5 June 1993
The students filled the Great Hall for one last breakfast before boarding the Hogwarts Express for the journey home.
All of the students that were petrified had been returned to normal. And exactly as predicted, Hermione and Padma were almost hysterical in their worry over making up the last two months of work and lost revision time. The girls were happy to receive Harry and Ernie's notes. Mostly Ernie's notes because half of Harry's and all of Ron's were illegible or incomplete. The girls were better off than some that would have to repeat the year as they had simply missed too much of the year to catch up in the little time they had remaining.
"Hello, Furry Potter."
Harry smiled and turned to face Luna. "Hi Luna. How are you today?"
"Better. All of my things came back much earlier than before the Winter Holidays," the grey-eyed blonde confided. "Some of the things that came back this morning stayed away the whole term! It is nice they wanted to come home for the summer."
Harry simply nodded as though he understood. "That is good."
They had managed to keep Luna's name out of the reports. So no one blamed her for the attacks in any way. Harry had told Dumbledore most of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets except for using his werewolf form and the similarity of the black ichor from the diary to what happened to his own scar.
Harry's reluctance to tell Dumbledore about his quasi-werewolf nature stemmed from Dumbledore's other positions. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, the powerful wizard oversaw the creation and judgement of laws in magical Britain- including the ones related to lycanthropes. Harry had no doubt the magical world would turn their backs on the Boy-Who-Lived in a moment to call him the Beast-That-Howled or some other stupid hyphenated title. Harry liked the old wizard but this was his life and he wasn't sure he could trust Dumbledore with it.
"Thank you for having your friends look out for me Furry Potter," Luna continued unaware of Harry's thoughts. "It has almost been like having friends of my own."
Harry opened his mouth to protest he was her friend but the spacey girl started skipping (literally skipping) down the aisle towards the main doors.
As she reached the doors, Luna called back, "Good luck with your adventures this summer, Furry! I'm sure you'll be fine!"
He could feel the Luna-ache coming on and wondered if Madam Pomfrey had any Pain Relief potions left. He loved the girl but all too often talking to Luna gave Harry a special kind of headache all her own.
"Harry!" Hermione called as she entered the Great Hall with Padma and Ron trailing in her wake. "Have you seen this?" she asked as she dropped a packet of papers onto the table.
Harry picked up the copy of the Daily Prophet Hermione had dropped. He read the headline placed in big bold letters across the top:
Sirius Black Escapes from Azkaban!
You-Know-Who's Right Hand Man and Betrayer of the Potters Disappears from Cell without a Trace!
Well, that was just perfect.
....
It has been said by many with extensive experience with the non-magical world that the magical world is long out of date to the advances of the modern times. Some of this is fair and some of it not. Part of the problem stems from it is a foreign culture for all that it exists in the same physical landmass and speaks the same language. Differences that would be accepted when visiting another nation irritate the Muggle-born or or wizard expecting English values and culture.
The problems arose from the splitting of the two worlds in the years shortly before the fall of the western portion of the Roman Empire. An anthropologist would consider a comparison between the two 'worlds' to be a fascinating study of divergent cultural evolution from a common source. The mundane world had great numbers but lacked the ability to meet their needs. Democracy and technology eventually developed to combat the violence, ignorance, and starvation of the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages themselves could be considered a direct effect of the sudden loss of magical resources and solutions. The mundane population had to overcome and adapt to their challenges. Their culture adapted in response to these changes.
The magical world actually saw an increase in resources with the split. Relieved of providing potions and other assistance to the mundane population, the magical population had a surplus. For a short time the magical world saw a period of unprecedented expansion and discovery but it wasn't to last. Unfortunately, within a generation or two the lack of necessity limited the drive to develop and innovate at the same rate as the mundane world. But still for over a thousand years the magical world maintained distinct advantages in medical care, transportation, education, destructive power, and virtually every other field. This long running superiority led many wizards into assuming a natural superiority over non-magical humans. But the mundane world continued to improve. By the mid- 20th Century, the average British mundane's standard of living matched that of their magical counterpart - even if the magical world refused to see it.
One area of difference was in criminal punishment. The magical world did not see much in the way of serious crime. The ability to conjure and transfigure items to meet your needs took away most criminal motives. Minor crimes were punished by loss of a wand temporarily or permanently, home imprisonment (via wards), or use of potions to prevent desire to commit the crime again. Major crimes were limited to murder, rape, Dark Magic use, violent attacks on Muggles, or treason. (Treason covered a wide range from attempts to overthrow the Ministry or repeated/wilfully breaking the Statute of Secrecy.) These crimes resulted in incarceration at Azkaban.
Azkaban prison started as the fortress of an ancient Dark Lord. He and his followers were the very first inmates to the prison. The use of his servants, the Dementors, to punish him was seen as being particularly poetic at the time. At the time, the prison was well above the standards of its mundane counterparts. However, time and a lack of interest in upgrades or even maintenance by the various magical governments had a prison to shame even the most oppressive mundane regime. Money spent on the former fortress was a waste of Galleons the Ministry reckoned. The small magical population rarely had more than a half-a-dozen prisoners at any given time historically. Even after You-Know-Who's fall it only reached twenty-two., the highest number in 300 years.
In short, it became a Hell on Earth.
The cells were cold and drafty. The wards prevented the majority of cold North Sea winds from penetrating the fortress walls. The remaining wards were sufficient to keep the prisoners' cells above freezing but the cold and lack of food took many prisoners' lives each year. It was no accident that the Minster for Magic's annual visit occurred during the brief summer experienced on the island. The Ministry sent seventeen Death Eaters to the prison after Voldemort's fall on life sentences. Yet by September of 1992, only twelve still survived.
...
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