"Justice is when you win the trial."
Samuel Johnson
The cold was creeping up under Hermione's clothes. Her warmth spell wasn't working. It was very cold, even for February. It didn't help that she was in a very cold place either. She approached the guard and announced herself.
"I want to see Sirius Black."
"Have the Permit?"
Hermione pulled a paper from her pocket and handed it to the man in front of her. He looked at it carefully for several minutes. The young woman became impatient and the guard was forced to realise that the paper was an original.
"Good, floor eight. You can go there. You've got an hour."
She didn't bother to answer him, she was so stunned. Floor eight! How dare they? Being locked up there was borderline human, so an innocent man...
When she was still in the present, Hermione had researched Azkaban. The prison had been built in the fifteenth century but had only become a detention centre in 1718. It had ten floors. The higher you went, the more dangerous prisoners were on each floor. The first three floors housed minor prisoners who never stayed very long, but the last three floors... No one had yet committed a crime horrible enough to go to floor ten. Floors eight and nine were reserved for very serious criminals. Few prisoners got past floor six, so floor eight!
The witch was almost there. She had never climbed so high.
She couldn't make a patronus anymore, but the dementors, fortunately for her, preferred to drive the prisoners even more crazy. She crossed the entire floor, obviously Sirius was not at the entrance. She approached his cell and stopped short. He had lost a lot of weight and his clothes were very dirty. It was nothing like the Sirius she had known who had spent twelve years there but still, it was shocking for such a short time.
The wizard was sitting on the floor with a blank stare. He seemed lost in thought, waiting for something to happen. He wasn't shouting anymore, everyone was getting quiet, some faster than others. He spotted Hermione and squinted, as if he had trouble recognising her.
"Grace? Is that you?" he asked hoarsely.
"It's me Sirius."
Surprise flashed across his face. He wondered what she was doing here, why she was using his first name and not his last.
"Can I come in?"
"You don't have a key" he answered simply.
"I have a wand. Alohomora."
The young man rushed into Hermione's arms. They were both surprised by this, it wasn't Sirius's habit to show signs of affection or his feelings, let alone in front of people who weren't his friends, but surely he needed it.
"Black you're choking me!"
"Sorry, I'm not used to seeing people. It's long. How long have I been here?"
"A little over a month."
"A month? It feels more like a year."
"I had a friend who was there for twelve years."
"Oh, and after twelve years?" he asked, although he assumed he was dead, it was Azkaban not a hotel.
"He escaped. But that's not the point, I came to see you about your case."
"I am innocent! I promise you, I swear."
"Hey, easy. I believe you, Sirius, but very few people think like I do."
"Why did you even come to me? Why not Remus or James. Or even Dumbledore?"
Hermione hesitated for a split second and Sirius noticed, he turned even darker, already far too dark for Hermione's taste.
"No! No, damn it! They don't believe me. They don't! What about our friendship?"
"That's what I told them. I gave James a dressing down, I shook Remus, he was a mess, I've never seen him like this. As for Dumbledore, it's not the first time he's looked at things as they are without digging deeper."
"You can't mean that! Dumby, the greatest wizard of all time!"
"Is your 'greatest wizard ever' here to help you? No. I am. Then I'll say what I want to say because I'm the only one willing to help you!"
"I'm sorry."
"And stop apologising! You never do, so stop!"
"All right, fine. What did you want to tell me?"
"I'll help you get out of here."
"No, you'll get caught. I want to get out of here but not to the point of dragging you down with me."
"Don't dream!" she exclaimed. "I don't want to end up here either. I got you a trial. How did I do that?" she said, seeing the look on the young man's face. "Very simple, a little threat on the Minister and I have a trial and a pass to Azkaban. I will defend you. You will do exactly as I say. You will be polite and you will not speak unless you are questioned. You'll get out of here, so make it easy for me."
"Did you threaten the minister? Why are you doing all this for me? I'm not going to complain, but we've never gotten along very well or been friends. I'm just wondering."
