Emma Potter; Going to War

35: Skeeter Again

 WhenHermione's Daily Prophet arrived she smoothed it out, gazedfor a moment at the front page, and then gave a yelp that caused everyone in the vicinity to stare at her. I doubled back from my way to the Slytherin table.

 "What?" said Me,Harry and Ron together. 

For an answer she spread the newspaper on the table in front of us and pointed at ten black-and-white photographs that filled thewhole of the front page, nine showing wizards' faces and the tenth, awitch's. Some of the people in the photographs were silently jeering;others were tapping their fingers on the frame of their pictures, looking insolent. Each picture was captioned with a name and the crimefor which the person had been sent to Azkaban.

 Antonin Dolohov, read the legend beneath a wizard with a long,pale, twisted face who was sneering up at me, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.

 Augustus Rookwood, said the caption beneath a pockmarked manwith greasy hair who was leaning against the edge of his picture, looking bored, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic Secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

 But my eyes were drawn to the picture of the witch. Her facehad leapt out at him the moment he had seen the page. She had long,dark hair that looked unkempt and straggly in the picture, though hehad seen it sleek, thick, and shining. She glared up at me throughheavily lidded eyes, an arrogant, disdainful smile playing around herthin mouth. 

Like Sirius, she retained vestiges of great good looks, butsomething — perhaps Azkaban — had taken most of her beauty.Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom. 

Hermione nudged ME and pointed at the headline over the pictures, which I, concentrating on Bellatrix, had not yet read. 

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABANMINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT"FOR OLD DEATH EATERS

"Black?" said Harry loudly. "Not — ?"

 "Shhh!" whispered Hermione desperately. "Not so loud — justread it!" 

The Ministry of Magic announced late last night thatthere has been a mass breakout from Azkaban.Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that tenhigh-security prisoners escaped in the early hours ofyesterday evening, and that he has already informedthe Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous natureof these individuals."

We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in thesame position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped," said Fudge lastnight. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outsidehelp, and we must remember that Black, as the firstperson ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideallyplaced to help others follow in his footsteps. We thinkit likely that these individuals, who include Black'scousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Blackas their leader. We are, however, doing all we can toround up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no accountshould any of these individuals be approached."

 "I don't believe this," snarled Harry, "Fudge is blaming the breakout on Sirius?" 

"What other options does he have?"I said bitterly. "Hecan hardly say, 'Sorry everyone, Dumbledore warned me this mighthappen, the Azkaban guards have joined Lord Voldemort' — stopwhimpering, Ron you idiot — 'and now Voldemort's worst supporters have broken out too.' I mean, he's spent a good six months telling everyone us and Dumbledore are liars, hasn't he?" 

Hermione ripped open the newspaper and began to read the reportinside while I looked around the Great Hall. I could not understand why his fellow students were not looking scared or at leastdiscussing the terrible piece of news on the front page, but very few ofthem took the newspaper every day like Hermione.