The weeks moved like molasses until it was already mid-February. She broke up her research with Occlumency practice and semi-regular meals with Narcissa. If the Prophet reported good news, Narcissa would sit down with her. Bad news, Hermione's tray would appear in her room. It was still bitingly cold out, but sometimes she'd wander the grounds on her breaks.

Draco's name or picture appeared in the paper at least once a week. Hermione found herself cutting out pictures of him more than once, tucking them on top of the folded parchment in the jewelry box on her nightstand.

What she would give for just one sarcastic letter from him now.

The following Tuesday, the Prophet reported that the rebels had moved against Basel. Though the city was still decimated by the attack in November, an army of hundreds had marched through the rubble towards the city's stronghold. Thousands of Death Eaters had been recalled from Lausanne and successfully crushed the attack. Skeeter spent a full page lavishing praise upon the ingenuity of the Death Eaters who'd been responsible for Obliviating bystanders and Imperiusing Muggle leaders — all of whom blamed the destruction on foreign terrorists.

On Wednesday morning, Hermione woke up to find her breakfast delivered to her room, a copy of the Prophet laying underneath the coffee cup on her tray.

ZÜRICH UNDER SIEGE!
by Rita Skeeter

Like roaches to cupboards, a small band of insurgents infiltrated Zürich last night. This brazen attack from French invaders and Swiss traitors is undoubtedly a reaction to their spectacular failure in Basel yesterday — a last-ditch attempt to seize control and throw the country into chaos.

The Great Order's forces have been recalled from Basel, with support from additional infantries in Lausanne and Bern. Sources close to the situation expect a decisive victory over the usurpers as early as this afternoon.

Blinking, Hermione stared down at the page. Her heart drummed in her ears as she scanned above and below it. Her shaking fingers tore through every other page, searching for more.

Nothing.

Hermione growled and tossed the paper into the fire. She began pacing, her mind scrambling to connect the pieces. The French and their allies had attacked Basel two days ago, but it had been a feint. Basel wasn't an obvious strategic target. But it had lured Voldemort's forces outside of neighboring Switzerland, leaving the real objective vulnerable: Zurich.

Where Draco was.

Her chin trembled before she began pacing again. Skeeter's lies were glaring. If it had been a small band of insurgents, there was no reason to summon the forces in Lausanne, let alone Bern. Voldemort's army had left a direct path of vulnerability from the border through the heart of the country. Only a massive attack could have warranted it.

Her shelves shook violently. Hermione clutched her bedpost, breathing deeply until they calmed. She began pacing again.

The leash on Rita Skeeter was getting tighter and tighter, the omissions more glaring. She'd asked Narcissa last week about getting a copy of another paper from a foreign ally of the Great Order's — anything less biased — but Narcissa had replied that non-British periodicals were forbidden in the U.K. by order of Minister Thicknesse.