Canary Creams and New Yellow Paint - (DRARRY)

Chapter Thirty-One

The day of their trial comes too quickly for anyone's taste.

Everybody is there. The Wizengamot, the Magical Creatures Council, every member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, several top reporters, and even Pansy Parkinson, who is hiding near the back next to Astoria.

At the centre of the head table is Chieftess Gore. Her injuries seem to have healed just about as well as his have — which is to say: slowly and painfully.

She calls the room to order in a harsh, rasping voice. "If the plaintiffs could state their case, please."

He doesn't know the legal team representing the Ministry, only that, as they speak, he feels a snake of anticipation and dread coiling in his stomach.

"The defendants directly disobeyed Ministry orders, broke out of their confinement, incapacitated several Aurors, and set werewolves free on the night of the full moon with intent to harm. They have interfered with the legislation of the species known as Wallygagglers at every turn. They should be given a sentence of no less than one year in Azkaban or five years under house arrest."

"Thank you for that ... opinion. Now, the defendants."

They present everything from the very beginning — how the Wallygagglers contacted them and asked for help, all their efforts to develop a solution on their own, the necessity of involving the court of public opinion, the desperation that led to their wards, how they escaped, and what they planned to do once they were out. Then, they outline their proposal for fixing this, starting with the information that, before long, the water could affect humans too.

An Auror is questioned first. "You left a werewolf without Wolfsbane locked in a house with ten wandless wizards on the night of the full moon?"

"No one told us!"

"That is negligence, Auror Kilgharrah. Teddy Lupin has been on the werewolf registry since 2004."

But they ask Teddy similar questions. "Why didn't you alert the Aurors?"

"I lost track of time while I was there. I didn't know it was almost the full moon. Then, once we were out, it was so cloudy from all the rain that I just didn't think about it."

"So you're certainly not blameless here either, are you?"

They don't allow Teddy to comment, but the reporters eat the words up.

Draco is next.

"This seems very convenient, doesn't it?" Gore asks. "Perhaps a cover-up for the malfunctions with your prostheses."

"Plenty of people saw the Wallygagglers when they were at the moor. That should count as definitive proof."

"And yet, while locked away, wandless, your patients suffered no symptoms. Their prostheses returned to normal. As soon as you got your wand back, it seems, the problems began anew, and the pattern repeated once your wand was in Auror possession a second time. What do you have to say about that?"

The court positively riots.

"The ward we put up kept all Wallygaggler magic contained. Both times."

"Once my Ministry colleagues arrived at the moor, they found no evidence of Wallygaggler habitation."

"They'd gone underground. But there was still a stack of their rocks left above."

"Like I said: convenient, isn't it?"

"Half the people here saw them with their own eyes!"

"Are you not magically inclined, Mr Malfoy? Would conjuring a wispy phantasm be completely out of your ability? Surely you remember that we were not allowed across the stream to touch..."