The Clue

Dumbledore's Favorite?

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,

has had the privilege of overseeing the care of students for half a century.

He has done many questionable things, such as defending Newton Scamander,

but had distanced himself enough to not have a favorite, until now.

It's no wonder that the straw to break the Thestral's back is our very own Girl Who Lived.

We have learned our suspicions are true and Potter is not the believed sweetheart,

but an overly ambitious, troubled rule breaker.

Potter has been caught out of bed in the middle of the night,

traveled down forbidden corridors, and may have slipped her way

into the Triwizard Tournament. Her rule breaking is no doubt from her ambitious blood.

"STOP!" Siria cried and put her hands over her ears. Hermione tilted the paper down and looked to Siria.

"The Slytherins and your non-supporters are eating this up like Honeydukes fudge— not to mention the people that don't have access to the Herald." Hermione argued. Siria groaned and pushed her plate away, so she could put her head down.

"Can't she find someone else to gossip about?" Siria mumbled at the table. People were still talking about the Parselmouth article.

"Oh," Hermione winced. "You're going to want to read this." Her tone told Siria that she did in fact not want to read it.

"Just give her the 'Mione notes version," Ron suggested. He looked at Siria, who had her face on the table and was stifling a scream in her hands. Hermione sighed at them.

"Alright, but I warned you…" Hermione scanned back over the paragraph she was reading. "She knows Sirius visits you, but thinks he only visits every weekend and she knows Snuffles stays in the Hospital Wing with you."

"How?" Siria asked and snatched the paper for the line. " 'Despite the Hospital Wing caretaker's'— excuse you, Rita, Madam Pomfrey is a certified Healer— 'many protests, Mr. Black's dog often visits Potter in her many trips to the Wing due to her reckless fist fighting and night terrors…'." Siria shoved the paper back to Hermione. "I hate her, Hermione. I hate her." Siri said into her hands as she pressed them to her face. "Nightmares aren't night terrors, Madam Pomfrey is a Healer, and I would not ever want to sign up for this stupid, crazy Tournament."

"Oh, no." Hermione uttered and pulled the paper to her face. Ron leaned around Siria to see try and peak at what Hermione had read. She handed him the paper and Ron growled. "Don't the Malfoys have anything better to do than talk trash?" He asked. Siria grunted. "His dad's just saying that, when he got the Board of Governors to suspend Dumbledore, it was because he suspected Dumbledore was the type to pick favorites and the Malfoy never liked him much."

"Even if Dumbledore had a favorite, wouldn't someone smart, like Hermione or Cedric be better?" Siria asked.

"Siria, you're plenty smart." Hermione argued.

"There's plenty smart, and there's you smart, Hermione." said Ron. He swept some more bacon onto his plate. "Dumbledore doesn't really seem like the type to pick favorites, but I suppose everyone's got one."

Chloe had outdone herself, at least as far as Hermione and Siria were concerned. When Siria extended Chloe and Sirius's offer to make clothes to anyone that needed them for the Yule Ball at the Sunday study group before break, she expected it would be maybe five people. She had not expected ten requests, let alone the thirty-three she'd gotten. Chloe didn't miss a beat though and had already filled ten requests by Friday.

"Can't be all that hard then, making clothes." Ron said over dinner Friday evening. Lavender gasped.

"Are you mad?" She asked. "Maybe if the dresses looked like potato sacks, but they're beautiful." Lavender sighed and put her head in her hand. "I almost wish my parents hadn't bought me such a nice one. Siria, can you please have my dress for the next ball made?"

"If Chloe's still willing to let me after all these, yeah." Siria chuckled dryly. She felt guilty sending in the list of people and their measurements. Chloe replied by sending a disposable camera, which Siria used to take a picture of each of the requesters.

"Given that Padma and I are taking your brothers, you owe us each a dress." Parvati told Siria.

"Not my brothers, but I offered to pay you ten Galleons." Siria reminded her.

"Which I generously declined out of friendship and in exchange for knowing who your date is." Parvati said. Siria shrugged with a smirk. "I'm still cross you're making me wait until the day of, so I'll take a dress too."

"You'd've gotten a dress either way, honestly." Siria scanned across the Great Hall.

Daphne, who was wearing her "I Support C.W./S.P.B." button, sat with her usual crowd at the Slytherin table. She was sandwiched between Astoria and Millicent Bulstrode. Millicent was wearing a button as well, but Pansy Parkinson, was wearing a "Siria Pooper" button still. She, Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy were some of the only students in the school still wearing them. Most of the school had switched to wearing the buttons Cedric, Hermione, and Patricia had made or weren't wearing either. Daphne and Pansy Parkinson hadn't spoken since Parkinson agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Malfoy. Neither acted like they cared, but Parkinson made a point to drape herself around Malfoy's shoulders like a shawl, and Daphne kept herself turned toward Astoria.

