Magic? || Years 1-5

Sirius Black: Year 3/Summer

Amisty was jolted awake by the sound of Harry's exclamation.

She shot up instantly, her eyes wide and alarmed before she realized the only danger was the newspaper Stan had been reading.

She sat up, sitting down on the bed with the blankets pooling around her.

"That man! He was on the Muggle news!" Harry had exclaimed, pointing at the moving photograph on the newspaper.

"Sirius Black. 'Course 'e was on the Muggle news, Neville, where you been?" Stan laughed lightly, turning back to the front of the paper.

Harry just looked at him blankly, and he tore off the front page and handed it to him. She pushed away her blankets and scrambled over to his bed, it barely sinking under her weight.

She had lost a lot of it over the summer, with her constant running around and just general limited food supply. It was wonder she had grown at all.

"You oughta read the papers more, Neville," Stan shook his head, turning back to the rest of the newspaper.

Amisty read the article over Harry's shoulder.

Black Still At Large

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.

"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."

Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis.

"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it -- who'd believe him if he did?"

While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

She felt her heart drop slightly at the words of the killing, and she looked hesitantly at the picture above once more.

Black's face was sunken, pale, with long black hair that was matted and tangled. It was one of the rare moments when Amisty thought she had it better off than someone, for once.

His eyes were wild, staring and jet black and flitting around the page as if he were being hunted.

But, then again he was.

Her memory flashed back to the letter she had been reading before all this running away business started, with the warning her writer had given her about him. It seemed as if the warning had been well placed.

"Scary-lookin' fing, inee?" Stan commented, his attention diverted from his reading to them as their faces went pale.

"He murdered thirteen people with one curse?" Harry asked, his shock evident in his wide eyes.

"Yep, in front of witnesses an' all. Broad daylight. Big trouble it caused, dinnit, Ern?" Stan replied, nodding seriously.

"Ar," Ern nodded aswell, his voice dark.

"Black woz a big supporter of You-Know-'Oo," He explained, his eyes losing their cheerful sparkle.

"What, Voldemort?" Harry asked, not pausing before he spoke.