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Tragedy
Author: Plum
Date: 02-08-08 17:55
"Alex, stop squirming," Mary chides.
"Pum!" the fourteen month old child squeals, holding out his arms to his sister.
Plum takes Alex from their mother. "You're going to be all mussed up for the picture, Alex."
Alex grins at Plum then reaches out to make a grab at a painted. The man in the painting indignantly says, "Hey, watch your grubby hands, young man!" Plum's response is to move away from the wall. Alex's is to giggle.
Mary stops walking, her brow crinkling. "I forgot extra nappies. Your father is going to be pacing a rut into the floor by the time we get there. I knew he shouldn't have gone on ahead."
"If you'll take Alex back, I'll run go get them."
"Excellent," Mary says, reaching out to take her son back.
Plum speed walks off one direction and Mary with Alex walks the other. Mary's not quite to a corner near the staircase she'll take when she hears a raised voice.
"You sodding little idiot. Watch where you're going."
Mary recognizes the man's voice instantly as that of Deputy Headmaster Ryland Yaxley. It's two steps around the corner to see that the person he's addressing is none other than Jack Emerson, cousin of Plum's friend Kody and a student of Evan's.
Jack's apologizing profusely, "I'm sorry, sir! I didn't see anyone when I came up the stairs."
"Of course you didn't!" Yaxley roars. "You were running and jumping, not bothering at all to see if someone was at the top of the stairs."
Yaxley grabs Jack by the nape of his clothes and jerks him close, growling, "You made me spill me tea, bloody worthless Non."
Mary shifts Alex in her arms as she closes the rest of the distance and says in a soothing voice, "I'm sure Jack will clean up the spill on the floor after he's fetched you fresh tea, Ryland."
"That's not the point, now is it?" Ryland snaps at her.
Jack looks pleadingly at Mary so she reaches out and places a hand over Ryland's, which are still clutching Jack. "He's a boy with lots of energy. It was an honest accident."
Ryland lets Jack go so suddenly that Jack's arms start moving to keep himself from toppling over. "Don't tell me you have a soft spot for Nons, Mary. I shouldn't be surprised though. You husband teaches them and your daughter has a few Non friends. You have some in your St. Emrys classes I'm sure. If I were you, I'd have booted them out long ago and when they came whining about having paid their tuition to take the course, I would tell them that's too bloody bad," Ryland nastily replies.
He jerks his head towards Jack, "I've got some disciplining to do. Move along, Mary, so you're tender spot for dirty, worthless Nons isn't offended."
Ryland pulls out his wand and points it at Jack. Plum is rounding the corner with the extra nappies just in time to see the deputy headmaster snarling, "Crucio!"
Plum and Mary both gasp. Alex, who has sensed something is amiss, starts crying. Jack doubles over with a scream of pain. Mary instinctively reaches out to shove Ryland's arms aside. The man reacts by shoving Mary back. She stumbles on the precipice of the stairs, then falls with a scream, twisting her body to protect Alex. Plum moves at a dead run, dropping the nappies and whipping her wand out to cushion Mary's fall, shrieking her mother's name.
Plum reaches the top of the stairs, literally wilting where she stands when she sees she's too late to cushion the fall. Quickly recovering, Plum dashes down the stairs, calling, "Mum! Mum! Alex!"
Yaxley follows behind at a sedate pace. Jack stays where he is, huddled on the floor, still in pain. Plum reaches the landing that stopped Mary and Alex. Suddenly the air is rent by horrific screams. Plum bends to run her hands over her screaching brother, making nonsense noises aimed at calming him.
Mary has yet to move.
Alex kicks and struggles out of Mary's arms, latching onto Plum who embraces him, kissing his head, still trying to calm his terrified screams while at the same time saying, "Mum? Mum? Open your eyes, Mum. Can you hear me?"
Yaxley stops on the last stair before the landing, cocking his head to the side then saying matter of factly, "Her neck looks broken. She's dead from the looks of it."
Plum, clinging to the hope that even if her mother's neck is broken, Mary is still alive, desperately begs, "Get Madam Pomfry!"
Yaxley turns and looks back up the stairs, ordering in a bored voice, "Boy, make yourself useful for once. Go get the nurse."
