Evidence
The lights went on again. Hermione sat dazed, tears streaming down her face. Next to her, Ginny shuddered. The room around them remained strangely silent, apart from an occasional sigh or sniffle.
Harry Potter, chief witness of the defence, was white as a sheet as he stared at the silver screen, where moments ago the memories he had received from Snape had replayed like a Hollywood movie, for all the world to see.
‘That – that will be all for today, Mr. Potter,’ the Head of the Wizengamot said at last. ‘We will continue tomorrow morning at 9 am, with the witness Hermione Granger.’
Harry, his mouth set in tight lines, nodded in silence.
‘All rise,’ the court scribe intoned.
Hermione staggered to her feet as the members of the wizengamot swirled out of the room in flying robes. Together with Ginny and Ron she squeezed herself through the crowd towards where Harry was waiting for them, ignoring interview requests and questions shouted at him from outside the room. At least they hadn’t allowed the press to watch the Memories. He looked shaky.
‘Are you okay?’ Ginny asked, her voice warm with worry.
He shook his head and glared at her. The Veritaserum would wear off only within the next two hours or so.
‘Oops, sorry.’ Ginny blushed in a deep red colour that clashed unfavourably with her hair. ‘We’re allowed to take the other exit again, so we can escape the reporters.’
Harry gave a sigh of relief, but remained silent. It was obvious that he didn’t intend to say a word in public until he was sure of exactly what would come out.
‘Let’s go,’ Ron said, leading the way to the back of the room.
Behind them, the court’s watch-wizards stepped in the way of the reporters crowded outside the room. The dusty corridor they took ended in the backyard of a dingy little pub somewhere in the outskirts of London. Guarded and warded, it was a secure place for the chief-witnesses of the ‘Trial of the Century’ to Apparate home to Grimmauld Place without being seen.
Once back, they headed for the library, where they collapsed wearily on the faded sofa and armchairs. But before anyone of them had the chance to say something, a resounding CRACK made them jump. A wrinkled, worried smile was turned worshipfully up towards Harry. “Master need anything?’
‘Yes, I need –’ ‘Stop!’ Ginny cried. ‘Kreacher, something to drink and some crackers would be lovely, right?’
Harry nodded, mumbling something unintelligible behind his hand.
Luckily Kreacher didn’t understand his master and bowed happily, before he disappeared again. A minute later a pitcher of pumpkin juice along with some wheat crackers sat on the low table in front of them.
‘I hate Veritaserum,’ Harry said at last. ‘I wish this was over already.’
‘Not for a while yet, mate,’ Ron said glumly. ‘Though I think today should make a real difference, unless they’ve all been hit by one bludger too many.’
Hermione swallowed hard, but the tight lump in her throat wouldn’t budge. ‘They don’t look as if they’re spending a lot of time on Quidditch fields.’ Then she hid her face in her hands. ‘He’ll hate that. Oh, Harry, do you have any idea how much he’ll hate what you did today?’
The fact that Harry didn’t reply, but pressed his lips together even more tightly, was answer enough.
‘But if that will keep him out of Azkaban,’ Ginny said, ‘surely that will be worth it.’
‘If it will keep the git out of there.’ Ron leaned back in his chair. Harry glared at him, but there hadn’t been any real animosity in what his friend had said, so he let it go.
Hermione sighed and forced herself to look up again, watching Harry’s pale-faced determination, Ginny’s worried frown, Ron’s tired slump.
Six months, she thought, and we still look as if we’ve just been chewed up by the Giant Squid and spewed out again.
‘The evidence is very convincing,’ Ginny said at last, trying to sound confident. ‘They’ve questioned everyone. Twice. They even brought Dumbledore’s portrait from Hogwarts. And today … I just don’t see how anyone could condemn him after what we’ve seen today.’
They fell silent again. Unfortunately all of them were aware of the volatile currents of public opinion at the moment.
‘I really hope so, Ginny,’ Harry replied at last, speaking very slowly. He’d be honest with them Veritaserum or not, but he hated having no control over what he was going to say. ‘But I’m scared. He DID do a lot of bad things. Because he HAD to, of course. But still.’
‘Yeah,’ added Ron, surprising Hermione with a sudden bout of perceptiveness: ‘A dead hero’s so much easier to deal with than a living traitor.’
‘Proditio plerumque amatur, proditor odio habetur,’ Hermione quoted. ‘We love treason, but we hate the traitor.’
Irritated at Ron’s confused expression, she added, ‘Plutarch. An Ancient Greek historian and spell-wright. Seriously, Ron –’
‘… don’t you read?’ chorused Harry and Ginny.
‘You know I don’t read, Hermione,’ Ron spat suddenly. ‘Why do you keep asking?’ With a furious glare he stalked out of the room.
Hermione rubbed her forehead, blinking back tears. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
‘No, you shouldn’t have,’ Ginny agreed.
‘I’m just so tired, you know, and he never listens, and I’m so scared of tomorrow. Why ever do they want to talk to me?’ Hermione wailed.
‘You’re one of the Golden Trio,’ Ginny said sensibly. ‘He’s been your teacher for six years. And … well, you saved his life. So naturally they want to talk to you.’
Ginny was right, of course.
‘I’d better go and apologise to Ron,’ she said at last.
oooOooo
‘One of these days they won’t be able to patch things up between them,’ Harry commented. With only Ginny around it was easier to just tell the truth.
‘I know,’ Ginny said. ‘But I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it.’
