Expose

"My pleasure," he said, refilling the tea and adding the required sugars for her.

"Allow me," Marcus said to Khaat. "A bit of magic to save you from undressing." He helped her take her sweater off and then flicked his wand at the neckline of her dress, changing it to a strapless dress, rather than its flowing sleeves.

He caught the annoyed glance that she shot at him. She didn't like it strapless, and he had expected that. He flashed her a bit of a mischievous grin to lighten the mood. He was used to seeing the scars. He'd seen a lot of them in his work in espionage, but he knew these were large and deep, the sort that made people look away quickly.

She felt exposed. Naked. She dreaded him removing her glamour charm that minimized the scarring to her face and her neck. The horror that she was going to be left this exposed all over the wizarding word was something she was finding hard to block out of her mind.

He faced her to remove the glamour charm, and his eyes met hers. He gave her a silent look of courage. He knew she could do this, and he wanted to remind her that she was not alone. He was still here. She didn't move. He flicked his wand and removed the charm.

And here was the fullness of James' mark, in all its hideousness. Marcus didn't know of anyone that carried this sort of scarring. It showed James' viciousness. This was what he did merely to mark what he considered his. This was not what he did to intend to injure. Had he intended to do that, she would not have survived. It had taken her own family weeks to be able to look at them at all, months to not have to turn away. There had been three who had been able to deal with seeing them--her father, her husband, and Marcus. He didn't expect any in the wizarding world to bear up to the photos any better.

"Do this quickly, Ms. Parkinson-Nott," Marcus said, knowing this was necessary, but he hated what it put his client through to do it.

Pansy didn't watch whilst Marcus helped Khaat show her scars. She wanted to, it was something she thought she'd love but upon first sight of the deep laceration it was a reflex that caused her to glance away and pretend to focus on the camera.

Raising the camera to her eye Pansy peered through the window. It wasn't a pretty sight. The scars were deep and even though they were months old they still looked fresh. A deep red colour stood out and would surely capture the attention of the readers. They weren't neat, not what Pansy had expected, instead the scars were jagged around the edges and cut deep to form grooves of skin either side.

Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash. Flash. The death eater had taken five photographs. She didn't know why exactly but it was what her photographer always did so he had more to work with. Well, it was the least she could give to the Daily Prophet after them so kindly allowing her having a week off from work.

'Perfect.' Pansy said, not noticing there was nothing perfect about the situation. There was nothing perfect about the scars. Nothing perfect about her shoulder. Nothing perfect about the dried blood that was scabbing around the edges. The only perfectness about them was how perfectly hideous they were and how they would send a message to the nation.

Sitting herself back down Pansy gave her fresh cup of tea her full attention, giving time for Khaat to become more comfortable once again. They had covered almost everything the reporter had intended to question although, as an after thought, Pansy had one last question.

'You said that you're Father is ill, too ill to go to work. Can you explain how he was able to sign the educational decrees released in the new year for me?' Pansy believed it was Robert who had signed them, after all she had been at the death eater meeting when Katrina-Carlotta discussed them but maybe, just maybe, the ex-slytherin would be able to drain a bit more information out of Khaat.

Marcus changed her dress back first and helped her back with her sweater.  Then he replaced the glamour charms. Pointless as it was now, it made her feel a bit more secure again.  He handed her tea mug to her.  

Khaat listened to Pansy ask the next question.  

"Simple," Khaat said.  "He didn't.  Just as he didn't sign the marriage law stuff. It's all part and parcel of whatever nonsense is going on.  But there's some sort of effort to exert some power in the ministry--power they don't have right to have, and clearly don't care about using it for the common good.  I want this person found and caught before they can do much more damage--and so we can all stop feeling like we have to hold our breath to see what ridiculousness they're going to do next."

