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"That was no hurricane," said Fudge miserably.
"Excuse me!" barked the Prime Minister, now positively stamping up and down. "Trees uprooted, roofs ripped off, lampposts bent, horrible injuries--" "It was the Death Eaters," said Fudge. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's followers.
And... and we suspect giant involvement." The Prime Minister stopped in his tracks as though he had hit an invisible wall. "What involvement." Fudge grimaced. "He used giants last time, when he wanted to go for the grand effect," he said. "The Office of Misinformation has been working around the clock, we've had teams of Obliviators out trying to modify the memories of all the Muggles who saw what really happened, we've got most of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures running around Somerset, but we can't find the giant--it's been a disaster." "You don't say!" said the Prime Minister furiously.
"I won't deny that morale is pretty low at the Ministry," said Fudge. "What with all that, and then losing Amelia Bones." "Losing who." "Amelia Bones. Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We think He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may have murdered her in person, because she was a very gifted witch and--and all the evidence was that she put up a real fight." Fudge cleared his throat and, with an effort, it seemed, stopped spinning his bowler hat.
"But that murder was in the newspapers," said the Prime Minister, momentarily diverted from his anger. "Our newspapers. Amelia Bones... it just said she was a middle-aged woman who lived alone. It was a--a nasty killing, wasn't it. It's had rather a lot of publicity. The police are baffled, you see." Fudge sighed. "Well, of course they are," he said. "Killed in a room that was locked from the inside, wasn't she. We, on the other hand, know exactly who did it, not that that gets us any further toward catching him. And then there was Emmeline Vance, maybe you didn't hear about that one--" "Oh yes I did!" said the Prime Minister. "It happened just around the corner from here, as a matter of fact. The papers had a field day with it, 'breakdown of law and order in the Prime Minister's backyard--'" "And as if all that wasn't enough," said Fudge, barely listening to the Prime Minister, "we've got dementors swarming all over the place, attacking people left, right, and center..."
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