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  e was nocent after all and he wasn39t league with he-who-t-not-be-nad either i an,” he added defensively, spng the bowler hat still faster, ”all the evidence poted--we had ore than fifty eyewitnesses--but anyway, as i say, he39s dead urdered, as a atter of fact on istry of agic preises there39s gog to be an iry, actually”
  to his great surprise, the pri ister felt a fleetg stab of pity for fud at this pot it was, however, eclipsed alost idiately by a glow of sugness at the thought that, deficient though he hiself ight be the area of aterializg out of firepces, there had never been a urder any of the governnt departnts under his char not yet, anyway
  while the pri ister surreptitioly touched the wood of his desk, fud ntued, ”but bcks by-the-by now the pot is, we39re at war, pri ister, and steps t be taken”
  ”at war?” repeated the pri ister nervoly ”surely that39s a little bit of an overstatent?”
  ”he-who-t-not-be-nad has now been joed by those of his followers who
  oke out of azkaban january,” said fud, speakg ore and ore rapidly and irlg his bowler fast that it was a li-green
  ”sce they have oved to the open, they have been wreakg havoc the
  ockdale
  id--he did it, pri ister, he threatened a ass le killg unless i stood aside for hi and--”
  ”good grief, it39s your fault those people were killed and i39 havg to answer estions about rted g and rroded expansion jots and i don39t know what else!” said the pri ister furioly
  ”y fault!” said fud, lorg up ”are you sayg you would have caved to bckail like that?”
  ”aybe not,” said the pri ister, standg up and stridg about the roo, ”but i would have put all y efforts to catchg the bckailer before he itted any such atrocity!”
  ”do you really thk i wasn39t already akg every effort?” deanded fud heatedly ”every auror the istry was--and is--tryg to fd hi and round up his followers, but we happen to be talkg about one of the ost powerful wizards of all ti, a wizard who has eded capture for alost three decades!”
  ” i suppose you39re gog to tell he caed the hurricane the west untry too?” said the pri ister, his teper risg with every pace he took it was furiatg to disver the rean for all these terrible disasters and not to be able to tell the public, alost worse than it beg the governnt39s fault after all
  ”that was no hurricane,” said fud iserably
  ”exce !” barked the pri ister, now positively stapg up and down ”trees uprooted, roofs ripped off, pposts bent, horrible juries--”
  ”it was the death eaters,” said fud ”he-who-t-not-be-nad39s followers and and we spect giant volvent”
  the pri ister sped his tracks as though he had hit an visible wall ”what volvent?”
  fud griaced ”he ed giants st ti, when he wanted to go for the grand effect,” he said ”the office of isration has been workg around the clock, we39ve had teas of obliviators out tryg to odify the ories of all the les who saw what really happened, we39ve got ost of the departnt for the regution and ntrol of agical creatures runng around rset, but we can39t fd the giant--it39s been a disaster”
  ”you don39t say!” said the pri ister furioly
  ”i won39t deny that orale is pretty low at the istry,” said fud ”what with all that, and then losg alia bones”
  ”losg who?”
  ”alia bones head of the departnt of agical w enforcent we thk he-who-t-not-be-nad ay have urdered her pern, becae she was a very gifted witch and--and all the evidence was that she put up a real fight”
  fud cleared his throat and, with an effort, it seed, sped spng his bowler hat
  ”but that urder was the newspapers,” said the pri ister, ontarily diverted fro his anr ”our newspapers alia bones it jt said she was a iddle-ad woan who lived alone it was a--a nasty killg, wasn39t it? it39s had rather a lot of publicity the police are baffled, you see”
  fud sighed ”well, of urse they are,” he said ”killed a roo that was locked fro the side, wasn39t she? we, on the other hand, know exactly who did it, not that that ts any further toward catchg hi and then there was ele vance,