"I'm doing this because an innocent man doesn't belong in prison, because your friends are too stupid to see beyond their own noses! And because I don't want the story to start again" she continued quietly.
"Is this about your friend who stayed for twelve years?"
Hermione looked away, feeling the tears welling up. She avoided thinking about the past, at least consciously, but after all this time it still hurt. She had seen him die.
"I've seen too much devastation on innocent people."
"Sor-, no, how are you going to defend me?"
"I'm not going to tell you everything, but you will be questioned by veritaserum."
Seeing the panic on Sirius' face, she thought to herself that she was right and that he was immune to the potion.
"Don't worry, they can't know you're immune."
"Won't it kill me with their stuff? Because you never know, they might try to kill me. They'll do anything. Okay, I'll take it" he said, seeing the look on Hermione's face. "But I'm not sure if it's enough."
"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything. I have to go, I've been here for almost two hours and the guard will be back soon."
"You weren't allowed in the cell?"
"What do you think? I brought you some clean clothes and some food. We won't be able to see each other until the trial. It's in two weeks. I know it's a long time, but compared to the six months they wanted to put you away... You'll be fine, Sirius. One last piece of advice, Padfoot is better at dealing with demantors."
Hermione left with these words, she closed the cell and rushed out of the corridor. She hurried out and saw the guard asleep in his chair at the entrance. She stepped over the protective barrier and crossed over.
"We are here to judge the guilt or otherwise of Mr Sirius Orion Black. Bring in the accused."
Sirius entered in handcuffs, flanked by two aurors. The aurors were unknown. The Minister had obviously chosen aurors from outside the Order of the Phoenix, although they could not know exactly who was in it, they knew Dumbledore's relatives. Hermione had advised the marauder to refuse the clothes that had been offered to him on his release from Azkaban, it showed the treatment he had received.
"Auror Smith, in charge of investigating the case, took the floor."
"Thank you Minister, on the night between the 16th and 17th of January 1979 there was an explosion at 18 Farm Place in London. Two people were found dead, Dorcas Meadows and Benjy Fenwick. Three people were missing, two of whom have been found to date. The third, Peter Pettigrew has been declared dead. Sirius Black was seen in the vicinity of the house after the explosion for no good reason and our experts have found his fingerprints on many walls. The cause of the explosion is still unknown at this time."
Sirius had not taken his eyes off the audience during this time. He felt a twinge of sadness when he saw his friends standing there. There was McGonagall, Lucas, James, Lily, almost every member of the Order. And Remus. For a long time they stared at each other without looking away. Then his eyes shifted to other people. He recognised a few Death Eaters. A lot of people were there. It wasn't every day that a Black was on trial.
"Sirius Black pleads not guilty, Minister."
"Miss Grace! You're not a lawyer, so why are you here?"
"No one at the Ministry would give Sirius Black a lawyer and no professional would accept. They all feared reprisals from the Ministry. Strange, isn't it? And illegal, too. Everyone has the right to a trial AND a lawyer. But don't worry, I know the law, and I'd probably defend him better than anyone else."
"You have no right to call yourself a lawyer, it's a profession where you have to study for a long time and have a degree at the end of it. Which is not your case, it seems to me."
"The magic code states that the Ministry must provide a lawyer for the accused and if not, anyone who is capable of taking the case. I have a parchment here which explicitly states that the Ministry did not provide the accused with a lawyer, so the case is over. We can start without further delay. To prove his good will, Sirius Black wishes to be questioned under veritaserum."
"He's a Black! He must be immune! This family is rife with dark magic!"
"Come on, Minister, these are very serious accusations, without proof. You must know that a name means nothing. We are not putting the Black family on trial. They have never had a trial for dark magic. So it hasn't been proven."
"Right" he sighed. "Bring in the veritaserum."
An auror arrived, injected Sirius with the serum, he flickered a little, nodded to the auror who left.
"Your full name."
