Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize and very little of what you do.
A/N: Thanks for reviewing, Spuffy Freak. No, he is not a rapist, just an evil man who gets revenge in ways that unconventional. I hope everyone reading this will drop me a line letting me know why you do or do not like it. Gold stars to anyone who can guess the allusion to a television show at the end. Here's the last chapter!
"Terror is the fear that harm will come to oneself. Horror is the emotion one feels in anticipating and witnessing harm coming to others for whom one cares." – Terry Heller, The Delights of Terror, page 19
Meanwhile, three sets of parents were frantically searching for their children. They contacted the child safety segment of the Auror department, and they were doing all they could to find the children who had been missing for at least three hours now. With the possibility that Voldemort had something to do with their disappearances, the former schoolmates were especially anxious, but there was nothing they could do now.
At this moment, Katherine St. Aubert walked past the balcony and heard the voices of young children saying, "Help me, Miss Woodworth. I can't climb up by myself."
Intuition told Katherine to avoid being noticed, so she tiptoed closer and looked in on the scene from around a corner. It did not take a genius to figure out that something was wrong with the picture presented to her. Children should not be climbing onto the railing of the balcony with the help of one of her coworkers under the supervision of a man concealed in shadow.
Swiftly and silently, Katherine ran to the nearest fireplace and communicated with the Auror department at the Ministry. The parents who were in the office with the Aurors heard her succinct declaration that there were "three children with Emily Woodworth and a strange man here at Gringott's. I don't know what is happening, but it cannot be anything good."
Without a second thought, all six parents and four Aurors Apparated to Gringott's.
Morano was no idiot. He knew Katherine had been there. He was the one who had stolen into her flat and taken the papers she needed. He had counted on the slightly scatter-brained woman to assume she had merely left them at work. When he heard her gasp and light footsteps behind him, he knew his plan was nearly complete.
Morano turned to the kids whining that they wanted to go home and complaining that they wanted down, and he smiled. "You will be getting down soon. For now, I need Miss Woodworth to tie the other end of your sheet strips to the balcony railing. Your parents are coming, and we are going to surprise them."
Again, Emily knew she had to interfere. She could not decipher his exact purpose, but she knew it could not be good. "You cannot do this, Dustin. I don't know what you are trying to do or prove, but this needs to stop. These kids did nothing to you, and you know it."
"They may not have done anything, but their parents sure did. You think hurting those b------s I knew at school would make my point? Of course not. I need to scare them properly. Now, all we are going to do is hang these children from the balcony and make their parents come up and get them. That is all."
"Y-You're going to hang them from the balcony? No real harm? What kind of criminal are you?"
"The kind who will slash the throats of these children if you do not do what I say right this second."
"Okay, okay, I'll do it. Just don't hurt the kids," and she tied the sheet strips to the balcony railing and slowly lowered the children, the strips holding fast, not allowing them to dangle far from the edge, hanging upside down like bats.
"Perfect timing. Our guests are just now arriving."
Sure enough, the children's parents and the Aurors Apparated in at that moment.
"I am glad everyone could make it," Morano grinned evilly. "I told Woodworth here that I would return your children to you. However, it is your duty to catch them."
And without a moment's hesitation, Morano whipped out a dagger, swiftly cut all three strips, and Disapparated.
Even if they had been expecting this, none of the adults would have been able to react quickly enough to help the children. All they could do was watch in horror from below as their children fell to the ground. Their heads impacted at about 17.3 m/s. In the light shining out from the interior of the bank illuminated the catastrophe. They could all see the way the children's skulls smashed against the hard pavement. One of the mother's began screaming mechanically; she had gone into shock. Another father rushed towards his son, thinking he could somehow do something. The children were dead, though.
From above, Emily could not believe what had just occurred. Extreme guilt consumed her automatically. She could not believe Morano had tricked her into letting this happen. Her eyes burned from the sight before her. Small, pulverized skulls. Blood. Small bodies. More blood. More than should be able to come out of children that small.
Emily now knew how Oedipus must have felt. Maybe this is how Elizabeth felt last week, assuming her injuries last week had been self-inflicted.
She saw the dagger Morano had left lying on the railing. She could no longer stand the sight before her. She could no longer live with the guilt. She grabbed the dagger and began to stab her own eyes.
To the parents below, ages had passed, but in reality, only a minute had transpired. From around the corner, Katherine came running, hoping she could still help the children. She figured she was too late when she saw Emily begin to bring the dagger to her eyes.
Katherine ran to her and tried to wrestle the dagger away from her coworker, but to no avail. Katherine endured several scratches before Emily succeeded in knocking her away. Emily then plunged the dagger into her heart.
"Hey, Dad. How was work today?" Isaac Potter looked at his son, James.
"A nightmare," he replied honestly. "Morano struck again. Three children were killed, and Emily Woodworth stabbed herself."
James cringed. He knew Emily. She was only ten years older than he was, and as a child, he had had a small crush on the pretty woman.
Auror Potter continued, "Five years he was in hiding. Why did he have to come back now?" He cursed. James knew his father felt helpless; the only time his father cursed was when he felt there was nothing he could do to solve the problems of the world.
He sighed, "Well, he has now punished all of his former classmates in some way. Maybe now that he has had his revenge, he will stop. I will do whatever I can to bring justice, though. I want that man in Azkaban for all of these murders, if it's the last thing I do."
James nodded in understanding. He knew his father felt guilty, that he should have had this man in Azkaban five or ten years ago.
"Do me a favor, son. Never treat another human being in such a way that he would want to get revenge. If you want to see what a man is like, look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
James took his father's advice to heart. He knew he would probably fail, but he resolved to try his hardest to treat everyone, even the Slytherins, better.
"If people had been nicer to him at school, there would probably be one less mad lunatic running around." He paused. "I just hope he has stopped now. I can't imagine how I would feel if I were ever subjected to one of his revenge plots. I don't know if I would have the strength to outsmart him."
FIN
