Anthony and the others believed Karkaroff had done this because he had discovered that Death Eaters really had succeeded in breaking out of prison;
To avoid repeating Peter Pettigrew's fate and being targeted by the Death Eaters who had successfully escaped, Karkaroff had fled Hogwarts overnight.
In fact, Anthony and the others were not the only ones. After reading the report in the Evening Prophet, many Ravenclaws had drawn similar connections;
They not only believed that Karkaroff's escape was related to the "Azkaban prison break," but also suspected that Cornelius Fudge had done something else that had led to the Evening Prophet publishing that report.
Hearing the well-reasoned analyses from everyone around them, Wizet and Luna exchanged smiles.
Wizet and Luna could foresee that the Daily Prophet would also report on Karkaroff's escape over the next few days;
If Rita Skeeter wrote the piece, then aside from exposing Karkaroff's past identity, she would also steer people through implication into connecting it with Antonin Dolohov's escape from prison;
The inconsistencies would also become reasonable, thanks to the Ministry of Magic's habitual methods of concealment.
The direction of discussion would thus shift from "the Ministry of Magic may be concealing Voldemort's return" to "the Ministry of Magic is hiding another prison break";
The reason such reports could guide the public in that direction was mainly because Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, had made one blunder after another and done too many things that had damaged the Ministry's credibility.
Previously, over Sirius Black's escape, Cornelius Fudge had adopted absurd measures such as having Dementors patrol Hogwarts and allowing Dementors to illegally "breed" in order to increase their numbers;
Only after it was confirmed that Peter Pettigrew was alive and Sirius Black had been falsely accused did the public realize that Cornelius Fudge