The Ruins of the Daily Prophet
 

It had begun in the darkest hours of early morning, the smallest glow in the most central room of the empty Daily Prophet. The doors locked and the windows covered, it would be too late before anyone noticed the fire building rapidly inside. Whether it was an accident or arson, it is unclear, but one thing is plainly obvious.

The once looming headquarters of The Daily Prophet is now nothing more than a burned out shell.

Broken windows and charred wood are the first thing you’ll notice, followed by a pungent stench of burnt inky paper. Apparently, newspaper is highly flammable, and so the interior contains mostly destroyed furniture and piles upon piles of newspaper ash. Even if the employees were permitted to enter, there is nothing to salvage.

A hastily written sign is tacked to the crumbling door, simply reading: “Closed until further notice.”

for anyone
 

He had heard the news, but he couldn't believe it. So Jorge left his WSPM office and apparated over. He stared at his building in shock. He had spent many years in there and had wanted to move up and become editor. After Basil leaving he thought he might have a chance, but the new guy that had come in was a bit to shady for him. There was something about the man Jorge never trusted. He couldn't help but think that this was the doing of the same that attacked him and Basil that night.

Noticing a coworker standing not to far he made his way over, "Any word on what caused this?" He looked to Scout to see if she was alright. She hadn't been in there had she? He knew she hadn't been working while he had still been there, but he was still concerned. "No one was hurt?" People came and went at the Prophet, with no set schedules it was hard to determine if someone might have been in there or not.

Scout's instinct upon hearing a voice address her in this particular location was to let her hand fall to the pocket in her robe that gave her access to her wand. She had not yet drawn it when she recognized Jorge, and the small amount of tension in her shoulders relaxed.

"No... not that I've heard," she said, not moving from the spot and keeping her gaze on the building's shell. At his second question, she sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. I assume we would have heard if there had been but..." She trailed off. Merlin, what if someone had been inside? No.. Scout shook her head to clear her thoughts. This was clearly an accident; someone carelessly neglecting a spilled potion that seeped into something else and caused a reaction later. Or a discarded match. Or... She was grasping, she knew. But she was refusing to entertain the idea that someone had done this on purpose.

Glancing back to Jorge, not knowing that he had moved on, her features betrayed some concern. "Did you lose anything? Inside?"

Of course they didn't know, he was sure they never would to be honest. Not if they just let MLE handle it. Everyone saw how well they caught the people that nearly killed him and Basil. No, he did not expect the people that burned his former workplace down to be caught. "Think it could be linked to the attacks from before?" His confidence back as full as his speech he didn't fear poking around. He hadn't been on an interesting story in years and frankly he was itching to have something. Though sports rarely gave it.

"Maybe we should do some digging see if we could figure out what went on?" He raised a brow to Scout, would she be game? Could they figure this out? Mariel wouldn't be happy, but if he stayed clear of too much danger it wouldn't hurt to snoop a bit.

"I would hope we would have heard, but to me it seems not much has been let out yet. Wonder where Erik is." The new guy in charge of course wasn't anywhere to be seen. Had he been here when it happened? His concerned peeked when he thought of Tori. Where was she? "I had left a few things, but nothing of importance. I had recently left, not many people knew yet." Which made him wonder if they had come back to finish the job not realizing or was there some sort of evidence in the office no one had found yet.

*crashes but doesn't quote*
 

*hobbles here* *probably different tl* *????*
 

So Katerina had heard about this.Just caught on fire? Well that was a likely story wasn't it? Unsolved mystery, maybe. She looked at rumble of the once busy establishment. What really happened? Well that was what she was going to find out.

Okay maybe the third year had read one too many crime mystery books this summer, but she was thinking of becoming an auror one day. Also those books were fascinating and the love stories. Gosh, a girl can dream, right? Anyway she needed to find some evidence first. WHAT?? BENTON No this was her case go find your own.

"Benny! Hey what are you doing?" And suddenly it hit her. He was not looking for his own case, he could be here covering up the crime. But no there was no way that he would or could right. Boy maybe she got way to much into this crime investigation thing. IT WAS SWEET BENNY, after all. No.

