Chapter Fifteen: In Which There are Interviews
"It's just so awful!" Anne du Winters sobs on the Wizarding Wireless Network. Really, the anchorwoman has been incredibly nice to her ever since she explained, between gulping breaths and hysterical tears, that she is—was!—a friend of poor, innocent, sweet Lily Luna Potter.
She hopes Lily is listening—that innocent comment ought to give her a laugh.
"You see, if it w-weren't for the Gryffindors, this w-would never have h-happened!" Anne cries, making sure to hit those hard consonants. Diction is key to speaking while sobbing.
"Please, Miss du Winters, elaborate on that," the anchorwoman says smoothly. She's lapping up the sensationalism, Anne can tell. "Are you saying that Gryffindor House is directly responsible for the tragic death of little Lily Potter, daughter of Harry Potter, the Savior of the Wizarding world, earlier this week?"
"Y-yes!" Anne sobs. "They did it—Lily was j-just twelve, like me, and th-they murdered her! The Gryffindors are all t-terrible bullies—I was in St. M-mungo's for w-weeks because of them, but L-Lily—they killed her!" And Anne descends into incomprehensible wailing.
"Who was it who cast the curse that killed Miss Potter, do you know?" the anchorwoman asks, leaning forward eagerly.
"Does it m-matter?" Anne cries. "She's d-dead! How c-could they? They h-hated her because she w-was a S-Slytherin, and so th-they murdered her! She was the b-best friend a H-Hufflepuff like me could ever have, and a r-really, really good person, but they d-didn't care! They all h-hated her, and all the Slytherins, because of You-K-know-Who, and then s-she got re-Sorted into G-Gryffindor, and that was worse! They t-tortured her!"
"Tell us more about this torture, Miss du Winters," the anchorwoman invites, sounding like Christmas has come early. "Was Miss Potter hurt before her death? Did the Gryffindor students make a habit of tormenting her?"
"Oh, yes," Anne says, almost forgetting to cry. "All the time." She takes a deep breath and goes right into another sob, before she can get too aggressive telling the public about Hamilton and Corner and the rest. Some of Lily's cousins are a little violent, as well, but perhaps she shouldn't mention them. "They s-stole her books, and h-hexed her in the halls, and t-tripped her, and tried to embarrass her, and it got so no S-Slytherin was ever safe in the h-halls, or even their own r-room! T-they said awful things, like that Lily was d-demon spawn, and d-descended from S-Salazar Slytherin, and s-secretly a Malfoy, and that she should l-leave school or else! Sometimes they even said she should d-die!" Anne really is quite indignant when she remembers this. "Hurting Lily was like, the h-hobby for all the Gryffindor f-fifth and seventh years, especially—they said it was a s-study break!"
"That's truly awful, Miss du Winters," says the anchorwoman. "And, unfortunately, all we have time for. Thank you for those stunning insights into what must be a very painful subject. Now, listeners, we leave it to you to decide who deserves the blame, and the punishment, for Miss Potter's tragic death—although the answer seems clear. Indeed, we go so far as to invite anyone who wishes to confess to the crime to contact this station, in the hopes that future atrocities may be averted. Thank you for listening to the Wizarding News Network, I'm Carolyn Finch, reporting."
Anne excuses herself to go cry in the bathroom—they've run out of tissues—and only then does she smile to herself, just for a moment. Whoever said Hufflepuffs were terrible liars—was quite right, really, but then Anne didn't lie; all she said was true. This was all the Gryffindors' fault.
Well—and the Abolition Act. But she isn't supposed to elaborate on that yet—Lily has a whole plan.
"Hey, guys," Vulpecula says softly, hesitantly. Anissa Goldstein, Miranda Shiplake, Colleen Corner, and Sally Simpkins all look up at her, look down again, and then look at various parts of the floor and walls.
Then they each do a double take and look back up at Vulpecula's companion. The girl is about their own age, with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, grey eyes, pale skin and an aristocratic nose that dominates her face and makes her look stuck up. Other than the nose and the much fairer complexion, she looks a lot like Vulpecula. She's dressed in very fashionable looking black robes, with lace at the hem, neck, and sleeves. She's looking down at her shoes (also very fashionable) as though she's nervous.
"This is my cousin, Eve," Vulpecula says. "She's from France. Eve, that's Sally, Colleen, Miranda, and Anissa, my roommates." And she stops talking, as though she can't bear to say another word, and walks over to her bed, pulling the curtains closed.
All of them—even Sally—give Vulpecula's closed curtains a sympathetic look. Then, Vulpecula's roommates, who were never entirely enamored of Lily Potter—Miranda thought she was okay, but Anissa and Colleen didn't care, and Sally hated her-turn back to Eve, ready to interrogate her.
"So Eve," Sally asks brightly, "What are you doing here? I mean, don't you, like, go to school in France?"
"Oui—I mean yes," says Eve shyly. "But my parents thought zat I should try 'Ogwarts, to see if I like it better. The arrangements were all made many months ago, of course," she adds significantly, glancing toward Vulpecula's curtains.
"Of course," says Colleen comfortably. "So what year are you in?"
"Zis is my second," says Eve.
"Are you a Malfoy?" asks Sally. "I mean, how are you related to Vulpecula? I thought her dad didn't have any siblings."
