If no news is good news... Date: Tuesday, 22 July 2001 Time: Evening Location: Grimmauld Place Characters: Sirius Black and James Potter Rating: PG
"... and 'whilst the Ministry wishes to remind the public to keep recent events in perspective, senior employees have expressed their disappointment in those members of the community who have reacted inappropriately to talk of integration.' Are you kidding? And they still can't even print his bloody name," James sighed, annoyed by the fact.
Though there was no report of death, which was so often the scene a Dark Mark sat atop, but it was the Prophet, so that didn't necessarily mean no one had been killed. However, it was strange to hear of the Mark put up as graffiti instead of the actual spell in the sky. Though with so many Death Eaters kissed and killed, who left would know the spell? He almost laughed at himself. They were present, certainly... and Regulus- he stopped the thought that would have killed his mood completely. He died betraying Voldemort, James reminded himself. Harry had said as much, seen the body left by his rebellion against his master. And Regulus would have known how to cast the stupid thing. And just because Regulus was the only Death Eater back from the dead didn't mean that there weren't others, others who remained loyal to their old ways. Perhaps the Ministry had found a way to track the old spell, and they'd had to switch to new methods.
James rolled his eyes at the paper as he sat in the kitchen with Sirius. Disappointed? These weren't the sorts of things to play games at. Casting the boody thing should carry some sort of legal penalty. Or a huge fine. Or both. It did, however, inspire the slightly more troubling idea that there might be Death Eaters out there - organizing, acting. Who knew how many had come back? And as the Ministry seemed to be unaware of the fact that a few people had returned from the dead, they wouldn't even know where to begin looking, or for whom.