Shades of Truth

Shades of Truth

Chapter 21

*****

“This is a very bad idea.” Harry told Hermione as he helped her set out plates for dinner. “I mean, I know you said all that stuff about honesty and communication in your relationship, but I’m pretty sure if you tell him what we’ve been up to, you won’t have a relationship to be honest about.”

“You are not helping me feel good here.” Hermione pursed her lips, counting out silverware before she looked up at him again. “But…I was meaning to ask, if Ron kicks me out, can I stay with you for a while?”

“I thought you paid for this flat?” Harry quirked a brow at her.

“Well, yes, but he was such a junior official at the time, he makes much better money now. And he does his share.” Hermione shrugged. “Also, when Ron gets really angry, he doesn’t think about trivial details like that.”

“Okay, sure, fine.” Harry felt his stomach flip over as he heard a key rattle in the front door. “Oh Merlin, that’s him!”

“Stop running around like that! Act normal!” Hermione practically threw Harry down into a chair, where he felt a cold sweat break out on his brow. “Look happy!”

“I’m trying!” Harry bit his lip and struggled to quash his misgivings.

“I’m home!” Ron’s words would have caused Harry to leap out of his chair if Hermione hadn’t been holding him in place with unexpected strength.

“Welcome home!” Hermione sounded rather shrill to Harry’s ear as she turned to greet her fiancé, but Ron didn’t seem to notice anything was amiss.

“Harry! Good to see you!” Ron reached out to hug Harry, who was yanked upward by Hermione to receive the greeting before shoving him back down in his chair.

“Is that…did you make dinner?” Ron smiled brightly and gave Hermione a swift kiss on the lips before going into the kitchen to investigate with her. Just as they passed out of the dining room, Hermione shot a look at Harry that clearly told him he was not allowed to move. “You didn’t have to…smells great!” Harry could only hear snatches of Ron’s speech before Hermione and him came back in with all the food.

All through dinner, Harry could tell that Hermione’s strategy to butter Ron up with a good meal was going well, but he didn’t know how much it would help. He concentrated on eating, and on enjoying what could well be his last moments of camaraderie with Ron.

“Ron,” Hermione finally broached the dreaded topic after dessert. “Harry and I have something we need to tell you.”

“Mmph?” Ron was busy licking his bowl.

“Well, you know how Harry’s been working on a case for a while now? And how I’ve been helping him on some of it?” Hermione began, “We’re going to be petitioning the Minister of Magic for an appeal.”

“An appeal?” Ron quirked a brow in confusion. “Whose case are you appealing?”

“Draco Malfoy’s.” Harry finally spoke, hoping that Hermione had been right about Ron being “much more reasonable these days.” Ron froze, dropping his bowl with a clatter to the table.

“What?” Ron’s voice was deadly calm.

“He’s…well, we found all this stuff, and it turns out he didn’t really kill all those people.” Harry thought it suddenly didn’t sound very convincing. “So…so we’re appealing his case.”

“What?” Ron still hadn’t moved. Hermione licked her lips before making her own attempt.

“We found out, you see, that Draco was little more than a prisoner during the war, and that his memories were modified to make him believe that he had killed all those people.” Hermione explained. “And we had to track down all these other people who had memories of what had really happened.”

“And some of them, Hermione had to use Legilimency to break the modification and find out what Draco’s real memory had been.” Harry offered. “And she had to use Moody’s eye to get that one, because everyone at that murder is dead now.”

“Yeah.” Hermione nodded sharply. “But…well, we wanted to be sure before we told you, since we didn’t think you’d be very keen on the idea. But we’ve got all the evidence we need, now. So we’re going to go ahead with the appeal. But we wanted to let you know first.”

“Is this…a joke?” Ron was clutching his spoon so tightly that his knuckles were white. “Because if it is, it’s a really bad one.”

“It’s no joke.” Harry assured him. “I know, it’s hard to believe, but he didn’t do any of those things everyone thinks he did.”

“He killed Ginny!” Ron stood, throwing the spoon down as he gathered steam. “He killed Fred! He killed half our friends!”

“No he didn’t!” Harry rose as well, surprised that he was more upset on Draco’s behalf than he was concerned about Ron’s feelings at the moment. “Didn’t you listen to anything we just told you? Lucius killed Ginny and Fred! I’ve seen it myself! Then he made Draco believe he had done it!”

“Why would he go to so much trouble?!” Ron was in a rage. “Why would you believe such an idiotic lie?”

“He wanted Draco to be able to kill, and he thought if he had memories of doing it, that would help.” Hermione was the only one who was still not yelling, but she was on her feet as well. “Draco’s only crime is being a Death Eater who refused to kill anyone.”

“That is…this…I can’t believe you’re buying into this!” Ron turned on Hermione.

