And a very happy new year to all of you! All the best for you guys! Thanks for reading! Hope you'll enjoy the new part.

Ths chapter is a completely new one, up there for different reasons. First, in the first draft, Ginny wasn't Harry's love interest, which changed the dynamics of the couple quite a lot. Second, I chose to develop a plot bunny that grew in the rewrite of Seal of Chaos... and that made me laugh, for some reason. Hope you'll like it.

Rumour has it (The woes of fame)

The Holiday gave the students that remained behind a rare occasion. They got to be in Hogwarts, without the school works and they got to be teenagers in the castle.

Inevitably, wild rumours were starting to run in the school. Kenneth knew for a fact that Ian had noting to do with it, if only because they were so preposterous than Ian wouldn't have dared to spread such nonsense. But, moreover, the Ravenclaw boy was so distracted by his issues with Magic that he had lost touch with his network of informants, according to Kieran.

But Kenneth had heard the rumours and he had to do something about it. This could get serious. So during his next session with Professor Potter, he tried to brush the subject.

"Have you heard from Miss Weasley, Sir?" he asked with all the caution he could manage in an harmless question, as he was getting rid of his cloak, in order to begin their sparring match.

Potter smiled.

"Is it that bad, then?" he asked.

"Sir?" said Kenneth, taken off guard by his reaction.

"I know how this school works," said the teacher, smiling wider. "No magic in the world can be as powerful as a good old rumour unleashed by teenagers."

Kenneth had a smile at this.

"But if you feel the need to come to me about it," Potter went on. "It means it's pretty bad, because you're a serious boy who, I believe, doesn't pay attention to stuff like that."

"Well, it's getting pretty wild, Sir," admitted Kenneth. "Basically, the idea out there is that you and Miss Weasley have broken up, and that's why she's not around anymore."

"Basically?" said Potter, with a smirk. "And it gets wild how?"

"Well, the number of people involved varies with the rumour," said Kenneth. "I heard one that said you dumped her for triplets."

"Ouch," said Potter with a wince. "Triplets, eh? Did you know my last girlfriend before Ginny had a twin sister. Now that would be awkward."

"Oh, yes," said Kenneth, grinning. "So I'll assume it's all rubbish."

"It is," said Potter. "Ginny is covering an international summit in Austria. She's due back in a few days."

"I see," said Kenneth. "It must be complicated, right?"

"What must be?" said potter.

"Having a private life when you Harry Potter," said Kenneth. "I swear, no teacher in the school has his life under such a spotlight."

"Like the need to be clever, it comes with the territory," shrugged Potter. "I try to ignore it, mostly. But one piece of advice. You're a Wandmaster, and Lancelot's son, so there is a pretty good chance that you'll save someone's life, one day. Don't ever give them your name."

Kenneth had a chuckle.

"I'll keep that in mind, Sir," he said. "But just so you know, some students I saw discussing this said it was in the paper, so..."

"In the paper, you say?" said Potter, with a surprised look. "Now, that could be problematic."

Ron Weasley wasn't keen on being organized, when it came to his work. He was no slacker, and in fact, the Order had nothing be praise for his results, as a Curse Breaker. But you had to keep that firmly in mind, whenever you stepped into his office. The desk was buried under so many piles of parchment that the way its top looked like was a distant memory.

Ron knew how to find everything in there, but he was the only one able to do so, and this ability alone would have qualified him as a wizard, for a regular muggle would have been incapable of finding a damn thing in this mess of epic proportions.

Many of his colleagues made gentle fun of this, when he was asked to fetch an old case file, saying that he was going for a bout of speleology.

So Ron's desk was basically cut off from the real world by walls of parchment. When he was working, in there, he was oblivious of whatever was going on with the Order' headquarters. At his lunch break, he did hear a few whisperings, in the vein of 'outrageous' or 'I hope that's not right'. But he paid it no attention whatsoever, until the middle of the afternoon, when there was a knock on his door frame. He raised his eyes to see his brother George, who sported an unusual look of concern on his face.

"Hey, George, what are you doing here?" asked Ron.

"Well, I've come to discuss the mess we're in," said his brother.

"The mess?" said Ron, puzzled.

"Didn't you hear?" asked George. "It's all everyone is talking about!"

