The school term began with bad news. That pesky Malfoy Heir had complained to his father about Buckbeak injuring him. 'My father will hear about this...', 'My father will hear about that...' Honestly, did the boy have no backbone of his own? Unfortunately, his father was Lord Malfoy and had considerable political standing. Buckbeak was under investigation right now for being a Creature Posing Serious Endangerment to Wizardkind. Hagrid was devastated and so was Hadrian.
Heather didn't know much about wizarding law, but she did know that Lucius Malfoy often greased the palms of the Wizengamot to get his way. That was all the prosecution he needed. If this was the standard of the judicial system, she could see why Sirius Black had been convicted wrongfully. He hadn't even had a trial. To be fair, though, being surrounded by twelve dead muggles and laughing maniacally did look very incriminating.
Regardless, Lucius Malfoy was a lord and what he said usually went. It was then that it occurred to Heather that she was legally Lady Potter. She had some law books to read.
~~~
"Okay guys, the Patronus Charm requires you to think of the happiest memory you have, one that outshines all other memories. Or at least that's what most texts say."
Hermione raised her hand eagerly. Heather stared in amusement at the appendage and the younger witch blushed before lowering it. "What do you say then?"
"Personally, I don't cast it like that. Well, not my first few times, at least. It is a theory of mine that any positive emotion does the trick. As long as it fills you so much that despair has no place to invade." Heather smiled at her best friends. "In fact, Fred and George helped me in that respect. I was really struggling with the spell, then they said something that gave me an idea."
"What was it?" Ron asked curiously. He had joined these lessons only because both his friends were doing them, but after seeing the spell being cast up close, he had begun to look forward to being able to do it. The spell looked totally brilliant!
"Laughter. Mirth, I suppose you could call it. For me, that worked better than the happy memories I had."
"Why is that?" Hermione asked, frowning. "Happiness is a stronger emotion than amusement."
Heather shrugged. "I think it's because all my happy memories had associated sad ones." She smiled deprecatingly before continuing, "Laughter, on the other hand, is pure enjoyment and mirth for me. Except in sarcasm and whatnot, of course."
"You've got that-"
"-right, Heather-harp."
"At least you've learnt-"
"-something from being our friend!"
"Laughter is the-"
"-essence of life!"
Heather rolled her eyes. "Anyway, the trick is to find what positive emotion works for you. And your memory or memories have to really be saturated in that feeling. Then, the incantation - Expecto Patronum!" A burst of light and her little snidget zipped out of her wand. Hadrian chuckled when it nuzzled in his messy locks before dissipating.
"How long did it take for you to get it?" Hermione asked, awed.
"Hmm, about four months to get a mist. After that, it was a matter of practice and focus to make it corporeal."
"That long?" Ron asked, shocked.
"I've been trying for three months already and I've only recently made some mist appear," Hadrian piped in, demonstrating his thin wisps.
"It's still quicker than what I managed," Heather praised, smiling proudly at her brother.
He ducked his head shyly. "Only because you didn't have anyone to teach you."
"That's still amazing, Hadrian! This is very, very advanced magic. Only approximately 15% of adult wizards can perform this spell!" Hermione said.
"Well, what are-" George said
"-we waiting for?" Fred continued.
"Let's get cracking!"
~~~
Heather held her arm out for Hedwig to land on. "Hey there girl, good work." She removed the letter from Hedwig's leg. "Would you like some bacon?" The owl hooted eagerly. Heather gave her several strips of from her plate. "Thank you as always. Here you go, go take a rest." The snowy owl grabbed the offered food then flew off with an affectionate coo.
Too excited to wait, Heather opened the letter before continuing with her breakfast. She scanned it quickly and smiled in triumph. Griphook sure worked fast. This was perfect. Unfortunately, the Ministry wasn't as efficient. Two months. No matter, she just hoped nothing happened to screw this up.
She finished her breakfast quickly. Rian had a match against Ravenclaw today. It would be the first match he played with the Firebolt. The Claws didn't stand a chance. They hadn't with the Nimbus, and they wouldn't with the Firebolt. Admittedly, Cho Chang was a pretty good seeker. Too bad her brother was better. No, she wasn't biased. At all.
She patted the small bulge in her pocket reassuringly. Now that Rian had his Firebolt, she had asked to use the Nimbus. GredForge thought carrying a shrunken broom to Rian's matches was her paranoia acting up again, but it really made sense to her. If something happened out there, she wouldn't have to wait for the broom she summoned all the way from the broomshed to arrive. Just a simple expanding charm and voila!
