In his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry was being a model student. He didn't question anything, was quiet and didn't break any rules.
And Umbridge was watching him with a hawk's eye, waiting for him to screw up.
Which was why Harry didn't think she was that bad really. Snape took points and gave him detention for breathing too loudly! She was abusing her ill-gotten authority a lot but she still wasn't up to Snape standards.
Sad.
As long as Harry kept his head down and didn't let her get to him, he was fine. She needed real ammunition against him anyway, especially now that he was representing the Black seats in the Wizengamot.
But he still found it hard not to just snap at the bitch when she went on another one of her moronic rants about blood purity. DADA was now the class in which he put the few tips and tricks for Occlumency to good use, clearing his mind as best he could to keep from wringing her neck. But not everyone had the same self control. The Gryffindor hourglass was losing rubies like it never had before and he just knew a lot of that was from the reckless confrontations his housemates insisted on, some of them well deserved. Morale had never been this low in ages in the Gryffindor common rooms, even the twins relatively subdued.
But Harry knew something was very wrong the minute he saw Colin step into the Gryffindor common room. The boy was usually so exuberant it was painful, and somehow he always knew exactly where Harry was, no matter what.
So, when he walked in, hunched down on himself without even noticing that Harry was sitting there all alone, he knew something was very wrong.
"Colin?"
The younger boy flinched and his hand curled into a fist automatically, only for him to hiss at the movement, cradling his hand.
Harry had seen that sort of thing in himself too often to be unconcerned. He wasn't exactly the poster boy for well adjustment.
"You're hurt."
Colin didn't meet his eyes or refute the statement, he just stared at Harry with a measured look. Harry had been the subject of scrutiny before but not from him. He gritted his teeth, clearly angry and Harry wondered if it was him that Colin was angry at.
"Why aren't you fighting?" He asked simply.
"Fighting?"
"You just let Umbridge walk all over you!" He shouted, only to jerk as the movement aggravated his hand.
"Want to show me your hand?" Harry asked coolly. Umbridge, Colin had mentioned. He must have had detention with her; Ginny had said something about many in their class receiving detention. Harry's own class had followed his example and kept their heads down, for the most part at least. Hermione was taking the route of passive resistance and Ron had outright yelled at the bint. However, no one had received detention even though Umbridge had looked like she wanted to slap them down with something. Clearly, Ginny's class had given her the excuse she was waiting for.
"Why aren't you fighting?" Colin demanded again and Harry smiled sharply.
"You show me your hand and I'll tell you."
Colin hesitated but held his hand out and Harry saw the words 'I must not tell lies' etched into the palm.
"She made you mutilate yourself?!" Harry pondered and while part of him was horrified at what the toad had made Colin do, he was also impressed with Colin's penmanship.
"I wrote lines with a quill and it took the blood from my hand to write it in." Colin spat out.
Colin was lucky Harry had been experimenting with potions and knew that Bubotuber pus diluted in Murtlap essence was a good remedy for open cuts and a bit of nutmeg would help prevent scarring too. It took Harry less than a minute to make the solution and soak bandages in it before laying them carefully on Colin's palm.
"That should help." It was working already, Harry could see it in the awestruck face of Colin. "And I'm not fighting because Umbridge is the symptom of an entirely broken system, not just a single corrupt ministry official."
Colin looked at him in surprise."What?"
"I'm guessing all the people in your class who got detention with Umbridge were muggleborns?"
The Fourth year startled. "How did you know?"
"Because that's her target. She's been making life hell for werewolves, half bloods of any kind and getting every other magical creature labelled as being dark for the past many years. And she's not even that important."
"You can't mean that." Colin looked horrified.
"Colin, Umbridge is on this power trip because this is the first time she's had so much power. Oh sure, she's pushed for a ton of really shitty laws but they have to be passed by the Wizengamot where she has no seat. But consider this, the highest-ranking Muggleborn official in the entire ministry is one Dirk Cresswell, who's the liaison to the Goblin Nation, the least wanted job in the ministry. The rest have never risen above positions of secretaries and clerks. I'm not fighting against her, because she's not really the problem. She's just the symptom."
"B-but you defeated Voldemort, they can't seriously be-"
"Think Colin, think of Malfoy," Harry interrupted him gruffly. It was a harsh truth but a truth nonetheless. "Think of everything he gets away with, all because of his father who claims he was under the Imperius. Think of the fact that an entire year went by with you and a dozen other muggleborns petrified but only when the pureblood girl went missing did they start taking things seriously. Think of the fact that you can't do magic when you're away from home because you're a Muggleborn but anytime a pureblood child does it behind his warded house, no one cares."
"So there's nothing we can do?"
Harry sighed. "There's always something you can do but you won't get any actual change coming about by defying Umbridge."
Colin frowned, "So what can we do?"
