herumtreiber

Title: The Lord Appellant 16/37
Chapter: High noon at the Wizengamot 1/2
Author:

herumtreiber
Genre: Slash, romance, adventure, dark!fic
Pairing: Draco/Blaise, one sided Harry/Draco
Rating: PG-13
Warnings for the fic: It's a dark fic, rape is mentioned several times. Dementors appear and not for show. Character death (not Harry, Draco or Blaise). Evil!Ron, powerful Hermione, Pansy and Bellatrix. Sympathetic to Slytherins.
Epilogue compliant? No
Chapter length: ~1,580 words
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from writing these stories.
Summary: After the events of HBP, the Minister of Magic wants to finish the Malfoys but Draco uses a Wizengamot procedure to fight back. Veelas and Siddhe appear in the story as Draco uses political means to contest the pureblood's allegiance to Voldemort.
Notes: I wrote this before DH was published, so please no picayune comments about canon.

Table of contents

15. When Dobbs cry

Draco met in the afternoon with Daphne Greengrass's parents; Blaise was present for moral support. Draco was dressed in the most stringent black of mourning, with no jewelry and his hair was tied with a ponytail.

Draco started the meeting addressing Michael and Olivia Greengrass, Daphne's parents. He told them about the precautions they had taken that day, including sniffing out all routes for possible anti-portkey devices. The scans had been negative. After the meeting at Gringotts, they'd taken a random route to get home, and been ambushed. Massive anti-portkey wards were in place which had not been there before. This implied that all the routes from Gringotts to the Manor had been watched; it meant intervention at the most massive scale. Voldemort himself was not capable to do that at the moment.

When Daphne said she was going to bring help, Draco thought that meant she was going to manage to disappear and then send the Aurors to them. She'd be safe with the Aurors!

What she did instead was whip out her cell phone and call an Auror she was going out with, told him of the attack and to succor them, closed her phone and continued fighting.

Unfortunately for the attackers, they had cordoned off all means of magical contact, but forgotten electromagnetic waves.

Draco offered the Greengrasses his full support. He said that things were about to heat up and they might be in some nut's crazy list. He offered them protection or to stay in the Manor. He also said he would defend to the utmost of his ability Daisy Greengrass, Daphne's little sister.

When the Greengrasses had left, promising to stay in touch, Draco was alone with Blaise.

Blaise gently reproved Draco, "You should have let them see your grief, Draco. It might have comforted them better."

Draco laughed bitterly, "Do you really think so, Blaise? If I broke down I'd cry for days. I'd wail and chastise myself. As much as that might comfort them, there would rapidly approach a point where they would be very concerned about the state of the leadership, that it is not as stable as it seemed

It was Blaise alone that saw the depth of his grief. Draco wailed, "Why did she have to die?"

Blaise answered curtly, "Because our enemies were out for blood, they weren't for taking any prisoners. I believe these enemies fight more for their purse than their conscience. As such, they are vulgar persons."

Blaise continued, "Daphne managed to save us. She took the only logical course of action, brought help to us." "It's sad that she died, but it is wonderful her outwitting our enemies. We have her life with us, her dear companionship in remembrance. Keep in mind how soothing that can be, before you despair."

Blaise went on, "Also, I believe you're right. If you'd given in to your grief, it would ultimately have dismayed Daphne's parents. You kept a balanced mix of concern and gravitas, as befits the leader of the pureblood cause."

"As I told you, things are at the breaking point at the Wizengamot. I've received the necessary letters and arranged for Ashpeck, the Gringotts General Manager, to function as Amicus Curiae for the Wizengamot, that is, as a friend of the court."

Draco replied, "They won't see him as friend after he's spoken his piece."

Draco added, "Once more unto the saddle! Let's stir up trouble tomorrow. Invite Potter, Granger and Weasley to the spectacle."

Blaise replied, "Weasley too?"

"Yeah. He's been part of things since so long, that it is only fitting he be there at one conclusion."

Although Harry had been to his share of Wizengamot reunions, this was special, for it was a plenary session. There was a gallery for the diplomatic and the press corps. The general public had been admitted and there were approximately 300 persons in yet another gallery.

The Wizengamot had been forced to modify an Auditorium, install the back benches, the main benches, and the galleries for visitors.

