The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow

The Future Will Be Better Tomorrow: Chapter Eighteen

Marcus woke up the next day to Bellatrix screeching.

"Have some decency, will you?"

Marcus looked around, and found Macnair on his bed, without any pants on, lying on a piece of tartan.

"I'm trying to put on my kilt, OK?" Macnair replied crassly.

Marcus blinked a few times, and asked what time it was. The trial was due to start in two hours.

He looked around the room to find some of them eating their breakfast, which was plain bread and some tea.

When they had finished their breakfasts, the watchwizard told them to get ready for their trial. The trial would be held in the newly restored Ministry building, in Courtroom Ten, which was not destroyed in the previous attacks.

They had all settled on wearing their Death Eater robes along with their own clothes, as some form of indication that they showed no remorse over what they had done. It was Bellatrix's idea that they do so, and everyone was fine with it.

*

Marcus had never been inside a Courtroom before, much less witnessed a trial, although his father was actually a magical property lawyer. Arthur Weasley opened the hearing, and there was a lengthy process where the names of the members of the tribunal and the officials of the general secretariat were read aloud, followed by the indictment. The Dark Lord would also be tried, in absentia, and when they read his name Marcus could see that everyone was still afraid of him.

Marcus was already starting to get bored. But of course, it was a hearing. And with the number of atrocities they committed this was definitely going to take a long time. Really, Marcus thought, couldn't he just say he was guilty and have them be done with it?

As the hearing droned on, Marcus could feel his eyelids drooping. He looked around the Courtroom, and found his parents sitting in some bench two rows down from the top, and he saw a few Weasleys sitting somewhere to the right.

Then they were interrogated individually, in alphabetical order. Marcus was about to die from boredom, and he almost wished that they didn't kill all those people just to not have this trial.

"Countless people? I did not murder countless people, sir. From nineteen ninety-five to nineteen ninety-eight, I murdered exactly eighty-seven people, not counting the ones I killed in large-scale attacks. Before nineteen ninety four I murdered one hundred and ninety-four people, likewise, excluding large-scale attacks."

And the entire courtroom suddenly froze, as if in shock. Marcus looked over to Antonin Dolohov, who had a slight smile on his face. And for some reason, Marcus was trying not to grin. Clearly, keeping track of the number of people you murdered was the sign of a dysfunctional mind.

The prosecutor continued questioning Antonin.

"You have also lured a number of unsuspecting Muggles and wizards to your place, where you subjected them to brutal torture, did you not?"

"They were under the premise that I would have sex with them, sir, and some of them were, as they had me believe, quite willing to be tortured."

Marcus could see the prosecutor blush, as did several people around the courtroom. Some gasped audibly, and Arthur Weasley had to call for order in the courtroom.

Again, Marcus had to stop himself from grinning.

"So, do you, Antonin Stepanovich Dolohov, admit that you are guilty of the abovementioned charges?"

Antonin flashed a somewhat demented smile, and said yes.

It was then Marcus realised he was the next to go up.

*

When the trial was over they were sent back in Ministry cars, which were magically altered to fit more people than it seemed it could. All that happened in the trial for the day wasn't very exciting, they just read out the legal documents and questioned the Death Eaters for a while, and then it was adjourned. Everyone seemed as if they didn't want to have to trial the Dark Lord for his atrocities, having to mention his name every time was enough to cause them to fall apart in fear. The most interesting part, Marcus found, was how easily intimidated these people were. Looking at them was enough to make them want to pee in their pants.

During the ride back to the warehouse Marcus decided to ask Antonin, who was leaning on Rabastan, if he really did what he mentioned.

"It's all in the screaming, really. They don't scream half as much if you do it normally," he said, grinning.

"Oh, really. So do you uh, torture Rabastan when the two of you do it?"

Antonin bit his lip and looked out the window. Rabastan began to take an unusual interest in his fingernails. They were still leaning on each other, though.

Satisfied with the reaction he got out of the two of them, Marcus resumed sitting quietly in the car.

