[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
The Sentence of Druella Black


Lily was asleep when she woke with a jolt, the plane landing on the tarmac in Orlando. She sat up and pressed her nose to the window to see palm trees off in the distance and quite a lot of sunshine glowing down on her. She blinked rapidly - it was just so very, very bright! She reached over in her excitement and nudged Petunia. “Tuney, look,” she begged, “Look. It’s Florida, it’s really Florida. We’ve made it, look Tuney!”

Petunia opened her heavy eyelids and peered past Lily to the window and the sunlight and she groaned and turned over in her seat, covering her eyes.

Lily frowned and turned back to the window.

Everything seemed new and exciting and overwhelming. Lily looked about with wide eyes as they made their way through the airport to the carpark where a taxi cab, all painted yellow with black checkers, drove them to the hotel they were staying at. There were statues of Mickey and Minnie Mouse with Walt Disney out front of the hotel, and inside they had large paintings of Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. Lily used her first photograph on a magically enhanced Polaroid camera that Ali Prewitt had loaned her for the trip to snap a picture of the life-size Bambi statue in their hotel lobby. “Wow,” she whispered, shaking out the little square of developing film.

Lily couldn’t understand how Petunia wasn’t amazed by everything they saw when Lily herself felt as though her breath had been stolen right from her chest with every turn. “Isn’t it amazing, though, Tuney?” she asked eagerly when they walked into their room and she pulled open the curtains to reveal a beautiful curved balcony with a view of Cinderella’s Castle far off in the distance. “Oh come now, Tuney, even you can’t pretend this isn’t incredible.”

Petunia shrugged.

Petunia wasn’t any more excited the next day, either. Every time someone referred to the park as The Magic Kingdom, Tuney would flinch and scowl. Lily felt like telling her to stop acting like such a baby, since real magic wasn’t a thing like they said in the Disney films, but Tuney’s attitude just kept getting worse and worse until she was sitting with her arms crossed and pouting aboard the WEDway, which had just opened that very week, even as it brought them along on the smoothest train-ride Lily had ever felt and Mr. Evans pointed out the exciting new Space Mountain ride that had only opened months before. Lily couldn’t imagine being so sour that one would ever dream of not smiling at the rides or the costumed people walking about - like the Dapper Dans that tried to serenade Petunia, only to receive hardly any reaction from her at all. Lily did take a wizarding photograph for Tuney of it, though, just incase she decided later she would like to remember it happening.

In the gift shop, Lily purchased mouse ear hats for each of the Marauders, plus Frank and Ali, and a Robin Hood tea cup for Remus. She bought postcards for each of them, too, and one for Professor McGonagall. She also got herself a music box, lined with soft blue velvet inside, which played Little April Shower in tinkling music with a little Bambi that popped up when the box lid opened. It was instantly one of her most precious treasures and she carried the bag very carefully through the park.

Petunia said she didn’t want anything, but Mrs. Evans bought each of the girls Minnie Mouse ears and made them stand together in sight of Cinderella’s Castle to take a photograph. Lily handed her the Polaroid camera and told her how to do it so the photographs would move when they developed and Petunia turned her nose up and in the picture her figure sneered and rolled her eyes repeatedly.




DRUELLA BLACK, SENTENCED TO THE DEMENTOR’S KISS, TO BE PERFORMED THURSDAY
Judge Bartemius Crouch, the third in command of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement sat on the trial of notorious potions mistress Druella Black Monday morning. Druella, who was being tried for the mass murder that occurred in the Chamber of the Ministry for Magic just two months ago. Druella Black will be administered the Dementor’s Kiss in her holding cell at the Department for Magical Law Enforcement Thursday by midday.





Sirius Black sat on the end of James’s bed, staring at the headline of the Daily Prophet and the bit of the story that fell above the fold, along with the horrible image of Druella Black, screaming with laughter, beautiful in a horrid way, as she grinned wickedly the wizarding photo frame, clutching her Azkaban number… He shuddered. “I doubt whether there’s any soul left in her for the Dementors to suck out!” he said.

James looked up. He was holding three postcards in his hands, “What?”

“Druella - she’s been sentenced to a Dementor’s Kiss. I was just saying I doubt whether there’s any soul left… What’re those?” Sirius asked, curiously, pushing the paper off toward James.

“Postcards,” James said, “They’re from Lily. In Florida. Did you know she was going to Florida?” James was eagerly reading the card and held out the other two for Sirius to take.

“She might’ve mentioned it,” Sirius answered, and he took up the postcards and looked at the colourful photographs on them. They were early concept art photos for films Sirius hadn’t ever seen or heard of before - His had a picture of an elephant with great big ears and a tiny hat and a feather clutched in his trunk snout. The one addressed to Remus Lupin had a picture of a Dog wearing suspenders and a little green top hat and it said Shucks, I wish You Was Here! in green loopy writing at the bottom. “What did you get? I got an elly-phant and Remus’s gotten… I think it’s a dog…?”

