In the end, it took a day and a half in between classes, staying up as late as Madam Pince would let them get away with, before Marisa finally pronounced triumphantly "I've got it!" and produced an edition dated 16 September, 1925.

They scrutinised the article carefully: its headline was Gaunt Family Sentenced to Imprisonment. The article read:

Marvolo Gaunt, head of the formerly wealthy and influential House of Gaunt, and his son Morfin were today sentenced by the Wizengamot to six months and three years respectively in Azkaban. Marvolo was convicted of the attempted assault of his daughter Merope, attacking representitives of the Ministry of Magic, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and contempt of Wizengamot. His son was convicted of jinxing a Muggle, resisting arrest and assaulting a Magical Law Enforcement officer. The motives for these attacks were unknown.

Marisa stared curiously at the article. "So… what does that tell us? Where do we look next?"

Leo hesitated for a moment. "Err… I don't actually know. We haven't got the full picture, and I don't expect they'd let students look at old Wizengamot records without good reason."

"This is for a good reason," protested Marisa.

"We haven't exactly got any hard evidence, have we?"

Marisa nodded reluctantly.

"If you copy down this article so we have a record of it, and then we should keep looking, I suppose…"

They did. It took them two days to get through the entire volume of Daily Prophets up until fifty years ago, and they found nothing more of any use.

"Now," said Marisa, "we really have reached a dead end."