"Court is in session. The centaur, Hand, has admitted to having fatally shot Supreme Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge with an arrow in the initial hearing. The tribe has decided that he will represent himself."

That was how it all began. Harry was no expert in law, but he had seriously believed that with his friends' help, he could get the centaur cleared. The fact that the tribe had apparently refused all help was completely unexpected; he had even prepared to say that it was the least they could do after their lives were saved. Did they simply not trust anyone waving a wand? Either way, he was called as the first witness, and he gave his testimony exactly as it happened. The defendant seemed totally disinterested in his story, which was probably because it was the same as his own.

"I don't get it," he whispered when he got back to his friends. "Is it a pride thing?"

"Might be. Frankly, mate, if he wants to get himself convicted, there's nothing we can do."

"It's unlikely that you'll be asked anything," Hermione said, looking around. "They might have only let you in because they assumed you had something to do with it. Take this chance to sneak around. It looks like ninety percent of the Aurors have joined us just for this trial."

"Yeah, that's no surprise," he muttered. "I reckon they think that if they can intimidate the witness enough, they'll get the control they've always wanted over Hogwarts."

While it was not specifically the Department of Magical Law Enforcement or the Auror Corps that had engineered Umbridge's invasion of the school, it was not as if they lost anything in the process. More authority for the government in general meant more authority for them, if only slightly. Technically, even Ron's father would probably have slightly more authority if the school were to fall under Ministry control, but that really only meant that he would be able to search for enchanted muggle artifacts while class was in session.

When it came time for the centaur to testify, he did so without any deviation. It was never going to be a matter of whose account was correct; it simply looked good that his account lined up with that of the other witness. As expected, the prosecutor decided it was time to interrupt him with some questions.

"Hand, I notice that it seems to have never occurred to you that you and your tribe could have left the scene before the victim started cursing you." The defense objected to the use of the term 'victim', but there was nothing for it. "What motivated you to remain there?"

"It is our land. It has been known from the beginning that our land is a place of refuge for our kind. If we were to retreat from part of the forest, we would have had to retreat from the rest."

Harry was beginning to see why the centaur had rejected any help from wizards. It was not an answer that was going to make him popular with the court, and any advisor would have forbidden him. Did he just want to make himself unpopular in the court? Had he decided that it was a choice between dying with honor or dying without?

The land debate was something that would have to be resolved in and of itself if the presiding decided it was material to the case. Theoretically, it would not really make a difference if the tribe had been attacked on the streets of magical London; they had been attacked, and a lethal response was within reason. Without wands, there were only so many responses available to them.

"Hand, how would you rate your ability with a bow?"

"I am among the best in the Forest."

"Do you believe you could have done something about the victim without killing her? Do you believe you could have hit her in the wand arm?"

"Perhaps I could have. Perhaps I had been aiming for her wand arm, and when the arrow hit her, she had only just moved it out of the way of her heart."

The court was silent for a moment. Obviously, everyone could just assume the worst possible intents of the defendant, and as unlikely as it was, everyone could also just assume the best possible intents. There was no evidence either way; there was no way of saying whether he killed the Supreme Undersecretary intentionally or not. Technically, there was nothing other than his own admission saying that he fired the shot, so perhaps the tribe had just chosen the most well-spoken of the bunch, excluding Firenze because they hated him.

"Is there any other scenario that you could envision if you did not perceive the victim as a threat?" the prosecutor asked.

"I don't understand." In fairness, it was a strange question. Harry was not so entirely jaded as to think that every single person working for the Ministry in any capacity was a slimeball, and he had always assumed that most of them were like Ron's father, but steadily they were challenging that impression. the current wizard in question dressed and carried himself somewhat like Lockhart, which might have set him off a few years earlier, but at the moment he found it a normal level of insulting.

"Was there anything that the Surpeme Undersecretary did that made her seem more or less threatening?"

"More or less threatening than what?"

"Well, suppose anyone else came in your wood and started casting spells."

"They were spells that were harming us."

"We have the wand in evidence; we know what spells she used," someone in the upper gallery stated.

