The Greatest Weapon

AN: Here's where it heats up and becomes more than just a litiny of Daily Prophet articles. So read, enjoy, and, if you like it, don't forget to review!

Chapter 9

Over the next few weeks, Rita Skeeter came up with more and more articles on her own, and nearly all of them were both scandalous and able to further their cause: Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Lovers! Is the Greater Good Truly Good?, and Breaking News: Muggleborns Come From Squibs! The Ravenclaws had debates every day, and the other journalists at the Prophet were actually involuntarily helping his cause, as Rita's true but controversial articles were driving record-breaking sales. The Death Eaters, and Voldemort, were curiously subdued, and though Harry assumed rationally that they were lying low, he began to worry more and more that they were only biding their time, waiting for the day they could strike.

It was on a cold, drizzly, drippy morning in late November, notible mostly just because of its utter miserableness, that there came the headline which was to change his life.

Breaking News, the headlines screamed, The Savior of the Wizarding World Abused!

Harry felt sick as he began to read the article, an article that he had certainly not fed Rita. An article that detailed all the nasty bits of his childhood, from the cupboard to Aunt Petunia's frying pan, endless chores, and Uncle Vernon's physical abuse- always in private, and only hard enough to bruise in places that didn't show. Because the Dursleys had to be normal, didn't they. An article that told of all their attempts to beat the magic out of him, and of Dudley's bullying which everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to.

Harry hunched in his chair, all appetite forgotten. It isn't exactly easy to eat when your worst secrets are suddenly spilled for the whole world to see, even if it did make Dumbledore's already hard life harder by focusing on the fact that he had allowed a child, and the wizarding boy hero, to be abused without lifting a finger. Damn, couldn't Rita ruin Dumbledore's reputation without bringing him into it, painting him as a victim who couldn't even protect himself from muggles, let alone Voldemort? This was not going to be good, especially since the Dark faction would probably try to use this as an opportunity to have some pureblood Death Eater 'adopt' him.

Although when the howlers for Dumbledore started pouring in, Harry had to admit that something inside of him warmed, just a little. It was gratifying to know that there were at least some people that cared about his welfare.

Indeed, the rest of the Gryffindors- the rest of the student body, in fact- looked horrified, and some of the girls were in tears. Even the Slytherins were shocked.

"Oh, Harry, is this true?" Hermione asked, voice trembling.

It was time to face the music, then. It wasn't as if he could deny it anymore. "Yeah, 'Mione, it's true."

Hermione pulled him into a crushing hug, and for a moment, the Golden Trio simply sat together, not reading, not gossiping, just comforting Harry and ignoring the rest of the Great Hall and the howlers still shouting in the distance:

"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE! YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF, LEAVING A CHILD TO BE ABUSED!"

"WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?! ARE YOU GOING SENILE? PERHAPS WE SHOULD HAVE A HEADMASTER BETTER SUITED TO PROTECTING THE STUDENTS, HMM? IF I'D KNOWN WHAT YOU WERE DOING TWO YEARS AGO, MY GIRLS WOULD BE GOING TO BEUXBATONS, TO HELL WITH THE COST!"

Molly's howler, though, was the loudest and most angry of them all.

"ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE, WE APPLIED FOR ADOPTION! BUT NO, HARRY'S NOT SAFE ANYWHERE BUT THE DURSLEYS, YOU SAID. HE NEEDED THE BLOOD PROTECTION, YOU SAID. WHAT PROTECTION?! IF THOSE HORRIBLE PEOPLE COULD ABUSE HIM ALL THOSE YEARS, I DON'T SEE HOW THAT'S PROTECTION! AND YOU NEVER EVEN CHECKED UP ON HIM?! AFTER LEAVING HIM ON A DOORSTEP, IN THE WINTER, I MIGHT ADD AND WHEN HE'S OLD ENOUGH TO TODDLE! YOU EITHER RESIGN THIS MONTH OR I'M PULLING ALL MY CHILDREN OUT OF HOGWARTS, ALL OF THEM! I'LL SEND THEM TO DURMSTRANG, IF I HAVE TO, JUST AS LONG AS THEY ARE SAFE FROM YOU. AND YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT ANY OF THE WEASLEYS JOINING YOUR STUPID LITTLE RESISTANCE GROUP AFTER WHAT YOU DID! WE MIGHT EVEN START OUR OWN!"