George had a disgusted wince and threw a copy of a magazine at his desk. Ron caught it in mid-air and saw that it was an issue of Witch Weekly. Ron started to have a nasty creepy feeling that something was off, and no mistake, splashed across the cover, a magical montage that made his stomach churn.

"Oh, no, they didn't," he groaned.

"Oh, yes, they did," confirmed George.

CHO CHANG'S NEW ROMANCE: BLAST FROM THE PAST!

Many sources have told us that famous Puddlemere Seeker Cho Chang has found both solace and passion with her new conquest, who may not be new at all. Freshly divorced from Jimmy Stringless, who has been allegedly cheating on her, Miss Chang seems to have found comfort in the arms of her first flame, none other than Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived himself.

The Chinese beauty and the newest addition to Hogwarts' staff have been seen together on Diagon Alley, doing some shopping and on other occasions. The young woman has even paid him a visit in Hogwarts' Castle.

We will not elaborate on what qualities have appealed to Miss Chang in Mr. Potter, but we would like to issue a word of caution. Mr. Potter may not be as volatile as her ex-husband, whose lifestyle as a famous singer faces him with a lot of temptations, but still, the affair between Ms Chang and Mr. Potter is already placed under the sign of unfaithfulness, given Mr. Potter currently lives with our fellow reporter Ginevra Weasley, which means serious trouble at the horizon, if he's not honest in his love life. Is Ms Weasley's absence from the Castle, these days, a sign of the end of their relationship? And what does it mean for Mr. Potter's legendary friendship with the Weasley family, who nearly took him in, when he was young and have treated him as family ever since?

Mr. Potter's disregard for others' feelings should be a warning signal for Ms Chang, but there is no accounting for taste, is there? We do hope Ms Chang bouncing back from her recent misfortune is genuine.

More details on page three...

"You've got to be kidding me!" roared Harry, entering Hermione's apartment, still fuming.

"I take it you saw Witch Weekly," said Hermione with a wince.

"I thought this bastard knew better than to attack me again! Didn't he get the drift, when Stiller was sacked?" said Harry, pacing the living room.

"Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have," said Hermione, seriously. "We had no ground to shut him down, either, without getting into yet another media circus. I only got the message from Ron. How bad is it?"

"It's freaking disaster waiting to happen," said Harry, dryly. "The students are discussing it at length, in all the school's hallways, and we're in the Holiday! Imagine when everyone returns for the next term! Kenneth warned me. Witch Weekly's article isn't that bad in itself. It's the usual, vaguely sourced, nonsensical trash Weathercap is used to publish, but it dropped enough hints so that his competitors all want in on the story, just to be sure not to be kept out of this one. All the people news papers are catching that ball. This will turn into a nightmare within days. According to Weathercap, I've been consoling Cho for months. Cho's divorce is recent enough for people to wonder if Jimmy Stringless was the only spouse to be unfaithful in their marriage. They're going to turn this into a freaking tragedy and drag Cho's name in the mud, while doing it."

"And Ginny being out of the country doesn't help, does it?" noted Hermione.

"You can say that again," said Harry, with a heavy sigh of annoyance. "I hope she doesn't get the people magazines where she is."

"It's not like she's going to believe it," said Hermione.

"No, but I'd like my girlfriend not to be sent to Azkaban for murdering a chief editor," said Harry.

"What are you going to do?" asked Hermione.

"I just can't go out there and deny it," he said. "Nobody will buy it. It'll look like I'm covering it up."

"So what? We wait it out?" said Hermione. "It's not going to work!"

"Yeah, well, I don't have any better idea, right now," sighed Harry, letting himself fall into an armchair. "More exactly, I've got plenty of them, but they all involve physical violence and that wouldn't help my image."

"Keep them in store," said Hermione. "If this turns as bad as I fear, we might need them."

Unfortunately, it did turn out as bad as Hermione feared it would be. Within three days Harry's life was turned into a media circus again. It began with a single reporter, chasing him through Hogsmeade, as Harry was walking through the village to apparate to the Burrow. Each and every single Gossip monger in England and even a few from Ireland had then decided to join the fun and give the country their take on Harry's love life.

