Chapter 57.2- Doom Days

“Indeed. Your memory is as sharp as always, Alastor” The headmaster praised, bright smile on his face.

“Enough of the flattery, Dumbledore. Like you do not remember what you wore on that day, and what I did as well, and what socks you had on, and what muggle sweet you had for breakfast. Just tell the girl and let’s be on with it”

“In my defence, you did only wear those garish red robes at the time” Tonks actually came to a stop. Several of the aurors around them did as well. Did the headmaster? Albus Dumbledore, famed for his outlandish robe and presently wearing one that depicted the stars constantly in motion, was calling their robes garish?

“Albus!” Mad-eye said instead, not seming to want to get into the debate.

“Yes, back on topic. Now Nymphadora, as you lack a muggle education you might not recognise the significance of their positions. Regardless, describe to me what you see. Focus on Vernon here” He said, tone sobering up as he returned to topic.

“Vernon?”

“The older man” He said, pointing straight ahead. She turned to the man and once again felt the urge to throw up. This was her first scene with this much violence but she knew it was normal for the job. No one here was even flinching. The only reaction the Headmaster had had to the sight was losing the twinkle in his eyes. His tone remained as casual as ever. Her talent for reading people told her he was playing it up for her sake, but even that was foggy. Everything with the headmaster was foggy.

“The bo-body” She began, and cursed herself for the stutter. She focused in, leaning in on her training. Just analyse and describe. Don’t think about it, she told herself.

“The corpse is stuck to the wall by some sort of sticking charm, but there are nails, one affixed to each hand, and one nailing both feet together that appear to be doing the work. The posture of the body is too upright for that however, the corpse would have slumped to the floor if it had just been the nails. The cause of death appears to be a straight slash across the neck that from the corpse’s clothing bled for a long while. There is another wound, a straight stab to the Sid that appears to have come from some sort of blade. Most likely the spear left at the center of the scene. The body is arranged spread eagle, arms out, and feet placed one atop the other. On the corpse’ head is a wreath of thorns, most likely a reference to the floral wreaths that were common in Rome.” She said, her tone flat as she leaned on the occlumency training she’d got as a child to control her powers and improved upon during Auror training.

“Indeed, correct. Now if you were muggleborn or muggleraised, you would recognise this all as a depiction of a famed crucifixion.”