Portia

The cell was dank and dark. All around the screaming and wailing of the inmates of Askaban. They had to be new for those who had been in Askaban for long soon became silent. Their eyes blank and their bodies curled up in the fetal position slowly waiting for the end to come. And for most it did. The only escape from the wretched place was when the sweet touch of death released your soul from it's endless torment within the walls of Askaban.

It was indeed a terriable place. Even visitors were few and far between which did little to help maintain the sanity of the inmates.

Portia Laertes, deatheater was sentenced here 5 years ago. Her crime? The murder of one Faith Maria Blair. That blasted child. She would not have been in this situation if that little brat hadn't suddenly decided she wanted her mommy. A carefully planned plot destroyed because a 5 year old child had a bad dream.

~~~Flashback 5 years ago~~~

The hour of the attack was early morning before the sun rose. The Blairs were asleep in their beds. With young Faith finally agreeing to sleep in her own room for the first night. Portia had crept into the house hoping to catch the family unawares and disposeing of all of them in their sleep. But something happened that she did not intend. The toddler, Faith, had woken up and was crying for her mother. The young death eater slipped into the child's room to silence her once and for all but it was too late. The Blairs were awoken by the sound and Cherie entered the room to see her daughter hit by the Avada Kedavra curse. Portia was fast loseing control of the situation turning to the mother she aimed the same curse upon her but the woman managed to duck behind the wall. Then the next thing she knew, Portia was in a full body bind dropped to the floor unable to move. Her wand falling right in front of her but unreachable by her petrifed limbs. She was consious when all through. Seeing the tall figure of Arnold walk over her body and pick up the wand. She also heard the cries of anguish of the Blair woman as she cried over her dead child. Then she was dragged away to stand trial. But Portia was not worried. Her only regret was that she would not be able to join in excitement of the dark lord's rise to power again. It would happen soon. Malfoy was still out there and Portia had expected to be released as soon as the governer pulled his influence. But it did not happen. Portia Laertes was forgotten and left to rot in the stinking flith of Azkaban. There her anger festered like an open wound. Lord Voldermort would return his delay must have only been caused by the inefficient handling of that Lucius Malfoy. In the shadows of her cell Portia planned her actions.

~~~End Flashback~~~

Shadows... shadows were always Portia's friends. Her talent had always been slipping in and out of them unseen unfelt and unheard. That was why she was always Lord Voldemort's favourite assassin. She had indeed been charged for only one murder but only Portia and a select few in Voldemort's inner circle knew the truth of how many she had killed. There were many shadows in Azkaban. For those years her hatred of Arnold Blair and his wife along with the disguest of the apparent misorganisation of the death eaters kept her mind sane from the sapping power of the Dementors. She had no happy thoughts. Her life had never been a happy one. Portia got a strength from her arrogance and her trust in her own ablities and the dementors could not suck that from her.

Or was there another.....

Phlius Grubman was on inspection as the representitive of the ministry. He had drawn the short straw at the office and hence he was the one who had to undertake the necessary semi annual inspectation of the wretched wizards prison. The morning was foggy and cold. Phlius had his clipboard and list. There were administrative duties at askaban that could not be trusted to the dementors. A list of all the inmates and their conditions. The ministry had need to keep track of the number of people in the prison and how many had lost their mind to insanity.

Grubman walked past the small cells. All seemed dark and smelly with always the outline of a huddled or wailing person somewhere about. He then walked to on cell.. it seemed darker than the others. Covered in grey shadow. Grubman peered in looking for the figure which should be inside. He saw none. Looking at his list again he enquired. She is dead then? Portia Laertes, then he turned to his list of recent deaths. Hers was not on it. He turned to the dementor beside him his skin beginning to crawl when he saw the sickened face. "Where is she?" he asked when he could force the words out of his mouth. The dememtor seemed to look up and walked to the door of the cell. as soon as it's thin bony hand touched it the door swung open. Grubman gasped for even the dementors needed to undo the lock before the gate should have swung open. This gate was opened all the time. The dementor' eyes glowed angrily in his hood. Grubman nearly doubled over where he stood from the anger and power all the dementors in the prision seemed to suddenly send out hurriedly he reached into his robes and took a nibble of a large bar of chocolate that his wife had made him bring along before he glanced into the shadowy cell once again. Portia Laertes was not there.

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((Extract from the Daily Prophet Dated Febuary 8th))

Another Escape from Azkaban. Death Eater and Murderer on the loose.

Azkaban- It was learnt early this morning that there has been another escape from Azkaban. The cell of convicted death eater and murderer Portia Laertes was found to be empty this morning. Ministry officials are baffled as to how the escape could have taken place. Since the escape of Sirius Black 2 years ago secirity as the prison has been upped. "It only goes to show that we have to up the security more" Cornelius Fudge Minister of magic was quoted as saying "We need to get more Dememtors to police the prison to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Laertes was convicted 5 years ago for the murder of 5 year old Faith Blair and the attemped murder of her parents. Ministry offical Arnold Blair and his wife Cherie, who is a mediwizard at St Mungo's. The Daily Prophet has not been able to get a statement from the Blairs as to how they feel about their child's murderer being out on the loose. Details of the escape are still sketchy and the Prophet will release details as they are made avaliable to us. Laertes (Pictured above) is very dangerous and should not be approached. Sightings should be reported by owl to the ministry and non officials are warned not to take any action themselves. Aurors have already been dispatched to Azkaban to investigate.

Daily Prophet Feb 9^th

Death Eater still at large. Wizarding Folk advised to be cautious.

Ministry headquarters – Ministry spokesman Philius Grubman announced today that the escaped prisoner Portia Laertes is still at large. “The Aurors are doing the best they can but there have been no reports of her whereabouts.” Grubman was quoted as saying. It has been speculated that Laertes will attempt to break into Auror headquarters to retrieve her wand. “We know that the wand is special to her and that it is irreplaceable.”

Daily Prophet sources reveal that the wand is indeed a special item. Made of platinum instead of the usual wood based wand it has within it a core of a griffin’s feather. Reports of the length of the wand are varying between anywhere from 10 to a massive 14 inches, longer than most conventional wands.

It has been told that the wand was a present to Laertes from you-know-who himself for a job well done. Others have disputed this claim as absolute hogwash and attributed it’s perpetuation to remnants of death eaters who with to create a scare amongst the wizarding community.

Ministry officials have said that there is “No need to panic because Laertes has not made an appearance in over a week now… maybe she has just gone away.” A daily prophet poll showed that 11% believed in the ministry optimism. 68% believed them to be deluding themselves and 21% believed that Bertie Botts should discontinue their vomit and booger flavoured lines in favour of less yucky flavours.