[HP] Three thousand days of innocence

Kingsley looked at the official sitting next to him in surprise—she knew that this person was none other than Hiram Kincaid, Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic.Now that she had discovered the connection, she couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed the similarities between the father and son before.Simon inherited Hiram's dark eyes, but Simon's eyes were always full of warmth and joy, while his father's eyes were cold and serious.Slender straight nose, strong chin—exactly the same.Even their voices are nearly identical, though Hiram's Scottish accent is less pronounced.

"Deputy Minister," said Kingsley slowly, "this young man is your—"

"He's not my son," Hiram said angrily, staring at Simon.

Several officials looked at the two of them, and they must have seen the similarities between them, just like Ginny.

"Children can't choose their parents." Simon said painfully to Kingsley. "Similarly, parents cannot choose their children."

"This is the court," Kingsley called. "I need a direct answer. Is this man the son of Deputy Minister Kincaid?"

"The argument is easily settled," said one wizard angrily. "He'll be in many national records: his birth certificate, Hogwarts report card, permission to Apparate—"

"My witnesses are Squibs, sir," Ginny interrupted. "But he still has the birth certificate. I found it with some trouble and can present a copy to the Chief Wizard."

Kingsley immediately waved her forward, and Ginny took the faded parchment she had dug out a week ago. "Everything is in order." He read the document on behalf of the Wizengamot. "Simon Dubuggle Mackintosh Sinclair Kincaid, born in Belohanty, Scotland, son of Hiram and Coim Sinclair Kincaid?"

"Yes, it's me," Simon said.

Kingsley gave Hiram a strange look, but said nothing.Ginny turned to Simon, who ignored them and gave Draco a coy look.As John Palmer said, abandonment of Squibs is a common occurrence in the wizarding world, so no one was surprised by Simon's parentage.However, the situation is quite different in the face of Hiram's blatant resistance to the eldest son.All the officials sitting on the benches were embarrassed and didn't know what to do.

"The identity of this person is true," Kingsley said. "He is in the immediate family of a member of the Wizengamot, which deserves attention. Deputy Minister?"

"Oh?" said Hiram coldly.

"If you fear a conflict of interest that prevents you from being impartial, you may withdraw from the trial—"

"That's not a problem," Hiram told him, arranging his expensive robes haughtily. "I'm not going, Chief Wizard."

During their brief exchange, Simon had been staring at a spot on Kingsley's bench, clenching and releasing his hands, breathing evenly.Ginny's heart was on him, but she had no words of comfort.That's what he meant when he told her he was worried about losing control: Hiram hated him.Although Simon casually told Ginny that he had been kicked out of the house, in her view, 14 years later, it still caused him great pain.

"Okay," Kingsley said.Ginny thought she heard a hint of regret in his voice. "Lawyer Weasley," he continued to address her gravely. "Your witnesses are called to testify against the Wizengamot now."

Ginny nodded, then turned to Simon again.Dressed in Scottish finery, he sat tall and straight on a high-backed chair, looking like a young king.She really couldn't understand how anyone could turn their back on someone who exudes charisma like him.

"Mr. Kincaid." Ginny walked towards him. "Let's start at the beginning. How did you know the accused?"

"I met him in Brighton seven years ago," he said. "We were introduced by the uncle of a mutual friend who said his name was Ben Hamilton. We have been living in a house in Earls Court, London, ever since."

Ginny nodded encouragingly, and took a step forward. "So, you have lived with him for seven years, so you should know him well."

"Yes." Simon muttered.

"How would you describe him as a person?"

He laughed. "He was a real jerk at first, wasn't he?" he said with a smirk.He looked at Draco, who laughed too. "He's so cocky, we're no match. Johnny - that's our other roommate - Johnny told me to get to know us before I do anything reckless, but I've never been sharp people."

"No, you are." Ginny heard Draco whisper, his voice so small that the Wizengamot didn't hear it.There was an affectionate smile on his pale face.

"I played a trick on him," said Simon proudly. "Tell him to put down his airs. When he gets it figured out, the three of us will get along just fine. You won't meet anyone better than him."

"Is your opinion of him based on ignorance of his past?" Ginny pressed.

"Know nothing," he said. "We don't know where this boy is from. We just believe what we saw with our own eyes, he's a good guy, a decent guy."

