DRAGON'S HEARTSTRINGS || dramione | harry potter

Chapter Thirty-Three

Hermione spent the upcoming two weeks leading up to Draco's first set of trial obliviating witnesses of the mass murder he committed at Hogwarts when Snape and Moody were killed. Most of the people she paid visits were her ex-professors, just like Snape and Moody once were. She didn't know exactly who else could've seen Draco murders, so she took the list she had written herself and visited every single member of the Order that was still alive, disguising her true intentions with a shawl of a friendly post-war visit. She knew everyone would find it suspicious if she came to talk to them just because, so she came up with a story that after the war ended her whole worldview has changed, so everything that happened after she moved in with Draco was just a misunderstanding. She felt no guilt obliviating Slughorn or Flitwick, but she did have doubts about using magic on Professor McGonagall who was always very kind to her; but the moment she started asking about Draco and "when is he going to get punished", Hermione realized she won't be able to leave her be.

She worked fast and with little struggle because nobody ever suspected she could do something like that – they might've thought she was a traitor, but no one truly believed her to be a criminal – so that's what she became. The only person she didn't get to catch was George Weasley.

It was one of the last visits before the first trial that she met with Amita and Draco in Azkaban. Upon receiving the news, Amita did not spare praise for Hermione.

"Such great news! I knew you could do it! This will make our work so much easier," Amita told them. "Now, the first trial is tomorrow, and there will be little of what we can do to fix your reputation, Draco, as what's done is done. The prosecutor will mots likely try to draw a portrait of a criminal that started off young – he will talk about your family, about your sixth year at Hogwarts. He will talk about the first people that you killed and there will be no way for us to deny it, since the prosecutor will have more proof than needed. The most important thing for you tomorrow will be to not deny anything. When they ask you if you killed someone and if you actually did, you must say it. Denial won't help because everyone already knows the truth. Tomorrow, you agree with everything the prosecutor says, except when it comes to your relationship with Hermione – you will tell them a story of how you fell in love with her when the war started and that ever since you wanted to be with her, but only in the end could you marry her. Is that clear?"

Draco, who was silent the whole time, nodded grimly when Amita finished her monologue. His face betrayed no emotions, but Hermione could see he was nervous.

"Hey, don't worry, it's going to be alright," she tried to reassure him when Amita left to give them some much-needed alone time. "We did everything we could, now the most important thing for us is to stick to our story."

When Draco looked up at her he looked angry, but Hermione tried to ignore it.

"Swear to me that you will do nothing else to save me from what's meant to be," Draco demanded quietly. "Swear to me, Hermione."

She realized why he was angry now – he didn't like that she messed with his case.

"Alright," she said. Then she leaned into him so that only he could hear, "And you mustn't tell anyone about my ring, okay? Not even to Amita. Swear to me, Draco."

He stared at her for a beat. "I swear."

She kissed him goodbye.

When the day of the first trial came, Hermione felt all jittery. The courthouse was full and overflowing, Hermione hadn't seen so many people in one place in a lng time. She never considered herself to be a socially anxious person, but now she definitely was. There were people that were complete strangers to her, many of them journalists, but quite a lot of them she did recognize, a few of them none other than the surviving Weasley family members whose eyes on her were no less than judging and condemning. The only person in the whole courtroom that Hermione felt comfortable with was Amita, whose extroverted and optimistic personality made Hermione feel better when the seats all around got filled with people who most definitely came here to behold Draco Malfoy's downfall. Hermione must've been the only one in the entire world hoping to take him home.