Chapter twenty two

Escape of prisoners

/

During Friday dinner, happened something, which was subsequently followed by a sequence of unreal events that very unpleasantly disturbed the so far quite peaceful school year.

Most of the students were already in their dorms, but there were still enough of them to make the Great Hall noisy. Draco was just heading for the exit annoyed, as there was no use talking to Angela again, when the door flew open and Professor Shiernov walked in on high heels with snow in her hair, the new Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour trailing behind her. They did not look left or right and quickly headed straight for the professors´ desk.

A few students looked at them, but no one seemed to think much about the Minister's unexpected visit. Only Malfoy, Angela, Harry and Hermione were watching them with interest. Dumbledore looked up carefully at the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, who quietly blurted something out. The headmaster's face took on a very serious expression. Snape, sitting right next to him, asked something and Shiernov answered him. Dumbledore turned to Scrimgeour and he nodded his head. Then the Headmaster instructed Snape, the two of them got up and along with Shiernov and the Minister headed out of the Hall through the other exit.

Harry began to discuss with Hermione and Ron what the Minister of Magic was doing at school at such an unusual time and Draco and Angela exchanged quizzical glances. Angela frowned; Draco gave a barely perceptible shrug before turning on his heel and disappearing through the open doorway.

Already in the morning, everyone was supposed to find out what actually happened...

/

Harry noticed that neither Dumbledore nor Snape were sitting in their seats and the rest of the faculty looked nervous to say the least. It was easy to assume that if something serious happened, it would definitely be in the Prophet. And he was right about that...

Angela paid a medium-sized owl for a fresh copy of wizarding newspaper and opened it at the front with a toast in her mouth, as did several other students around her. Her eyes widened and she swallowed hard. A horrified silence, occasionally broken by shouts of surprise, began to spread slowly around the Great Hall.

Draco looked up at pale Angela, who completely forgot about breakfast.

"What is it?" he asked with a bad hunch, even though he did not really want to know the answer.

Angela turned the front page of the Daily Prophet to him without saying a word.

AZKABAN PRISON DESTROYED!

All prisoners on escape! Four dead Aurors!

The black headline was outrageously large, below it was an almost motionless photo of the stone ruins that used to be the dreaded prison, and below it several other black and white photos. Draco paled.

Among the fugitives are several feared Death Eaters, arrested this June.

Read more on page 2.

Draco stared wordlessly at one of the first photos – his father was looking at him from it. Angela's hands were shaking slightly.

"You didn't know about that, did you?" she asked in a strange tone.

"No. Mother didn't tell me about anything," Draco replied extremely quietly. "Give it to me," he yanked the newspaper from her hands and opened it to the first double page.

He was totally oblivious to the excited whispering around that was getting louder each minute.

A patrol outside Azkaban was attacked yesterday in the early evening. According to verified sources, a significant number of Dementors, who are of course well versed in it, broke into the prison, and with them at least a dozen of Death Eaters. They crippled the guards, killing two, and released all the prisoners.

Despite the persistent efforts of other Aurors, even at the cost of two more lives, not a single prisoner could be prevented from escaping. The Death Eaters then cast a devastating spell on Azkaban and the entire prison exploded and shattered into pieces. Almost no surviving Auror or guard escaped serious injury.

The attack happened too quickly and before Hit Wizards reinforcements arrived, all the attackers were gone. However, it is not certain whether some other Aurors still remain under the rubble. Three of the patrol officers are missing. It is also not known whether Dementors really freed all the prisoners or just some of them.

The Ministry promised to give us this information within two days. The names of the dead Aurors were not revealed to public.

"I assure you that we are doing everything to protect our world from possible attacks from these refugees. We are constantly looking for them and we have promising leads. I can't tell you more about it for the time being," the recently elected minister of magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, assured the editors of Daily Prophet.

Unfortunately, several Death Eaters, who were imprisoned in Azkaban at that time, were arrested only half a year ago. It is not unwarranted speculation that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named decided to act and free his followers. Also, it is now certain that all the Dementors, ex-Azkaban guards, have joined the side of You-Know-Who. They are completely out of control, although the Ministry has not yet issued an official statement regarding them.