“Have a little faith in me!” Hermione stomped her heel down sharply. “Do you think I’d believe any of this if I didn’t know it was true? Come to the trial, you can see the truth yourself.”

“This is ridiculous!” Ron tossed his napkin aside in a futile display of anger. “Even if it were true…which it’s not! Even then, he’s still an evil little worm! He still deserves to rot in Azkaban!”

“Ron, he’s not like that!” Hermione reached out to him, but he swiped her hand away angrily. “He’s actually a very good person, and if you’d give him a chance and just listen to him, and know what he went through, I think you’d see—“

“I cannot believe you’re telling me Draco Malfoy is really a good person deep down! Are you even hearing yourself? Does he have you both under the Imperius Curse or something, because at this point, I’m starting to think that’s the only explanation!” Ron ranted.

“Don’t be stupid!” Harry was barely able to keep his own anger in check at this point. He hadn’t expected to be so upset by what Ron thought of Draco, but the subject hadn’t been discussed at any length since he was imprisoned years ago. “Draco is a good person, and if you could just grow up and get past your own petty schoolboy grudges, maybe you could give him a fair chance!”

“Harry, you, of all people should know that Draco’s been a Death Eater since he was born!” Ron crossed toward Harry, as though he’d be able to use his extra height to win the argument. “He’s probably killed ten times more people than what he got put away for! He was probably killing muggles for fun before he even came to Hogwarts! He’s a worthless, evil git, and you have to know that if anyone deserves to die, or to get the Dementors’ kiss, it’s him!”

Harry felt his rage boil over, and before he could think it through, or calm himself at all, he swept back and lunged forward, fists flying. He heard Hermione scream distantly, as though she were very far away, and noted with a detached sense of observation that they had knocked a cabinet off its hinges before they both ended up on the floor in a flurry of kicks and punches.

He was furious, and he couldn’t stop himself, but it wasn’t long before Hermione got sick of waiting for them to cause further damage to her flat, and swiftly put the full body-bind on the pair of them, letting them stew as she straightened up the mess they’d made in their brief tussle.

“You broke the cabinet!” she scolded them as they lay frozen where they’d been wrestling, halfway under the table. “I love these cabinets…and look at this!” she showed them a few shards of broken porcelain. “My grandmother’s teacups! I can’t believe you two! I hope you’re satisfied, rolling around like a pair of overly aggressive teenagers, messing up the flat I spent all day cleaning!” she paused, using a quick spell to first mend the cups and then fix the cabinet. “And Ron! I can’t believe you ripped that shirt! It’s practically new! Clearly, it wasn’t designed for wrestling and breaking my cabinets in!” she knelt, quickly mending the shirt. “And your faces…I should just leave you to explain to everyone that you are under the misapprehension that you are both still twelve, and that fighting is a good way to solve problems. But no, I’m not vindictive.” She sighed heavily, swiftly healing the various injuries they’d given each other. “But I swear, if you don’t behave like grown-ups when I let you out of that body-bind, I’ll hex you both again, and I’ll just leave you two here to keep each other warm all night long. Got it?” she asked, as though either of them could move or reply while she still had them frozen. “And Ronald, I swear, if you say one more horrible thing about Draco, you can forget about sleeping in the same building as me, much less the same bed.” And with that final threat, she removed the spell.

Taking her threat seriously, Ron, who clearly couldn’t think of anything nice to say, kept his silence while sullenly standing and brushing himself off. Harry followed suit, and the two men glowered at each other in silence until Hermione clicked her tongue at them both in irritation.

“Now, Ron, I understand that you’re disappointed to find out that Draco isn’t a vicious mass murderer, but you’ll just have to come to terms with that.” She wagged her finger at her fiancé in an admonitory fashion before turning on the other man, “And Harry, I know you want Draco and Ron to be good friends, but that is going to take time, if it ever even happens, and until they can learn to be civil toward each other, you’ll just have to learn not to fly off the handle every time Ron impugns Draco’s morality, or Draco makes a crack about weasels. It shouldn’t be such a struggle. They’ve been making cheap shots at each other since you first met them.”

“Fine.” They both grumbled.

“Now, we’re all still friends, aren’t we?” Hermione crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

“Yeah, I guess.” Ron grumbled. Harry nodded sulkily.

“And Ron, would you still like Harry to be our best man at the wedding?” she turned her steely gaze entirely on the redhead.

“Of course.” Ron muttered in an aggravated tone. “He’s my best mate.”

“Very good.” Hermione smiled in a way that Harry found less reassuring and more terrifying than anything else. “Now, hug.”

There was a long moment of silent hesitation as they realized that if they didn’t do as she said, she would not let either of them go. Finally, they managed an awkward embrace with a few overly forceful pats of the shoulder.

