Tom was again writing something on his notebook. An evil grin was on his face. And again, when Paul came with a report, he closed the window.
"Yes Paul?" asked Tom.
"We kept monitoring the situation for the past weeks and Tom, I think this is something huge. And at the same time, there is no press, nobody knows anything, it's all top-secret. Should we kidnap a few people and interrogate them?"
"No Paul, that would alert them. We need to stay invisible to the last moment."
"What do you think this is all about?" asked Paul.
"No idea, but I bet it's a huge international conspiracy. They probably want to use Harry Potter in some kind of propaganda. Not that it has to be something bad but do they have to use HP for that? Can't they use something else, like... like..."
"Like...?" pressed Paul.
"Well I don't know at the moment but there has to be something else that could motivate people as much as HP does."
"Yes! What about Shakespeare? A lot of his work could be transformed into modern themes!"
"Who?" asked Tom bewilderedly.
When Paul left, Tom again opened his document.
***
Harry, Ron, JKR, some people from WB and a bunch of lawyers were gathered in a conference room (in the same building where the court was). Ron was just having a heated speech, "...and now the whole world thinks that we are homos!"
"Excuse me, how is that fault of my mandant?" said JKR's lawyer.
"Hey dork, I wasn't speaking to you. Can't she speak for herself?"
There was a brief row and the lawyers on Harry's and Ron's side tried to calm Ron down. Ron then finished with, "Her books are promoting homosexuality, that can't be disputed!" and then offencedly sat down.
One of the WB guys couldn't hold it and exlaimed, "What? How can you say that? Harry Potter books and movies are about love and friendship!"
"Sure, love and friendship to the extreme and without regard to the genders of concerned people!" barked Harry. That caused another brief row.
"Excuse me please! Silence please!" shouted one of Harry's and Ron's lawyers. When he got it, he continued, "Ms. Rowling, I have here a record of a certain press conference. I would like to play it."
"There is no need for that!" opposed JKR's lawyer. "Everybody knows what was said in public."
"Very well then." continued Harry's lawyer. "Ms. Rowling, can you tell us why did you say that the fictional character named Albus Dumbledore who was supposedly very close to Mr. Potter was gay? Did you realize at the time what kind of light was that going to throw on Mr. Potter and indirectly on Mr. Weasley? Especially when you probably already knew about a large community of slash writers?"
JKR's lawyer wanted to say something but JKR silenced him by a gesture. Then she spoke for the first time after a long time, "That part of Dumbledore's relationship with Grindelwald was not a part of the story of Harry Potter. It wasn't my intention to promote homosexuality and my work doesn't do it in my opinion."
"Well Ms. Rowling, I'm afraid that opinion of the rest of this planet slightly differs from yours. Are you trying to tell me that you had no idea what influence was your statement going to have?"
However, JKR refused to answer that and resumed to letting her lawyers do the talking.
After half an hour, one of the defendant advocates exclaimed, "And what do you actually want from our clients? What do you want?!"
The opposing lawyers were dumbfounded a little and looked at Harry and Ron. They looked at each other and Ron said, "Well, that's obvious, isn't it?" and looked at Harry again.
Harry unsurely continued, "Yes, yes. Obvious. I mean, the whole planet thinks that we are... It's so disgusting and you ask us what we want?"
"Well humor us. What do you want?" pressed a lawyer.
Ron was silent and again looked at Harry who said, "Well, we want... uhm..."
Then suddenly, a voice coming from the ceiling said, "If I recollect correctly, you said something about stopping something once and for all and uprooting something in its roots. And you also said 'Muhaha'. Twice."
People looked upwards. The grate on the ventilation shaft opened and Ginny graciously dropped inside. Everybody was quite startled with the exception of Harry and Ron who were rather crestfallen.
Ginny then warmly smiled at JKR and asked, "Nice to meet you. Can you guess who I am?"
JKR blinked and then replied, "Ginny?"
"That's right. You got my physical appearance quite right."
"Harry talked about you when we were having cocoa. He said he was going to propose to you that day."
"Gin, what are you doing here?" asked Harry.
"Yeah, I thought you weren't interested in this." added Ron.
"Well I couldn't miss this. I tried to get Hermione here as well but she said that such a stupid matter would be an insult to her intellect."
"Stupid?" gasped Ron.
"Well I would say 'funny' instead. I really had a hard time suppressing my laughter for the last hour."
One of the lawyers unbelievingly asked, "You were up there since the beginning? Why?"
"Well, it's like watching our kids play 'terrorists and agents' - it's better when they don't know that they are being watched."
One of the WB guys stood up from his chair and told Ginny, "Excuse me. My daughter is really big fan of yours, she really admires you. I mean, your character."
Ginny looked at him and said, "Well, then you should remind her that my character is fictional. I haven't read the books nor watched the films but people told me that that character is nothing like me."
"Well, I expected as much since I heard about Harry Potter being real. Maybe if you... oh, nothing - the confidentiality agreement."
JKR then cleared her throat and asked Ginny, "You seam to be more at easy with things than your brother and husband."
