8. Politics as Usual
Harry was not usually a praying man. He did Christmas and Easter church with the rest of the Weasleys, and was comfortable with the idea of God, but he didn't really dwell on the subject. As far as he was concerned he and God were on good terms, and there wasn't much reason to think about it further.
But, it was with a profound and devoted sigh of "Thank you, God!" that Harry looked at the front page of the Daily Prophet, and realized that Severus and Hermione did not get the Prophet at home. In a huge font was the words "Hermione's Heartache…Or Is It?" On it was a photo of Hermione and Severus from their wedding.
He almost didn't read it. But he decided that he had to read it. Especially when he saw it was written by Rita Skeeter. Eventually someone would have to tell them about it. And that someone would probably be him, round about lunchtime. It read:
Hermione Granger-Snape is now the latest witch to develop some strange curse that induces miscarriages. Prior to Percy Weasley's hair brained scheme to increase the population of Wizarding Britain the miscarriage rate among Witches was a scant one in five hundred. Now it's risen to almost one in seventy-five. Although no one is willing to officially state that Weasley's program has, in addition to ruining the lives of scores of young witches and wizards (see our Award Winning Series: My Marriage Ruined Me!) also driven witches who wish to remain childless to murder their own babies.
Our reliable sources tell us that Hermione is suffering from something called Dagmar's Desolation. It's an especially rare dark curse, last cast by Cornielus Burke, of the Borgin and Burke family, long time supporters of the Death Eaters, and possibly where her well known ex-Death Eater husband came in contact with the curse. It's long been known by everyone who's ever dealt with Professor Snape that the man loathes children. Likewise last year in the newest addition to the Hogwarts curriculum Professor Granger-Snape told all of her students that she had no desire to have babies anytime soon.
The only treatment for Dagmar's Desolation is sterilization. How amazing that a couple known for their immense magical skill, ability to use rare and obscure magic, and history of dark magics, somehow managed to be cursed with an exceptionally rare and dark spell.
The article went on to talk about other witches that had recently had miscarriages, and then spent a full page excoriating Percy Weasley for the Marriage Act of 2004.
Harry finished reading. His first reaction was rage. What he wanted, more than anything, was to go find Skeeter and squash her like he bug she was. His second thought was the Ginny might not mind if he killed that woman, she would certainly mind if he got caught.
Then the wave of sorrow hit. He'd have to tell Severus and Hermione. If he didn't they'd soon find out on their own. He stood up from the Head Table slowly, dreading the coming lunch break when he would go to their house and add more pain to the already considerable pain they were experiencing.
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"Fuck!" Percy Weasley pronounced the word with a fussy precision perfectly in keeping with his character, but somewhat out of character with the word. He had entered his office ten minutes earlier and was sifting through the mail from the night before. Finally he had reached the bottom of the pile, his copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Fuck," he said it again while he read. There were two problems to be dealt with here. First and foremost he needed to find where Skeeter had gotten her information. If it was from the MLE then he had both a bit of good news and bad.
He had his secretary check with St. Mungo's. None of the Healers had turned up dead, which meant that none of them had broken their Unbreakable Vows in regards to patient confidentiality. This was good news. The bad news was that the leak must have come from MLE.
Percy was not yet in the political fight of his life. That would come in about two years when the Minister officially stepped down. But for the time being Percy was the golden boy of the Modern Party, and as long as the birth rate continued to increase faster than the death rate, he would stay there. However, he was not the only person who wanted to be the next Minister of Magic. Albert Unin also coveted that position, and was doing his best to make sure that Percy Weasley had lost his golden boy status by the time the job was up in the air again.
And Unin had friends. Not many, and most of them didn't count for much. But Rita Skeeter rapidly became one when she didn't land a husband during the previous year. And although he had no proof of it yet, Percy was sure that Unin had at least one person, if not more, making sure the MLE drug it's feet on cases that would make him look bad.
So the good news was this: Skeeter and the Prophet had finally crossed the line, publishing details of an ongoing investigation was illegal. The bad news was this: There was at least one, if not more, people at MLE willing to help Unin.
Percy had his secretary make two calls.
Reginald Hornple, Head of Magical Law Enforcement, was less than thrilled to be called to Percy's office first thing in the morning. He had been in his office for barely five minutes, and in that time he had found out about five assaults in the last night, the Snape case, that MLE was likely to be over budget, yet again, and then some nitwit put a copy of the Prophet on his desk, which he had barely glanced at when Violet Blaustraude, Percy's secretary, demanded he get to her boss' office immediately.
Percy was holding a copy of the Prophet. "Explain," he said in an icy tone.
"Explain what? The Skeeter woman's been trying to smear you any way she could since she didn't snag a husband last year." Hornple was annoyed, and when he was annoyed his first response was to attack whoever attacked him.
