I have all these chapters written and I just keep forgetting to publish them! Being an adult sucks!

Weeks passed until it was Hogsmeade weekend. Harry could see more couples walking through the castle, waiting to go out for Valentine's Day. Harry was excited as well, it would be his first date with Cho.

Harry was eating breakfast with Ron when Hermione rushed to the table and slammed the Daily Prophet on the table.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, pulling his plate away from the paper.

"Look at this rubbish!" She hissed and pointed to the headline on the page.

"Mass breakout from Azkaban Ministry fears Black is rallying point for old death eaters" Ron read. He looked up, "They don't mean Sirius right?"

"That's exactly who they mean." Hermione said.

"That's insane, he was freed of all charges back in third year!" Harry said. "Fudge did it himself."

"Well it looks like he's changing his mind." Hermione said. "He's your godfather, which means he's close to you, making him a prime target for the ministry."

"Bloody hell" Ron said. "No one in their right mind would believe this."

Hermione frowned, "Sirius said that people were still uncomfortable around him. I don't think it will take much for people to believe this."

Harry glared at the paper, "This is unfair. He's finally free and now he'll probably have to go into hiding again."

"Maybe your dad could help." Ron suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your dad helped you with your problem with the ministry. Maybe he could help Sirius."

"That's not a bad idea. I know in the muggle world you can sue a newspaper for slander. Perhaps the same can be said for this world."

"But if the Ministry is in control of the newspaper you are basically suing them." Harry said. "I don't think that's possible."

"Hmm, I think I can still make it work." Hermione said quietly.

"Make what work?" Harry asked.

"I'll tell you later." She gathered the paper and ran off.

/

The next day a new educational decree was posted on the wall. The twins found it amusing.

"So Umbridge can't yell at us for anything that isn't Defense related? Wicked."

The next time Harry saw them, they were walking back from a detention from her. Harry couldn't see a wound on their hand, but he could tell they used the quill by the angry look in their eyes.

/

Classes were getting worse, especially Care of Magical Creatures and Divination since Umbridge was at every class. It was only a matter of time before she did something to either Hagrid or Professor Trelawney.

Occlumencey was going about as well as it usually did. His scar hurt almost daily and his temper was shorter than ever. Luckily, his date with Cho was the next day.

"Hey Harry" Hermione greeted.

"Hi" Harry said.

"I have a favor" Hermione said.

"Alright"

"This is really important…do you think you could meet me in the Three Broomsticks around midday tomorrow?"

"Well…I dunno," Harry said dubiously. "Cho might be expecting me to spend the whole day with her. We never said what we were going to do."

"Well, bring her along if you must," Hermione said urgently. "But will you come?"

"Well…all right, but –"

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow" She hurried out off.

Harry could only watch in shock.

"Where's she going?" Ron asked, taking a seat next to him.

"Have no idea." Harry replied.

"Well, Angelina wants us to practice tonight since we begged her not to do it over the weekend." Ron said.

Harry nodded and left to get his things.

/

Harry was waiting for Cho at the entrance to the Great Hall. He bounced on the balls on his feet anxiously. They hadn't discussed any plans, hopefully she had something in mind. He knew he wasn't going to be any help once she arrived.

"Hi Harry"

He turned to see Cho looking beautiful as ever. Her long black hair pulled back into a high ponytail and she was simply dressed in jeans and a nice shirt.

"H-hi Cho" He stuttered. "Uh – shall we go?"

"Oh…yes" She said and they joined the queue of people being signed out by Filtch. They talked about Quidditch until they reached the town. Harry was surprised at how easy it was to talk to her. He only hoped this continued.

"So…where did you want to go?" Harry asked.

"Oh…I don't know…how about we just walk around and look at the shops?" Cho said.

Harry nodded and continued walking down the road. When they passed Dervish and Banges they saw a large poster nailed to a post. It had several pictures displayed on it, pictures of the recent escaped convicts from Azkaban.

"Do you think it's true, what the Daily Prophet said, about Black breaking everyone out of prison?"

"Not at all. Sirius was proven innocent of his crimes two years ago by the Minister himself. He has no connection with those Death Eaters." Harry said.

Cho nodded and they kept walking.

"Um…d'you want to get a coffee?" Cho asked tentatively.

"Yeah, all right," Harry said, looking around. "Where —?"

"Oh, there's a really nice place just up here, haven't you ever been to Madam Puddifoot's?" she said brightly, and she led him up a side road and into a small tea shop that Harry had never noticed before.

It was a cramped, steamy little place where everything seemed to have been decorated with frills or bows. Harry was reminded unpleasantly of Umbridge's office.

"Cute, isn't it?" Cho said happily.

"Er…yeah," Harry replied untruthfully.

"Look, she's decorated it for Valentine's Day!" Cho pointed to a number of golden cherubs that were hovering over each of the small, circular tables, occasionally throwing pink confetti over the occupants.