A detailed list of escaped Death Eaters and other prisoners can be found on page four, along with a short interview with one of the injured Aurors.

However, this was more than enough for Draco. He did not have to read any further.

He put down the newspaper and looked around. The Slytherins chatted with each other in closed groups and kept glancing at the tables of other Houses, from where some were staring at them with hatred, others with fear.

Angela took the Prophet back from him and started reading. She could feel Harry's gaze on her back, but she did not turn.

The students were excitedly talking with each other and creating all sorts of speculations for various topics. Harry looked grimly at the front page filled with photos. In a low voice, Hermione read to Ron an interview with the mentioned Auror. Ginny and Daria peered over their shoulders.

Harry glanced at the empty chairs at the professors´ desk for a moment.

Here it begins, he thought. It has been quiet for too long...

"That's terrible," Ron boomed. "Can you imagine what will happen now? Remember how it was last year!"

"It's going to be a hundred times worse now," Harry reacted pessimistically.

/

Snow fell steadily from the overcast sky. With short breaks, it covered everything with a white duvet. However, the students were unusually silent. Very few of them ventured out and none were in the mood for winter fun.

The other Houses took a downright hostile attitude towards Slytherin, as almost all of the refugees were in some way related to Slytherin students. The worst off were those who had Death Eaters as direct blood relatives. Slytherin now found itself in a situation where the whole dorm closed itself off.

Anyone who was from Slytherin or anyone who even hung out in the corridor with someone from this House was looked upon with contempt and disgust.

The Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looked down from his window onto the white grounds of the school and absentmindedly watched a few students wandering outside. Behind him, the principals of the four Houses sat or stood in deafening silence.

"There's a lot of tension among the students now, Albus," Professor McGonagall remarked quietly.

Dumbledore finally turned to them.

"Yes, I'm sure everyone knows that," Dumbledore replied calmly. "But there was no unpleasant situation to deal with yet."

"That could change quickly," noted Snape.

The headmaster sat down in his chair.

"We will divide the patrols between us so that someone will watch over the main corridors after lessons. Just to be sure," suggested McGonagall.

Dumbledore nodded in agreement.

"Do we have any more accurate information from the Ministry yet?" Snape asked slyly.

"Yes. The minister has informed me this morning. It looks like the main purpose was to free mainly imprisoned Death Eaters. According to the guards, the other prisoners were dragged away by Dementors for their own use," Dumbledore frowned. "And also, not four of the guards died, as was mentioned in the Prophet, but six of them."

"And this is just the beginning," sighed McGonagall.

"Unfortunately, you're probably right, Minerva."

After ten minutes of Dumbledore introducing the professors with some of the new security precautions around the castle, everyone left except for Snape. He stood in silence for a moment and Dumbledore waited.

"That must have been quite a blow to the Ministry, wasn't it, Headmaster?" Snape began quietly at last. "In a very short time they were able to break the protective charms, take out the guards, get in and drag all the prisoners out. On the top of it, I heard that they just recently strengthened the defensive charm..."

"Yes, unfortunately. It looks like our enemy is gaining strength," Dumbledore said tiredly. "But tell me something, Severus. If you knew about the attack, would you tell me?'

A look of anger crossed Snape's face for a moment, but he quickly controlled himself. Dumbledore watched him intently.

"Of course I would, Headmaster," Snape replied extremely coldly.

Dumbledore did not say anything to that. Only after a while did he completely turn the page.

"And how is Harry doing? I haven't asked in a long time. Do you have any problems with him?'

Snape did not look very willingly to reply and a truthful answer almost did not pass his lips.

"Surprisingly, everything goes quite well. You could even say that he already has an almost excellent command of Occlumency, which of course amazes me immensely."

Dumbledore looked pleased, but Snape continued.

"But as for trouble… Well, there are always some with Potter."

"So nothing special is going on," Dumbledore reacted kind of amused.

"No, Headmaster," growled Snape.

/

Draco stared at the floor in front of him, heading thoughtfully toward the library with his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. He needed to find out something for Potions. Every time he passed someone, he was followed by hateful looks, but he paid no attention to them. All those, who now hated him for the surname he bore, were far below him. None of them really knew him. But of course he kept that to himself. He did not need to explain anything to anyone.

