∞ 18 ∞
CLICK
Everyone made the connection between the Mercurus Shield's supposed high toxicity and Draco's dangerous blunder after evidently taking it. They also accepted that there was a strong correlation between the shield's supposed efficacy and features of Luna Lovegood's seemingly fanciful recent written testimony. For example: she claimed she had been struck on the head by a limestone beam that night in the Department of Mysteries Battle in 1996 and that through no Magical provision of her own, "it just bounced off like it was a giant marshmallow." However, members of the Wizengamot queried the significance of the medical paperwork, which didn't discount that the younger Malfoy had taken something that he thought would be beneficial to him (and also apparently made him very, very ill). It could have been the Mercurus Shield he had taken and that the rumours were true that the double-barrel Magical shield was indeed highly toxic if not performed correctly, or removed in good time, as Lawson's manuscript suggested. The Wizengamot also didn't doubt that something had occurred specifically involving Lucius and the two girls: Luna had mentioned a spell in her testimony and that he had made Avery leave, who she considered had touched and looked at her indecently after he stunned her. The Wizengamot understandably wondered why it was only hearing just then at that late stage about the remarkable detail of a potion that Hermione too had been present and that the same had happened to her. In any case, Hermione's paperwork did nothing to offer support to her theory that what Malfoy had given them was the Mercurus Shield.
Before Hermione could explain, Eustache Langeman on the Wizengamot jury made the connection. The details of Draco's illness, evidently caused by poisoning from an exotic protective potion, matched Hermione's visible appearance when she fell ill, after the Department of Mysteries Battle. He knew what her symptoms were at least in part, because as Joint-Secretary for the Department of Magical Complaints, he had taken her complaint against Lucius Malfoy a week or so after the event. He remembered the details quite clearly not only because he had an excellent memory and her claim was so sensational, but because of Hermione's shocking physical appearance: "I remember being startled when I asked Miss Granger's age (perhaps 16 at the time... yes I believe 16 years, as I noted she was the same age as my daughter) because the girl looked like a woman of 40 years at least – a very ill 40 year old. Huge patches of her hair were missing. It was a terrible sight. The other young Witch, Miss Lovegood was much the same – red, scaly sores on their arms... It isn't something one forgets."
Through a successful trade for Lucius's testimony against another Death Eater, on a much more crucial point, Elliott had stopped the prosecution presenting both records: Hermione's complaint and Luna's initial, supportive statement that followed (by then both three and a half years old). He impressed upon Luna Lovegood, who was actually fiercely more astute than most people realised, that if she felt Lucius was innocent –which she did– that it was best to avoid mentioning that he had physically touched her or that he had given both her and Hermione something together, without their consent. So that no one could ask her any inconvenient questions, Elliott then convinced the court to accept a written testimony from Luna, rather than force her to appear in court, on made-up grounds that she became flustered easily and was still shell-shocked from her war experiences. Throughout all the trials there was so much evidence against Lucius and so many startling testimonies for and against him (but mainly against) that the prosecution felt more than confident without the two young Witches' post Department of Mysteries Battle statements. They instead presented Granger's more general statement made immediately after the incident on the night: "He tried to kill us! He tried to kill us! Please don't let him hurt me again! Please don't let him hurt me ever again!" The Wizengamot had also heard that Hermione had been so shaken, she had seen a therapist for months, as well as damning statements from the other children present at the 1996 battle that he had threatened to kill them all that night.
Elliott's tidy erasure of the potion and Hermione from the incident with Luna and Avery however, now proved a problem with the court believing her surprise evidence. Why hadn't Lovegood mentioned Hermione in her recent testimony? (And there was of course the secondary matter of why, if the extraordinary incident had occurred and it had been reported to a department within the Ministry by both girls, the court had never heard of it from them. It was in the interest of the prosecution's friends at the Department of Magical Complaints to keep the documents buried as well as Lucius's. When questioned why the matter hadn't been pursued, Langeman (realising that he had put his foot in his mouth) explained vehemently that it was down to the fact that Lovegood's statement had been so completely and compellingly contrary to Granger's and that there was no actual evidence that Malfoy had violated the girls personally in any way anyway.