The match started off normally. The weather was thankfully clear - not a cloud in sight. She heard the fevered murmuring as they saw the broom her brother was using. The Claws, especially, looked worried. He was circling the pitch lazily, appearing not to pay attention to his surroundings. Heather knew that it was a tactic of his to throw off the opposition.
The Gryffs and Claws were neck and neck in terms of points. When one team scored, the other retaliated. It was up to the seekers to win the match.
"And Potter takes off like a shot! Is it a distraction? And if so, will Ravenclaw's gorgeous, beautiful Cho Chang take the bait?" Lee's booming voice sounded over stands. Heather rolled her eyes in exasperation. The older boy still hadn't stopped his inappropriate comments despite Professor McGonagall's numerous warnings. She wondered why he wasn't just replaced.
She watched keenly as Hadrian sped towards the snitch. The Firebolt lived up to its reputation, going so fast that Chang had little chance of catching up. Abruptly, Rian slowed as he fidgeted on his broom. Oh, what now?
Heather saw him take his wand out of the holster she'd given him at Christmas and point it towards the ground. To her amazement, a large silver coil burst out of his wand. It moved towards the shrouded creatures and drove them back. Her brother then proceeded to catch the golden snitch and lead his house to victory.
"That was wonderful, Rian!" Heather exclaimed, hugging her brother once she reached him.
"Indeed." Professor Lupin walked up to them both smiling warmly. "That was quite the Patronus you cast there."
"Thank you sir, but what are you doing out on the pitch?" Hadrian asked curiously.
The man grimaced wryly. "Just taking care of some unruly troublemakers." He tilted his head to the side, indicating the robed creatures nearby.
Alarmed, Heather fingered her wand, ready to cast at a moment's notice.
"No need for that. Seems like Draco Malfoy and his cohorts had a burning urge to dress up today."
Sure enough, the cloaks fell to reveal Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle's sullen faces. "15 points from Slytherin," the Professor said, looking apologetically at Heather, "and detention with Mr Filch tomorrow." Grumbling defiantly, the trio trudged off after the DADA Professor after Malfoy shot one last inscrutable look at her.
"And I was so sure I could handle dementors now..." Hadrian said dejectedly.
Heather put an arm around him. "Nonetheless, that was incredible! When did you finally accomplish it?"
"Just now, actually," he said, laughing.
"What feeling did you use? Excitement?"
He looked up at her. "Love." Smiling brightly, he added, "My Patronus is a snake, y'know."
Heather teared up slightly as warmth bloomed in her chest. Not caring that it made walking more difficult, she pulled her brother closer to her side.
~~~
"Poor Hagrid," Hadrian sighed despondently.
Heather frowned as she looked at the half-giant. He looked devastated. She remembered the oddly morose way he had taught her previous CoMC lesson. He used flobberworms - wholly unintimidating and boring creatures. Extremely out of character for him. "What's wrong?"
"Buckbeak had his trial recently. He's to be executed," Rian said glumly. "Not even the defending statement Hermione wrote helped."
Patting his back, she said, "Lucius Malfoy has connections. The best lawyers couldn't have helped Buckbeak."
"Well, that's not fair at all! Buckbeak didn't do anything wrong."
"Unfortunately, the Wizengamot doesn't care."
A determined glint entered her brother's eyes. Heather groaned in dread at the familiar look.
~~~
As the date drew closer, Heather grew increasingly nervous. She wrote and rewrote her speech, which meant she had to re-memorise it as well. Griphook had assured her that her case was rock-solid. Still...
Heather had still yet to tell the Headmaster of her plan. It wasn't his business, anyhow. She did have to inform him of her absence from school that day though. Oh well, she figured her official Ministry summons would do the job. As long as she sent the letter before she actually left Hogwarts, it would be fine. Hedwig could be persuaded to fly very slowly from the owlery to the Headmaster's office on the day itself.
Fortunately, the date fell on a Hogsmeade weekend. Only Fred and George knew of her plan, so they helped her to sneak away. It was simply a matter of flooing to the Ministry from the public floo in Hogsmeade. She stumbled clumsily into the polished Ministry foyer.
"Lady Potter."
Heather looked at the middle-aged wizard who greeted her. The goblins had hired him, and she trusted their judgement.
"Mr Marshall."
The man smiled curtly. "Shall we? Our appointment is for ten."
Nodding, she followed after him as he navigated the veritable labyrinth of corridors. The large double doors of a room swung open slowly as they neared it. They both ignored the murmuring as they walked to the front of the room and took their seats.
