Who: Fenrir Greyback Where: The Ministry of Magic When: 22 February What: Fenrir publicly repents and apologises for his crimes... no, really.
Rating: PG Status: Complete
Fenrir stood up in front of the crowd and very firmly kept his expression under control. He’d laughed every time the idea of him 'repenting for his crimes' came up and some fairly esoteric threats had been made to keep him from doing that today. And given who had made the threats, he was prepared to take them seriously.
So he’d written down what he was going to say and had dredged up his best remorseful puppy look and now he was just waiting for his chance to speak. He was waved to the podium and he made his way up there hesitantly, not meeting anyone’s eyes.
He cleared his throat and placed his piece of parchment on the podium, smoothing it out then began.
"I was bitten and turned into a werewolf when I was eighteen. I came from a close, loving family who I had expected to understand and help me in the aftermath. Instead they rejected me, my friends rejected me and so did all of society. In the face of all that rejection, I became angry and resentful but instead of trying to work to better understanding between society and werewolves, I made one of the biggest mistakes in my life. I chose to turn on society and try and punish it for what had been done to me."
He paused and swallowed hard, making it look like he was upset when instead he wanted to laugh.
"I was wrong."
He could feel the laughter welling up and he sniffed loudly and ducked his head, drawing in several deep breaths and running a shaking hand down his face. He was actually kind of impressed he’d managed to get his hand to shake like that.
"I... I’m so sorry," he stammered, doing his best to make his voice shake. He forced a kicked puppy expression on his face, doing his best to look forlorn and lost when he raised his head and continued in a shaking voice. "I’m so sorry for what I’ve done, for the people I’ve turned and for the lives I’ve taken. Thanks to Healer Dolohov and Mr Travers’ new program at St Mungos, I have seen the fear and horror I have caused and I deeply regret all that I have done. I intend to spend the rest of my life trying to atone for all the harm I have caused..."
He broke off and ducked his head again. He covered his face with one hand and took a couple of steps back from the podium, his shoulders shaking in what he hoped would be taken as sobbing but was in fact laughter that he was desperately trying to hide. He waved a hand helplessly and felt someone come up and escort him away while another voice announced that the text of Fenrir’s speech would be available for reporters and that he represented how successful the new program would be and so on and so forth. Fenrir thought it was hilarious but he had his freedom now. Officially sanctioned and all it had cost him was a few laughable lies.