Despite Lupin's warning, Dudley was looking forward to another Hogsmeade weekend. Not only would he get to learn more from Lockhart, but he wanted to stock up on more of his favorite snack—chocolate frogs—and get some butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks once more.
Classes continued as usual. Divination was a waste of time, with Trelawney boring Dudley by seeing every little thing as an omen of his death. He was close to snapping and telling her to shove it. Transfiguration still managed to be a mix of interesting, but extremely difficult—doubly so now that Hermione wasn't studying them. Dudley was craping by by copying from Neville's homework as Neville still studied with Hermione. Binns droned on and on during History of Magic about giant wars and long-dead witches and wizards like Helga the Horrible and Leopold Limp-Wand.
Charms still managed to remain one of Dudley's favorite classes. Professor Flitwick had them practicing Lumos Maxima, an advanced version of Lumos which produced a blinding flash of light. Hermione, of course, managed to master the spell quicker than anybody, but Dudley was pleased to see that he picked it up 2nd—even quicker than Parvati Patil who was very good at charms.
His favorite class remained Care of Magical Creatures however, after the unforgettable lesson with Manticores, Hagrid had toned things down with a lesson on crups—a type of dog similar to a Jack Russel but with a forked tail—and horned serpents.
Dudley felt the crups were cool. He had always liked dogs, especially his Aunt Marge's bulldog, Ripper. He had even stayed behind after class to play fetch with the Crup for 10 minutes before Hagrid escorted him back to the castle.
"I'm glad yeh're enjoying the class, dursley. Yeh've got a knack fer creatures. Yeh might wan' ter think 'bout a career in it." Hagrid said.
Dudley thought it might be worth thinking about. He did enjoy the class a lot and found magical beasts to be fascinating—especially the more dangerous ones like Hippogriffs and Manticores. Though the tamer ones like Crups and Fire Crabs were cool too.
On the Wednesday before the Hogsmeade Weekend at breakfast, Hermione came hurrying to join them.
"Dudley, have you seen this?" she said, excitedly, sitting next to him.
Though Dudley and Hermione hadn't hung out much in the past few weeks, they were still friends. Though Dudley tended to sit with Ron and Dean, he still spoke to Hermione when they passed each other and had had a game of exploding snap with her and Neville a couple of times while Ron was at quidditch practice. Ron, however, was still angry and deliberately turned his back on her.
Hermione handed him a copy of the Daily Prophet. The front page was dominated by a picture of Lockhart, beaming triumphantly.
Arrest Made in Malfoy Escape
On Wednesday night, a group of members of the Dark Force Defence League led by famed author and adventurer Gilderoy Lockhart led a daring raid on the residency of Abaddon Nott, the author of a number of books dealing with wizarding purity, geneology and the history of Slytherin wizards.
Nott faced trial on suspicion of being a Death Eater after the Wizarding War, but claimed he was acting under the imperius. Gilderoy Lockhart, who claimed to have led the raid, disagreed. "We acted on information which showed Abaddon Nott was a willing participant in Death Eater activities and played a hand in the escape of Lucius Malfoy," Lockhart said in an interview.
Details of the raid are sketchy. But it appears that a group of six members of the Dark Force Defence League raided the Nott home in the dead of night. There, they arrested Nott and turned him over to the Ministry as well as a number of banned books and dark objects.
"If Fudge isn't going to act, we will," said the leader of the Dark Force Defence League, Tiberius Moulin. "We need to get Death Eaters off our streets."
The Dark Force Defence League is an organization dedicated to combating the dark arts. While their activities are usually limited to awareness, self-defense clubs, monitoring the country for signs of dark wizardry and hunting dangerous creatures, they have been known to take a more active approach in combating the dark arts. However, this is the first such action in over 10 years when members of the league apprehended a necromancer experimenting with inferi. The Dark Arts Defence Force is made up largely of former Aurors and hit wizards, though Gilderoy Lockhart is an honorary member.
"We are certain of Nott's guilt," Lockhart said in an interview. "We obtained evidence, including sworn testimony about his involvement in Malfoy's escape and made the raid.
Nott is now awaiting trial and faces a sentence in Azakaban.
"Questions need to be asked about Cornelius Fudge's suitability to be the Minister of Magic," Moulin said. "Under his reign we have had attempts to steal the Philosopher's Stone, an attempt to kill students at Hogwarts, an escape from Azkaban the assault of Aurors leading to the escape of a prisoner and zero arrests."
For more about the history of the Dark Force Defence League, see page 5. For more on the Nott family's connection to the dark arts, see page 7.
"That prat captured Nott," Ron said, disbelievingly. He had clearly been listening in.
Hermione, however, ignored him. "What do you think, Dudley?"
"Wow," Dudley said, reading it again. "Shame it wasn't' Malfoy or Black."
"We'll have to ask him about it on Saturday," said Hermione.
"You won't need to ask him, he'll tell you all about it himself," Ron muttered.