#but like... the cast have had to contend with confirmed killers before?

[detectivenyx]

[callumturncr]

A Different Path [Sirius Black AU] - Part 3

Summary: Post-graduation AU in which the reader, Lily and The Marauders have just joined the Order of the Phoenix. As tensions are at its highest in the First Wizarding War, the reader, who likes Sirius Black more than she would like to admit, is framed for the murder of Marlene McKinnon.

Parts:  1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8

Author’s Note: Firstly, thank you everyone for reading!! It makes me very happy to hear that you enjoy my writing. I just wanted to clear up something mentioned in Part 2 in case it caused confusion – Barty Crouch has intentionally been written as the Minister for Magic during the First Wizarding War (even though he was only Head of Magical Law Enforcement). The actual Ministers at this time had barely any canon information written about them so I used Crouch and his characteristics in this role instead.

Warning: This part contains a very brief scene in which the Cruciatus curse is used to inflict torture. The description of this scene is similar to how JK Rowling described the effects of the curse in the Harry Potter books so please read at your own discretion.

Gif is not mine. Words: 2.7k

A strangled cry escaped Y/N’s throat and she pushed desperately at her captor’s hands. Rodolphus responded by moving one up to her mouth.

“You knew there was something not quite right about him, didn’t you?” he spoke softly in her ear. Y/N could see where his shirt sleeve had been rolled down, the tip of what looked like a tattoo on his inner forearm. It resembled the Dark Mark that Voldemort usually casted into the sky after killing and she writhed even harder to get away.

“What have you done?” Marlene spat in a voice so unlike her usual one, that it momentarily startled Y/N. At this, the other Lestrange brother tightened his grip considerably, a menacing smile on his face. Seeing red, Y/N bit down on Rodolphus’ hand and he released her face with a yelp. She fought out of his grasp and lunged towards Peter but found herself crumpling to the floor with a yell before she could get very far.

Pain like she had never experienced before seared through her body, so intense that she barely registered Marlene’s shouting. There was a horrible pounding in her skull and Y/N wondered dimly if it would shatter. Razor sharp blades were stabbing her all over – in her chest, in her stomach, all over her arms and legs and she was screaming, screaming so loudly that she felt her voice would give out at any moment.

“Stop! Stop please! Peter, make them stop!” It was all Marlene could repeat, over and over like a mantra as she watched both Bellatrix and her husband point their wands at Y/N who writhed in agony, consumed by the Cruciatus curse. The sounds escaping Y/N’s mouth were so anguished that Marlene’s vision blurred with tears. “PETER!”

Sweat dripped down Y/N’s temple as the ache gradually receded. She tried to get up but was shaking so badly, so badly that she could hardly stand. Bellatrix uttered a sound of amusement at her struggle and ambled over lazily, her eyes shining with glee as Y/N recoiled.

“Bella there’s no need to drag it out, let’s just finish them and go,” Rodolphus began but was shushed by her.

“Finish them and go? These are top members of Albus’ organization!” she looked to Peter for confirmation.

“So is Peter, we know everything already. There’s no point in–”

“Growing soft Rodolphus?”

“–Wasting time.” He finished, his eyes narrowed in a glare.

“Why would you defect? They were your brothers Peter,” Y/N asked. She’d stopped shaking, the anger returning in full force and she fought the urge to lunge at him again in fear that Marlene would pay the price this time.

“There is nothing to be gained from opposing Lord Voldemort. You are fighting a losing battle,” he said simply. There was no tremor in his voice but it was obvious he felt secure only because he was surrounded by powerful Death Eaters. His calm demeanor back at the Ministry made sense now.

“And you are a coward,” she hissed back, eyeing Bellatrix’s wand as it slowly leveled in her direction in warning. “They would’ve done anything for you, they would’ve defended you with everything they had and you were foolish enough to throw that away!”

“There’s hardly anything wrong with throwing away the sympathies of blood traitors,” Bellatrix snapped back.

“Good thing they’ll never find out,” said Peter.

She didn’t have any time to register his words because he had moved the wand he was holding – her wand – in Marlene’s direction. Bellatrix and Rodolphus fired towards Y/N again but this time, hit one another as she ducked under the latter’s outstretched arm. Marlene had used the sudden flurry movement to break free from Rabastan as well and was motioning furiously with her wand hand as their duel resumed. Bellatrix’s small scream of pain was enough to startle Peter who froze, gaping stupidly. Y/N attempted to use wandless magic towards him but it was hard to focus a Stunning spell and she missed several times.

