The World and Her Stars

Chapter Sixty-Three

ROSE POV

"Today, we will be hearing testimonies and viewing evidence of crimes committed by Lucius Malfoy." The judge's voice was old and he sounded like quite the grumpy man, "The Ministry of Magic is accusing Mr. Malfoy of crimes against the betterment of the wizarding world, multiple counts of murder, crimes against muggles, exposing magic to the muggle world, and child abuse and endangerment...just to name a few."

It was clear that this judge had a bone to pick with former death eaters.

That could be a good and a bad thing.

I hope it was a good thing.

"I beg your pardon...child abuse and endangerment?" Lucius's attorney scoffed, placing his hands on his rather round stomach, "On what grounds were these accusations brought up?"

"On account of concrete evidence collected by Auror Masterly, now, do I need to remind you about interruptions, Mr. Figley?" the judge raised a bushy eyebrow at the arrogant attorney, who just scoffed and mumbled something to Lucius.

He stood shackled in a cage with hardly enough room to take a deep breath.

He looked like a skeleton of himself, but his eyes...his eyes held a bone chilling look to them that made me jump once he found Draco, Narcissa, and I in the crowd.

Draco grabbed my hand like he was grabbing a wand to defend himself. Quick and blindly, unable to tear his eyes away from the devil of his nightmares that stood before up, shackled and powerless.

I was slightly relieved to see some familiar faces a bit down the row from us. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Arthur Weasley all sat, sending us smiles of support and encouragement.

"Mr. Malfoy, how do you plea?" the judge rolled his eyes over to Lucius with an unimpressed glare.

"Not guilty." He replied in a raspy voice.

There was a simultaneous "pshh" around the room, even from a few members of the Wizengamot.

"I was under an unforgivable curse at the time in which my crimes were committed. I am innocent." Lucius continued, "I am yet another victim of Lord Vol—Tom Riddle. I had my free will stripped from me and I was forced to commit acts that I had no control over."

The judge was eyeballed Lucius, and then his attorney.

"We will hear first from ministry attorney, Mrs. Matilda Winter, who will provide us with the charges and opening statement." The judge stated.

Matilda Winter was one of the most eloquently spoken women I had ever seen in my life. You could tell solely from the tone in her voice that she had not taken a day off probably ever in her life.

She was intense. She was punctual. And she was very determined to make sure Lucius Malfoy never felt the light of the sun on his pale, dirt-covered skin again.

I wasn't intimidated by hardly anyone, but I felt like this woman was using words that had even Draco and I sharing looks of confusion.

"Mens rea?" Draco mouthed to me.

"No idea." I mouthed back.

Even Figley looked to be scratching his head after Winter eloquently finished her statement.

His opening statement sounded like Blaise had written it after a couple shot of Fire Whiskey and a bludger to the head compared to the masterpiece Winter had just presented.