(OotP) CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Emma Brighton
I'm going to kill you for this.
Do you hear me, you little bitch? I'm not JUST going to kill you, though. First, I'll torture you until you're begging me to stop. Then I'll stop, and we'll force you to fight for our side just long enough for you to hate yourself. And THEN I'll kill you.
Are you listening?
Of course, she was listening. Of course, she heard Aleks' snarling voice in her head, taunting and torturing her the way it had been for well over a year by then, on and off.
She wished she could escape it—wished she could at least open her eyes to give herself something else to focus on—but she couldn't. The overuse of her shield had, yet again, rendered her unconscious on the way to the Ministry, and she still hadn't recovered enough to open her eyes.
"…absolutely absurd that she's even here at all, let alone overnight. If you've picked up a paper today, you already—what the bloody hell is this? The girl is unconscious?"
Ellie didn't recognize the voice that was approaching. It was a female voice, loud and fast-talking.
"She's not unconscious. She's just sleeping." She recognized that voice right away as Fudge's.
"Actually, I was unconscious," Ellie mumbled through parched, chapped lips that barely opened. Her eyes were still closed. "Passed out on the way here."
"Preposterous!" bellowed Fudge. "We would have taken her straight to St. Mungo's if that were true."
She did open her eyes at that; her loathing of the Minister seemed to give her strength she hadn't previously had.
She was in some sort of prison cell, though it certainly wasn't Azkaban; she assumed she had been brought to the Ministry, as planned. Next to Fudge were several guards, along with the woman who had been speaking—a short-haired, pointy-nosed, thin-lipped woman in her thirties who almost looked to Ellie like a young Professor McGonagall.
"Ah—Eleanor," the woman said. "Good. Emma Brighton of The Wizarding World News. I normally serve as a journalist, but it came to my attention this morning that you were very much in need of representation."
"Right," snorted Fudge. "And this gesture of good will has nothing to do with the article you wrote about her that came out this morning, nor the follow-up you're planning."
"She's a child, Cornelius—a child who tried to do the right thing in reaching out to both the press and the law when she found out something terrible was going to happen at the Ministry."
"And then decided to go herself as well, despite it being highly illegal!"
"I was just going to make sure you were on top of it," Ellie heard herself say. "I wasn't planning on getting involved. But you were nowhere to be found."
Fudge glared at her. "We were on standby, monitoring the situation. We didn't have a chance to step in before you did."
"And the fifteen minutes the children and the non-Ministry folk spent fighting Bellatrix Lestrange and the other Death Eaters before the Ministry stepped in?" asked Emma. "You were still monitoring the situation then?"
"Enough of this," snapped Fudge. "You have no authority to take the girl away, Miss Brighton. We are in the process of scheduling her hearing—"
"She's an O.W.L. student at Hogwarts! You can't just interrupt her studies when she's done nothing wrong, Fudge. Do you have any idea what the public reaction would be if I wrote that she's being held here? If not for her, the world would have ten free Death Eaters to deal with, rather than three!"
Ellie's eyes shot over to Emma, and she sat up straight for the first time. "Three?"
Emma nodded. "Two Lestranges—Bellatrix and her brother—plus Augustus Rookwood."
Ellie understood that three was better than ten, but the thought of even those three rejoining Voldemort terrified her.
"And we're supposed to believe that a fourth-year Hogwarts student was such a talented Legilimens that she was able to pinpoint the details and time a breakout from Azkaban was set to occur?" Fudge asked Emma. "It's ludicrous!"
"And what are you suggesting?" demanded Emma. "That the children freed half the Death Eaters in Azkaban, locked back up the other half, and killed one? You were there, Cornelius. You know as well as I do that the Dementors were the ones who freed the Death Eaters."
"They were not! Their priorities were confused by the presence of intruders. Had the students not approached, they would have—"
"We approached because Bellatrix was escaping!" Ellie shouted at Fudge, her full strength finally returning to her. "And they were letting her escape!"
"Bellatrix Lestrange escaped because she had a wand that allowed her to blast free of her cell wall. No Dementor could have slipped her a wand like that. Which is why the Ministry stands by its statement that Sirius Black is the madman who was really responsible for the breakout."
Ellie actually laughed out loud at that. "Are you joking? Out of the two dozen people who were seen there, you're choosing to blame someone who wasn't?"
