Disclaimer: not mine. Don't own. Go do… something.

A/N: Wow, I've finished most of those nasty assessments I was telling you all about… naturally the teachers have decided to show just how much they love us and rewarding us with a heap more. I guess they don't want us to get bored. Or they're sadistic. Either/or.

Chapter nine

Freedom to Our Press! (Let me in)

"I'm sorry sir, but you really can't see Ms Granger right now. She was quite distressed last time she had a visitor, and over that of course, visiting hours are over"

Harry didn't say anything for a moment, in favor of looking the healer straight in the eye. After a few seconds she seemed a little unnerved by his intense green stare, and he looked away.

"Ma'am, I would really appreciate it if you could let me in to see her. Naturally I understand your concern" Harry made a conciliatory gesture at the instant apologizing look that crossed the nurse's face, as she realized he was going to argue "But I can assure you, I'd never met Ms Granger even before the incident, and if you're worried about that then please don't be. You could say that I've been sent to help her"

The nurse, whose nametag proclaimed her 'Merry', did not look like she was buying it. She crossed her arms and gave him a look that showed she didn't believe a word he was saying.

"Sir, I can't honestly say that Ms Granger has had many visitors, but the ones she has had have all, without fail, caused her sever stress. People questioning her about her memories, clearly distresses her, as she is unable to access them" the nurse frowned at him, but it was in such a way Harry could see that she wasn't really angry. She seemed, he thought, as he mentally drew up his argument, the type of person who liked to help other people.

He was jostled up against the wall when a group of people went speeding past, a levitated body suspended between them. Harry followed their progress down the hall, as did the nurse, with a concerned look. The interruption reminded him that he was in a hospital, although he had hardly forgotten.

He turned back to the nurse, who was smiling patiently up at him (she really was very small). He decided that directness was the way to go

"I need to see Hermione. I swear I won't talk to her about knowing her before she was shot" a contorted look of denial flashed, and he wondered what the story about her disappearance was "I'm here because I can help her" (a slight lie, but not really that far from the truth. I can help her. I will help her!)

The nurse sighed heavily, a look of exasperated defeat settling over her face.

"Mister Jamison. I will be blunt. I have been specifically asked not to allow Hermione to meet with any of her previous school friends by her guardians. As you will understand it is not up to me on whether or not to allow you entrance – as her guardians they do have the legal and moral right to censor her visitors. I'm sorry! But I can't let you see her!" she turned to go and Harry could clearly see that there was no point in arguing further: she was not going to budge.

But as she walked away, the look on Harry's face was one of intense concentration; as though he was trying to remember something important.

He figured out what had been bothering him at the hospital that night.

It was Sunday, and there were a few people up in the common room, cramming the homework they had been assigned and put off till the last minute. Harry was sitting in a corner, his feet up on one of the study desks supplied in the Ravenclaw common room.

Hermione's parents are dead.

The next day Harry ignored all of his teachers in favor of scribbling down ideas. He was called up four times in four different classes for his lack of attention, and lost a total of 23 points for Ravenclaw.

The other Ravenclaw boys laughed at him, and he didn't see Cody or Gypsy until lunch. Even then it was a brief hello as he headed off to a lesser known courtyard to try and puzzle things out.

Blaise was not talking to him and although his new room mates were trying to make him welcome, really; there was no place for him. They'd started Hogwarts together and they'd slogged through classes together for the past six years. It wasn't anything personal: they just needed to get used to him before he was 'one of them'.

And anyway, it was partly Harry's fault; he could have sped up the process, if he'd been in a better mood.

But he had other things on his mind.

It took him the rest of Monday night to mind-map (very messily) his 'plan'.

By Tuesday, he was ready to talk to his sister and brother.

"You want to make a school newspaper?" Gypsy asked doubtfully, her hazel eyes crinkling in confusion "where'd that come from, all out of the blue?" she questioned him, clearly confused.

Sebastian gave her a look.

"I want freedom to the press! Just this time, instead of being the hunted I have every intention of being the… huntee" he winked at them both "haven't you ever noticed that the press seem to have all sorts of interesting advantages – like getting into places normal people are strictly banned from. What do you think?" he asked again, a grin flashing across his lips as seemingly endless possibilities twinkled like stars in Cody and Gypsy's eyes.

Harry's grin widened as he imagined what the twins could be thinking of. He barely needed to continue his sales pitch, but he felt that he may as well, if only to bring them back down to earth and the real point in starting a student's paper.

"Thus we would have access to important events, but also the ability to report them objectively and without bias – presenting a truthful account of the situation for Hogwarts students and Professors alike!" he finished with a flourish, which Cody and Gypsy jumped up to mimic grandly, clearly agreeing to the idea.

"Pure genius Sebastian!" cried Gypsy dramatically, clearly intent on making a big of a scene as she could. Cody followed his sister's lead with equally loud praise.

"Wonderful! Simply inspired!"

Sebastian ducked his head so he didn't have to make eye-contact with the students who looked over to see what the commotion was about. But he was smiling.

"I've already had a chat with Dumbledore about it, and he thought it was a great idea. Even said he'd make 'press passes' for anyone involved" they all three made faces at the prospect of Dumbledore designed passes "I even asked about special permission to leave school grounds to attend functions and all that, and he said as long as it was okay with our teachers, and only the students fifteen and up mind, we have it!" Sebastian said, scrunching up his face into a smile for his two siblings.

Cody and Gypsy were looking at him like he was an icon from the heavens.

"You managed to get him to agree to that? How the hell did you do it?" Gypsy asked him, still looking as though she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. Cody was making complicated gestures of thanks to, in what Harry assumed to be, a prayer to the heavens.