"In fact from what Miss Granger described, it was Avery who actually put his hands on her in a way that one would class as indecent. All the evidence suggested overwhelmingly that Dolohov's mystery curse was the reason for the young Witch's poor health and that Miss Lovegood had either been hit by the same powerful curse without knowing, or had received passive spray, or perhaps a rebound of the curse, when it was directed at Hermione." Langeman went on to point out that while several Death Eaters that night had been accused of actually casting the Killing Curse and other deadly illegal spells, in the reports from children and adults present alike –with the exception of Hermione's claim– Malfoy had otherwise not been accused of any more than threatening to cast deadly curses and roughing some of them up, including wounding Potter slightly in their duel. This was in addition to leading the Death Eater break-in, which of course did put the children in mortal danger and caused millions of Galleons worth of damage – all of which he was being prosecuted for. Langeman noted that they had contacted Miss Granger, asking her to provide further information (which was true but Hermione had been too ill by that time to attend). So it was taken that she had changed her mind about the complaint and the matters were closed and filed. (The complete truth was that various members of the department, including Langeman had received death threats from Death Eaters several days after the break-in. With Malfoy being prosecuted anyway, there seemed to be no justifiable reason to put their lives in jeopardy by coming out with Lovegood and Granger's strangely conflicting statements.)
Langeman claimed that while there was no love lost between his family and the Death Eaters, on a professional level, he had been of the opinion that Hermione was speaking purely on emotion and although it might not have come through in her written statement, it had frequently sounded like she was contradicting herself during the interview. After their own 'exhaustive investigation' – the department had concluded that the only outcome of seeking prosecution for charges that wouldn't stand anyway, would be wasted Galleons at a time when the government could scarcely afford it, most especially as "Malfoy was facing many, much more concrete charges." As to the matter of why the statements hadn't been brought out in the current war trial if at least one member from the Department of Magical Complaints remembered the statements so well: Langeman answered that the prosecution (the task of researching evidence and deciding what was and was not important to bring forward, being THEIR job) had not requested them. And in any case, the statements had unfortunately been mislaid during the extensive repair work carried out after the break-in. This was all in addition to the fact that Miss Lovegood as well as the others had given their stories to the court in the existing war trial and Miss Granger had never come forward to further elaborate her claims, so the issue seemed to be moot. Elliott who had always considered Langeman to be "personally biased against Malfoy, besides being a thicko," was quite impressed.
The court accepted Langeman's explanation and returned to the issue of Hermione's new supportive claim. While the evidence now weighed very heavily in Lucius's favour, there was of course the question as to why both Hermione and Luna's medical reports gave such incongruous accounts if they indeed had the same affliction and why neither of the reports corroborated Hermione's new claim. (They so far had not asked Lucius if he had given the girls the special protection and although he had previously testified to casting non-verbal Encapsulate Charms on three of the children, locking two in a cupboard out of harm's way, and purposely losing the duel to Sirius Black and Harry Potter on the night, he had so far never mentioned Hermione, or the Mercurus.)
Just as the issue was being raised, a runner arrived with news that Hermione's parents were in the visitor's lounge. They said they had crucial information with them, but refused to release it to anyone but Eudorus Elliott, or one of the judges. They demanded to see their daughter was safe and well first. Under the extraordinary circumstances, it was granted Mr and Mrs Granger could enter the court (ordinary Muggles in the know were not allowed past the Ministry lobby). While Lucius was still slumped down in his seat with his head propped up between his thumb and fingers, seeming not to have a care in the Universe of how the verdict went either way, Elliott was up pacing and was seen taking a couple of pastilles from a small platinum tin in his breast pocket. Elliott had nothing left; he had done an astonishing job keeping Lucius out of prison so far and he could only pray that whatever information the Grangers brought down, was indeed supportive (and did not contain any questionable, or unexpectedly damning little titbits of information). When Hermione's parents arrived, they handed the centre judge the original patient's log from St. Mungo's they had been given in 1996, when Hermione was released from hospital – complete with the Magical seal of the hospital superintendent that appeared when the paper was held under wandlight. The document read very differently to what was on the 'official' filed copy. It described exactly the same symptoms as Draco's post potion, mystery illness in 1993.
Hermione explained that she had little memory of her sudden improvement after it was feared that she might die: only that Severus Snape had come and that when he left she was feeling much better, except for what felt like a painful cut or burn above her navel, which was bandaged with a large poultice when she gained consciousness. According to Hermione, Luna had received the same treatment. The Wizengamot ordered a Ministry Tracker, to find and bring Luna Lovegood and Draco Malfoy –he was tellingly absent from court– at once and to see if they could also track down the compounder and healers mentioned.
