Percy was leading the protesters in a chant. He smiled briefly at the four of them when they apparated in at the side of the crowd, but his attention was on the masses. Hermione wondered what charm he was using to magnify his voice because he could clearly be heard by everyone attending.

"What do we want?" he called out.

"Yaxley!" they yelled back. The 'lord' he liked to affect did not make an appearance.

"When do we want him?"

"Now!"

"Not the most original chant," Draco murmured in her ear, "but catchy, wouldn't you say?"

Hermione would say, and she did. She clapped her hands along with the crowd, and screamed the responses back at Percy, and she waited to see what would happen. Nothing was what she expected, or more of what had happened the last time, so when an Auror apparated in with a crack, she put a hand on her wand, ready to draw and fire. The Auror leaned in towards Percy and said something into his ear that made him smile before he turned back to face the crowd.

"Witches and wizards," he said, "I have just gotten some amazing news from Auror Selwyn. Shall we let him speak?"

The responses from the crowd varied. Hermione could hear some people scream, "Yes", some "No", and more than one suggested Percy cut the man down where he stood. It had never been a serious question, of course, and Percy stepped back a symbolic half-step and gestured for the man to take the floor.

"I want to start off by apologizing," he said. "When you last all stood here, my fellow Aurors fired upon you, cursing a crowd of innocent people."

Boos and hisses swept through the crowd, and Hermione heard someone shout, "So what are you going to do about that, pig?", but he certainly had the crowd's attention.

"None of us were happy with the order that sent us out there to use force to break up the protest," he said. "That isn't how we do things in this country."

Percy couldn't take it any longer and he shouted out to the crowd, "They've turned against Yaxley. We have the Aurors!"

There was a moment of stunned silence, and then cheers went up from the crowds. Hermione pressed her hands against her ears to muffle some of the din, but her smile couldn't be contained. The Aurors had turned against Yaxley. The rats were deserting his ship. They were really and truly going to win.

"Would you like to see him?" Percy yelled out.

Hermione would not have believed the roar of the crowd could have gotten louder, but it did. Auror Selwyn apparated away, and returned a moment later with two of his brethren. Each of them held one of Yaxley's arms tightly in his grasp. One of them handed a wand to Percy that Hermione recognized instantly. Yaxley's eyes followed the journey of his wand, and even from where she stood Hermione could see his fury. "Let's just start with this," Percy said, and snapped the wand in half. The crowd gasped and Hermione felt herself gasp along with them. When she looked over at Draco, he had briefly closed his eyes and seemed to sag in relief. He knew what it was like to be hurt by a spell coming from that wand. She touched his shoulder, and he slid an arm around her waist.

"We found him trying to sneak out of London on flying carpet," one of the Aurors said.

"That's a weird choice," Ron muttered, but Hermione shook her head. It made perfect sense. The floo network was being watched, and the Ministry sporadically monitored apparition, checking for non-licensed users. If he wanted to make a clean escape, and preferred not to ride a broom long distances, a flying carpet was a brilliant choice. Illegal, of course, but that wasn't the sort of consideration Corban Yaxley dwelled on.

Someone near Hermione put his hands together and called out to Percy, "Trial!" The crowd took up the chant and soon hundreds of people were chanting "Tri-al, tri-al" in unison. The thrumming of all the voices seemed more than a little ominous, not least of which because no real trial could be had on the steps of the Ministry, at the hands of a mob. She tried to catch Percy's eye, but he was managing to look anywhere but at her. He knew it, then, and he didn't care. Hermione ground her teeth together. This was not right.

"There are so many charges we could address," Percy said, his voice still carrying over the roar of the crowd, "but let's keep this simple. Corban Yaxley, you and yours have accepted bribes. You have evaded taxes. You have enriched yourselves at the expense of the people. For all of that, and on behalf of the people of Wizarding Britain, I charge you with economic sabotage. How do you plead?"

Yaxley's mouth twitched up in a small smile, and he murmured something so quiet only Percy could hear it. His face grew momentarily clouded and he shook his head. Yaxley's face grew even more smug, and he lifted his shoulders in a little gesture that dismissed all of them as unimportant.

"Hermione Granger," Percy called out, and she stiffened. This was not what she expected. Yaxley better not be planning to drag her down with him. She'd use every last drop of her friendship with Harry to keep that from happening. She was a loyal member of the Order of the Phoenix, and had been long before she arrived at Malfoy Manor, diamond bracelet in her hands.

"Yes?" she said, trying to keep her voice bored. This was a good time to channel Narcissa Malfoy's arrogance, so she did.

"Yaxley here tells me the same prophecy that heralded Voldemort's fall also promises his survival, no matter what we do."

"Oh?" Hermione couldn't quite keep the smile off her face, but she held it down to a slight quirking of her lips. Stupid, gullible Yaxley. It was hard to believe that false addition to the prophecy she'd fed him so long ago had taken such a hold but it had. This might be more fun than she had anticipated.

"Yes," Percy said. Whatever he'd heard in her tone had reassured him, and the tension that had crept into his posture at Yaxley's calm defiance eased away again. "He tells me the version of the prophecy we all know - "

"Born in the seventh month," Draco interrupted helpfully with his most arrogant drawl. Hermione was briefly annoyed he'd cut in, but quickly caught on and admired his cleverness. They all knew the details of that stupid prophecy, of course, but they had all been caught in the thick of the war. Most of the people standing out here cheering for this show trial hadn't been. They may have never even heard of the thing. "Parents thrice – and, really, who says thrice? – defied Voldemort, has a power the Dark Lord knows not –"

"Love," Harry added.