The truth was that she wanted that person sitting in her courtroom, in front of her, looking at her face to face, having to answer for every charge, every foul act--from bewitching Thaor, to the educational decrees, the marriage law, the attack on her father, everything.  As near as she could figure, when they caught the person responsible, he or she merited the death penalty.  Life in Azkaban might be mercy. Perhaps. But this had put the entire nation at great risk. No--Khaat wasn't interested in mercy right now.  

"This isn't going to be easy to repair now either," Khaat said. "We can offer dissolutions for those couples that don't want to remain married, but where families are being forced into existence, and unwanted children being created, what do we do with that? Its going to be a complicated process."

Pansy paused for a moment. The educational decrees were a forgery? But, in the death eater meeting, Katrina-Carlotta had told them to support any regime to get Lupin's back in power. She never went in to the educational decrees but, from that, Pansy gathered they had appointed her as Headmistress in replace of Theodore. She'd wrote an article about it, truly believing the nation that Minister Lupin had placed her as head for a good reason. Was that a lie?
 
'So your Father didn't appoint Du Hunt as Headmistress of Hogwarts?' Pansy asked, her eyes narrowing slightly in confusion. This bit she wouldn't write about, she'd have to take a visit to Du Hunt herself and try and discover what really was on the death eater agenda - if there was something? Was Pansy part of a plan?
 
Du Hunt had told her to write in favour of the Lupins. When Pansy believed the Lupin's had signed the educational decree's Pansy wrote in support of them. Despite the nations uproar against the banning of half breeds Pansy tried to shed light on the situation, attempted to change peoples minds. Why? Because not only did she think herself it was a good idea (for she hated half breeds) but because she believed Lupin was behind it.
 
Unless... Unless it was Du Hunt behind the marriage law? That wouldn't make sense, surely she didn't want to deprive pure bloods with continuing their legacy? But why did she become Headmistress if it wasn't because Theodore Rookwood had slacked on the night the school needed him most? Pansy had a lot of questions for Du Hunt, and she wanted them answered as soon as possible. What really was the aims for the foreign witch who had taken control of the death eaters?
 
'And if you didn't appoint Du Hunt as Headmistress, do you have any idea why she would be placed in such a high position?' Pansy added.


Or maybe it wasn't Du Hunt? Maybe, as Pansy took a wild guess earlier, that James Blood was behind this? He placed Du Hunt as head - unaware to her - so that it would discredit the Lupins even more, because lets be honest she is perhaps your first choice as a Headmistress. Then the marriage law? He wanted more children being born so he could snatch the children and raise them as halfbreeds? That would work well with the educational decree banning half breeds, or it would have had Blood executed it well. Did he want the half breeds out of Hogwarts, make them feel exiled so they would turn to him?

Pansy was now beginning to realise the gravity of the mystery they were all puppets in.

"My father wouldn't have had any reason, in particular, to mark her off his list," Khaat said, "Not one that I know of.  I just don't believe he had the opportunity to hire anyone for the post.

"However, I have seen Ms. Du Hunt fight," Khaat said, "and if she can bring her skills to the school and help protect our children from any more harm coming to them, then I have no reason not to support her in her post.

"Its no secret that the Lupin family has a long standing record of, generation to generation, being Gryffindors and all that goes with that.  We don't necessarily always agree with the political views of the Death Eaters. However, we don't deliberately not consider someone for a task or a post because of their political party persuasion. We have always had friends and allies from all sorts of belief systems, so it would be completely against our nature to scratch anyone capable off our list because we didn't agree with them--not unless it jeopardizes the greater good.

"Honestly, what we look for is whether or not we believe the person we hire can do the task that we're appointing them for.  I don't know who really was behind hiring Ms. Du Hunt for Headmistress, but at this point, I think that either it was a very wise choice--or that whoever hired her grossly misjudged her and thought that perhaps she would be easily made just another string to be pulled.  

"At any rate, I wish her much success in her job.  Its a huge amount of responsibility, and especially when James is looking for young, fresh recruits in his pack, she's got her hands full.  By the same token, if James thinks he can just walk onto the school grounds again and take whatever he wants, I think he's got another thing coming."