Like Gold

Neville Longbottom's house was a beautiful Tudor house nestled in the Norfolk countryside, surrounded by ancient woodlands and broads, but it was also the place where Ernie would first see Hannah, Neville and Clary after the battle, Daphne was also there, and Ernie was pleased to see her looking so well. The last time he had seen them it had been just after the Battle when they had all said their goodbyes to James; he had last seen Daphne before she was arrested.

“I can’t believe it’s the trial tomorrow,” Clary spoke; they were all sat in Neville’s garden on an old picnic table he had in his garden, not far away from the greenhouse he had been in not moments before with Hannah before they arrived. “I can’t even imagine how they are allowed to try and defend what Pansy did.”

“I don’t think it will be a very strong defence,” Daphne reassured her girlfriend, “and I know you’re a key part of the prosecution, but you’ll be under veritaserum, so just go with your instincts and the truth of what she did will come out and then if they have a conscience they’ll have to give her the sentence she deserves.”

“Dad warned me.” Ernie stated, “That the things they would say in the defence wouldn’t be nice to hear.” Everybody looked over at him. He hadn’t spoken much since he arrived.

“Did he say what?” Hannah asked.

“No…” Ernie admitted, “I-I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

Hannah then wiped her eyes off the tears that had gathered there. “It’s the fact we haven’t been told anything. Just that Clary has been called as a witness, and when all this stuff happens, we have no idea if she’ll even get justice even though I hope above anything she does… I hate it…” Hannah cried.

“I hate it too,” Clary admitted, placing her hand on top of Hannah’s in support. “But this is the way it should be done.”

“There’s something else as well…” Hannah admitted. “Yesterday, my family got a visit from the minister of magic… it turns out someone has confessed to my mother’s murder.”

Ernie felt his mouth fall open. Hannah’s mother had been murdered almost two years before, and they never knew who had done it. Hannah had to take months off school, and Ernie knew she hadn’t been the same since the horrific incident. How could she be? He still remembers that day they all found out; he remembers how he and James clung to each other in the courtyard because they both knew what this would mean for their friend and how dreadful it was.

“It was Thorfinn Rowle…” Hannah said, “H-He’s on trial tomorrow too…”

“Are you all right, Hannah?” Clary asked.

“I-I suppose… I-I still can’t believe it…” Hannah responded, her voice breaking. “Well, I can… I-I knew someone out there murdered her…just not who… now we know…”

“Gosh, Hannah…” Ernie whispered, “We’ll all be with you tomorrow during it if it helps…”

Hannah nodded but maintained eye contact. “We’ll all be with each other tomorrow. No matter what.”

They all nodded in unison; they all needed each other more than ever. That night they were all to stay over at Neville’s house purely because it was more convenient to get to London than from the very top of Scotland, Devon or the North; after that, Justin was to meet them in the statue in the ministry before making their way down to the courtrooms in the Department of Mysteries. Ernie liked that plan because it meant that he would be around his friends before the hardest day he would have before the funeral. During their conversation, Adeline mentioned they were planning it for the end of May; therefore, it would be a couple of weeks. Ernie half dreaded that day, but the other half knew he needed to go as going would be part of letting go. It was these thoughts that kept him awake. So, he made his way to the kitchen to get a drink, carefully traversing around the house so that he wouldn’t wake anybody up; however, it appeared that he wasn’t the only one awake. Clary was also up, toying with a glass of water at the kitchen table.

“Clary.” Ernie said; she turned to look at him and lit up her wand so that she was no longer sitting in the darkness.

“Sorry, Ernie, I couldn’t sleep,” Clary admitted.

“I couldn’t either,” Ernie replied, sitting beside her at the table. “A week ago, all I did was sleep. Now I’m somehow the opposite.”

“I think after we recovered sleep-wise from the battle, all of what’s happened has hit us, so we stay awake.” Clary suggested, “Fair enough, really… considering all of it… half our friends have been murdered… my dormmate is on trial for murder… I and my girlfriend being witnesses… Han’s mum’s murderer has finally been unmasked… we’re just fucking kids… we’re not even 18 yet, Ernie…”

“It’s pretty fucking awful, isn’t it… Jem wasn’t even 18… neither was Sue…it’s just so messed up…” Ernie confessed. “I remember the day Cedric Diggory died like better than yesterday… I thought about how horrible it was and remembered how badly it hit everyone in Hufflepuff, thinking that the pain I felt then was the worst it would be… never would I have imagined how wrong I would be… I feel like I’m suffocating half the time…”

“I feel like that too.” Clary said with a pause in the middle, “I wish I had been there…for him, you know…P-Padma told me h-he was looking for me before he-” Clary began to choke on her words "before he found you a-and...that's why I know it was all my fucking fault...that's why Sue died too because I crashed that broomstick into that tower... and made everyone think I was dead... even Jem..."

