Godric's Hollow (original) (raw)

Ministry Approves Total Appariton Ban

Ban to go into effect next Monday

21 March 1978

The wizarding population of England reacted violently to the abduction and murder of twenty-two confirmed wizards from around the country, as reported last week right here in the Prophet. Over the weekend, nearly two hundred protesters gathered outside the houses of well known Ministry officials, a large percentage of them outside the house of Bartemius Crouch, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"We are here," shouted Paisley Moonjava, grandson of one of the victims of last week's massacre, in an impassioned speech, "to mourn those lost souls!" After the roar of the crowd died down, he lead the crowd in a moving chant of healing learned from his time in India.

Protesters did not sit in vain, however, as near dusk, an assistant of Bartemius Crouch came out with an announcement which he was able to make after the crowd finished throwing edible projectiles at his person. "Wizards, witches, you are proof that the people have a voice in what happens in our world," read the assistant from a written statement. "We are pleased to announce to you the people first, a proposal to stop these senseless killings." He went on to talk about a total ban on Apparating within England, with propositions being made to the Ministers of Magic in Scotland and Ireland to better protect the United Kingdom as a whole.

The ban was approved yesterday when the Wizengamot came in session, and mailings are being prepared at press time, expected to be owled to every wizard and witch in the country aged 16 and over on Wednesday. The Daily Prophet here has the basic outline of this ban and how it will affect the average wizard, but it is not complete and the official Ministry mailing should be consulted as soon as possible.

How the Apparition ban will work is this: less than fifty special licenses have been created, allowing only the highest government officials and senior Aurors to still have the right to Apparate. The rest of the country is expected to make due through an elaborate system of Portkeys. Within Wednesday's mailing will be a map of the hundreds of Portkeys being set up to transport users from one place to another. This makes it possible for anyone to go anywhere with only the touch of a few objects. Aurors at the Ministry will be monitoring all registered wands in the country and are instructed to arrest anyone who is found to be performing a now illegal Apparition.

"I think it's a ridiculous waste of time, energy, and effort," senior Auror Alastor Moody is being quoted as saying this morning, though it would be good to point out that it took him, the Auror in charge of finding the missing people, four days to find the seventeen bodies after being clued in to the location by a modest, humble sheep farmer.

Men like Mr Moody may doubt but there is no denying the enthusiasm for safety that the youth of England is showing towards these new measures. "The ban rules!" shouted a young man known only as 'Ice Box' after the statement was read on Sunday night, and we at the Daily Prophet can only say this after those moving words: we concur.