Isabella looked out of the window of Villa Petrroci one last time. All her belongings were packed into a brand new purple trunk that bore a golden seal of a dragon clutching a shield bearing the letters A and I.
Her augury Castro was shut up in his cage. He opened his mouth periodically, but no sound came out. The cat-like creature imprisoned in a whicker hamper was not so silent. The kneazle spat and hissed, occasionally working a spotted paw out and clawing at her carrier.
The room was very tidy, swept and dusted. On top of the neatly made bed lay a pile of English and Italian newspapers. Isabella went over to these and flicked through them. The one on top had a large picture of a familiar, hook-nosed, greasy-haired man, beneath a headline that read: SEVERUS SNAPE CONFIRMED AS HOGWARTS HEADMASTER. With a snort of disgust, Isabella threw this paper in the trashcan and moved to the next one. This paper was from a few days ago and, though it was the Italian Cassiere di Fortuna, the front-page story was about the British Ministry of Magic.
"ENGLISH MINISTRY OF MAGIC INFILTRATED," the headline proclaim and below, "Harry Potter suspected to be behind the break-in."
Isabella sat down and re-read the article.
"Yesterday on September 2 sources report that the British Ministry of Magic was broken into by a small group of people. Although there is no definite number, the witnesses agree that there could not have been more than five or less than two. Rumors suggest that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, led the infiltration.
Harry Potter, who has faced Voldemort on several occasions and has emerged alive and victorious every time, has recently been the subject of a one-thousand-Galleon reward being offered by the English Ministry of Magic in return for his capture and arrest. Some speculate that Potter might even be the Chosen One to defeat the Dark Wizard. However, the British Ministry has given him the title "Undesirable Number One". This drastic change in their policies is yet further proof that the British Minister is now under the control of Voldemort.
It has been speculated that Potter and his accomplices snuck into the English Ministry in the disguise of several British Ministry employees. A series of disturbance followed - including a minor explosion that was possibly some sort of distraction and a missing artifact from a high-ranking official's office - before it was decided that intruders were indeed inside the English Ministry.
The order was immediately given to seal all exits, but it appears that the proceedings to do so were interrupted by British Ministry official Albert Runcorn. There is some discrepancy in witnesses' accounts over whether Runcorn was attempting to stop or aid a group of escaping Muggle-borns. When another British Ministry official intervened, a fight broke out, during which the Muggle-borns escaped and Runcorn disappeared.
The damage done during the infiltration included: the entire office and personal belongings of a Death Eater suffering water damage (it is unknown if this damage is directly related to the incident); the Stunning of Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and head of The Muggle-Born Registration Committee Dolores Umbridge; the Stunning of the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Yaxley; the removal of a magically-enchanted spy-hole in a high-ranking official's office; and minor carpet burns and smoke stains."
Isabella folded up the paper and read no more. It wasn't written very well, but that was because it came directly from a spy's report which had been brief and included those details which were only interesting to Signor de Piero.
"The takeover of the English Ministry was very hushed up in their papers," Isabella had said to Basilio one afternoon when her grandfather had taken her to the Ministry and then had been drawn into a long discussion with the brown-haired witch, whom Isabella now knew to be Giovanna Perugino, head of the Department of Magical Defense and in charge of the Auror office. Her grandfather had taken to leaving her alone in the Italian Ministry for longer and longer, but Basilio always seemed to find her.
"Yes, well, I have my own sources who are a little more faithful in reporting that their newspapers," Basilio had smiled.
"So, you have spies."
"I'm afraid I can't confirm that," he had grinned.
The other fault of the article was that it took too much time saying the British Ministry of Magic. It was as though they wanted to emphasize the stability of their own government, which, to be fair, they did. The article also had a few other twists, including consistently referring to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as Voldemort instead of Lord Voldemort in an attempt to undermine his influence and power.
"Here again, Bella?" Basilio had asked, seeing her waiting by the statue of Hecate, the day after the take over of the English Ministry. "What is your grandfather doing today?"
"He's with Andrea Auditore, the one from the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Isabella had sighed."They're talking about the revoltso again."
"Yes. Well, the revoltso always seem to gain new strength from Voldemort's successes," Basilio had explained. "They aren't his followers, but the fact that he's taken control of the most powerful Ministry of Magic in the world with so little of a fight..." he shook his head desparingly. "It's not good for us."
Because the revoltsoto had rallied around Voldemort, the Italian Ministry had rallied around Harry Potter, publicly proclaiming him to be the Boy-Who-Lived and The Chosen One.
"Bewwa! Bewwa!" a little voice giggled, interrupting her thoughts. Isabella turned and saw her smallest cousin, Beatrice, run into the room. She had been the tiniest of the Petrroci's up until last January when Pallas, the first child of Aunt Juliet and Uncle Taddeo, has been born.
Isabella picked up the little girl and twirled her around, just as she had seen Alessandro do with all of the little cousins. Beatrice laughed and spread her arms out like wings.
"Sergio very mad at you, Bewwa," Beatrice warned her when Isabella set the girl back down. "Say huwwy up!"
"I will," Isabella promised, briefly linking pinkies with the little girl who smiled and skipped off to the nursery, where she usually hovered over the newest addition to the family. Isabella smiled after her, then felt her shoulders droop as she picked up the article from where it had fallen and looked it over again.
"BELLA!" someone called from several floors below. "We're going to be late!"
"No we aren't!" she shouted back. Dropping the article back on her bed, Isabella turned and saw Snape glowering up at her from the wastebasket. Pointing her wand at him she said, "Incendio!" The newspaper caught on fire and began to burn. Turning away from it, Isabella picked up her trunk, balanced her pets' cages on top of it, and began to lug it downstairs.