"Well, there's not as many Ginny-Hermione shipping fanfictions as Harry-Ron ones. And honestly, I think this whole lawsuit is just as stupid as those books and films - no offence meant. However, what's not OK with me is the tension you brought in our homes. Harry and Ron are quite irritated by the whole thing and you should have seen Harry when he found the Philosopher's Stone in Lily's room - he started some kind of madmanish monologue like some kind of dark lord. I thought that you of all people would understand the value of the privacy of your family."
JKR thought for a moment and then said, "Well, of course I do. But all the books are out. I am still going to to release 'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' but those aren't about Harry Potter at all. And it's not like I can publicly apologize since this is all top-secret."
Ginny then excused herself and left and the whole debate again turned into a barely controlled row.
In the end, one of the defendant lawyers vehemently asked, "What concretely do you want us to do to make you happy?"
When Harry and Ron were unable to came with a realistic demand ("I want all of this to be stopped and I want my privacy again." wasn't one), the leading lawyer of WB said, "We wanted to cooperate with you and settle this matter but I see it's not possible! See you at the court, the judge will be surely happy to hear about this."
When they left and Harry and Ron remained alone with their lawyers, one of those lawyers said, "Hey guys, I can't believe that you came here without clear demands."
"Hey, we don't understand these things. I thought you had it in your hands." protested Ron.
A lawyer rubbed his forehead and then said, "Look guys, we didn't win this one. Before we do anything else, we have compile two lists of demands. One of those that can be legitimately enforced by law and the other one for an amicable settlement."
***
They were in the courtroom again.
"Your honor." said one of the WB lawyers. "We did everything we could to reach an accord. However, Messrs. Potter and Weasley deliberately sabotaged our effort from their side. They don't even have any demands! They just want to cause trouble like two attention-seeking troublemakers they are."
"Objection!" exclaimed a lawyer on Ron's and Harry's side. "I know for a fact that this is not true. Or is it Mr. Weasley?"
"Absolutely not! We have a list of demands, right here on these two papers. However, when we met with the other side, we didn't even got to them because we never reached a point where they would admit their fault. Instead, they just tried to confuse us with a lot of lawyerish argot. How could we start to work on fixing the things when they never admitted that we have right for our privacy!"
"That's a lie!" yelled a few of the opposing lawyers and were reprimanded by the judge.
Then both sides continued in their law-fight. There were no witnesses and experts giving statements. It was first proper session of the process and was meant to clarify the remaining legal and administrative issues.
Over the few following hours, some conclusions were agreed upon by the judge and and the assessors. One of them was that it was possible to make JKR make a public statement whose content would be dictated by the plaintiff side. However, the judge admitted that such a statement would be very limited because of the whole top-secret business.
It was also finally clarified that while it wasn't possible to take back JKR's books, it was still possible to do so with the unreleased films. The guys from WB vehemently opposed that (since they already put a lot of money in the upcoming film). The judge just advised them to make a compromise with the plaintiff side.
And lastly, Ron and Harry stated that a huge part of the image of their characters was being represented by the actors playing their characters. And so, on Harry's and Ron's insistence, the court agreed to bring them in the lawsuit. The lawyers representing WB objected that it would only complicate things. However, Harry and Ron were relentless. It was something they wanted to do since the beginning.
***
Ron and Harry drove back to the base. They both had smug smiles on their faces.
Harry looked in a back mirror and said, "Look at the car behind us."
Ron did so and replied, "Huh?"
"I think that car was following us for the last ten minutes."
"Well, it's possible. But Harry, could you lay off for now? I don't want the work to disrupt this moment."
"And what if they were sent by WB? That could discredit them and help us in the process."
"OK. Let's pull in that alley."
They did so and when they were obscured by a corner, Ron dived out of the car and hid behind a garbage container. The other car followed in.
Suddenly, Harry stopped and got out. He was hiding a gun behind his back. Ron started to approach as well.
"Get out of the car with your hands behind your back!" shouted Harry.
There was only a driver in the car. He looked behind him and briefly contemplated shifting into reverse and trying to escape. He took a deep breath and then reached in his pocket and put something in his mouth. Then he reached for the shifter. Harry saw him and shot. The bullet went through the wind-screen and hit the driver's shoulder.
Harry and Ron then quickly got to the car and opened the door. The driver was in spasm and foam was coming from his mouth.
"What the hell?" exclaimed Ron.
"Well, we need to call Kingsley." said Harry.
***
"He has no criminal records. Until now, he was a perfectly normal citizen." said Kingsley.
"Whoa. And he killed himself with a cyanide capsule." remarked Harry.
"It can only mean that there is somebody behind him. Like a huge corporation or something." said Ron.
"Somehow, I find it hard to believe that WB would send a suicidal agent after you." stated Kingsley.
"Yeah, they would rather send Bugs Bunny." laughed Harry. Everybody looked at him and he dropped his eyes down.
There was an investigation but nobody involved in the process recognized the body.
***
Tom, Paul and few others sat around a table.
"Does anybody know what happened?" asked Tom.
"No. But he is dead, that much we know for sure." replied Paul.
Tom closed his eyes and massaged his temples. Then he stated, "They went too far. They showed their true face and we have to act accordingly!"
He was met with murmurs of approval.