The Spark {Book 5 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 10 - Hestia Carrow and the Executive Order

The Daily Prophet
Issue No. 101,882
25 October, 2021

3 Dead, 1 Injured in Godric's Hollow Oven Explosion

The Briggs family was enjoying a nice holiday in Godric's Hollow when their muggle stove exploded, killing three of the four family members who were in the kitchen at the time. The fourth, ten-year-old Benjamin, sustained serious burns. He was unconscious as he was rushed to St. Mungo's.

Terrence Briggs, a translator for Gringotts bank, and his wife, Mya, had been visiting family in historic Godric's Hollow. They were staying in a rented holiday cottage with their two children, Benjamin and six-year-old Alana. From what first responders of the aurors have told us, the muggle stove had been enchanted incorrectly. When it was heated, presumably to make dinner that night, exploded, killing the three Briggs family members in the kitchen at the time. Benjamin Briggs was found in the next room with severe burns. His grandparents, residents of Godric's Hollow, have told the press that they're horrified at this tragic accident, and will do all they can to take care of Benjamin from this time forward...

~~~~

By this point in my life, I had gotten so used to being avoided and whispered about that it honestly didn't bother me too much. There had been way too many times when this had happened before. It almost wouldn't have seemed right if I'd gotten through this whole year with only occasional articles from the Prophet about me. Sure, I hated the fact that half the school believed Marcus, and it was incredibly frustrated to be completely ignored. Every chance I got, I protested Albus's and my innocence. I could handle being a social outcast, but I didn't want Albus to have to.

Gryffindor was firmly divided on the issue, and I had never seen this much tension in our House. Lacy and Iris had done a good job of convincing most of our year and the year below us that Marcus was scum, but the majority of the older students were more swayed by Marcus, despite James, Fred, and Roxanne's attempts to change that. The younger students either didn't care, didn't know what to think, or believed Elmer (he'd gone on a crusade to defend my honor over the past few days).

If anything made me mad, it was the fact that Marcus had ruined our House's unity. Forget unity in the school; Gryffindor couldn't even get its crap together to stand as one. I wanted to strangle Marcus whenever I thought about, or when a seventh year would hiss "slut" at me as I walked past, or suggest that I do very inappropriate things that shouldn't be put into print.

Marcus constantly had a new editorial piece in the Daily Prophet to tell me about, so I saw way too much of him. I had to assume he was using false names to send in letters to the editor bashing everything from my apparent rampant sex life to my disturbing new trend of abusing my classmates. One morning, as he was walking over, Albus set his paper on fire in his hands.

"Oh my gosh, does that say someone died?" Wren said suddenly, staring at Marcus's paper as flames licked up the front page.

Albus blinked, then turned around to stare at his handiwork. "Um, I'm not sure. I was just sick of him being an arse."

Colette sighed and handed Wren the front page of her copy of the paper. "Some muggle thing malfunctioned."

Wren scanned the paper, then frowned at Colette. "You don't know what an oven is?"

"How on earth did an oven kill someone?" I asked.

"3 Dead, 1 Injured in Godric's Hollow Oven Explosion," James read. "Hmm. Looks like this Briggs family tried to enchant their oven, and they did it wrong, and it exploded. Only one of the kids survived."