Journal Entry - 2001 June 3
This Brocklehurst business concerns me.
My preliminary searching indicates that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was well within their rights by the law. Legally speaking, a werewolf is not a human being and therefore a full investigation and trial is not called for. However, I do believe that the handling of this case demonstrated a shocking negligence of the Department's primary duty as servants of the wizarding public.
The Daily Prophet's article alone raises several troubling questions. Firstly, physical presence at a crime scene, even if the suspect was also physically capable of having committed the crime, has never been damning evidence. Secondly, as it has been established that Miss Brocklehurst was properly dosed with the Wolfsbane Potion and therefore in full possession of her human mind during her transformation - 'this must be presumed to be a deliberate attack', as Ms Skeeter puts it - and yet there has been no question raised of motive. Perhaps we are meant to assume that a werewolf, even at its most human, needs no motive, but I for one find that unsatisfactory. With no further investigation, how can we be entirely certain that the real killer is not still at large? How is the swift elimination of a single werewolf - perhaps guilty, perhaps not - deemed a higher priority than ensuring that an established threat to society is properly dealt with?
Thirdly, tracking records for Registered citizens were denied to those citizens' legal representatives, but released to the Prophet and from there to the general public? An interesting commentary on the regulations regarding access to those records.
And finally, there has been no official statement from the Ministry, and there certainly should be in a controversial case like this one. Our government is already under fire; this is hardly the time to become tight-lipped and secretive. Open communication with the public is essential.
I have sent memos to my colleagues in Werewolf Support Services inquiring (courteously, of course) as to any further evidence they may have simply felt it inopportune to reveal to the public at this time. I have been told, and I quote, to mind my own business. Also within their rights, as this matter is under their department's jurisdiction, not mine, and perhaps my inquiry was inappropriate. But still, troubling. The responses I received were bordering on hostile, and I have the sense that it was not merely protectiveness of their 'territory' as it were.
I do not know, yet, where all of this leads. But I am not quite ready to dismiss it.
It bothers me, too, that Bill and Ginny are mentioned. It won't do them any good to have their names linked with Remus Lupin's right now, don't they realize that?
Why didn't they come to me?
-+-
I do hope you two know what you're getting into. To be publicly associated with Remus Lupin's little werewolf group could very soon be tantamount to a death sentence, if things keep on as they are. Try to be a little more discreet, won't you? Think of what it would do to Mother if something happened to one of you!
Your brother,
Percy
-+-
Dear Mother and Father,
I find myself with some time on my hands this evening. My apologies for the short notice, but if you're available, I would like to stop by the Burrow and see you both. Perhaps I could take you to dinner?
Your son,
Percy
My preliminary searching indicates that the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was well within their rights by the law. Legally speaking, a werewolf is not a human being and therefore a full investigation and trial is not called for. However, I do believe that the handling of this case demonstrated a shocking negligence of the Department's primary duty as servants of the wizarding public.
The Daily Prophet's article alone raises several troubling questions. Firstly, physical presence at a crime scene, even if the suspect was also physically capable of having committed the crime, has never been damning evidence. Secondly, as it has been established that Miss Brocklehurst was properly dosed with the Wolfsbane Potion and therefore in full possession of her human mind during her transformation - 'this must be presumed to be a deliberate attack', as Ms Skeeter puts it - and yet there has been no question raised of motive. Perhaps we are meant to assume that a werewolf, even at its most human, needs no motive, but I for one find that unsatisfactory. With no further investigation, how can we be entirely certain that the real killer is not still at large? How is the swift elimination of a single werewolf - perhaps guilty, perhaps not - deemed a higher priority than ensuring that an established threat to society is properly dealt with?
Thirdly, tracking records for Registered citizens were denied to those citizens' legal representatives, but released to the Prophet and from there to the general public? An interesting commentary on the regulations regarding access to those records.
And finally, there has been no official statement from the Ministry, and there certainly should be in a controversial case like this one. Our government is already under fire; this is hardly the time to become tight-lipped and secretive. Open communication with the public is essential.
I have sent memos to my colleagues in Werewolf Support Services inquiring (courteously, of course) as to any further evidence they may have simply felt it inopportune to reveal to the public at this time. I have been told, and I quote, to mind my own business. Also within their rights, as this matter is under their department's jurisdiction, not mine, and perhaps my inquiry was inappropriate. But still, troubling. The responses I received were bordering on hostile, and I have the sense that it was not merely protectiveness of their 'territory' as it were.
I do not know, yet, where all of this leads. But I am not quite ready to dismiss it.
It bothers me, too, that Bill and Ginny are mentioned. It won't do them any good to have their names linked with Remus Lupin's right now, don't they realize that?
Why didn't they come to me?
-+-
I do hope you two know what you're getting into. To be publicly associated with Remus Lupin's little werewolf group could very soon be tantamount to a death sentence, if things keep on as they are. Try to be a little more discreet, won't you? Think of what it would do to Mother if something happened to one of you!
Your brother,
Percy
-+-
Dear Mother and Father,
I find myself with some time on my hands this evening. My apologies for the short notice, but if you're available, I would like to stop by the Burrow and see you both. Perhaps I could take you to dinner?
Your son,
Percy