You're My Destiny↣ Harmione

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter 31 - One Last Chance

Changes to Britain's magical society were normally introduced at a snail's pace, and then only if that introduction couldn't be sidetracked or possibly derailed altogether. The new classes at Hogwarts only affected students in first and second year, with the Christmas holidays being the first chance most parents of those students had to hear about how those changes affected them. Those changes however weren't receiving any attention from parents whatsoever, not when held up against what else was very publicly unfolding in their country.

Citizens who a mere week ago had been cloaked in respectability now had the masks they'd once worn exposed for everyone to see what lurked beneath. Some of the deeds they had performed whilst hiding their identities behind those masks started a public outcry for the death penalty to be their Ministry's final solution to the Death Eater problem, except in one special case.

The mountain of irrefutable evidence against Walden Macnair guaranteed the case against him was airtight, and no sane person anywhere in the country could argue against him receiving the death penalty - right up until the muggle government became heavily involved. They wanted to get their hands on this serial killer so badly that immense political pressure was immediately brought to bear on the ministry. Since a fair few of his victims had been muggle children, that was actually a response the Ministry of Magic certainly understood - though for legitimate security reasons couldn't fully support.

Having discovered by the administration of truth serum exactly how dangerous and deranged Macnair actually was, Amelia dug her heels in and wouldn't shift her position about handing him over to the muggle authorities. Even the slightest chance of this psychopath one day escaping was not something she could put her name to. Eventually a compromise was reached that suited everyone involved, Macnair's opinion not withstanding.

Macnair was sentenced to be kissed by a dementor, and then his soulless husk would be handed over to the muggle authorities. Their government's cover story would be Macnair had suffered an aneurysm in his brain. This aneurysm not only caused his present irreversible condition but lead directly to the discovery of his 'trophies' when the police and ambulance services supposedly arrived at his door. Amelia was satisfied a kissed Macnair would never hurt anyone again and the muggles had a prisoner to publicly pin all those now solved cases on. Everyone was happy with that result, again with the exception of Walden Macnair. He would never feel emotions again.

The Daily Prophet actually ran the story that had been printed in the muggle press about this case - banner headlines on front pages named Macnair as The Beast of Britain - to give their own readers some idea of just how wide and far reaching this wizard's depraved acts had been. Pictures of parents crying because their child's murderer had finally faced justice crossed the magical / muggle divide. Anyone who had a son or daughter couldn't help but feel their pain.

Headline after headline in their own press also couldn't help but emphasise their hidden and perpetually enduring world would simply never be the same again. As more and more details became publicly available about what these wizards and witches had done in the name of pureblood supremacy, people's attitudes became more and more accepting of the previously foreign concept that their world simply had to change.

No one wanted to live in a country where acts like this were allowed to happen, far less encouraged by a select and financially powerful section of their society. While there would always remain those witches and wizards who thought they were better than others, simply from their circumstances of birth, a clear line had rather graphically and forcefully been drawn regarding how far that bigotry could now be taken.

When you had a ministry who were prepared to sentence purebloods to life in Azkaban, a dementor's kiss or even the death penalty, few if any would ever cross that line again. Maintaining your freedom, soul or life was a massive incentive for rapid behavioural modification, and a hell off a deterrent to ensure a group like the Death Eaters would never put roots down in Britain again.