Draco consented to the testing surprisingly quickly ("I told you he couldn't say no to me," Harry smiled smugly) but on the morning of the trial Mallory came to Harry with urgent look in his eyes.

"Potter, we've not got the samples back from the lab yet," he said. "They're due to arrive with the medical expert as evidence today - we won't get to see them first!"

"Fuck!" Harry swore, scuffing his foot into the ground. "They wouldn't even Owl you a report?"

Mallory shook his head. "Top secret information, apparently. They don't send that stuff by Owl. It's infuriating."

"Beyond infuriating," Harry glared, and let out a loud, aggravated sigh. "OK, well, we'll just have to do the best with what we've got. I'll be a good character reference, you be a good lawyer, hopefully we have nothing to worry about."

"Hopefully," Mallory smiled wryly. He was really getting to like this Potter kid. He had spark. He'd make a good lawyer himself one day if he chose to follow that path.

"Come on, then," he said, slapping an encouraging hand on Harry's back. "It's time."

***

The trial lasted hours.

New witnesses came and went; there were classmates of Harry's testifying either with stories of Draco's bullying or of his rare kinder acts, there were servants of the Manor, a couple of Professors, Draco's godparents, and then finally it was Harry's chance to speak.

A hush fell over the courtroom as he rose: everyone recognised him instantly. He'd made sure to act as a caricature of himself with big thick-lensed glasses and his black messy hair pushed back in just the right place to reveal his scar.

And Draco had been right, Harry was a symbol of the side of the Light. Who better to represent Draco Lucius Malfoy than Harry James Potter, defeater of Voldemort, the Boy Who Lived, the furthest from a Death Eater one could possibly get?

He cleared his throat awkwardly and leant on the banister in front of him for support. He could feel the barrister's eyes boring into the back of him, but harsher still was Draco's gaze from his position on the right hand side of his lawyer.

Don't fuck this up for me, Harry could practically hear him thinking. Or even, don't embarrass me. Don't make me vulnerable.

I have to make you vulnerable, he mentally responded. Or they're going to assume you're a terrorist. I have to make you look as broken as you've been in my arms.

"Could you please state your name for the court?" said the Judge in a booming, oppressive voice.

"Harry James Potter," Harry said, willing his own voice not to tremble.

"And what is your relationship to the defendant?"

Harry swallowed. This was a hard one. "He's my friend," he said at last. "I'm in love with him, but he's my friend."

The collective gasp in the room wasn't stifled quickly enough by the jury and the onlookers, and Harry felt a brief flash of embarrassment before it died down as quickly as it came. This is good for the case, he reminded himself of Mallory's words. Anything to humanise Draco.

"I see," mused the Judge. "And how long have you known the defendant?"

"Since we were 11," Harry responded. "We met in our first year of Hogwarts."

"And what have you to say on the matter of Mr. Malfoy's charges, Mr. Potter?"

Harry swallowed again. He knew Draco was hating every second of this. "Draco Malfoy is the most extraordinary person I have ever met in my entire life," he said honestly. "I have seen more kindness and affection from him in the past year than ever from my own family-"

(Again, true, though Harry knew this was a slightly biased claim. But the jury didn't have to know how much Harry's only living family despised him.)

"-And he has become the most important thing in my life. He is creative, he's talented - the most talented wizard in our entire year at school - yet I have never seen him wield this superior magical skill for the purpose of deliberately hurting anyone."

He prefers to use his hands, Harry thought to himself wryly. Again, this was something he decided that the jury emphatically didn't need to know.

"And since I've become close to him in this past year," Harry continued. "I have noticed a problem Draco's got in his personal life."

"Harry, please." Barely audible. Quickly hushed. Mallory had promised them both that drug offences wouldn't be added to Draco's charges if they were used as character evidence, and this knowledge emboldened Harry.

He could imagine the slow-burning rage on Narcissa and Lucius's faces if they'd been allowed to attend instead of sitting in their own cells awaiting trial, and this image spurred him on even further.

"Draco is a recovering addict," he said, his words ringing out confidently across the room. "He took ecstasy several times a week for the entirety of his past school year as he'd sunken into a severe depression and it was the only way he could get happy. The problem was only addressed when he left Hogwarts at the end of the Spring term, shortly before the battle."

"Objection; Your Honour, are we to understand that it was Mr. Malfoy's expulsion from school which lead to his addiction being recognised?" interjected the prosecution barrister. He was rather fish-like in appearance and had a needling voice, and Harry had taken an instant dislike to him upon meeting him.

"Objection sustained - Mr. Mallory, is this fact supported by the defence?"

Mallory nodded tiredly. "Yes, my client was expelled from school," he responded.

"Though are we not to consider the circumstances as the climax of a very troubled year?" Harry persisted.

"Objection!" barked the opposition again. "Your Honour, Mr. Potter is not a lawyer, I hardly think he should-"

"Objection dismissed," said the Judge with a wave of his pale hand. "I'm interested in what Mr. Potter has to say. Continue, Mr. Potter."

"Thank you, Your Honour," Harry gulped, pleasantly surprised. "I was trying to say, should we not consider Draco's expulsion as the final event in a list of traumatic incidents that year?"

No one made a response; the judge motioned for him to carry on. He could feel Mallory staring at him approvingly.

"Draco was a seventeen-year-old schoolboy plagued by his Death Eater parents all year to accept the Dark Mark," Harry continued. "He has been manipulated, gaslit, and emotionally and verbally abused by his parents for as long as I've known him and even earlier. I think you have to consider the reality of how hard Draco's life really is, that he gained a drug addiction at such a young age as a means of coping."

"Please," scoffed the prosecuting lawyer. "He's a trust fund Pureblood with money to burn. They're all sniffing or popping something, it's hardly revolutionary."

"Mr. Green, you'd do well to wait your turn," sniffed the Judge, and he was instantly silenced, mortified. "Thank you, Mr. Potter, for your input."

"While we're on the subject of my client's addiction, Your Honour," said Mallory, "I believe we have a spokesperson for the laboratories I mentioned earlier on, to offer more evidence. The defence would like to present Dr. Wolfson from the LCT Laboratory in London."

"Permitted," the Judge nodded.

Harry stepped down from the witness stand and dropped back into his seat behind Draco and his lawyer, neither of whom turned, though Draco's neck stiffened somewhat. Then he watched, heart in his mouth, as the elderly researcher took to the stand, introduced himself and began to unfold a sheet of parchment.

"As the court is possibly somewhat aware, Your Honour," the man began in a reedy tone, "The material used to inscribe a Dark Mark is not in fact ink, but the recipient's blood."

He took a breath, then continued.

"The laboratory was instructed by Mr. Malfoy's lawyer to run tests on the contents of the blood in his client's Mark. We were specifically examining it for traces of the Class A drug known as MDMA, or ecstasy, and of course you know that any trace of such intoxicants in the blood sample would render the participant legally incapable of consent. We tested Mr. Malfoy's Mark this week and the results came back today."

Harry clenched his fists at his sides so hard he could feel the grooves his nails made in his skin. Please, God. Please. If you're up there. Save Draco.

________________________________

a/n: sorry if it bothers you that this court doesn't work exactly how courts do in real life, this is just how i think it would go! hopefully you're enjoying it anyway, if you have any questions or comments always feel free to leave them here🥰🥰

you're going to want to stay tuned for the next update!!

~ paradisedraco