Angelina let out a small sigh and relaxed her shoulders after the final photo was taken. "Finally." She thought to herself and quickly walked to the door. Lavender's prediction had come true and Skeeter did have exclusive rights. Fucking horny Bagman. Angie was aware of Skeeter's reputation beforehand but didn't realize the true extent of the damage she has caused with five of her victims had committed suicide.
Angelina briskly walked over to the door, planing a quick exit. "Miss Johnson." A voice called out.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Angelina thought as she speeds up. She grabs the door's handle, but another hand stopped the door from opening. Angelina looked and saw it was Skeeter. "Fuck!"
"Miss Johnson, how about an interview?" Skeeter asked with a predatory grin.
"I'd love to but-"
"Perfect." Skeeter cut her off and began to drag her to the broom closet.
Angelina managed to send her uncle a pleading look, and he swiftly began to follow the pair. "This is a private interview, Auror. If you want the juicy details you'll have to wait until tomorrow." Skeeter tried to dismiss him.
"Every article you have written an article there has been compliant every since the slander law came into effect." Shacklebolt retouched. "I'm going to make sure you actually behave." Skeeter scowled at the auror but had no counter-argument, and was forced to let him join them.
Angelina and Skeeter took two chairs facing each other, Kingsley stood behind his niece, while Skeeter had her photographer behind her. The photographer suddenly took a photo blinding Angelina. "A little warning would have been nice." She glared at the photographer who just shrugged. "Ass."
"Don't mind him, dear, we call him Bozo for a reason. Now let's talk about you, how about we start with how you've been training?" Skeeter responded.
"Well..."
"Hold on, Angelina." Kingsley interrupted. "Do you want Miss Skeeter to use a Quick-quotes-quill during this interview?" He asked while pointed to said quill in question, writing on a notepad.
"What!? Hell no!" Angelina quickly responded.
"Fine." Skeeter responded in a clipped tone. She replaced the poison green coulored quill, with a more standard looking one. "Now, about your training?"
"Well, I don't really want to go into detail about what I'm learning. I'd lose any advantage I've gained." Angelina responded.
"Well how about we talk about who, you're training with, namely one Harry Potter." Skeeter replied.
"What about him?" Angelina asked in confusion.
"Well, you have spent a lot of time around him." Skeeter mentioned as if she was discovering a secret.
"He's been helping me train, like some of my other friends." Responded Angelina with a faint scowl. She didn't like where this was going.
"But is something more going on between you?" Rita Skeeter grinned.
"What? No!" Angelina responded quickly.
"That sounds like denial to me." Skeeter responded teasingly.
"Well, how the fuck am I supposed to tell you no!?" Angelina roared.
"Well you could always admit the truth." Skeeter responded with a toothy smile.
"Miss Skeeter, if she says there is nothing between them, then there is nothing between them." Kingsley interrupted.
"Well then, next question." Skeeter relented.
"Forget it." Angelina cut her off.
"Excuse me?" Skeeter questioned.
"I said forget it. I don't want to do an interview with you." Angelina responded as she stood up and left the room, with Kingsley following her. The other champions saw the look of anger on her face as she stormed towards the exit.
"If you leave now, you will be the only one without an interview!" Skeeter called after her.
"Go right a fucking head!" Angelina shot back before closing the door with a slam.
Later.
Lavender Brown beamed as she led Angelina into the room she had turned into her paper's headquarters. Lavender Brown was the sole child and heir of the Witch Weekly founder Victoria Brown. Since Lavender was young she was given the best clothes, makeup, and shoes money could buy. Lavender was raised by house-elves more than her mother and it showed. House-elves typically held a ridiculously high opinion of their masters/mistresses, so in turn, Lavender didn't believe her mother could do no wrong. So when the Potters, the Blacks, and their faction nearly brought it all to an end after Skeeter had started targeting them, she naturally blamed them for how distraught her mother became during that time. Eventually, a deal was made, resulting in the company paying compensation, and Skeeter was suspended long enough for a law against slander to be passed through the Wizardingamont. Regardless, Lavender still resented the Potters by the time of her first year at Hogwarts, but Victoria made her daughter promise not to aggravate the Potter heir for fear of what the family might do in response.