Someone cleared their throat and announced loudly, "Lady Potter and her representative, Mr Mendel Marshall have arrived. Let the trial of Sirius Orion Black commence!"
~~~
Heather let out a tiny sigh of relief as Judge Bones banged her gavel firmly. She had been assured that there was little chance of losing, but to finally be certain was immensely liberating. When she found out that her godfather hadn't even gotten a trial, she had been incensed. Then she had gotten thinking. It was well within her rights to demand one to make up for the oversight. As a Lady of the peerage, her say held even more weight than the average wizard. Wizarding law was certainly odd. The actual defendant didn't even have to be present for his own trial. Which was a good thing, because she hadn't found Snuffles yet. As his next-of-kin, she could act as his proxy in court.
The simple use of Veritaserum had been enough to convince the court that she had spoken the truth. While her Veritaserum testimony had technically been a recount of another Veritaserum confession, it still held as sufficient evidence due to the convoluted laws. The truth serum was held as the gold standard of giving testimony. So when someone actually consented to use it, their words were usually taken without argument. Thus, Sirius Black had been declared innocent of all crimes and even received a substantial remuneration.
Hopefully he received newspapers wherever he was hiding.
~~~
Heather laughed gaily as she pounced on her brother. "I did it!"
Catching her just in time, he frowned in confusion. "Did what? Don't tell me you learnt another insanely difficult spell. Was that where you went while we were in Hogsmeade?"
Still giggling, she said, "I...freed...Snuffles!"
"What? Snuffles?" He looked lost before realisation dawned. "Really? How did you manage that?"
"It was pretty easy, really. Rather anticlimactic, if I do say so myself."
"Tell me!"
"Well, I demanded a trial for him then gave a Veritaserum testimony."
"And they accepted that? Pettigrew and Snuffles weren't even there!" Then he narrowed his eyes. "Were they?"
"Nope. But wizarding law doesn't make much sense."
Hadrian nodded sagely. "Now that I believe." Smiling widely, he said, "Sirius is officially innocent!"
"Yep," she said, popping the 'p' sound. "The news will probably hit in tomorrow's Daily Prophet."
Her brother smirked. He was probably anticipating the uproar it would cause among the masses tomorrow. Gryffindor.
~~~
Sure enough, when the usual deluge of owls flew into the Great Hall to drop off their burdens, fevered discussion broke out across the room. Heather hid her smile in her bowl of porridge, enjoying the mayhem. Perhaps it wasn't an exclusively Gryff trait.
She peered over at the other side of the room and saw her brother whispering with his two friends. She caught Fred and George's gazes and they made thumbs up signs. Smiling in return, she went back to her meal. Or, at least she tried to. A letter appeared suddenly on her lap. Reading it, she sighed. She hurried through the remains of her breakfast before heading out of the hall.
Heather had thought it odd that the Headmaster hadn't summoned her last night. It was truly serendipitous that he had been away for a meeting. Well, it was only a delay of the inevitable. Before she could say the password to the gargoyle, someone else beat her to it.
"Liquorice Wands," a man said, disgust evident in his tone.
She was only mildly surprised that Professor Snape would attend the meeting as well. His protectiveness over the Slyths was hardly a secret. She had certainly never seen Professor McGonagall sit in on meetings between Headmaster Dumbledore and Rian.
"Ahh, Miss Potter, Severus, won't you take a seat?" the kindly old wizard said cheerily. Not 'Heather' today? My, the Headmaster wasn't too pleased, was he? "Lemon sherbet?"
She shook her head politely. The man seemed incapable of just getting to the point.
"I apologise for disrupting your weekend, Miss Potter, but there are a few questions I would like to ask you."
Smiling benignly, she let the Headmaster continue. Professor Snape's irritation was a palpable presence at her side.
"We received some interesting news today, didn't we?"
"Oh, yes." Was all she said.
Frowning mildly at her reticence, he asked, "Is it all true, Miss Potter? Did you arrange for a trial and testify on Sirius' behalf?"
"Hmm, indeed I did."
"Albus, stop asking all these inane questions. Yes, Miss Potter cleared the mutt's name. Useless the Prophet may be, even it cannot spread fallacies about the Ministry. If you are quite done ascertaining these well-established facts, I have potions to brew." The irate wizard made to stand up.
"Please, Severus, just bear with me a while longer," the Headmaster said. With a huff, Professor Snape acquiesced. "Miss Potter, that was very resourceful of you. I only wish you had trusted me enough to inform me of your plans."
Heather began preparing an answer that didn't sound too rude, but was interrupted by loud barking outside the office.