trouble before schools started, didn't you? Underage magic outside of school, you and your two cousin, wasn't it?" Mr. Green inquired.
"Yes," Theron nodded.
"What was your punishment?" Mr. Green asked.
"From the ministry or from my mum?" Theron asked. A few people chuckled. Mr. Green smiled at him warmly.
"Let's stick with the ministry's punishment, since they've made it their duty to dole out punishments," Mr. Green offered.
"Well, I was on a year's probation. I didn't even dare to do spells in the corridors! Just the classrooms and the common room/dormitories, like approved," Theron explained.
"Were you afraid of getting in trouble with the ministry if you stepped out of line?" Mr. Green asked. Theron shook his head.
"No, but I didn't want my mum sending me any howlers. She told me about how she got one on her first day for bouncing tubers off the head of a Gryffindor, and well, I didn't want a howler. Mum was lucky, though," Theron added hesitantly.
"Why is that, Theron?" Mr. Green asked curiously.
"Mum would have been really embarrassed if Dad hadn't pulled her out of line of sight of everyone in the Great Hall when that thing went off," Theron explained quietly. He looked to his hands for a second and then looked up. "The ministry took my Dad away from me for so long, and I'm afraid they're going to take my Mum."
"Objection!" The minister shouted, startling quite a few people.
"I haven't been able to hug my Mum in over a year," Theron exclaimed. His eyes were shining bright with unshed tears, and Mr. Green patted him on the shoulder.
"I'm done," Mr. Green offered the Gamut.
"Sirs and ma'am, may I?" Theron asked them, looking up at the older witches and wizards. They looked to the Chief Warlock, who nodded once. Theron hopped off the chair and ran to her. Lily remained seated, her arms spread as the boy buried his face in her neck, sobbing loudly. Lily whispered to him, private words only meant for his ears, while she stroked his hair and held him.
"Maybe a break?" the Chief Warlock suggested, rising. Several people also joined him, but others remained behind to watch the endearing reunion between mother and son. She continued to talk to him quietly, holding him.
"Do you remember me, Mummy?" he sobbed quietly.
"Oh, yes, Ther, I remember you," she assured him. "It took some time, and there are still hazy parts, but I remember you. You're what's helped the last five months in Azkaban."
"Mum, I don't ever want to leave you," Theron cried softly. She shushed him, cradling his face in her hands.
"Don't be silly, Ther. After Christmas, you'll go back to Hogwarts," she told him. "Education is very important. We'll have Easter, if you wish, and the summer."
"Promise?" Theron begged. Lily nodded. He smiled, better than the Malfoy smirk, he smiled the Potter's smile. It lit his face up with all the joy and comfort she could have ever hoped for her son. She kissed his forehead and allowed him to retreat as the Wizengamot was called to order again.
Lily only half paid attention while Draco was interrogated. He looked less than pleased to be on the stand and he refused to look Lily's way. Lily was more focused on the dancing baby in her stomach, and making a conscious effort not to touch her stomach. She did looked up while her brother testified to what he saw, though every time he tried to play it down, the prosecuting wizards would redirect. He looked relieved when Mr. Green kept his questions quick and simple.
"Did it look from your perspective that Lily was trying to injure or assault Scorpius Malfoy?" Mr. Green asked.
"No," Albus replied. "In fact, I think he was causing her more harm than good."
"What do you mean by that?" Mr. Green asked.
"Didn't she tell you? Or maybe she doesn't know, I don't know. Scorpius and Damon did an unauthorized Obliviate spell on her, a couple of them if I recall correctly, which is why she's had a really hard time remembering Scorpius, and why she didn't recall her son, or a lot of people," Albus explained matter of factly.
"In your opinion, do you think the ministry reacted appropriately when dealing with Miss Potter?" Mr. Green asked carefully.
"Mr. Green, my sister, the last connection I have to my father and mother, was first robbed of her memories, and then of her friends in family," Albus explained. "No, I don't think they handled her appropriately."
Lily watched Scorpius take the stand. Mr. Green didn't have a lot of questions for him, just basic ones confirming what happened in Argentina, and what transpired leading up to Lily's arrest. Mr. Green didn't ask Scorpius if he felt assaulted. He just asked what happened. Scorpius left the stand confused, but he had been enthralled that she seemed to hang on his every word.
Damon was called up after Scorpius, and ran through the events on the elevator, confirming what part he had played in Lily's memory tampering from Argentina. Damon watched Mr. Green whisper something to Lily, she answered him without taking her eyes off of him. She scrunched her face up, tapping her lip like she did when she was deep in thought. Mr. Green stood.
"Mr. West, you mention that you've known Lily for a long time, is that true?" Mr. Green asked him. Damon looked away from Mr. Green, his eyes falling on Lily as she leaned forward, propping her chin on her hand.
"Yes," Damon admitted. "She's my best mate's girl, has been for eons, it seems."
"Is it true that the ministry, more specifically the Minister of Magic and the Department of Auror Affairs has a no-frat policy, where one Auror may not engage in romantic activities with the significant other of an Auror?" Mr. Green asked.