*

When they returned back to the warehouse, Rabastan grabbed something that was on Marcus' bed and began to stick it up on the wall behind Antonin's bed.

To his horror, Marcus realised that it was the Oliver Wood poster.

"Excuse me, but where did you get that from?" Marcus asked Rabastan.

"I wrote in under your name to say that you forgot it."

"What the fuck? I don't recall giving you permission to take my stuff."

"You didn't like it anyway," Rabastan replied simply.

Marcus went back to his bed, and sat down in a huff. Then he realised that the poster was directly opposite him.

"And of all places, why do you have to stick it there?" Marcus asked, annoyed.

"You know, Marcus, you should learn to be comfortable with your own sexuality."

"I'm not uncomfortable with my sexuality, it's just--it's Oliver Wood. How do you expect me to look at him all day?"

"Face it, Marcus. You're embarrassed that you like Oliver Wood."

"I'm not embarrassed. And who said I liked Oliver Wood? That was just some--some unfounded rumour of yours. And, if I were, say, with Percy or something I would admit it."

"No, you wouldn't," Adrian interrupted, smiling slyly.

"He's right, you know," Percy added. "Antonin, I mean."

"What? Is the whole world against me or something?" Marcus retaliated.

"We're not against you, Marcus, but you have to learn to face reality," Antonin said.

"Now I'm unrealistic?"

"Look, calm down. We aren't accusing you of anything. It's just that you should realise that there is a world outside your private one, and there are things you can't run away from."

Marcus looked about the room, and found that everyone was looking at him.

"OK. So I'm an escapist, so what?"

Antonin looked at him and sighed. "You have to realise that you do have a life outside of those books."

Marcus stared down at his hands, to find that they were holding 1984 by George Orwell. He looked up at the other Death Eaters again, and put the book aside, defeated. Besides, he had already read it more than a dozen times.

He sat on his bed and observed the warehouse. As far as he knew, he didn't have a place in the real world. He stared at the Oliver Wood poster opposite. No, he didn't like Oliver Wood. Never did. He caught sight of Jugson, who was piecing a puzzle. He looked up at the ceiling, and then he felt so frustrated he reached for his books again.

"Weasley, your family is here to see you." The watchwizard, Julian, said, sticking his head through the window.

*

When Percy left the room he was greeted by silence, which he returned.

He stood there for a long while, and no one said a word.

"If you don't mind, I don't have time to waste," he said finally, and walked back into the room, not stopping when his mother called him back.

"What did you do that for?" Adrian asked, the moment he returned.

"None of your business," Percy replied and plopped down on his bed.

"You do realise that you don't have much of your life left?"

Percy refused to reply. Of course he knew, but he wasn't going to admit it. He looked around for something to do, and Marcus passed him a book, smiling.

*

The day passed on, and during dinnertime Bellatrix told them something.

"You know, when the Dark Lord died, he disappeared, right?"

Some of them nodded, some of them replied audibly.

"Well, you know, sometime ago, Rodolphus and I had to go finish off this wayward Dementor?"

"The Dementor was actually Barty Crouch Jr., but anyway," Bellatrix continued.

Some of them gasped. Some mentioned that he thought he was dead.

"Well, he kind of disappeared too. I was wondering what it meant."

"I don't know. But Dementors aren't supposed to die, are they? So maybe they don't die properly, but disappear?"

"To?"

They exchanged looks and shrugged, then continued on their own business. Adrian was still not talking to Percy, Marcus was still not making any attempt to deal with reality, and Bellatrix and Rodolphus still haven't quite got over Barty's 'death'.

*

The trial continued, although the fates of the Death Eaters were certain. It was rather obvious by now that they were to be executed for the 'horrors' they committed. Some of the Death Eaters were revising their wills; some of them were creating them. There was a sort of quiet acceptance about their impending deaths, and they seemed to have come to terms with it.

Marcus learnt how to come to terms with death and life through reading "Tuesdays with Morrie", a book published just last year.

