Chapter Text
Hermione Granger sat behind her desk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She had never really wanted to work for the DMLE. She had always envisioned herself continuing in her passion for the rights of various, underrepresented creature groups in the wizarding world, hoping to change their occasionally backward society for the better. However, the final Battle at Hogwarts had changed all of that for her.
When the dust had settled and the casualties added up, Hermione had been shocked to watch as Aurors had come into the room to arrest Draco Malfoy. Sure, he had been present when Dumbledore had been killed, had been the one who had made it possible for the Death Eaters to invade Hogwarts that night in the first place. But he had been a child. Barely 17 at the time.
Although in the Wizarding World that had made him an adult, he had been given his task long before he had come of age. Not only that, but he had been acting under duress, the threat of Voldemort killing not only himself but both of his parents if he should fail a constant noose about his neck. Hermione had firmly believed that, considering all of the circumstances, he should have been tried as a child, not as an adult.
Of course, the operative word there was tried. And Draco Malfoy, marked second-generation Death Eater, had never received a trial in the first place. Although Hermione and Harry had been able to intervene on Narcissa's behalf in the aftermath of the battle and keep her from being hauled off to Azkaban until her own trial, where Harry and Hermione had testified on her behalf as well, they had been unable to do the same for Draco. The wizarding world had been too raw, too eager to find people to punish, to allow Draco Malfoy to walk free.
Hermione had worked diligently her eighth year at Hogwarts, and every spare minute that she wasn't in classes was spent studying wizarding law. She knew that she couldn't fight to change the injustices that plagued their world if she didn't know about all of the interconnecting strands that tied everything together.
The biggest surprise that year had been her unexpected friendship with Pansy Parkinson. The once-cruel girl had become quiet and withdrawn, almost timid, following her family's fall from grace after Voldemort's death. Where she had always been haughty and brash before, she had returned to school to finish her schooling in the newly formed eighth year that had been offered to those whose educations had been so severely interrupted by the events of the previous year as a completely different person: subdued and silent, speaking only when spoken to, and only then when she'd had no other choice.
Somehow (Hermione still wasn't all that sure how it had happened), Pansy and Hermione had become library study partners. Hermione spent her time poring over legal tomes while Pansy hunched over medical texts. Before either girl had really understood what was happening, they had become friends. Hermione had been the only person at the school, outside of the other eighth year Slytherins, that could pull Pansy from her self-exile.
As Pansy's friends had realized who had been responsible for helping to bring their friend back to them, their study group had started to grow, one by one. First, it had been Theodore Nott. He had arrived with his own medical books in tow, and Hermione had learned that he and Pansy had both planned to apply for Healer's training upon graduation.
Next, Daphne Greengrass had strolled over to their growing table with a sketchbook in tow. She had always loved to design clothes, she had explained to Hermione, and wanted to open her own fashion boutique in Diagon Alley after school.
Blaise Zabini had been the last to join them. He had been planning on getting his certification in Wizarding Law long before Voldemort had returned to turn their world upside down, and he had been even more determined to do so following his best friend's arrest and incarceration. He and Hermione had quickly realized that, with the same motives driving them, two heads were better than one, and had begun to work together to achieve their goals.
By the time the end of June had rolled around, the five Slytherins and Hermione Granger had been nearly inseparable. If someone had told Hermione even a year earlier that she would have been joining the group of snakes, she would have laughed herself silly. However, with the better half of a year spent in their company, and without harry and Ron at her side as both boys had decided to forego their final year and take Kingsley up on his offer to join the Aurors right away, that was exactly what had happened.
A night of revelry and drinking had been spent at Nott Manor, newly cleansed of all dark magic and artifacts now that Theo's father was in Azkaban and the home and title of Lord Nott belonged solely to Theo. The following morning, the six of them had woken up in various places around Theo's expansive sitting room, had taken several Pepper-Up Potions and Hangover Potions, then had set out to conquer the wizarding world…together.
Pansy and Theo had initially been rejected for the St Mungo's Healer's Program. After a scathing letter penned by Hermione had been sent to the head of the hospital, though, they had reconsidered.
After further consideration, we have decided that due to your excellent academic performance at Hogwarts and your N.E.W.T. scores in Herbology, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, we would be delighted to welcome you to the Healer's Program for this year.
If Pansy and Theo had suspected that Hermione had anything to do with the hospital's sudden reconsideration of their previously rejected applications, they never asked her about it and she never brought it up, either.
Daphne had indeed gone on to open her own shop in Diagon Alley and had quickly become the most demanded designer among the wizarding elite. Greengrass Couture was the premier name on every fashionable witch's lips and was the talk of Wizarding London.
Hermione and Blaise had completed their legal training together, both receiving their licenses in record time and creating their own practice within the DMLE. They had refused any and all requests of representation, however, both fully focused on their sole case: Draco Malfoy.
It had taken much longer than Hermione would have liked but finally, three years after Draco had been hauled off to Azkaban, she had at long last stumbled across the breakthrough that they needed. An obscure legal precedent from 1427 had been discovered in the pages of an ancient legal textbook that Hermione had borrowed from Nott Manor's expansive library.
She had burst into their shared office in the DMLE that morning, face glowing as she grinned widely in triumph. Blaise, quite familiar with her moods after two and a half years of friendship, knew immediately that her victorious smile boded well for them…for Draco.
"What did you find, Hermione?" he asked her, pushing away the book that he had been poring over before she had barged through the door.
She didn't answer him, merely turned the book in her hands until he could read the words before dropping the book onto his desk with a heavy thud.
Antonin Beamish v The Wizard's Council
In 1427, Antonin Beamish was brought before The Wizard's Council on charges of attempted murder. Upon further investigation, via both witness testimonies and memory analysis, it was decided that Beamish was to be found not guilty of his actions, due to the fact that he had been coerced into participation in Alasdair Umfrey's attempted usurpation of the Wizard's Council's authority over Wizarding England.
As Beamish had been 16 at the time, it was decided that he should be tried as a child and thus, was found not guilty due to the extreme duress he had been placed under: Umfrey had Beamish's betrothed under arrest and had threatened her life should Beamish not obey his instructions to kill Chieftainess Annora Fawley, allowing Umfrey to take her position as head of the Wizard's Council. Upon…
Blaise looked up from the text, not bothering to continue reading: a blinding smile spread across his own face at the words on the page in front of him. Hermione's brown eyes twinkled in victory, just as they did any time she successfully achieved a goal. Blaise pushed back from his desk and raced around to the front, grabbing up the petite witch in a huge bear hug and spinning her around. Hermione's laugh echoed through their shared office and when Blaise finally set her back on her feet, she stumbled, slightly dizzy from the larger boy spinning her in circles.
"Come on!" Blaise said, rushing back around his desk to grab the robes that he had hung on the coat hook earlier that day and shrugging them on. "We have to tell the others!"
Hermione nodded, grabbing her own belongings and the heavy tome on Blaise's desk. Before she followed him from the room, she summoned her Patronus, sending the otter bounding off to Pansy, Theo, and Daphne with messages to meet them right away at her house.