"The only people who knew the details of Mrs. Snape's case that could have told the press work for you."
"Bullshit. My men don't blab."
"Like Hell they don't. The only people who knew the name of the curse were Hermione's Healer, the Snapes, and whoever at MLE got the case and talked to Skeeter. It's been less than twenty-four hours since she was diagnosed, and not even most of our family knows what happened besides the fact she lost the baby. Now, because I am a fair minded person, I…" Percy slammed his hand onto his desk. When he removed it a small smear was all that was left of a bug. He vanished the goo and then wiped off his hand on a handkerchief. "checked with St. Mungo's. None of Hermione's Healers are dead."
Hornple frowned. He had been scanning the front page of the Prophet while listening to Percy. "No one else knew? Bugger. I'll see who had access and where the leak occurred." It wasn't unheard of for sensitive material to end up in the press. However, one of the reforms after Black June made leaking information about an ongoing investigation to the press illegal. "You have to remember though, that woman has a reputation for getting information no one else has, and no one else knows how she gets it."
"For the sake of your department, you had better hope she somehow broke into Magical Law Enforcement and read that file herself. I expect a full report on how the leak occurred in three days."
Hornple grumbled about the time line as he left. But both he and Percy knew that in three days Percy would have a report saying that no one knew how the leak had occurred. However, no new ones would occur either. As good as could be expected. He made a note to see who in MLE could be trusted, or better yet, who would be ambitious enough to keep an eye out for him and find who Unin's men were.
His second meeting required a bit more finesse. He wanted these articles stopped. He also wanted to keep Orion Urus, owner of the Daily Prophet, willing to donate large sums of money to his political future. Instead of a demand, Violet invited him to Percy's office.
Only after cups of tea and the minimum polite chitchat did Percy come to the point. "I want you to sack Rita Skeeter."
"Because she tweaks your nose every now and again? Politics is a rough game, you know that. You need to grow a thicker skin if you intend to go further."
Percy handed Urus his copy of the Prophet. "I've let her tweak me for over a year. You know that if it was just about me we wouldn't have been sitting here. Today she went too far. She printed details of an ongoing case and accused two private citizens, by name, of murdering their unborn child for fun. She's gone beyond her usual innuendo to smear two people who are grieving the loss of their first child, and possibly any future children as well."
"She sells lots of papers…" Urus let that hang.
Percy sat quietly for a moment, debating whether to use the sword hidden behind his back. He decided to go for it. It was time that Urus learned that Percy Weasley could play Beater as well as Keeper. "You know what else sells lots of newspapers? Competition."
"You aren't serious."
"Young Mr. Stibbons in the radical wing of the party can be quite persuasive about dismantling the old charter system and allowing what he calls 'a free market' to exist. Imagine lots of papers, anyone with a press and some free time could set one up. I imagine in a world like that lots of newspapers would sell."
"We've been chartered as the only daily paper for over 400 years."
"All the more reason why it might be time for a new point of view."
"It could hurt you as much as it hurts me." Urus waited for Percy to blink. He was right, many papers could damage Percy, but that wouldn't matter one whit to the Daily Prophet's bottom line if Percy wasn't willing to back down.
And he wasn't. "Hurt me? I'm a public servant working for the greater good. If someone thinks I'm doing a bad job I need to know. With many papers in circulation I'd have a much better idea of what the common wizard thinks of the job I'm doing."
"You're a cold bastard Weasley."
"Why yes, I am. Thank you for noticing." Percy's smile was reminiscent of Fred or George after an especially nasty prank. "I want a public apology for today's story as well. I don't care what face saving gesture you use, including insinuating that Skeeter assaulted your editorial staff and made them publish the piece, but I want her gone, and I want an apology on the front page of tomorrow's edition."
"Is that all?" Urus' voice dripped sarcasm.
"I could request a payment to each of the women she maligned in the story, but I will not. However, as you now know, there has been talk of adding competition to your market, you should probably also know there has been some discussion of adding libel laws as well."
"Lovely. You are set to take all the fun out of being in journalism."
"As I said, I'm a public servant working for the greater good. If the greater good is that your business becomes accountable for what you write, then I'll work for it. If the greater good does not demand such things, then I'll work against it."
"How much will the greater good cost me?"
"Come now Orion, that's a very coarse way of looking at it. But your continued support will be noted when these matters come up for further discussion."
When Orion left Percy did the one thing he was dreading that day. He took out some of his personal stationary, a pen, and began to write a condolence note to Snape and Hermione. He felt a moment of satisfaction from being able to tell them of the sacking of Rita Skeeter. That was work well done. But it felt hollow compared to the tragedy that had befallen them.