During their first term, Lavender avoided Harry, and Harry didn't really notice Lavender's ire towards him as he spent most of his time around his dormmates, Katie, or was slipping timed dung bombs into peoples bags, pockets or hoods. Before the Yule break, they had found themselves partnered up in potions. During which Lavender was surprised at how well they worked together. Lavender already knew that Harry was one of the best students in their year, but he didn't talk down to her like Hermione and some of the Ravenclaws had. He was polite to her and didn't treat like the only thing she was good for was fetching and up chopping ingredients.
Next time she talked to Harry was at the Ministry's annual Yule Ball. Harry had gone with Katie Bell as his date but had been asked to dance by other witches close to his age, in an attempt for them to create a connection with the Potter heir, Lavender was one of these witches. During their dance, Lavender and Harry talked about their parents' shared history. "My parents were never planning on bankrupting your mother, they put that demand forward as a show of strength, and that they weren't to be messed with. They always planned to make a deal." Lavender told her Mother this nugget of information, which made her realize how little they knew about politics. Sure they knew that you had to always look your best, but nothing beyond that.
Victoria began trying to make connections by selling shares in her magazine. Multiple members of the Business Alliance, and the Cerberus Alliance. The Preservation Faction didn't want anything to do with the magazine and the Progression Alliance didn't have all that money or weren't very business savvy.
Over the rest of the year, Lavender steadily grew a bit closer to Harry over the year, they began to partner together in potions often, due to Lavender's natural talent at the art. But it wasn't until Harry helped her set up her paper that they truly became friends.
Lavender knew her mother hoped for her to grow close enough so she could offer a consort contract to Harry, so that he may give Lavender the next generation of the Brown family, similar to the one night stand that led to her birth. While Lavender could think of worse fates she wanted to be a wife, not a mistress, and she knew that no one had a chance with Harry while Katie Bell was in his arms. But she was happy to look elsewhere and keep a good friendship with the Potter family.
...
Bradley Bones prepared for this month's Wizardgamont meeting. Looking over the agender and didn't see anything special. Bradley was considered the head of the Cerberus Alliance. A group that was founded by the Potter, Bones, and Black family, which is how they earned their name. They formed soon after the blood war and were genuinely seen as a more aggressive version of the Progressive Faction, which was headed by Dumbledore. While seen as a relatively small group, they would often try and convince others outside their group to help push bills before the meetings.
Bradley would typically sit in for both James and Sirius, due to them being too busy with their jobs, but they would join him when something important was being pushed through.
Bradley entered the Wizardingamont chamber wearing the mandated plum-colored robes and made his way over to some of the alliance's other members.
"Micheal." Bradley greeted as he offered his.
"Bradley." Micheal Jones greeted as he accepted the hand and shook it. Lord Jones was known for owning a bakery on Food Ally, connected to Diagon Ally, and above all a doer. He left the Progressive Faction for the Cerbriuce Alliance due to the Progressive Faction not being proactive enough. He was known for hiring Muggleborns Half-bloods, and Werewolves and giving them the same pay as he would be required to give a pureblood, but he could only afford to have three others working there with him at a time, but it was still seen as more than most were willing to do. That combined that they didn't have a family business passed down from previous generations, made them perfectly suited for the group.
"Gentlemen." Augusta greeted the two men.
"Madam Longbottom." Both Brandon and Micheal greeted the elderly witch. After both Frank and Alice were abducted by the Lestrange brothers from Diagon Ally and tortured into insanity, she joined them when they agreed that they should be put to death.
Soon the Preservation Faction arrived. Bradly noticed that it was the entire Faction and not just Lucius and his closest. "They seem confident." Bradly mentioned to the other members of the alliance. They all looked to the enemy faction and saw it as well. They instantly became more alert.
Soon Dumbledore called everyone to order and they all took their seats with Bradly sitting between Micheal and Andromeda whi was the proxy for the Carrow twins. "First, on the agender today is Lord Grace and his proposition for increasing the taxation on prank stores." The Cheif Warlock announced.
Bradly didn't restrain from rolling his eyes, as a man older enough to be Bradley's great grandfather, who seemed to have forgotten how to smile stood up and basically ranted about how pranks had supposedly ruined his life and how his grandkids never visited him anymore, and blah, blah, blah. Looking at the man Bradley questioned whether he had dementia, or was just a miserable basted who refused to let someone more capable take the seat because he was just a greedy old fart. Bradley was leaning more to the latter. After the rant was over they all voted without anyone bother to give a counter-argument and denied the motion like they always did and moved on.