Now he was hungry because he was thinking about hot dogs cooked by fire. His eyes searched the ares, could they possibly have it catch again some how so they could have a fire or maybe he could ask his dad if they could have a fire at home. That could be super cool, maybe Cassie could come over to it too.

H was so lost in thought that he had no clue someone else was there until he heard that someone say his name. Turning his brown eyes he smiled, "Hey Kat how are you? Oh I was actually headed over to the cafe for some lunch, but this caught my eye. I remember hearing about it, but wouldn't you think it would have been cleaned up by now?" That was the part that made him think it was weird. Why hadn't anyone used their wand to just rebuild the paper building?


"It's made me hungry for hot dogs looking at it."

So maybe she actually was taking this crime scene thing a bit too seriously. She laughed at herself. Benton burning down the Daily Prophet. haha. That was highly unlikely. But yeah it was strange that a place like the Daily Prophet. Someone there had to have so juicy in an article. That's why it went down in flames. Okay new plot. Well maybe she could find another day to play private investigator.

She smiled at Benny, " I'm good. Are you enjoying your summer so far?" She laughed. Maybe he was curious and wanted to investigate too. "Maybe the case is still open and they are still looking into what happened?" That was her guess. Or Food. Why did boys like food so much? She laughed. " Hot dogs?" Ice cream was better.

He took his eyes off the rubbish and turned more to Kat, "Summer has been great. I've been just hanging out with Cassie and Henry mostly. I went to a sleepover that was fun. How has yours been?" It was mostly his girlfriend, but he did other things too. What a great summer so far. He was excited about how good it was going.

"It seems stupid, obviously it burned down. Now it's time to just get rid of it and rebuild something. Maybe a big indoor quidditch pitch." That's what he would build here. Look at the great location. So many people would come if it was just in Diagon Alley. It was the best plan.

"Yes hot dogs. Looking at this made me think of a fire that you cook hot dogs over. Would that be so great?" He was going to ask his mom if they could do that soon.

But that was a good question, why was the rumble hadn't been cleared up yet? Kat continued to stare at it as Benton started talking. Cassie was that [i[his[/i]. She might have cracked a small smile when she heard Henry's name. "Sleepover? That's cool. I stayed in the hospital for a few days because I left off of my horse. Other than that it was good." Henry had even visited her while she was there. He had bought her flowers too.

Indoor quidditch? Now that sounded like something that everyone could enjoy. "Indoor quidditch? That sounds so much fun!" Actually with the eye sore anything when have been better than this. It wasn't like there was much to do around here as it was. HOT DOGS? Haha. Come to think of it a hot dog did sound so yummy. "A cook out would be fun." Summer cookout yep seems to go together.

SHE WHAT?


Benton stared at her for awhile when she said she was in the hospital. Why didn't he know about this? "You didn't get hurt really bad did you?" He would have felt really bad if a friend had gotten really hurt and he didn't even know about it to go see them. Though she did say a few days, so that had to have been bad. "Why did the horse throw you off? Was something wrong with it?"


"Doesn't it though? We should so have indoor leagues. That would be so cool! Also, we could move the outdoor ones to summer then we could see more matches and it would be nicer weather, then the indoor leagues could be in the winter when it's bad outside. The snitch would be restricted, but it's still super fast so it would still be fun. " Just the thought of it made Benton excited. He'd totally play on an indoor league.

"I could ask my mom if we could have one. Maybe we could have Henry and Cassie come too."

Again, seemingly overnight, the facade of the Daily Prophet has shifted. No longer a burned out shell, a new exterior has gone up, though the doors and windows remain shuttered. The sign on the door still reads "closed until further notice," though if you get close enough, you could swear you hear something happening inside, even as no one has been seen coming or going.

The half-charred, awkwardly hanging Daily Prophet sign has disappeared entirely, leaving this building unmarked. If you didn't know the Prophet stood here before, you might not have any inkling of what this building could become.

But as a shadow quickly passes by a window, who can really tell what's happening inside.