Harry suppressed the smile that was tugging up at his lips; he knew the two of them were acting more outrageously than ever because they were trying to cheer him up.

After exchanging a few more jokes and much more praise, the three split, with Harry intent on Professor Flitwick's office, and the twins on their way to track down a friend of theirs who, they claimed, could actually write.

After a few days of chatting to people and discretely spreading the word, they found six or seven students who were all quite interested in the idea. They organized a meeting for the next Friday afternoon. Of the volunteers three were muggle-born, three half-blood and there was one twelve-year old pure-blood who claimed he was there to make sure 'their side of the story was heard'.

"So, what kind of things do you think we should be covering?" Cody started once the meeting had been called to order, and everyone introduced. He was sitting next to Harry and nudged the older boy immediately.

"Sebastian, do you have any suggestions?"

Looking at the curious faces of the students Harry felt an odd moment of stage-fright, before it passed, and he hauled himself to his feet.

"I want to cover the Granger story. I'm sure you've all heard about it, and probably heard the rumors that went round when it first happened, too. But I want to find out what really happened. I heard she was attacked by death eaters in her home" he stopped, obviously waiting for any one else to contribute.

The others all looked at him in surprise. There had been an unspoken taboo within the whole school about the 'attack' on Hermione Granger. It was something that people didn't talk about too openly, something that was avoided.

Why that was, Harry had yet to determine. It seemed to him that the students and teachers saw the mysterious, and seemingly random, attack on the muggle-born girl as a 'sign'. Again, he had yet to discover what that sign might be, but he knew enough about wizard mentality to know it likely wasn't a sign of sunshine and lollipops.

Surprisingly it was Rutherford; or Ford as he had promptly told them they would call him, who spoke up first. The little Slytherin twelve-year old coughed slightly to break the rising tension and stood up, mimicking Harry's earlier actions, although in a rather more grandiose way.

"She lost her memory. One of my mother's friend's husbands was on the cover up case" he paused as there was a swell of surprised muttering from the muggleborns, wondering what they had been covering up. After a haughty glare, Ford continued.

"Apparently there was more to it than a simple random attack. The death eaters had targeted her specifically; they think it had something to do with the research she was doing" he paused again, but this time there was absolute silence as everyone waited for him to continue. He looked mildly pensive and frowned to himself.

"I do remember her mentioning a personal assignment she had, but really she didn't speak about herself much" seeing the looks the others in the room were shooting him, he sighed gustily and rolled his eyes, looking as though he thought they were all fools "she was my tutor"

There was more silence in the room as he sat down, everyone was contemplating the mystery that had suddenly been thrown into their midst. Cody and Gypsy were looking stunned, and even Harry seemed slightly shocked. Honestly though, he wouldn't put it past Hermione to be doing some kind of research that the death eaters would find a threat to them.

One of the muggleborns whose name he remembered to be Henry stood up, and looked around, waiting until he had everyone's attention.

"Look, Hermione was a really nice person and I guess you can ask anyone who she tutored or who she knew, but what could she possibly have been doing to warrant that kind of violent attack! They tried to kill her didn't they?" he glanced over to Ford, who frowned at him.

"It's unclear. I hardly need to point out that Granger is still alive. Usually when they try to kill someone, they do tend to succeed" he drawled, making casual reference to the hundreds of people who had died in the first stage of the war, looking for all the world as though he didn't care in the least that they were discussing the murder of so many innocents.

Henry looked slightly confused, but returned to the point he had been trying to make.

"Well, yeah. They obviously didn't want her continuing doing whatever it was she was doing. Think about it guys! Whatever it was must be, well, important! So really, what the big story behind all this is; is the research she was doing. I mean, obviously the attack is pretty important, but what people are going to want to hear about is why she was attacked. I don't think I'm making much sense, but hopefully you get the idea?" he finished, looking flustered.

The whole table had looks of agreement on their faces, and Henry smiled in relief that they had understood what he was trying to say, before sitting down with a thump, clearly embarrassed.

They continued talking about Hermione for a while, and Sebastian sat back in his chair; a bubble of contentment rising inside him. It was clear that the attack on his friend had been even more significant than he had first thought, and that fact had spurred the interest of the people who, in only a few days, would have the ability and resources to track down the answer (and in the name of justice too!)

He was brought out of his musings by a jab in the ribs from Cody, and the conversation turned towards the more trivial aspects of running a paper (although he was worried they might seem trivial, but it looked like his spare time had just been stolen). There was a quick debate about whether they should have a 'gossip' column (which Gypsy wanted to head), speculation about a sports section, shy proposition for a muggle-born introduction article and then a suggestion for some kind of comic (which they all thought would be great, but since none of them could draw to save their lives decided would be postponed until they could find someone appropriate to fit the job).

Once they had come up with a general plan for their first edition (the Granger story would not be in it – they wanted to make the story 'big' and to do that they needed more time) they agreed to meet again in three days and bring the work that they had claimed as their own.

As Harry walked slightly behind his siblings, who were both excited about the meeting, a question floated innocently into his mind, coming from Dumbledore's twinkling agreement and permission for his request:

Just how much it was that Dumbledore knew, anyway?

A/N: Hmm – again nothing much happened. Well. Next chapter is more interesting… (Although I always seem to be promising that and nothing much ever actually happens…BUT IT WILL!)

In answer to someone's question in regards to Harry's hand – what happened to it? Easy – he was so angry/sad that he hit a mirror in the bathroom and it shattered. Poor Harry. Just his luck?

Happy day everyone!

:D