He strode into the warm and quiet library and then toward the section with books about potions. His insensitivity to his surroundings almost became fatal for him at that moment.

Daria came out from behind one of the bookshelves engrossed in some textbook, so he just had to stop. Daria looked at him with those blue eyes of hers, in which he expected nothing but contempt, but she completely surprised him with her almost understanding expression.

They looked at each other for a moment and both remembered that special moment in the forest recently... But then Draco saw a glimmer of regret in her eyes and his expression turned icy. He did not want any pity. He tossed the hair that fell into his eyes and groggily strode past her.

Daria tightened her hands around the pages of her textbook to resist the urge to look back at him.

She did not judge him for whose son he was, but for what he was like. Still, she could not calm her frantically pounding heart for a long time as she remembered the touch of his lips on hers…

"The earth is calling Daria!" someone suddenly snapped her out of her reverie.

Daria focused her gaze on rather pale Angela.

"You're practically sleeping here!" she scolded her.

Daria just shrugged. Angela looked at the cover of the Defence Against the Dark Arts textbook.

"Don't you want to help with something? I'm terribly bored right now," she asked.

"Well, actually I do," sighed Daria. She did not find the practical magic an issue, more like the theory. And now, that they had Shiernov with her horrible knowledge tests...

"Come on then," Angela dragged her to one of the tables.

/

Unsurprisingly, an hour later, instead of studying, they were already discussing the latest events...

"It was quite an unpleasant feeling to see ruins instead of impregnable Azkaban. Even if only in a photo," Daria remarked.

"Yeah," Angela replied thoughtfully.

"If Azkaban didn't give them any trouble, don't you think they can get into the castle here?"

"No, I do not think so," her friend shook her head. "After all, the castle has an abundance of strong protective charms all around, the entrances are guarded by Aurors and I don't know what other things they had arranged about which we don´t know. The fact that we can move around the grounds freely is rather misleading in this case…"

"How comes?"

"Well, this Protective Shield considers all the students and professors as integral part of Hogwarts. Only an intruder from the outside should activate it."

"How do you know all this?"

Angela raised her eyebrows: "You forgot that I´m studying for a Witcher?"

"Oh, right… But... What about the Forbidden Forest then? Anyone can easily get to the school grounds unnoticed through it. Just remember those Dementors…"

Angela pondered it for a while: "I think that Shield protects mainly the castle. There is the border against Apparition in the Forest, but otherwise, it´s probably impossible to spread the protection so widely…." she mused and glanced at her watch. "Oh, damn it," she jumped up, "sorry, I have to go now."

"It´s okay. I'll finish this and I'll go too. The library closes in half an hour anyway."

"Bye for now," Angela ran off and Daria returned to her school duties.

/

Draco thought he was the last one in the library, but then he saw a light at one more table. He glanced there discreetly and recognized focused Prescott by her profile.

"Damn it!" he cursed softly. "Why do I always have to be so unlucky with her?"

He decided to risk it. It was less dangerous than sneaking in at night again. Madame Pince was engulfed in some book. If he did it quietly, she would not notice anything.

As silent as a cat, he slipped into the Restricted Section. In a flash, he pulled a tiny book out of his pocket, instantly enlarged it again, and replaced it with a stuck-up duplicate. He let it disappear, peeked out from behind the bookcase, and walked away, as unobserved as he had slipped in.

After that, he returned the book he had borrowed, rolled up the finished parchment and headed for the exit. He had to walk past Daria, who was turned with her back to him. He glanced at the neatly written parchment and paused for a moment. Quite an interesting topic it was...

"You're wrong there."

Startled Daria jerked and looked up.

"The word bezoar is spelled with 'z' not 's´," Malfoy pointed out flatly.

Instead of thanking him, Daria bared her teeth: "The next time you want to scare someone to death, choose a different victim, okay?" she snapped gruffly.

Draco stared down at her for a moment.

"You're welcome," he replied, as if she thanked him, and walked away with a proud expression.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Daria slammed her fist down on the table.

"I can't stand that idiot!" she hissed.

Yet, at the same time, she knew very well that if by any miraculous chance Draco Malfoy wanted to kiss her again, she would not resist at all…