Ginny's heart rose to her throat.How could they want to keep Draco out of this kind of life? "Mr. Kincaid," she went on, "during the time you've known Draco Malfoy—that is, Ben Hamilton—has he exhibited antisocial behavior?"

"Never," said Simon, shaking his head vigorously. "He didn't even evade fares on the subway, and he didn't litter anywhere. He was a model citizen."

"Are you surprised to hear that he has been charged with so many crimes?"

"Of course!" cried Simon, pounding hard on the arm of the chair with his fist. "If that lad over there—" he said, pointing at Draco, "—really kills someone, I'll eat my plaid, and I will."

Ginny immediately took the opportunity to ask, "So you don't believe Draco Malfoy would have committed these crimes?"

Simon shook his head. "No offense, man," he said, turning to Draco, "but I don't think you would hurt someone on purpose. We played football once and he hit a friend of ours in the nose with the ball. It was an accident, of course. There was blood everywhere, and Draco was in such a panic that it took us hours to calm him down." Simon looked up at Kingsley and the Wizengamot, his chin lifted. "I don't think Draco Malfoy would kill or hurt anyone," he said. "He's more like my brother than my family. I'd die for him."

Ginny blinked in surprise.She hadn't expected him to make such a heartfelt statement.Neither did Draco, as he looked at Simon with tears in his eyes, momentarily forgetting his criminal trial.

"No more questions," she said. "It's your turn, prosecutor."

She returned to her seat and Harper stood up, smoothing his gray robes. "Thank you, Mr. Weasley." He nodded.Ginny wondered if she was the only one who heard the haughty tone of voice when he said the word "lawyer," but she saw Draco give him a dark look.Apparently she's not alone.

"Mr. Kincaid," said Harper with his hands behind his back. "You mentioned a ga football accident?"

Simon rolled his eyes unabashedly. "Football," he corrected.

"Yes, yes." Harper waved his hand and continued. "Football. You say this Mr. Malfoy hit a man in the face with a rugby ball and the lad suffered and upset him."

"Yes." Simon replied.

Ginny suddenly felt furious, but she didn't know why.Harper sees something in Simon's testimony - but Simon still seems reassured.Surely he would have foreseen the questioning of him and prepared for it?Can she trust him like that?

"So he hurt people - no matter how it happened - and regretted it very much afterwards," Harper concluded, looking up at the Wizengamot. "This court has established that Mr. Malfoy suffers from what is known as dissociative fugue, a form of fugue caused by emotional and mental trauma." He rubbed his fingers to his temple thoughtfully. "Isn't that very much in the mold established by Mr. Kincaid? On the night of the Battle of Hogwarts, Mr. Malfoy killed Colin Creevey, tortured Padma Patil, and then It’s entirely possible that he’s ashamed of his behavior and then goes into what’s called a fugue state. He’s doing more harm than he’s doing to someone else unintentionally, so he’s reacting more strongly.”

"I object," said Ginny loudly. "My defendant has not been convicted—"

"Rejected," Kingsley said. "The prosecution makes a good point," the Wizengamot said excitedly, seeming to agree.

"Don't you agree, Mr. Kincaid?" Harper demanded.

Simon smiled. "Mr Harper," he said, mimicking Harper, "this conclusion is based on the fact that Draco Malfoy did cast the Killing Curse. I don't believe it's true. No offense, man," he added.

"You've heard the other charges too," cried Harper. "He used the Imperius Curse on an unarmed woman. One step from control to murder."

"Really?" Simon asked with wide eyes.He rested his elbows on the arm of the chair, fingers interlaced. "Have you cast the Imperius Curse, Mr. Harper?"

"It's illegal," Harper mocked. "Of course I didn't."

"I've seen people cast the Imperius Curse," Simon said bluntly. "He was nine years old and had his brother's wand. He heard the spell mentioned and decided to try it on me."

The Wizengamot was astonished.Ginny had no choice but to sit there and watch the scene in front of her.

"An untrained wizard - just a child - using someone else's wand, can cast the Imperius Curse like a prank," Simon said quietly. "Believe me, the spell is strong, I can't resist it. But this silly boy, he wants to use the Killing Curse on a beetle flying around his face. He wants the nasty thing to die, like He wants to control me, but he can't."