"Right" Harry said.

They claimed a table near the back, next to Roger Davis, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain. He and his girlfriend were holding hands and staring dreamily into one another's eyes.

Slightly uncomfortable, Harry looked around the room to see it filled with similar couples. He could feel his nerves twist his stomach, Cho would probably want him to hold her hand, just like everyone else.

Their orders were taken and Harry glanced at Cho's idle hand on the table. He didn't think he had the courage to bring his hand up. He could feel his face growing hot as he looked anywhere but at Cho.

Finally, she broke the silence, mentioning Umbridge. Harry was relieved at the subject, but it unfortunately didn't last long and they were once again silent.

Their coffee arrived moments later and Harry happened a chance at the clock.

"Would you – er – d'you want to come with me to the Three Broomsticks at lunchtime? I'm meeting Hermione Granger there."

Cho raised her eyebrows. "You're meeting Hermione Granger? Today?"

"Yeah. Well, she asked me to, so I thought I would. D'you want to come with me? She said it wouldn't matter if you did."

"Oh…well…that was nice of her." But Cho did not sound as though she thought it was nice at all; on the contrary, her tone was cold.

Harry took a large gulp of his coffee as silence reigned once more. He noticed her looking over at Davis snogging and hoped she didn't ask him to do that.

"He asked me out once" Cho said quietly.

Harry didn't really know what to say to that. Was he supposed to say anything?

"I came here with Cedric last year" She said.

Harry froze, he didn't like where this was going.

"I always meant to ask you…did – did he – er – mention me? Before he died?"

"Well — no —" he said quietly. "There — there wasn't time for him to say anything. Erm…so…d'you get to see a lot of Quidditch in the holidays? You support the Tornados, right?" His voice sounded falsely bright and cheery.

To his horror, he saw that her eyes were swimming with tears again, just as they had been after the last D.A. meeting before Christmas.

"Look," he said desperately, leaning in so that nobody else could overhear, "let's not talk about Cedric right now…let's talk about something else." But this, apparently, was quite the wrong thing to say.

"I thought," she said, tears spattering down onto the table. "I thought you'd u-u-understand! I need to talk about it! Surely you n-need to talk about it t-too! I mean, you saw it happen, d-didn't you?"

Harry could feel his temper rising and immediately pushed it down. "Yes I was there, but I've already talked about it. With Ron and Hermione. I don't really want to talk about it anymore."

"Oh so you'll talk to Hermione Granger, but not to me?" She asked.

"She's my friend." He said, unsure why Cho was so angry. "And she's smart so she knows how to deal with things. It's probably why my parents like her." Harry added thoughtfully. "Good influence ya know?"

He smiled, but Cho's face seemed to get colder.

"She's met your parents already?"

Harry was confused, "Yeah, she spent New Year's with me. She wanted to see the ball drop and I didn't want to be surrounded by strangers…it worked out for everyone."

"Well, if that's how you feel, then I think we should just pay now so you can go off to Hermione Granger. That's obviously what you want!" She said shrilly.

"Cho?" Harry asked confused. He still had no idea why she was acting this way.

"Go on, leave!" she said, now crying into the napkin. "I don't know why you asked me out in the first place if you're going to make arrangements to meet other girls right after me. How many are you meeting after Hermione?"

"It's not like that!" Harry said, and he was so relieved at finally understanding what she was annoyed about that he laughed, which he realized a split second too late was a mistake.

Cho sprang to her feet. The whole tearoom was quiet, and everybody was watching them now. "I'll see you around, Harry," she said dramatically, and hiccupping slightly she dashed to the door, wrenched it open, and hurried off.

"Cho!" He called after her, but she was already gone. He looked around to see the other patrons staring at him and blushed. He quickly paid for his coffee and left the tea house.

He couldn't figure out how such a nice date could end up so wrong. Nor why she wanted to talk about Cedric of all people. He thought about Cedric enough, he could still feel the guilt overcoming him whenever he thought about the Hufflepuff.

/

He reached the Three Broomsticks and quickly spotted Hermione sitting with Luna Lovegood, Sirius, and Rita Skeeter of all people.

"Hello Harry" Hermione greeted. "I wasn't expecting you for another hour. Where is Cho?"

"Cho?" Rita Skeeter's eyes brightened, "a girl?" She began rifling through her bag for her quill and pad.

"It's none of your business who Harry has been with." Hermione said coolly.

Rita pursed her lips in a kind of pout before settling herself.

"Sirius, what are you doing here? Should you even be here?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine Harry, I'm wearing a spell that forces the eye away from me. As long as I don't cause a scene, no one will know I'm here." Sirius replied.

"So…what are you doing here?"

"We were just about to find that out before you arrived." Rita said.

