Harry Potter was sitting on the uncomfortable chair as he had been instructed by his attorney. He had his feet planted flatly on the ground, in his right hand he held a Muggle ink pen poised over a notepad, and his eyes focused on the occupant sitting behind the dark wood, railed witness box. The man occupying the witness box was his opposite number, Major W. Hayes (the head of the N.A.M.E.D. security detail), and he was describing great detail the elaborate security procedures that he and his team had used to protect the World Junior Quidditch Cup. The Prosecutor deftly bypassed all mention of the intruder fight that demonstrated just how flawed the scheme and its implementation had been. Also, they failed to mention the numerous security suggestions that he had offered to the Americans and were not taken were also absent from the testimony.

The witness, lead by the government’s lawyer, laid out the timeline that showed a wizard, who later was found out to be under the Imperius Curse, showed up at their security headquarters claiming that he had seen bound children being led into a cabin near Oxford, Maine.

â€�“So, you would have rescued the young people without any ‘outside’ interference,” said the Prosecutor making little quote marks with his fingers in the air as he said the word outside facing the jury and not the witness.

â€�“Yes.”

â€�“And you are certain that if you had been the rescuers, no one would have been killed or injured. I remind you that you are under an oath.”

â€�“Yes.”

Harry let slip an abbreviated snort of derision which he immediately regretted. If the tables had been turned, he probably would have answered the same question with the same affirmative response. The Prosecutor turned toward Harry and made a show of making a sour face and raising an eyebrow in response. Harry didn’t have to look to his right to know Cabral was not happy with him.

After lunch, it was the defense’s turn at the witness. Cabral waited until the prosecutor sat down in his chair before he looked up at Hayes. Art started to speak and then didn’t. He looked down at his notes, made a show out of striking something on the paper, and looked back up to Hayes. By this time, the confident smirk had disappeared from the witnesses’ face and he seemed less impressive. Cabral leaned back onto the back two legs of his chair as he asked. â€�“Can you give me the details of what occurred in the campgrounds the night before the scheduled match between Egypt and the United Kingdom?”

Hayes did not wait a beat. â€�“On the night in question, two intruders infiltrated the campgrounds and began a wand battle outside of the Egyptian Dormitory. Two of my men engaged the intruders and they escaped. In defending the campgrounds, both of my men were injured with one of them requiring a brief hospitalization. I believe one of those two intruders turned out to one of those rescuers taken into custody at the Oxford cabins.”

Art nodded his head showing the jury that he already knew all of this. The lawyer sat up, glanced down at his notes again and looked up with a face full of puzzlement. â€�“Excuse me, Mr. Hayes, I seemed to have missed something important in your testimony. How did the intruders make their escape from the campgrounds? Did they use brooms or flying carpets? Did they mount magical creatures? Or did U.F.O.s swoop down and scoop them up?” Art ended his query with a smirk and a small laugh.

Color flushed Hayes’ face and he answered, â€�“No, they Disapperated as their way of escape.”

Art stood up and walked to the jury box. The juror closest to Harry tried to hide a smile. The source of the man’s humor was revealed when the lawyer turned to face the witness. Art’s eyes were as large as Luna’s eyes usually were and he had a look of total disbelieve on his face.

â€�“Mr. Hayes, I took two whole pages of notes on your exhaustive plan that your agency came up to protect this large International assembly and no one thought to block Disapperation? I mean how many of us didn’t, at least once, use disapperation to escape his girlfriend’s angry father.”

Harry heard one of the reporters from behind laugh as did two of the jurors. If the truth was known, Harry had only tried that once, when he had snuck into the Harpies Training Facility to surprise Ginny after his two month long Auror survival training class in Greenland. He still remembered Gwenog Jones’ shocked face when she and the old-maid owners of the Harpies had interrupted them in the laundry room, and he found, much to his embarrassment, that the Harpy’s Facility blocked use of that spell.

â€�“We blocked apperation directly into the facility. However, with all of the comings and goings between Salem, Washington and the campgrounds, we chose not to block the spell.”

