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Harry turned an incredulous gaze at the Minister. "Are you seriously asking me why I'm no longer friends with him?" Harry asked, gesturing at Weasley. "You've sat here and listened to testimony from Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. You've read the reports from his interrogations. Hermione Granger has been a true friend to me since we were eleven years old, more so than Ron, even when I didn't appreciate it much. She put herself in danger to help me defeat Voldemort. Hermione gave up her parents, erased her from their memories, and sent them to Australia because helping me was so important and she didn't want them used against us. She was never able to reverse the spell used on them. Her own parents don't know her. They never got to watch her get married. They've never seen their grandchildren. She sacrificed all those happy memories to help bring down Voldemort. For Ron to use that same spell to cover his adultery is the ultimate betrayal. He knew what she sacrificed to save our world. I could forgive the infidelity in time. Not the obliviation." |
Draco could tell there were things Harry wasn't saying. More to why he wouldn't forgive Weasley but wasn't willing to say it in front of so many witnesses. Harry didn't allude once to the interrogation that had sent him into a murderous rage. |
"You supported her decision to remain separated from Ronald Weasley?" Shacklebolt asked. |
"I wanted to arrest him back in September when I found out that he'd been obliviating her to hide his infidelity," Harry answered. "She shouldn't have been fired from her job for entering into a relationship with Draco Malfoy," Harry said, his voice reproachful. "She sacrificed so much for the Order and the Wizarding World, and this is how you showed your appreciation, Kingsley." |
Kingsley Shacklebolt had the grace to look uncomfortable at Harry's chastisement. Shacklebolt cleared his throat and looked down at the parchment on his podium. "Tell us about what happened on the evening of December twenty-third." |
"I received a Patronus from Lavender Brown," Harry started. |
"How do you know it was from Lavender Brown?" Shacklebolt interrupted. |
Harry recited the facts of Weasley's arrest as if it were any other arrest, not one that involved longtime friends. "I taught her, along with others, how to produce a Patronus during our fifth year at Hogwarts. It was a gray squirrel. She told us to come over to her townhouse and that it was a matter of life or death. I took Artemis Fawkes and Angus Fitzgerald with me. We found Hermione Granger and Lavender Brown crouched over Draco Malfoy, both trying to stop his bleeding. Ronald Weasley was unconscious and bound on the floor. We transfigured Lavender's coffee table into a stretcher and Artemis and Angus took Draco and Hermione to St. Mungo's. I looked for Minerva and Rose and found that the Malfoy elves had taken them to the Manor. I put Lavender's home on lockdown since I was unsure of her involvement in the attack." |
"And was she involved in attacking Draco Malfoy?" |
"No," Harry answered, "She did not know that Ron planned to attack them. Once she realized what happened, she secured Ronald Weasley and called for help." |
Murmurs rose up again from around the room. Draco understood people wanted to vilify Lavender Brown, all convinced that she'd had something to do with his attack. All convinced that she'd lured Weasley away from Hermione. Lavender Brown represented some sort of evil temptress in their minds. Not the woman she was, a woman in a difficult situation with little recourse, as much a victim of Ronald Weasley's machinations as Hermione. |
"What did you do next?" |
"I arrested Ronald Weasley and turned him over to the MLE. He was being held at that time for attacking Draco Malfoy. We weren't sure whether he would be charged with murder or attempted murder at that time." |
"In your opinion, do you feel the attack was caused by mental illness?" |
Harry answered in a voice devoid of emotion. Factual. Cold. Not the hothead he'd once been. "Throughout the confrontations between Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Ron never once admitted guilt or apologized for his actions. He showed no remorse for abusing Hermione. Throughout his interrogations, he showed no remorse for his actions." |
Though Harry's answer didn't exactly answer Minister Shacklebolt's question, the Minister chose to let the matter drop. With a hint of weariness in his voice, Shacklebolt excused Harry from the stand. He banged his gavel as Harry resumed his seat beside Hermione. |
"The court will take a recess while the tribunal deliberates this case," Shacklebolt announced. He banged his gavel again and rose from the podium. |
The tribunal filed out the side door behind him. The spectators started milling around talking amongst themselves, speculating on whether Weasley would go to Azkaban or not. The noise in the room rose to a dull roar around them. |
Draco put his arm around Hermione's shoulders and bent to murmur in her hear, "How are you holding up?" |