Sirius shrugged and so Harry turned to Hermione.

"I'm giving Skeeter here an exclusive interview with you and Sirius. It's about time the truth was posted in the paper and not just these horrid stories about how crazy you are."

"So you really believe that You-Know-Who is back?" Rita said. "You stand by all that garbage Dumbledore has been throwing out about You-Know-Who and you being the sole witness?"

"I wasn't the sole witness" Harry hissed. "There were plenty of Death Eaters there to witness his resurrection. Would you like their names?"

A sly smile appeared on her lips, "I would love them." She quickly retrieved her quill and pad from her purse and began writing. "A great bold headline: Potter Accuses…Death Eaters unmasked…."

She was quickly scribbling notes down, but then froze, looking at Hermione.

"But of course," she said, lowering the quill and looking daggers at Hermione, "Little Miss Perfect wouldn't want that story out there, would she?"

"As a matter of fact," said Hermione sweetly, "that's exactly what Little Miss Perfect does want." Rita stared at her. So did Harry. Luna, on the other hand, sang, "Weasley Is Our King" dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick. Sirius seemed to be watching her with an amused expression, only half listening to their conversation.

"You want me to write what he says about You-Know-Who?" Rita asked.

Hermione nodded, "All the facts, everything he says. Sirius too, but he will be a different story."

"And just what story would that be?" Rita asked.

"About his new work with Stark Industries."

Sirius, Harry, and Rita looked at her blankly.

"I talked to Mr. Stark over the holiday about how he was doing selling his products in the wizarding world. He said he was having trouble since wizards don't really use technology, we have magic. So once I read the article about Sirius supposedly helping Death Eaters I knew this would be a way to help him as well."

"So what's the idea?" Harry asked.

"I called Mr. Stark a few days ago and we discussed it. The Blacks are an old pureblood family with high standing. He gets to test and give ideas for the wizarding branch of Stark Industries. No Death Eater would be caught dead with a muggle. People will have to believe he's innocent again."

"That would explain his very peculiar visit to my home a few days ago." Sirius said.

Harry smiled, his dad always was eccentric.

"This all sounds fine and dandy, but the Prophet will never print these stories." Rita said. "People only want to hear about how delusional he is."

"We don't need any more stories like that." Hermione said. "This is an opportunity to get the truth, the full truth."

"There's no market for that." Rita said.

"You mean the Prophet won't print it because Fudge won't let them," Hermione said irritably.

Rita gave Hermione a long, hard look. Then, leaning forward across the table toward her, she said in a businesslike tone, "All right, Fudge is leaning on the Prophet, but it comes to the same thing. They won't print a story that shows Harry in a good light. Nobody wants to read it. It's against the public mood. This last Azkaban breakout has got people quite worried enough. People just don't want to believe You-Know-Who's back."

"So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?" Hermione said scathingly.

Rita sat up straight again, her eyebrows raised, "The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl," she said coldly.

"Well, it's a good thing we won't be using the Daily Prophet as our source." Hermione huffed.

"Oh? And just where were you planning on publishing these little stories?" Rita asked.

Hermione looked at Luna, who was now quietly nibbling on her onion. "Luna says her father would be quite happy to publish both Harry's and Sirius' interviews."

"In what?" Rita asked, "Some stupid little town newsletter?"

"My father is the editor of The Quibbler" Luna replied.

Rita cackled loudly, "You think people will take him seriously if he's published in The Quibbler?" She resumed her cackling.

Hermione glared at her, "You're right, some won't. However, not everyone is as stupid as the Ministry thinks we are. That article blaming Sirius for breaking out the Death Eaters had large holes in it. Someone is bound to notice. They will go elsewhere for news. The Quibbler will be their new source."

"I highly doubt that" Rita rolled her eyes. She sighed, "Alright, let's say I do this. What kind of fee will I be getting?"

"I don't think Daddy pays people to write for the magazine" Luna answers lightly.

Rita turns wide eyes to the blonde, "You expect me to do this for free!?"

"Yes" Hermione said. "Otherwise, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered animagus. I would imagine the Prophet would give you a sizable amount for an insider's account of life in Azkaban."

Rita's eyes were cold as she glared at Hermione, but after a short moment, she sighed. "I don't suppose I've got any choice, have I?" She picked up her pad and her Quick-Quotes Quill. "So, who's first?"

"You go Harry" Sirius said.

Harry nodded and proceeded to recount every detail. He decided to leave out Aileen's entrance since it really didn't pertain to the story. Once he was finished, Sirius gave his interview about his new deal with Stark Industries and what that could mean for the wizarding world. It all sounded good, Harry could only hope this would change people's minds about him and Sirius.

I just had to have the awkward date between Harry and Cho…I really don't like her but it was one of my favorite parts in this book just cuz it was so hilarious seeing Harry stutter through it.