Written for the QLFC, prompts homemade and Department of Mysteries. The style that I haven't written in before is journalistic writing.
CAREER CHANGE BY CHOSEN ONE: CONSPIRACY AT HAND
August 23rd, 1999
The day was warm, sunny and bright. The weather called to one and all, to witch and wizard, to goblin and troll. I, like any other sane person, of course, wanted to be outside in the sun, perhaps reporting on a Quidditch match. Instead, there I was, trapped in the dark bleakness of the underbowls of the Department of Mysteries of the Ministry, beyond any chance of escape.
How did I get there? Why did I get there? And how does the dirty-blooded, obnoxious, pushy, lousy, and all-around terrible Ginerva Weasley tie into this?
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The Daily Prophet offices are, though readers may not be aware of it, rather a bustling and busy place. I, a well-experienced senior correspondent, have been working there for twenty gruelling years, during which I did my best to keep the paper going through times tough and tougher. I have transcribed interviews with Triwizard champions, Ministers of Magic, and even, on numerous occasions, the Boy Who Lived himself, into whose close confidence I was brought when he was just fourteen.
Loyal readers, then, will be surprised to learn that after the Second Wizarding War ended, I was demoted to a mere news editor (my salary, I was surprised to learn, had halved). For months after the final battle, I toiled under the apparent hatred of the Boy Who Lived, who publicly spoke out against me for reasons likely comprehensible only to people who have fought - and defeated - Dark Lords.
How could he not see that, during the war, I was his strongest ally? Was it not I who did my part by stopping misinformation and spreading knowledge of goings-on so that the populace could be better prepared? Was it not I who diligently wrote article after article even as the world crumbled around all of our ears?
In any case, it was only last week that I gained the "privilege"of doing the job through which I had risen to journalistic fame. Once I had retained what was rightfully mine all along, I turned my eye to the public sphere. With me out of the picture, I had no doubt that public figures had been dreadfully abusing their power, all too sure that they could never be called out by the pasty, pathetic excuses that some of us call reporters here at the Daily Prophet.
Sure enough, it became clear to me after only an hour of research that a dire issue had gone uninvestigated: that of Harry Potter's career change.
"I just got tired of fighting all the time," Harry is quoted as soliloquizing in an article by Tabitha Murphy from earlier this year, who aside from having a ridiculous name also tends to take people at their word. "I wanted to do something that would help people, you know?"
This, for anyone paying attention, is a clear sign of a conspiracy. Harry Potter, known recluse, willingly being interviewed by a reporter? Harry Potter, telling the press the truth?
No. I knew, there and then, that there was more to the story, and so I embarked on a week-long journey; a quest, one might say, for the truth.
I began, of course, at the beginning. Here are the facts of the case:
On May 2, 1998, an individual going by the name of Lord Voldemort, better known to most as You-Know-Who, was killed by Harry Potter. Around three weeks later, on May 25rd, Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had taken control of the Ministry after the previous Minister's deposition, announced the first round of interviews for hopeful Aurors. Harry Potter, according to a source who wishes to remain unnamed but who participated in the early stages of training, was a clear shoo-in for the position.
"He was pretty obnoxious about it," the source recalls. "The whole time we were demonstrating our wandwork, he looked so bored, like he was too good to show that he could do a Protego. He was even talking to Ron Weasley about how he wasn't sure that this was what he wanted to do with his life. Like, some of us have been working for this our whole lives, and he's not sure that he wants do it? Get out of the way, then, and give other people a shot."
The Auror to whom Harry was assigned as a trainee, Auror Higgins, seems to have had a similar experience.
"I'm not blaming him or anything," Higgins assured me, "it's just that I got the sense that he didn't quite want to be there. I'm not criticizing him for it, obviously, the Auror lifestyle isn't for everyone. He did talk a lot about how he never got to see his girlfriend anymore because he was working all the time."
