Chapter 104: “Prison Break (1)”
The sudden cold current from the North Antic Ocean swept Western Europe overnight.
The weather turned dreadful.
Relentless heavy rain persisted for nearly two weeks, shrouding the sky in darkness.
The dense clouds, apanied by fierce winds and downpours, drenched the ground.
Even the typically calm North Sea now raged and roared.
On the seas surface, a Muggle fishing boat valiantly battled the stormy waves, teetering on the brink of being engulfed at any moment.
Onlookers couldnt help but feel anxious for the crew.
This damned weather! Cornelius Fudge eximed, angrily tossing his half-smoked cigar onto the ground.
Even enjoying a smoke had be a luxury in such a fierce storm.
His eyes remained fixed on the Muggle fishing boat out at sea.
When will I be able to leave this cursed ind? heined aloud, forcing himself to avert his gaze from the distant boat.
Suddenly, a brilliant sh of lightning pierced through the dark clouds, illuminating the sky and Earth.
In that instant, Fudge saw it clearly. Just a few yards away, perched on a fence, was a peculiarly marked cat.
The lines around its eyes formed an unusual pattern, resembling a pair of square brindle cat sses.
The cat sat quietly in the midst of the storm, seemingly unaffected.
Fudge couldnt help but clean his sses.
How could such a creature exist on this small ind? It was incredible!
But upon closer inspection, the Piebald Cat had vanishedpletely, leaving only an empty fence.
It was just his imagination, Fudge concluded.
He hurried past that section of the wall, unwilling to linger any longer in the storm.
He yearned to return to camp as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, several dark shadows drifted slowly across the sky.
Only a few days prior, Cornelius Fudge had celebrated his fiftieth birthday.
Only a handful of colleagues and a group of creepy, putrid-smelling creaturesunfathomable to himapanied him on his birthday.
This milestone marked fifty years of his somewhat unremarkable life.
Over thirty years ago, a young Fudge had graduated from Slytherin College at Hogwarts, brimming with vitality.
Relying on his family connections, he swiftly joined the Ministry of Magic. He became an employee in the Department of Magical idents and Catastrophes, eagerly aspiring to make a name for himself in the Ministry.
And so, he remained in the Department of Magical idents and Catastrophes for over three decades.
During that time, he neithermitted any major mistakes nor achieved notable aplishments.
His career could only be described as mediocre.
To this day, he is merely the Deputy Head of the Invisibility Task Force within the Department of Magical idents and Catastrophes.
Many of his peers who joined the Ministry simultaneously had ascended to prominent positions.
The thought haunted Mr. Fudge, depriving him of sleep at night.
The sole responsibility of the Invisibility Task Force was to ensure that magical creatures and magical locations remained hidden from Muggles.
And one such location was Azkaban.
Mr. Cornelius Fudge served as a special agent of the Invisibility Task Force assigned to Azkaban.
Undoubtedly, it could have been a more pleasant job.
Azkaban was a wizarding prison, one of thergest in Ennd and Western Europe.
Perhaps only the Chteau dIf near Marseille could rival its scale.
The prison was situated on a deste ind in the vast North Sea.
Nearly a hundred criminals resided there: extreme wizards who maliciously employed mass destruction magic, murderers, and Dark Wizards who betrayed their kind, viting the 1945 Wizarding Compact.
The British Ministry of Magic also stationed several specialmissioners on the ind, including Cornelius Fudge, alongside a substantial poption of creepy creatures despised by wizards.
They were known as Dementors and considered some of the most detestable beings on Earth.
Dementors! He said while feeling annoyed.
These creatures, shrouded in cloaks, resembled decayed figures submerged in water.
Their withered hands and rotten bodies instilled terror, draining the surrounding environment of vitality and reminding both wizards and Muggles of their worst fears.
No one liked them, not even the Ministry of Magic officials who frequently interacted with them.
If one were to delve into the history of Azkaban and Dementors, the name of the malevolent Dark Wizard Ekrizdiz would be impossible to ignore.
Ekrizdiz said to hail from the Nethends, was Azkabans original upanta mighty Dark Wizard who lived during the 14th and 15th centuries.
He constructed a fortress on the ind.
While alive, Ekrizdiz relished luring, torturing, and killing Muggle sailors passing through, using them as subjects for his dangerous experiments in dark magic.
During his lifetime, no one knew of Azkaban Inds existence.
The inds spell concealed it from view, even on maps.
After Ekrizdizs demise, the hidden spell lost its effect, and the British Ministry of Magic finally discovered the ind and its structure.
The wizards dispatched to investigate the ind hesitated to disclose the horrors they witnessed there.
They merely remarked on the existence of profoundly repugnant magical creatures, dubbing them Dementors, and declined to reveal further details.
Many British wizarding authorities believed the ind exceedingly malevolent at the time, advocating for itsplete destruction.
However, concerns arose that destroying the ind would unleash vengeful Dementors upon the wizarding world, as there were no effective means tobat these terror-inducing creatures at the time.
The Patronus Charm had yet to be studied, and the wizardingmunity,cking a powerful force, was ill-equipped to face them.
Furthermore, before Uric Gamp founded the Ministry of Magic, the British wizarding world was in disarray, needing more significant authority.
Consequently, Azkabans Ind was abandoned for many years.
Dementors continued to attack passing Muggle ships, tormenting sailors and draining their happiness and souls.
Every wall of Azkaban carried echoes of torture and suffering, attracting more Dementors to its confines.