CW: Dated language about the mentally ill

Hermione received a formal invitation back to Malfoy Manor a few days later.

It would benefit us both to work together on freeing Sirius Black, Narcissa Malfoy wrote. His trial is likely to be the political event of the year, and carefully planning how it should play out would benefit us both. I would welcome your input in planning, as well as your feedback and advice.

She'd shown the letter to her parents, both of whom were mildly intrigued.

"This is the family with the dubious history of Dark magic?" her mother asked. "I'm surprised she wants to coordinate with you."

"Maybe she feels like she doesn't have much of a choice," Hermione said, looking down at the invitation. "I'm the one who found out the truth about Sirius Black."

"It's still a good sign she wants to plan with you, even if only for political advantage," her mother said. "Especially after your fight with her son."

Hermione bit her lip. "Yeah. Draco… he's probably still mad at me. That'll be awkward, I guess."

"This is the family with the madness?" her father asked, joining the conversation. "Cursed to insanity once a generation or somesuch?"

"I don't know about 'once a generation'," Hermione said hastily. "I just know about—"

"The heritability of schizophrenia is around 80%," her father reminded her. "If they all grow up in a similar environment, the same environmental risk factors present for all of them—"

"I know, Dad," Hermione cut him off. "Narcissa isn't crazy, though."

"I know, I was just saying—"

"Are you doing to go, dear?" her mother asked her.

Hermione bit her lip, looking up at her mother as she considered.

"Yes," she said finally. She sighed. "I don't want to go, but it's the right thing to do."

"The right thing to do often isn't the easiest thing." Her mother gave her a small smile, proud. "It's a sign of our maturity as people when we gather the strength, stand up, and do it anyway."

"Those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action," Hermione recited, and her mother laughed.

"Hopefully it won't be too bad, seeing your classmate again," she said fondly. "With a bit of luck, you might have managed to knock some sense into his silly head."

Hermione really wasn't eager to see Draco again after she'd read him the riot act about his father being a Death Eater, but she didn't want Sirius Black to not get a trial for forever either. She had reluctantly penned her acceptance, mentally gearing herself up for another confrontation.

To her surprise, though, when the appointed day arrived, Draco wasn't even present. Narcissa apologized for his absence.

"There have been family fights, lately," she said. "Draco… he got into a fight about my sister, Bellatrix, about whether or not she could be 'cured'. In the process, he was jinxed somehow – probably for telling lies or somesuch," Narcissa dismissed. "He's being seen at Saint Mungo's right now. He'll probably be back later today."

Hermione was surprised Sirius could manage a jinx wandless. He had escaped Azkaban, though. And with regular meals now, it made sense his magic was gradually returning. But still – wandless magic was still quite a feat.

"Not that I think the guards of Azkaban would ever give it to her," Hermione said, giving Narcissa a twisted smile, "but your sister might be better helped with Clozapine than any magical remedy."

Narcissa blinked. "Clozapine?"

"It's a muggle remedy," Hermione said. "I was telling my parents about what going on with Sirius Black and his family—"

"Your muggle parents?" Narcissa stressed, her eyes keen and suspicious.

"Yes," Hermione said sharply. "They like to keep up to date, and they knew that Sirius Black had escaped. Anyway, I was telling them about the 'Black family curse', and they both started discussing how it sounded more genetic than anything. Anyway," she said, hastily changing the subject. "We're to plan Sirius' trial?"

"Of course," Narcissa said smoothly. "We'll take tea on the veranda."

Hermione followed Narcissa out of the manor onto the veranda, overlooking the gardens, and she was surprised to see Lucius Malfoy sitting there. He stood as they approached, nodding.

"Miss Granger," he said. "We meet again. Welcome to Malfoy Manor."

Hermione hesitated, eyeing him.

"Thank you," she said slowly. "You have a beautiful home."

"Forgive me for not being present the first time you were here," Lucius said smoothly, retaking his seat. "I hope everything was to your liking."