I was clearly getting out of hand. Some pieces detailed what they called a very long and rocky love story, going back to Harry's and Cho's teens and their days in Hogwarts. They stated that the war had set them apart, because Harry probably wanted to keep Cho safe. Then, the years after were shown in a light that presented Harry as pining away for his lost love, trying to forget her through a string of bimbos, then more serious relationships, waiting for Cho to be free. When he was finally ready to move on (which implied that Ginny was a second best, and Harry kind of dreaded her reaction to that), Cho suddenly found herself divorced, allowing the old flame to spark again.

Harry had no idea of how it could get any cheesier or any more ridiculous, but the public seemed to love it. The drama, the sense of love against all odds had made the sales of the people press skyrocket in a matter of days. Like most situation like this, it had now a momentum of its own, without needing any new input from the recent events. A storm of owls was raging over London, where most papers had their offices. And now, a horde of reporters was camping out at the gates of Hogwarts, making it impossible for anyone to go in or out without being hounded by the press for a comment.

Thankfully, his friends and family didn't buy it. The twins joked about it, though Harry could tell that they were furious after Weathercap. Fred, especially, was really angry, and he had sent a letter to Harry detailing certain methods of torture as suggestion for Harry's next move. It was co-signed, for once, not by George, but by Angelina Johnson, who was still reeling from her own treatment by the press. His visit to the Burrow had reassured him that Molly wasn't buying it and was, in fact, so angry at Witch Weekly, that she had discontinued her subscription. Not that she needed one, anyway, since a copy of any new issue ended on her kitchen table for free, either brought home by Arthur, Ron or Hermione. Arthur wasn't convinced a lawsuit would help, since it wouldn't address the rumour.

Harry could have just waited it out, but there were two things that made it impossible. First, he couldn't turn a corner in the deserted school without walking into one of the students that had stayed behind, with one of the issues in hand. No need to explain how it could hurt his credibility as a teacher.

Second, Harry hadn't heard of Ginny, since the whole mess had begun, and he was now starting to worry about her reaction to all this.

"Professor?"

Harry stopped at the sound of Kenneth's voice calling after him in the hallway. The young boy was hurrying toward him, wearing his snow cloak, over simple clothes. He had still a few snow flakes in his hair.

"What is it, Kenneth?" asked Harry.

"Well, I was taking a walk in the grounds and I got drawn to the grids by the circus over there," said Kenneth.

Harry winced.

"Did they ask you for information?" he asked.

"I stayed away from the lot," said Kenneth. "But I saw Miss Weasley try to get into the grounds. But she has retreated, because they were all coming after her."

"Oh, for the love of... Freaking hell!" spat Harry. "I've got to go talk to her. Thanks for the warning."

"Don't mention it, Sir," said Kenneth.

Harry hurried through the corridors, and whipped up his wand.

"Accio Firebolt!" he said.

A few minutes later, as he emerged from the front gates, he was joined by his broomstick, which hovered next to him. He jumped on it, and took off to the sky, flying over the woods that separated the Castle from Hogsmeade. He knew that he just couldn't walk through that crowd of journalists, so he wasn't even going to try. He simply flew over the obstacle at full speed. Some people saw him and pointed in his direction, but if they hoped to catch him, they'd have to do much more than just point and gape.

It was useless to check Ginny's house in Hogsmeade. She would probably had found a more discrete refuge.

He knew that if he wouldn't be able to land, in order to apparate, so he focused on the Burrow, the little grove near his friends' home and he apparated.

Apparition on a broomstick wasn't easy, but Harry had always found it useful to avoid the press. He popped into the air next to the tall, twisted house of his best friends' family, and landed quickly. He hurried through the Weasley's backyard and reached the kitchen's door.

Molly Weasley saw him immediately and she had a reassuring smile, though she seemed upset.

"She's upstairs, in her old room," she told him, as soon as she had greeted him with a peck on his cheek. "She's a little cross, dear, so I wouldn't make her wait."

Harry nodded to that and climbed the stairs, nearly running. He reached her door, and knocked.

"Come in!" came a snappy voice, which elicited another wince from Harry.

She was pretty hacked off, apparently. He pushed the door open and found her on her old bed, her head resting on her arms. And he saw something that made his heart freeze for a second, before he burst into flames of rage. She had been crying!