"Well, I haven't ruled out blaming you, either," snapped Fudge. "The daughter and the accomplice—sounds like quite the believable anecdote to me."
"Enough," said Emma, her voice darkening. "Surely you've seen the papers, Fudge—all but the one that's in your pocket. The people believe her, and the more you try to silence her, the more they'll lash out against you. If you want to hold her here, fine, but know that my article tomorrow will turn people so far against you, you'll be begging just to keep your name on the ballot come the next election."
Fudge remained quiet for several seconds at that. Then, with a very long stream of muttered profanities, he approached Ellie's cell door and opened it.
"Get her out of my sight," he growled at Emma.
And she did.
BREAKOUT AT AZKABAN: MINISTRY POINTS TO SIRIUS BLACK, BUT WITNESSES POINT CLOSER TO HOME… AND HOW IS ELLIE BLACK INVOLVED?
Fear and tension are sweeping the wizarding community this morning following the news that three highly dangerous Dark wizards—Bellatrix Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange, and Augustus Rookwood—have escaped from Azkaban. But the truth of how it happened might just be even more frightening.
The series of unusual events began Monday morning when the Ministry and several media outlets (including this newspaper) received word from a Hogwarts student, Luna Lovegood, who claimed to have used Legilimency to invade the mind of one Aleksander Dolohov, former Durmstrang student and son of incarcerated Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, where she learned of a mass breakout plan.
"You Know Who has control over the Dementors of Azkaban," she wrote. "They're going to release all remaining Death Eaters today at nightfall. I urge you to use any means necessary to stop them. We will be there to help."
Come nightfall, this reporter joined several Ministry of Magic officials a safe distance away from Azkaban Prison, where we watched from afar as Lovegood and four other Hogwarts students, including Ellie Black—whose new pop single, I Just Wanted Your Love, soared to number one on the charts directly following its release on Sunday—along with a five adults including ex-Auror Alastor Moody and ex-Hogwarts professor Remus Lupin—showed up on broomsticks.
Minutes later, an explosion resounded from high above any of us. Bellatrix Lestrange, wand in hand, emerged from her cell and proceeded to the cell below her to free her husband, Rodolphus—or rather, to try.
Over the course of fifteen minutes, the five Hogwarts students and the five adult wizards fought not only the Lestranges, but also the Dementors, who seemed far more intent on getting rid of said visitors than on stopping the prisoners from escaping. Only when the three prisoners had successfully escaped did the Ministry step in, at which point they arrested Ellie Black for "murder, sedition, and obstruction of justice."
The wizard she stands accused of murdering? Antonin Dolohov—father of Aleksander Dolohov, the Durmstrang graduate whom Black accused of murdering Cedric Diggory the night she, Harry Potter, and Fred Weasley claim He Who Must Not Be Named returned.
The official statement of the Ministry of Magic is that Sirius Black is responsible for these breakouts. Our confusion? If Ellie Black maintains her father's innocence and seems to be on his side, why did she murder one of the wizards he was supposedly attempting to free? Why was he nowhere to be found in the midst of the breakout? And how did he find a way to control an entire prison's worth of Dementors?
Something foul is at play here, but it doesn't seem to be the People's Princess.
The question is, who is it?
"Wow," Ellie managed when she was finished reading the article. "You almost sound like you believe me."
"About You Know Who, you mean?" Emma asked, taking a sip of her coffee. They were at the Leaky Cauldron, where Emma had taken Ellie for an interview after successfully removing her from Fudge's clutches.
Ellie nodded.
"Of course, I believe you. I've believed you from the beginning—nearly everyone at our paper did. We just couldn't come out and say it until now. The people choose to believe the Prophet above all others, and the Prophet is in the Ministry's pocket. The question is, why is the Ministry so intent on denying it?"
"Because they're scared," Ellie said, crossing her arms. "Because they don't want to believe it."
"Indeed." Emma took another sip of her coffee. "I'll be releasing another article for tomorrow morning's paper, of course, now that I've spoken with both you and Cornelius. I'd like to ask you a few more questions first, though, if I may."
Ellie didn't much like the idea of talking about what had happened that night, or really much of anything that had happened in the past few months at all, but Emma had gotten her out of a prison cell, so she nodded.
"The group of Hogwarts students you showed up with," Emma began. "Who were they?"
Ellie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, it's against one of Umbridge's twenty thousand rules to form student organisations she doesn't approve of, so I can't technically answer your question in detail without risking expulsion."