"It was fine," Hermione said, sitting down. Her mind was spinning. "Narcissa said you weren't feeling well?"

"I was not," Lucius said. "I have fully recovered, now, luckily."

Hermione caught the sharp look Narcissa gave her husband, before she snapped her fingers. A House Elf appeared next to her seat, wide-eyed.

"Go find Sirius Black and tell him to come to the veranda," she instructed the elf. "Then prepare tea for four."

The House Elf nodded hurriedly and disappeared. Hermione looked at where it had disappeared from.

"How does one acquire a House Elf, anyway?" she asked curiously. "I've heard the old families tend to have them, but I don't actually know."

Lucius and Narcissa exchanged a look, and Lucius smiled thinly.

"Well, people say they're bound to bloodlines," he said, "but it's more accurate to say they're bound to buildings."

"Bound to buildings?" Hermione said, astonished.

"'Locations' might be more accurate," Narcissa said, considering.

"Dobby is bound to Malfoy Manor," Lucius said. "If another family ever lived here, he would be more likely to serve them than to move and serve my family at another place."

Hermione considered this.

"But they're loyal to families, aren't they?" she said. "How does that work?"

"Who knows?" Narcissa said, shrugging. "Many old families bind the elves with blood magic so they can't betray their family, regardless of location. My aunt did with her old House Elf. It's not pleasant magic, though. I imagine for most elves, loyalty is a matter of personal honor."

The conversation was broken off by Sirius' abrupt arrival. He looked much better, now, cleaned up. His straggly hair had been cut and washed and now hung in shiny waves to his shoulders. Someone had had a go at his eyebrows, which now looked more normal and less inhuman, and his teeth were noticeably whiter. He was wearing a proper robe that fit him – black, still – and though he still looked thin, he looked noticeably less gaunt than he had before.

Despite his improvement in appearance, Hermione was immediately reassured it was the same Sirius Black as ever as he plopped himself down into a chair, leaned back, folded his arms behind his head, and raised an eyebrow at Lucius.

"Lose your son, Lucy?" Sirius asked, challenging. "Where's little Malfoy?"

Lucius snarled. "Mind your tongue, Black."

Sirius snorted. "Like he minded his."

"Draco is not necessary for this conversation," Narcissa said smoothly. "He, after all, is not in the Wizengamot. We are the ones who will handle this matter."

Sirius shrugged. "Fair enough." He glanced around at them. "So – what's the plan?"

"That's what we need to determine, Black," Lucius said, nastily, and Narcissa shot her husband a warning look.

Narcissa laid out the plan so far – she had drafted a very formal statement for Sirius to sign and her to present, that laid out the situation with Sirius Black. It asserted he had never received a fair trial, and that he had broken free to protect his godson when he realized he was in imminent danger from an uncaptured Death Eater, Peter Pettigrew. It was phrased to create as much dramatic impact as possible, which, Narcissa said, would help make sure people granted Sirius Black a fair trial, even if only to hear the dramatic gossip of the truth.

"The issue we face," Narcissa said, glancing at her husband, "is the potential political backlash."

"Barty Crouch, Senior, specifically," Lucius drawled. "He's the one who put Black into Azkaban without a trial. The fuss of all this is going to make him look particularly bad."

"Who cares?" Sirius wanted to know. "He deserves it – throwing me away to rot for twelve years—"

"Bartemius Crouch has already lost a lot of political clout, after the death of his son," Narcissa told Sirius. "Whereas he was once poised to take over the Ministry, after the capture and death of his son, he was regarded as heartless and cruel."

"They shunted him sideways. He runs the Department of International Magical Cooperation, now," Lucius said. "As such, he controls two Wizengamot seats – one for the Crouch House, the other for his department. He has an assistant sit in for him for the department, but the assistant is really just a proxy vote who votes the way he's told."

"That's only two seats," Hermione said. "Are two seats really that much of a threat?"

The Malfoys exchanged a look.

