That Was Clearly a Gold Bar!

The Daily Prophet entered Azkaban pinned beneath a breakfast tray.

Perhaps someone had left it behind during a visit, and a Dementor had delivered it to the wrong cell.

The sea air had left the paper limp, and a little grayish-white mush clung to one corner.

Rookwood pulled it out from under the tray. The moment he unfolded it, the black-haired boy from the East on the front page turned and met his eyes through the paper.

Rookwood flinched so hard he nearly threw the newspaper.

Gavin was still wearing his Hufflepuff uniform in the photograph.

His hair was neat, his expression calm, and a yellow stripe showed at his collar.

Without the blood-red headline taking up nearly half the page below him, it could have been a photo from an outstanding student award ceremony.

[Blood Night at Hogwarts: Thirteen-Year-Old Hufflepuff Suspected of Slaughtering Ten Adult Wizards]

Rookwood read it aloud before he could stop himself. His gaze caught on the word "ten."

Chains scraped in the cell opposite. Several prisoners had heard him, and their vacant eyes slowly focused.

Rookwood kept reading.

The report pieced together scenes from the Black Lake, Greystone Valley, and the outskirts of Hogwarts.

Severed limbs lay scattered at the scenes, while most of the bodies had been reduced to ash. One guard had been beheaded with a sharp blade, leaving a clean cut without a tear. The final victim had been torn into five pieces in a basement, with blood covering almost an entire wall.

The newspaper did not say how far apart the three scenes were.

Nor did it explain why those people had entered Hogwarts with Dark Magic Objects and abducted a second-year student.

It added only a note at the bottom of page two: several victims were not United Kingdom citizens.