Harper was a little flustered. He said simply: "What does this have to do with this trial, Mr. Kincaid?"

"Not any wizard can cast the Killing Curse." Simon shrugged. "It doesn't matter how good you are, or how powerful your magic is."

"You're not a wizard yourself," Harper said contemptuously. "What right do you have to say that?"

Simon looked down at the floor. "I've seen the Killing Curse used before," he said softly.

Hiram, sitting on the bench, lunged forward suddenly, as if to silence his son.Ginny stared at him dumbfounded.Did Simon see him cast the Killing Curse?

"You have to really want someone to die for the spell to work," said Simon, eyes still fixed on the floor. "It's not the same thing as wanting the bugs out of your face, or wanting someone to disappear. You have to wish that person dead, non-existent. You have to firmly believe that person is wasting space— The great hatred is far beyond my imagination. I know it well."

After Simon's speech, the court was silent.John looked at him in horror; apparently, he hadn't heard the story before.Simon seemed to be out of a trance, he blinked and sat up straight in his seat.He looks at Harper. "So I don't think Draco can cast the Killing Curse," he said. "That's all I have to say."

"No more questions," Harper said flatly, returning to his seat.Before Kingsley could speak, Simon returned to his seat.

Ginny was distressed to note that Hiram Kincaid hadn't even glanced at his son.

"The defense will call the next witness." Kingsley said he was still shaken by Simon's testimony.

Ginny stood up again. "The defense called Lucius Malfoy to testify," she said.

Lucius stood up from the audience calmly as usual and walked towards the witness stand.The Wizengamots all stared at him like a flock of birds to the leader, and whispered to each other.Ginny took a few steps back to let him pass her, but instead of walking directly to the chair Simon was sitting in, he came to Draco's side.Ginny watched him look down in surprise, whispered something to his son, then patted him on the shoulder with uncharacteristic tenderness.

She understood immediately what he was doing.The court had just seen Hiram and Simon's dysfunctional relationship - Lucius made himself look like a good father by comparison, which would gain them a valuable advantage.If Ginny hadn't been reluctantly grateful for Lucius' performance, she would have rolled her eyes.

He finally sat down. "Mr. Malfoy." Ginny stood up straighter. "You're well aware of the ten charges against your son—now nine. Right?"

"Yes, I know." Lucius said coldly.

"However, the Wizengamot may not be aware that seven of these charges relate to the same instigator." She walked towards him. "Can you tell me about their relationship?"

Lucius looked up at the Wizengamot, his face twitched slightly, as if trying to hold back the arrogant sneer in the corners of his mouth and eyes. "After the events of the Department of Mysteries about eleven years ago," he began slowly, "Riddle...was very unhappy with me." He swallowed and shifted in his seat. "In his opinion, I had failed. As punishment for me, he turned to my son Draco - my only child - and asked him to do the impossible: kill Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore."

As in these days, there were angry murmurs at the mention of Dumbledore's death.Lucius waited until the audience's attention fell on him again. "And," he went on, "Riddle threatened Draco that if he failed like me, my wife and I would be killed in front of him. He was only sixteen."

Draco was shaking violently in his chair, and Ginny knew he must be thinking of the sinister, snake-like Tom Riddle he remembered.

"Sixteen," repeated Ginny. "For a boy who is only 16 years old, it is too heavy to bear the life of his parents, his closest family members."

Lucius nodded stiffly.

"So he took on the impossible task that was set before him."

"What choice does he have?" Lucius called. "He had nowhere to run."

"How long did it take him to formulate his plan to kill Dumbledore?"

"The whole school year." Lucius calmed down a little. "Draco tried to curse him with a deadly necklace and had two men give it to him, but another student touched it first. Later, he tried poisoning a bottle of butterbeer, but it was misunderstood. Sent it to the Potions Master - your brother drank it." Ginny raised an eyebrow at Lucius, telling him not to belittle her family as usual - but he didn't. "Then, he repaired the Vanishing Cabinet and successfully smuggled Death Eaters into Hogwarts."

Ginny held up her hands to the Wizengamot as Lucius recounted that dreadful year, finger after finger, until she had seven. "Seven of the remaining nine charges," she told the court. "These things were done under the coercion of the most evil wizard who ever lived. The defendant was underage." She turned to Lucius again. "What was your son's attitude toward Death Eaters before he was forced to commit these horrific acts?"