What a great setup! I love the way you’ve modified the Marriage Law enough to make it plausible, as opposed to the ridiculous version of the original challenge. That choice shifts the dynamic, removing the distraction of needing to deal with why the Ministry has become so obviously corrupt. Making Severus the one who needs saving, instead of Hermione, is a great role reversal, and having Severus unaware of the plan is a very nice little plot twist – I anticipate a great deal of suspicion on his part, making things difficult for Hermione.
W00t! Great to see you here. 😀
The original MLC the lawyer in me stimply couldn’t stomach. But at the same time the *idea* absolutely intrigued me. And didn’t let go until I figured I’d try to twist it and bend it a little and see what happens …
Having Severus unaware of the plan was a lot of fun. And yes, he’ll be definitely a pain in the behind. But that’s his job!
What a great start. Lots to like. Luna being smarter than everyone thinks. Hermione marching off to a fate worse than death, feeling honor bound to do so. The sneaking suspicion that Luna is really getting Hermione out of the way so she can become a Weasley. She’d fit right in.
Mwahahahahahah!
mk
PS: It needs classic soap opera cliffhanger organ music.
Hi,
I really love your story so far, and I can’t wait to read on!
Just wanted to let you know that the link to part 2 does not work, either you get a warning that it “Cannot modify header information”, or the page closes down… *sobs*
Budgie
It should work now. I’ve been trying to get a caching plugin working to speed up the performance of the site, but the dratted thing won’t work and even worse, as you’ve seen, BREAKS stuff. *ARGH!*
Happy you like the story so far! 🙂
I love your whole plot. I am so excited to keep reading. You take things at an absolutely perfect speed– the characters developing bit by bit is perfect. The whole idea is brilliant.
I don’t think I’d be able to rave enough about your work. *claps*
Thank you very much for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂
I’m very happy you like the story so much so far!
I think I’m going to love this! I’ve been an avid reader of SS/HG since 2003, and I especially love when an author does a post-DH fic. 🙂 I followed the link from some artwork on DeviantArt and am so glad I did! I’m also happy to see that this is a completed fic, so yay! I can read to my heart’s content and not worry about it being abandoned! 🙂
Thank you for spending time with my story and even more for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I hope you will enjoy the rest of the story!
Followed your link from ff.net, and am so glad I did! I read this when you were first putting it up, and loved it then. I love it even more now that I have actually gone back and re-read the gloriousness that is Abhorsen. 🙂
Also, may I say that I absolutely love the site. There’s something about reading a wonderful story in a functional, beautiful setting.
You have always been one of my favorite fan fic authors for your skill, unexpectedness, the way you deftly take a story I think I know and turn it upside down and inside out while remaining true to the spirit of it, and this story is no exception.
Thank you for your kind words. That means so much to me! 🙂
Iv’e just read this entire fanfic in a few days, it was AWESOME. Of course, I didn’t take the time to write reviews then, I was too enraptured with the story. And when I saw you had a sequel, of course I had to read that first too. I did resolve to come back latter and leave a review on every tenth chapter, so here I am.
So, starting with chapters 1-10:
Really well done. I like the tension in Ron, Hermione, and Harry’s relationship. Especially that Harry and Ginny foresee the coming doom of Ron and Hermione’s romantic relationship.
I like the cute nicknames you give Harry, like ” the Boy-Who-Could-Use-Cusswords-Without-Being-Scolded.”
The healer at Mungos is a treat, extremely likable. 🙂
And best part: Arthur Weasley mentions that Snape’s sentence has some similarities to muggle theories of rehabilitation and Hermione just has to express her frustration. Her hitting her head on the desk is like a facepalm X 10.
And last but not least, I am definitely looking forward to seeing how the sequel develops. My only hope is that further maiming of our beloved main characters is limited. If the pace of terrible injuries maintains itself from this fic, by chapter 200 of the next one they’ll all be sitting around in Mungos each of them in a “johnny got his gun” kind of situation.
Intriguing setup. I’m not quite sure how I feel about Ron’s characterization, but after the summary, he has to get out of the picture. Even after finally reading all the books, my feelings for Snape are not overly friendly ;-).
You just totally and absolutely MADE my day. *dances*
Now, your comment: Yes, obviously writing SS/HG Ron must disappear. Mostly. 😉 But also, I never liked him (much) in canon, so … Otoh, I always adored Snape. In HBP I *knew* without any doubt that he hadn’t killed Dumbles … Also, one thing about “Apprentice” is definitely that I’m not always sharing the characters’ opinions. I have them being stupid and making mistakes, and being beastly, and doing things that made me go “DON’T DO THAT!” even as I was writing the relevant chapter. It’s pretty wild and sometimes even *gasp* controversial. But I had tons of fun, and I hope you’ll enjoy it, too — even if you don’t really like Snape. 😉
But you make him likeable. Through Hermione’s eyes, no longer a child, some of his choices make more sense.
I tried hard not to whitewash or bash any character. I’m happy the characterisation works for you so far! 🙂
I was referred to your story as a “must-read” and I’m happy that I followed this recommendation. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful idea. I especially enjoyed the way you made them behave “real” and how smothly you added Alina and her mother to the known characters.
I hope you will some day continue with the sequel.
Thank you for spending time with my story, and I’m thrilled you enjoyed it — especially my OCs. I know many people are dubious about OCs, so I’m always very happy when readers like the additional characters I created. I really, really want to finish the sequel (it’s all plotted out!). But offline life has been utterly awful since 2010, each year in its own way, and 2013 is less than fun so far, so I doubt much will happen this year. 🙁
I’m excited to start your story–I stumbled across it through a “favorite story” link on FF.net. I’m not sure how I feel about Ron and Harry’s characterizations so far, but then again I don’t particularly like either one of them in canon, either, so you’re probably spot-on.