Amidst the chaos, Barty Crouch Jr. had made it downstairs and seeing Peter’s struggle, fired bright green flashes of light at her. Y/N chased Peter, desperately wishing in her rage for one of them to hit him instead but Crouch’s aim was deadly, missing her only by a very narrow margin each time. The door previously left ajar burst open and two figures which could only have been Dedalus and Dorcas rushed inside, stealing his attention, leaving Y/N only Pettigrew to contend with. Having finally caught up to him, she pushed him with all her strength and he fell to the floor, landing a few feet from Marlene.

“You traitor, you traitor, you bloody traitor,” Y/N hissed under her breath as she fought to get her wand back. If Peter was truly smart enough he would’ve thought to transform back into a rat but Y/N was grateful he hadn’t, he was already surprisingly strong for someone of his height and stature.

“ENOUGH WORMTAIL!” roared Bellatrix.“KILL HER ALREADY!”

After that, it was as if everything happened in slow motion.

Peter managed to throw Y/N off and regained his posture. He pointed the wand at her and with only a brief instant of delay muttered the words ‘Avada Kedavra’. Y/N had one fleeting moment to ponder at the irony of being killed with her own wand when she realized that the fool’s aim had been off. A ribbon of brilliant emerald shot out, but it was hurtling towards Marlene and Y/N found herself racing against the beam of light to reach her friend first. She hit a solid form and tugged with all her might in what she hoped was the right direction.

Relief flooded through Y/N as both girls hit the floor but vanished as quickly as it had come. Marlene lay under her, eyes open and unblinking. The shock tainted her features still, frozen in place. Y/N felt a strange emotion arise in her throat like bile as she stared down, disbelieving, at her fallen friend who grew colder by the second. With one hand over her mouth, she grasped Marlene’s shoulder and gave the tiniest nudge.

“Mar,” she whispered in a choked voice.

Nothing. There was no blood, no cuts, nothing. If she were to close the eyelids, Marlene would appear to be sleeping. The hand on her face came away wet with tears.

Somewhere, far away, someone cursed as flashes of blinding white light reflected through the windows. The passage of time regained its usual speed as she managed to tear her eyes away to watch Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan vanish in plumes of jet black. Crouch Jr. followed suit after yelling ‘Obliviate!’, hand outstretched at Dorcas and Dedalus. Their expressions of horror faded as the last inky wisp of smoke did, along with their memory of the encounter.

Peter was left standing as he had been before, still holding her wand. Unfazed, he threw it back to her and finally transforming into his Animagus, scampered away. With a cry of anguish, Y/N snapped out of her daze, furiously wiped at her eyes, picked up her wand and sprinted after him.

“PETTIGREW!” she heard herself roar. As she ran outside, Y/N saw Dumbledore’s trim form materialize from the white light, enter the bar and call out in a frantic voice. She knew what he would find, what Dorcas and Dedalus would remember to tell him – that they’d walked in to find her holding her wand over Marlene – but all she could care about in that moment was finding Peter Pettigrew.

-

It had been a week since the news of Marlene McKinnon’s death had hit the newspapers. Printed across the front page of the Daily Prophet was a photo of her taken for the Order alongside another of her deceased form. Her killer, Y/N Y/L/N had gone into hiding and anybody with information on her whereabouts was to be rewarded 10,000 galleons. Rita Skeeter had painted Peter Pettigrew as the hero, for bringing Marlene’s body back to the Ministry and he was to be awarded the Order of Merlin for his bravado in facing a ‘dear friend turned Death Eater spy’, she wrote.

Y/N had read the headline with her blood boiling. It occurred to her after she’d left that it would’ve been better to stay with Marlene to prove her innocence but there was nothing she could do now. Her anger had made her desperate, so desperate that she currently stood in Godric’s Hollow below James Potter’s home, where Sirius would be. Y/N knew that Peter had told Sirius everything, every lie he could think of but she had to see him, to explain. She hoped with all her might that he would listen.

