What happened on Christmas night in 1995 was destined to leave a vivid mark on the history of magic across Great Britain.
The Daily Prophet being late was itself a rare occurrence. Under normal circumstances, no matter how terrible the weather, the owls always delivered the newspapers to subscribers on time.
Even when news needed to be revised and delivery was slightly delayed, it was never by more than five minutes.
But today, the Daily Prophet had been a full three hours late—the first time since the paper had begun publication!
This left nearly every Wizard curious: what could have caused the Daily Prophet to be delayed for so long?
And when they received the paper, almost all of them eagerly flipped it open to find out.
They did not have to wait long. The answer was right on the front page, and it shocked them all.
Last night had been Christmas Eve. Everyone had been at home enjoying good food, admiring the heavy snowfall outside their windows, and marveling at the peace and prosperity of the magical world.
Yet no one had expected that beneath that tranquil night sky, the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries would be invaded by You-Know-Who, his Death Eaters, and dark creatures!
Even more horrifyingly, Minister Fudge had been captured, while Senior Undersecretary Umbridge had mysteriously vanished!
The Ministry of Magic could not even protect its own Minister and Deputy Minister. What exactly had it been protecting?
But the news did not end there. Another bombshell appeared on the second page—before the invaders had even been caught, You-Know-Who had broken prisoners out of Azkaban.
According to the author, Rita, she had obtained reliable firsthand information proving that You-Know-Who had personally taken part in the prison break. He had even directly caused the entire island