In the ensuing discussion between Wizengamot members, Epiphany Sanderson highlighted for everyone's benefit (just in case it wasn't clear) that as burdensome as they were, it was very unusual for 'menstrual problems' to cause a six day stint in Hospital. While Balor Prewett thought it was "very questionable, not to mention near impossible," that any official Ministry records had been changed, "most especially because Malfoy and the rest of his cronies were locked up in Azkaban, awaiting trial at the time." Elliott didn't want to go on record as saying it was "far from 'near impossible' (you idiot)," but reminded Prewett and the court that they were speaking about "a life or death matter, don't you know!" well worth taking enormous risks for. If there was any proof that Lucius was protecting members of the resistance, it surely would have signed the death warrant for members of his family. It seemed reasonable to suppose that Snape, who had been exposed as a double agent and hero for the resistance, had changed the relevant documents on Malfoy's behalf and had either not considered the Granger original, or had left it intact deliberately, in case a situation (such as the present one they were in) ever arose.
Elliott had already presented evidence to the court of the demonic way the true Death Eaters operated. He had shown proof that afterwards, when it was thought that Lucius had shown leniency to all the children that night in 1996, he had been severely punished: a Muggle child Lucius had unofficially adopted and her mother had been brutally murdered in a most gruesome and unspeakable manner. Then much after, when Lucius's wand didn't work in killing Potter, Lucius only avoided death and a full scale extermination of his family, by effectively playing the fool and reminding the Dark Lord that:
1) He had tried very fervently to talk the Dark Lord out of using the wand on account of the wand being extremely obstinate and temperamental (but also very loyal to the House of Malfoy, since it had been in the family for over a thousand years).
And then convincing the Dark Lord that:
2) In his intoxicated ineptitude, he had stupidly forgotten that he had put an antikill charm on his wand a couple days previous to the Dark Lord unexpectedly commandeering it (because he had been practicing duelling with his son and naturally did not want to kill the boy) which further explained the reason for his wand's unwillingness to cause a lethal blow and it destroying itself.
3) The theory that he had assisted Potter in any way, was not only absurd, as he would never do such a thing being a loyal servant, but it was impossible, because that theory would mean he Lucius (a drunken, drugged-up wreck) was stronger than the Dark Lord himself.
(The final point continued of course to be the reason why the jury also had so much difficulty in believing that Lucius had fought the extremely powerful Wizard for Potter, or indeed aided in any of the conflicts where he or others claimed he had.)
Luna Lovegood arrived and verified she had had all the symptoms as described, but couldn't give reasons for the disparity in what her medical log reported (or why she hadn't thought to mention in her written testimony that Hermione was next to her and that Lucius had also given her a potion of some sorts that night during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries). She recounted her brief, yet significant experiences with Lucius Malfoy, which Elliott had already presented at the trial in the form of her written statement to no avail. She explained once again what had happened in 1996 (only this time not omitting the part about Hermione's presence in the potion incident or the potion itself)... She went on to describe further unusual experiences with the defendant later in 1998, when the Death Eaters had taken her and other members of the resistance movement hostage at Malfoy Manor:
"Like I said, I didn't see Lord Malfoy that much while I was there – held captive. He came down to the dungeons once and just stared at us. He looked completely panicked... like he had been stunned. I didn't see him after that – well, not until we escaped, but I heard them arguing once (him and Bellatrix Lestrange). He said (well, he shouted): 'Because there's no reason to, you bloody psychopath!' And then Bellatrix was threatening all sorts of unspeakable things, like what they did to someone Lord Malfoy cared for – a child I think (a Muggle). I don't want to repeat what she said she'd do to me and the others (but mostly to me). She was saying Lord Malfoy had improper feelings for the female prisoners and she was going to report him to the Dark One (He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named). He said she was the perverted one and that no more blood would be spilt in his house if he could help it. She threatened him a lot to go to the Dark One and then he said (I can hear him say it, as if he just said it now): 'So help me, if you take so much as a hair off of any of them while they're in my house, you'll regret it Bella.' And he said: 'If I go down, you'll go down. Believe me.' I could feel he really meant it and I think she could as well. It made me worry a little less of what would happen to us. It's sad because they did kill some of us later, but I do really feel if it weren't for Lord Malfoy (what he said) we'd all have been fed to the Dark One's snake, or other evil things."
When Draco arrived, he testified that he had stolen the Mercurus Shield potion from his parent's store and willingly taken it all those years earlier and that the symptoms of his subsequent illness were indeed as recorded. Although he could not say what the ingredients were, he could attest that after he became ill, the family doctor Rajanaissance Constantine had removed the potion in a thin, silvery, stream through a small orifice made on his abdomen, that it had been painful and that his father told him never to speak of the matter. Hermione, Luna and Draco were all given medical examinations and all found to have the same faint scarring just above their navels where the potion had been drawn out.
∞
In the end, they couldn't get the 90% majority they needed to acquit Lucius, but they couldn't send him to Azkaban with the 82% majority he had won either. He was spared and scheduled for a third and final trial. And just like that, Lucius Malfoy went from detested-dead-man, to a Wizard with (a little) hope.