Maybe the worst would have been being tried under the Ministry’s old laws, locked in a cage before the full Wizengamot without an advocate or witnesses or objective evidence. Gratitude felt strange, especially since Kingsley Shacklebolt—former leader of the Order of the Phoenix and de facto Minister after Voldemort’s fall—had not been measured in his pursuit of justice. Though the captured Death Eaters had received trials more impartial than they deserved, their sentences were harsh: life in Azkaban without the possibility of parole.