Rita Skeeter also had a dreadful week.

After the news of Sirius Black prison break, she received a blackmail letter. One she had chosen to ignore right until the Barty Crouch scandal.

⌜Dear Rita Skeeter,

I know you love buzzing here and there, and I have a scoop I would like you to publish.

Sirius Black might be an innocent man, or at least had yet to be legally proven guilty, as Barty Crouch Sr sentenced him to Azkaban without a trial. Nevertheless, I would be pleased to see you double-check and investigate the matter for proper journalism.

However, if you fail to publish within a satisfactory time frame, I am afraid I would have to reveal another and more personal scoop to the DMLE this time.

Best Regards.

Your fellow seeker of the ugly truths.⌟

At first, she shrugged it off. Sure, if the blackmailer revealed her unregistered animagus situation, her career and life would be over. But if she complied with their demand, her career would be over too, and for angering the wrong people, her life would be over soon enough too.

In an impossible situation where she could not flee or fight back, she decided that doing nothing was the most sensible response to the blackmailing. They gave her no specific details, revealing nothing she could use against them. So she bid her time until they lost their temper and did it.

But the Crouch scandal changed things. She knew that someone anonymously tipped the DMLE about the Crouch misdeed. And with the letter she received, it was easy to put the piece of the puzzle together.

Sirius Black escaped, and then the news that the former Head of DMLE helped his son escape years before Sirius Black did was revealed to the public. At the same time, some anonymous individual blackmailed her into making an article questioning Sirius Black's crimes on the basis that he did not receive a trial.

It was Sirius Black playing Edmond Dantès style to clear his name and take revenge on those who wronged him. However, while Crouch was the one to decide to send Sirius Black to Azkaban without a trial, Milicent Bagnold, former Minister of Magic, and Albus Dumbledore, the current head of the Wizengamot, countersigned the act.

With Crouch already at Azkaban for his crimes, she did not doubt that some ugly revelations would soon come to light and, at the very least, muddy Milicent Bagnold and Albus Dumbledore's reputations.

It was also Sirius Black's signal that now was her window to publish her article, or she would, too, find herself sentenced to Azkaban. So she could not ignore it any longer.

§§§

Once she had finally done her hasty research, it was time for the trial of public opinion. And so she started writing.

⌜As you all know, Sirius Black recently escaped Azkaban, and the news was welcomed with thunderous fright as it was the first time someone breached the security of the dreaded prison. And the one that escapes was no less than the infamous Sirius Black, right-hand and You-Know-Who's double-agent, traitor to the potter, and mass murderer. Or so they said.

I recently learned that Sirius Black never had a trial for his crimes. While others alleged Deatheater did not receive a trial, claiming they were imperiuses, Sirius Black was the only one sent to Azkaban.

Sure, they are official records of Black confessing his involvement in the Potter death but none for his alleged other crimes. The man never confessed his supposed allegiance to You-Know-Who or any of his other crimes. Even more, the Aurors that took Sirius Black confession redacted it, keeping only the relevant part, while they put off anything else as the incoherent speech of a delirious man.

We will never know what the man had to say, the true extent of his crimes, the potential accomplice, or actual motives. Sirius Black had been silenced and sent to Azkaban without a trial.⌟

Those were the fact, checked and double-checked that she had collected in a rush in the last twenty-four hours. Maybe there was more to dig up, but she started her research too late. And now, she had to write what Sirius Black had been asking for:

⌜For all we know, except that he escaped, Sirius Black might be an innocent man, confessing crimes he never committed under the confundus charm?

We know that Barty Crouch Sr, the man who sentenced Sirius Black to Azkaban without a trial, had been helping his son, a convicted Deatheater, murderer, torturer, and rapist, escape Azkaban. But instead, he helped him fake his death, leaving his wife to die in a cell, agonizing with the sole company of dementors. Then he had been sheltering his son for four years. And according to their house-elf, Winky, he coerced his son into submission with the unforgivable curse of Imperius and occasionally rewarded his good behavior with occasional beach trips and quidditch pitches!

There is no denying the facts: Murderers had been walking among us, and we had been no the wiser. And our former head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement turned out to be a hardened criminal. So who knows what amount of corruption is still rampant, waiting for us to uncover? Is the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in bed with Deatheathers?⌟

Finally was the time to deliver the killing blow and go above and beyond the expectation of her hopefully silent partner in crimes:

⌜Should we start questionning Milicent Bagnold, former Minister of Magic, and Albus Dumbledore, the current head of the Wizengamot, for countersigning the official report silencing and sentencing Sirius Black to Azkaban without a trial?⌟

The only thing left was to forge catchy titles and convince her boss to publish her articles as it was. So she started nervously playing with her quill. Then she got an idea of a good title:

⌜Corruption of Magical Law Enforcement: How deep does it run?⌟

And then she went to talk to her boss as if her life depended on it.