Trial
Hermione had argued with Harry and Ron for weeks. She had finally convinced Harry but Ron was steadfast in the belief that Draco belonged in Azkaban. She wasn't sure when he became Draco instead of Malfoy in her mind but sometime between the final battle and her last shouting match with Ron over the upcoming trial, it had changed.
The Wizengamot was out to make an example of the Death Eaters that had been arrested after the battle. Draco's was the fifth trial and so far the lightest sentence was 20 years in Azkaban. She was unsure how she felt about him, about everything that had happened, about their string but she knew that he did not deserve that. She had seen the pain in his eyes and knew a great deal of his circumstances thanks to Narcissa.
The Malfoy's majestic Eagle owl had delivered her note a few days after his arrest requesting Hermione meet for tea in Muggle London of all places. Ron was irate and stormed off at her decision to go. While Harry was cautious, he agreed to go with her. After all, Narcissa's actions at the final battle had saved his life. Tea had been uncomfortable at best. Seeing the Pureblood Lady Malfoy in a Muggle Tea Room was strange enough but hearing the regal woman nearly beg for them to testify on Draco's behalf was heartbreaking. Hermione agreed immediately. Harry promised to think about it. Hermione's resulting glare had communicated to Narcissa that he would be there.
Hermione had felt confident prior to the trial. The list of witnesses on Draco's behalf was long. But sitting between Narcissa and Harry, feeling the chill of the courtroom, unnerved her. It left her gripping her thread tightly in her hand, staring at the back of Draco's head as he sat in front of them, the red string trailing from his ankle over to her.
Luna Lovegood watched as Neville spoke concisely about the brief encounter he had with Draco during the final battle. She knew he was only there because she had not given up until he agreed. She was afraid for her friends what a lengthy stay in Azkaban would do to their shared string. She looked at it as it curled between them. Hermione's thread was trailing down the same hand that was clutching his mother's. A coil of Draco's had managed to find it's way up his chair and he was running it through his fingers. She was glad he had finally acknowledged it but sad for him the circumstances it took to get there.
When it was her turn to testify, Luna described her brief stay in the Malfoy Manor dungeons. She described how Draco's elf always brought extra food and even blankets when the guards weren't around. She felt it was all very simple however the prosecutor was particularly irritating, which given the amount of Wrackspurts around him, made sense.
"Miss Lovegood. You say that you were kept in the Malfoy's dungeons. Surely Mr. Malfoy—a fellow classmate—could have helped you get out?" He asked her.
"Well they would have killed us both." She stated simply.
"But it was his home. He would have had access and opportunity to aid in your escape."
She looked at the man with pity in her eyes. It hurt her when people chose to not understand. "Draco was as much a prisoner as I was. Maybe more so."
Harry Potter did not want to testify for Draco Malfoy. He did not believe Draco Malfoy to be anything other than a self serving git who was eternally up to something.
However, he had promised his best friend he would. She had worn him down. A small part of him acknowledged that as she was the smartest person he knew it was probably the right thing to do. It did not make it any easier.
He described Malfoy's reluctance to identify him at the Manor. He knew it was bloody obvious it was him when it was his long time rival he was in front of. Hermione's stinging jinx was good but it hadn't been that good. He grudgingly recounted how Malfoy had tossed him his wand willingly and without explanation right before they had escaped.
"Do you believe Mr. Malfoy deserves to go to Azkaban?" One of the Wizengamot members asked him at the end of his testimony.
Harry had not expected that question. "Honestly? I think everything he did was out of self preservation. He's a selfish prat and while he may never have killed anyone as a Death Eater, he still has that Mark on his arm. So life in Azkaban? No. But does he deserve to walk free? I have to say no to that too."
Harry did not know it then, but that statement would condemn a friendship he had since his first year at Hogwarts.
Draco watched his trial in relative apathy. He had a small glimmer of hope as Neville Longbottom, the Man-Who-Killed-The-Snake, testified on his behalf. It wavered slightly as Luna Lovegood's testimony did not seem to be received well by the Wizengamot. It crashed and burned as the Boy-Who-Lived-Twice basically declared that he should be in Azkaban. Any hope he had fled at the Chosen One's statement.
