Private message to Lucius Malfoy

[alt_rachel]

There was a bit of an incident at the Ministry this morning. Probably not big enough to have reached you.

I don't know if you'd be interested, really.

Comments

[alt_lucius]

What sort of incident?

[alt_rachel]

Corax Mulciber was cross with some woman who made an error -- it wasn't anything particularly large, and she was already working on fixing it, but the important thing is that he cruciated her even though she's pregnant.

Seven seconds into it one of her coworkers screamed 'you can't, you can't, she's pregnant,' and so Mulciber cruciated the old lady in the young one's place.

At least it probably wasn't for long enough to cause a miscarriage. And if you're going to get cruciated while pregnant, that period of time between two months and four months is the least risky, it gets more dangerous (to both the mother and the baby) later on. Of course, she's not showing yet, so he wouldn't have known, looking at her.

Then he had both of them sacked, the young pregnant one and the older one who stepped in.

It's infuriating, of course; when you apply for a curse license there's a whole long list of things you agree to and one of them is 'not endangering the future of pureblood wizardry.' He could have said, 'thank you for the information, Mrs Oglivie' and managed the situation some other way than with cruciatus, it's not as if there's a dearth of curses that cause all sorts of pain and cruciatus was his ONLY option.

[alt_lucius]

I see.

He does tend to be over-fond of the Cruciatus. Of course, Councilwizards were granted licence to use the spell without any parchmentwork - at least, I do not recall any - so he may not be aware that he was, in effect, violating any terms of his privilege. On the other hand, Cruciating a pregnant witch is ... considerably vulgar.

I take it they were sacked to keep them filing a formal complaint?

[alt_rachel]

Oh....maybe, I suppose.

It seemed more like pure spite. To cruciate both, in front of everyone they worked with.

And yes, as a Councilwizard he can do as he likes. I wish he treated that as a privilege and an honour rather than as license to be as thoroughly vulgar as he pleases.

[alt_lucius]

What effect did it have on the others?

He rules by instilling fear and uncertainty in his sub-ordinates. The man has not a scrap of subtlety.

Surely this is not surprising after so many months of close observation?

[alt_rachel]

No one got the slightest bit of work done the rest of the afternoon and I think one of the newer hires in that group is planning to quit, either in solidarity or simply because getting cruciated is not on her list of 'reasonable ways to spend a Friday afternoon at work.'

And no, it's not the least bit surprising. Well, I guess it is. Because even Truncheon will change his tactics if he knows someone is pregnant (which is not to say he changes them DRASTICALLY, mind you, but he doesn't use cruciatus.) Truncheon is also not a man known for his subtlety.

I'll shake it off by Monday. It's just bothering me tonight. I wish

[alt_lucius]

Well, he did change his tactics. Or at least, his target.

There are ... exercises ... one can under-take to distract one from troubling thoughts.

Though personally, the exercise I find most efficacious is best practised with a partner.

[alt_rachel]

Oh, yes.

I'm not planning to sleep for a few hours yet; perhaps we could meet somewhere, and you could give me a bit of instruction.

I could certainly use some diversion.

[alt_lucius]

I know just the place.

Let us say in ... fifteen minutes?

[alt_rachel]

Yes.