On reflection, it doesn’t even matter whether Obliviates and FMCs are normally removable in this universe—Harry would use a delay in carrying out sentence to either attempt to find a counterspell or find the real perpetrator or both.
This is a good point; agreed.
So no matter what, for Harry, a one-year delay in carrying out sentence has a really good cost/benefit tradeoff.
I would have said a one-week delay.
And if Dumbledore won’t exert himself sufficiently to secure that
I see no reason to think that Dumbledore is even remotely capable of that. Politically, Lucius and Dumbledore are near-evenly matched, and Lucius is presumably willing to exert all his influence on his end of the trial. Even assuming Dumbledore calls in every favor he’s owed, I don’t see that it would accomplish anything but get the situation to default to normal procedure- which is what’s happening now.
I agree that Dumbledore doesn’t seem able to get Lucius to delay the trial. But I suggest that Harry could suggest an agreement to delay the (irreversible part of the) punishment.
Since the only fixed rule of the wizards’ council is there are no fixed rules, such an agreement could be made. “She’s guilty, and we’ll house-elf her in a week.” Since Lucius’ priority is protecting Draco, genuine proof that someone else tried to killed Draco would be plenty of reason to release Hermione—in exchange for Harry/Voldemort’s help against the villain.
From Harry’s point of view, especially, why should Lucius exact a high price to postpone the house-elfing of Hermione by a week or a month, as long as he has the formal verdict and the young villain is under secure observation somewhere?
This is a good point; agreed.
I would have said a one-week delay.
I see no reason to think that Dumbledore is even remotely capable of that. Politically, Lucius and Dumbledore are near-evenly matched, and Lucius is presumably willing to exert all his influence on his end of the trial. Even assuming Dumbledore calls in every favor he’s owed, I don’t see that it would accomplish anything but get the situation to default to normal procedure- which is what’s happening now.
I agree that Dumbledore doesn’t seem able to get Lucius to delay the trial. But I suggest that Harry could suggest an agreement to delay the (irreversible part of the) punishment.
Since the only fixed rule of the wizards’ council is there are no fixed rules, such an agreement could be made. “She’s guilty, and we’ll house-elf her in a week.” Since Lucius’ priority is protecting Draco, genuine proof that someone else tried to killed Draco would be plenty of reason to release Hermione—in exchange for Harry/Voldemort’s help against the villain.
From Harry’s point of view, especially, why should Lucius exact a high price to postpone the house-elfing of Hermione by a week or a month, as long as he has the formal verdict and the young villain is under secure observation somewhere?