ry at once, certain his worst fear would be confirmed. 
'Course,' said Ron bitterly, stuffing the rest of the Frog into his mouth and taking another. 
'And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson,' said Hermione viciously. 'How she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll:' 

'Who are Hufflepuff's?' Harry asked. 
'Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott,' said Ron thickly. 
'And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw,' said Hermione. 
'You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil,' said a vague voice. 
Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swal-lowed his mouthful of Frog. 
'Yeah, I know I did,' he said, looking mildly surprised. 
'She didn't enjoy it very much,' Luna informed him. 'She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded,' she added thoughtfully, 'I don't like dancing very much.' 

She retreated behind The Quibbler again. Ron stared at the cover with his mouth hanging open for a few seconds, then looked around at Ginny for some kind of explanation, but Ginny had stuffed her knuckles in her mouth to stop herself giggling. Ron shook his head, bemused, then checked his watch. 
'We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often,' he told Harry and Neville, 'and we can give out punishments if peo-ple are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something 

'You're not supposed to abuse your position, Ron!' said Hermione sharply. 
'Yeah, right, because Malfoy won't abuse it at all,' said Ron sarcastically. 
'So you're going to descend to his level?' 

'No, I'm just going to make sure I get his mates before he gets mine.' 

'For heaven's sake, Ron -' 

I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing,' said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair. 'I: must: not: look: like: a: baboon's: back-side.' 

Everyone laughed, but nobody laughed harder than Luna Lovegood. She let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and Crookshanks to leap up into the luggage rack, hissing. Luna laughed so hard her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs and on to the floor. 
That was funny!' 

Her prominent eyes swam with tears as she gasped for breath, staring at Ron. Utterly nonplussed, he looked around at the others, who were now laughing at the expression on Ron's face and at the ludicrously prolonged laughter of Luna Lovegood, who was rocking backwards and forwards, clutching her sides. 
'Are you taking the mickey?' said Ron, frowning at her. 
'Baboon's: backside!' she choked, holding her ribs. 
Everyone else was watching Luna laughing, but Harry glancing at the magazine on the floor, noticed something that made him dive for it. Upside-down it had been hard to tell what the picture on the front was, but Harry now realised it was a fairly bad cartoon of Cornelius Fudge; Harry only recognised him because of the lime-green bowler hat. One of Fudge's hands was clenched around a bag of gold; the other hand was throttling a goblin. The cartoon was captioned: How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts? 

Beneath this were listed the titles of other articles inside the magazine. 
Corruption in the Quidditch League: 

How the Tornados are Taking Control 

Secrets of the Ancient Runes Revealed 

Sirius Black: Villain or Victim? 

'Can I have a look at this?' Harry asked Luna eagerly. 
She nodded, still gazing at Ron, breathless with laughter. 
Harry opened the magazine and scanned the index. Until this moment he had completely forgotten the magazine Kingsley had handed Mr Weasley to give to Sirius, but it must have been this edition of The Quibbler. 
He found the page, and turned excitedly to the article. 
This, too, was illustrated by a rather bad cartoon; in fact, Harry would not have known it was supposed to be Sirius if it hadn't been captioned. Sirius was standing on a pile of human bones with his wand out. The headline on the article said: 

SIRIUS - BLACK AS HE'S PAINTED? 

Notorious mass murderer or innocent singing sensation? 

Harry had to read this first sentence several times before he was convinced that he had not misunderstood it. Since when had Sirius been a singing sensation? 

For fourteen years Sirius Black has been believed guilty of the mass murder of twelve innocent Muggles and one wizard. Black's audacious escape from Azkaban two years ago has led to the widest manhunt ever conducted by the Ministry of Magic. None of us has ever questioned that he deserves to be recaptured and handed back to the Dementors. 
BUT DOES HE? 