"Ginny, love..." he began.

"Don't, Harry," she cut him. "Just don't bother explaining, alright?"

Harry was startled, and a little worried, to be honest. Ginny pushed herself up and faced him.

"I know you didn't do anything wrong, okay?" she said. "I trust you. I trust Cho. I know nothing is going on behind my back and I know I love you."

Harry released a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. He walked to her slowly, and wiped the tears from her face. Ginny didn't just cry over nothing, so these meant something.

"But?" he said.

"But there's just one thing that struck pretty close to home," she said honestly. "Harry... am I second best to you? Did you settle for me..."

"Stop right there, Ginny," he said. "You know that it's not true. I'm not settling down for you. Not with Cho, not with anyone."

"Parvati..." began Ginny.

"You know that Parvati wasn't the right one for me and I wasn't the right one for her," said Harry. "Hex, you were the one to hear me explain why she left me. I traded up when I got with you, okay, Gin? Damnit, Ginevra Weasley, don't you know by now that you complete me? I couldn't find a person better suited for me, even if you weren't drop dead gorgeous."

Ginny had a smile through her tears.

"Don't overdo it, Harry," she said, with a twisted smile. "They had a point, though. Cho is your first..."

"Crush," said Harry. "Nothing more. I had a crush at fourteen, that's not uncommon. Besides, they got something wrong. I wasn't Cho's first flame. Cedric was."

"Right," said Ginny, thoughtfully.

She wiped her eyes once more and her whole attitude

"Then, I'm not sad," said Ginny. "I'm furious! How do they dare do this to me! To me! I work with some of these guys, and they turn my life into this? How can they even have the guts to pull this off? Oh, there will be hell to pay!"

This brought a little smile on his face.

"Now, that's my Ginny," he said, pulling her into a hug. "I was afraid those goons would get to you."

Ginny sought refuge into his chest, breathing heavily. Then she looked up and kissed him, hard, furiously. Harry responded passionately, and they nearly fell on her old bed. When they broke it, they were both panting a little and looking deep into each other's eyes.

"Wow," said Ginny. "That was... I didn't get a kiss like that in a while, Potter."

"True," said Harry. "I'll have to work on that."

He slowly dragged her, so that they would fall on the bed, snuggling together.

"Seriously, Ginny, I'm sorry you got dragged into that mess," he said. "And I would never have you believe that you're not the perfect woman for me."

"And I'm sorry for letting those bastards make me doubt, for a second," said Ginny. "So, now, what do we do?"

"First," said Harry. "We snog a lot, because I've missed you and I don't want to spend another Christmas away from you."

Ginny chuckled.

"Smart ass," she chided him, but he only grinned back at her.

"Second, after we have snogged, we get down there and reassure your mother that you're okay," Harry went on. "And then, we need to find a way through this mess."

"Together?" said Ginny, seeking her favourite spot into his arms.

"Together," said Harry. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

A few hours later, Harry and Ginny had decreed that they would stay at the Burrow, for the moment. After the snogging session that Harry had decided, they had conferred with Molly, Arthur, Ron and Hermione, who had come to join them. While Ron was still fuming, something a little off with Hermione caught Harry's attention. She was sympathetic, of course, and she had good suggestion to clear up the mess, but she seemed a little distracted, in a good way. She kept having this little smile on her face. But he lost the occasion to bring it up during dinner.

The next day, after Harry and Ginny had spent the night in Ron's wing of the Burrow, in the large guest room, the two of them had compared notes on the disaster. The whole situation was making Harry cringe. Ginny had used some of her contacts to review the damage, but Harry had a pretty good idea of the situation. Weathercap was out for blood, and he had gotten the involuntary help of half the reporters of people press, too stupid to realize they were playing right into his hand.

And things were just about to get worse.

"Harry! Ginny!" Ron called them from downstairs, in the afternoon.

Harry had been dozing in the room, snuggled against Ginny. They had felt the need to spend some quality time together before to face the storm, if only to make sure to catch up after the weeks apart. Ron's bellow woke him with a start.

"You're such a marmot," laughed Ginny, before to get up and go open the door. "What is it, Ron? It'd better be good!" she called back.

"Cho's here," came the reply.