He knew his mother's testimony would be suspected at best. No matter that she had willingly taken Veritaserum. The word of the wife and mother of a Death Eater did not carry much weight.
He had to close his eyes and Occlude during her description of his Marking. The way the Dark Lord had threatened him with her torture and death. He knew her Pureblood Mask of Stoicism was cracking as she spoke of the countless times he had been tortured in front of her for his failures. For his lack of enthusiasm in the cause.
By the time she was done speaking, he could tell by the faces of those in the Wizengamot that they did not believe her. She was a mother trying to save her son. She had already lied to the Dark Lord himself during the battle to save him. Veritaserum or not, they didn't believe her.
Hermione's nerves were torn to shreds by the time it was her turn to testify. She had taken two calming droughts prior to her testimony and she hoped it was enough to get her through.
She tried to keep the right amount of emotion in her voice as she described the events at Malfoy Manor and Draco's actions during the final battle.
One of the Wizengamot members spoke up, clearly not believing her stance. "Are we really to believe that you want Mr. Malfoy to go free when he stood by and watched you get tortured? He may have saved you later out of guilt but what about his prior actions? He did nothing."
Hermione took a deep breath. It was an argument she had had with Harry and Ron already too many times to count.
"And just what would you have done?" She asked back.
The man sputtered. "I am not on trial Miss Granger."
"No? But you are making judgements. Were you there? Tell me sir. What would you have done had you been in Mr. Malfoy's position?" She could hear the harsh edge in her tone.
Before the man could continue his excuses she carried on, growing more angry by the minute. "Do you believe that you, a full grown, trained wizard would be faster with your wand than Bellatrix was with her knife? Because you're expecting someone who should have been a student to have been more skilled than one of Voldemort's most feared followers." She enjoyed how the man flinched at her use of the name.
"Or do you think he could have talked her out of what she was doing?" Her rhetorical question was met with silence. "A mad woman, who was his aunt, who we now know enjoyed torturing him as well, was one breath away from stabbing me with that knife. The actions you seem to believe are possible that could have stopped what she was doing clearly are not. If he had done anything I would be dead. He would be dead. So tell me, would you do anything differently?"
Her statement was met with stunned silence. After a few moments another member asked in a much more careful tone, if she had anything else to add.
She looked at Draco for the first time since she had started her testimony. She had avoided his gaze because she did not know how it would affect her. "I do not blame him for the events at Malfoy Manor. In fact, his not identifying Harry and Ron saved our lives that day. If he had, the war would have ended very differently."
She looked back at the members of the Wizengamot. "Draco Malfoy did not know when he pushed me out of the way of Bellatrix's curse at the final battle what that curse might be. Knowing the curses that she had been using prior to that, most of them were lethal. There was no self preservation—" She glared at Harry. "When he did that. He risked his life for me. How many of you were at that battle? How many of you can say you would do the same?" She stared down the panel that would decide Draco's fate and hoped her words had been enough.
"The esteemed members of the Wizengamot as representatives of their Ancient and Noble Houses find Draco Lucius Malfoy guilty on the charge of being a Death Eater and being involved in crimes contributing to Voldemort's regime." Draco felt the air leave his lungs. He had not held any great hopes in his verdict but it still affected him to hear it so plainly.
"Given the circumstances surrounding his Marking and the coercion involved in his participation in such crimes—" The representative paused and Draco wanted to roll his eyes. Coercion. That was such a tame way to say threat of torture and death. "This Wizengamot sentences Draco Lucius Malfoy to six months in Azkaban followed by two years of house arrest with mandatory weekly wand checks and Mind Healing sessions." Draco barely heard the rest. Six months in Azkaban. Six months with Dementors. Six months. Six months. Six months.
He felt the string slipping through his fingers as he was pulled from the room by Aurors. The last thing he heard before the door close was her voice. Full of fire.
"—won't get away with this! This is wrong! He was a child! What did we fight for if this—"
He held the string as tightly as he could until it faded from his view.