"While Crouch lost much goodwill, he is known as someone who was tough on Death Eaters," Narcissa said delicately. "As the Regent of the House Black seat, and wife of Lucius, openly opposing Crouch and asserting that Sirius Black is not a Death Eater…"

Hermione saw the issue immediately. "You think they won't believe you."

"The Black family has a reputation for Dark magic," Lucius said. "It is much easier to believe Sirius Black was a Death Eater than that a man chose to live as a rat for twelve years."

Hermione bit her lip.

"How do we approach it, then?" she asked. "We'll need to establish goodwill from witnesses they'll consider reputable first, then, right?"

"The obvious answer is to have an ally demand proof that the complaint has a factual basis," Lucius remarked. "The issue is where that proof will need to come from."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

Lucius gave her a pointed look, one eyebrow aristocratically raised.

"Why, Miss Granger," he drawled, "you will have to tell the Wizengamot just how you came by Peter Pettigrew."

Hermione felt a chill.

"You—" her mouth was dry. "You want me to admit to my coven in open court."

Narcissa raised a challenging eyebrow at her. "Are you ashamed of your coven?"

"No!" Hermione objected. "It's just—politically speaking—"

Politically speaking, Hermione was still rather a nobody – the only child on the Wizengamot, but still a child nonetheless. Until she could claim a House seat as her own upon reaching an adult age, it was important Hermione not taint the Wizengamot's opinion of her in a negative way at all.

"How many votes do you control?" Hermione asked Lucius directly. "How many allies can you get?"

Lucius looked taken aback at the directness of her question.

"Quite a few," he said slowly. "Let me think."

As Lucius began running through people, Narcissa began making a list.

"Black, clearly, and Bulstrode. Burke. Carrow and Flint, I can manage. Lestrange, of course. Potentially Greengrass." He ticked people off on his fingers. "Nott, of course. Rosier. Rowle. Travers. Yaxley. Perhaps Slughorn, and maybe Parkinson. And of course the Malfoy seat."

"All Houses of Death Eaters," Sirius remarked, raising his eyebrows high. "Would you look at that."

"That's the problem, isn't it, Black?" Lucius snarled. "As many votes as I can get, many of them will look bad. They will make you look worse, voting in your favor."

"That's why we need to make them not vote for this at the start," Hermione said, thinking. "It needs to seem like they're being reluctantly persuaded – to set Sirius up as a genuine hero of the Light, not as a Death Eater."

"I am a hero of the Light," Sirius snarled. "I fought Death Eaters. I would have blasted Peter apart if he hadn't been such a coward—"

"We need to have Harry testify, then," Hermione said, cutting in. She bit her lip. "Harry will be the one person they won't be able to question. If he tells the Wizengamot that he did a Blood Debt ritual, fully intending on getting Sirius Black to avenge his dead parents, it will play on the court's sense of justice and pity."

"Harry Potter is in your coven?" Lucius Malfoy said, astonished. "Your little coven—"

"Susan Bones could be called to support his claim," Hermione went on, ignoring Lucius' remark. "Her aunt is on the Wizengamot and held in high esteem. She could support his claim. And then—well, I guess at some point Ron Weasley would have to be called to testify that Peter Pettigrew was his family's pet rat for years and years. We could have as much of the trial sort of 'pre-play' out as necessary until the other families insist on hearing Sirius testify."

"That's not a bad idea," Sirius said, considering. "With enough goading, Augusta Longbottom is likely to demand to speak to me herself."

"So the idea is to have the trial happen without it being a proper trial?" Narcissa mused. "If we don't involve the Wand of the Realm for Sirius, merely have the Wizengamot vote on his innocence, and the Wand only becomes involved in the formal trial of Peter Pettigrew, we're more likely to succeed."

"Sirius was never formally convicted, or even charged," Hermione argued. "He doesn't need a trial unless charges are brought against him – he just needs to be freed. If we stick to that angle, he's likely to be publicly cleared without needing the stain of a formal trial."

