Well, Harry thought they were healing spells. He couldn't hear them from this distance. He forced his legs to work, and stumbled towards Mother. She reached out an arm towards him without looking up. Harry snuggled close to her, and Draco did the same thing on the other side.
"Give me room to work, darlings," Mother murmured, but she was the one who adjusted her position, so that they didn't need to give up holding onto her but she had her wand arm free. "And cover my back."
With a start, Harry remembered that Crouch might not be the only enemy, and turned his wand outwards. Draco was doing the same thing next to him.
Harry's hand was trembling, and he suspected Mother might have given him the task to occupy him rather than because he would be good at it. But he still covered her back, until the Aurors arrived.
"Give us another rendition of what you saw, Mr. Malfoy."
"He has already given you three."
Harry fought not to sag back against the chair behind him. He didn't want to look weak in front of the Aurors, and he didn't want to make his family look weak, either, but he had come very, very near the end of his patience. He had told the Aurors what he had seen again and again, although he had said that he didn't know the names of the spells other than the Blasting Curse.
It was even mostly true. What mattered the most was that he hadn't told anyone about Father using Fiendfyre, which he knew was both a Dark spell and the kind of necessary one that would get rid of Horcruxes.
Three years ago, I couldn't imagine my life being this complicated.
"Mrs. Malfoy—"
"I allowed you to question my son so that you would leave us in peace. And now I see that you are not doing that." Mother smiled, that smile with the queer, glittering edge that made even Father and Draco be careful around her. Now, Harry just relaxed further, because it was directed at the Aurors standing on the other side of the table instead of him. "Perhaps I should complain to the Minister."
The nearest Auror, a burly man with broad shoulders and chestnut hair, winced a little. But he wasn't the one who had spoken to Harry so far, and that one, a thin woman with mousy brown hair, shook her head violently.
"We need to know what happened. The boy is claiming that a Death Eater attacked your husband. We all know that there are no active Death Eaters anymore. Unless, of course, we think about the people who claimed to be under the Imperius during the war."
Harry caught his breath, and didn't care that it was audible. Now he understood better why this particular woman, who'd introduced herself as Auror Jansen, had hauled him into an interrogation room and asked him question after question, even though he'd answered just about all of them during the first few minutes.
"You do know that active Death Eaters bear active Dark Marks?" Mother asked, her voice gentle and condescending. Her smile still glittered.
"Of course." Auror Jansen stared at her.
"And you have checked my husband's arm. It's one of the first things I saw you do after we came to the Ministry. What did you find?"
The woman's mouth twisted. Harry didn't know her as well as Mother, of course, but he thought he could see that she was trying to suppress rage. "We found nothing."
Mother nodded. "And you know as well as I that there's no way to remove the Dark Mark." She tilted her head, and her eyes took on an even more disturbing glint. "Why, I seem to remember Minister Bagnold saying that was an infallible way to know the Death Eaters, by their Marks. To the point that she didn't believe there was such a thing as an unmarked follower of the Dark Lord."
"At least call him You-Know-Who, you bitch!" Auror Jansen surged to her feet. "I know what I saw that night sixteen years ago!"
"My," Mother said, while the glitter in her eyes got worse, "you are unhinged."
Auror Jansen drew her wand. Harry flung himself out of his chair and in between his mother and the Auror. There was at least a chance that the Auror would hesitate to curse the "Boy-Who-Lived," the way some people still thought of him, even if she wouldn't stop from cursing Mum.
Jansen took a step back, breathing heavily. She said to Harry, her voice low and thick with hatred, "I saw Lucius Malfoy murdering my aunt and uncle. I know I did. I know he was an active Death Eater. I'll hate him until the day I die."
"And I know what I saw," Harry snapped at her, feeling his voice wobble. He concentrated as hard as he could on making it level. He could feel Mother's hand on his shoulder. "A different Death Eater fighting my father. He isn't on trial here. Why aren't you out there looking for that Death Eater?"
Jansen didn't answer. She just stowed her wand with a sharp motion and then followed the tug of her partner's arm out of the room. He hadn't actually spoken up or interfered, Harry saw. Well, that would probably be too much like doing something.
Mother's arms wrapped around his shoulders, and Harry leaned against her. "Is Draco okay?" he whispered. "Father?"
....
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