Art nodded his head as if in agreement. He then turned his head to the left and sucked in his right cheek. â€�“I see….I understand not blocking the spell during normal business hours, but in the middle of the night? One would think, maybe?” Hayes slightly squirmed in his seat. Cabral did not give Hayes time to recompose himself. â€�“Mr. Hayes, did you meet with the defendant and talk about security for the tournament?”

â€�“Yes.”

â€�“Did Mr. Potter offer any suggestions as to the aforementioned intrusion and to the security details?”

â€�“Yes, he offered his opinions. However, he did not know the strategic background or the reinforcements we had in waiting.”

â€�“Strategy and reinforcements, it sounds you were in a military operation not a simple security operation.”

â€�“I don’t understand.”

â€�“Didn’t my client, the accused, explain to you about Mr. Lucius Malfoy and his nature as a subtle, devious, criminal mastermind and not as a general of an invading army?”

â€�“Lucius Malfoy wasn’t the only threat to those that we were protecting at the tournament. We had to make sure that all threats were covered.”

Cabral paused and sighed. He stood in front of the rail of the jury box, leaned back and, for a long minute, examined the top of his shoes. Next, he turned to look each juror in the eyes before readdressing the witness. â€�“Did any other of these other possible threats send agents to infiltrate the campgrounds?” Hayes shook his head only. â€�“Sorry, I didn’t hear your reply.”

Hayes, in a too loud voice, said, â€�“No!”

â€�“So, Harry Potter from a thousand miles away identifies the mastermind, the name of one of the intruders, and hands all of that information to you on a silver platter and you…..ignored him? Now, who couldn’t understand why the families of the kidnapped would not put their full trust into the N.A.M.E.D. agency to find and choose to mount their own rescue of their loved ones?”

After Cabral’s cross-examination, the prosecutor attempted to restore confidence in Hayes testimony and seemed to fail, Hayes left the witness box and strode out of the courtroom without looking at Harry. The male prosecutor realizing his case was sinking arose and addressed the court. â€�“Your honor, it is late in the afternoon and the next witnesses, as you know, will not be ready until tomorrow morning. The People would like to ask l for an adjournment.”

The judge swung toward Cabral, â€�“Counselor?”

Cabral, still seated, looked up to judge for a beat turned toward the Prosecutor and said, â€�“The defense has no objection.”

The judge banged the gavel, but before Harry could stand so he could be returned to his cell a hand grasped his arm. Harry felt long talons dig into his wrist holding him fast.

An unwelcomed, but familiar female voice began to speak, â€�“My dear, poor Harry.” Rita Skeeter smiled flashing all eight of her gold teeth at one time. The smile did not match the solemn tone of her voice. â€�“Can I get your reaction to the latest news? A comment or two to appear in the second paragraph of the follow-up piece to the story, I mean you must be soooo proud.”

Art attempted to step in between his client and the reporter. â€�“My client is under court order to not discuss the trial. I believe you were informed about the restrictions when you got your press credentials.”

â€�“I’m not asking about this silly trumped up trial. We all know that he will be found innocent.”

With her free hand Rita pulled a section of a newspaper out of a satchel she had placed on the empty chairs reserved for the family of the accused. Harry recognized the masthead to be that of the Daily Prophet. The part of the paper was the Sports section and the headlines screamed for all to see: â€�“Ginny Potter signs as Head Coach of Harpies”.

Harry saw the words, but they didn’t make any sense. Ginny had not mentioned this in either of her two letters he had received. The number of letters struck home, he had been in custody for a month and a half and she had only writ twice. Hermione and Luna had written him more times than Ginny, the mother of his children, had.

Harry wrenched his arm free from Skeeter and attempted to sit down on his chair. He missed and would have landed on the floor without the help of his lawyer and the bailiff.

Skeeter’s face shown with pure delight like what had just happened was her birthday, Halloween, and Christmas had all been rolled into one.

Scorpius followed Rose and the rest of the Junior Quidditch team into the staff lounge. He did not look forward to this. First, they would be missing lunch and secondly, he didn’t see what good it would do. Lily had tried in vain to get permission to allow Hugo to sit with her, but the instructions from the Ministry and Wizengamot were insistent that the only ‘witnesses’ of their testimony was to be the members of the people at the other side of the Magic Mirror, the observers from the Law Enforcement Department and a member of the Daily Prophet.

