Execution of Mandy Brocklehurst

[fi_admin]

Date: Friday, 8 June, 2001
Time: Just before 10am
Location: Special Room in the Werewolf Capture Unit areas of the Ministry of Magic Building
Characters Involved: Mandy Brocklehurst (NPCed), Remus Lupin, June Connors, Perry Derrick, Glamis (NPC), Zak Rollins (NPC), Severus Snape, Bill Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, Dean Thomas, Jackson Bingley (NPC),

Comments

[birdwotcher]

Tonks remained stoic throughout the execution, unable to comfort Bill or June any more than she already had without raising a red flag; yet at the same time, she wasn't able to relax and enjoy the show, like the other Aurors and WCU members seemed to be doing. The bastards. Remus' refusal of her comfort hadn't surprised her, and she was too emotionally exhausted to let it hurt her. Their friendship was gone, and with that slight gesture of Remus', he'd only sealed it. But that didn't matter anymore. The only thing that really mattered was the girl who was screaming the last few moments of her life away.

Instead of concentrating on Mandy's screams and the execution, Tonks focused on creative ways to kill Nevin and his crew. Injecting tiny little flesh-eating bugs into their veins. Hang them by their own intestines. Force them to carve out their own hearts and eat their livers raw. All sorts of lovely things.

When the screaming finally stop, that heavy silence taking its place, she allowed herself to breathe again. She hadn't trusted herself to do so earlier. But now...she swallowed, watching the pack's reactions. There wasn't much else to do except stare at the body, and Tonks wasn't yet prepared to do that. She was grateful for Bill's height; it meant she hadn't had to watch.

Once Thomas had declared them free to go, Tonks debated leaving with the Aurors and WCU members. She had no place here now, not anymore, and their grief was too much to bear. But when Bill spoke up, insisting he wasn't leaving the body, she again set her hand on the small of his back, a silent acknowledgement of support and respect.

"I'll stay with him," she announced to Nevin and the others present in a voice that had every ounce of authority in it that Tonks could muster. It oozed self-confidence and leadership, when Tonks felt nothing of the sort right then. But Remus needed to be with the pack, and the pack, she thought, shouldn't be forced to prolong this horror and emotional blow. Besides, that body lying there, lifeless and ravaged; that wasn't Mandy, not anymore. Any trace of Mandy was gone, and all that remained were the confines of flesh and bone that had imprisoned her. There would be no comfort to draw from the corpse until she was made up to look as she once had.

[subtle_simmer]

Devastated. There was no other word to describe what had happened to him - to all of them. This amazing sense of 'family' he'd found with these half-a-dozen werewolves over the last fifteen months had received a blow the likes of which he'd not experienced since Albus had insisted Severus kill him. Not even then, since at least that was Albus' choice!

His breath was coming in great harsh gasps, forced through a chest so tight with suppressed grief it was a wonder he could move air at all. He would not give them - the Aurors and the WCU and her - the satisfaction of witnessing that which belonged to family alone.

Bill's offer was registered in his grief-stricken mind, and Severus felt a flair of gratitude that someone would tend to the... essentials. The gratitude was replaced by rage the moment the Metamorphmagus opened her mouth.

"NO!" he hissed, finally turning his head enough to snarl at her. "This is a family issue. YOU GET OUT!"

His voice was harsh and rough, like it often had been after he'd screamed himself hoarse under his Master's Cruciatus. Dark brows furrowed over murderous, glowering eyes which pinned the Metamorphmagus with all the vitrol he had been suppressing since her ugly, vicious treatment of Remus yesterday afternoon. He was not going to spend his last moments with Mandy and the others with her hate-filled, judgmental attitude looming over their heads. The existing tragedy was quite enough to be going on with.

"It's for Remus and June and Glamis and the others to decide - the ones who LOVED her and cared about her."

Even as he spoke, he tightened his arm around Remus, the hand on June's arm finding its way to her hand, clinging to that sense of 'family', even if it had been horribly shattered this morning. Even if he believed himself to be as much an 'outsider' as the woman he was berating.

Mandy had stuck a violet ribbon to his hair on Christmas morning, while June repeated the act with a pink one. They had made him laugh instead of hex them for it... surely that counted for something.

He could no more say his 'final goodbyes' to Mandy with the metamorphmagus in the room, positively projecting her hatred over him, than he could have done if her insane auntie stood in her place.

"We will leave when we are damn good and ready. You heard the representative of our solicitor - this is our time to be with her and each other without strangers judging or prying into private matters. Weasley can stay if Remus wishes, but not you. You have no place here. You gave up all claim to compassionate friendship with your behaviour of the last forty-eight hours. No more. Not here, not now. Get out, with the rest of the Aurors, or I'll bodlily throw you out!"

[m4moony]

"Severus, please," Remus said quietly. "Not here. Not not now."

Turning his head back to the grisly scene before them, part of him wondered how she could still be screaming when one look at the still form strapped to that table showed there was no life in those gentle eyes any longer. The screaming, of course, was only echoing inside his own head. Looking over his shoulder at...Tonks...he shook his head at her for the second time that morning.

But whatever he might have said was never spoken.

"I'm sorry but that will not be possible." The man who had read the official sentence stepped up to the wall separating the viewers from the execution table. "Per Ministry regulations, we cannot release a diseased corpse into the custody of any non-official personnel. Its remains will be disposed of by the proper authorities and you are all free to go.

"I suggest you do."

And that was when Remus found the anger again, buried under the guilt and grief. Shaking off Severus' arm, Bill's hand, dropping June's hand, he took the two steps necessary to bring him to the short wall and into the man's face.

"That is not an IT," he stated darkly. "That was a beautiful and vivacious young woman whose life has been forcibly taken from her through no fault of her own! She is a part of our family and we have the right to say a proper farewell to her after you and your bloody devils took her from us!"

"Whatever your feelings, Mr. Lupin, the laws give the Ministry full authority over this issue and we will not be releasing the body into anyone's custody."

"This is bullshite!" Turning furiously to get Bingley to argue for him, Remus was shocked to see the solicitor shaking his head as though there was nothing he could do. "But...her ashes...? Wand? Something...?"

"I'm sorry, but no."

The WCU officials were already unchaining Mandy's wrists and ankles, moving her from the table to a stretcher for transportation to the 'disposal' chambers.

"You won't even allow us a chance to say good-bye." It wasn't a question, but stated flatly as Remus already knew the answer. They were not going to allow Mandy even the most basic dignities of a condemned human. The world they had fought to save wanted no part of them.

"No. I am sorry."

"If that were true, you wouldn't be able to stand there so calmly while ripping my family's hearts out." The official returned to his duties then, leaving Remus and the others to stand in silence as Mandy's body was carried away, their last glimpse of her to be this broken, abused form that only they seemed to acknowledge the humanity of.

Turning back to what was left of their family, Remus sighed before pulling himself together to support those of them still remaining.

"Let's go home."