Invictus [Tom Riddle / Tomione]

Tears & Prayers

Has an innocent wizard been imprisoned unjustly? This article shines a light on the Ministry of Magic's flawed criminal justice system, in hopes that perhaps, the investigation into the Azkaban breach might be revisited prior to the trial of Cyrus Pilloughby before the Wizengamot in November.

Has Azkaban been breached? No other news source can keep you better informed than The Daily Prophet. We vow to give you the information that you, our readers, deserve as citizens of Magical Britain. I, Hermione Dumbledore, will share illuminating insight from an exclusive interview with Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Gaspard Dufresne.

According to Dufresne, aurors were alerted in early April when news broke to the DMLE that a high-profile prisoner escaped from his cell in Azkaban prison. I have not been given clearance by the Ministry to release the prisoner's name at the present time.

There were no explosions nor magical breaches of the prison walls, and all wards and enchantments remain intact.

So how does a prisoner disappear into thin air from an unbreachable prison?

Enter one Cyrus Pilloughby, an employee of the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Transportation, Portkey Offices.

According to Dufresne, this worker had recently visited the escaped prisoner only weeks before the disappearance. His name is listed in the prison's visitor logbooks and his wand was presented as identification to the Wand Weigher.

The DMLE performed priori incantato on his wand, revealing a shocking list of spells that lead aurors to believe he is somehow responsible for the breach.

Sounds quite suspicious, doesn't it?

It sounds too suspicious.

Aurors still do not know how the escape could have been executed. Not only that but when aurors performed legilimency on Pilloughby, memories of his visit to the prison were bizarrely absent.

With a little sleuth work on my part, I discovered that not a single one of Pilloughby's co-workers thought him motivated to do such a thing, nor did they think him magically capable of such a feat.

The DMLE believes that Pilloughby received help from other dark wizards to accomplish such an escape.

What do I think? I think he was framed.

The potential for such atrocious plots is endless, from a possible polyjuice charade to the use of the imperius curse and obliviation. We must not rule out these possibilities when investigating crimes of this magnitude.

Enter one Geoffrey Woolrich, an employee of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Obliviator Headquarters.

Mr. Woolrich has been a work friend of Mr. Pilloughby for some time now. He gave me a rather interesting piece of information about Mr. Pilloughby. In the weeks leading up to the escape, Mr. Pilloughby was approached by what Woolrich referred to as "an alliance of purebloods." This dark wizard gang attempted to recruit Pilloughby to their organization, whose activities center around dark magic and nefariously anti-muggle leanings. Pilloughby refused, and, according to Woolrich, was quite vocal about the gang's activities and their leader.