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Grim Truth: 95/6/9
Sep. 6th, 2012 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_siriusGreetings, British Wizarding World!
It’s story time. Are you all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
There was once a young man from a pureblood family who wanted to serve his country. He saw others of his generation growing more concerned with the bloodlines of their classmates and less with the proficiency of their spell-casting or the kindness of their actions. He found others who thought, as he did, that there was an insidious force at work in the land. This surreptitious influence was corrupting vulnerable and ambitious minds, convincing them of their superiority and turning law-abiding wizards into a gang of thugs.
Being a young man of principles, courage and good sense, he asked his friends what he could do to help Magical Law Enforcement stop the rising tide of murder and abductions. A plan was formed: The young man would feign interest and infiltrate the gang, reporting back through protected channels. In this way, MLE would learn the identities of the gang members and obtain evidence of their involvement in the gang’s crimes.
They hired the young man in an unobtrusive department of the Ministry, and took every precaution to ensure that no hint of connection could be found between him and his commanding Aurors. He played his role well, or so everyone thought, though to MLE’s great frustration, he was not able to offer up much in the way of intelligence that would lead to arrests. Owing to the nature of his undercover work, he had to exercise particular caution when it came to preventing the planned actions of his supposed comrades - for no hint of betrayal could reach them or he might be compromised.
Still, MLE were patient, and allowed the young man to infiltrate further and further into the organization. They believed that his efforts would pay in time, would lead them to a bigger opportunity to break the gang’s growing power.
Before he could bring them indisputable proof, the Ministry fell to the gang’s assault. The gang-leader destroyed both the Muggle and Wizarding governments and set up his own puppet administration. Many of the Aurors and other MLE officials were named public enemies and sent on the run.
Not long afterward, the Auror who had been in charge of the young man’s activities, a family man by the name of Brodie, came home to find his door hanging from the hinges and the Dark Mark slithering overhead. In terror, he entered his house, wand outstretched for anything - or anyone - lurking inside.
He found nothing disturbed, nothing amiss. Until he walked into his kitchen. There at the table, the young man sat, cradling a cup of tea, still warm. A scrap of parchment and quill lay on the table next to his elbow. The Auror noticed three things immediately: The young man was wearing Auror’s robes; he was completely unharmed; and he was unmistakeably quite dead.
Brodie approached and read, with a sinking feeling, the note left behind for him: ‘Dear Sir, I deeply regret that I must tender my resignation from the Auror programme, effective immediately.’ Up close, he could also see a curious but significant object: a single Galleon at the bottom of the teacup.
In what must have been an extreme act of determination and courage, he searched the rest of his house. His wife was not yet home; he found their nanny asleep in a bedroom cupboard with no idea how she came to be there. But his daughter was playing happily in her bedroom. As Brodie checked her for wounds, hex damage or evidence of curses, she asked him, ‘You didn’t go in the kitchen, did you, Daddy? The nice man told me I wasn’t allowed. He said he was going to take someone on an awfully big adventure.’
Auror Brodie sent a Patronus to his wife and the family fled within the hour. More extensive examination of the child found faint traces of the Imperius Curse, used to prevent her from witnessing the atrocity committed in her own house. Brodie and his colleagues recognised the warlock’s calling card from other victims: The Galleon on or near the body, the taunting messages. They knew whose work it was. But the Grim Truth was that by then, they had no way to bring him to justice. Months later, the Brodies were caught and killed, their daughter placed in the care of distant relations and raised to believe her parents were traitors.
The young man’s name was Columbus Clarkson.
His murderer’s name is Antonin Nikolaevich Dolohov.
It’s story time. Are you all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
There was once a young man from a pureblood family who wanted to serve his country. He saw others of his generation growing more concerned with the bloodlines of their classmates and less with the proficiency of their spell-casting or the kindness of their actions. He found others who thought, as he did, that there was an insidious force at work in the land. This surreptitious influence was corrupting vulnerable and ambitious minds, convincing them of their superiority and turning law-abiding wizards into a gang of thugs.
Being a young man of principles, courage and good sense, he asked his friends what he could do to help Magical Law Enforcement stop the rising tide of murder and abductions. A plan was formed: The young man would feign interest and infiltrate the gang, reporting back through protected channels. In this way, MLE would learn the identities of the gang members and obtain evidence of their involvement in the gang’s crimes.
They hired the young man in an unobtrusive department of the Ministry, and took every precaution to ensure that no hint of connection could be found between him and his commanding Aurors. He played his role well, or so everyone thought, though to MLE’s great frustration, he was not able to offer up much in the way of intelligence that would lead to arrests. Owing to the nature of his undercover work, he had to exercise particular caution when it came to preventing the planned actions of his supposed comrades - for no hint of betrayal could reach them or he might be compromised.
Still, MLE were patient, and allowed the young man to infiltrate further and further into the organization. They believed that his efforts would pay in time, would lead them to a bigger opportunity to break the gang’s growing power.
Before he could bring them indisputable proof, the Ministry fell to the gang’s assault. The gang-leader destroyed both the Muggle and Wizarding governments and set up his own puppet administration. Many of the Aurors and other MLE officials were named public enemies and sent on the run.
Not long afterward, the Auror who had been in charge of the young man’s activities, a family man by the name of Brodie, came home to find his door hanging from the hinges and the Dark Mark slithering overhead. In terror, he entered his house, wand outstretched for anything - or anyone - lurking inside.
He found nothing disturbed, nothing amiss. Until he walked into his kitchen. There at the table, the young man sat, cradling a cup of tea, still warm. A scrap of parchment and quill lay on the table next to his elbow. The Auror noticed three things immediately: The young man was wearing Auror’s robes; he was completely unharmed; and he was unmistakeably quite dead.
Brodie approached and read, with a sinking feeling, the note left behind for him: ‘Dear Sir, I deeply regret that I must tender my resignation from the Auror programme, effective immediately.’ Up close, he could also see a curious but significant object: a single Galleon at the bottom of the teacup.
In what must have been an extreme act of determination and courage, he searched the rest of his house. His wife was not yet home; he found their nanny asleep in a bedroom cupboard with no idea how she came to be there. But his daughter was playing happily in her bedroom. As Brodie checked her for wounds, hex damage or evidence of curses, she asked him, ‘You didn’t go in the kitchen, did you, Daddy? The nice man told me I wasn’t allowed. He said he was going to take someone on an awfully big adventure.’
Auror Brodie sent a Patronus to his wife and the family fled within the hour. More extensive examination of the child found faint traces of the Imperius Curse, used to prevent her from witnessing the atrocity committed in her own house. Brodie and his colleagues recognised the warlock’s calling card from other victims: The Galleon on or near the body, the taunting messages. They knew whose work it was. But the Grim Truth was that by then, they had no way to bring him to justice. Months later, the Brodies were caught and killed, their daughter placed in the care of distant relations and raised to believe her parents were traitors.
The young man’s name was Columbus Clarkson.
His murderer’s name is Antonin Nikolaevich Dolohov.
