Charming by Haig Moses (1st Draft)

Chapter Four

Ever since I was a kid, I would stay up all hours of the night watching crime shows. Law intrigued me, though in coming to Harvard I quickly realized that watching the law and actually learning it first hand were two completely different things. The first week of classes hadn't even been completed and I already had homework piling up to my kneecaps: five chapters of Criminal Law was to be read and have had notes taken on it, then I also have three cases I had to debrief for class.

Professor Minerva Aude, who taught both of my Contesting Injustice and Law as Culture classes was a tough woman. She reminded me a lot of Minerva McGonagall from the Harry Potter series, except with less humor, a higher distaste for people and seriousness for her profession. In each of the classes I noticed how the first two rows of the halls were left empty until a few unlucky students, who had come in too late to receive a seat a good distance away from Aude's steel cold glare were forced to sit in front.

Professor Aude's class had went from bearable to life-threatening and crippling anxiety. There were moments when I felt I was barely floating above water much less succeeding in anything with how much the woman had decided to pick on me.

Maybe trying to save Mallory from certain embarrassment hadn't been the best move I could've made, but if given the choice I would've done it again. Sitting and watching as the girls sputtered out what the actus reus was for one of their first case studies we had been expected to debrief and come to the first day of class with prepared was traumatizing.

"And can anybody tell me what the mens rea is?" Professor Aude's sharp grey eyes scanned the large lecture hall filled with silent students before they scrolled down a list of names in her hand. "Balakrishna."

"The mens rea," Ana said confidently standing in her designer outfits as two hundred pairs of eyes found her slim frame. The case had been about a young girl who was cyberbullied by her ex-best friend and mother. The two had joined together to create a fake profile of a teenage boy, befriended the victim on social media before beginning to verbally abuse and taunt her, which ultimately led her to commit suicide. Harriet had been chilled just be reading the case and even more shocked, after some light research, to discover the increasing amount of teens who committed suicide over stories which were almost identical to the victim in the case study. This was exactly why Harriet wanted to become an attorney at law. To make sure that people like this girl and her mother couldn't get away with crimes such as these. "The mens rea was to extract information and enact revenge on Meier for allegedly spreading rumors regarding her daughter."

"Not to kill?" Professor Aude questioned in a way teachers do which makes a student rethink their answer. However, Ana stood firm on her decision shaking her head no. Despite how disgusted she was by the actions of the young girl and her mother, she didn't think that they set out to purposefully for the girl to commit suicide. It was a terrible and reckless game with was pushed too far. "Why?"

"Based on the messages between victim and defendant, there is no evidence of the defendant wanting the victim to kill herself as she never stated such actions verbatim."

"Excuse me," the entire lecture hall shifted as another voice joined the conversation. Harriet felt her heart skip a beat before plummeting to the ground as she realized that it was in fact her who has spoken up. Following Ana's lead, Harriet stood to her feet and tried to gather her thoughts quickly. "But one can clearly see that the defendant states in her message to the victim that, 'the world would be a better place without you in it'. I mean if that doesn't count as intent to do harm then what does?"

"And according to the first amendment that's considered free speech not an act of manslaughter," Ana pointed out. "Yes, the defendant was enraged and was seeking revenge, but to say she sought out for this thirteen year old girl to kill herself is ridiculous."