Disclaimer: Not mine, otherwise Harmony would have sailed.
A/N: My reply to the "Vigilante" challenge by Leochick, you can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26730 . Hope you will enjoy the story, and please if you read review and let me know what you think of it, ok?
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
The Vigilante
Chapter One: A Farce of a Trial
Hermione Granger was moderately bright, that morning. Working as a Magical Law Enforcement officer, she was in charge of most trials for criminals, who more often than not were remaining Death Eaters captured by one of her best friends, Harry Potter, currently on his way to become Head of the Auror Department, the youngest to do so since the Department had been founded a couple centuries earlier.
Today, Hermione would have to conduct yet another trial, and she hoped this time no funny business would happen. Since Kingsley had stepped down as an interim Minister and a regular election had assigned the spot to Darius Vunrabels, a charismatic man who knew how to pull the masses on his side with his eloquence and his long, charming speeches, Hermione had found her job becoming increasingly difficult, with obviously guilty murderers declared innocent by the jury.
She knew something strange was going on in the Ministry, and rumours of bribes being handed to the Minister to keep some people out of Azkaban were running through both her and Harry's department. It was in times like these that she wished she had followed Ron's advice and stayed away from the Ministry. Their redheaded friend was currently Keeper for the Chudley Cannons, his dream to play for his favourite team having come true thanks to extensive training, and the natural skill he found in their fifth year at Hogwarts.
So, one might ask why she was bright, albeit not too much, that morning. Well, she would have to conduct the trial for Rabastan Lestrange, and there was no bloody way the man could be declared innocent with all what he had done in both the wars. It had taken Harry months, but finally he had captured the man, and Hermione would do her best to make him pay for his crimes.
She was sure no bribe could stop her when confronted with such hard evidence.
"Rabastan Lestrange, you are here to be judged about these accusations: Being a Death Eater; having used the Unforgivable Curses in various occasions, ranging from Imperius to the Killing Curse; having tortured and persecuted Muggle-borns and Muggles" Hermione read from her parchment, while standing up in front of the whole Wizengamot. Harry was present too, as part of the security attending the trial. He gave her an encouraging smile, and Hermione felt her enthusiasm double.
She wouldn't waste long months of Harry's work. She could do it, Lestrange deserved Azkaban and that was what he would get.
Right?
Well, when Hermione was done with the accusations, she brought forth evidence of the crimes perpetrated by him, interrogating various testimonies and revealing that his wand had cast at least once the Killing Curse, as that was the last spell cast.
Using Unforgivables even once landed anyone in Azkaban, so Hermione felt pretty confident that this time she would succeed. However, she started having doubts when the defence started talking about him being under Imperius.
"Oh, god, not that bullshit again" she groaned, standing up again.
"Very well, then" she interrupted. "Let's use Veritaserum and listen to what he has to say" she suggested, and the smug grin of the defending lawyer chilled her to the bones.
They had something up their sleeve, she knew it.
"Agreed" he drawled, and the potion was brought forth. Rabastan Lestrange drank it, and then he was asked questions.
"Were you a Death Eater under your own will?" Hermione asked.
"No"
She looked at him shocked. "Were you under Imperius when you accepted to join Voldemort?" she continued nonetheless.
"Yes"
Now Hermione was almost shaking with rage. How could he resist the Veritaserum?
"Did you use the Unforgivable curses on your own will?" she asked then, almost desperately. Harry was frowning in the back of the room, and she didn't want to disappoint him.
"No"
Hermione slumped on her chair. "What is the verdict of the jury?" she wearily asked. "Those who vote for guilty, lift your hand"
Only twenty did.
"Who votes for innocent, raise your hand" she instructed then, already knowing what would happen. As predicted, all the remaining members of the Wizengamot voted for innocent, and Rabastan Lestrange was released, with excuses from the Ministry for the mistake, which he "benevolently" accepted.
Hermione gaped at the retreating back of the man almost incredulous. She couldn't believe another one had slipped through the fingers of justice.
"This is getting ridiculous" she muttered as she left the hall too, casually grabbing the empty vial of Veritaserum. She had a nagging suspicions that she would need to check later.
"Hey, Mione" Harry approached her.
"What?" she snapped, but then immediately softened. "Sorry, Harry. I'm just a bit tense"
"I can believe that" he said, giving her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry it ended this way again" he said, pulling her into a comforting hug, as they Disapparated to her flat. A new habit Harry had started was to make lunch for Hermione, hopefully to cheer her up, on days when something like this happened, and she couldn't help grinning at him.
"You always know how to lift my spirits, Harry" she said as he put the still warm lasagne on the table, touching his hand with her own. He looked up, surprised at the gesture, but grinned back.
"You deserve it, and those jerks in the Wizengamot aren't worth your anger" Harry honestly said, squeezing her hand. "I've never really had much faith in them anyway" he shrugged, and Hermione nodded. Simply a year ago she would have fought him over his pessimistic views about the ministry, but right now she was pretty sure herself that the whole institution wasn't anything more than a group of corrupted buffoons who thwarted the hard work of the few who actually dedicated themselves to their job.
"That trial today has been a farce" she growled, picking at her food with her fork.
"Miss Granger, do I need to remind you that it's bad manners to play with your food?" Harry said in his best McGonagall imitation and she peered at him for a moment before she burst laughing, him following suit immediately after.
They finished eating chatting amiably about anything but the Ministry and the trials, then Harry checked his watch, and shot her an apologetic look.
"Mione, I'm sorry but I really need to go back to work now, I've a meeting with Hellejorn in ten minutes. You rest and distract yourself. If I got him once, I can catch him again, so don't worry about that, ok?" he said, kissing her on the forehead, and then rushing out of the flat once she had assured him she would take it easy that afternoon.
Truth was that she spent the rest of the day analysing the remnants of the potion in the vial, and when around dinner time she got the final results, she growled, flinging the glass container against the nearest wall and shattering it in a million pieces.
"It wasn't Veritaserum!" she shrieked. "Now it's clear why that moron smirked smugly, he knew it already! It is clear someone has been tampering with the potion stacks of the Ministry, substituting the Veritaserum with Relaxing Draught!" she hissed, her eyes narrowed.
So much for a relaxing afternoon…
But this had to stop. Hermione knew until this Minister was in his place, things would never change in official trials. She had to figure out another way to punish those who deserved it.
The brunette witch skipped dinner, too wrapped up in her theories on how to ensure those who deserved it would turn themselves in. The Minister could do nothing against a written confession, after all.
It was almost two in the morning when finally she had the right idea, and so she smiled to the darkness still enveloping London.
"The Wizarding World needs a night-time vigilante, and I know just who can help me do this" she smirked to herself, finally deciding she better get some rest, and going to take a long, luscious hot shower to relieve her body from the tension of the day, before she changed into her nightgown and slipped under the sheets of her bed, the usual dreams about a certain wizard populating her slumber.
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