"If you keep staring, she'll notice." Hermione whispered. Siria blushed and looked down at her plate as Hermione loaded on another scoop of broccoli slaw.

"He's obviously not a Gryffindor." Lavender told Parvati.

"I'm honestly surprised Cho Chang is going with Cedric." Parvati confessed. "I thought you'd go with him."

"Why?" Siria asked.

"He's so handsome!" Lavender sighed dreamily at Cedric.

"And he's smart too." Parvati added. "Not to mention charming." She giggled with Lavender.

"Oh, is it Terry Boot?" Parvati and Lavender looked to the Ravenclaw table and Siria stared pointedly at her plate. She rolled her final piece of broccoli around and shook her head. "That's a shame. He's really quite nice." Parvati noted. "Poor Hannah Abbott dropped an extra rat tail into her Potion and he helped her fix it."

"Is it Ernie MacMillan?" Lavender asked. "He's a little haughty, but his eyes are almost as pretty as yours." Siria pressed her lips together. Since Lavender and Parvati had learned Siria got a date, they had spent dinner guessing the same few people, as if Siria would finally slip up.

"You know, you've never guess a Slytherin." Ron told them. Siria inhaled her final piece of broccoli in shock. Seamus hacked out a laugh loud enough that it covered Siria's choking.

"Like that Malfoy git?" Dean Thomas cried.

"Not Malfoy!" Siria argued. "I'm not going with him."

"We get you think he's 'pretty', but come on Potter-Black" Seamus told her. "Look at 'im."

"I am not going with Malfoy. When you see me with me date, you'll all be shocked because you would never guess my date would agree to go with me." Siria told them.

"So it is a Slytherin then…" Lavender squinted over at the table. "Who?" She wondered.

Cedric and Hermione postponed any preparation for the second task until everyone completed their holiday homework. It didn't stop Siria and Warrington from bringing their eggs each night. Though Ron and Siria had more homework than they'd ever had, it was nothing compared to what the older students had received. Ron stared at the sixth years' piles of homework like it was a ready to bite copy of the Monster Book of Monsters. "Two years" he muttered. "Just two year away."

Hermione finished her homework first and continued going through the Room's selection of books on language or eggs. Though they had boiled the egg, put it in the fire, and even frozen it, they hadn't gotten any closer to understanding the scream like sound that came from it. Whether it was the middle of the night or high noon, the egg screamed when opened. When Siria finished her homework, she sat the egg in her lap.

"Wish there was someway to drown out the sound," Siria murmured. Trying to figure out the clue wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't have to listen to it at deafening volumes.

"What?" Cedric asked as he placed his book down to see Siria.

"Sorry. I was just complaining about the sound." She muttered.

"Drown it…" Cedric paused and looked to Warrington, who pressed his eyes closed.

"Mermish." Warrington tsked.

As they got up, the floor before Siria started to carve itself out and fill with water. By the time everyone had gathered around, there was a kiddie pool sized hole in the floor that was full of water. Siria steadily slid her egg into the water. Cedric and Warrington put an ear to the surface. Cho, Hermione, Maddy, Neville, Patricia, and Travers did the same. Ron looked to Siria with an expression that asked "Why?" She mouthed back that "it can't hurt?" and the two placed their ears to the water. Siria braced herself for a scream as she opened the egg.

It didn't scream though, it sang.

[Book: B4, 463 the song hint: Come seek us where our voices sound/We cannot sing above the ground/And while you're searching, ponder this:/We've taken what you'll sorely miss/An hour long you'll have to look/And recover what we took/But past an hour— the prospect's black/Too late, it's gone, it won't come back]

Hermione rushed to write down the song on a sheet of parchment then doubled it until everyone had a copy. "What do you suppose they'll take?" Ron asked. "Your Firebolt?" Siria looked to her watch. She supposed she would miss her Firebolt, but perhaps not as much as knowing where Sirius was with a glance.

"More important than the what, I can't swim— at all." Siria told them.

"Well, we've got two months to teach you or else find a way." Cedric told her. Warrington half raised his hand in an awkward wave.

"I also don't." Warrington confessed.

"Who can swim?" Hermione asked. Cedric, Cho, and Patricia were the only three of them that could. "Alright. Those of us that can't swim will be in charge of finding ways for you to breathe underwater." She decided.