Ron's face was as red as though he had been dunked in red paint, although he also looked a little pleased. But Harry was looking more and more as though he was going to break down, and Ron and Hermione, seeing this, grabbed the one of the copies of the article to read later and guided the boy out and to the Rooms of Requirement, Neville following. Behind them, the entire school, (except for Seamus, whose water-to-whiskey transfiguration spell of the night before had worked a little too well, landing him in the hospital wing) were gossiping, and Molly was still screaming with barely even a break: "AND I TOLD YOU THAT FRED AND GEORGE HAD TO BREAK BARS OFF HIS WINDOW TO GET HIM OUT OF THAT PLACE THREE YEARS AGO, AND YOU JUST SENT HIM BACK! AND ANOTHER THING, YOU BASTARD...!

But by that point, Harry and his friends were out of earshot. They walked though the halls in silence, Harry white and subdued, reaching the Rooms in what seemed like far more time than it normally took, although part of that was probably because Harry was struggling not to cry the entire time. At last they were in the Room, painted soothing blues and greens and filled with plush pillows on this occasion, and Harry slumped down on a pillow and stared at nothing.

"Harry, it's going to be ok," Hermione told him, her bossy voice unusually soft. "it's horrible right now, but just think: in light of that, who would dare send you back to the Dursleys?"

"Everyone knows," replied Harry brokenly. "everyone knows I'm so weak that I can't even defend myself from my own family."

"Oh, Harry!"

"Harry, you're not weak," Ron said, sounding more serious than Harry had even heard him. "How could you defend yourself when you didn't even know magic existed, because those bastards had never told you? How could you defend yourself when there's a corrupt Ministry of Magic looking for any reason to expel you? Harry, you were a kid! A baby! You're not weak for being abused!"

Harry lowered his head, a single tear sliding down his cheek. "I...thank you you two. I don't- you shouldn't-"

"Shouldn't what, defend you?" Ron said. "Harry-"

"It's not just that."

Both of the other Gryffindors fell silent at once, allowing Harry to go on.

"It's, Merlin help me, who is going to take me now?"

"Sirius, probably," Ron said, not comprehending the problem. "Since the Dursleys and Dumbledore are both persona non grata."

"But..." Harry could barely speak. "Even with the Ministry being cleaned up, wizards are still human. The Dark Faction is going to try to get a hold of me, any way possible. If that means bribing someone to let a dark family adopt me, well...it might be a problem."

Hermione winced. "Yeah, I guess. I can see how that might be a problem. Although if it comes to that, you can probably just bribe the court to do the opposite."

"Hermione!" Ron burst out, seemingly scandalized, although that probably had more to do with the fact that Hermione, rulefollower extraordinaire, had just suggested something illegal.

Hermione just said "hush you," to Ron and drew Harry into another of her warm hugs as he began to cry in earnest. By this time, Neville had arrived to help comfort the 'Chosen One'.

It was lunchtime when they left the room, and the normally-collected Hermione was nearly in a tizzy at missing their morning classes, until she learned from Parvati Patil that the school had been in such an uproar that classes had simply been canceled for the day. Then she was disappointed. All the same, she ate with Harry and the other two boys, trying to keep Romilda Vane occupied so she wouldn't go and 'comfort' Harry and end up making him more confused and upset, while meanwhile Ron read the Daily Prophet article again (this time with Harry reading over his shoulder) and Neville simply sat supporting them in silence.

And that's when a new voice interrupted them. It was Seamus Finnigan, and he was holding one of the troublesome articles. "Harry? Is this true?" he began slowly, blue eyes sheepish.

"Give me a second, Seamus," Harry replied; he had been getting more and more angry both at the invasion of his privacy and at the lurid detail Rita had put in her article, and was just about ready to lose his temper. "I think it's time that I went to squash a bug. Hang on, guys," and he rose, about to go.

Ron, who had continued to read past the first fateful article, blanched as he said that, setting down his newspaper and, for once, looking as though he couldn't finish his mashed potatoes. "...someone's beat you to it, mate," he said at last, in a curious voice.

Harry could not believe his ears. "What? Where's that?"

Ron, for answer, wordlessly passed the paper over to him, a long index finger pointing out the article in the newspaper which proclaimed the death of one Rita Julietta Skitter.

Harry blanched. "Oh, gods," he whispered at last. "Oh, gods. I put her in danger, didn't I?"

Ron had no suitable reply, and so they sat in silence, while Seamus stared.