Ron hummed a few bars of All You Need is Love under his breath. Apparently, Gabrielle liked The Beatles.

"Yes, well we all know how loving you are, Harry," Draco said with a hint of a smirk, and the crowd laughed. He had them in the palm of his hand. "Neither can live while the other survives."

"Right," Percy said. "Yaxley here tells me there was more, not commonly known, and that Hermione Granger told him what it was."

"You did?" Draco sounded shocked as he pulled back and looked at Hermione. "What did you tell him?"

"But should the Dark Lord perish, the one who follows will be even greater," Yaxley said. He must know the same charm Percy did, and was managing it without his wand, because his voice carried with ease. Immense satisfaction dripped from every word he uttered. "And every trial shall only strengthen him, and everyone who defies him shall add to his power."

"Pretty," Percy said. "Hermione, I don't remember that bit." The crowd hushed and waited for her answer.

"It's because I made it up," she said.

"You're no Seer," Percy said.

"No." Hermione was enjoying this much too much. The way Yaxley's face had lost all its color was very gratifying. Take that, you pompous bastard, she thought. Make me kill people to prove my loyalty, will you? "I'm no Seer. I'm a pretty decent liar, though."

Another laugh from the crowd, and now, for the first time, Yaxley was struggling to get free, pulling at the arms of the Aurors who held him.

"Since that is settled, and has no bearing, let us go on," Percy said. "In addition to your numerous financial crimes, which I've already mentioned, you, when you were in the employ of one Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, also known as the Dark Lord, were active in his campaign against muggle-borns, and so on behalf of the people of Wizarding Britain, I accuse you of attempted genocide. How do you plead?"

Yaxley wrenched one arm free, hissed, "I do not recognize your right to try me," and, with a single twist of his wrist, Accioed a wand from one of the people in the crowd. Whatever moment Hermione might have spared to admire the wandless and wordless accomplishment was immediately swallowed by the string of rapid curses Yaxley shot. He managed to kill one of the Aurors, incapacitate another, and began bearing down on Auror Selwyn, who scrambled backward in a sudden panic. None of these people, these bold, brave Aurors, had really fought in the war, and since Yaxley had taken power they'd mostly gone after the weak and the unarmed. They weren't prepared for a Death Eater of Yaxley's caliber.

Hermione, however, was. Her wand was in her hand and she fired curses off, one after the other. Harry and Ron followed, and Draco was at her side. All four of them bore down on Yaxley, but he held them off almost effortlessly. Bellatrix had once boasted of her prowess and claimed to know Dark Magic the likes of which they couldn't imagine. Hermione had seen Lestrange, mad and broken by grief, demonstrate that Death Eater skills weren't exaggerated. Now Yaxley showed what a man who was both sane and without conscience could do. They were able to keep him on the defensive, keep him from firing into the crowd, but he could hold off the four of them and Percy too, without taking a single hit.

"More," Hermione said through gritted teeth. "Throw more at him."

"I am," Ron grunted.

She flung curse after curse and though they were able to push him into taking a step backward, though they kept him too occupied to apparate away, he wasn't breaking, and at any moment, one of them would falter and he would escape.

Draco's curses were growing wilder, some of them missing the mark. Hermione could tell his hands were shaking. He was the weak link in their assault team.

"You are nothing but children," Corban Yaxley spat out. "You cannot stop me."

"You stand accused of economic sabotage and genocide," Percy said, struggling to get the words out between fired curses. "How. Do. You. Plead?"

Yaxley laughed as he threw a curse at Percy that flung the man backward, knocking him to the ground and ending the steady stream of his curses. "I will not plead anything to the likes of you," he said. Hermione could feel the electricity in the air. Yaxley was getting ready to apparate, drawing determination and destination to himself, and she could hardly bear it.

Draco's hand shook again, a curse went wild, and then he flung one more. The stream of green light was familiar, and Yaxley froze, one hand already partially disappearing into the void of apparition, and then he collapsed. His hand reformed as he fell and the stolen ward dropped. The sound of the wooden wand rolling along the steps seemed very loud in the sudden silence, and it clattered down one riser, then another, finally coming to a halt at a woman's feet. She picked it up and handed it to the man standing next to her.

"An Unforgivable?" Harry asked quietly.

"My hand shook," Draco said. His voice carried. "The Crucios I've suffered, you know. Cause permanent tremors. I meant to hit him with something else."

Hermione opened her mouth to say that wasn't how magic worked, then snapped it shut again.

"Right," Percy said, hauling himself to his feet. "Corban Yaxley still stands accused. How do you, the people, find him?"

There was a pause, then someone yelled out, somewhat uncertainly, "Guilty?"

Another echoed him, and then a fervor overtook them all. Perhaps it was relief the brief battle was over. Perhaps it was bloodlust. Whatever it was, they all began to scream, "Guilty,", individually at first, then in an increasingly unified chant.

Percy held up a hand and the crowd stilled. "You have been found guilty," he said to the body at his feet. "I sentence you to death, which, conveniently, has already been taken care of."

A laugh at that. People were relieved and nervous and that came out in what Hermione thought had to be the most inappropriate response.

"We do need a new minister, however," Percy said. He glanced out in the crowd as though he were looking for someone.

"I think I was promised biscuits," Ron said.

"Right." Draco took Hermione's hand. "Shall we all go to my place, then?"

The four of them apparated away to the sounds of the crowd chanting "Per-cy Weas-ley."

. . . . . . . . . .

A/N – Many thanks to zunera (zzzoinks) for beta reading!