"Are you so sure she wouldn't approve of such an organization?"
"Quite sure. She's made it her mission at Hogwarts to keep us from learning or practicing actual spells and magic."
"Why do you think that might be?"
"Well, she's Fudge's right hand, isn't she? Signs point to Fudge fearing what Dumbledore's students might be capable of—or who they might be loyal to."
Emma nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. Let's steer back toward you, then, Ellie. Your new single came out on Sunday and skyrocketed straight to number one in a matter of hours, and you've clearly captured the hearts of many young women with your lyrics. But then you showed up at Azkaban, fighting crime and seeking justice. Which of these two worlds is more important to you?"
It was the first question that had stumped Ellie—not because she wasn't sure of the answer, but because she wasn't sure she wanted the answer printed. She had to keep the fans in her pocket, didn't she? She had too much to lose if they turned against her. Fame is fleeting, Sirius had warned her.
"They're both important," she told Emma diplomatically. "I can't sing from the heart if I'm not being true to myself and to the memory of Cedric Diggory and all the other victims of Voldemort and his followers."
Emma smiled. "Well said. Okay, then—just one last question, and I'll take you back to Hogwarts. Is it true that Fred Weasley—one of the owners of the soon-to-be-opened joke shop in Diagon Alley—is the boy your new song is about?"
What did she have to lose? Ellie mused bitterly as she parted her lips to answer Emma.
He knew; she knew; everybody knew.
"Yes."
When Ellie returned to Dumbledore's office via Floo Powder, she was relieved to find that Umbridge was nowhere to be found.
Molly and Arthur Weasley were, though—along with Dumbledore.
"Oh, thank goodness," Molly breathed when she saw Ellie, rushing out to take her into her arms and hug her so tightly, it was impossible for Ellie not to think of Fred. "Really, what were you thinking, Ellie,marching right up to Azkaban like that?"
"Technically I flew," Ellie said weakly as she pulled away from Molly.
"You could have been sent to Azkaban as a prisoner!" Arthur snapped at Ellie, not nearly as warm as his wife. "Fudge only let you go because you had a media shark in your corner, Ellie. What happens when Emma Brighton turns on you?"
Ellie stiffened at that. Was that an option? She had liked Emma—trusted her, even, as much as she could trust someone she had only just met.
"Your shield was always dangerous, Ellie," Dumbledore told her in a more resigned voice, "but this confidence that comes with your newly discovered fame and power… this is a far more dangerous game."
"But why?" Ellie asked. "What's the worst that can happen? They stop believing me, and we're back to where we started?"
"No," Dumbledore said evenly. "They stop believing you, you get expelled and arrested, and your future disappears before your eyes."
He had a fair point, she supposed. And yet… "Every one of us is a step away from expulsion this year, Professor. And while I don't relish the thought of spending another night in a prison cell, if that's the cost of honesty, so be it."
"And if you remained behind bars when the wizarding war began?" asked Dumbledore. "If you had to sit and wait while your friends and family battled the very people you seem so intent on destroying?"
Another fair point.
"They would have escaped," she said more softly. "All of them."
"No," said Arthur. "We sent five members of the Order. They could have handled things."
"I don't deny that the work you and your fellow students did in uncovering the breakout plan was both impressive and helpful," Dumbledore conceded. "But it was also dangerous. You're now targets for the most dangerous people in the world. Is Luna Lovegood's father prepared to protect her when she isn't here at Hogwarts? Is Neville Longbottom's grandmother?"
Ellie bit her lip. She hadn't thought of that, either.
"The only way we're going to beat Voldemort," Dumbledore told Ellie, "is in working together. All of us—the Order, you, Harry… the list goes on. For any one of us to act independently compromises the goals of us all. Do you understand?"
She nodded. She felt ashamed. She felt like a pink-haired, dim-witted fool.
"Good," Dumbledore said, and his expression softened slightly. "Now that that's out of the way, I must tell you that, fleeting as it may be, I've quite enjoyed reading all about the Ministry's inadequacies. Do be sure to take a look at The Wizard's Voice when you get a chance, Ellie. I think you'll find it quite amusing."
Odd man, that Dumbledore. But enough about old men! We only have five chapters left in OotP (I know it doesn't seem that close now, but it's going to ramp up quickly!) so stay tuned and don't forget to review and follow!