James held his postcard up.

“A deer!” Sirius exclaimed, “How fitting!”

“She told me about Bambi once, in Divination like two years ago. I can’t believe she remembered that,” James said, surprised. “She told me I should see it. I mean I didn’t, I forgot all about it, it was just so long ago, but…” James felt a bit baffled. Why would Lily Evans have sent him a deer? And then he remembered her words in classroom - before Mopsus had interrupted them - when she’d said his eyes were like her stag’s eyes… Could it be that she knew?

“That’s brilliant,” Sirius chuckled. “Did she write you a love letter, then, like what she’s written Remus here?” Sirius flapped the postcard at James, “Miss you Mr. Lupin, especially our long talks. This is Goofy - he reminded me a bit of you because of how sweet he is (not because he’s goofy). I took a photograph with him in Downtown Disney, I’ll show you when we get back to Hogwarts. Lots of Love, Lily.” Sirius looked up at James, “Should I be jealous you reckon?”

“She signed mine lots of love, too,” James said with a shrug.

“So no, then.” Sirius said and James deflated just a bit, “What else does yours say?”

“Hullo Potter. This is Bambi - the deer I told you about that one time? Have a happy Summer, Lots of Love, Evans.”

“Not bad,” Sirius said.

James said, “It isn’t hardly anything. What’s yours say?”



Sirius lied, “Dear Sirius, Happy Summer, hope you’re having loads of fun. Lots of Love, Lily.”

“So yours is short, too then?” James looked relieved.

“Sure!” Sirius smiled and swept his, which had quite a bit of writing across it, out of the way of James’s sight, to read later when James wasn’t sitting there, feverishly comparing letter lengths...




Far off, Peter, too, got a late afternoon owl from Lily Evans. It was a postcard, travelled all the way from Florida, and it had a picture of a duck in a blue shirt on it. Donald Duck, Peter thought vaguely, pulling the name out of the recesses of his mind, knowing he’d heard Maggie talking about cartoons at some point… He turned it over, excited, it was the first bit of mail he’d gotten from any of his classmates, other than the Order letter from James. Annalee McKinnon was the only one that had written him so far this summer…

Happy Summer, Peter! Hope you’re having a grand one! Miss you! Say hello to Annalee for me! Lots of Love, Lily.

It wasn’t much, but it was something, and the back of the postcard was rather small, Peter thought to himself. At least Lily Evans had thought of him… He propped the postcard up beside his bed and stared at the colorful picture, smiling at it, glad to know that not all his friends had completely forgotten him…




Fenrir Greyback paced back and forth in the cottage in the Great North Woods, his fist tight around the paper that had been brought to him by the Gorgon, Medusa. He growled deep in the back of his throat… the photograph of Medusa peeked out from between his fingers. The bloody little children - it was their fault that Druella Black was incarcerated at the Ministry now - their fault that she was sentenced to the Dementor’s Kiss… He was going mad thinking of it, thinking of her being there. It was Numengard all over again, except this time there would be no hope of her escaping…

Surely the Dark Lord would go for her, surely the Dark Lord would fetch Druella Black from the depths of the Ministry for Magic… She was one of his most faithful servants, mother to others of his faithful servants… She had helped him, Fenrir, assemble the half-breed army for the Dark Lord…

But then again, the Dark Lord had killed Orion Black, another of his faithful servants.

The Dark Lord didn’t hesitate to allow his followers to die once he had enough of them, once they’d made mistakes.

Druella hadn’t killed those kids at the Black house that day. She hadn’t killed Sirius Black or James Potter. She had helped him take Remus Lupin away, but then she had laid claim to the lives of Remus Lupin and Frank Longbottom - publically, in the middle of the Ministry for Magic - only for them to have escaped the Great North Woods alive. The Dark Lord had to have been angry to find that out.

Fenrir had just been waiting for the Dark Lord to come and see him about that very thing.

But the Dementor’s Kiss… that was worse than the killing curse.

Fenrir stopped his pacing, leaning against the mantel of the fireplace and closed his eyes.




Fabian and Gideon Prewett followed Alastor Moody through the depths of the Ministry for Magic on Thursday morning. They went as far as the elevator lift would bring them, and then on down a pair of spiraling stone stairs into darker quarters, where a faint dripping sound of water from wave-like walls echoed. Moody stopped before the dungeon door - thick metal doors with a small barred grate and a locking sliding door through which food could pass… Cell number 27.

