The Day After Tomorrow

SHIFTING LANES

37 - SHIFTING LANES

HARRY Potter did in fact have a unique skill set, thought Dawlish as they hauled the figure of Sybill Trelawney into the cell. A tracking spell, Mundungus Fletcher and some good old-fashioned stalking had revealed her location; A brick-and-mortar cottage in Dorset, surrounded by lush green and sprawling fields. It had felt so un-evil, that some foolish part of Dawlish wanted to complain.

This was the mastermind of the largest string of murders in his career, this thin wisp of a woman? She looked harmless, completely and utterly harmless. And it had been like she'd been waiting for them to show up, she hadn't even tried to raise her wand, she'd just taken a last sip of tea at a sun splashed breakfast table and stood when they'd burst through the door. "Good afternoon gentlemen. Where do you want me?"

Harrison had looked close to collapsing from shock.

From the way she spoke, soft and insistent and lilting, Dawlish figured she really did think she was harmless. Almost as if the full weight of what she'd done, what she'd gotten others to do, hadn't sunk in. He wondered if it ever would, or if she'd continue living life through those big round glasses of hers, content in the knowledge that she'd saved the world twice over with her prophecies.

"Mrs Trelawney, are you aware of the charges being brought against you by the Wizengamot." Said Dawlish from across the table. Her mousy hair was unbound, frazzled against her face as she nodded. "Under Wizengamot law, you are entitled to a legal defense whereby you will be trialed for the crimes you have been convicted of. Do you understand Mrs Trelawney?" Another frazzled nod, her eyes were darting across the room, unfocused and curious. "Do you understand the nature of the crimes you've been charged with Mrs Trelawney."

"Yes I do." She spoke finally, her voice uncommonly normal in the room. It was such a contrast to the absent opening and closing of her palms and the disturbed way she kept glancing about the room, her eyes never settling.

Dawlish nodded, casting a brief look at Harrison who had stationed himself in the corner of the room. "For the sake of formality, Mrs Trelawney, I will repeat them. You have been charged with multiple counts of homicide in connection to the Azkaban, Diagon Alley and Malfoy Manor attacks, as well as conspiracy to kill countless other magical citizens. Do you accept these charges?"

Sybill nodded silently and shifted in her seat, not out of discomfort but out of impatience. She'd foreseen this long winding process and she didn't really have the patience to sit through it in real time. "I do. I coordinated the attacks and I participated in them too." She said simply, eyes still darting over the confines of the space. It felt claustrophobic, hard and cold like it was physically pressing against her spirit.

Harrison's mouth tipped open in a disbelieving empty sound. "So you admit it then."

"Yes, yes I do." Confirmed Sybill in the same strange offhanded manner like she was admitting to something much less serious than a string of assassinations. 

Harrison and Dawlish exchanged a look filled with meaning. This was the first criminal they'd come across that had given themselves up so easily. With this recorded confession, the trial was essentially done and dusted. Dawlish swallowed quickly. "Well then, since we've established what you've done, why don't you tell us why you did it."

Sybill's head tipped to the side, the way she was looking at them made Dawlish feel like she was looking through them, into them even, searching for something unnameable. "Surely Mundungus told you why."

"He did. But we want to hear from you. You did coordinate the attacks, Mrs Trelawney. We want to know why." Replied Dawlish crisply.

"Well, in that case, get comfortable while I tell you a story." She gave Harrison a pointed look till he stepped towards the table and sat in the empty seat across her, like a sullen child. She looked like she was preparing to lecture them. "I imagine that you are aware that I am All-Knowing, that I possess the Inner Eye." She began, her pale eyes flicking between them earnestly till they nodded, prompting her to continue. "I do not often share this with people as it can make people skittish, but after the prophecy of Harry and You-Know-Who, you can imagine that people began taking note of my skill for foretelling. They began to take me seriously." She gave them a shrug, her eyes serious for once as they settled on their faces. "Which mind you, they should have been doing from the very start, but people are afraid of what they do not know, what they cannot See. But I, gentlemen, was gifted with the Sight, with the gift to See what others do not."