"Well, it's a good thing I found you actually, I was hoping you could help me out. How would you like to be the head of the media department for this free newspaper we're planning?"
"Our first staff meeting." Harry mused out loud as he sat in a particularly out of the way room that no one but the twins and the Marauders had known of, equipped with the strongest silencing charms they knew and a few discreetly placed notice-me-not charms. Around him sat Colin, Luna, Fred, George and through the mirror, Sirius. "Let's everyone introduce ourselves shall we?"
"Colin Creevey, head of the media department." The younger boy said proudly, his camera hanging around his neck like it hadn't done since Umbridge had 'accidentally' broken it. Sirius and the twins had fixed it up and added a few extra safety features.
"Luna Lovegood, chief correspondent."
"Gred-"
"and Forge-"
"Press operators-"
"Production-"
"And Props."
"At your service." They chorused and bowed, much to Luna's pleasure as she clapped excitedly.
"Sirius Black, alleged mass murderer, alleged death eater, godfather to the Boy-Who-Lived-to-Fuck-Things-Up, Marauder, illegal animagus, only man to escape Azkaban, the true black sheep of the Black family." His godfather announced. Harry, who had expected this since Sirius had been nervous over his introduction and run it over with him a million times, was just glad he hadn't said 'Boy-Who-Pooped-On-Me-When-He-Was-A-Wee-Baby' as he had threatened to. "Also the financier of the newspaper we're planning and secondary shareholder of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes."
"...Harry Potter, editor."
Colin and Luna clapped, Gred and Forge cheered loudly and Sirius whooped saying 'That's my godson!'
Possibly the best reception Harry had ever gotten.
"On the agenda today, what should we name the newspaper."
"The Daily Student!" Colin said enthusiastically, having clearly given this a lot of thought. "It is a student newspaper right?"
"That would be great if we had more staff members and could actually put things up on a daily basis." Harry cut down the idea and Colin sat back down with a pout.
"The True Seer." Sirius added. "It'll be a direct hit to the Daily Prophet."
"Sounds off but I like the idea." Harry commended his godfather.
"Soothsayer." Luna suggested and impressed oohs and ahs went up.
"Good one, putting it on the table."
"Sounds like a novel's name though." Colin disagreed and Harry conceded the point.
"We could just not name it." Harry was surprised to hear Remus' voice come through the mirror and sure enough the werewolf appeared squished next to Sirius." I mean, it's going to be anonymous anyway."
"Still need people to read it though and they won't do that it there aren't big bold letters on the front." Sirius disagreed.
Harry thought it over. Remus made a point but advertising was something they'd need to do too. "So we just name it 'The Anonymous Times'?"
"Works for us." The twins said in unison and the rest agreed. "Now we discuss the articles. We need reports and pictures that are intense, can't have a half hearted first issue, people won't be interested in reading beyond he first page otherwise."
"Do how do we do this?"
"Okay we'll start off with something personal, Colin I'm hoping you can write something about finding out about magic as a Muggleborn and if it's possible I want a corresponding article from your parents about being muggle parents with magical children, is that okay with you?" Colin was clearly taken aback but he nodded eagerly. "And I'd like photos of concepts and places that are common in both the muggle and magical world so we can contrast them and highlight what they have in common, okay?"
"On it!"
With that done Harry turned to the twins, "Fred, George I want you to collaborate with Luna and write something about alternative professions apart from the same old Healer, Auror, Ministry job shtick, alright?"
"Aye, aye captain." They chorused.
"Sirius, I want something about growing up in an orthodox Pureblood family. Focus on the good and the bad and maybe add something about Hogwarts life and how it influenced you."
"Do I have to?" Sirius whined and Harry turned to Remus.
"I'll get him to do it."
"Excellent and Luna, I have an important job for you, I want you to do a big piece focussing on the humanoid sort of magical creatures like goblins, house-elves, centaurs, werewolves, vampires etc. It's not for the current issue but it's a broad topic and I want to have justice done to it. So just take your time and do your research alright?"
"We could serialise it." Luna suggested and Harry thought it over.
"We'll decide that once you have enough material ready or at least a sort of loose structure planned out. But yeah a serialised format would be better, maybe make it more interview heavy."
"And what about you?" Sirius asked, still sulking over being given homework. "What's your contribution to the paper?"
"No fucking clue but if you have any ideas I'd like to hear them."
"You're doing human interest stories right," Remus said, "So what's your passion?"
The silence spoke for itself as Harry pondered that thought hard. As it continued on and on the looks went from questioning to just plain pity.
What was his passion in life? He liked flying, sure, but not enough to write an article about it. He liked DADA but not the way Umbridge taught it. Then there was...Or maybe...
"I am...passionate about staying alive?"
Cue more pitying looks.
Remus leaned in closer to the mirror, "Harry...are you okay?"
"I need to get a life."
A/N: So, how obvious is it that I have no idea how newspapers work?