"So I'll sit and pray for her to call me there…

I'll burn that bridge 1000 times on the cross I bear!

Just to wonder if you're listening from that soapbox in the sky

To finally realize my price! Was it you or I?"

-Seven Mary Three

Most Unlikely Source

"Everyone else out!" Harry yelled, after a moment's thought, and pointed at the door. "Except you!" He then pointed at Skeeter, but this time with his wand. She stopped dead in her tracks, and Harry was thankful to see that she would cower to something, even if it was the threat of violence. Once the rest of the crowd had left and all the normal charms had been placed on the door, Harry checked to see if Teddy was ok. He was breathing, looked peaceful, and if Harry had seen him at the Burrow, he would have thought he was sleeping. "Now," turning back to Skeeter, "you're going to tell me how you find out everything you know! And don't tell me it's by turning into a beetle!" His wand never left his hand.

"Well, Mr. Potter, it would seem that you resigned yourself to violence after all. I knew it would happen eventually. Even your mentor had a change of heart around this age…"

"Don't! This isn't about anything except that boy lying there!" Harry smiled a little inside…He felt like Sirius. Teddy had been born to parents who fought Voldemort and died. He was left as an orphan, with a young Godfather, who shouldn't have too much say in his life right now. Then, as he looked at Rita, he felt much, much older than Sirius had ever been. He would not be able to create a Marauder's Map or become an Animagus, but everything he had seen had made Harry Potter many times more mature than Sirius Black had ever been. "Now…"

"You want to know how I get my stories?"

"Yes." Harry saw the tip of a quill begin fluttering at her lower back. "Accio Quick-Quotes Quill!"

"Ah!"

"Now…"

"Fine!" She summoned a chair and sat down. "I know you're hoping for some incredible secret and everything, but you're too young to understand how the real world works."

"Educate me…"

"The Prophet simply reports on subjects that will help it to sell."

"Ok."

"And the average witches and wizards in the street want to hear about the more famous, or infamous, wizards in the world."

"Why."

"Who knows? I sure don't. But I don't care either! My Gringott's vault grows when there is celebrity news and shrinks when there isn't."

"That's pathetic." Harry was a little disappointed in his fellow wizards. Albus Dumbledore's name had been dragged through the mud, and for what? Increased circulation? He would have preferred to have been left alone. Harry wished he could be left alone, too.

"That's possible, but the point of all of this is that people that do know something about famous or powerful people like to talk to reporters about it."

"Like talking behind people's backs…"

"Yes. Gossip, even when it's true, is fun to talk about."

"Ok, back to where we started. How do you know everything you know?" Harry could feel his wand lowering, but not all the way.

"Are you conceding everything about the Hall of Prophecy now? We never got confirmation on that."

"Yes, it exists. Yes, there was a prophecy. But no, just because there is a prophecy in there, doesn't mean that it comes true."

"Excellent stuff." She started looking around for something to write with. "Um…"

"You'll have to try to remember. And trust me, you misquote me and it will not be very comfortable for you."

"Ok. Well, I was trying to make a point earlier. There are wizards everywhere that have enough experience to know about money, law, the Ministry, whatever." She crossed her legs looking more lady-like than she ever had before. Harry thought it made her look like one of those statues that model clothing in a muggle store. "Anyways, there are so many inside sources, some are even paid, and so many nosy people, that the truth does eventually get found out."

"I'm sure blackmail doesn't hurt either."

"Well, only as a last resort…" She couldn't even hide her glee. Harry thought blackmail might actually be her first course of action. "In this case, just as everyone had a good idea that you were the 'Chosen One,' this whole 'Master of Death' thing has started catching on."

"WHAT?"

"Well, it hasn't garnered too much front page attention yet, but an Unspeakable came out with the knowledge a few weeks ago, circulation is showing that people think that's the only way an infant, or even a seventeen-year old, would be able to defeat He-who-must-not-be-Named."

"He's dead. Show some backbone."

"Whatever." Rita was sounding more and more like Lavender Brown. It would seem that when Skeeter isn't in control, the whole veneer is shattered. "The point is that now that you have defeated him, and you just admitted to me that the prophecy didn't matter, then there must be something else." Harry was lost in his own thoughts for a moment, and Rita must have noticed. "You don't look worried about yourself."

"Huh?"

"In my time, I have learned to read people," she seemed to be surveying him, "but you seem," she tapped her long fingernails on her perfectly made-up face, "to be worried about him," she inclined her head towards Teddy's bed, "and not yourself," her eyes went wide as Harry turned his gaze back to the reporter, "…because you are the Master of Death! The rumors are true! Again!!" She looked surprised and overjoyed at the same time. Harry remembered when he thought her quill would explode if she knew about the twin wand cores, and this was something close.

"And?"

"There have been so many whispers and conspiracy theories…I have spent so many nights on the window sills of dingy taverns…Do you have any idea how many people speak about mythical wands and rocks?"

"No. And you will not tell them the truth either." Harry was starting to get worried. Rita had a lean and hungry look in her eyes. She had the Boy-who-Lived with quotes about being the Master of Death, possibly being in possession of a powerful wand, and Harry didn't like how her mind must be working right now.

"It is my job to do so!" She was scrambling, but regaining her composure. "I would not do anything to you to keep you from completing your school work."

"Yes you would!"

"Perhaps, but only in a venture to uphold my own oaths and occupations."

"Oaths?" She was pacing back and forth, as if to try to get out of the room. "Don't do it, Rita."

"What?" She tried to look innocent.

"I threatened the Minister the same way." He raised his wand again, and pointed it at her chest. "This wouldn't be as difficult."

