Harry sat on the cold hard floor, feeling completely alone. He and Harry were visiting Hermione in her cell at the Salem Prison.
Hermione had been carted off to the prison immediately after the trial. Harry and Ron had tried to convince the Justice that she had had nothing at all to do with Naima’s illness but the Justice refused to listen. After the trial he became much warmer to the two of them; his attitude suggested that he pitied them for having a witch for a best friend and not knowing about it. He obviously thought that both Harry and Ron were still in shock and they had not realized that Hermione was a witch and someone to fear.
Mistress Emily Warberk who had also faced trial on the same day as Harry, Hermione and Ron had also been convicted and she was due to be executed along with Hermione.
Harry looked at Hermione and his heart twisted with fear and pity. In some ways Hermione was lucky. She had been allotted a cell of her own; the warden had probably taken pity on her since she was so young. Most of the other prisoners had not been allowed their own cell. The large hall had a row of cells on either side, but most of them were empty. Accused women and men were lying of the stone floor pathetically, moaning and weeping. The convicted littered the floor and none of them had bothered to try to look respectable: all of them were facing inevitable death.
Harry couldn’t imagine what Hermione was facing at that moment. She was doomed to be hanged and neither one of the three friends knew what to do. Harry and Ron had gone to try and fetch their wands from Samantha’s home, but she refused to allow them in, fending them off with a gun. She was not as sure as Justice Mallrow that Harry and Ron were innocent.
Hermione’s head was resting against the long iron bars of the cell door. She was staring listlessly at the floor, having succumbed to her doom when neither Ron nor Harry could find a way to help her. Harry wanted nothing more than to comfort her, to reassure her that they’d eventually find a way to get her out, but he found nothing to say. There was nothing to say. How were you supposed to comfort a person who had the weight of inescapable death on her shoulders?
A lone tear slipped down Hermione’s cheek. Harry felt even worse.
‘I wish I had never seen that stupid amulet,’ he whispered angrily. ‘This all is my fault!’
Ron had his back rested against the large iron bars. He reached out and punched Harry softly on the shoulder.
‘Don’t blame yourself mate. There’s nothing we could have done. It was all fate.’ he said.
Fate, thought Harry bitterly. Fate was such a horrible thing. Fate had decided Harry’s destiny long before he was born, by means of a prophecy, and fate had now doomed Hermione to die.
‘Is this how you feel all the time?’ asked Hermione, smiling weakly at Harry.
Harry could only shake his head. He had never faced certain death. As many times as he had faced Voldemort there had always been a faint light of hope in his heart that he would survive no matter what. He always had hope. Looking at Hermione, her brown eyes empty, as if she had been kissed by a Dementor, her usually bushy hair lank, Harry knew that Hermione had no hope left that she would live. The feeling had to be worse than anything Harry had ever experienced.
Harry could feel a lump growing in his throat. One of his best friends was about to die and he couldn’t do anything! He felt like ripping his hair out in frustration.
Hermione suddenly burst into tears. Harry turned around quickly and reached through the bars as Ron did the same. Hermione took their hands and squeezed them tightly, as if she were holding on for dear life. Harry realized that in a way, she was.
‘I-I don’t want to die,’ she sobbed. The lump in Harry’s throat grew. Ron looked utterly miserable.
‘There has to be something we can do! There has to be!’ cried Ron, hysterically, forgetting his earlier words to Harry.
‘There isn’t Ron, we’re tried everything. You just said so yourself,’ replied Harry.
‘I was wrong, we haven’t!’ said Ron, a mad gleam in his eye. ‘We could break her out!’
Harry stared at Ron sadly. ‘There are three armed guards outside, Ron. We don’t even have our wands.’
‘No! There must be something we’re forgetting!’ said Ron, madly.
Hermione wiped away her tears. ‘Don’t Ron,’ she whispered. ‘It just makes it worse. There’s nothing left to do.’
Ron nodded slowly, trying his best to control his feelings. ‘You’re right.’
Harry looked at his two best friends and for a moment wondered what would be happening if he had been the one convicted. He imagined himself staring up at the gallows. For a moment he actually felt the thick rope being placed around his neck and tightened. Harry shuddered involuntarily.
Just then a guard stepped over to them. ‘Oy! Visitin’ times are over!’ he said.
‘Since when?’ asked Ron, forcefully. ‘No one told us about any specific timing!’
‘Since I said so! You can take it out with the warden if you’s got some problem with it,’ the guard spat out. He stepped over a few people and walked over to Ron. ‘Now get!’
Ron stood up, angrily. ‘No! We just got here!’
‘Ron, no!’ whispered Hermione fretfully.
The guard sneered down at her. ‘The witch is givin’ some good advice, boy. Best listen to your wicked friend.’
Ron made to spring on to the guard but the burly man was much too fast. He weaved around Ron, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck and threw him bodily towards the door.
Ron growled in anger but Harry hurried over and signaled him to be quite.
‘We’re leaving, don’t worry!’ Harry said to the guard.
Harry pushed Ron out the door after he (Ron) had finished waving to Hermione. Harry turned back momentarily.
‘We’ll think of something Hermione, don’t worry,’ he said, trying to sound confident.
Hermione smiled feebly at Harry. ‘Sure,’ she said, waving goodbye.
Harry waved too and hoped against hope that his words held some meaning. He had no idea what he planned to do. Whatever it was, he only had one day to do it. It was already late evening on the 6th of February.
A/N: The execution of a witch would never have been so quickly after the trials. Most of the suspects would be imprisoned for around six months before they were hanged. Also the suspects were treated ruthlessly during this time. Torture was expected and many people died from the horrid conditions even before their death sentence was made official or before it could be reverted.
Men were also accused of practicing magic as I tried to tell the reader in the fourth paragraph. However, from what I gather only one man was ever hanged for being a ‘wizard’. In the trials, women were easier to suspect since they were involved in phenomenon like life, which were at the time thought to be somewhat supernatural. Also women were thought to be weak and suggestible, making them easy targets for the Devil. This was all just prejudice, of course.