Neville Longbottom: Our Saviour?
By Bathilda Bagshot

His cunning was unmatched. His ancestry was undoubted. His abilities were unheard of. And yet, he was undone by the hands of a child.

Grindelwald had drawn the ire of the whole of the Wizarding Europe and the International Confederation of Wizards by taking part in Muggle Wars, and thus, sealed his own fate. Emeric the Evil, too, had violated the Statue of Secrecy, and thus, had been hunted down by the most skilled wizards and witches of the whole world. Antonio Slytherin had been killed by the very men he trusted.

[censored] had preached the superiority of those of wizarding descent, and condemned those born of muggles, but he had not expressed any wish of breaking the Statue of Secrecy, nor had he desired to rule a world free of muggles and squibs like so many before him; the ICW had refused to risk their elite wizards and witches, not when their rules were not broken. And so, Britain was left with no other wands than her own, no other fighters than the ones born within her.

Bartemius Crouch had shown no mercy towards the few Death Eaters who were caught, Lady Marchbanks and Lord Ogden supporting him. Milicent Bagnold funded the war effort with everything the Ministry had. And Albus Dumbledore, the man who had defeated the previous Dark Lord, my nephew Gellert Grindelwald, had been fighting against the Death Eaters. Our Aurors and Hit Wizards were aided by a secret group of people called the Order of the Phoenix (see Page 5).

But the Death Eaters were far greater in number. Witnesses state that [censored] himself had engaged Dumbledore in a duel in the Battle of Hogsmeade and escaped.

So here we were, fighting against people who outnumbered us, with a Dark Lord equal in skill with our most skilled wizard. Things really were not looking very sunny for us.

And then, yesterday, Lord Voldemort had went to the home of the Longbottoms. And something, something far beyond our understanding of magic had… happened.

Frank and Alice Longbottom were found dead. Their child, Neville Longbottom, however, was found sleeping peacefully in his cot, while [censored] lay dead in the same room.

Priori Incantatem revealed that the last three spells cast by the Dark Lord were the most unforgivable of all the Unforgivables, the Killing Curse.

Yet, Neville Longbottom was found sleeping peacefully in his cot, undamaged, while a Dark Lord lay dead in the same room.

Not so undamaged, apparently. Sources in the Department of Mysteries say that a strange mark in the shape of a lightning bolt was found on the forehead of Neville Longbottom, that it was the result of an unsuccessful Killing Curse cast by [censored]. Dark Arts experts were hired by the Unspeakables, but their attempts to diagnose the child for any magical ailment were thwarted by Augusta Longbottom, grandmother to the Boy-Who-Lived.

What happened inside of Longbottom Manor, at that fateful night? Master Transfigurists, from Albus Dumbledore to the youngest of the Masters, James Potter, are known to conjure physical shields against Unforgivables at a rapid pace. But to expect such a feat from an infant?

'It's ridiculous. Conjuring is magic that many talented wizards and witches are incapable of performing." Says the famous magical theorist, Adalbert Waffling,. "Or maybe it's not. If the implications are true, we may be looking at the second coming of Merlin.'

But if it was Conjuring, why would [censored] drop dead? Why would there be a scar the shape of a lightning bolt on Neville Longbottom? Why? How does an infant kill one of the most feared wizards in the whole world?

More importantly, what does this mean for the future?

Traitor Sentenced to Azkaban

Peter Pettigrew, a close friend of the Potters, was sentenced to Azkaban for betraying some vital information to the organization known as the Death Eaters. A group of Death Eaters consisting of all the members of the Lestrange family, Antonin Dolohov, and Fenrir Grayback attacked the Potters. In the resulting skirmish, Grayback and the male Lestranges were killed, while the others were incapacitated by the Potters with the help of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Minerva McGonagall.

Pettigrew has been sentenced to serve Azkaban for 20 years by the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch.

'Traitors are the worst kinds of scum.' Crouch said. 'Pettigrew deserved to get a Kiss from the pretty ones of Azkaban.'

(To see more news on Crouch's actions, see Page 2)

(To see news on the upcoming trial of Bellatrix Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, see page 2)

(To see more news on the upcoming trial of Lucius Malfoy, see page 3)