For Her

For Her

She's resolute.

I've tried to change her mind. Merlin only knows that I've begged and pleaded and implored her, but she's stubborn and utterly determined that this is what we are going to do.

We are going to give her... our son a freedom that I could not grant him at the trial.

Did not want to grant him.

Yes, that is true.

If I had been able to, I know with certainty that I most certainly would not have granted him the freedom that my wife wishes for him, the freedom to breath fresh air and live without fear.

He is nothing to me any longer, not since he became one of them, one of the filthy vermin that I have fought so long to eradicate from our society.

He showed me no loyalty and thus, deserves none.

I have heard whispers at the Ministry, when they believe I am not listening. Some do believe I have lost my mind, that I am quite simply obsessive, that my... that he was not guilty of any crime.

To some extent, they may be right.

Maybe I have lost my mind and perhaps I am obsessive, but that is what happens to you when you are just one man, who is fighting a lone crusade, others too afraid or too intimidated to stand up and fight with you.

It was years ago, now, that I vowed I would not rest until I had imprisoned as many of their kind as I could find.

I hold to that.

Many have slipped my noose, those with friends who are higher in society than I intervening on their behalf, unable to believe that their trusted companion would ever do anything to harm them or their office.

I would that I had been the Minister.

No friends would have been able save them then from the fate to which they condemned themselves, no money, no family names... nothing would save them, just as nothing saved the treacherous spawn of my own loins.

Yes, he claimed he was innocent.

Many people claim that, but it can not always be true.

Some say that he was too gentle and quiet to be one of them.

They are wrong. They have not seen half the things that I have seen, nor experienced half the torment that I have, knowing what these... wizards dared to do other humans, be they muggle or wizard.

I have borne witness to the fact that there can be darkness in even the most pacific of souls, shadowy and unrelenting, slowly twisting that person's nature into something unrecognisable.

I know that he was as guilty as his companions, but he - like his other successfully liberated compatriots - thought I would be fool enough to free him on principal of familial loyalty.

Even though he has known me since birth, he still did not comprehend that I would not tolerate such flagrant disrespect for wizarding law and traditions, no matter what circumstances drove him to such behaviour.

How can she still care for him, after he has brought us to our current circumstances? How can she believe him to still be her beloved child, when all our esteem and honour is lost, due to his damnable folly? How can she love so purely?

There is a part of me that envies her love, to look past the crimes, to see to the heart of the matter, to accept him as the child of our union.

Then, I remember the faces of those who have been destroyed by our son's ilk, those who have had their families shattered and torn apart by the ones that our precious 'boy' was damn fool enough to mingle with.

No.

Forgiveness is for the weak.

I may be doing as my wife wishes, I may fulfil her request and shield, succour and protect him, but he is no longer my son. He is nothing to me but a charge. A prisoner. A fool. Never my son or my blood.

I could never refuse her, not once.

Even though I can confess that my meagre gifts were not of the highest quality, they were all I had and she accepted them and me, as if she had been granted the finest diamonds in the land.

She was - and remains - everything to me, the only person who tried and succeeded in breaching my defences through sheer, determination.

No one was more shocked than I, when I realised that, despite my protests, I would do anything for her and that I would love her forever.

Everything I did, I did for her, because I knew my paltry love could never come close to the greatness of her fragile heart.

She wished for a successful husband. I did the best that I could to grant her wish. She desired a child. I gave her the very best that I could. She asked for my love. It was the only thing I could give her and know it was absolute.

Now this...

This last action...

I wish and pray that she would change her mind, that she would remain with me, her wonderful life worth a million of the cretin she wishes to save, but she is adamant and her true, unwavering love, once more, puts mine to shame.

She knows it will kill her to take his place, yet, she simply smiles when I tell her thus.

"If you love me, Bartemius," she says simply. "You will do this for me."

I...

Yes, I will.

I do not wish to, nor do I believe she is right in wishing it done, but she desires this and, may I be forgiven, but I love her too much to refuse her this last wish. If I did, I know it would be the death of her anyway.

I only do this, I know, for her.