But occasionally, Marcus would reflect on his life. He found that he didn't expect much from it, and it was a good thing to do so, because it meant that you would appreciate the pleasant things that happened to you. He remembered a few of the 'good times', which included the dance-and-cheer sequence his Quidditch teammates did for him on his last time on the Hogwarts Express. He thought about all the relationships he had with the people in his life and he found that his life wasn't as bad as he thought after all.

And he realised that he could come to terms with his life, and not feel a need to run away from it. Or maybe just because his life was ending soon, so hardly anything mattered anymore.

Rodolphus interrupted his thoughts to tell him that he would give his parents a percentage of what he had, for being such sweethearts and bringing nice food. Also because all his closest relatives that were still alive would be dying with him.

Bellatrix was coming up with all possible ways to give Narcissa as little as possible, much to Lucius' chagrin. Bellatrix defended herself by saying that Narcissa was a bad sister who never cared for anyone else, and Lucius was forced to agree somewhat.

They all laughed about how the pure-bloods were going to die out with their executions, and they laughed about all the silly things they had done. All of them had grown a lot closer through living together, and they trusted each other enough to spill some embarrassing secrets. Otherwise, they could always use the 'we're all going to die anyway' excuse, which left them no chance to spread the sordid secrets they hid from the world.

Marcus noted that Nott had a picture that he put on his bedside table, which was of two boys. They both had fishing gear on, and one of them was holding up this fish. The other was pointing to it, and they were both laughing. Marcus asked Nott who they were, and Nott replied that it was a picture of him when he was young and his friend.

Marcus stared at the picture for a while.

"Is that Dean Thomas' father?" He blurted. "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."

"It's OK, really. Yes, it is."

Marcus somewhat recalled Nott saying that he killed Dean Thomas' father.

He looked at Nott, then looked back at the picture, then looked across the room where the picture of Antonin, Rabastan, Rodolphus and Bellatrix in Paris sat, on a table. He had many questions to ask, but he knew better than to do so.

*

Bellatrix remembered that when she was young, she made a joke with Andromeda about getting married. They agreed that, perchance they ever got married; they would be there to whack each other on the head for doing so. They had long agreed, after observing their own parents and their aunt and uncle, that marriage had detrimental effects to the mind, and they would have to remind each other about it.

Bellatrix never forgot that, and although her sister was kicked out of the family when she refused to break up with Ted Tonks, she still attended the wedding. In secret, of course. Her sister did not invite her, probably thinking that she was on her aunt's side. When she arrived at the park Andromeda was getting married in, Sirius tried to chase her away, but she managed to sneak up to her sister and give her a playful smack on the head.

After that, Sirius threw her out, but she remembers the pleasantly surprised look on Andromeda's face.

And when she got married herself, Andromeda, at great risk, managed to return her the whack.

She remembers all these because she was closer to Andromeda than to Narcissa or Sirius or Regulus.

And because Andromeda was here to visit her. Her husband had tagged along, but she noted that Nymphadora wasn't there. But of course, Nymphadora was an Auror.

They did the whole usual thing, that is, hug and kiss and talk.

And she really appreciated the fact that Andromeda came down to visit her, and she was even kind of glad that her husband tagged along.

In comparison, there was Narcissa, who did not even bother to visit her own husband.

They talked about everything in the world, and maybe they were just talking just so that they could spend time with each other. Ted occasionally joined in, and they began to talk about the most trivial things, but perhaps the most beautiful.

They would talk about the qualifying matches for the quarterfinals of the Quidditch World Cup 1998, which were currently being played. Scotland was doing very well, and many people were placing their hopes on the Scottish national team, because they were proving themselves to be a very strong team indeed.

England wasn't very good as usual; it seemed to have some kind of inability to perform well in international matches. Bellatrix wondered that if Marcus actually played Quidditch professionally, he might have been playing for England in this World Cup. After all, his wonderful archrival Oliver Wood was in the Scottish team.

