Baton Rouge

- 1 -

Four Years Later

"Bugger!"

The blond, tall wizard snorted, dropping the Daily Prophet angrily back onto his desk. He had been working towards this bloody day for far too long, and now he was the joke of whole wizarding world. Again. A blunder from one of his Aurors cost him a chunk of his reputation. Again. And there wouldn't be much left of it if successes didn't come soon. He had been in need of explanation for quite some time now. Things were getting tight and he needed a good plan to serve a solution to magical Great Britain and especially its regime. And also to make sure he stopped toying with him.

The Undesirable.

They still called him that way and it was not the first time Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes about it. Indeed, it had become a title, and Draco was of the opinion that a wanted public enemy shouldn't be given quite as much attention as the press and wizarding world were still delivering. It was ridiculous. The Undesirable had been number one topic of conversation for almost four years by now, but it would be better if the search for him (and especially the failures, it was crowned with) weren't fussed about all the time. Better for Draco's team - and for his own peace of mind.

He sighed and glanced at the Prophet, featuring a very old picture of a black-haired, skinny wizard on the front page. Probably it had been taken when he had been sixteen or seventeen at most, because he looked embarrassed and smiled uncertainly at the camera. Draco knew from personal experience that this apparently shy boy didn't have much in common with the man they were now hunting.

Next to the photo sat an article with a piercing headline.

Not a trace of Undesirable No. 1

Potter escapes again!

After the Ministry of Magic's Tracing and Pursuit Squad had once more located the current hideout of wanted murderer and traitor Harry Potter, there was a major operation involving several Aurors on yesterday's Friday. Potter's lair, unknown to the Daily Prophet as of this writing, was stormed and a fierce battle ensued with dire consequences.

According to an investigator, The Undesirable severely injured several of the Aurors present and eventually disappeared unhindered through a back door of the house where he had previously been hiding. Said exit should actually have been guarded, but the responsible Auror intervened in the fight and left his position without permission.

"Then Potter probably disapparated," reported Blaise Zabini, official spokesman on the matter. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to follow him."

Draco Malfoy, current leader of the Pursuit Squad, declined to comment on the incident. So far, again, there is no trace of Potter.

"Currently, we can't confirm whether we've found any evidence of other hiding places or Potter's current whereabouts," Zabini said. "We will step up efforts and examine the entire hideout closely."

This is the fourth time that Potter managed to escape without being arrested. The last time...

Draco looked up from the newspaper and paced his office, shaking his head. He didn't want to reread the whole article, being already angry enough. How was it even possible that Potter kept fooling him? He had eluded them several times now, although Draco had a lot of good wizards and witches on his team. In fact, the Pursuit Squad was doing its job so well that they had tracked down Potter several times without him even realizing they were already on his trail. However, he always managed to escape miraculously, leaving a puzzled team and a perplexed Draco behind.