"Sirius Orion Black"
"Your date of birth."
"November the 3rd 1959.
"Are you guilty of the deaths of Dorcas Meadowes, Benjy Fenwick and Peter Pettigrew? Did you carry out this explosion?"
"No, I'm innocent."
"What were you doing on January the 16th at the time of the explosion?
"Objection, this is a matter of my client's private life."
"Overruled. His case is not clear."
"I have insomnia so I went to the park to get some fresh air. I was there for twenty minutes. I heard a noise, I approached and saw the house explode."
"Why were you in that house? It belonged to Dorcas Meadowes."
"Dorcas is a friend. She offered to let me stay with her. It was safer."
"Why safer? Are you in danger?" the minister asked stupidly.
"We are all in danger with the war!"
"War? Come on, Mr Black, it's a bit early to be talking about a war."
"Objection, not relevant to the case. Minister, I'd like to know why my client ended up in Azkaban without a trial, it's illegal, no lawyer was assigned to him."
"He is a suspect! A suspect could not remain indefinitely in a Ministry cell."
"So why not do the trial sooner? I doubt the entire Wizengamot and all the judges would be overwhelmed. Especially for the Black case, as the papers call it. But so be it. You are all men and women of the law here. So how is it that I, who never studied law, am the one who notices that the suspects are on the first floor?"
The minister hesitated for a moment before continuing and assuring us that everyone knew.
"If everyone knows, then why did Sirius Black end up on floor eight?"
There were murmurs throughout the room. Whether it was the audience or the jury, everyone had something to say. The judges almost choked on their own saliva, wondering how they could have missed it. Had their minister gone mad?
Sirius turned to the Order of the Phoenix. All the members were shocked, no one knew. Some were even crying. He turned to Helena and nodded. The witch answered him. She knew they had won. Public opinion had spoken, which the Minister feared would turn against him.
"I await my answer, Minister. Most child rapists and killers end up on floor six, which in my humble opinion shows the scourge of this society, so why has an innocent man ended up on floor eight?"
"This is not the Ministry's trial! There is no way of knowing if Sirius Black is not lying. And if he didn't carry out this attack, what's to stop him from carrying out another one? He may have an accomplice."
"That is enough! You can't make wild accusations without proof. Accept the reality that you were wrong! Half the audience would be willing to testify on Mr Black's behalf."
"They're his friends, you're part of his entourage, you shouldn't be allowed to defend him."
"There's no article in the magic code that says that, Minister" she replied dismissively.
The minister asked his neighbour, a little witch who was in charge of checking every article of the magic code, for confirmation. She could only agree with Hermione. The Minister muttered under his breath that this would change, but he could no longer attack Hermione on this.
"There is no evidence that Sirius Black is completely innocent, or will remain so" a wizard, who Hermione thought looked a lot like Umbridge, intervened.
"Someone would have to vouch for him."
"You can't vouch for someone that easily, Mrs. Bones."
"I studied law, I know that, Minister" the witch replied curtly. "And no one else can do it, you need something important to swear on, and that person must not be close to the accused."
Again the audience murmured, the only person important enough to do so would be Dumbledore. Many turned to him, he was about to stand up, but Hermione interrupted him with a sentence.
"As a person not close to Sirius Black, I will vouch for him."
The witch let a few seconds pass and then continued with a big smile:
"By my order of Merlin first class."
Sirius was stunned. So that was his miracle move to defend him? An order of Merlin. Not many people turn down an order of second class, so first!
"May I ask how you got that order?"
"No, you can't, that's a private matter, but it's true, I didn't steal it. Your experts can analyse it. Can you conclude this trial, Minister? The evidence is in, Sirius Black didn't kill anyone. It's been going on for almost five hours."
"Right" he said after a glance at the jury. "Those in favour of a conviction."
A few hands went up, including those of the minister and the man who looked like Umbridge.
"Those in favour of dropping all charges."
