On Thursday morning, Hermione took the stand and told the courts that Bellatrix Lestrange was dead. There was an uproar, but Shrapley only raised his brows while Ogden pounded the gavel and called the court to order. The court went into recess to review her memory, and when Hermione stood to escape the glares and murmurs, even Fleur stared like she'd never seen her before.

Two hours later, Hermione was back on the witness stand, a hundred eyes bearing down on her. She kept her story to the simplest version of the truth — "Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini chose not to attend the arena match, and Bellatrix Lestrange confronted us on the Wooden Bridge" — and when Shrapley prodded her on why Bellatrix wanted to kill her, she'd responded, "She said I'd poisoned him, and that his weak, lovesick heart would destroy his family."

Cutting through the crowd's gasps, Shrapley asked how Blaise had assisted.

"Draco Malfoy had an urgent commitment in Romania, and Blaise volunteered to cover for him. He concealed Bellatrix's body in the Forbidden Forest with the help of Pansy Parkinson."

The buzzing grew louder. Shrapley gave her the slightest dip of his chin.

He knew about the Horcrux, of course. After viewing the memory of Bellatrix's death in Lucius's Pensieve together, he'd leveled her with a look that had the truth tumbling out of her. Hermione had drawn sharp breaths to explain why she wanted to omit it from Blaise's defense, and how Blaise had agreed. Shrapley had carefully responded that he agreed with her decision, if exonerating Draco was of interest — and after confirming that he would be able to represent Draco in his trial, he submitted a motion to suppress the part of her memory where Blaise had told her and Draco to "go off and kill whatever they needed to kill." The Secretariat's office had agreed it was irrelevant to Blaise's case.

President Ogden called for order, and Shrapley waited until the room was deadly quiet. "To your knowledge, Miss Granger, where was Bellatrix Lestrange headed?"

"To assassinate the Hungarian Minister."

"No further questions, Mr. President," said Shrapley, and he took his seat amidst the whispers.

The Italian Prosecutor cross-examined her with barely-suppressed fury. He fired off question after question, all of which were met with swift objections from Shrapley. After six sustained objections, the Prosecutor gave up, glaring daggers into Hermione's skin as she exited the witness stand.

Blaise testified in his own defense on Thursday afternoon. The court spent all afternoon bickering over his memories, with Shrapley making the case that his arrival in Italy had directly followed the threat to himself, his mother, and their associates. The Prosecution focused on Blaise's presence during the murder of several members of the Bravieri administration.

The court opened on Friday with the announcement that Bellatrix Lestrange's body had been successfully located in the Forbidden Forest. They took all day to deliberate, and when one of the five judges stood and read out Blaise's sentence of sixteen months in Azkaban, Hermione felt her chest crack in two. Shrapley had long told her that a year was the best possible outcome. The Prosecutors had pushed for twenty.