Startling new evidence has recently come to light that Sirius 

Black may not have committed the crimes for which he was sent to Azkaban. In fact, says Doris Purkiss, of I8 Acanthia Way, Little Norton, Black may not even have been present at the killings. 
'What people don't realise is that Sirius Black is a false name,' says Mrs Purkiss. 'The man people believe to be Sirius Black is actually Stubby Boardman, lead singer of popular singing group The Hobgoblins, who retired from public life after being struck on the ear by a turnip at a concert in Little Norton Church Hall nearly fifteen years ago. I recognised him the moment I saw his picture in the paper. Now, Stubby couldn't possibly have committed those crimes, because on the day in question he happened to be enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with me. I have written to the Minister for Magic and am expecting him to give Stubby, alias -Sirius, a full pardon any day now.' 

Harry finished reading and stared at the page in disbelief. Perhaps it was a joke, he thought, perhaps the magazine often printed spoof Hems. He flicked back a few pages and found the piece on Fudge. 
Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, denied that he had any plans to take over the running of the Wizarding Bank, Gringotts, when he was elected Minister for Magic five years ago. Fudge has always insisted that he wants nothing more than to 'co-operate peacefully' with the guardians of our gold. 
BUT DOES HE? 

Sources close to the Minister have recently disclosed that Fudge's dearest ambition is to seize control of the goblin gold supplies and that he will not hesitate to use force if need be. 
It wouldn't be the first time, either,' said a Ministry insider. 'Cornelius "Goblin-Crusher" Fudge, that's what his friends call him. If you could hear him when he thinks no one's listening, oh, he's always talking about the goblins he's had done in; he's had them drowned, he's had them dropped off buildings, he's had them poisoned, he's had them cooked in pies:" 

Harry did not read any further. Fudge might have many faults but Harry found it extremely hard to imagine him ordering goblins to be cooked in pies. He flicked through the rest of the magazine. Pausing every few pages, he read: an accusation that the Tutshill Tornados were winning the Quidditch League by a combination of blackmail, illegal broom-tampering and torture; an interview with a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bag of moon frogs to prove it; and an article on ancient runes which at least explained why Luna had been reading The Quibbler upside-down. According to the magazine, if you turned the runes on their heads they revealed a spell to make your enemy's ears turn into kumquats. In fact, compared to the rest of the articles in The Quibbler, the suggestion that Sirius might really be the lead singer of The Hobgoblins was quite sensible. 
'Anything good in there?' asked Ron as Harry closed the magazine. 
'Of course not,' said Hermione scathingly, before Harry could answer. The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that.' 

'Excuse me,' said Luna; her voice had suddenly lost its dreamy quality. 'My father's the editor.' 

'I - oh,' said Hermione, looking embarrassed. 'Well: it's got some interesting: I mean, it's quite:" 

'I'll have it back, thank you,' said Luna coldly, and leaning forwards she snatched it out of Harry's hands. Riffling through it to page fifty-seven, she turned it resolutely upside-down again and disappeared behind it, just as the compartment door opened for the third time. 
Harry looked around; he had expected this, but that did not make the sight of Draco Malfoy smirking at him from between his cronies Crabbe and Goyle any more enjoyable-. 
'What?' he said aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth. 
'Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention,' drawled Malfoy, whose sleek blond hair and pointed chin were just like his fathers. 'You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments.' 

'Yeah,' said Harry, 'but you, unlike me,-are a git, so get out and leave us alone.' 

Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Neville laughed. Malfoy's lip curled. 
'Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?' he asked. 
'Shut up, Malfoy,' said Hermione sharply. 
'I seem to have touched a nerve,' said Malfoy, smirking. 'Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps in case you step out of line.' 

'Get out!' said Hermione, standing up. 
Sniggering, Malfoy gave Harry a last malicious look and departed, with Crabbe and Goyle lumbering along in his wake. Hermione slammed the compartment door behind them and turned to look at Harry, who knew at once that she, like him, had registered what Malfoy had said and been just as unnerved by it. 
'Chuck us another Frog,' said Ron, who had clearly noticed nothing. 
Harry could not talk freely in front of Neville and Luna. He exchanged another nervous look with Hermione, then stared out of the window. 
He had thought Sirius coming with him to the station was a bit of a laugh, but suddenly it s