She found him sitting at the dinner table, with his head clasped in his hands. He whipped out his wand as soon as he heard the faint pop of someone Apparating into the house.

“Sirius,” she choked out. Stepping out and pulling down the hood of her cloak, she stared at him, not knowing how to begin. He stared back, thunderstruck for a moment before a glare overtook his face. Rather than lowering it, he aimed his wand directly at her. The action reminded her so strongly of Peter doing the same to Marlene that tears sprang up in her eyes.

“Please, please I’m not here to hurt anyone.” Sirius’ hand didn’t falter.

“You said you wouldn’t let anything happen to her. You promised you’d bring her back.” His voice was so cold, so detached that Y/N flinched.

“I want to explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain.”

Shaking her head, she moved forwards.

“Stop. Stay there,” he said again.

“Sirius please listen to me,” her voice broke a little. He watched her shut her eyes and collect herself before starting again. “Whatever Peter might’ve told you, it’s all a lie–”

“A lie?” Sirius interrupted. “There were witnesses and they weren’t Muggles, it was Dedalus and Dorcas,” his voice rose to a shout very quickly. “Members of your own bloody group Y/N!”

“Crouch’s son was there, he used the Memory charm on them! Bellatrix cleared all the Muggles out the bar!”

“Crouch’s son?” he asked incredulously, looking at her as though she was mad. “Do you hear yourself?!”

“We thought he was the accomplice! We thought it was him because he came in after them but we were wrong, the accomplice was Peter,” Y/N could see Sirius’ eyes narrow further as she went on. They were rimmed in red and the darkest she had ever seen them, almost black in anger. She inched closer but again, saw his wand mirror her actions.

“Peter would never.”

Sirius said it so fervently, Y/N wanted to weep. Not even in frustration, not because he refused to listen to her but because of how quick he was to jump to Pettigrew’s defense. He trusted Peter so wholeheartedly and Peter had repaid him by killing the girl he cared about most. She almost pitied him, his blindness.

“Sirius if you only knew– if you knew what he’s done, what he’s capable of–”

“What I’m capable of?”

Y/N’s eyes widened as a shadow stepped out behind Sirius. She wondered for second if that night would follow her forever, if she would see its events over and over, everywhere she went. First Sirius with his wand and now, Peter stepping out into the light as he had the day Marlene had met her end.

“I brought her back Y/N.” He had the gall to look solemn. “I brought her back after you ran.”

“I ran after you!” Y/N started towards him, almost fuming.

“He was upstairs the whole time!” Sirius moved to block her path.

“Is that what he told you?” she couldn’t help how her voice rose. “What other lies have you told them Peter? How can you stand there and pretend? They’re as good as your brothers you coward!” Peter only shook his head, an image of calm which only infuriated Y/N further. He opened his mouth to say something but she was quicker. In the one second Sirius’ gaze had faltered to fix on a spot behind her, she leapt across the threshold.

She’d barely touched Peter when a pair of arms wrapped around her middle, tugging her forcefully back. Y/N batted at them too, envisioning Rodolphus Lestrange behind her once again but Sirius’ hands slackened their grip quickly and she almost fell in her haste. She made towards Pettigrew again but he cowered behind Sirius, who’d placed himself between the pair.

“Enough,” he spat, a furious look painted on his face. “I want you to get out.”

“No,” she steeled her gaze as best as she could. “Tell him Peter!”

“Y/N–”

“Tell him! Tell him how you looked her in the eye and killed her!”

At some point, the tears had begun to fall freely and she didn’t bother wiping them away. Her words however, had no impact and Sirius gritted his teeth. He glanced behind her again and spoke.

“Call them.”

Y/N turned and her heart broke to see James Potter’s face just as indifferent. She wanted to plead with him, make him see the truth but knew it would be useless. Peter had united them against her and they would take his word over hers. It almost seemed set up, like Sirius had known she would come here. The irony of it all was made Y/N incredulous – how was it that he knew her so well yet not at all? If he had known she would seek him out, how could he not know she would never harm Marlene? She longed for Lily, kind and understanding Lily who had never doubted her before. She longed for Remus who was patient and would at least hear her out.

“I didn’t do it,” she repeated in a thick voice. “I didn’t kill her.”

“Then why did you run?” Sirius asked, his voice just as pained. “Why didn’t you stay with her?”

