Hermione's Trial

The Muggle Born Registration Committee

It was over. They had lost. Voldemort had succeeded in killing Harry, but they had managed to kill the snake, whatever small triumph that was now…
"Granger, Hermione!" An annoying, toad-like voice called from a dark room.
Hermione stood up calmly from the group of muggle-borns shivering uncontrollably in the waiting room. After the fight at Hogwarts, Bellatrix had been all but delighted for Hermione to go to trial, not to mention that Voldemort had been furious with her and Ron for knowing his secret. Either way, both of them were as good as dead.
Hermione brushed by the dementors, a pleasant smile set firmly across her lips. The thought that she would soon get to see Harry again could not be stolen from her by these foul creatures.
She walked into the courtroom; head held high, and smiling. She gave a small wave to Dolores Umbridge, who looked thunderous at the sight of her.
"Hermione Jean Granger." She hissed.
"Dolores." Hermione nodded, taking a seat in the chained chair, but kicking away the manacles when they tried to snag her.
"A wand was taken from you upon your arrival at the Ministry today. Is this your wand?"
She held up a small, vile looking wand that Hermione instantly recognized as Bellatrix's.
"No." She replied truthfully, leaning back comfortably in the chair; again smacking away a chain.
"You admit to having stolen this wand?"
"Stolen?" Hermione scoffed, "Hardly. Harry, Ron, and I won it from her months ago at Malfoy Manor. This was after she'd repeatedly used the Crusiatous Curse on me. No, you'll find my wand with one of your loyal snatchers."
"You're lying." Umbridge sniffed, her eyes bugging out of her head like an angry toad.
"If you say so." Hermione replied evenly, "But what reason do I have for lying?"
"I prefer if I'm the one asking the questions!" Umbridge snapped, her voice raising an octave.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Now then, what I'd like to know, as I'm sure the entire court would also like to hear, is what witch or wizard you killed in order to acquire your magic."
Hermione knit her brow in disgust.
"Did you seriously just ask me that?"
"I will be asking –"
"Are you people really that dense?"
"Shut up you filthy Mudblood!" A Death Eater spat, but Hermione continued any way.
"You idiots would've benefited from a Muggle Studies class, or at least one that focused on biology."
"I said shut –"
"If you had taken such a course," Hermione continued loudly, you would've studied something called genetics." Fuming, she stood up, and began to pace, ignoring shouts and hisses of anger for her to keep her filthy body in its proper place, "Genetics are associated closely with DNA as the building blocks of all life forms. They're also extremely important when determining species."
"All Muggle bullshit." Dolores hissed.
"Oh I'd pay attention to the "muggle bullshit" if I were you Dolores. This will explain why you look like such a fat and ugly toad."
Umbridge's face purpled with rage, but Hermione swore she heard some appreciative stifled giggles, even from some of the Death Eaters present in the room.
"Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, when studying genetics, you study dominant and recessive genes. These are responsible for traits such as hair and eye color."
"Get to the point." Some one sneered.
"Well, it's obvious isn't it? Just like traits pertaining to looks, there's a magical gene present in those who have magical abilities."
"And?"
Hermione heaved an exasperated sigh.
"When wizards and Muggles have children, both sides pass on an even number of genes to the child. Therefore, the child has a fifty-fifty chance to become either a witch or wizard, or a muggle. The determining factor, however, is how dominant or recessive the gene is. However, just because the gene may present, does not by any means mean that the child will certainly be one of magical inheritance. On the contrary, there's times when the gene is merely dormant. But, as with the case of most muggle borns, the gene is activated resulting in a wizard child from a muggle family. This is likely due to a random mutation switching on and activating the genetic coding for this gene, but muggle scientists are still studying this. For those of you who this made no sense to, all in all, muggle borns are a result of a recessive gene that suddenly became dominate in their birth." She finished, staring down each and every witch and wizard in the courtroom.
"If you are done spouting off nonsense," Umbridge snarled, "We are here to try you on your crimes against the Wizarding World."
Hermione laughed again.
"Believe what you will, Dolores, but Charles Darwin, a secret wizard during the eighteen-hundreds, by the way, was the one to first make note and study this, so unless it's so beneath you, I implore you to re-examine his works."
