Executions
As the time came around for the trial, Harry was seen to become a total wreck. Hermione and the other girls assured him that Lupin, the Weasleys, Tonks and the other senior members of the Order couldn't hurt him anymore. Harry knew this of course, but he was still unable to stop thinking of everything that the Order had done to him, and also the fact they knew quite well he was alive – they just didn't want him.
# # # # #
The trial was held in the same place where they had tried and executed lower members of the Order and most of the Aurors. Hermione though had done her research and had ordered two dozen large crosses to be made and installed in the courtroom. The tightest security precautions were put into place with the entire magical part of Britain under complete lockdown with regards to Floo and Portkey travel. The Knight Bus was currently parked under the battlements of Hogwarts with an armed guard on it. They had instructions that if they saw it moving, then they were to destroy it completely. Everyone had been told that if any witch or wizard was seen riding a broom, then they would be blasted out of the skies without warning. Any survivors would be sent to Azkaban for a minimum of ten years. The rest of the survivors of Harry's army guarded each and every way into the Ministry, and each and every way down to the trial room. The moment the prisoners were removed from their cells, the lifts were to be disabled from use.
"Third Floor – check in please" said Astoria.
"Third floor – all is clear" replied a disembodied head.
"Very well. Maintain watch and guard until you have new orders" and Astoria did the same checks for each of the floors of the Ministry. She and her sister had been retroactively made members of Harry's army as thanks for saving Harry's life, and both of them were doing the security while the surviving members of the senior staff presided over the trial.
"We had someone attempting to get in to London" Daphne said.
"What did you do?" asked her sister.
"Blew them apart – those were our orders" replied the elder girl. Daphne sat down at a desk and began to read the reports left for her. "I just wish that we could be down there to watch the trial" the girl added.
"We can watch the highlights later" Astoria said lazily.
# # # # #
"Bring forth the prisoners" Hannah ordered. A number of their group left through a thick wooden door, only to come back minutes later with the Order and Auror members in front of them at wandpoint. Each prisoner was dressed in an orange muggle boiler suit and had their wrists and legs tied and shackled. Each also wore a metal collar that had an overload of magic contained in it. In the unlikely event any of them managed to escape, the collars would lower the safeguards stopping the magic from detonating which would blow their heads off after first exploding their brains. It was proof to how far Harry and the others had gone to ensure that nothing would go amiss.
"I have a good mind to tear them apart with my bare hands" Harry said – anger rising in him.
"Harry try not to get yourself worked up" Hermione put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Watching them this way is so much fun. I promise that you can have fun later" she added. Each of the prisoners looked at the bench and then to the crosses. As they got secured to the cross, they all felt the magical drain on them. It slowly and painfully took away all their magic except the few bits they needed to live.
"We demand that you let us go!" shouted Lupin.
"You are in no position to demand anything, Professor Arsehole" Susan said icily.
"Harry?" Ginny whined. "Please let me go. We can live together for ever and ever and ever" but Harry simply stared her down.
"You twelve are here because you not only the senior members of the Order captured by ourselves, but you have committed the crimes that are the most serious. Not only did you commit the grievous crime of running away, but you are charged with Cowardice in The Face Of The Enemy, Failure To Obey Orders During Wartime, Failure To Assist Aurors In An Emergency, Theft, Impersonating An Auror… the list really does go on for at least a dozen pages" Harry slammed the five inch thick file onto the writing area before him with a BANG! "What a pitiful sight you are… and what a shit you've got me as a judge" he added.
"The Aurors among you were sworn to protect the public at all costs – even if that cost was your own life" Hermione said. "That oath did not mean that you could run away and hide like little children!" she thundered.
"The Order members of your sorry little group are just as bad. You were created not just to fight Voldemort, but also to protect Harry. If he had been killed then there would have been no way of winning" said Hannah.
"You all managed to have your families stay alive, and yet you didn't stop to help save others. And that applies to both Order and Auror alike" said Susan. "You failed your jobs" she added.
"You have all your family members alive" said Parvati slowly. "But I suffered the most out of all of us here at this bench. I lost my mother, my father, my sister and my lover. I nearly lost myself as well" and the anger swarmed through the girl.
"How could we fight?" asked Lupin, speaking from his cross.