His other hand drifted to the swell of her abdomen. She wasn't showing yet, only the slight swell from her previous pregnancies showed through the sheath dress. He cupped his hand over the area, wishing he could spare her from this traumatic experience. |
Her hand settled over his and she looked up at him. He could see the anxiety on her face. That she was barely holding it together. "We're doing okay." |
They sat like that, both leaning on each other with their fingers interlaced over her abdomen. Harry and his mother made inconsequential small talk around them while the two Aurors kept the rest of the spectators away from them. |
Draco thought that maybe Hermione had fallen asleep after a while. The early stages of the pregnancy made her sleepy. That combined with the stress of today's events, Draco wasn't surprised if she had fallen asleep. |
Draco glared holes in the back of Weasley's head; somewhat hoping it would spontaneously combust. Weasley, uncharacteristically, had remained quiet throughout the proceedings. Draco had expected protestations or comments from the piece of shit bound to the chair in the center of the courtroom. Even now while they were waiting to hear his verdict, he remained quiet. He kept his head facing forward, not even looking around for his family. Draco didn't know if the Weasleys had come to support Ronald Weasley or just to be there to see what fate awaited him. |
"That was quick," Harry said softly some moments later as the door opened and the tribunal started filing back to their seats. |
The Minister walked out last and wasted no time in calling the room to order. Hermione sat up. She grasped his hand tightly as the gavel banged and the doors to the courtroom slammed closed. |
A hush descended over the room as the occupants awaited the fate of Ronald Weasley. |
Minister Shacklebolt rubbed the bridge of his nose in weariness. "Members of the MLE and Wizengamot, please raise your hand if you believe that Ronald Bilius Weasley is guilty of attempted murder," the Minister intoned. |
One by one the tribunal raised their hands, some with more emphasis and quicker than others. Even the Minister voted that he believed Weasley was guilty. Draco wondered why he gave them such a hard time during their testimony if he thought Weasley was guilty the entire time. |
"Ronald Weasley, this court finds you guilty of attempted murder," Shacklebolt announced with a bang of his gavel. |
A cry of grief resounded throughout the room. Draco looked over and saw Molly Weasley weeping into her husband's shoulder. Arthur tried to console his grieving wife, his lip trembling as he tried to keep his own grief in check. Draco felt sorry for them, as he had many times over the past few weeks. |
"The minimum sentence for attempted murder is the same as murder. Just because you failed in the attempt does not lessen the consequences; therefore this court sentences you, Ronald Weasley, to life in prison. You will be taken from here to Azkaban by Aurors." |
The once silent prisoner erupted furiously at the news that he would be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban. Draco could see him fighting against the bonds that held him to the chair as venom poured from his mouth. |
"I wish I killed them!" he shouted. "That bitch deserved to die, leaving me for Draco Malfoy. Fucking that piece of shit Death Eater scum. She was mine. My wife. Mine to do with as I pleased." |
The Minister pointed his wand at Weasley and said contemptuously, "Langlock." |
Molly Weasley's cries of grief echoed throughout the room and drowned out the hubbub from the other spectators. Two burly MLE guards came through the side door, one holding a set of handcuffs. Weasley was forced to stand and the cuffs were snapped in place. Then in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Gone from their lives. Gone for good, with the cries of his mother echoing after him. |
Draco looked down at Hermione, whom he'd clutched to his side as the verdict was read. She was ghostly pale and shaking so much she felt like she was vibrating. The joy he'd felt a minute ago at Weasley being gone from their lives slid from his face as he now worried about Hermione and their unborn children. |
"Hermione?" he asked concerned, trying to get her attention on him and not on the spot where Weasley had been moments ago. |
She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, "Get me out of here, Draco." |
Finding Hermione |
By: eBookDragon |
"Get me out of here, Draco." |
Hermione's panicked plea echoed throughout Draco as he wondered how he was going to get them out of this crowded courtroom. The doors had opened, and the press and spectators were milling about, all seeking a piece of them. The Weasley's wouldn't fare any better. The media would feast on their grief as if it were Christmas dinner. |
His mother cast a worried frown in Hermione's direction. "How are we going to get her out of here?" she asked quietly. "And someone needs to make a statement, or they'll spin it however they want if we don't." |
Harry heard her. Draco watched as the bespectacled man looked down at Hermione and them towards the closed side door that the Minister had just walked out of. He must have come to some conclusion because he nodded to himself and spoke in a quick, matter-of-fact voice, issuing orders like a general, "Right. Angus, you stay with Narcissa. Artie, you go over to the Weasleys. Tell them that Bill or Charlie will stay behind and I'll be back to take the rest out of here after I see Hermione and Draco off." He turned to Draco, "Let's go. I'll take you through the door to the Minister's private Floo." |