“Okay, very good.” She stepped between them when they separated, going on tiptoes to lightly kiss Ron, then Harry, on their cheeks. “Don’t ever wrestle in the house again.” And then she hugged Harry warmly, and he saw there were tears in her eyes. “Good night, Harry.”

“Thank you.” He wasn’t sure exactly why he was thanking her, but he could think of a dozen reasons off the top of his head.

----------

“Stop fidgeting,” Hermione lightly smacked Harry’s hands as he worried a fold of his robes. “They aren’t going to give a verdict any faster if you tear a hole in your robes. Also, your picture will look rather silly.”

“They won’t take my picture, this is about Draco.” Harry told her.

“They take your picture when you go out for ice cream.” Hermione chided him. Ron was there as well, sitting silently on her other side, holding her hand and refusing to meet Harry’s gaze. Hermione had advised Harry that he “just needed time,” though they were both hopeful that after seeing the evidence, he would stop giving Harry the cold shoulder. Harry was just glad that Hermione and Ron were still planning on getting married.

Harry wished that he could hold Draco’s hand. He was sure that Draco must be much more nervous than he was, but he had to sit in the defendant’s chair in the middle of the room, which he at least wasn’t chained to. This was partially due to the fact that Harry had been very clear with Scrimgeour about how displeased he would be to see Draco in chains. Hermione had scolded him for threatening the Minister of Magic, but it was well worth it.

“As you know, a two-thirds majority is required to overthrow a previous verdict of the Wizengamot.” The very man Harry had been thinking of finally spoke to the assembly, and he felt himself sit straighter than before, his attention fixed on the large judicial body. “If the verdict should be overthrown, a simple one-half majority is required to decide on the new verdict and sentence. Now then, all those who believe we should overthrow eleven counts of murder, please raise your hands at this time.” At this, Harry felt his throat tighten and his heart soar as nearly all the hands went into the air. After a moment spent counting, the Minister spoke again, “All those who find the defendant guilty on all counts?” Only a few hands went up, and Harry nearly melted in relief.

“I don’t see how you’re surprised.” Hermione whispered. “Honestly, everyone knows what side you’re on, and you seriously underestimate your political clout.” Harry spared her a swift grin before the assembly was once more addressed.

“Very well. Previous verdict is overthrown.” Scrimgeour shuffled some papers and waited for his scribe to finish feverishly scribbling everything down. “Now, one the single count of murder remaining, there must be a decision about whether it is a punishable offense, or a victory against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as suggested today. All those in favor of further imprisonment, please raise your hand.” Harry was worried this time, it was hard to tell if there was a majority or not before the Minister spoke again. “Those in favor of full pardon?” again, several hands went up, and Harry could see it would be a close call. The Minister brought his gavel down twice before speaking one last time. “Very well. Pardon granted. Mr. Malfoy, you are free to go.”

Harry could hardly believe his ears. Hermione was giggling and clapping, tears streaming down her face as she kissed first Ron, and then him. He stood, hoping to get near Draco, but there was little hope of that as he was swiftly swept away by his Auror escorts who were possibly just trying to protect him from some very aggressive reporters. Draco would need to return to Azkaban for a full discharge, which translated into a massive heap of paperwork. Harry could only barely seem him trying to escape while also politely answering questions as he suddenly found his vision eclipsed by Narcissa Malfoy, who accosted him outright, actually deigning to kiss his dirty Mudblood cheek, and even hugged Hermione as if the young woman were her own daughter, babbling excitedly about how she would forever be in their debt. Hermione was so surprised at this show of affection, she was momentarily struck speechless, while Ron was staring at the scene as though Voldemort and all his minions were back from the dead and putting on a surprisingly good tap dance performance for him.

Then, just as Draco was swept out of the courtroom altogether, Pansy Parkinson came over in tears, hugging Harry and kissing him so many times that he was quite positive that he’d be seeing that picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Then she embraced Hermione as if they were old friends, and even planted a warm kiss right on Ron’s utterly horrified mouth before leaving.

Zabini and Nott were both there as well, the former’s presence much less shocking than the latter’s. Blaise shook Harry’s hand firmly and then swept Hermione up in his arms and kissed her so soundly that he was then forced to flee lest Ron curse him ten ways past Sunday. Nott shook both of their hands rather stiffly, but didn’t say anything about the trial, only asking when Harry would take him out drinking again, before melting back into the crowd before anyone could accuse him of socializing. That was when the scribe, a very red-faced Ernie MacMillan, approached to pompously offer them congratulations and ask several questions about their current careers so that he could go on at length about his own role in the Ministry. Sighing inwardly, Harry realized he would not be seeing Draco until he was actually discharged, and decided to at least pretend to pay attention to Ernie. He took comfort in Hermione’s hand in his own, and the small smile Ron spared him just before they left.

*****

To be Continued…