"That's overly optimistic," Lucius drawled. "You forget how many families loathe the Blacks."

"And you're forgetting the key factor here," Hermione said sharply. "This isn't about the Blacks – this is about Sirius."

Lucius raised an eyebrow. "And…?"

"And one of the people who knew Sirius the best now runs the Wizengamot," Hermione said triumphantly. "Dumbledore."

There was a poignant pause.

"Blimey," Sirius breathed. "Dumbledore."

"If you truly worked with Dumbledore against the Dark Lord," Hermione said, her eyes cutting over to Sirius, "he's likely to be appalled at discovering you never got a fair trial."

"He'll lose his mind," Sirius confirmed, eyes wide. "He'll – yeah, he'll help me. He's got to. We can trust Dumbledore."

"You, Narcissa, are going to have a harder time, I think," Hermione said, turning to the other woman. "You'll need to make it seem like Sirius is leveraging you as the Head of House Black, making you present his complaint. Lucius will have to either pretend to be furious with you in public, or have to pretend to be caught completely off-guard and shocked – whichever you can pull off better," Hermione added to Lucius. "But it has to seem like you don't want to present this complaint, in order to give it more legitimacy with the other families aligned with the 'Light'."

"I can do that," Narcissa said, tapping her nails on the table thoughtfully. "I can appear pale but strong, have my voice waver ever so slightly… it can be done."

Lucius was looking at Hermione, his face unreadable.

"This just might work," he admitted, his voice silky. "I have underestimated you, Miss Granger."

"Why?" Hermione raised her chin. "This won't be the first time I've manipulated the court."

Lucius's eyes narrowed to slits.

"That's right, isn't it." It wasn't a question. "I'd nearly forgotten your little trial last year."

"My trial?" Hermione said sweetly, batting her eyelashes. "You misremember. I wasn't on trial at all."

"No," Lucius said. "You weren't."

"And you weren't on trial, either," Hermione said, her own eyes narrowing. "Regardless of if you should have been or not."

Lucius visibly paled. Sirius was looking between the two of them curiously, eyes darting to and fro as Lucius took a deep breath, visibly calming himself.

"How fortunate I am, then," Lucius said finally, "that we are working together as allies, not opposing each other as foes."

Hermione snorted. "I'm sure."

"You misunderstand our position, Hermione," Narcissa said, raising an eyebrow. "We are supportive of your claim as a New Blood. We are encouraging Draco to openly support you as well."

Hermione blinked. "Wait. You are?"

"We are." Narcissa and Lucius glanced at each other, before Narcissa turned back to look at Hermione. "And in return… we hope you will think kindly on the Malfoy family in the future, when you gain a seat of power of your own."

From the look in their eye, Hermione suspected they weren't just talking about a Wizengamot seat.

"I certainly hope so," Hermione said coolly, folding her arms and looking at Lucius. "But I suppose that depends on where the Malfoy family sits regarding certain issues."

Lucius paled, and Sirius looked confused.

"Wait, hang on," he said, voice audibly annoyed. "Are we all working together or not?"

"We are," Narcissa snapped. "Do keep up."

"Well, I don't speak snake," Sirius objected. "I don't know if all the unsaid political threats are good things or bad."

Narcissa rolled her eyes as Lucius rubbed his temples, and Hermione had to stifle a laugh.

"We'll try and save the Slytherin-ing for later, then," Hermione said, grinning at Sirius. "Instead – let's rewrite this complaint for the Wizengamot a bit so it seems more like you're coercing Narcissa, and then let's plan out how we want Peter's trial to go, shall we?"

"Oh, yes," Sirius breathed. His eyes seems to glow. "Merlin above, I'll have my seat back by then. I would love to sit in on his trial."

"You'd be a witness," Hermione objected. "Surely you'd need to recuse yourself?"

Lucius snorted openly.

"Hermione Granger," he drawled. "One thing you will have to learn about the wizarding legal system – we very rarely ever play fair."