Chapter 10: Trials & Error

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

Thanks go out to VIVAvivacious for her help with this chapter.

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The black marble floors of the Ministry of Magic were polished to the point where they could have almost been a substitute for a mirror.

Hermione walked silently beside Snape as they headed down the long corridor to courtroom three. It was the biggest of the three courtrooms, and the one most often used for war criminals and Death Eater trials. She refused to be riled by this information, however, knowing it had been deliberately chosen to throw her off guard. She felt a surge of anger when she saw just ahead of them Harry, standing with Arthur Weasley at the door. She swallowed the comment on the end of her tongue and simply stared at her supposed friend as he offered her a big, fake smile.

'Why are you here, Harry?' she asked, her tone void of emotion.

His smile disappeared, replaced with a look of annoyance at her question. 'Well, I'm here to make sure you don't get thrown into bloody Azkaban, is what,' he said, sounding put out.

'I can do that perfectly well on my own, as you know,' she said simply. 'If you recall, I have always been the one who prepared for things in advance.'

Harry nodded at her coldly before turning on his heel and striding ahead of them into the courtroom. Arthur looked at Hermione apologetically and held his arms open to her. She felt a rush of gratitude for the man, accepting his embrace and patting his back as he choked back a sob he had unwittingly allowed to escape. Pulling back, Hermione could see the sincere remorse in his blue-grey eyes.

'I'm very sorry about all that has happened to you over the last month and a half, Hermione,' he said, patting her on the shoulder. 'If I could have spared you having to feel this way, I would do it in a heartbeat.'

Hermione sniffed and wiped a tear from her face. 'I'm so sorry about everything, too, Mr. Weasley,' she said quietly. 'I loved Ron and regret every day I was not more careful. I just wish I could relive the moment and do it differently the second time around.'

Snape cleared his throat from beside the pair, nodding his head in the direction of the courtroom. 'We had best get inside before you are held in contempt of the court for being late for your own trial, Miss Granger,' he said simply.

She nodded and hurried inside, looking over her shoulder for a moment to see Snape lean over and talk to Arthur. Despite her curiosity, she pressed on and walked along a small corridor until she was in the middle of a circular amphitheatre. The seats in the round went up as they went backwards, and she felt almost like she was in a play – a very horrible, very real play where she could end up in prison for likely the rest of her life if she didn't present her case well enough.

The seat that sat in the middle of the arena was faced in the direction of a large ornate chair flocked by smaller chairs, most of which were already holding various members of the Wizengamot. She looked around, seeking out faces in the crowd she would recognise. When she saw Luna seated towards the front, as close as she could get to Hermione to offer her support, she almost smiled. The younger witch smiled at her and nodded encouragingly. Hermione nodded back before continuing her search of the room, her gaze seeking out Snape almost instinctively.

She saw him and met his dark eyes, blinking at him. He nodded minutely back at her and gave her a small half-smile. She felt something she was unfamiliar with rush through her at that, knowing she was likely the only person he had bothered to go to the effort to smile for in a long time. She turned away and looked back at the chair she was expected to sit in and frowned. She wasn't sure why there were still cuffs on the arms and chains wrapped around the back. She had come to her trial willingly, hadn't she? Didn't that mean she was unlikely to make a run for it?

Sighing and feeling more than a little put out, she made her way over and sat down in the prisoner's throne.

Just as she sat, the door situated behind the top row in front of her opened and admitted Tiberius Ogden along with a few other members of the Wizengamot. As soon as everyone was seated, all the doors to the courtroom immediately shut and locked with several loud clicks sounding through the sudden silence. The next thing that occurred took Hermione by surprise completely; the cuffs suddenly clamped around her wrists, and the chains wound around her stomach and seized her legs. She looked up at the Elders of the court in shock and anger.

'Hermione Jean Granger, you have been called to the trial this day charged with the crime of murdering one Ronald Bilius Weasley,' Ogden said clearly. 'How do you plead to this charge?'

'Not guilty,' she said just loudly enough for the people in the back rows to hear.

Murmurs erupted through the room, and Hermione allowed her eyes to dart around sharply, taking in the expressions of disbelief, doubt, and anger at her statement. She narrowed her eyes at a particularly smug-looking, portly man who had been talking about her rather louder than everyone else in the room. Ogden waited for a moment longer before he began pounding his gavel against the bench to divert the attention back to the Elders.

'Come now! Order!' he said loudly above the din in the chamber, and silence eventually fell over the stands.

'Now, Miss Granger, you have pled not guilty to a crime witnesses have claimed you did commit. What evidence or witnesses to this do you have that you can use to disprove the claims made against you?' Ogden said calmly.

Hermione took a deep breath to steal herself. She would not show them she was nervous. 'I can offer you three witnesses to the aforementioned charges laid against me, as well as my own memories and those of Severus Tobias Snape,' she replied coolly.

'Miss Granger, you may proceed to call your first witness to the stand,' Ogden said.

Hermione nodded. 'I would like to ask Harry James Potter be the first witness to take the stand,' she said clearly, knowing it was a bit of a crock to expect the "Boy-Who-Lived" to make an effort to help her after her cold words to him earlier.