He steps past Plum and the crying Alex and starts down the rest of the stairs. "I'd stay but I need to check in at the Great Hall. Apparition lesson you know."
Yaxley walks off without a look back. Jack scrambles down the stairs to get to the hospital wing as fast as he can, leaving Plum alone on the landing with a traumatized baby and a woman whose neck is at an odd angle and whose pallor is starkly white.
Impatient
Author: Sirius Padfoot Black
Date: 02-09-08 11:03
The only thing restraining Sirius from stomping around and yelling is Arthur Weasley. When Sirius first got to the Ministry, he'd been allowed on to Level 2 but had promptly been shunted into a side room and ignored. Sirius is loud and, he admits to himself, boarish about being ignored and not being allowed to see Harry. Sirius only calmed down somewhat when Arthur arrived.
Kingsley walked past the room once but only fleetingly looked inside. Both Arthur and Sirius understand that Kingsley being prudent not to come talk to them. The first person who does come to speak to them is Elphias Doge. Elphias huddles with them and speaks softly but with no way of knowing who's listening in, Elphias doesn't say much more than that Harry is in a holding cell.
Ron shows up not long after that, his face as red as his hair. "What's the charge? Do you know?"
Sirius shakes his head. "All we know is that Harry was arrested by order of the Ministry."
"There has to be a charge though, right? Dad?"
Arthur walks over to Ron and places an arm around his shoulders. "These days I'm not so sure about that, Ron."
Sirius loudly says, "It's that damned bint Smythe-Jones."
Arthur holds up his hands, admonishing, "Sirius! With things as they are, it's possible they could throw you in a cell for that kind of talk."
Sirius stops talking, for the moment at least, moving instead to stand at the doorway, glaring out at anyone he sees. At length he turns and asks Arthur, "Do you know where the holding cells are these days?"
"I think so but I'm not sure," Athur replies though he's also putting a finger to his lips then to one ear to give Sirius the unspoken reminder that everything they say might be heard.
Sirius grunts and folds his arms, returning his gaze to the activity outside the small room.
Discovery and Getting the News
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 02-09-08 14:05
"Granger, pull these supplies from storage, will you?"
Augustus Pye handed Hermione a narrow, vertical slip of parchment on which he'd written a number of items in near-impossible to read handwriting. Such tasks were often reserved for nurses, but Pye wasn't above assigning interns to do it. Hermione, not the least bit disappointed or annoyed, accepted the list without question and went to the nearest store closet, where many herbs and potions were kept.
Hermione entered the room, her eyes on the list, when a grunt and scuffling noise drew her attention away from it.
"Fletcher?" Hermione asked, squinting in the relative darkness. Usually the sconces were lit with eternal flames, so that nurses and healers in a rush didn't have to waste what could be a precious second lighting the room. Someone had extinguished all the lamps but one, though it was so dim that it was wonder anyone could see anything at all.
The figure huddled on the floor hissed, "Get out!"
Rather than do as told, Hermione took a cautious step forward and stooped to see better. Fletcher was bent over the floor, his shoulders heaving, and at least one hand covering his face. Upon closer inspection, Hermione noticed that there were empty flasks on the ground next to him.
"Are you all right?"
He lifted his head swiftly and glared at her. Hermione noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and full of rage. "Get. Out. Get out!"
Hermione took a step backwards and then fully left the room, determined to report to Pye immediately, but she spotted Janine hurrying towards her down the hallway.
"Hermione, there you are! I've been searching all over for you."
"Janine. What happened?" Hermione asked, noticing how frantic and disheveled her friend appeared. "Is Harry all right?"
Janine shook her head. "They came for him this morning. Harry's been arrested!"
Information
Author: Minerva McGonagall
Date: 02-09-08 14:39
Over the course of the morning, ominous-looking clouds pulled in overhead. The air smelled like rain, though it was cold enough outside that it was more likely to sleet or snow than actually rain. Professor McGonagall wore a lined cloak over her thick velvet dark green robes and had simple dragon-hide gloves on her hands. She didn't at all feel cold, but she knew that discomfort would come if the weather continued to change.
She walked around the students who were practicing apparating and disapparating. Only a few had really mastered the complex spell, but most hadn't. In fact, some had yet to apparate at all. Try as she might, Professor McGonagall could not shut out Gerti Crouch's harsh criticism of the students. Time and time again, she longed to open her mouth and give the Ministry-appointed apparition instructor a piece of her mind. Only a warning glance from Severus managed to keep the words on the inside.
