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//-->AzkabanAzkaban has existed since the fifteenth century and was not originally aprison at all. The island in the North Sea upon which the first fortress wasbuilt never appeared on any map, Muggle or wizarding, and is believed tohave been created, or enlarged, by magical means.The fortress upon it was originally home to a little-known sorcerer who calledhimself Ekrizdis. Evidently extremely powerful, but of unknown nationality,Ekrizdis, who is believed to have been insane, was a practitioner of theworst kinds of Dark Arts. Alone in the middle of the ocean, he lured, torturedand killed Muggle sailors, apparently for pleasure, and only when he died,and the concealment charms he had cast faded away, did the Ministry ofMagic realise that either island or building existed. Those who entered toinvestigate refused afterwards to talk of what they had found inside, but theleast frightening part of it was that the place was infested with Dementors.Many in authority thought Azkaban an evil place that was best destroyed.Others were afraid of what might happen to the Dementors infesting thebuilding if they deprived them of their home. The creatures were alreadystrong and impossible to kill; many feared a horrible revenge if they tookaway a habitat where they appeared to thrive. The very walls of the buildingseemed steeped in misery and pain, and the Dementors were determined tocling to it. Experts who had studied buildings built with and around Darkmagic contended that Azkaban might wreak its own revenge upon anybodyattempting to destroy it. The fortress was therefore left abandoned for manyyears, a home to continually breeding Dementors.Once the International Statute of Secrecy had been imposed, the Ministry ofMagic felt that the small wizarding prisons that existed up and down thecountry in various towns and villages posed a security risk, becauseattempts by incarcerated witches and wizards to break out often led toundesirable bangs, smells and light shows. A purpose-built prison, locatedon some remote Hebridean island, was preferred, and plans had beendrawn up when Damocles Rowle became Minister for Magic.Rowle was an authoritarian who had risen to power on an anti-Muggleagenda, capitalising on the anger felt by much of the wizarding communityat being forced to go underground. Sadistic by nature, Rowle scrapped theplans for the new prison at once and insisted on using Azkaban. He claimedthat the Dementors living there were an advantage: they could be harnessedas guards, saving the Ministry time, trouble and expense.In spite of opposition from many wizards, among them experts on bothDementors and buildings with Azkaban’s kind of Dark history, Rowle carriedout his plan and soon a steady trickle of prisoners had been placed there.None ever emerged. If they were not mad and dangerous before beingplaced in Azkaban, they swiftly became so.Rowle was succeeded by Perseus Parkinson, who was likewise pro-Azkaban.By the time that Eldritch Diggory took over as Minister for Magic, the prisonhad been operating for fifteen years. There had been no breakouts and nobreaches of security. The new prison seemed to be working well. It was onlywhen Diggory went to visit that he realised exactly what conditions insidewere like. Prisoners were mostly insane and a graveyard had beenestablished to accommodate those that died of despair.Back in London, Diggory established a committee to explore alternatives toAzkaban, or at least to remove the Dementors as guards. Experts explainedto him that the only reason the Dementors were (mostly) confined to theisland was that they were being provided with a constant supply of souls onwhich to feed. If deprived of prisoners, they were likely to abandon theprison and head for the mainland.This advice notwithstanding, Diggory had been so horrified by what he hadseen inside Azkaban that he pressed the committee to find alternatives.Before they could reach any decision, however, Diggory caught dragon poxand died. From that time until the advent of Kingsley Shacklebolt, noMinister ever seriously considered closing Azkaban. They turned a blind eyeto the inhumane conditions inside the fortress, permitted it to be magicallyenlarged and expanded and rarely visited, due to the awful effects ofentering a building populated by thousands of Dementors. Most justifiedtheir attitude by pointing to the prison’s perfect record at keeping prisonerslocked up.Nearly three centuries passed before that record was broken. A young manwas successfully smuggled out of the prison when his visiting motherexchanged places with him, something that the blind and lovelessDementors could not detect and would have never expected. This escapewas followed by another, still more ingenious and impressive, when SiriusBlack managed to evade the Dementors single-handed.The weakness of the prison was demonstrated amply over the next fewyears, when two mass breakouts occurred, both involving Death Eaters. Bythis time the Dementors had given their allegiance to Lord Voldemort, whocould guarantee them scope and freedom hitherto un-tasted. AlbusDumbledore was one who had long disapproved of the use of Dementors asguards, not only because of the inhumane treatment of the prisoners intheir power, but because he foresaw the possible shift in loyalties of suchDark creatures.Under Kingsley Shacklebolt, Azkaban was purged of Dementors. While itremains in use as a prison, the guards are now Aurors, who are regularlyrotated from the mainland. There has been no breakout since this newsystem was introduced.J.K. Rowling's thoughtsThe name ‘Azkaban’ derives from a mixture of the prison ‘Alcatraz’, which isits closest Muggle equivalent, being set on an island, and ‘Abaddon’, whichis a Hebrew word meaning ‘place of destruction’ or ‘depths of hell’.Dolores Jane UmbridgeBirthday: 26th AugustWand: Birch and dragon heartstring, eight inches longHogwarts house: SlytherinSpecial abilities: Her punishment quill is of her own inventionParentage: Muggle mother, wizard fatherFamily: Unmarried, no childrenHobbies: Collecting the 'Frolicsome Feline' ornamental plate range, addingflounces to fabric and frills to stationary objects, inventing instruments oftortureDolores Jane Umbridge was the eldest child and only daughter of OrfordUmbridge, a wizard, and Ellen Cracknell, a Muggle, who also had a Squibson. Dolores’s parents were unhappily married, and Dolores secretlydespised both of them: Orford for his lack of ambition (he had never beenpromoted, and worked in the Department of Magical Maintenance at theMinistry of Magic), and her mother, Ellen, for her flightiness, untidiness, andMuggle lineage. Both Orford and his daughter blamed Ellen for Dolores'sbrother's lack of magical ability, with the result that when Dolores wasfifteen, the family split down the middle, Orford and Dolores remainingtogether, and Ellen vanishing back into the Muggle world with her son.Dolores never saw her mother or brother again, never spoke of either ofthem, and henceforth pretended to all she met that she was a pure-blood.An accomplished witch, Dolores joined the Ministry of Magic directly aftershe left Hogwarts, taking a job as a lowly intern in the Improper Use of MagicOffice. Even at seventeen, Dolores was judgemental, prejudiced andsadistic, although her conscientious attitude, her saccharine mannertowards her superiors, and the ruthlessness and stealth with which she tookcredit for other people's work soon gained her advancement. Before shewas thirty, Dolores had been promoted to Head of the office, and it was buta short step from there to ever more senior positions in the management of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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