The teammates sat alphabetically forming an arc in front of a large magical mirror. Geof Grindus was at the far left, followed by Kaitlin, Rhys, and Scorpius who was almost in the middle of the mirror. Seated on his right was Albus, Lily, James Potter, and at the far right was Rose who seemed to be leaning in hoping to see something. What the team saw through the mirror was two desks and a box with a railing that house a dozen mixed aged people. However, Scorpius really only took in one face. Mr. Potter looking very tired and he seemed to be searching in the mirror for something or someone on their side of the mirror….for what Scorpius didn’t know. His children were seated quite visibly in the middle.

When Lily saw her father, she shouted in a desperate near crying voice, â€�“Daddy!”

â€�“I’m here, Lily” was all Harry Potter got out before a gavel slammed off screen. At the loud sound all of them in the little arc reflexively jumped at the noise coming through the mirror from across the ocean. A male voice shouted the word â€�“Objection.”

â€�“Sustained, the jury will ignore any attempts at emotional theatre.” Mr. Potter’s barrister grabbed him by the wrist as he started to stand. The two men whispered and the barrister cleared his throat as he stood.

â€�“Your honor, this was not theatre. It is that my client and his children have not seen each other in weeks. It is natural for his young daughter to want to speak to her daddy.”

â€�“The jury will ignore Mister Cabral’s latest comment. It is immaterial that Mr. Potter’s children have not chosen to visit him.”

Cabral sat down and faced this mirror, but he kept hold of Mr. Potter’s arm.

One by one, the group relayed the kidnapping of the team by a woman they thought to be Mrs. Davis, but turned out to be a man who had taken Polyjuice. How they were disarmed. How the Coaches attempted to fight back, but were overwhelmed. How after the arrival of Ares Pyter, who threatened to torture Rose unless Scorpius agreed to go with him into the back room.

Scorpius explained about his removal from the cabin. Next, Rose doing most of the talking she described how after Pyter left, the remaining kidnappers began to threaten them followed by the unexpected rush and terror of the rescue attempt. When Lily broke into tears as Rose described how Lily was being told to choose a victim. In the mirror a loud crashing and a shout occurred as Mr. Potter shot out of his chair bowling it over as he shouted, â€�“Stop this! What good is this doing? You’ve already got their statements? You’re torturing them again!” The man by Mr. Potter grabbed him by the arm and pulled him down while standing.

â€�“Your Honor, while I apologize for my clients outburst. I concur with the sentiment.”

â€�“Objections overruled,” a voice from off of the screen spoke. â€�“One more outburst, Mr. Cabral and you and your client will be facing contempt charges.” Scorpius saw the standing barrister nod his head as he sat down.

However, Scorpius did notice the Prosecutor surveying the jurors and who seemed very much in sympathy with the witnesses. He demurred and the defense had no questions.

As they stood to leave, the Potter children, with Lily in the middle, stood in front of the mirror touching it. The rest of the teams slipped out giving them a few seconds alone with their daddy. The wait outside was about a minute, the three Potters all wiping their eyes exited the room hand in hand in hand. They walked by the others and headed back to the Gryffindor Common Room. The others disbursed towards the Great Hall. Scorpius and Rose stood watching the backs of the Potters as they left the room.

â€�“Should we follow?” asked Scorpius.

Rose was staring at her cousins and as he watched her, Scorpius saw Rose pull her lips into her mouth in concentration. â€�“Let’s give them a minute or two. Maybe make a plate or two from the lunch and take it up to let them eat in private and talk if they want.”

â€�“If we do that won’t we miss Astronomy class?”

Rose silently nodded as she replied, â€�“Family and friends are more important than getting top grades.” The pair turned to head into the Great Hall. As they passed the staff table, Scorpius stopped in front of Professor Longbottom. Professor Longbottom agreed with Rose and told him that they would all get excused absences from his office. Scorpius turned to join Rose in heaping plates full of food.

As he and Rose walked out of the changing room onto the pitch, Scorpius noticed two distinct reactions to their unannounced presence. Kaitlin, James and Albus all gave them little waves, but they did not rush over to meet their friends. Mary Reilly and Todd Grey both turned red in the face spun to find and began screaming at their Captain Eric Woolingsbee.