“No... Clary...I-I think he was more distracted by me in that moment and...There was nothing that could’ve been done…” Ernie sighed, as he was once again forced to recall that moment. “It was already too late by the time I-I got there… the only thing that would’ve changed is that you would’ve s-seen it… and I wish… I wish I hadn’t… because it was…”

Clary looked like she was holding back tears when she replied, “Y-you’re saying that you don’t think it was my fault… s-so maybe he wouldn’t h-have been scared about what happened to me o-or realise what was about to happen…”

“Maybe…” Ernie said, “I hope so…”

Ernie knew he would never know what was going through Jem's head during those fateful last seconds but what he did know was that look on his face, he hoped at that moment he was so happy to see him that he forgot about his worry for Clary and that he didn't figure out what was about to happen. God, he hoped not... could he have sensed his fate... did he know those were his last seconds on earth?

“I suppose we’ll never know… I-I think, or I hope, that Sue didn’t feel l-like that ether… that she didn’t h-have time to process what was about to happen…” Clary acknowledged.

“Y-you said that even you didn’t realise Pansy had done that…until it was too late, right… s-so my guess is s-she didn’t, but again I suppose we’ll never know…” Ernie guessed.

“No… I know that Susan… D-do you ever think we’ll recover from this, Ernie?” Clary asked.

“You recover all right.” Augusta Longbottom said she was wearing her white nighty and red dressing gown. It seemed she either couldn’t sleep, too, or they were being too loud. “However, you will never be the same people you were before this all happened, I told Neville this, and I thought that the advice would do you some good.”

“Y-You really think so…” Clary asked. “I-I thought if… we defeated Voldemort, everything would have gone back to how it was…”

It was a dream they all shared; he remembered when they first started up the DA again on that first night; they got back to Hogwarts, Neville said they had to fight because they didn’t want Voldemort to take over, and if he were to take over their lives would never be the same again, so, therefore, he hoped that fighting would make everything go back to how it was but the fact of the matter it didn’t. Ernie lost the most important thing in the world to him that night.

“Clary, nothing will ever be the same again; I lost my son and his wife when I thought the war was over. I had to raise my grandson alone, and the way I dealt with that inevitably hurt Neville in very unintended ways. You will both get close to people again and look back on what happened, you’ll feel guilty about getting close to them, and you’ll feel guilt for surviving or anything really… to this day, I don’t forgive myself for not visiting my son when I was supposed to that Sunday morning had I done that I may have been able to stop them despicable beasts from doing what they did… but I did not.” Augusta breathed.

“B-but you may not have been able to stop them,” Ernie spoke softly.

“That’s very true, but the thought has been with me these 16 years.” Augusta said, “You two should try and get some sleep; I shall give you some sleep potion. It will do you some good.”

She handed both himself and Clary some of the purple liquid he had come all too familiar with during the past couple of weeks. Ernie quietly made his way back to Neville’s room, where they were all pretty much sleeping on the floor except Neville and Hannah, who managed to fit into Neville’s single bed. Clary made her way back to her air mattress, where she sat down quietly and rewrapped her arms around Daphne, she didn’t take her potion, but Ernie, who wanted relief, downed his. He didn’t want to think about the fact that he couldn’t retreat into his boyfriend's arms like Clary had with Daphne.

***
“Today is a historic day; today shall be the criminal hearings for convicted Death Eaters and accomplices who committed atrocities during the second wizarding war. Their crimes are as severe and inhumane. As the first wizarding war, but for their victims and their families and friends, these crimes will be heard, and justice will prevail. There is no hiding behind a mask, there is no hiding behind their powerful master they all face their fellow wizards and witches and…”

Ernie did want to listen to the speech that the judge was giving; however, he had no desire to. He seemed too optimistic when he didn’t know that everyone who committed these crimes would be put to justice. The trials were pronounced as open; it was held in a massive makeshift courtroom, probably because all the people wanted to be in attendance, and all the press, the barristers and the jury. The first people that were committed to trial were some accomplices like the snatchers. Who had hunted down muggle-borns and interned them in Azkaban; they, however, were charged for some pretty messed up things they did to some of their prisoners that Ernie tried not to listen to. He could feel Justin flinching beside him as they attempted to explain themselves. To say it was worse than what they went through at Hogwarts would be an understatement. They were all handed hefty prison sentences.