Soon.
"Next we have Lord Bones, and legislation to allow werewolves and vampires to join the Auror's" Dumbledore announced.
This immediately caused whispers among other members as Bradley stood from his seat. "Lords and Ladies of the Wizdingamont, I know my proposal may seem sudden and brash but I assure you. Today marks an anniversary. Thirty-two days ago today, Fenrir Greyback was brought on trial. A most savage animal who was infected, countless children with Lycanthropy managed to escape justice by fooling the majority of this council in to believe he was a Muggle beggar, due not having a wand and due to a poorly maintained werewolf registry. How many of you were that day? How many of you voted for him to be let go?"
"Yes this is fascinating and all but what does that have to do with your proposal?" Thadious Nott cut in.
"If you had some patience Lord Nott you would find out." Bradley shot back. "The point is that this body had the chance to send Fenrir Greyback to Azkaban and failed to do so. And what has been done to correct this mistake? Was the registry updated and fixed? Has the Ministry compensated the victims of this failure? No, it has done nothing. To this day this Greyback has alluded us while continuing to terrorize both wizarding, vampire, and werewolf communities.
What I am proposing is that the DMLE work alongside the werewolf and vampires to catch Greyback as sort of a trial basis, if it succeeds it shows that cooperation with both werewolves and vampires can lead to more criminals being put away faster thus making wizarding Britan a safer place, if not we lose nothing. Thank you." Bradley sat down as the other members of the Wizardingamont.
"Does anyone wish to oppose?" Dumbledore asked, and Lucius Malfoy shot to his feet.
Lucius and co had managed to weasel themselves back into their seats four years ago, after the anniversary of Voldemort's supposed death. But in their ten years of absence, their influence had weakened, and many laws that they would have initially been next to impossible to pass were passed with little struggle. Because while they still controlled their seats through their wives, a pureblood wife was met to do nothing more than look pretty and birth heirs. They were never taught politics. "I must object to Lord Bones' insane notion. What he is asking for is for us impossible. There is no cooperating with werewolves and vampires, once the curse takes hold there is very little of who they were before, it just mindless bloodlust, countless witches and wizards have died because of those abominations."
"I disagree, Lord Malfoy, as someone who has held civil discussions with both werewolves and vampires I can safely say that they are far from savage monsters. With proper guidance, a werewolf can learn to control themselves during a full moon, and most vampires will feed off animals while leaving enough blood for them to survive. As for the witches and wizards, over half of them went looking for trouble, while the rest were killed by those who wished to cause harm. There are good and bad werewolves and vampires as there is good and bad magicals and muggles." Bradley quickly responded.
"How do you answer the fact that countless werewolves and vampires were in the Dark Lord's service?" Lord Nott quickly questioned.
"Probably the same way you were recruited." Bradley answered, before shrugging. "You would know better than me."
"I was imperioused!" Lord Nott yelled.
"And they could not have been?" Bradley shot back.
"If I may cut in?" Andromeda asked from her seat. Bradley nodded and sat down. "When I visited some of the werewolf packs and vampire covens, I noticed that most of them show similar behavior to those who have or are suffering from abuse. They are untrusting and easily prevented. Suffering from paranoia, and fear, leading them to make brash moves out of desperation. And for all intents and purposes, this ministry has abused and neglected them. It has failed to represent them and protect them like a ministry of magic should and I agree with Lord Bones that it is time it owned up to its mistakes. That is all I have to say on the matter."
"Are there any other objections to the DMLE cooperation law?" Dumbledore asked to which no one responded. "Then we shall move onto the voting."
Sadly but not unexpectedly the notion was blocked. Too few were willing to admit their shortcomings, and open up to new ideas. But Bradley saw that he had got few people thinking and that was the main hope of his proposed law. After all, every journey begins with a single step.
...
Angelina was ready to collapse into her bed after finishing another week at Hogwarts, tomorrow was the weekend and she could finally relax a little. Or so she thought until she saw something waiting for her on her bed.
"The big book of dragons."
"What the shit!?"
I felt like focusing on other characters this chapter would be a good idea as to flesh it out a little. Also yeah, I've decided to give Angie a sailor's mouth to give her more of a unique personality, what do you think?
And I'm possibly going back to work from next week so I won't be uploading as much as I have been.