Woolingsbee stood there like a rock in the ocean letting their wraith crash upon him like the pounding surf. When their angry had been spent, Eric announced to the team.

â€�“We are having a try-out for Weasley and Malfoy. They will have to win the position on the team. If they tie with the incumbent player, they will go back into the stands.” Eric eyed Grey and Reilly and added in a quiet, calm voice, â€�“Anyone who doesn’t do everything they can do to make this team the best in the school, they should resign now.” Scorpius saw Grey turn towards him giving him a dirty look. For a Hogwarts student, Grey’s look was impressive, but during the tournament Scorpius had seen a lot harder looks from a lot more talented people. He lifted his bat to offer a touch for luck. Grey ignored the offer and just stared at him.

After he had won his stare down with Grey, he saw Reilly already looking down at her trainers and he spotted moisture welling up in Mary’s eyes. Rose was as good as on the team, because it was obvious that Reilly had surrendered any chance at remaining Goal Keeper before the tryout had even begun.

â€�“The defense would like to call, Mr. Harry James Potter to the stands.”

He stood up, turned behind to look one more to re-assure himself that he had not been dreaming when last night Art had escorted a visitor into the holding cell. Ginny dressed in her shabbies had walked in and he had almost knocked Art down to get to her. However as he tried to hug his wife, he was blasted back by some kind of spell wall. The Americans would let him look at her but he could not touch her. After the failed attempt, a guard appeared in the door to observe. Art keep checking his location to insure that he stayed just out of earshot.

Art spent the next twenty minutes explaining what Harry was going to testify about and possible cross examination lines to expect. Harry didn’t register a thing. Every sense that he had was focused on the freckled faced woman with the pulled back red hair. If they had offered a deal to trade of admitting to any crime just to let him hold her, he would have confessed to every unsolved case in America for the touch.

The one thing that Art said that did sink in was, â€�“When you’re on the stands, if you hit this one out of the park and the government will have multiple options for us to decide on, because they don’t want the embarrassment of trying a hero of another nation and losing the case. They will do anything to save face.” Harry smiled, but he didn’t know what Art wanted him to hit or in which park he was supposed to accomplish the feat in.

He turned to Ginny and he shrugged. She just sat there smiling at him. After Art was done, She had told him that she had been on the witness list for the prosecution and was afraid to show up because it might have encouraged them calling her up to apply pressure to him. She’d wanted to be here for him, but Hermione had convinced her to stay in Britain. So now she sat in the chair behind her husbands wearing a modest, knee length Kelly green dress and matching green flat shoes, Ginny smiled over at him and blew a kiss so the entire jury would see. Beyond Ginny, Harry could see Rita Skeeter’s green quill dancing its way across a scroll.

As he walked toward the witness stand he felt that everything that he had set in motion in that cabin was going to work. It was Ginny’s mere presence and that thought buoyed him so much that he felt like he could take down Lucius and his entire organization single handedly without a wand.

Scorpius looked over at Beatrice. He shook his head, as he watched her for the third time this morning, stop planting her tubs full of Merlin Grass seedlings, and walk over to the sink to wash her hands. He had already finished his six tubs and she was still on number two.

He walked over the sink where she was drying her hands in a very, very deliberate style. As she reached for a second towel, he pulled it out of her grasp. She glared at him.

He leaned forward trying hard to keep his temper in check. He said, â€�“I’ve got two hours to complete the tasks on the list before I have to go to the pitch and play.”

Beatrice with her hair was almost totally green again after another dying job, which also sported an inch or so hair that was black from the roots gave him a look of total indifference. â€�“Well, you better hurry up and do them by yourself,” she replied in that smug look that so infuriated him.

He took the ends of the cloth towel, formed a loop and used it to snare the girl’s hands. He tighted the loop of the towel around her wrists as he used it to lead her back to the remaining tubs. â€�“You’re gonna finish, your part of the job.”

â€�“Or? What are you going to do? Run to my big sister and tattle?”

The snide comment dug deeply into him. If she was a boy, he’d show her. Scorpius caught his breath to calm himself down and think. She’d like him to tell Crystalline just to show up her sister’s authority. He thought of the Little Sisters Squad, Lily might have some sympathy, but if push-came-to-shove she’d take Bea’s side. He suddenly felt a thrill as the solution became obvious and he let it show itself in a grin of joy.