"Did you in any way seek to protect the two Hogwarts students? I suppose it might be cynical of me, but I can't help but wonder why you have not decided to advertise your actions as heroic."

"We do not come to the rescue of wizards."

"Can you substantiate Mr. Potter's claim that the two of them were being held captive?"

"I saw an extra wand."

"I'm sorry?"

"I saw that she was carrying more than one wand. There was one in her hand, and one in her cloak."

"Is that enough for you to determine that she was not simply carrying an extra wand because she wanted one?"

"Do humans do that? Why would you need more than one?"

"Oh, for any reason at all, but out of all of them, how did you land on the other two humans being held captive?"

He seemed to genuinely think about his answer for a moment, but that made sense, because he had no legal counsel to prepare him for any of the questions he might be asked. It was a wonder he had managed to answer all the others so quickly, but it probably spoke to a straightforward nature.

"The other humans looked frightened."

"Was that so difficult?" the prosecutor asked. "The humans described the situation that way. I almost would have thought from your testimony that you had no idea they were under duress at all."

There was a murmur that went through the court and Harry figured out the strategy. The centaurs, most likely, refused help because they did not want to be in the debt of a witch or wizard, or both, as was the current case. They wanted to do things as independently as possible. It was better to avoid acting like he had saved anyone, because he would not be able to trust the reward if one was offered; he would always have reason to suspect it came with a catch. The prosecutor wanted to cast doubt on whether or not it was really a hostage situation, and knew or at least suspected that a centaur would not want to be seen helping a human. There was no way for the strategy to work without bringing it up while questioning the defendant, and it might well look more convincing to the presiding if he made it look like he had actually been trying o get the witness of the duress to substantiate it. There was also the chance that he thought that if he took a more confrontational approach on that specific point of fact, then Hand might have dug his hoofed heels in.

"If it matters, I did think that the old witch-"

"Nothing further; I can ask nothing else as nothing else was covered under the direct examination."

If there was an ulterior motive in closing the line of questioning there, neither he nor Hermione were going to waste time thinking about it. She had a hand on his wand arm as if to remind him to be patient, but it looked like she was having trouble herself. Harry had never known what to make of her spats with Ron about everything in the magical world that could talk, but she looked conflicted and he felt like he knew why.

"What?" he asked at a whisper. "Are you annoyed?"

"It's complicated," she said. "Don't you start too, because it's complicated." She briefly covered a part of her face with her hand, not quite resting thereon.

The court session was not concluded just yet, but essentially everything that bore consideration had been presented. All that remained was for the presiding to make a decision. Harry told his friend to stay on the lookout for Ron in case he came back and made his way over to the defendant, who was being led through a low tunnel at a duck, or rather, a bow. It crossed his mind that the centaur would not like that. He caught up at the door to what looked like a meeting room, probably for the legal professionals who usually found themselves around the courts. Most likely, he was only being left there because it would have been a challenge to fit him in a cell.

"I want to thank you for saving my life," he said as soon as they were alone, which was surprisingly quick.

"I do not help wizards. I thought I made that clear."

"I know you've had a long history with wizards," he said. "I'm sure you've been made aware of it. For the most part, I wasn't. I grew up sitting in front of a device called a television whenever I had the chance and I only ever learned muggle history. A few years after I got to Hogwarts, I started learning about how wizards had been treating centaurs, but it was only bits and pieces. There was other stuff to go over. I'm sure it wasn't the same for you."

"I must admit that some of my earliest memories were cursing wizards for relegating our tribe to a forest filled with dark creatures. I learned early and with no chance of a misunderstanding that they were responsible for our problems." It seemed that the personal story had caught him off guard in a sense. "I decided that I would be content as long as we had a place. As long as there was a place we could call our own, nothing mattered. All things come and pass."

He remembered the encounter with Hagrid and wondered if their interest in Divination was because they were fatalists, or if that was what inspired such a perspective.

"In my first year, I was sent out there after dark as a punishment. I had no idea what I was doing, but we had our friend Hagrid there, so..."

"Ah. I know him. I happen to think of him as a knowledgeable, good half-giant."