"You could use gillyweed." Neville told them. "It'll make you grow gills, so you can breathe, and gives you webbed fingers and toes to swim."

"I can't decide if that's cool or gross." Siria told him.

"We'll need to figure out how long that lasts and how we'll get it." Warrington said. "And look at other options. He's your friend, so it's your method unless we find you something better."

"But—" Siria tried to protest that Warrington should be able to use it too, but Cedric agreed.

"Listen to us on this, Siria." Cedric told her. "Warrington might be able to use a Bubble-Head Charm."

"That's for clean air!" Travers snapped at him.

"We have time to practice it and see." Cedric replied.

"We do." Warrington agreed. "Let's call it a night. Now that we've got the clue, we can go from there."

As they collected their things, Siria slid a box over to Maddy, who nodded. Her heart thundered when Maddy disappeared with the box. Hermione gave a knowing smile before she turned Siria invisible. The Gryffindors headed back to their tower with linked hands. Neville seemed to knock them over less when he was held between Ron and Siria for support. Hermione revealed them in the empty and dark common room.

"Do you think she'll wear it?" Hermione asked Siria as they walked up the steps to their dorm.

"I mean, I certainly hope so." Siria confessed with a smile on her face. The closer they were to the Yule Ball, the more she smiled. Not only would this awkward social dance be over, but the actual dance would be and she would be out. "Do you suppose Chloe could add a rainbow to my dress?" Siria joked. She knew Chloe would if she asked, but knew Chloe would want to remake the entire dress to do so.

They cracked their dorm room open then slipped into their beds. Siria smiled at the ceiling. She knew there would be backlash and repercussions for coming out, but she survived a dragon— how bad could things be? Not only did she have Hermione and Ron, but Cedric, Maddy, Patricia, Travers, and Warrington. To some extent, she had Cho, Neville, and Daphne Greengrass herself.

Christmas Eve, the Hogwarts Herald members that remained over break poured over their special release edition. An unmoving photograph of Marsha P. Johnson sat beneath the woman's title cased name. Cedric had written a biography about her, which talked about Stonewall, her work with Sylvia Rivera on STAR, and how important she remains.

Hogwarts Herald

Marsha P. Johnson Edition

Friday, December 26th 2014

Marsha P. Johnson (cont. page 2)

Queer: a Spectrum by Hermione Granger (page 3)

How to be an Ally by Cedric Diggory (page 4)

Bi and Proud, an Interview with Siria Potter-Black (page 6)

A Grand Entrance (page 8)

"It isn't ideal to have them on the last page" Terry Boot repeated to Hermione.

"We know!" Hermione strained. "But we would have to reformat the whole paper for the article the night of— are you going to leave the Yule Ball to reformat everything?"

"I know." Terry Boot rubbed his temples. Lily Moon turned over the pages and focused on the last page. "A Grand Entrance" was written out in the same script font as the other titles. They had left a large section in the middle of the page for a photo and a column space to the side.

"Can't we just take the picture early?" Lily asked and looked to Siria.

"You want Colin to take the picture and keep it a secret for a day?" Siria asked. "Colin is a brilliant photographer, but he can hardly keep a secret about photos. He'd probably print out a stack and scatter them through school."

"But for a day," Ernie Macmillan tried to defend.

"No." Cedric told them. "Besides, a photo of Siria and her date with the other champions and their partners will be better." He rubbed his jaw and stared at the photo of Marsha P. Johnson. "And Marsha deserves the front page."

"Agreed!" Siria smiled. "And, thank you."

"Alright Heralds," Hermione clapped. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. See you at the ball." They closed up and collected their things. Hermione took the paper and smiled at Marsha P. Johnson's smiling face. "I'm glad Patricia pointed us in her direction. The LGBTQA community wouldn't be what it is without her."

"I'm not going to lie, I'm extra glad because I'm part of the community and didn't know what everything stood for" Siria confessed. She zipped up her coat and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Also very glad that Cedric wrote the article and not me. I mean, he sounds better than anyone on the Daily Prophet."

"He might write better than you, but you have a different relation to her. I think other people would like to hear what you have to say on things and not because you're the Girl Who Lived, but as a member of the community." Hermione told her. Siria shrugged and adjusted the strap on her shoulder.

"Maybe."

Author's Note:

Marsha P. Johnson is a real person that I definitely recommended people interested in the history of the American queer community look into. I'd like to recommend everyone look into her. She gets overlooked a lot, I feel, so I wanted to bring her to people's attention.