"You won't attack me. The Minister is refusing to help you these days, and now you could definitely use my help."

"Your help?"

"You think I've told you everything?"

"Tell me." Harry's grip on his wand tightened, his mind was focused with hatred, and sparks actually emitted from his wand temporarily.

"Um…" She now looked scared, and Harry liked it. Hatred was coursing through his veins. He knew that he shouldn't feel this way, but everything came to the front of his mind, and nothing was willing to replace those feelings. He thought about Ginny being in trouble, his mother being tempted with some kind of potion from Snape, and Teddy, the newest orphan in this world, lying there unable to protect himself. "…the rest of the story. I've heard many of these theories, and there is an ending to these beginnings."

"What did you just say?" He was momentarily jarred from his anger.

"That's what this guy said. Something about endings and beginnings. Or something like that."

"Who was he?" He took another step towards her, his wand unmoving. "Tell me!! NOW!"

"Just a kid, couldn't have been more than sixteen!" There was even more fear in her voice.

"What's his NAME?"

"I don't know." He began waving his wand backward. "Marron!! MARRON! That's his name. Don't attack me, Potter!"

"What else? Tell me!!" He as shouting and vibrating, and he couldn't stop it. It felt like a freight train that could only be slowed down with time, or a violent collision.

"And I could have sworn he had some Polyjuice! That's all I know, I swear!"

"When was this?" The anger subsided a bit.

"A week ago, maybe a week and a half."

Harry's breathing began slowing. His chest was heaving up and down less and less until he finally remembered that he had his wand trained on her heart. He could see that she was genuinely scared. "Thank you." He stepped to the side, never lowering his wand, to show her the way out. "Before you leave, do not tell anyone what you know," he finally stowed his wand in his robes, "or I will kill you."

He found himself back at Hogwarts, and in the common room, in less than a minute. He told his friends, Ginny first, about everything that had happened. There had been another circular hole put in a wall near Teddy. He had been attacked while in Diagon Alley. The Weasleys, having no children to support, were actually rather wealthy now and had hired a witch to watch Teddy during the days. This was the first day she had left the Burrow with the orphan, and this had happened. And Harry, as he told his friends, did not think that was a coincidence.

"What do we do now?" Ginny asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, do really believe her?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, I do." He hadn't been very specific about how he got all the information out of Skeeter.

"Well, I think there is one thing that is pretty probable." Hermione had been doing her normal sitting and thinking routine throughout the conversation.

"What?" Harry looked back up at her. He had been focusing on Ginny most of the time.

"Well, you said that that woman, Anastasia Brown said she had been talking to her 'nephew' even though she doesn't have one?"

"Right." He remembered the afternoon at Eyelop's like it was yesterday.

"And Professor MacDonald and Stephen Marron both disappeared at the same time?"

"Right." Harry wasn't seeing the connection.

"Well…" She started drumming her fingers on the table in between the foursome. The fire started crackling louder.

"What is it?"

"Either Marron or MacDonald is impersonating the other. The real one, whoever is the impostor, is either dead or kidnapped, and Stephen Marron is related to the Brown woman."

"How, er, where did all that come from?" Ron was confused. Harry and Ginny seemed to be trying to work things out in their head, but they let Hermione continue.

"Marron is French for Brown, so maybe there is a relationship."

"Ok."

"And the fact that they disappeared at the same time could mean that they are the same person. Marron didn't take any classes with MacDonald, so if the schedules could accommodate, it would be easy for the two of them to never have to be in the same place at the same time."

"Ok." Harry was following.

"So we just have to figure out who is the perpetrator, Marron impersonating a professor, or an American impersonating a student." Silence followed for the rest of the evening, as everyone, as Harry could only assume, was trying to come up with explanations and motivations to explain Hermione's theory.

These musings went on for a couple weeks. However, with the new workload of teaching the Defense class on their hands, the foursome got less and less time to dwell on these matters. Harry was all for skiving off his duties at Hogwarts to make sure nothing else happened, but as Ginny reminded him, they were trying their best to have at least one normal year together. Harry appreciated her sense of humor, but he also remembered that he would not let someone or something disrupt the life he was trying to build with her.

As the Easter Holidays approached, Harry made a decision he truly did not want to make, but it seemed the best thing to do. "Is it ok if I stay at the Burrow over the break?"

"Of course, Harry. You know you could have just Apparated to tell us." He was talking to Molly in the common room fire.

"I know. I'm just trying to be a good little student, y'know?" They both laughed.

"Oh, and I got your letter from a few days ago. Teddy is fine. We're keeping him here at the house now. He'll be so happy to see you in two days when all four of you come home!"

Molly was more than excited about the prospect of the foursome coming home for Easter break, and it showed. Harry always appreciated her motherly attitude towards him, and that was the reason he ultimately agreed with Ginny to stay at the Burrow. He didn't want to bring any unnecessary danger to their family, but after a few minutes of scolding from the Weasleys, Hermione included, he finally thought it best.

Therefore, the next day, when everyone was packing up enough clothing for the week, Harry was startled to get a note held in Cedrella's claws. "What is it, Ced?"

"Mister Malfoy has returned to the castle. He is with the headmistress now, and though he knows you are on vacation now, he sent me with a note."

"Thanks, Ced." Harry dreaded opening it, but when the parchment was unfolded, it revealed only five words…

Praetoria is in trouble,

Lucius

A/N: I SOOOOO wanted to kill off Rita Skeeter, and I had the fight escalating to that point originally, but I don't think JK's version of Harry would do something like that, especially in front of a one-year old Ted Lupin. Anyways, only two more months of story left! We're getting to the good stuff!!