So far, so innocent. The picture that our Savior tried so hard to paint was one of weariness and simple care for those around him. Taking into account what we know of his past actions, however, his most recent exploits don't add up. Harry Potter's classmates remember him as being so fanatically focused on taking down the Dark Lord that he neglected friends, grades, and even family to learn defensive spells. This same man leaving behind an opportunity to administer more "justice" onto the world in favor of spending more time with those important to him is unlikely at best and worrying at worst. Something - or someone - must have put enormous pressure on him in order to initiate the change.
In my confusion, I turned to the person who has been taking up so much of Harry's time and who had been a driving force in Harry's career change: Ginerva Weasley.
One of Ginerva's peers remembers Ginerva as being "creepily" obsessed with the Boy Who Lived in their Hogwarts years. Another remarks on how abruptly Harry and Ginny had begun dating. A third notes that she sometimes found herself wondering whether there was an element of the relationship that the public didn't know about.
"I mean, not that she would have used a love potion, obviously, because that's totally insane and I would never accuse Ginny of doing something like that, but what if she used a love potion because she knew that otherwise Harry would never notice her?"
The source then added that she would very much prefer to stay anonymous for reasons which she didn't disclose but which are easily guessed at. Who is this Ginerva Weasley, who exerts so much influence over heroes and average citizens alike?
"She's really driven," one of Ginerva's teammates on the Holyhead Harpies told me, and the enthusiasm with which she rushed to explain that she "adores" the Chaser makes one wonder if perhaps there was something that the Seeker wasn't telling me, because she either couldn't, or, eerily, wouldn't.
After a week of closely monitoring Ginerva's schedule, it has become clear to me that her infamous visits with her boyfriend during which they supposedly have lunch together are in fact the perfect opportunity for her to - if she so desired, which she may or may not - slip a little "something" into her boyfriend's food.
"He wears these homemade sweaters that her mom knits," an Unspeakable-in-training who works alongside Harry Potter pointed out. "I think she makes him wear them, because they're super ugly, and it's as though she's telling everyone that she owns him." The future Unspeakable shuddered. "Their relationship is messed up."
When asked to comment about possible incongruencies in the Chosen One's relationship, however, close friends of the couple hurried to promise that there was nothing strange going on and that perhaps it was I who had the "issues".
"Why can't you just mind your own damn business for once?" Neville Longbottom asked in a defensive outburst. "They're two people who are happy! Leave them alone!"
Other members of the now-famous "Dumbledore's Army" responded in a similar manner, reacting so strongly to these accusations that it was made clear that they were attempting to shelter someone - one of their own no doubt, perhaps even a former leader - from owning up to consequences of their actions.
To find the final answer to my questions, I decided to seek the source of it all: Ginerva Weasley herself.
It was before one of her lunchtime visits that I followed her as she led the both of us through the labyrinth that is the Department of Mysteries. Although I had at first assumed that Ginny's plan was merely to meet up with Harry Potter, it became clearer by the minute that she in fact had other intentions. Whereas, for the several days previous, she had managed to escape me in the twists and turns of the absurdly ill-lit corridors, this was the day I got lucky.
And I, apparently, was not the only one who had done so.
What I stumbled on in that oddly-placed storage closet has inflicted me with both mental and physical damage. The latter part, naturally, came from the numerous hexes that were fired upon me as I twisted open the door in an attempt to do my part in my role as an investigative journalist, only to be treated to a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my days.
That fateful Sunday did not provide me with any additional information about the research which I was conducting, nor did it bring me any closer to unseating the conspiracy that I become more and more firmly is implanted deep in the mind of the Chosen One, planted there no doubt by his girlfriend, and, as I now most unfortunately know, lover.
As I lie in the hospital, having been brought there after I was found with several distinct and "fascinating" (as a Healer labeled them) combinations of hexes upon my body, I can only gaze at the ceiling and ponder that Ginerva Weasley is a dangerous woman indeed.