Regardless, he made his way down to the stand and took a seat before being handed a glass of water laced with Veritaserum, Hermione could only assume.

'Harry James Potter, do you accept you are duty-bound to tell the truth without any outside interference under the influence of Veritaserum to ensure honesty?' a pointy-nosed witch sitting beside Ogden asked.

'I accept my duty,' Harry said, taking the glass and downing the contents in three large gulps.

'Mr. Potter, from the best of your recollection of the night in question, the 31st of October, 2005, what did you witness in regards to Hermione Granger and the murder of Ronald Weasley by means of the Avada Kedavra?' Ogden questioned.

'Sir, from my position on the battlefield, I saw Hermione approaching Ron from behind before everything went suddenly silent,' Harry answered. 'I yelled out to her, asking what she was doing and started to run towards them. While I was running, I could hear Hermione's voice begin to say horrible things to Ron about him being a blood traitor. When I was close enough, I saw her eyes – they were clouded over completely, just like Viktor Krum's were in my fourth year in the maze for the third task of the Tri-wizard Tournament.'

'And would you say Miss Granger's actions were forced?'

Harry nodded. 'Hermione would never have killed Ron willingly. They might have been a little on the outs from time to time, but even Ron and I fought. We were best friends, the three of us.'

'So from what you have said, you believe Miss Granger was under the influence of another curse or potion at the time of Ronald Weasley's murder?' Ogden pressed.

'She was under the influence of the Imperius Curse,' Harry confirmed.

'Mr. Potter, you may now step down,' Tiberius Ogden said, gesturing to his left.

Harry left and returned to his regular seat before the Wizengamot turned back to look at Hermione. 'Who would you like to call as your second witness, Miss Granger?' Ogden asked.

Hermione nodded. 'I would like to ask Severus Snape to testify,' she answered.

Snape immediately stood and went to the stand, taking a seat and sitting ramrod straight as the Veritaserum-laced water was placed on the bench before him. When Tiberius Ogden repeated his question from earlier about agreeing to the terms of honesty under the influence of the truth serum, Snape nodded stiffly before picking up the glass and swallowing it down quickly.

'Severus Snape, to the best of your recollection, please tell the court how you viewed the events on the night of the 31st of October, 2005,' Tiberius said, clearing his throat softly.

'I was busy fighting off both Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange at the same time, which was no easy task,' he began quietly. 'The battle was rather heated, but when the clearing suddenly went quiet, the Lestrange brothers Disapparated, and I was left to look around for what was occurring. I saw Miss Granger, just as Mr. Potter did, approaching Ronald Weasley before yelling a number of things at him. I was a lot closer than Potter was to the pair when this occurred and saw from the beginning the girl was indeed under a rather strong Imperius Curse.'

'And can you tell the court if you saw who was responsible for the curse Miss Granger was under?'

'Yes, I can.'

Ogden frowned at Snape for a moment before prompting further. 'And just who was the person responsible for the curse?' he asked.

'The monster responsible for holding Hermione Granger under the Imperius Curse, and for the murder of Ronald Weasley via this connection, was Fenrir Greyback,' Snape answered loudly enough for the entire chamber to hear and be shocked by the vehemence in his deep voice.

Loud chatter erupted throughout the hall once more, louder than the last time. Gasps rang through the room, as Snape had shed light on this piece of information that had not yet been revealed. Hermione stared around at the faces of shock and sighed heavily. She was angry – the emotion was clouding over her thoughts and refusing to be tempered this time.

'Will you all just shut up and let us get on with my trial?' she shouted, the air surrounding her crackling with her magic. She had yet to learn control over her magic when she was in a dark mood.

The room fell silent once more, nearly everyone gaping at her, including a few of the Elders from the council. Tiberius Ogden looked at her with an eyebrow raised, but he said nothing. She looked around for Snape and saw his expression was as inscrutable as ever. He stood from the stand as he was dismissed and returned to his seat, refusing to meet her eye. She released a breath and sagged in her chair a little as the Wizengamot talked amongst themselves.

'We shall now adjourn to the next chamber to view the memories, and we shall announce the verdict on our return,' the pointy-nosed witch announced.

For almost an hour, Hermione sat fidgeting in her seat, staring around the eerily-silent courtroom as they heard murmurs and muffled arguments from the room next door. All the red-and-black-robed Wizengamot members were discussing her fate. She felt her nerves begin to get the better of her and wished she had a stress ball to squeeze and mangle. Instead, her magic crackled around her dangerously, at one point freeing her from the chains around her legs before they locked back into place automatically.

A few minutes later, the Wizengamot returned to the room. A couple ladies looked as though they had been crying, but more or less everyone looked thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Tiberius Ogden took his seat and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

'Hermione Jean Granger, for the crime of murdering Ronald Bilius Weasley, this court finds you not guilty,' he spoke clearly. 'This court is dismissed.'

Hermione had never been so glad to hear the sound of the gavel banging against the wood of the stand.

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A/N – A confrontation is on the way. Sorry for the lack of updates - real life crept up on me.