Heavens! Your response showed up literally as I was finishing re-reading this story for the second time. I still want to expand on my feedback at some point, because I love this fic muchly, and I got pulled entirely into it again, shuddering a bit less and mourning a bit more. At this moment I can only say that I'm glad not to have shared Griselda's heart or conscience once she heard, as she inevitably must have, what exactly had been done to Bathilda. I can hardly imagine the extent of her guilt and grief.
(Also, pardon me for mentioning it, but in the interests of preserving one of the tensest scenes in the fic, I wanted to point out a typo before you re-post this: Albus was sitting in an armchair, motionless, his head buried in his face.)