"Yes, well, but-"
"The night Lily was taken into custody, is it true that you and Lily were together?"Mr. Green asked.
"She didn't have any solid memories of either of us," Damon squirmed.
"Please answer the question, Mr. West," Mr. Green asked firmly. "Is it or isn't it true that an hour or two prior to the ministry apprehending Lily Potter, you and she were together?"
"Yes," Damon admitted.
"What were you two doing?" Mr. Green asked.
"Talking," Damon shot back.
"Just talking?" Mr. Green asked. Damon's cheeks turned slightly red.
"No, I kissed her," Damon confessed. Mr. Green paced a minute or two.
"Without going into too many details, since we do have juveniles in the court room," Mr. Green projected. "Other than kissing Lily Potter, an act that would possibly be considered fraternizing with the noted significant other of another Auror, did you and Miss Potter do anything else? Anything at all?"
"I don't see what the point of this line of questioning is," the minister piped up crossly.
"Your Warlockness, I just want to point out yet another bit in a long line of corruption in the ministry under Minister Parker," Mr. Green explained. "If he can't keep his Aurors from messing around behind each other's backs, how can we expect them to protect us from dark witches and wizards, or to be our ambassadors in other countries."
"I'll allow it," the Chief Warlock gestured toward Damon. "Continue."
"Mr. West, other than kissing Miss Potter, other than talking, was their anything else you two did on the night she was arrested?" Mr. Green asked. Damon looked at her, she looked at him. They both knew exactly what had happened. She felt her cheeks grow increasingly warm.
"Yeah, we were intimate," Damon confessed. "Physically intimate."
"I hate you," Scorpius growled loudly at Damon.
"Feeling's mutual, bro," Damon growled back. "But at least she remembers me." Whispered tittered through the court room and the Chief Warlock banged his gavel loudly, calling a recess when he realized that no one was going to be able to calm down. Damon and Scorpius both stalked from the room, Scorpius returning a minute later to retrieve his son who'd stayed behind.
After lunch, court resumed. Damon had a bruise forming under his eye and Scorpius' lip was cut, but no one made mention to it. Lily suspected that the two of them had scrapped like a bunch of school boys. The minister of Argentina was drug up to the stand. Lily didn't listen to him, his take on things. She was blissfully unaware of what he'd done believing she had been an operative illegally in his country. She refused to look up as they presented the pictures, but from the gasps, she knew that they must have been bad.
The minister was second to last up, he rambled on for a few minutes and Lily could feel the pull of sleep pulling her under. He pointed out the fact that Lily had pushed an Auror and held him captive on the elevator for four floors, and stole from him equipment. He also bore witness to Lily grabbing Scorpius' face and forcing him to turn his head to look at a picture.
Mr. Green sat in his chair for a minute after the floor was handed over to him. He tapped his two pointer fingers slowly, deep in thought. Mr. Green stood up.
"Mr. Minister, you had Lily arrested for assault," Mr. Green verified.
"Yes, among other charges that we so kindly dropped," the minister pointed out.
"Like treason, yet she was actually in Argentina because of information provided inadvertently by your own operatives, is that correct?"
"She chose to go to Argentina herself, I even refused to sign off on her portkey," the minister boasted.
"Whose decision was it to hold Lily Potter in Azkaban until the trial?" Mr. Green asked. The minister's smile faltered slightly.
"Mine, I felt that with her history, she was a serious flight risk," the minister attested. Mr. Green held out a thick stack of parchment.
"Do you know what these are, Mr. Minister? These are requests to visit with my client," Mr. Green explained holding them up. "Everyone of them has been signed off on by you denying that right."
"Azkaban prison isn't a place we grant just any old visitor to go to," the minister protested.
"Whose responsibility is to make sure that the prisoners are treated humanely?" Mr. Green inquired.
"Mine," the minister admitted.
"We you aware that the dementors are back patrolling the prison?" Mr. Green pressed.
"We have protocols in place so that the prisoners are safe from them," Minister Parker offered.
"I see," Mr. Green stroked his chin. He flicked his wand at a stack of large prints, blown up to poster sized. "Perhaps you could explain to me what this is, then?"
"Some prisoner," Minister Parker replied as the pictures rotated to first show the minister, then the Wizengamot, and finally the witnesses and previewers.
"Some prisoner?" Mr. Green smirked. He shook his head slightly, almost as if in disbelief. "Would you believe that these were taken just two weeks ago when I was finally granted permission to retrieve my client?"
"Okay," the minister replied slowly.
"During the five months that my client, Lily Potter, was in Azkaban, she was fed about a cup of some undistinguishable gray gloop a day, and never once in the five months was my client permitted access to healthcare," Mr. Green said forcibly as he snatched one of the posters up and stared at it for a moment. "Your honors, my client hadn't even been sentenced, nor was she ever given a written copy of her charges. She was locked away to fend for herself, without even the most basic of prenatal care which had been detrimental to the health of both her and her unborn child. I demand that the charges be dropped immediately and that the Wizengamot launch an immediate investigation in to Minister Parker and his practices."