His mother moved down to the center of the aisle with Angus flanking her. The two of them distracted the press long enough for Harry, Draco, Hermione, and Artemis to move. Harry, Draco, and Hermione hurried along to the side door and stepped through just as the press caught on to the move. They disappeared in a flurry of camera flashes. |
The blinding light from the cameras temporarily made it difficult for them to see as they stepped into the dark room. The glow of a fireplace in the corner offered the only illumination. From what Draco could make out, the room was a cozy study littered with books, plush armchairs, and spindly tables. A desk was hiding over in an opposite corner with mounds of parchment stacked high in a pyramid of rolls. |
"Let's go," Harry said, hurrying them along. |
"Harry," Draco said to get his attention, "make sure my mother gets home safely. Have her pick up Rose from school and keep her at the Manor until we come to get her." |
Harry nodded, "I'll have Angus stay with her until they're both at the Manor." |
Draco took a pinch of Floo powder and threw it into the fireplace. The flames changed from their merry reds and oranges to a more sinister green, reflecting Draco's mood. He thought he would be happier to see Weasley gone, and a part of him was. The other part knew that imprisonment wasn't enough for the harm Weasley had wreaked on those around him. |
"Thanks, mate," Draco said as he and Hermione stepped into the fireplace. |
He called out for the study at Spinner's End, and in a nauseating whirl, they were back home. Hermione reeled as she stepped out of the fireplace. Draco caught her before she toppled to the ground and then picked her up. |
Hermione's lack of protest at being carried like a weak-kneed damsel in distress, as Draco was sure she would have said, was starting to worry Draco. He vaguely wondered if he should call for a healer as he carried her up the stairs to their room. |
He sat her down on the settee at the foot of the bed and kneeled before her to take off the black pointed-toe pumps. She stared blankly around not taking in her surroundings. |
"Hermione," Draco spoke softly. |
He wanted some reaction be it tears or anger; he didn't rightly care which. Anything would be better than the catatonic state she was currently in. He started pulling out the hundreds of pins that were instrumental in holding up her hair. He winced when he pulled one out and ended up pulling on her hair. |
The pain in her scalp seemed to reanimate Hermione, and she swatted his hands away and started pulling the pins out herself. The rapid plink of the pins landing in a bowl beside the settee the only sound in the room. |
Draco toed off his shoes and draped his robes and suit jacket over the blue damask chair in the corner of the room. He climbed up on the bed and moved to sit behind her with her resting between his outstretched legs. |
"Hermione, talk to me," he said when she leaned back against him. |
"He's gone," she said quietly. |
"Yes," he answered slowly. |
"I hadn't dared to hope. I thought I would be happier about it." She turned to look up at him, her eyes full of question, "Is it odd that I'm not happier about him being sent to prison?" |
Draco caressed her cheek, letting his fingers trail down the silky smooth skin of her neck. "I guess that would depend on the reason you're sad," he answered her. |
"I remember that boy he used to be, and I start to wonder where it all went wrong. I'm sad things couldn't have been different. That he didn't make better choices." |
"You gave him plenty of chances. You gave him more chances than he deserved," Draco said kindly. |
Tears started to fall down Hermione's face now. He wrapped himself around her as she turned and started sobbing into his neck. "He did things to me, Draco," she cried. |
Draco gripped her tighter against his chest as if he could pull the pain from her body into his if he could only get her closer. "I'm sorry," he murmured into her hair. |
She went on, "A part of me wants to know what he did." |
Draco shuddered at the thought. Whatever Weasley had done was bad enough to make Harry want to kill him. Draco didn't want to know. Didn't want to be tempted to end Weasley's life. He didn't want Hermione to know either. Hermione could be by far the scariest of them all. The things she could do to Ronald Weasley would probably make old Voldy look like a pretty alright dude. |
She hiccupped and continued, "The other part of me thinks that we're all better off not knowing. I don't know what to do. What should I do?" |
Draco looked down into those beseeching eyes. He could tell her to let it go, to put the horrors that Weasley committed behind her. Right now she probably would do it. He hated that he had to do the right thing and not tell her those things. "I can't make that decision for you," he said softly. |