“Call Pansy Ambretta Parkinson to the stands…” called the judge. Pansy climbed up into the box; she looked very different to the smug girl who had been strutting around the school during the last year; she looked tired with massive bags underneath her eyes, her hair was matted, and she was noticeably thinner. “You have been accused of the murder of Susan Amelia Bones. How do you answer this charge?”

“Not Guilty,” Pansy said

There were some angry shouts in the audience who knew what she had done, and they jeered at her arrogant dismissal of the crime she had so clearly committed.

“You deny murdering Susan Amelia Bones with the killing curse on May 2nd 1998.”

“I don’t deny that,” Pansy smirked. “I just deny that it was murder.”

“What do you mean by that statement?”

“It wasn’t murder if it was ordered. Is Harry Potter being charged with the murder of the Dark Lord? No? Where are all the trails for the murdered Death Eaters? Oh wait, there isn’t, is there? That’s because had we won; you would be on trial, not us.”

The audience jeers at Pansy, who stands there with a blank expression.

“Do you deny you did it to qualify as Death Eater?”

“I don’t. I wanted to impress someone I cared about very deeply. I wanted to marry this person. I had loved him since I was thirteen and saw an opportunity to carry out this task, so I took the opportunity. Come to think of it, I should’ve killed the other person standing there.”

“Who was this individual?”

“Clarissa Mackay. That harlot who strutted around the castle with her freaky group of friends, the same group responsible for a campaign of immature pranks over the past year… she fucked two girls in the same year… you know I don’t want her to get her moment in court she inevitably wants… I murdered Susan Amelia Bones… I wish I had murdered them both… I heard James Butler died, too, but I wish it had been Mackay instead or, better, the both of them… then they could’ve been besties in hell…”

Ernie breathed inward… he never expected Jem’s name to leave her horrid mouth in her crazed speech about Clary. Perhaps Pansy had gone mad in internment because her defence barrister looked positively baffled; perhaps they had made a plan, and Pansy had gone off the rails.

“Petal…” Neville whispered

“Shut the fuck up…” Clary screamed; out of nowhere, she had been waiting to take her stand; she hadn’t expected Pansy to do just admit she killed Susan. That way, Clary wouldn’t be needed to take the stand to prove Pansy had done it. “You have no right to speak their names…YOU FUCKING BITCH…” Daphne had also come out from nearby and grabbed Clary to pull her back; not like she would’ve jumped on Pansy, but she looked like she could kill. If she weren’t careful, she would be arrested for contempt of court, which wasn’t something any of them wanted. However, had Ernie not been petrified to his seat, he would’ve felt the same way as Clary had. Pansy was absolutely irate.

Hannah had begun to weep… “I-It could’ve been all of y-you… sh-she almost killed…”

“It’s all right, petal… we’re here, we’re all here…” Neville reassured; Ernie, not wanting to see Hannah upset, decided to look down, hearing how distressed she was enough.

“J-Jem isn’t h-here…w-we’re not all here anymore Nev…” Hannah cried. “Susan… she should be here too…”

“SILENCE!” The judge yelled, and the chamber descended into taciturnity again.

A member of the Jury stood up. “Based on the handwritten statements of the witness and the admission of the defendant, we find Pansy Ambretta Parkinson guilty of first-degree murder.”

Hannah’s cries could still be heard in the background as the judge sentenced Pansy to life in prison. Neville had soon wrapped her into his arms again, and Justin kept rubbing circles on Ernie’s back. Pansy was handcuffed and taken away. She didn’t smile, but she wasn’t crying either. She looked completely dead to what she had done and where she was going for the rest of her life. But at least she was going to jail for life. She would never come out of Azkaban Prison.

“Do you guys want a break?” Justin asked; Hannah nodded profusely.

They shuffled out of their seats and into the extremely clean, black-tied corridor of the Ministry of Magic. Ernie only now noticed that he was shaking.

“You know when I imagined this… I never thought she would just straight up admit it…” Hannah cried, “But I’m glad it’s done now…”

“I didn’t expect her to say that…” Neville admitted, “But I think we all knew deep down she wanted to… she just didn’t…”

“I-It’s just hearing it, Nev… how she’s gloating about… I-I don’t want to think a-about what could’ve happened…”

“Han…” Clary whispered, coming from around the corner with Daphne and her parents close behind her. She embraced Hannah. “It didn’t happen… all right… That’s what matters…” Clary told her; Hannah nodded, and before long, Neville also joined them in a hug. Thorthinn Rowley's trial wouldn’t be until three, so after they had calmed down, they decided to head up into London for some coffee. They quickly found a small coffee shop; Clary explained she thought they needed good coffee on a day like this.