A forest of arms went up, with smiles on the faces of the audience, except for those who had come to see the elder Black go down.
"Sirius Black is innocent. The session is-"
"Aren't you forgetting something?" intervened Hermione in a dry voice.
"The bill, of course. Sirius Black is asking for 150,000 Galleons in compensation, the reopening of the investigation and the suspects will not go to Azkaban until they are found guilty. You're asking for a lot."
"My client is not asking for anything in relation to the two months on floor eight. I'm sure you understand."
"Well, it's all granted. The session is adjourned."
Everyone stood up at once and Hermione snuck down to see Sirius. The aurors had just removed his handcuffs when she approached him.
"Thank you so much Helena Grace. I don't know how to thank you. I almost owe you my life."
"It's no big deal. You owe me absolutely nothing. Like I said, an innocent man doesn't belong in prison."
"I'm really sorry about your friend."
"Just enjoy your friends, Remus. Don't blame them too much. Life is too short to have regrets."
Hermione started to leave as she saw the Order arrive. She looked back one last time.
"But you can still tell them off. They've earned it."
She punctuated her sentence with a smile and a wink and left. Sirius turned and saw someone running towards him. He smiled widely as Remus ran towards him. He thought about what Helena had said and kissed him full on the lips, in front of the entire Order, with James' eyes ready to pop out of their sockets, his mouth was wide open. Most of the Order had had the same reaction, except for Hermione who had a big smile on her face, Minerva who looked at them, touched and Moody who didn't give a damn.
"I missed you so much Sirius, I'm sorry I didn't believe you. Good thing Helena came to see me after the full moon, I wouldn't know what to do otherwise" Remus rambled after separating himself from Sirius.
"What do you mean after the full moon?"
"She woke up then. She was in a coma. That's when she went to see James and me. Then she asked you for a trial."
"We'll talk about this later. I want to enjoy you. I've missed you. I missed you so much."
On the other side of the room, Hermione was talking to Minerva and Remus. They were proud of her defence and also very surprised.
"An order of Merlin! First class! Hermione!"
"Assurdiato. It's alright Remus, my little surprise effect worked well, didn't it?"
"You can say that again! But why didn't you tell me? I thought you'd told me everything!"
"It didn't matter. I didn't think I'd ever need it."
"But still, I thought we were frie-"
"Anyway, I'm very proud of you, Hermione. You did a great job of defending Sirius. I hope he thanked you" Minerva interrupted, saving Hermione from a long explanation.
"Yes he did, but that's normal. I didn't want the story to start again. An innocent man doesn't belong in prison."
The faces of the three friends had closed at the mention of the Sirius of the past but they tried not to think about it too much. They were there to change everything after all.
"So, how did you get this order?" continued Minerva, curious though she was.
"It was December 98, Kingsley had gathered the whole resistance to give them an award. He was the only person who'd had a significant role in the ministry who was still alive. Freedoms had been so trampled on that magic no longer recognised the Death Eaters as ministers. The only one she could appoint was Kingsley. Only the Minister could award an Order of Merlin, but as it was a European award, Minchum couldn't know I'd had it on British soil. Nearly everyone had been awarded Third Class, a few people Second Class and Neville, Ron and I had been awarded First Class. It was the best night of the resistance, even though Ron and I didn't really see what good it would do us. But in the end today it saved an innocent person so I'm proud to have it. Kingsley died two weeks later," she finished impassively."
She was trying to keep her mask impassive, she had to, but talking about the past still hurt. She looked at Sirius, who was walking out of the Ministry, hand in hand with Remus.
Sirius was happy. Finally free, he could see his friends again, they were his family. All the members of the order had come to see him but he couldn't take it anymore, he had just come out of Azkaban and just wanted to go to sleep, preferably with Remus. He beckoned to him. They decided to move to Remus' house. They went to bed. They were happy to be together again, full at last, with their other half by their side. They were a long way from the worries of James Potter, who was still wondering why his two best friends had kissed like that, in front of everyone.