Whenever Crouch wasn't in hearing distance, Minerva often gave pointers and words of encouragement to the students. Sometimes just a nice word or two was enough to lift their otherwise low spirits. Professor McGonagall didn't feel she had to keep her kind words on the down-low, but somehow she knew Professor Crouch would turn them against her if she knew. Minerva was still on probation and was probably close to getting kicked out of Hogwarts.
As she walked around, leaving footprints in the snow, Minerva happened to glance across the grounds to see Hagrid approaching. She raised an eyebrow and exchanged a look with Professor Snape, who'd already noticed Hagrid's approach. Hagrid knew better than to interrupt Crouch's lesson. Snider would certainly have a thing or two to say about it.
Professor McGonagall watched very carefully as Hagrid walked right past Snape and continued on his way to the barn, to presumably tend to the magical creatures inside its warmth. She saw Snape look down at something in his hand. He looked up across the heads of the students and met Minerva's eyes. She began moving again, and when she stopped beside Snape, he pressed something small into her hand. He moved away to observe the students, leaving Minerva with a small piece of parchment in her hand.
In Hagrid's scrawl she read:
Harry's bin arested.
She looked up, frowning. Across the way, Snape stooped next to Professor Flitwick and pretended to brush something off his shoe while quietly informing the diminuitive professor of the news. Minerva balled up the tiny piece of parchment and held it in her fist. News of Harry's arrest had probably spread to most of the members of the Order of the Phoenix by now. Only Dumbledore––who simply had to be alive––probably had no idea what was happening.
Giving Aid
Author: Kissy Isuki
Date: 02-09-08 15:10
Kissy is coming along one hallway when Peeves goes shooting past, proclaiming, "Wasn't me. Wasn't me. I didn't do. Don't blame me!"
Kissy stops and followed his movement, wondering what that's all about. Shaking her head she continues on. Reaching one of the staircases Kissy hears sobbing. It takes her a second to pinpoint that it's coming from below, one another landing. Kissy hastens down, glad to find that the staircase hasn't moved, making it easy for her to get to the landing where she sees someone's sprawled figure over which another person is bent.
Kissy reaches the landing, taking the last two steps in a single bound. Then she stops, frozen to the spot at now being able to see Mary Lancaster is the one sprawled. Unmoving. Unnatural pallor.
"Mary?" Kissy says, her voice sounding strangled to her ears.
The huddled, bent figure turns slightly. "He said she's dead but I don't want him to be right."
"Plum? Oh my Merlin! Mary's neck..." Kissy starts to say Mary's neck looks broken but the words won't come. "Who said that, Plum? No, tell me later. Let me get some help."
"Jack went," Plum flatly states.
Kissy by now is kneeling by Plum, picking up Mary's hand, noting immediately how it's not as warm as it should be. From the angle of Mary's neck, and noting now also how Mary's chest isn't rising and falling even shallowly, and the coldness that's creeping over Mary's hand, Kissy knows that it doesn't matter how soon help arrives.
Kissy gently places Mary's hand on her body then softly asks Plum, "Are you injured as well?"
"No. Alex might be."
That's when Kissy first notices that the child is held tightly against Plum, his crying having mixed in with Plum's. Reaching out Kissy says, "Here, I'll take Alex and look him over while we wait."
Plum doesn't say anything nor does she relax her hold on the child. Kissy softly but firmly says, "Give me Alex so I can see if he needs to be taken to the hospital."
Plum looks confused. "What? Oh. Yes. Sorry," then dutifully hands over the boy.
Carefully taking Alex, Kissy makes crooning noises, soothing the baby whose tear stained face is puffy from crying. She immediately notices a bruise across his forehead and cheek. The bruise isn't a goose egg, which worries Kissy because it means with a hit hard enough to bruise like that, there may be internal bleeding in his head.
She examines the rest of Alex, glad when the voice of Madam Pomfrey reaches her. Seeing the boy with her Kissy realizes the Jack Plum mentioned is Jack Emerson. Kissy, cradling Alex to her, goes down the steps to meet Poppy. Very quietly she says, "Mary's dead. Alex has a nasty bruise on his head and I think a broken bone in one arm. Now that you're here I'll take him straight away to St. Mungo's."