"He's a great friend of mine. Maybe you respect him more than you like him, but I'd do anything for him. The reason we were out there is actually because of him in the first place, funny story about that." He looked around the room as if he would find any method of detection. "I was really scared when we actually found that monster that was killing unicorns out there. It's strange even talking about it, but it was Voldemort."

"It was a dark wizard?" He looked away. "Yes, Hagrid did say something about that. I had thought it was unconfirmed."

"I don't know how he did it... he didn't have the help of any of his followers, or at least I didn't think he did. I'm not asking you to take part in any of our wars. I'll let you be the judge of whether or not they're going to reach your forest." He took a breath. "I'm just asking you not to think of it in terms of wizard and centaur. There are werewolves and vampires and plenty of other things you've never met before." He thought of Professor Lupin. "The only way you'll ever know whether someone is trustworthy or not is a matter of character."

As he left, Harry was starting to thank himself for all the times that he had spent thinking of how to put things in advance. The amount of times he had told his story probably had something to do with it. Unfortunately, things were not looking terribly good for Hand. There was some chance that he would accept help if there were a separate decision about the sovereignty of the Forest and whether or not it counted as their home, but that could be long after he was sent to Azkaban. If they refused help at that point, then there was no helping them, and there was no need to be concerned. The murder conviction would make Umbridge into the martyr that they wanted.

With that, Hogwarts would be effectively done. Rather than having one useless teacher, they would have several, and any further schooling they wanted in-country would have to be illegal. If the old Death Eater families supported it, it was probably because they intended to teach their own children out of their own libraries. There was no reason to go there, not when there was nothing to be learned. As he went to find his friends, he decided that between the conviction and the present, they would have to use their time to stage a mass walkout. If the Ministry had no intention of teaching them anything, then they could at the very least deprive them of all their hostages, or as many as could be saved.

"There you are," Ron said as soon as he saw him. "You'll never believe it."

"What?"

"I was tailing some wand specialists right as they were leaving the courtroom and they said there was evidence on Umbridge's wand that she started to use the Cruciatus. I haven't the foggiest how that works, but if they've known that the whole time-"

"-then we've been kidding ourselves. They were never going to rule the death anything but a murder, The trial's too important for their objectives."

"It sounds like you believe it. Merlin."

"There's still a chance that they might want to push this all off on her now that she's dead," Hermione advised. "If there were some way to suddenly go from being the attention seeker back to the boy who lived-"

"They didn't care about me in those days. It was just a convenient story. They didn't know how it happened, so they decided it was all my doing. Then, they didn't have a bad guy to punish, so everything fell on Sirius." He shook his head. "I should make a statement saying that he's a good man and he never would have released the Death Eaters out of Azkaban. I could even say that he was with me at the time, over a fire call."

"Wouldn't most people think you were under the Imperius?" Ron asked. "I'd think you'd gone mental."

"Maybe. It might also give them a convenient explanation for everything I've done. I want to take a risk, though. I think the reason that we weren't allowed to say anything about how he was really innocent two years ago was because it would have counted more against us than for him. I don't think that's still the case. I think if we said that he's been innocent this whole time, our reputations probably would get any worse. It would be worth the risk."

"It may be better if he could make an appearance in some foreign country," Hermione said. "There are apparently places that have no extradition with Britain, but it could be a challenge getting there. If we just change our story after all these years, I simply can't see how it would do any good."

"That's possible," he said. "I don't have a lot of hope for changing the public perception of... me, or of Sirius, but I think it's pretty certain that we can't keep playing it safe. We can't think to ourselves that we have too much else to worry about."

"There's a problem with making any kind of public appearance," Ron said after a moment. "Even if the Ministry can't get to him, the Death Eaters can. I reckon they wouldn't attack him; we'd expect it and there'd be no point in it. They'd put the dark mark right above where he was. Who knows, they might even just go around killing people just to make him look worse. They need the cover of darkness more than they need to kill him- that would only prove he was never one of them."

"What do you recommend?" Hermione asked. She was not frustrated yet, just interested in what he would say.

"We do another Quibbler interview. We publish it after he's already long gone from wherever he was making an appearance. Could be the Minister down in Paraguay or someone who could notarize it. It's not going to count for anything if no one's seen him there, but he can't stay after that. You prob'ly want to avoid too much moving around, but there's no other way of doing it."