“I had to get to Peter before he got away; I had to make him pay for what he did–”

“I WAS UPSTAIRS!” Pettigrew retorted, apparently having had enough. He looked as if he wanted to speak further but suddenly, the dimly lit kitchen grew very dark. Goosebumps rose along the length of Y/N’s arms, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. A chilling gust of wind drifted in through the open window. James looked towards Sirius somewhat hesitantly.

Call them, he had said. Understanding ripped through her and she drew her cloak over her once more to Disapparate but she’d been so careless, so focused on the sight through the window that she found herself outside James’ home where she’d been standing before.

Barty Crouch stood in front of her but he hadn’t come alone. He was surrounded by four Dementors that towered over him, their black cloaks billowing in the breeze. Y/N sucked in a breath and turned to disappear again but found her path blocked by four wands. Sirius, James and Peter had joined them.

“Please, you have the wrong person. I did not kill Marlene McKinnon,” she pleaded but it was in vain. She could see it in their eyes; they didn’t trust a word out of her mouth.

“Your wand Y/L/N. Hand it over, no tricks and no magic,” spoke Crouch. She was done for – they would check her wand and rule her guilty. How would she convince them Peter had held her wand and fired the Killing Curse? Paling slightly, she produced it from her coat pocket.

“Prior Incantato,” Crouch muttered. Everything stood still for a brief stretch of time before a luminous, shimmery sort of smoke poured out from her wand tip. Y/N fought to hold herself upright as it took on the form of Marlene. She heard Sirius’ sharp intake of breath and saw James reach out to grip his arm firmly, as if holding him back.

“If you would just hear me out Minister,” she began but he brought up a hand to silence her.

“That is all the evidence we need. You will be brought to Azkaban immediately,” his voice was cruel and he said it a certain air of finality.

The four Dementors sprang forwards at his command and Y/N had nowhere left to run. She turned to beg Sirius one last time but her vision was obscured by the ebony cloaks of her captors and Godric’s Hollow faded away into nothingness before she could say a word.

Tag List: @knowledgeisthebomb @siriusement @kendratheweird @emi-loser @i-think-i-am-adorable @avengersassemblee @movokepwc @blackloveangel13 @misunderstood-sinner @vvytran

[takebackthedream]

Kavanaugh’s Disdain for Worker Safety Disqualifies Him by Leo Gerard

In his statement to Congress during confirmation hearings, Judge Brett Kavanaugh said his mother taught him judges must always stand in the shoes of others.

Though hardly original or deeply inspirational, it’s not bad advice. The problem is that Kavanaugh never chooses steel-toed work boots. In every case involving workers, Kavanaugh has put himself instead in the wingtips of CEOs. He is a man born to wealth and privilege who attended Georgetown Preparatory, one of the most expensive private high schools in the country, with annual tuition of nearly $57,000, followed by a similarly exclusive Ivy League college education.

The vast majority of Americans cannot conceive of paying $228,000 to get a kid through high school. Kavanaugh’s opinions illustrate that he has no idea how to relate to, and, in fact, doesn’t care to try to understand people with grit under their fingernails. That makes him, as a Supreme Court justice, dangerous to working people.

The case that perfectly illustrates Kavanaugh’s carelessness toward workers and obsequiousness toward corporations is SeaWorld v. U.S. Secretary of Labor Tomas Perez. Kavanaugh authored the dissent. Writing for the majority was Judge Judith W. Rogers, joined by Merrick Garland, Chief Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Garland’s name is familiar because he’s the judge who former President Barack Obama nominated to replace Antonin Scalia after the justice died in February of 2016. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in a move unprecedented in U.S. history, blocked a Senate vote to confirm Garland by refusing to conduct hearings on his nomination for nearly a year, enabling the new Republican president, who lost the popular vote, to choose a successor to Scalia.

In this case, SeaWorld v. Perez, Garland figuratively pulled on the water shoes of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was dismembered and drowned by 6-ton killer whale Tilikum, an orca that had killed humans twice before. Kavanaugh, by contrast, shoehorned himself into the fancy footwear of SeaWorld executives.