Lucius snorted. "Like everything else he doesn't fully understand, he thinks being a Death Eater is—what's the word? 'Awesome.'" Lucius smiled derisively, looking at his son regretfully. At a glance, Ginny wondered if he was playing tricks. "He'd beg me to tell him what they were doing, what they were going to do. But when he was forced into their company and Riddle started to notice him, he soon realized it wasn't what he thought it would be. "

"He only wanted to be a Death Eater because you—his father—was a Death Eater," said Ginny, and it occurred to her suddenly.

"Yes." Lucius said.

Ginny paused for a moment, walking from one side of the courtroom to the other, giving the Wizengamot time to absorb what Lucius had just said. "Let's go on," she said at last. "I believe you have our first piece of evidence?"

"Yes."

Ginny looked at Kingsley. "Mr Malfoy will now present to the Wizengamot the wand of his late wife Narcissa Malfoy."

Kingsley gestured to him, and Lucius took from the inside pocket of his robes the ebony wand case he had shown Ginny earlier.He put the box on his lap, unfastened the latch, and drew from it a slender, elegant wand.It looked out of place in Lucius' large hands.

"Mr Malfoy," said Ginny, "your son was in his seventh year at Hogwarts - what wand did he use?"

"His own, the hawthorn wand he got when he was 11 years old. My son used my wife's wand until around Easter when Harry Potter took it away. This one. "

"So he was using this wand the night Colin Creevey was murdered and Padma Patil was attacked?" said Ginny.

"Yes." Lucius said.

Draco kept looking intently at the question.Hearing that he had used this wand not far away, he moved forward to get a better view of the wand.

"Would you like to flashback this wand and show us, Mr. Weasley?" said Kingsley.

"Yes," said Ginny.

"I'll have one of the Wizengamots do it. Ms. Sanderson?"

Ginny had expected it.A witch rose from her seat and came down the steps—Juliet Sanderson, the Ministry's foremost expert on wand techniques and theories.She had been Ollivander's apprentice for decades, and some say she knew more about wands than Ollivander.

Juliet walked up to Lucius, and he handed over Narcissa's wand without hesitation.Juliet waved her wand in the air, checking its flexibility. "Your wife used this wand after the Battle of Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Yes." Lucius said flatly.

"Then you'll have to read all the other spells cast in the past eight years. If the Wizengamot allows—" Juliet pointed at the floor with her wand and muttered a spell.A set of cups and saucers made of smoke clearly appeared - Narcissa's last spell was to heat a cup of tea.

"I'm not sure that this is Narcissa Malfoy's wand," said Juliet, "but I can say this: the owner of this wand was the last person to wield it. The last spell manifested was solid and clear , if it were someone else wielding the wand, depending on their powers, the picture would be more difficult to discern. Now I'll try to go back to the night of the incident."

The witch cast another strange spell, and the teacup turned into a thick purple curtain, which turned into a blanket.The pictures on the floor changed so quickly that Ginny could hardly tell them apart.They are constantly shifting, like a Muggle film silently recounting a life story.

Not long after, the picture of Colin Creevey dying on the ground suddenly appeared in front of her eyes.

Ginny was surprised to find that she had forgotten what he looked like.Although his limbs are now bent at unnatural angles, she still remembers that he always holds a camera in one hand, ready to sneak or take pictures of beautiful scenery at any time.His blond hair fell over his forehead—he kept pushing it out of front of his eyes as he spoke, flailing his arms wildly.

When the body appeared, people reacted immediately.Molly, who had always liked Colin, turned and clutched Bill's shoulders, staring at the bench behind her.John closed his eyes and bowed his head; Simon looked pitiful.Victoire buried her face in Bill's chest and began to cry softly.

"What do you think of that, Ms. Sanderson?" Kingsley asked.

"The caster of this spell is not the wand master," she said, studying the corpse with calm shrewd eyes.Ginny held back her grief and looked at the past: this picture is different from the teacup.She could see the texture of the stone floor through Colin's crumpled shirt and his hands.The color of the picture is even darker, as if it has been exposed to the sun for too long.

Dear Merlin, thought Ginny, clutching her robes tightly, she finally understood what this scene meant.

He really did.Draco killed Colin Creevey.