ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 2

CHAPTER TWO

Two Weeks Later...

In an unassuming little inn off the coast of Britain, a young woman sat in a booth grasping a newspaper in her hands. Harmony Hangleton hunched over the table with the hood of her cloak shadowing her face. She stared in mute horror as she read the front page of the Daily Prophet.

Dark Lord Goes Loony

At 2:15 PM yesterday, approximately two weeks since the brutal attack on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, You-Know-Who was found wandering near Herrington, a small wizard town off the west coast. His surprising appearance caused much havoc on the small town that had been alarmed of his whereabouts by an insider earlier that day. Lives were expected to be lost, but the Dark Lord seemed to be quite unlike himself. "Thought I was gonna soil my shorts at the sight of him," said one of the small town inhabitants who had witnessed You-Know-Who's arrival, "but he just walked around, kind of dumbly. He mumbled a lot and asked people where he was and such." The Dark Lord was described wearing only black pants and a loose shirt, covered in dirt as though he had been wandering for days. "I say he's lost his mind," comments one of the Aurors who had arrived shortly after being alarmed at the Ministry. "He probably went mad after he killed all of those people at Hogwarts School." The Auror, along with many others, quickly transported the now seemingly harmless You-Know-Who to the Ministry where he was held overnight for interrogation. Though with basic abilities still intact, such as speaking, the most dangerous wizard in the world seemed to have no idea who or where he was. After much deliberation You-Know-Who was transported from the Ministry-not to Azkaban prison, but to Menkar, our wizard asylum for the criminally insane. "We have to keep him locked up even though he seems harmless, just in case he snaps out of it," states the Director of Ministry Police, who was one of the attendees at the Dark Lord's hearing. "But quite a number of judges found it 'unfair' to send the dark wizard to Azkaban when he had no recollection of any of his crimes." The Dark Lord's fate is still yet to be decided by Ministry court. This very moment our wizarding world judges are deciding whether to execute a now innocent criminal. Until then, You-Know-Who pays lifetime in Menkar insane asylum while Harmony Hangleton-also known as Hermione Granger-and the rest of his devotees remain very much as large.

-Send questions and comments by owl to K. Bronchus

Harmony felt her heart stop at the sight of her name. She read on about the price on her head, which was triple the amount compared to other Death Eaters listed. She grazed the word "executed" with her thumb thoughtfully, her mind zeroing in on it. She couldn't stop her thoughts from screaming at her, "It's all your fault!" She took his memories away and he might die for it.

Her mind went back to the moment it happened: His cold blue eyes drifted over her one last time, almost longingly, but then he stared her down like prey and jumped at her and...flashing lights, then he crumpled to the ground like a corpse.

Beneath the title of the front page was posted a large picture of Lord Voldemort before he was moved to Menkar asylum. With an Auror grasping each arm, he blinked up at her. His face was void of any emotion-except his eyes, they were wide with wonder and maybe fear. Harmony had never seen Voldemort look that way before. His face had always been stuck in a dark scowl when she spent her time with him. Except...Harmony remembered the morning after they escaped from Hogwarts, when he watched the sun rise for the first time in a long time; he was calm, content, almost happy.

She missed that.

Her name caught her eye in an excerpt in one of the side columns. "Harmony Hangleton currently made Most Wanted by Ministry. Find out more on A5." She quickly turned to page five. Her jaw dropped at the headline.