"Cast spells at the enemy" Harry said, "Though I doubt that you would recognise the enemy if he came towards you dressed as Voldemort with a fifty foot neon pink sign above them saying I AM YOUR ENEMY!" he shook his head and looked at the Weasleys. "As for you… I never had a family. One that loved me anyways. I thought yourselves as the brothers I never had, the sister I never had, the loving parents to take over from those I can not remember clearly. I did everything that was asked of me in order to save you from Voldemort and his ilk, and this is how you was going to repay me? By not bothering to save me?" Harry was silent as he pushed the anger inside him down. Hermione took over for him until he was better.
"Among the simply fascinating things we discovered while going through your records, was a plan to take over everything that Harry owned. Indeed, you had banned him from going to Grimmauld Place which was rightly left to him. In fact, Harry told us that you, Mrs Weasley" and the woman cowered, "Had forbidden him to go to Gringotts to take his money from his own account. We managed to get hold of Harry's financial records after the defeat of Voldemort, and they tell us a very pretty picture" and Hannah took over at that point.
"Every year since before Harry arrived at Hogwarts, you were each paid 17,000 Galleons which increased to 25,000 upon his arrival. This went on every year until the year before the fall when it went up to 30,000. You were stealing money from Harry, and all the time you made complains about not having a lot of money" and the girl shook her head.
"Of course we took that money back" said Susan. "And we recovered items that you had sold from Harry's houses. You lot are the worst of the worst" she added.
"I wish that we could kill them now" said Parvati, "But it is almost time for lunch and I'm hungry. We'll be back later" and the five stood up and walked out without looking at the chained up group.
# # # # #
"What do you think Harry will do to us?" asked Ginny.
"I'm hoping he'll let us go and give back the money we had to take in order to keep him safe" said Tonks.
"He is just angry at the fact we had no possible way to save him, and the fact he was being kept under tight control for his own good" Lupin said.
"I'm hungry" complained Ron.
"And I'll make you a feast – just for yourself, as soon as we get out of here" said his mother.
"Do you think he will truly forgive us for what we had to do?" asked Mr Weasley.
"I hope so" said one of the Aurors.
# # # # #
The girls looked at Harry who was gazing deeply into his tea without blinking.
"Do you think he's alright?" asked Hannah.
"Doubt it" said Susan, "But he'll come round to being the same old Harry again" and Parvati sighed.
"One can only hope" said that girl. Hermione considered this for a moment before calling to Harry.
"I want to see them punished as much as you do, but why do you not realise that the war is over?" she asked. Hermione and the others did not expect an answer, so the fact they got one came as a surprise.
"Because I have to" he replied.
# # # # #
"We have decided on your punishments" Parvati said. "You are all of guilty of your crimes anyway" she added.
"We have sentenced you to death" said Harry, and the tied up persons before them blanched and went as white as snow covered snow. "However, the Killing Curse has become rather boring over the last few months, and pushing you through the veil doesn't hold much drama. Hermione came up with a great idea though" and he smiled for the first time that day.
"Muggles have a number of ways to kill people as a punishment. Beheading, Lethal Injection, Firing Squads and Hanging. I prefer the Firing Squad myself, but you see none of us have had muggle weapons training of this sort, so I called up two people I happen to know do have it" and she pointed to the two cloaked figures standing by the doors. "You can take off your hoods now" and the pair did so to reveal the Queen of the United Kingdom and His Holiness The Pope.
"We're fucked" said Lupin.
"Oh but of course" said the Pope. He and the Queen dropped their cloaks to reveal that each had an automatic rifle.
"We're ready when you are" said the Queen. Harry smiled and nodded at the pair who waited for the former Aurors to be untied and put up against the wall.
"Trust your souls to God" said the Pope, "Because now your arse belongs to me" and with that, he and the Queen opened fire on the former Aurors. Harry and the girls, the rest of the prisoners and the members of Harry's army watched as the bullets ripped into them before the bodies slid down the wall leaving blood stains on the wall and the floor.
"One declares that was wicked" said the Queen, and she blew the smoke off her rifle before switching the magazine for a fresh one. She turned to face her companion and gave a regal smile. "'Trust your Souls to God because your arse belongs to me?' Where on earth did you get that one?" she asked him.
"Well I like to watch disaster movies" replied the Pope. "It gives me something to do between Sundays" he added, changing his magazine for a fresh one as well.
"Good shooting!" called Harry and the girls. The Weasleys, Tonks and Lupin looked on in horror as the bodies were floated out to presumably be put through the veil.
