It was to a brand new day that Harry woke up feeling full of excitement and an overwhelming sense of anticipation about the shape of things to come. He was justifiably feeling a little nervous; though with a few claming breaths he managed to reign in his perturbing emotions lest he loose control of himself, which could eventually lead to an unmitigated disaster when the time came for Rita Skeeter to print her piece in the Daily Prophet.

After all, the way he presented himself and his case to her would determine the future flow of events. And Harry had no intentions of screwing things up before hand.

The previous day he had made a list of things to think about and act on. He had arrived at the conclusion that exposing Wormtail for who he was would eventually lead to his capture and his godfather's freedom.

But he could not afford to do that, not yet. Undoubtedly Sirius would still remain a captive and later on a fugitive, but at least he would be assured that if things happened the way they already had, Wormtail would try and bring Voldemort back to life during the third task at the Tri-wizard tournament and he would have a chance to save Cedric Diggory's life, now that he knew what to expect.

Otherwise, Voldemort could eventually be brought back to his full powers at any other time and he would have to live his entire remaining years on the edge thinking about when Voldemort would be brought back and who else might die because of so many unknown variables.

All he had to make sure was that Barty Crouch Jr. was exposed for who he was without Fudge getting his hands on him and therefore, shutting him up permanently with a Dementor's kiss. He also had to include Dumbledore in his future plans and let him know about the tri-wizard cup being a portkey before hand.

That way they could take care of the powerless Voldemort and finish off the looming threat of his return once and for all. But that was a story for another day.

Right now he had to think of a way to save Ginny and give Lucius Malfoy what he oh-so-thoroughly deserved – a long term in Azkaban in his own personal cell, without Dobby to as a punching bag.

And that brought him back to Skeeter. Everything thing now depended on how he handled her.

With his thoughts well chartered out in his mind, Harry confidently closed the door to No. 4 Privet Drive and set off to meet Rita Skeeter at the local park.

At The Park : 2:55 pm

Harry slowly made his way to the birch tree near the broken swings and sat down with a huff. No sooner had he made himself comfortable, he heard a twig snap behind him and without a moments hesitation he had his wand drawn and pointed between the shocked eyes of none other than Rita Skeeter.

"Why, hello Miss Skeeter! I see that you are five minutes early for our appointment. How do you do?" Harry asked her with false cheer - something which both of them saw through.

"I am terribly good, this fine evening Mr. Potter," she replied back in the same tone, though she had a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face.

"Well then I don't plan to BUG you too much today and spoil this wonderful day for you, but could you tell me what is the punishment for being an unregistered animagus these days? A short term in Azkaban I presume? Or is it just a heavy fine that the Ministry imposes on offending individuals if they are caught?" he asked her with heavy emphasis on the word 'bug'.

"How diiid did youu you knoww," she stuttered.

"Well Ms. Skeeter, I am sorry my secrets are my own – But I would like to offer you a deal – a VERY fair deal. I promise that you have nothing to loose and everything to gain. You will undoubtedly make the biggest story of the decade, i.e. after the defeat of Voldemort by me, The-Boy-Who-Lived, and it will be completely to your credit. A salute to the brilliant investigative journalists of our time and their undying devotion to give the truth to the citizens of this great nation. AND, I will completely forget that some of these reporters become unregistered animagi like BUGS to uncover the truth. So, what say you?"

To say that Harry had managed to whet Rita Skeeter's appetite and arouse her curiosity would have been an understatement, for she was just one step away from actually drooling on Harry's feet. With a wary glance at his legs he quietly managed to take a few steps back giving her time to think about his proposal and possibly save himself the burden of cleaning up his shoe laces later on.

"All right Harry, Can I call you Harry? What have you got for me?" she carried on without acknowledging his nod about her calling him Harry.

"Well, then listen carefully Rita. Can I call you Rita?"

At her eager nod he continued, "Lucius Malfoy is in possession of a Class-I Dark Artifact which he will intentionally place into the possession of one Ms. Ginny Weasely, only daughter of Mr. Arthur Weasely of the office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. This will happen when Gilderoy Lockhart has his signing day gala at Flourish and Blotts at the end of this summer, before the new Hogwarts term starts."

"Now you will ask me what is so special about this particular dark artifact. You see, this artifact comes across nothing but just a simple diary to the innocent eye, with the original owner's name written on it in silver – Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"This diary contains all the memories of the owner – in a nutshell the entire essence of his being as a sixteen year old. The essence of this person can interact with anyone who writes in this diary and slowly takes over the writer's will as time passes by stealing his or her life energy. Of course, if have a strong will, nothing will happen to you. But Rita, imagine what will happen if you place this diary in the hands of an innocent, gullible eleven year old girls who will be attending Hogwarts for the first time."

"THAT BASTARD!" she exclaimed loudly, scaring some of the nearby birds away.

"Calm down Rita! We aren't even hot yet."

"Do you know why this story, i.e. if you publish it - by catching Lucius Malfoy red-handed, will earn you so much acclaim? No? Let me tell you then. Do you know who Tom Marvolo Riddle was?"

"Here hold your wand," he asked her soothingly.

"Oh! For Merlin's sake - I can't do underage magic away from school!" he replied seeing her questioning look.

"All right then, I am now going to show you something."

With a gentle grip on her wand arm, he slowly wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in burning letters in the air. With a smooth flick of her hand, he slowly rearranged the words to form I AM LORD VOLDEMORT in place of the old letters.

With a horror struck look on her face, Rita Skeeter turned towards Harry and then promptly fainted.

A/N: I know, I know 2 months to update. Don't blame me - blame my laptop. It's a HP Pavilion ze4400 and I swear to god – it sucks. Only 1 ½ years old and my 40 Gb hard drive decided it had served me long enuf and that it was holiday time. Stupid computer. I lost all my songs (5 gigs!), all my code, everything. Utter damnation.

But anyways I uploaded this from a friends computer and here it is.

This chapter should hopefully explain what happens to:-

1: Wormtail(nothing for the entire coming year – though Harry is going to step on his tail every opportunity he gets!)

2: Sirius(nothing for the entire coming– turn into a dog and save yourself from misery Padfoot!)

3: Barty Jr. ( He will get his – wait some!)

4: Voldie (Another 2 years in Albania for snakeface)

5: L. Malfoy (simply put - fd!)

BTW, if you want to read a really good fic., goto schnoogle and search for joe6991. read "the sword of the hero" and "the defiance of the hero". This guy is GOD!!!

Read and Review!!!!!!!