"That's about what we should expect going forward," Harry said. "We're going to have to account for everything. We need to be bold and decisive, but we can't fly off the handle." He wanted to tell them that there was a chance that the school was going to be finished after the trial, but at the moment it was just a pet theory of his; he had no way of continuing that line of conversation from there. There were also other matters to attend.

The three of them left the Ministry, as court was adjourned for the day, and took a portkey from their current position to the Drained Lake, where Longbottom Hall was said to rest, somewhere along the length of it. It was not on any maps, of course, but it took up a fair amount of space for a large building that was just out in the middle of the open air. According to Hermione, muggles suddenly forgot things upon approaching it and getting close enough wiped their memories entirely. Neville joined them by the designated warp point, which was not marked by anything, and that seemed to be why he had to lead them all back.

"I had not suspected that manors would be named after a family," she said after a moment of thought while they were walking. "I've heard of all sorts of proud names that noble houses have put on their estates."

"Well, I think it's actually that the Longbottoms were named after the place. I'm not sure what family was here first, but we were people of the land, and we took it from them somehow."

"Somehow?" Ron asked.

"Well, yeah, you're probably right. I shouldn't assume my ancestors were incompetents. I just can't help it sometimes. I had to come from somewhere."

"You're not an incompetent either, Neville," Harry said. "You've been doing a decent job. I think you've earned a little confidence."

"Wait 'till you meet my Gran."

As promised, they understood the reputation of the old witch almost as soon as they all met her. The first thing she said to them was that it was wonderful her grandson finally had a few friends, even if they were probably just as disappointing. She might have been the very first person with a wand to ever completely disregard the celebrity of the famed boy who lived, paying Hermione an empty compliment about her marks at school toward the end of tea. Ron was capable of making a fuss, but he was also capable of containing his indignation with a mask of feigned respect, as he had demonstrated all through Divination.

"Is she always like this?" he asked as soon as they were 'out back'. Harry supposed they were technically behind the manor itself, but there was an unbelievable amount of wide open space that belonged to the family. It was strange to say that there was a distinction to being on one side or the other when they could walk far enough and not see the place any longer.

"As long as I've known her, yes. She's usually a little nicer to guests, though, so I thought... well, the three of you might have gone down in her eyes just because you were associated with me. Thought I was a squib for the longest time."

"In what sense does that justify her behavior?" Hermione asked. "My parents are muggles; would she treat them just as ghoulishly?"

"Well, no, probably not; she wouldn't have any reason to form expectations about them. I also think you're exaggerating a bit; she's not really like a ghoul; they tend to-"

"I know what a ghoul is."

"Really?" Ron said. "I thought I was about to be able to tell you something."

"I know what a ghoul is from books and I've been over at your house." She shook her head. "The fact that they make you sleep under that thing is just bizarre to me."

"They're mostly harmless in the long run. They're no worse than your average boggart."

"That's still no reason-"

"I've been thinking about this too," Harry said, interrupting them both. "There's a lot of cruelty in the world. My aunt and uncle are no exception to that. Really, Hermione, I kind of think that your family is the exception. It's not because the normal world is any better, though I'm sure anyone even distantly related to the Dursleys would tell you that point blank. They think everything in this world is mad, totally out of control."

"Yeah," Ron said after a moment of thought. "Yeah, pretty much everyone else has some sob story. Luna lost her mum and gets picked on. Ginny's the only witch and apparently we've been underestimating her. Harry's got enough of those to fill books. No one's got it out for you just because you had it easy."

"Well, I've never mentioned this, because I thought it wasn't relevant, as it was all behind me, but the other kids at school excluded me, growing up. I wrestled with the thought of this explanation being conceited, but I truly believe that at least some of them were jealous of me. I'm glad my parents were so caring toward me, because they were really all I ever had. I should think I would have fallen apart otherwise."

"So you're wondering why I haven't, when I haven't had friends or parents?" Neville asked, breaking his relative silence. It was not an angry expression that he wore. No one said anything in response; there was no pointless confirmation. "So do I."