Chapter 4

----August 22, 1998----

An owl flew to the Burrow, pecking repeatedly on the glass of Ginny's window. She opened the window and the owl dropped a single letter into her hands. When she opened the envelope she found a Hogwarts letter and a Head Girl badge.

Dear Ms. Weasley,

Congratulations! You have been chosen as Head Girl for Hogwarts. For this year, you will need the following supplies:

--3 sets of work robes

--1 Wand (not inherited from older siblings)

--Guide to Advanced Transfiguration

--Moste Potente Potions

--Quill pens

--Parchment

Due to unique circumstances this year, this is an incomplete list. You will be notified if more supplies are required.

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Ginny ventured to Diagon Alley to purchase school supplies for her final year at Hogwarts. As she had feared, the Daily Prophet photograph from the previous day was the topic of almost every conversation. As she walked from store to store, almost everyone within ten feet of her dropped whatever they were doing, stared disapprovingly at her, pointed, and whispered among themselves. The few who didn't look up had their noses buried in a copy of The Quibbler, which she noticed was quite common: at least one in every ten people were reading the magazine. She did her best to ignorethe staresand quickly bought the necessary materials.

As she proceeded down Diagon Alley, she noticed a stretch where there seemed to be very few people. Up ahead, in the distance, was a large crowd gathered around the entrance to Gringotts. She approached, and started hearing a voice that became gradually louder: "…We have had too many corrupt administrations," someone was saying, their voice obviously amplified with a Sonorus charm. "It may be very well indeed that Harry is so young, as Mr. Scrimgeour's ubiquitous advertisements have pointed out. Harry, unlike the older politicians of our time, has not yet been corrupted by wealth or fame. Now Scrimgeour, on the other hand…"

Ginny was now close enough to recognize the speaker, who was standing on a magically conjured raised platform above the entrance of Gringotts. It was Remus Lupin!

She stayed at the back of the crowd, listening to the werewolf.

"…has too much at stake in the current system already," he continued, "so he will be disinclined to change, no matter what he says.

"Scrimgeour has managed to take credit for the victory in the recent war, but he merely happened to be Minister just as Harry Potter's quest began. Any Minister of Magic would have done the same, indeed perhaps even a better job. In fact, this is the very Minister who pardoned Voldemort's second in command after only two months in Azkaban! Lucius Malfoy was pardoned, not because he claimed to act under duress—and he could not repeat the claim when subjected to Veritaserum—but rather, because he is the richest wizard in Britain. What we need is a Minister who cannot be bought with bribery. With your votes, Harry Potter can be that Minister—"

"Avada kedavra!" a shout interrupted Lupin in midsentence. Lupin dived off the platform just as a green bolt of light whizzed up from the ground at an angle, narrowly missing Lupin's back as he fell from the platform and landed on an unsuspecting customer who was just leaving Gringotts. The frightened crowd scattered, running away in all directions. The customer scrambled out from Lupin and ran for his life, not bothering to help the werewolf up.

"Now you can see the lengths Scrimgeour will go to keep power!" Lupin shouted quickly at the dispersing crowd as he pulled out his wand. "We deserve a better Minister than that!" The would-be assassin had escaped in the confusion. Looking around warily and seeing no Death Eaters, Lupin stood up and dusted off his tattered robes, then ended the Sonorus spell, walking over to Ginny.

"That was a great speech!" Ginny complimented him.

"Thank you. Actually, Dumbledore wrote it," Lupin admitted. "He had me deliver it because it would be inappropriate for the Hogwarts Headmaster to publicly support a candidate."


Luna came by the Burrow again, this time to give Harry and Hermione copies of that month's Quibbler issue. Harry opened the magazine to the first page and instantly saw this article:

Forged Incest Photograph Published in Daily Prophet!

By Mark Lovegood

On August 21, 1998, the Daily Prophet printed a photograph apparently intended to defame Harry Potter's Ministerial campaign. The photograph showed Potter's girlfriend, Ginevra Weasley, kissing her elder brother Ronald. The photograph, we now know, was forged by the rival campaign of Rufus Scrimgeour. "I did not kiss my sister!" Ronald Weasley insisted, when inquired about the photograph in question. "I don't know who it is in the picture but it's not me!"

The recently resurrected Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore, has demonstrated that Polyjuice potion, facial transfigurations, or Metamorphagi could all have been used to create a falsified photograph like the one in the Daily Prophet

We administered Veritaserum to Mr. Weasley, with his consent, in order to prove that he was telling the truth. In addition, Dumbledore, a skilled Legilimens (capable of reading minds), confirmed that Weasley was not lying when he denied the photograph.

Even though the evidence indicates that the photograph is false, it appears to be negatively affecting Potter's campaign. In a poll of 100 eligible voters, 38 percent said they would vote for Potter, down from 43 percent two weeks ago. 37 percent said they would vote for Scrimgeour; the rest were undecided. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.7 percent, so the race for Minister is statistically tied.

Hermione scanned only the first paragraph, then quickly held up that day's Daily Prophet, seemingly comparing them. Harry, too, noticed the contrast.

"Wait a minute…" Hermione looked from the article on the left side of the Daily Prophet's front page, to the article on Page 1 of The Quibbler, then back and forth between the articles.

"What's this?" Ron took the Daily Prophet, looking at the article on the left side. His mouth dropped open in shock and his eyes became even wider than Luna's. Then, as he read, his face twisted into a terribly enraged expression.

"I will kill Skeeter," Ron said determinedly.

"What did she do this time?" Harry asked, looking up.

"She took 'I did NOT kiss my sister' and edited out the word 'not'! She quoted me the opposite of what I said!" Harry could almost imagine the thick smoke pouring from his friend's ears. Harry would have laughed if he wasn't Ron's best friend. Instead, though, he took the Daily Prophet, which, sure enough, included the statement:

"I did...kiss my sister!" –Ron Weasley


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