She watched her pen scribble away; the rhythmic scratching on the parchment was almost soothing. A way-ward piece of blonde hair fell in front of her large glasses and as she kept writing, more and more untamed curls fell down from her bun.

Elowen Lovegood was the head writer at the Quibbler, her stories always made it to the front page, and why wouldn't they? Elowen was married to the Editor of this Newspaper, and he always thought her stories were magnificent.

This didn't create a particularly happy atmosphere with her fellow writers; they believed she was only doing so well because of her connections. When Elowen was pregnant with their daughter, Luna, she had about five spells put on her a day. It's a wonder she wasn't born with antlers.

"Here's the newest headline," She said walking up to her husband, Xenophilius Lovegood, "The ministry wants to try to capture all the Thestrals, they believe the funny little creatures are bad luck."

"You and your obsession with the Thestrals," laughed Xeno, "I still hope that one day I too will be able to see them, as then we would have something to keep as a pet for Luna."

Elowen kissed her husband on the cheek, leaving him the freshly written paper.

"One should not wish for a death, my dear, fate can be incredibly cruel." She replied, twirling out the door of the building.

Elowen was one of the few people who were able to see the Thestrals. Her twin sister had died when she was a teenager, by the hand of her own jealous boyfriend. Elowen was walking next to her when it happened, and as they were twins the young boy couldn't tell the difference. She tried not to blame herself, but the Thestrals were a constant reminder of that day.

Outside, a stocky photographer was whispering to a circle of staff as they enjoyed their lunch break.

"It's only a whisper going around, but apparently "You-know-who" has risen!"

Elowen turned around swiftly, not bearing to eavesdrop; she walked up and joined the small group.

"I've heard the same thing!" Shouted a thin woman, "I've heard that he's wed a muggle snake trainer and that they are planning to combine our world with the filthy muggles!"

"Shhhh!" whispered the same man from before, "The ministry is trying to keep this quiet, they don't want it spreading around."

Elowen stood out of the group, aware of the fact that they didn't want her there anyway. She did want to keep listening, she did enjoy the harmless piece of gossip every now and then, but she wanted to leave before the conspiracy theory's started. Ever since Voldermort had died, a new rumour would start up after a couple of months claiming he had returned. Last year it was that he had become a new teacher at Hogwarts under an alias, and the year before that he was apparently reincarnated as a ferret.

"But, if it was real," She thought to herself, "Wouldn't that be a story."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So how was your day with Grandmother, Luna?" Xeno asked, his mouth full of the dinner laid out on his plate.

"We went shopping in the city, and I bought this," Luna answered, her tiny fingers grasping around her new necklace. "Grandmother said that it will protect me from the Nargles"

"Dangerous things those," Elowen said, a look of mock concern on her face,

"Don't listen to your silly mother," Said Xeno, "Just because she doesn't believe in them."

"I never said that, I've only ever said that I personally haven't seen them. But then I never believed in the Barshalts and now we have a whole colony of them eating my herbs, so I may be wrong about these creatures." Elowen replied defensively, "I do wish I had believed those rumours, then maybe my herb garden would still be active today"

That triggered something in her mind, and memories of the gossip this afternoon came flooding back.

"Oh Xeno! I have to talk to you about…." Elowen trailed off, noticing her daughter was listening. "Luna, darling, how bout you go check on the bird outside, I think I saw him wearing your hat."

As Luna toddled off, Xenophilius turned to his wife.

"We really should do something about that bird, you would think he was a small play with all the clothing he has been taking."

"That isn't what I need to talk about" said Elowen, her tone turning serious.

She explained about the rumours and about how the ministry was apparently trying to cover it up. Elowen had never liked the ministry. She didn't believe with the way they dealt with things and had published hundreds of articles uncovering them.

"I want to be able to publish an article about this, just spreading the word that maybe it could be truth. Even if it isn't right then it will simply be a funny story about the rumours, please let me do this, love."

Her husband smiled a weak smile. He didn't want to start criticising the ministry again. Last time Elowen exposed them; a very cross-looking employee and a death-eater visited her, and she barely got off with a warning. But he knew that once she got started on something there was no use trying to stop her, even if he tried really hard.

Luna burst through the door, holding a pair of shoes, a hat and an umbrella in her bundled arms.

"I think he was trying to court a nice lady bird," smiled Luna, "wouldn't that be heavenly? They could start a lovely little family right there in our tree."

Upon think of the bird family, Luna broke into a fit of giggles.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Standing in front of an aged newspaper stand, Elowen held a copy of The Quibbler. It was still warm from the printer and the ink smudged against the brush of her fingertips. Below the bold heading read her title, "Has The Dark Lord Risen?" She smiled; there was always a sense of satisfaction when one of her stories was printed. She would deal with the repercussions later, but for this moment, she was happy.

"Excuse me, miss"

Elowen turned, her blonde hair whipping against her face.

The voice belonged to a man; he was old and fairly built. His long over-coat billowed around him, flowing in the wind.

"I've heard you were the one working on the story about 'you-know-who' and I've come to convince you otherwise."

He looked down at the newspaper in her hands, his calm expression melting into a frustrated manner.

"Well, I see you've already published it." He said staring straight through her brown eyes. "Well then, I'm sorry but I have no choice. I work for the Ministry of Magic, Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and you have been sent with a final warning. If this type of behaviour continues then we will have to take action. We have everything you have ever done in out file systems, Mrs. Lovegood.

We are watching you."

And in an instant, he had vanished.