Security was tight, and most people had been left without their wands. Harry, having the dubious honor of being the Boy Who Lived, was left with his.

As he was approaching the benches, he saw his name in one place, near where Malfoy would sit. He sat down and read Draco's small note:

"You will hear about things that will shake you. Remember though that unfairness creates unfairness. Think on the countless ways the Wizarding World has treated you unfairly, and how they could be fixed. But to fix them, you would have to literally threaten and disown the bullish, brutish politicians."

A little later, Hermione and Ron came up and sat beside him. Slowly the Auditorium was filling up. Harry could sense anxiety, a deep dread of what this session could mean.

Then Draco and his friends entered, again, gasps could be heard, for the people had heard about his saving his two hulking minions, being in a catatonic state and then miraculously recovered.

Draco was dressed in the deepest black of mourning, his only jewelry was a small ring in his right hand's middle finger, and his hair was severely tied with a ponytail.

He saluted Minister Bones and sat down. Amelia said, "Would you state your grievances to a full session of the Wizengamot, Mr. Malfoy, or will you ask for a Lord Appellant's trial?"

Draco replied, "I will plead my case to the Plenum, Minister Bones; the scope of this case goes far outside the Lord Appellant's brief."

The voice of Leon Hornblower was heard, an irritating and conniving man, "How do we know you are really Malfoy? Last we'd heard, he was a vegetable after saving his bodyguards. How come he survived? How do we know you are not a fake that will disappear after this trial is over?"

Draco stood up and walked till he was in front of the man, who was visibly cowering. "The man raises some interesting questions. I can see where some doubts could arise about my identity." "Do you know what this ring is, Mister?"

Hornblower replied, "It looks like a signet ring."

Draco said, "It's the Malfoy signet ring. Since I'm the last Malfoy, it will only work for me." Draco concentrated and rubbed the ring with his fingers, and presently a three-dimensional, full color picture of little Draco, Narcissa and Lucius appeared.

Everyone looked slightly taken aback at the picture of the three blonds.

Draco continued, "As for how I survived, that is for my enemies to find out and for me to know."

Draco offered, "But I get tired of getting sidetracked. I'll be brief and blunt and tell you why I am here."

"Because no one has protected the pureblood interests!"

"You see injustice committed against a Muggleborn or Half-Blood, the blood rushes to your brain and you won't stop till the matter has been addressed and solved. But if you see feet tread on a pureblood's back, if he loses his job, his home, his money; you don't waste a moment more and promptly forget about it."

"Don't you dare tell me I'm exaggerating! I have lived what I have said. I was in mortal danger of getting the Kiss and no one lifted a finger! Had it been one of Potter's good for nothing friends, you would've been on your knees kissing his feet to do his bidding, as is your wont. All my childhood I suffered from Aurors' searches, where they would lay siege to the Malfoy Manor without a warrant because, heck, they felt like it. We knew better to protest, of course."

"That is the crux of the matter, that we know better to protest. But the insults, the injuries, they become so gross and violating that we're forced to do something."

"But the body politic chooses not to recognize us, so what we do must be outside the law. So we turn to miscreants like Voldemort, hoping they will help us, and instead they use us as amusement, as torture pets, and the situation with the craven, muggleborn-loving pseudo-politicians escalate."

"I'm here to either prove that Tradition still works, or it doesn't. If it does work, we can fashion a modus vivendi and find a common way of killing our enemies."

"If it doesn't work, we will take appropriate measures."

"Tradition dictates that the Laws of Inheritance be used to assign the succession to an Estate. Sirius Black died, leaving Harry Potter in his will the Black Estate. However, my mother is a Black and cousin to Sirius Black."

"Therefore I demand that the Black Estate be entrusted to the correct heir, approved by tradition, blood and law, that is, me."

There was a tremendous uproar, and it seemed like they were in the middle of a rambunctious Quidditch game, with people shouting for and against Draco.

Finally Minister Bones lifted her wand and murmured a speech, and all the talking heads ceased talking at once.

She turned to Harry and asked, "How say you, Harry Potter?"

Harry, who'd been coached by Blaise on this point endlessly, replied, "If my cousin wishes to pursue this affair, I will not hinder him. However, I refuse to part with Sirius's last gift to me. I will abide by the decisions of this court, as always."

17. High noon at the Wizengamot 2/2