Draco kissed the top of her head and held her so tight he thought he might bruise her. She started crying silently now. He felt like they sat like that for hours perched uncomfortably at the end of the bed. He was pretty sure he would have a bruise where Hermione's shoulder was pressed into his chest. |
"I don't know what to do," she said finally. Her voice was hoarse from crying and being quiet for so long. |
"You don't have to make a decision right now," he answered. |
"I need a bath," she said, abruptly changing subjects. |
"A bath?" Draco asked dumbly. |
She wriggled out of his embrace and stood in front of the settee. Her hair was a disheveled mess. Tear tracks ran down her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She ran her hand nervously up and down one arm. |
"I need to wash him away," she said. |
"Okay," Draco agreed. |
Draco slid off the end of the bed and onto the settee, then stood up beside her. He took her hand and led her into the bathroom. He let go of her hand and started the water running in the large, white porcelain soaker tub. He summoned her body wash and squeezed some of the liquid into the filling bathtub. The warm smell of lavender and jasmine soon filled the air. |
He turned to find Hermione struggling with the zipper at the back of her dress. He went over to her and pulled the tab down. Hermione drew her arms out of the sleeves, and the dress slithered to the floor. He opened the clasps of her bra, and that followed the dress in a heap on the floor. |
Hermione stood facing the mirror over the vanity clad only in her knickers, white lacey things today. Draco drew them down her legs past her knees until they fell on their own to the floor. She kicked them into the pile of clothes near her feet. |
Draco came to stand behind her, still clothed in his dress shirt and slacks. He brushed his fingertips down the side of her neck, across the tops of her shoulder, and along her arm. He was careful not to brush his bare hand across her cuff. He didn't think the desire that it caused to wash over the both of them would be helpful in this situation. |
"You are so beautiful," he remarked quietly. |
"Does this change anything for you?" she asked hesitantly. |
He turned her so that she faced him and tipped her chin up so that she was forced to look at him. "Nothing will ever diminish my love for you or our children." He placed a gentle kiss on her lips, then returned to gazing at her, "I will love you forever. I will desire you until the last breath leaves my body." |
She slumped in relief. Then shook herself and stood straighter. Draco could see her starting to pull the fractured pieces of herself back together. The beginning of the rebuilding process. |
He helped her settle into the warm depths of the bath. Bubbles floated up languidly out of the aromatic waters and popped. He brought the little white tufted stool from her vanity bench and sat down beside the tub. Draco stripped off his white dress shirt and threw it into the pile of clothes in front of the vanity. |
Hermione soaked in the bath with her eyes closed. Only her head and part of her neck visible above the water line. Tendrils of her curls floated in the water, looking a bit like snakes swimming in water. |
"What are you thinking?" Draco asked. |
Hermione didn't open her eyes to look at him. She answered in a sad voice, "I'm thinking that I deserved it...what Ron did to me." |
Draco choked a bit on his indignation that she would think she deserved whatever horrors Weasley might have inflicted on her. "Why on earth would you think that?" he asked, probably a little harsher than he intended. |
She answered, slowly, "After what I did to my parents. Took away their choice to decide whether to stay or go." |
Draco took up a sponge and started to wash her. He couldn't refrain from touching her anymore, not after what she said. He ran the sponge up the arches of her feet, lightly massaging each one before he let her foot drop back into the water. |
"That's not the same, Hermione," he protested. |
Hermione hummed a little in contentment as he started to work his way up her calves. Her voice was still sad as she answered him, "I still took away their memories. Sent them away. Made them forget that they had a daughter." |
Draco started talking with soothing sincerity. He wanted to wash away all her troubles. He let the sponge glide soothingly over her skin as he spoke to her. "What he did to you...it's not the same. He didn't take memories away to protect you. Whatever else he did and wiped from your mind, it wasn't because he loved you and was trying to protect you. It was to protect himself or to feed some sick part that he was hiding from everyone." |
Draco moved to stand behind her and had her lean forward. He rubbed the sponge up and down her back. "You have to forgive yourself. What you did to your parents came from a place of love. You were right to fear for their safety. Your parents weren't safe here. They would've been hunted. Taken to try to draw you out. You have no idea how much it frustrated the Death Eaters that they couldn't find you three." |
Hermione nodded, accepting the truth of his words. He would know. He'd been there with the Death Eaters, knew their movements and frustrations. |
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