Many of you have undoubtably heard the recent stories going around, spread by the Ministry and this very Prophet, about how the attacks on our community have been the acts of radical terrorists, and how they are by no means organized acts of war, but the disturbing work of a few meant to stir up trouble. You’ve been told that there’s nothing to worry about, that all is fine, that the wizarding community has seen worse, and these problems will soon pass. Well readers, I’m here to tell you you’re wrong.
On October tenth, I was wandering around near Hogsmeade, unaware, at the time, of any ongoing attacks occurring not that far from where I was. When I became aware that there was a fight, I hurried towards the scene to see if there was anything I could do to help, whether that meant attempting to contain the attack or clearing civilians from the area and bringing them to safety. On my way towards the battle, I was surrounded by six masked figures. My attempts to duel them and defend myself failed, and before I could so much as scream for help they’d disarmed and grabbed me. I was knocked unconscious, and taken to an unknown location that looked to be an old basement. I remember hearing voices talking above me, and I remember the room. It looked to be the cellar of an old building, but beyond that I don’t know. They set me up in a chair with my hands bound behind me, and I was given a little water and no food. I was held there for two days, though at the time I had no way of keeping time and knowing how long I was kept prisoner.
For reasons I cannot explain or understand, these people–these Death Eaters, readers, for we should call them what they are–believed that I was spying on them. They demanded information of me which I didn’t possess, and when I couldn’t give them the answers they wanted, they resorted to the use of dark magic to try and extract it from me. They used the Cruciatus curse, along with a variety of particularly painful curses and hexes–Conjunctivitus and Furunculus curses, Stinging spells, and others. I cannot list them all because some of them I do not know, nor would I ever want to encounter such magic again. My pleas for them to stop were greeted with more pain, and my insistence that I knew nothing answered by more questions and their resolve that I must be lying to them. One of them– I believe it was a man, but I can’t be sure; they wore a mask, so their features and voice were muffled– cut my face, my arms, my chest and my back with hexes, promising to stop only when I gave them the information they sought. When such methods yielded the inevitable unsuccessful results, bones were broken, and more curses were used. Many times, I blacked out, and there are stretches of my time there I cannot remember I was in so much pain. There are no words to describe those days, readers. What little respite I had from their interrogations was spent in fear of their return, and the torture they inflicted was enough to make me beg for death just to make it stop.
I don’t know what made them decide to let me go. Whether it was the lack of results, or that there was nothing left to do but kill me, or if they’d simply run out of time torturing me, they left me in an alleyway near where I’d been taken, perhaps hoping that I’d simply die there, and that would be the end of it. That my story would end there. No one thought I should have made it out of there alive. The Auror who found me said that, the healers who attended me when I came into the hospital said it. Even I said it. But I did make it out. I don’t know how, but I did.
For too long, the Ministry and this paper have been telling you that there is nothing to worry about. I’m here to tell you that that they’re wrong. We are well and truly buried in war, whether the Ministry or the Prophet wish to believe it or not. This is not a random series of attacks by a group of terrorist, these are calculated acts of war. The death of Minister Jenkins was not enough of a wake-up call for the wizarding community. But fifty eight people were injured, and eight people died in this attack. How many more names have to be added to that count before we as a community start demanding answers? Let this be a wake up call to those still insisting all is well. The wizarding community have been kept in the dark too long. There have been secrets that have not been shared with us, and attentions misdirected to keep us from realizing what’s really going on in our world. Now is the time for answers, readers. It’s time we started asking questions.