"Oh no…" Hermione read their minds quite well – having had time to practice. "We're cremating the bodies and then scattering the ashes between here and the Falkland Islands!" and then she went into a discussion with the other four. After a while they sat up and looked at the remaining lot.
"I think we'll have you two next" said Susan pointing at Remus and Tonks. They both knew that there was no chance of them escaping, so they didn't bother to resist being put up against the wall. But instead of giving the order to fire, both she and her best friend cast spells and a light Jazz tune filtered into the room. Harry recognised it as something from New Orleans.
"Nice choice" said Hannah. "You can pick your targets and fire at will" she told the Queen and the Pope. The pair switched to three round bursts and then proceeded to shoot various body parts. Tonks and Lupin screamed in pure and unadulterated rage because as the bullets slammed into knees, arms, shoulders, and chests. When they came down to the last burst, they walked up to the pair, put the muzzles on their foreheads and fired. All the Weasleys did a simultaneous vomit which Harry had to admit was impressive.
"And now it comes down to these scum" said Parvati, pointing at the Weasleys.
"Um…" said Hannah. "Might as well kill the adults" she shrugged, but this time they had a different method of killing. Once the rounds had been used, the five summended them back out again so they could be reused. Then both Mr and Mrs Weasley were given intensifying charms to increase the pain they felt whilst actually staying awake. Mr Weasley was the first to die from blood loss. Harry though took personal and sadistic delight in walking over to Mrs Weasley, and, with all his strength, snapped her neck. Once he was sure they were dead, Harry cast fire spells on both elder Weasleys and allowed Ron and Ginny to watch their parents bodies burn into ashes before they got taken away with the bodies of Tonks and Lupin. Ron and Ginny watched the room empty and then turned to see Harry, Hermione, Hannah, Susan and Parvati advance in skirmish order with wands out in front of them. Both the youngest Weasleys had lost all control of their bodies – something Harry and the others could tell from the smell.
"Are you going to kill us?" asked Ginny. She thought the answer was going to be yes.
"Am I going to kill you?" Harry seemed to debate it, but the others knew otherwise having discussed this at great length. "No, Ginerva. No… I am not going to kill you. You are still underage – just. Now Ron, on the other hand…" and Ron had just enough time to comprehend what was about to happen to him before he was hit by a barrage of spells with the five wands.
"What are you going to do to me?" asked Ginny as she looked at her dead brother who still hung by the chains on the cross. She feared that Harry was going to rape her repeatedly.
"I wouldn't touch you with a barge pole" Harry said, reading her mind like Ginny would have read a book. "You will be taken away for questioning and drugged to check all the information you gave us was correct. After this is done, you will be taken to Azkaban and put in maximum solitary confinement for the rest of your life. You know what that means?" he asked and Ginny nodded. "It means that you never see the light of day again. You will never speak to another person in your life again. I will give orders that if you attempt to speak to anyone, then you will be killed at once" and Harry removed the chains and handed her over to the waiting group. "Take her away" and Ginny was taken away to be cleaned up so she was less offensive to be around. When she saw him start to shake, Hermione conjured up a chair for him to sit in, and Harry fell back into it and fell into a deep sleep. Everyone was worried about him, but a simple check proved that he was simply exhausted.
#
Now that the trials were finally over, Harry seemed to get back to his cheerful self, though once in a while became slightly downcast and moody. The surviving senior staff was all having tea in the girls' dorm when Hermione asked him a question.
"Why do you come up with tactics for fighting battles?" she asked. This was something Harry did now and again. None of the girls expected an answer, so it was a surprise that they did get one.
"Because I know only one tune, Hermione Granger… And I can't dance to any other" and with that Harry unexpectantly curled into a ball on an unoccupied bed – formerly Lavender's – and started sobbing his heart out. Hermione was very tempted to look into the business of raising the dead so she could kill Lupin, Tonks and the others all over again.
A/N:
Although I said it would be a normal sized chapter, I honestly couldn't think what else to put down, so I've decided to finish here. I'll make it up next chapter, but to make up I have the first chapter of my new Harry Potter / Worst Witch crossover fic. Talking of The Worst Witch, there is a homage to it in this chapter. Anyone care to guess? I'm sure wonderbee will get it at least - maybe Submarauder too or his daughter!
Regarding the firing squad – lets just say that I've pissed off the Catholics and lost any chance of going to heaven!
Regards
Pixel
