I seriously need to invest in getting the Daily Prophet sent to me every morning. The tension in the Great Hall was thick as I walked in later than I usually was. As a Slytherin, I grew accustomed to having eyes on me everywhere I went, but this time, it felt different.
Once I sat at the Slytherin Table, I noticed the ten black-and-white photographs that filled the whole of the front page, nine showing wizards' faces and the tenth, a witch's.
"W-What?" I breathed and grabbed the newspaper from Draco. He didn't protest.
Some of the people in the photographs were silently jeering; others were tapping their fingers on the frame of their pictures, looking insolent. Each picture was captioned with a name and the crime for which the person had been sent to Azkaban.
Antonin Dolohov, read the legend beneath a wizard with a long, pale, twisted face who was sneering up at me, convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett.
Augustus Rookwood, said the caption beneath a pockmarked man with greasy hair who was leaning against the edge of his picture, looking bored, convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic Secrets to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
The only witch on the page looked strikingly like Narcissa Malfoy except a little more crazed and less poised. She had long, dark hair that looked unkempt and straggly in the picture. She glared up at me through heavily lidded eyes, an arrogant, disdainful smile playing around her thin mouth.
Bellatrix Lestrange, convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.
In big bolded black letters, the headline said:
Mass Breakout From Azkaban
Ministry Fears Black is "Rallying Point" for Old Death Eaters
"Whoa," I breathed.
"With the paper came an owl from Father," Draco said to me in a low voice. He slid the opened letter to me and I read,
Draco,
Auntie will be staying with us. South Wing off-limits. Tell Adelaide.
Focus on O.W.L.s and study hard.
Father
Lovely letter.
"Auntie?" I asked and hoped Draco wouldn't—
He pointed, discretely, to the picture of Bellatrix Lestrange.
"My mother's older sister," Draco said and I nodded.
There weren't many D.A. Meetings in the month of January as Harry had new Remedial Potions lessons, which Draco loved to tease him about. I didn't mind not having as many lessons as it gave me more time to focus on studying for O.W.L.s. The workload had also gotten heavier as Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions began to prepare us further for the Levels.
But then just after Valentine's Day, the first Hogsmeade trip of the second term, I had gotten an origami lion telling me to order a copy of The Quibbler for Monday's new edition. I showed the letter to Draco and he sent out three Knuts for a copy.
Monday came around and the thin magazine fell at my lap: The early March edition of The Quibbler. Unrolling the magazine I groaned as I saw Harry Potter's sheepish grin staring at me and in large red letters across the picture were the words:
HARRY POTTER SPEAK OUT AT LAST:
THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED
YOU ARE READING
Slytherin Princess | ✓
FanfictionAdelaide Ward is a Slytherin. She is also a half-blood who has a bad habit of lying her way through of her problems. But what about getting out of questionable situations she accidentally gets herself into? *prologue has a better description and bac...