After Tilikum killed 40-year-old Brancheau before a horrified live audience at the SeaWorld park in Orlando, Fla., in 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigated. The law that created OSHA states: “Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

Even so, every year, about 5,000 workers are killed on the job. These are not white shoe lawyers like Kavanaugh who spend their days in expensive office buildings with majestic views. These are steelworkers and paper makers and tire builders confronted daily by dangerous machinery, lethal chemicals and hazardous processes essential to their jobs. Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary of labor at OSHA, compiles on his blog, Confined Space, a horrific list of those killed every week – workers suffocated in illegally unshored trenches, workers smashed in scaffolding collapses, workers electrocuted, workers crushed by construction equipment.

Even as Republicans in Congress continually cut OSHA’s budget, the agency investigates these deaths. In cases where it finds violations, it may fine the employer, but the real point of this grim exercise is to warn of dangers, require changes and prevent deaths.

Noting that Tilikum had killed people twice before, OSHA found that SeaWorld orcas had repeatedly endangered workers including biting trainers, lunging at them, pulling them into the water and, in a nonfatal incident in 2006, dragging a trainer by the foot and submerging him repeatedly for about 10 minutes. SeaWorld’s own incident reports demonstrated that it knew of the threat to trainers.

OSHA determined that SeaWorld had failed in its duty to provide a safe workplace by exposing trainers to hazards about which it was aware. OSHA fined SeaWorld $70,000 and recommended procedures to safeguard workers.

OSHA wanted the safety measures SeaWorld had instituted for Tilikum’s trainers after Dawn Brancheau’s death extended to trainers working with other SeaWorld orcas. This was a rational demand considering that another orca that SeaWorld owned and trained had killed a trainer at a Canary Islands park just two months before Tilikum killed Ms. Brancheau in Florida.

Still, SeaWorld appealed, contending that despite all of the killings, SeaWorld was unaware that working with killer whales posed a hazard. In addition, it said the trainers of killer whales other than Tilikum could look out for themselves.

This “lookout for yourself” attitude is common among employers. If a worker’s arm is sliced off by a massive paper-cutting machine, the corporation will say the employee should have watched out. Even though the company removed a safety barrier from the machine to speed production, managers will deny culpability.

The judges in the majority in the SeaWorld case found, however, that SeaWorld was responsible under the terms of the occupational safety act requiring that employers eliminate recognized hazards likely to cause employee death or serious physical harm. And, the majority said, the remedy OSHA wanted, physically separating workers and orcas, was reasonable since SeaWorld already was doing that with Tilikum.

In his dissent, Kavanaugh lumped shows at SeaWorld into a made up “sports and entertainment” category including racecar driving and professional contact sports like football. OSHA has not regulated these in the past, he falsely asserted, so it can’t now. In fact, the two judges in the majority listed numerous cases in which OSHA had investigated and fined entertainment venues, including the Broadway production of Spider-Man in which so many cast members were injured.

Kavanaugh’s proclamation that SeaWorld shows are analogous to NFL games is absurd. An orca jumping show is not a sport, let alone a contact sport. No one in the SeaWorld audience is rooting for a home team.

Kavanaugh’s real problem, like that of many Republicans and Libertarians, is government itself. They want to strangle and kill government, including all of its departments that safeguard workers, students, the elderly and the environment.

In his dissent, Kavanaugh asked: “When should we as a society paternalistically decide that the participants in these sports and entertainment activities must be protected from themselves – that the risk of significant physical injury is simply too great even for eager and willing participants? And most importantly for this case, who decides that the risk to participants is too high?”

Government need not get involved, he contended, writing: “The sports and entertainment industries regulate themselves, often through collaboration between management and participants, to ensure that the risks are at least known to all.” He may get some blow back on that assertion from the grieving families of professional football players who suffered debilitating headaches, mental illness and dementia and who have committed suicide because of concussion-induced degenerative brain disease.

Certainly disagreeing with him are millions of workers whose employers deliberately expose them to hazards because it means making a quick buck. But Kavanaugh, who has worn nothing but white collars, wouldn’t know anything about that. And he has made no effort to find out.

Judges Judith Rogers and Merrick Garland pointed out in the majority opinion that Congress provided the answer to Kavanaugh’s questions in 1971 when it created OSHA. That’s the agency that decides when the risks are too high.

Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court would pose an extreme risk to workers. Merrick Garland was a much better choice.