"Maybe a nice kiss from a dementor would shut your filthy trap!" Umbridge shrieked. Her anger was so great, her patronous had ceased to exist.
"I'm sure it would." Hermione smiled pleasantly, "But at least I'll have gotten a kiss. I can't imagine any one who would wish to kiss you."
Dolores reached suddenly into her pink robes, drawing her wand in a fit of range.
"I wouldn't do that either." Hermione said calmly. She hadn't even flinched, "I think you'll find a note in my file there from Voldemort ordering the he be given the opportunity to off me himself."
Seething with anger, Umbridge rummaged through her file, finally stopping at a sheet of parchment. Her eyes narrowed as she read it, disappointment plain on her amphibian face.
"Take her away." Umbridge snapped, stuffing her wand back into her robes.
The dementors instantly swept forward to pull her away, but Hermione focused on her thoughts of seeing Harry. The courage that swelled from her caused the dementors to recoil, allowing her to leave the courtroom leisurely. At a distance, they followed her through the door.
Upon exiting, Hermione was met with the unpleasant sight of Bellatrix Lestrange.
"That will do." Bellatrix said venomously to the dementors, her cold eyes fixed on Hermione. The dementors left immediately, leaving Hermione in the presence of her least favorite Death Eater.
SLAP. Bellatrix's hand had shot from her side, catching Hermione on the cheek.
"YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD!" She roared, grabbing a fistful of Hermione's hair and throwing her roughly into the nearest wall, "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY WAND! AND HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THE DARK LORD'S NAME!"
Hermione gasped as Bellatrix's boot connected with her ribs.
"You'll get what's coming for you." Bellatrix whispered dangerously, picking her up by the hair and causing her neck to arch painfully, "You'll soon be with your precious Potter!"
With that she yanked Hermione to her feet, and dragged her, cringing in pain, down the dark hallway.
Hermione was thrust roughly into a room were she was caught in a pair of strong familiar arms.
"The Dark Lord will be here soon, though I don't know why he bothers to waste his time on vermin like you!"
With that Bellatrix slammed the door behind her, the sound of her heels clicking across the stone.
"Ron!" Hermione gasped, relaxing into the wizard holding her. Now that they were near the end she could let her guard down.
"Hermione." He smiled.
She turned to look at him, but the room was so dark she could barely make out the silhouette of his face. Resigning to this fact, she wrapped her arms around him, and felt his strong arms around her too.
"How did they treat you?" Ron asked referring to her trial.
"Horribly, but I didn't expect any less." She replied, "But I gave them a long lecture on biology."
"On what?"
Hermione peeled away from the hug to press her lips to Ron's.
"Muggle stuff." She grinned.
Ron kissed her in return.
"You can tell me all about it when we see Harry."
"I will." Hermione promised, "How did they treat you?"
Hermione felt Ron grimace.
"The whole lot of them loath my family. To be honest, I'm surprised Voldemort let them off alive, but, they, well; they didn't even allow me to say goodbye. I put up a huge struggle. I've got a nasty bump on the back of my head and a cut under my eye, but other than that, they knew they couldn't kill me."
"I'm so sorry." Hermione whispered.
"I'm fine." Ron assured her.
The door creaked forbiddingly as it was opened, and in stalked the Dark Lord himself.
Ron's grip around Hermione's waist tightened.
"Such a pity." Voldemort said softly, though his cold red eyes showed no remorse, "Such a waste. I dare say I was impressed with your trial, Mudblood. Brains like yours would've served me well."
"If you're going to kill us then hurry up with it." Ron snapped. Neither he nor Hermione had any interest in what Voldemort would've had them do.
"Weasly, do you really want your death to come so soon? You should be grateful. I'm being merciful to those who sought and destroyed my treasures."
"We don't want your mercy!" Hermione snapped, "Hurry up and kill us the way you killed Harry!"
"Such a pity." Voldemort said again, "You two would've been valuable assets."
Ignoring him, Ron hugged Hermione tighter.
"I love you." He whispered as the two of them were engulfed in a flash of green light.