The Daily Prophet: Extraordinary Special Edition
23 December 1997
THE SUN SETS ON THE GOLDEN AGE: DARIUS ZOGRATIS FALLS AFTER SEVEN-DAY TITANIC STRUGGLETHE ARCHIPELAGO SHATTERED; THE ANCIENT TERROR OF AZKABAN ERADICATEDBy Barnabas Cuffe, Editor-in-Chief
It is with a heavy heart and trembling quill that the Daily Prophet confirms the most devastating news of our century. Grand Sorcerer Darius Thomas Zogratis (20), the Sage of Ravenclaw and Savior of the Wizarding World, is dead. He passed from this world on the evening of December 21st, 1997, following a cataclysmic seven-day duel that resulted in the total destruction and sinking of Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic.
The threat, which the Ministry had kept under a veil of strictest secrecy, was the resurrected Ekrizdis, the 15th-century progenitor of the Dementor race and the original master of Azkaban. According to International Confederation of Wizards (ICW) observers, Ekrizdis sought to plunge the world into a permanent "Ethereal Eclipse," feeding the globe to a new, unstoppable breed of shadow-creatures.
A Seven-Day Apocalypse
For the first time in recorded history, the world witnessed magic that surpassed the limits of human comprehension. Witnesses from the Canadian Ministry of Magic reported that for seven days, the sky above Devon Island was a chaotic tapestry of scarlet light and abyssal darkness.
"It wasn't a duel," said one ICW specialist. "It was a collision of two eras. Ekrizdis fought with the weight of ancient, rotting history; Zogratis fought with the precision of a future we aren't yet worthy of."
By the seventh day, the very foundations of the earth gave way. The magical pressure became so immense that the island—the largest uninhabited island on Earth—was physically forced beneath the waves of the Arctic Ocean. In a final, blinding flare of blue light——Darius Zogratis unleashed a localized collapse of space-time, dragging Ekrizdis into the void with him.
The World He Left Behind
Darius Zogratis was a wizard who refused to accept "impossible" as an answer. Born in a London orphanage, he rose to become the youngest Grand Sorcerer in history. In his brief twenty years, he achieved more for humanity than the combined efforts of the last five centuries:
He cured the incurable: Eradicating the Maledictus and Lycanthropic curses.
He ended the silence: Restoring the minds of the catatonic and the broken.
He broke the hierarchy: Granting Squibs the gift of magic and ending blood-purity as a biological reality.
He disarmed the darkness: Creating counter-spells for the Unforgivable Curses.
A Final Tribute
Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, in a voice choked with emotion, announced earlier today:
"We did not deserve him. He was a gift from the stars who saw our suffering and decided to solve it. He died as he lived—protecting a world that was still learning how to thank him."
The Ministry has declared a month of global mourning. Flags at Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang have been lowered to half-mast. In the center of the Hogwarts courtyard, a statue of jet-black marble and scarlet crystal has been commissioned, though many argue that the cured and the saved walking our streets are monument enough.
Darius Zogratis leaves no heirs, but his legacy is written in the blood of every cured werewolf, the wands of every restored Squib, and the safety of every wizard who no longer fears the green light of death.
The Sage is gone. The Light remains.