“Prewett One, the key,” Moody murmured. Fabian held out the key they’d gotten from the dungeon guard room. He took it and readied it at the door. “Both of you - wands at the ready.” He turned the key and the lock mechanism clicked and the door swung open.

Druella Black laid on the floor, on a sparse bit of straw, clothed in a dingy grey-and-charcoal sack of a dress - Azkaban garb, despite having never been transported to Azkaban. Her wild hair hung in great bushes about her face, her violet eyes were baggy and dark rings hung beneath them. She was chained to the wall like a dog - a shackle ‘round her neck like a collar. As the three aurors stepped inside, she looked up, and a most eerie, creepy sort of smile crossed her face. “Time, is it?” she hissed, “Time to have my soul sucked out?” She cackled.

Gideon magiced her hands into chains and Fabian added a second chain to the collar and they disconnected the chain to the wall, each holding onto one that went to her collar and one that went to the new shackle ‘round her wrists. They got her to her feet and she stumbled on the cobblestones, unsteady and Moody caught her and righted her. “Can you walk?” he demanded, “We can magic you along upon your request.”

Druella cackled, “Let me walk, Moody,” she spat his name like it was a curse.

“Very well,” he answered gruffly.

Moody led the way - the Prewett brothers holding tight to her chains, keeping her between them, forming a triangle as they walked up the hall, back to the stairs, and up into the Department of Mysteries. They crossed through a wide chamber, done entirely in black tiles with white grouting, and down a side corridor that brought them to the deep courtroom number 10, where the seating rose up through many, many levels…

Every seat in the room was full. Bartemius Crouch sat in the high judge’s chair, the entire Wizengamot filled their balcony seats - including Albus Dumbledore. The seats remaining were filled with witnesses. Witches and Wizards whose lives had been marred by Druella’s many, many crimes - parents of children she’d stolen for Fenrir Greyback, children of people she’d murdered, friends, family… Many clutched photos of their loved ones, photos that they held up for her to see as she was led in, as though seeing the faces of the ones she’d killed would bring remorse… Instead, she laughed as she looked about, recognizing the photos, remembering the kills, remembering the smell of blood and the sound of Fenrir’s teeth tearing flesh...

Fabian and Gideon wrestled Druella into large chair in the center of the room, fastened her chains to the chair securely, and backed to stand on either side of the door to the corridor from whence they’d come. Moody lowered himself onto one of the lower benches, his hands crossed over his chest, his magical eye swivelling about the room, his regular one trained on her.

“Druella Black,” echoed Bartemius Crouch’s voice from the judge’s seat. “You have been convicted of the crimes of the murder of over four hundred known witches, wizards, and muggles at various times - most recently and specifically for the attacks in the chamber of the Ministry of Magic. You have been sentenced to life in Azkaban following the administration of the Dementor’s Kiss, to be performed this day, 10 July, 1975. Do you, Druella Black, have any last words or requests before your sentence is carried out?”

There was silence that filled the room - absolute and complete silence. Everyone stared down at her, waiting for her reply…

Her eyes danced across the faces peering at her, and she rolled her head side to side, looking up at them, drinking in their rapt attention, and her mouth parted opened and she cackled quietly, the sound slowly rising up out of her lungs as she laughed, manic.

“Druella Black --” Bartemius Crouch’s voice was sharp, “Any last words?”

“Yes,” she said in a drawling, amused sort of voice, which lilted like she was sing-songing, “LOOONG LIVE THE IMMORTAL DARK LORD, VOLDEMORT! MAY HIS PRAISES BE SUNG FROM EVERY WIZARDING MOUTH!!! LOOOONG LIVE THE DARK LOOOOORD!”

Gasps went up from the witnesses - Bartemius Crouch waved to a man with a hood over his head in the corner, who hurriedly got up and ran for a solid metal door to one side and unlocked the several locks that secured it shut… Moody shifted uncomfortably in his seat, looking up across the deep courtroom to where Albus Dumbledore sat, frowning in his place among the Wizengamot…

Druella continued her shrieking, even as a heavy cold filled the room and candles along the walls flickered out… Fabian Prewett shivered, averting his eyes from the dark, cloaked figure now entering… gliding through the air toward the chair, it’s rattling breath echoing in the bowl of the courtroom… Gideon Prewett reached over and touched his brother’s arm, even as the happiness drained from him, too. Moody steeled himself…

The dementor hovered over Druella Black, who stared up at it, her mad flashing eyes wide as she tried to keep up her shrieking… but the dementor’s presence was draining the fight out of her, weakening her, until her cackles turned into cries and the dementor leaned down, laying a bony hand on each of her shoulders… Druella Black stared into the hollow black face… could hear the thing beginning to inhale… raspy and coming closer… and closer…

Even Alastor Moody had to look away, for the dementor’s kiss is something unbearable to watch.