Dark Synesthesia ͛

「 mind like a diamond 」

Hera's expression had turned in a matter of seconds at the ten black-and-white photographs splashed on the front page. Nine of the photographs showed wizards' faces and the tenth, a witch's — some of them silently jeering; others tapping their fingers on the frame of their pictures, looking insolent; each image captioned with a name and the crime for 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 Hera, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.

Hera dropped the paper as if fearful of the prisoners leaning against the edge of the frame.
Fred and George's eyes seemed drawn to it, but they didn't dare pick it up.

Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

She glared up at Hera through heavily lidded eyes, an arrogant, disdainful smile playing around her thin mouth. Azkaban seemed to have taken most of her beauty, as her hair was straggly and lacklustre — all while retaining vestiges of extraordinary good looks like Sirius.

The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there had been a mass breakout from Azkaban.
Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals.

"We find ourselves, most unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped, "
Fudge said last night, "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We are doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached. "

Hera shivered, thinking to Sirius and how he must be feeling. They hadn't spoken much about his family, other than a few cynical jokes about things that had happened under that roof as a child.
With Fudge blaming the break-out on Sirius, there was no chance of them being able to go anywhere — not that it mattered half as much as the situation at hand, but she worried for his well-being if he stayed at Grimmauld Place much longer. They'd been careless long enough, thinking themselves invulnerable when the entire country would be on higher alert for him this time around.

Hera was surprised at the indifference of her housemates along the table — none looked the slightest bit scared, and discussed the terrible piece of news on the front page as though it were something commonplace as Quidditch.

The staff table was an entire story; Dumbledore and McGonagall were deep in conversation, both looking extremely grave; Professor Sprout had the Prophet propped against a bottle of ketchup and was reading the front page with such concentration that she was not noticing the gentle drip of egg yolk falling into her lap from her stationary spoon.

Meanwhile, at the far end of the table, Professor Umbridge was tucking into a bowl of porridge.
For once, her pouchy toad's eyes were not sweeping the Great Hall looking for misbehaving students.
She scowled as she gulped down her food, and now and then, she shot a malevolent glance up the table to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking so intently.

If one good thing were to come after something as disastrous as ten of Voldemort's most devoted followers joining his ranks, it would be that more people had turned away from The Prophet, and were taking information from what Harry and Dumbledore had been expediting for the past year.