â€�“If I’m late, I’ll let both Kaitlin and James know that you are the reason I was late and missed the match. Tell me, Beatrice, what punishment do you think Kaitlin and Rose might spring on you in the girls’ dormitory at around midnight? Did you hear what they did to get revenge against the Russians?”

Beatrice had a look of concern on her face that she quickly tried to hide. â€�“No.”

â€�“Well, let’s just say that it was so bad that we had to forfeit our next match. And they did it with just a few seedings the Rose could buy at a store. Just think what a peeved off Kaitlin could do with all of the plants in the greenhouses to choose from.” He leaned forward to further make her feel put upon. She made a growling noise in her throat and began to add the dragon dung to the seedlings.

â€�“Listen, I’ll do these two,” he said pointing to the left most tubs of the four. You finish these two and we’ll come back after breakfast tomorrow to prune the Venomous Tentacula. You need two for that job. So we get an early start and we can be done so we have Sunday afternoon free. Deal?” he reached out his muddy hand. She looked at her equally dirty ones and turned to start working on the two tubs in front of her.

â€�“Deal.”

As he was finishing up his first tub and she was still dawdling over the half on one she had, she starting talking to him. At first, he thought it was a way to suck him in to do the third tub for her. However, her questions seemed genuinely interested.

â€�“Crystal says your Father and Grandfather were both ‘Death Eaters’, is that true? If so, how come you’re a Gryffindor?”

He didn’t feel like talking about his family. He looked over at her and said, â€�“Crystalline is a Ravenclaw and you’re a Gryffindor. Blood isn’t the answer to everything. My Grandfather Malfoy never learned that lesson, but my father did almost too late.” He looked over waiting for some smart aleck answer or a judgmental comment in reply. She just grew pensive and she silently finished her third tub and pulled the last one toward her.

As she mixed the dung into the soil, he caught her looking over at him. He had to know what she was thinking. â€�“This is the longest time that I’ve ever heard you be silent. So let it out, okay?”

She did not speak in reply. It was only after she watered the seedlings she had planted in her final tub, she finally spoke to him. â€�“So, if your Grandfather had met my Muggle mother, he would have killed her?”

â€�“Probably not, he sees Muggles as inferiors and creatures to be ruled over. Now you, Crystalline, and your father, he’d definitely go after you. Your dad is a blood traitor for marrying a Muggle and you would also need to be killed for the good of wizard kind.” He finished and was shocked by the way the comments had just flowed off of his tongue. He had never ever thought once about blood that way, the ease of hearing himself talking about it sort of sickened him. â€�“Sorry,” he lamely added.

Now she was confused. â€�“Why? What you said was the truth, right?” He nodded. â€�“Why the sorry?”

â€�“When, I was explaining what my Grandfather believes to you, it almost seemed to make sense. Hatred shouldn’t make sense, it’s illogical.”

He peeked over and caught Bea just staring at him. He tucked his chin down, grabbed the tubs, walked across the greenhouse, and he sat them on the rough wood hewn table where they would get the proper light. Feeling trapped, he turned toward the door and, without washing up, walked out into the late morning sunlight. Bea followed watching him through the glass wall. He looked up and saw her through the window and froze. At first, she was annoyed that he was staring at her, but when she moved to the sink to wash and return he was still in the same pose in the same position.

Beatrice walked out of the greenhouse, turned the corner and stood next to the unblinking Malfoy. â€�“Hey, blonde!” He did not react. She clapped her hands in his face (he didn’t even blink an eye) and finally she snapped her fingers. At the second snap, his head jerked causing his yellow hair to flounce. â€�“You okay?”

He nodded automatically. He stared at her, but couldn’t seem to focus. He had to do something, but he didn’t know what.

She said to him, â€�“You best go up to the changing room and beat Ravenclaw. I’ve got a three Knuts and a weekend’s duty in the greenhouse bet with Crystal on the match. So you better win or pay the consequences.”

Scorpius nodded. Of course, he had to change into his tunic and beat Ravenclaw because Bea had a bet with her sister. Without washing his hands, he headed up towards the pitch.