"Consider me indebted to you, Potter!"
Seeing the stunned expressions on Potter and Granger's faces, Theodore tossed out the words with embarrassed irritation, then hurried back to his father with the egg and pumpkin pie he had received.
"I'm a little confused—"
Harry withdrew his gaze and looked at the nearby Professor Lockhart, who was glaring mournfully at the departing Theodore.
As if blaming him for stealing his food.
His eyes swept around, and quite a few prisoners seemed to be casually casting glances in their direction.
"Avalon Prison has one thing in common with Azkaban—"
Lockhart choked on his egg and rolled his eyes. Gasping for breath, he said,
"The food here is meager, and portions are rationed. We're only allowed meat twice a month. Most of the time, they just give us dry buttered bread, boiled potatoes, and a little fruit!"
No wonder every one of these prisoners was malnourished!
The prison seemed to hold its inmates to the standards of ascetics?
"Doesn't anyone complain, Professor Lockhart?"
Though Hermione felt somewhat awkward about caring for prisoners' rights, she could not stop herself from looking at Lockhart with concern.
"Oh, we can't complain!"
Lockhart angrily stuffed pie into his mouth as he glared at Mr. Barry on the ridge between the fields.
"The guards eat the same food we do. What's more, they don't eat meat even once a month. In this place, the Acromantulas eat best!
I saw with my own eyes how they fed the spiders cattle shipped onto the island. Of course, they wouldn't dare cut back on those damned spiders' rations. Otherwise, they'd start killing each other, eating their companions' corpses—or treating us as snacks!"
Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, each seeing surprise in the other's eyes.
Logically, the Ministry should not have lacked such