Andromeda liked gardening, and she was asking Bellatrix for her opinions on the landscaping for her garden. She had just moved to another place to live, and there was a large garden for her to work on.

They laughed and argued a little on the choice of flowers. Andromeda wanted a garden that would look best in the summer while Bellatrix thought that she should have a section for each season.

They couldn't bear to leave each other, but Andromeda and Ted still had to go for work the next day.

*

When Bellatrix returned she found Rabastan and Antonin having some sort of a petty dispute.

Antonin was somehow, very touchy about some of his belongings, and apparently Rabastan was fiddling with them. Somehow it morphed into a bigger dispute, where they brought up some things from the past.

And Bellatrix thought about how little of her life she had left, and made up her mind not to pick fights over trivial matters. Then she watched them argue, because it was admittedly, somewhat entertaining, and it was comforting to see some parts of her life continue was per usual.

*

It was rather interesting to note that the Daily Prophet was mostly filled with reports on the trial and the Quidditch World Cup. Marcus had taken to listening the commentary for the World Cup matches live on WWN, and from hearing the commentary he imagined the match being played out in front of him. This led to a lot of daydreaming on his part, and whenever a match clashed with a court session Marcus would be very disgruntled.

On this day, Antonin and Rabastan's arguments were interfering with his match, and he told them to keep it down, which resulted in the two of them ceasing their arguments to sit on their beds and pout.

*

They never were officially a couple, Antonin thought, sitting on his bed. Rabastan was just someone whom he ended up with whenever he was too bored with the people in the club. Occasionally it might be because there were too many ugly people.

Rabastan was, in a sort of way, a last resort, or a backup when he didn't have anyone else to fuck.

Still, Rabastan had a life of his own, and whenever they met in a bar they would avoid each other at all costs. Antonin remembers never going back to a club after finding out that Rabastan went there too, but in the end he ran out of clubs to go to, to pick up unsuspecting Muggles.

Rabastan would avoid him too; it was this unwritten code between them that if they ever were together, it would be because they had no one else.

There were the few times where there were so little people, not because there weren't any available, but because he said so.

And then they would end up together and it was very different from what they did with the others. Antonin was reminded of Marcus' comment. Because if they treated each other differently when having sex it might be an indicator of love.

And maybe it was love, but love wasn't of much importance to him.

Antonin decided to take a walk, perhaps to ease his mind, and so he did, when Rabastan called his name.

He was somewhat aware that he was behind him, but he didn't turn around.

"Well, er--I think, I think I'm in love with you," Rabastan said, as if it were such a silly, trivial thing.

And maybe it was, but it didn't stop Antonin from rushing to the toilet to hide.

Oh, and who cared about how stupid you looked when you grin when there is someone on the other side of the door whom you love and loves you back.

Love was such a silly, little thing.

*

And time whizzed by and this was their last court session. The trials went by quite quickly, as the Death Eaters had admitted that they were guilty, and no one really wanted to bring up all the atrocities they had committed. And as they had all predicted, they would be executed, by drinking a fatal potion. The general public was calling for a public execution, and so it would be. They would be executed at six o'clock in the morning, at dawn.

Arthur Weasley was rather distressed over the matter, and Dumbledore ended up being the one to read the sentence. When he was done, he announced that the Death Eaters would be given some time to apologise to anyone, as their conscience would have them. There was no response for a while, and then Antonin suddenly stood up.

"I offer my sincere apologies," he said, smiling, "to Rodolphus Lestrange and Bellatrix Lestrange, for being unable to repay all my debts to them."

"And to Rabastan Lestrange, sorry, and I love you."

One could hear the whole court gasp. It was still quite taboo for two wizards to have a romantic relationship. Rabastan was blushing and grinning and trying to hide behind his big brother.

And it was starting to seem as if it wasn't such a good idea after all, because he was starting to feel stupid standing there, and maybe it was, but who cares, because Rabastan did reply, although he sounded really bad.

"Ya tak lyub-lyU te-byA."