“I’m so tired.” Clary admitted to Ernie as they waited in the coffee shop, “After we went back to sleep last night, I didn’t sleep.”

“You didn’t take the potion?” Ernie asked, “How come?”

“I don’t know… I guess it reminds me of…him too much, you know, how he gave us those potions before the battle… the last thing he ever gave us was potions...” Clary sighed. “I couldn’t stomach drinking one of them… not at the moment.”

“But what if you’re in pain, Clary… he wouldn’t have wanted you to be in pain?” Ernie cried, “You’re tired. You didn’t sleep last night.”

“We’re all tired, Ernie…” Clary conceded, “And I-I’d rather be tired than dead… because apparently it could’ve gone that way if Pansy wasn’t such a coward.”

Ernie was about to reply when Hannah handed them their coffees. He hated how she was contemplating her own death; it was incredibly painful to him. She was told by her own dormmate that she wished she had murdered her instead of Susan, or better, both of them. From what he knew, Clary and Pansy had a thing going back to the first year, but he never thought Pansy would take it as far as she did. It was quite shocking how far things went in the end.

Before long, they found themselves, once again, sitting in the stands. This time, Clary and Daphne sat beside them, which Ernie was very pleased about since now that part of the day was finally over, the coffee had perked him up a bit energy-wise. It was then that they witnessed a broad man with long blonde hair and a shabby beard being brought up to the box. It was Thorfinn Rowle, the man who had murdered Hannah’s mum. Just staring at him sends a chill down Ernie’s spine.

“Thorfinn Apollonius Rowle, you are charged with the murder of Evelyn Abbott, Howard Bode, Katherine Bode, Fiona Bode, Jason Down, Geraldine Edmiston…”

The names of the people that he murdered seemed to go on forever; it must’ve been at least twenty people. Each of their names represented a family like Hannah’s that this man had torn apart. Sometimes, even whole families were listed by this one man, and he did this because Voldemort had told him to. It was something he did a lot; he had done it to Susan’s family, too. In the first wizard war, he had murdered all of them apart from Amelia and Susan. There were also other crimes, the use of unforgivable curses, torture, and other crimes a man like that would’ve committed. Any of his crimes weren’t a surprise. This man had already proven himself to be sick and twisted.

“How do you answer to these crimes?” the judge asked.

“What do you suppose.” He smirked.

“Do you admit to these crimes?”

“I do, and I would do them all again; they all deserved it.” Thorfinn smiled; Ernie looked at Hannah, who looked back at the man as cold as ever; this time, she didn’t cry or panic. She looked beyond tears, almost like seeing the man who killed her mother filled her with the most insane rage she had ever experienced. Neville once again had his arms around her, but she looked as though she didn’t feel them. She looked utterly numb.

“GIVE HIM THE DEATH PENALTY, HANG HIM…” someone from the audience spat at the Death Eater, who now smirked in the stands. Ernie looked over at them, he didn’t recognise them, but he felt their pain.

“Thorfinn Apollonius Rowle… you are sentenced to life in prison.”

The same voices screamed again; they demanded more than life in prison; they wanted to see this man executed for the crimes that he freely admitted to. Ernie was in a trance as Rowle was led away. Then Justin tapped him on the shoulder. the trial wasn’t over, but they knew then it was right to take their leave; Hannah didn’t need to see anymore. Ernie didn’t want to see anymore.

They found a corner in the Atrium that was quiet. Hannah was completely silent and cuddled as close to Neville as she physically could be, almost as if she was trying to hide behind him.

“I’m going to take Hannah home,” Neville said. Ernie nodded; he could see how much she needed to get out of there. “I’ll call.” With that, Neville led Hannah away.

"Do you guys want to come round mine?" Justin asked, "It's very close to London; I can call the car..."

"I want to go home, but thanks, Justin," Clary spoke. "We'll see each other soon won't we..."

Ernie nodded; perhaps he knew deep down what "soon" meant, but he didn't want it to be then. He never wanted "soon" to come. "Yeah." he agreed as she hugged him; Daphne also hugged him as they both walked off together.

"I need to go home too, Justin..." Ernie admitted, "Please..." Justin nodded, wrapping his arms around him. Ernie accepted the hug from his best friend. "Let's go home." Justin agreed. For the first time in those twenty-four hours, Ernie once again blinked his tears away.