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He couldn't let it happen like this. There had been a murder on campus, all evidence pointing at one Juniper Woods. Juniper, who couldn't hurt a fly, probably incapable of holding malice for anyone , let alone Professor Courte. Juniper, one of his best friends. Juniper, who has far more of a future than he ever could.
That's when he'd decided. He would take the fall. With the state of the legal system, there's no way she'd get off so easy. They just pick a suspect, usually whatever poor sap was nearby, and fight with everything they have against them. There's no way her rookie lawyer could handle this.
He couldn't for the life of him figure out what drove her to deny Professor Means' offer in favor of that... child. At least with him, she'd have a fighting chance! Now... that was uncertain.
Not on his watch. He couldn't let Juniper end up in prison, he cares for her like a little sister. So, his only real choice here? Take the blame. Fight with everything he has to prove he committed this crime.
When the trial rolls around, 'everything he has' doesn't turn out to be much. Juniper's lawyer blows every statement out of the water without breaking a sweat. They’re so absurd that he drove the prosecution out of the room . If his friend wasn't in mortal peril right now, he'd probably laugh at that. When he's handed a nice perjury charge and removed from the stand, he can hardly pay attention to the trial at all.
When Robin takes the stand, he almost doesn't notice through the paralyzing fear. When she tries the same thing, his heart sinks to his feet. Robin is a very good liar. There is a high chance the court will believe her. All he can do is watch and wait and worry, until Miss Cykes, once again, sees right through it. The resulting wave of relief feels as though he'd resurfaced from the bottom of the ocean.
When she zeroes in on Professor Means , of all people, at first his faith in her dissipates. She's just grasping at straws! He wouldn't have done that... would he? And then the evidence starts piling up. Cykes and her counsel pull some sort of very uncomfortable experiment in front of the entire courtroom, and everything goes rapidly downhill, coming to an abrupt halt with Means' confession.
Juniper is declared Not Guilty, and the spectators rejoice. The three meet by the gallery stands and practically crash into each other's arms. This day would surely stick with them for the rest of their lives. Juniper weakly scolds the others through the lump in her throat and leans a little deeper into the embrace. He won't deny that he shed a few tears, but the others probably had, too.