Mr. Green flipped the card, the one where Lily was being half-drug out of the prison and into the light, dirty and skinny, with just a bulge of baby showing, while sunlight glistened in the tears trapped in her eyelashes. He showed them all, slowly, the ripple of noise peaking before he added the card back to the stack.
"The Gaunts, both well know for the violence toward the ministry and Aurors, were allowed to walk free until their sentencing, where for the repeated assaults they each got six months, with extra time for additional crimes," Mr. Green said.
They took a ten minute break, Mr. Green talking with his client through the whole time. He squeezed her hand along with Susan, both of them smiled at her and she slowly rose when she was called to the stand. She moved slowly, purposefully. Her hand smoothed the front of her dress as she took her seat, the growing child evident. The room was pin-drop silent.
"Miss Potter," Mr. Green started gently. "Tell me what happened the night you were aprehended by the minister." Lily took a shaky breath.
"I ran away from the ministry guards that had been assigned to me," Lily started. "I ran for the elevator and pushed Damon inside, hoping he would explain to me why I knew he had to have known me but chose to say nothing."
"And what did he tell you?"
"Damon told me that the ministry forbade it because we had been intimate, I'm assuming a sexual relationship, prior to my coming back from Argentina broken," Lily sighed softly. "It was kind of a relief to know that it wasn't something I had done."
"So, you took his flask?"
"Yes, and I still feel very guilty about it because I know the DAA wouldn't issue it if it wasn't ultimately needed," Lily explained. "I wandered around a while, apparating which isn't easy wandless."
"That's actually rather impressive," Mr. Green admitted. There was a murmur through the crowd.
"I don't know why I went to him, but I did," Lily shrugged slightly. "I think part of me wanted whatever answers he'd give me, part of me just craved being held."
"So, what did you do next, Lily?" Mr. Green pressed.
"I dressed up like a hooker, took the poly juice, and snuck into his bedroom," Lily admitted. "We talked for a while, I tried to seduce him and at first he turned me down. Eventually, the lights went out and the poly juice wore off. He knew it was me all along, apparently even when I'm trying to be bad, I'm too good."
"Were you physically intimate with him?" Mr. Green paused, glancing over at Damon and Scorpius, who had Theron tucked between them.
"Yes," Lily sighed with a frown. She slid her hand over her stomach protectively. "If I had known that this could have happened, I wouldn't have continued our physical relationship without telling him first, warning him. When I lost Scorpius and my baby on what was supposed to be our wedding day, they had told me that I was too damaged. It's why my relationship with Marshall Clocks wouldn't have worked, and why I thought it was safe to fall for Damon."
"Is Damon the father of your child?" Mr. Green asked. Lily looked at her counsel with almost hurt and betrayal on her face. She hadn't told him, or Susan, but somehow they'd guessed.
"Does it matter?" Lily asked with a small shrug. "According to Obadiah Parker, I assaulted them both."
"Tell me what happened with Scorpius," Mr. Green asked, changing his tactics.
"I had showered and was about to change when Scorpius walked in my room. He and I talked, he got upset about my continuing a physical relationship with Damon, even though I made a point of pointing out that Damon did initially turn me down, and quite often," Lily explained. She sighed. "It's a real blow to a gal's ego. I shared with him my grief of not knowing him, of feeling cheated because for as much as I cared for and loved Damon, Scorpius was the true love of my life."
"Where did the assault come in, Lily?" Mr. Green pressed.
"I took Scorpius by the hand and guided him to my living room. I had this portrait of the three of us, Scorpius, Theron, and I on the wall, from when Theron was a bitty baby. I turned his face to look and see what I saw, a man and woman, a family, that absolutely adored each other. I wanted him to see that even though I didn't have my memories intact, I knew that he was and remained the love of my life."
"Do you have your memories back of Damon?" Mr. Green asked.
"Yes," Lily replied.
"And what about Scorpius?" he pressed. Lily hesitated.
"Some, many of them, but not all," Lily confessed. She smiled slightly, not looking at anyone but Mr. Green. "I know that Scorpius is the love of my life. I chased him for years, waiting for him to notice me. Thoughts of him, and my son Theron are the only things that comforted me for those five months I was locked away from the world."
"What would happen if you were sentenced to the full six months per charge?" Mr. Green asked. A single tear slipped down her cheek.
"I can't go back to that place," Lily breathed. "I can't have my baby there." She turned away from Mr. Green, away from the viewers and the witnesses, and she looked right at the Chief Warlock. "Sir, I respect whatever decision you make, I do, but I don't believe I acted in malice. I didn't set out to injure or harm, either Scorpius or Damon. I couldn't, not on purpose, I love them both, differently but I love them. I understand if you have to send me away, but please, not to Azkaban. Not somewhere my boy will lose me to the grief, not somewhere my baby can't hope to have a happy start."
Lily stepped off the stand with the help of Mr. Green and court was called to deliberations. Susan and Mr. Green shuffled her off before anyone could accost her. Lily didn't say anything, just walked straight into the bedroom and laid down on the bed. She was drained, physically and emotionally. She almost immediately fell asleep.