"Are you all agreed, then?" Minister Shacklebolt asked whilst looking over the jurors.

Augusta Longbottom stood up. "Yes, Minister," she said firmly, "we see no other option as viable as a suitable form of punishment. As the Chief Witch for these Reconciliation Trials, I attest that the voting was unanimous."

After a long pause where no on said anything or moved, it was clear that the position was absolute. "Very well," Shacklebolt said, rising to his feet, "let us return to Courtroom 10 and pass judgement upon those who have been waiting for their sentencing."

There was no conversation, no indistinct murmuring, no signs of friendly camaraderie - each of the jurors from the Wizengamot rose and filed out to the main courtroom chamber. It was clear to Shacklebolt that the weight of the sentence was felt by each of them, but that no one was backing down from the difficult decision and debate conclusion.

Following the final member of the group out, Shacklebolt moved to his central seat and stood in front of it, as Chief Witch Longbottom stood before hers and the entire jury body remained standing. At a nod, Head Auror Proudfoot stepped forward and then turned to face the gallery - which was full of Death Eaters and their immediate supporters, all convicted of heinous crimes, rather than the public or witnesses. There were so many of them that it was a depressing statistic, far beyond a tragedy. The idea of Reconciliation Trials was a good one, but the population was shattered from those who acted or supported the terrorist regime. Only a scant few were allowed to witness the proceedings in the balcony section for historical purposes.

"All convicted insurrectionists, rise!" Proudfoot commanded.

With a wary shuffling, and much clanking of magic suppressing manacles, the depressingly large pool of active Death Eaters, Snatchers, rabid Ministry supporters, their Financiers, and the brain-washed family and friends rose to their collective feet.

When they were all finally standing, Shacklebolt took a half step forward to address them all, as well as the few witnesses and members of the media in the back of the room. "You have all previously been found guilty of insurrection, grand theft, accomplices to murder, unlawful enrichment, slavery, torture, and worse. For six days, this body of jurors and Wizengamot members have wrestled with an appropriate sentence for you, and justice for those whom you have harmed. In many cases, those harmed are no longer alive, and therefore their heirs must receive what little justice we can offer."

Shacklebolt paused and looked across the faces in front of him, noting how few truly seemed repentant for their actions. If anything, he recalled Harry Potter talking to him the prior night over drinks, saying that this group likely only regretting being caught out on the losing side. It did not make the actions they were about to take easier, but he understood the sheer magnitude of indoctrination that would have to be overcome for these people to ever be considered for release from their sentences.

With a sigh, he stepped back and nodded to his fellows on the Wizengamot. As one, they all sat down except for the Chief Witch, who stood staring out at the guilty parties. Unrestricted use of Veritserum, ICW Aurors with Legilimency, Ministry and Goblin record searches, and far more had led to this moment. There were no innocents in the crowd, only those who were truly beyond redemption. Pulling out her wand, she tapped a glowing stone on the side of her seat, and the silencing wards activated that prevented any but the Chief Witch from speaking.

Augusta cleared her throat, and started the official proclamation of damnation. "In the interests of justice, all of your assets - personal and family - are hereby seized and will be liquidated under ICW control. All of you are individually sentenced to Personality Death. You will each be obliviated back to zero knowledge, and your magic will be permanently bound such that you can never access it for any purpose for the rest of your lives. From here, you are remanded into the care of St Mungo's for memory destruction and to re-learn basic human functions and appropriate behavior. You will spend the rest of your lives doing menial tasks including the cleaning of streets, changing of bedpans for those in the long-term spell damage wards, and other janitorial tasks. You will be stripped of all names, and assigned new names at random, along with permanent transfiguration to alter your physical identities. Those who perform this service will do so under Unbreakable Vows such that they cannot reveal in any way who you may have once been. You will be monitored for the rest of your lives. If at any point you conduct acts of violence or terror against others, you will be summarily executed. No one will know you, and you will never amount to anything in this world. We will be merciful, however, and should any of you find love in your new lives, you will be allowed to marry. If you are able to have them, your children will be allowed to stay with you and the state will provide for their education - though we will monitor you closely. You will never have rights to participate in government, vote, or the freedom to move about without monitoring. This is your punishment, as I say, so mote it be. Obliviators, begin your memory purging."

A/N:

For a society with mind magics, the ability to erase and implant memories, working truth serums, amazing transfigurations, and more . . . a society with a small population . . . you'd think they would have far more effective punishments. Given the Fanfic nature of wanting to put Dumbledore as the great hidden dark lord working to preserve all magical bloodlines, this would surely be a much better plot mechanism for his machinations than leaving them to rot past their prime childbearing ages in a prison, right?

So many tools at the disposal, and so many authors - including JKR - fall back to the old tried-and-true forms of punishment without thinking twice . . .

Does Obliviate work fully? Is there a chance of reversal? Does magic need to be truly bound if the wipe is permanent and irreversible? So many interesting ways to consider this .. here, I assume there is a risk of magical reversal, perhaps speculated only - perhaps accidental magic - so binding is a final precaution. Try not to punish future offspring, but do not risk the adults reverting to their behavior under any conditions - and monitor them.