"Uh-ho," said Harry, as he got up.

They went downstairs to find a rather distraught Cho Chang sitting at the living room's table. When the Asian girl looked up, she saw Ginny come first, Harry right behind her, her eyes widened.

"Ginny, please," she said. "Tell me you didn't believe any of... "she began hastily.

Ginny interrupted her with a raised hand.

"Cho," she said. "Rule number one of journalism by Ginny Weasley: If it comes from Witch Weekly it's rubbish. Don't worry about that, Cho. Even if I didn't know and trust you, I'd still trust Harry."

Cho seemed relieved.

"Thank Morgana," she said. "I'm so sorry, about the mess," she added.

"Don't be," said Harry. "It's the other way around. Weathercap tries to go at me, to make me look bad. He's using you as an excuse. If you hadn't been divorced, he would have pulled something else, eventually. I guess he had a story, kept somewhere in his office, about the passionate love Hermione and I share behind the Weasleys' back. You just happened to be handy, so it fell on you."

Ron feigned a scowl, but Hermione chuckled. Cho winced again.

"I'm afraid I just made it worse," she said.

"What are you talking about?" asked Ginny.

"I wanted to find a way to counter the mayhem in the press," she explained. "So I thought I needed to compare notes with you before we did anything, and..."

"And you showed up at Hogwarts' gates," said Harry, with a moan.

"I'm sorry," said Cho. "I had no idea that they were camping there. I swear to Merlin, they only saw me for a minute, there, but I thought they were going to charge at me. I fled as fast as I could, but I think they caught a few shots of me approaching. You think it will create another wave?"

Ginny had a groan of annoyance. Harry rolled his eyes.

"I can see it from here," he said. "'Cho Chang's visit to her new flame', read all about it. That's promising."

"I'm sorry, Harry," said Cho. "I didn't mean to make it worse."

"Don't worry," said Ginny, "as long as we don't find a way to counter Weathercap, it won't blow over. If Harry only walked in Diagon Alley, it would be published as 'Harry going to get some special time with the hot Seeker'."

"Do they even have the right to do this?" asked Cho. "I mean, can't I sue them?"

"Oh, I guess you could," said Hermione. "Actually... that would be better," she said. "If Harry sues, it will look like he has a grudge against Weathercap. But if Cho is threatening with a lawsuit... and I think we can get Angelina to add her own legal action… that would carry more weight."

"Good," said Cho. "Because if those bastards are going to suffer, I want in on dealing the suffering."

They were interrupted by Bill, before Harry could laugh at her tone, that he hadn't heard in her since the war. Ron's older brother showed up, a magazine in hand. He was torn between annoyance and an amused smile. It did turn to surprise, though, when he saw that Cho was here.

"Well, I guess I don't need to tell you about Witch Daily's latest headline," he said with a smile, nodding to Cho. "They've done it again."

"Alright," said Harry. "Let's have it."

Bill unfolded the paper and laid it out on the table. There, in bold, golden letters, the headline was loud and clear.

CHO CHANG'S VISIT TO HER NEW FLAME.

It sent the whole room into hysterical laughter, save for Bill, who looked a little puzzled. Even Cho was wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. Bill's expression didn't help to calm them down.

"Am I missing something, here?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it," said Ginny, regaining her calm. "It's just that Harry seems to be potentially gifted in creating headlines for rags like Witch Daily. You should buy the paper, Harry, so we'd be done with the mess," she laughed.

Harry's mind came full stop and he stopped laughing. He considered what she had just said. A thousand possibilities came rushing into his mind and a plan was starting to take shape. It would involve a serious bluff, a way to test how much it had worked... and to do something he didn't like to do, but that would become necessary if the press kept using him as a public persona.

"I think you just gave me an idea," he said, his expression turning cunning.

"Do tell, Potter," said Ginny, with a grin. "You suddenly have that look on your face, the one when you pull out the Marauder's map and start to plot something."

Harry's smiled turned feral.

"Bill, I'll need your help," he said.

"Anything, mate," said Bill.

"I will need a complete account of my assets in Gringotts," he said.

Everyone looked at him strangely.

"What's your plan?" asked Ron.

"I think we need to scare the living daylights out of Mark Weathercap," said Harry.