𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 | √

⎡68⎦

"I gave them Dumbledore's message. Suppose some of them remember he was friendly to them. I suppose."

"And they did this to you?" I asked, my eyes scanning over Hagrid's many cuts and bruises. Fang began to start barking at his feet.

"Not exactly, no." He placed the meat back onto his eye. Fang began to bark loudly.

"Oh, go on, you have it, then, you dozy dog." He threw down the raw meat the big dog at his toes.

Outside there was thunder rumbling and wind blowing. Hagrid stood up and made his way over to the window, we followed suit and looked outside from behind him.

"It's changing out there. Just like last time." Hagrid said grimly. "There's a storm coming, Harry. We'd all best be ready when she does."

. . .

The next morning, there was a newspaper article in the Daily Prophet. It said:

MASS BREAKOUT

FROM

AZKABAN

"We have confirmed that 10 high-security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening did escape. And of course, the Muggle Prime Minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience in escaping from Azkaban notorious mass murderer Sirius Black cousin of escapee Bellatrix Lestrange."

As I walked to breakfast with the trio, Hermione explained,

"Dumbledore warned Fudge this could happen. He's gonna get us all killed just because he can't face the truth."

"Harry." A voice from behind us said. We turned around Seamus was getting up from his seat to acknowledge us.

"I, uh, wanted to apologize. Now even me mum says the Prophet's version of things don't add up. So, what I'm really trying to say is that I believe you."

I raised my eyebrows slightly.

. . .

Later that day, when I was feeling a particular kind of mourning, I went to the Room of Requirement to stare at Cedric's picture which was put up on the mirror. I've seen it before during D.A. classes, but I never trusted myself to go over and look at in, in fear the I might break down into tears. I entered the room and made my way to the mirror. I stared at the moving picture of my deceased boyfriend, giving a small smile and a nod. I could feel tears prickling my eyes as I remembered the way his lips felt on mine.

Soon after staring for a while I heard someone else walk in. They walked up by me and stood next to me. From looking in the mirror I could detect that Neville was right next to me. He was staring at a different moving picture. The picture of the original Order of the Phoenix. But not just the picture, two individual people. There was a woman in the front we a contagious smile and short hair. She stood in front of a man, whose hand was on the woman's shoulder. She gave him a reassuring smile with loving eyes. The man had a receding hairline and an unsure look on his face, but when he glanced at his wife, he seemed to relax and ease up a little.