Poppy looks at Alex's head and nods, "I'll take care of matters here. Do you know where Evan is?"
"No, sorry, I don't. I don't even know what happened."
Poppy pats Kissy's arm. "Go on now to St. Mungo's."
Kissy is already in motion, on her way to a nearby fireplace that she recalls has a jar of Floo powder on it. Within seconds she's there and calling out, "St. Mungo's!" then stepping into the green flame.
The Scoop
Author: Bill Weasley
Date: 02-09-08 16:04
Marguerite, Fleur's Turkish angora kitten, sat on her haunches and stared up at the fish bowl on the shelf in the living room. The rainbow oranda, Rémy, swam around in circles, its colorful fins dancing in the current it made. Intrigued, the kitten longed for a closer look, but she couldn't yet jump high enough to reach the fish bowl.
"What exactly happened?" Bill and Fleur, meanwhile, were sitting on their knees on the rug in front of the fireplace, where Molly Weasley's head glowed in the smoldering embers.
"Kingsley learned of Harry's arrest moments before it happened," Molly explained, understandably upset by what had occurred not even an hour ago. "Harry had no chance of feeling to safety. They have him in a Ministry holding cell right now."
"'Ow terrible!" Fleur exclaimed, shaking her head, causing her flaxen hair to sway attractively.
"What were the charges?" Bill asked.
"I don't know," Molly replied solemnly. "Your father is at the Ministry now, trying to find out more."
"Should we do anything?" Bill asked. "Can we do anything?"
"Right now we just have to wait," answered Molly. "We wait and see."
Bill had a sinking feeling in his gut, and he suspected just about everyone else felt the same way. Something was definitely off about Harry's arrest. Would more follow?
Molly began complaining of an aching back and knees and promised to update them when she learned something new. Bill and Fleur said goodbye and then turned to each other.
"Harry is a half-blood," Bill pointed out. "This could just be another means of getting a so-called non off the streets. We've all heard the stories of seemingly innocent wizards getting hauled off to Azkaban for the most ridiculous of reasons... all of them lacking pure blood statuses."
"But zis iz 'Arry," Fleur said emphatically.
"The Harry Potter," Bill murmured. He sighed and put his arm around her shoulders. "I would like to think that it's all just one big misunderstanding, but I have a feeling Harry's just the next in a long line of good wizards heading to Azkaban."
Just then, a crash from nearby drew their attention. Marguerite stood in a ring of scattered books that had just fallen from the bookshelf she'd attempted to climb. She innocently looked at Bill and Fleur before bounding away to find some other mischief to get into.
Can't Hold Someone Without Cause
Author: Forest
Date: 02-10-08 07:25
Forest glares at Berwyck Oldridge, looming over the man as he sits at his desk primly eating watercress sandwiches and drinking tea.
"We can't hold Harry Potter. No grounds were given for his arrest."
"We can hold Potter, evidenced by the fact that we are holding Potter. Sandwich? They're quite good."
"Unless Potter has committed a crime for which he will be charged sometime today, I'm releasing him."
"Minister Smythe-Jones signed the arrest warrent herself. You'd be foolish to cross her on this."
"Then at least tell me what he's to be charged with."
"Potter is a Non of the worst sort. That alone should be a good enough reason."
"That's it? He's a Non that neither you nor the Minister personally cares for? Off with his head then is it?" Forest facetiously bites out.
"Excellent suggestion though a little too quick and painless I should think." Berwyck eyes the last sandwich on the plate. "Sure you don't want one. Quite tasty, you know."
"We can't arrest and hold people, no matter what their blood status, without cause."
His question unanswered, Berwyck takes it Forest doesn't want the sandwich. He's practically drooling as he lifts it from the plate and brings it to his lips. "Nons don't have the same rights. Have you not learned that by now? And here I had thought you to be an intelligent chap. Might need to order another plate of these sandwiches. I'm finding myself to be quite addicted."
Snorting in disgust at the lack of progress he's making in finding out why Potter has been arrested and in getting him released since there doesn't seem to be an actual charge against him, Forest exits Berwyck's office. He stands in the hallway for a few seconds then marches off to speak to the Minister herself.