"Yeah, and her mom's sister is Daphne Greengrass, who married Justin Finch-Fletchley and then got divorced, like, immediately," gossips Anissa. "Their son's two years older than us—Sam Finch-Fletchley?"
"Ooh, he's a hottie," giggles Colleen.
"Vulpecula is actually my father's father's brother's great-granddaughter," Eve rattles off. "We are zird cousins."
"And you…know about Lily?" Miranda asks, speaking for the first time.
"Yes," Eve nods. "Zis is very sad, no? To lose such a friend?" She looks toward Vulpecula's curtains again.
They all follow her gaze, going sober for a moment, and then Anissa shrugs and asks, "So, Eve, what're the spring fashions in Paris? Tell us everything!"
Eve smiles shyly and perches carefully on the only empty bed—the extra one, pushed under the window. It used to have Lily Potter's green and silver entrelac blanket, hopelessly unmade every morning with stacks of books and precariously perched ink bottles everywhere. Now it is anonymous, and only Miranda even notices that Lily has been replaced so quickly.
The other girls are soon lost in a happy world of satins and lace, Eve giggling shyly whenever they press her for more information. It's obvious she's never been part of a group like this, and Sally, Colleen and Anissa feel they are not only learning important information, but also doing a good deed, bringing Eve into the fold.
After all, she probably was supposed to spend time with her cousin—but Vulpecula won't be much fun for the foreseeable future. The girls are doing Eve and Vulpecula a favor, taking the blonde French girl under their wing.
Only Miranda wonders what Vulpecula must be thinking right now—and whether this whole Eve thing could possibly be worse timed. Is Lily forgotten so easily?
"I'm afraid it's true," Melanie Jordan says. She isn't crying, but her determined stoicism is almost worse than tears—or better, as far as Rowena Wheeler is concerned. How she got both the Head Boy and Girl to agree to an interview with her about the allegations of foul play by Gryffindor House in Lily Potter's murder—!
Well, it's definitely a coup, especially if she plays it right. "Care to elaborate?" Rowena asks, looking first at Melanie and then at Louis Weasley, sitting beside her. "Are you saying that Miss Potter's death was indeed the work of students under your own charge—Gryffindors getting a little too serious with the hazing, that is?"
"It's more than that," Louis says heavily. "I'm afraid…it's not just any one of them. The blame has to lie on all of us. We were so carried away in our campaign to get the Slytherins out of our dormitories—" he shrugs, and Rowena is quick to jump on his words.
"So you think the Abolition Act was a trigger for this tragedy?" she asks, Quick Quotes! Quill poised.
"Absolutely," Melanie says, leaning forward. "You have to believe us, we're good people ordinarily—but the Slytherin Invasion was just too much for some people. They—we—well, this is awful, but some people blame Miss Potter for—well, everything. You-Know-Who and everything. Which is ridiculous, I mean, she's Harry Potter's daughter! But one Slytherin in a room full of Gryffindors—"
"It's like instinct just kicks in," Louis agrees solemnly. "No choice. We're still programmed to fight Death Eaters, and we just don't get that the Slytherins—they're just kids. They can't keep up with us."
"And Lily paid the price," Melanie says sadly.
"Wow," Rowena murmurs, making sure she has all of it down. "This is going to be some story!" In her mind's eye, she sees the headline: Death by Abolition: Why The Ministry Should Have Left Well Enough Alone, and the Little Girl Who Paid the Price.
"I just hope this never happens again," Melanie says.
"As do we all," Louis agrees. "Lily—we are truly sorry."
"Oh, my Godric," Harry Potter breathes, staring at the parchment in front of him. He's so angry he can't even shout, a first for him, and at the same time completely flabbergasted. How could this happen?
"I thought she was in Azkaban!" Hermione Weasley exclaims. "Kingsley, how could you not warn us—!"
"She did it," Ron Weasley says, an uncharacteristically ugly look on his face. "Umbridge murdered Lily."
"I'll kill her," Harry says matter-of-factly. Hermione and Ron exchange looks, never having actually seen Harry get so angry he becomes calm again.
"Harry, you know I can't let you do that—" Kingsley says uncomfortably.
"Make an exception, just for me," Harry says bitterly. "Everyone does—why not now?"
"There has to be another way—" Hermione says determinedly. She's shaken, but she's sure she can find evidence that Umbridge deserves to be in Azkaban for the next eternity. Hermione has no idea how she got out of there in the first place.
"No. She took my daughter!" Harry says, still not raising his voice. "Kingsley, I'm sure the Cruciatus Curse isn't always Unforgiveable. I'll be back," and he prepares to Disapparate.
"No, Harry, wait!" Ron and Hermione say together. "This isn't the way!" But Harry is gone.
Scared, Ron and Hermione turn back to Kingsley. "He's planning to torture her to death," says Ron, a look of awed horror on his face.
"Don't repeat this," Kingsley says hesitantly, "But, if it were my Ainslie or Alexis…well, I'd probably do the same thing."
"At least he doesn't know where she is," Hermione says hopefully.
The record of Umbridge's involvement in the Abolition Act and her subsequent trip to Hogsmeade and the Shrieking Shack—and the droplets of soul-transference potion spattered on the walls—lies before them damningly.
Apparently, Umbridge tried and failed to exchange her soul with Lily's, killing her in the process. Harry certainly knows where Umbridge was.
For her safety—and Harry's criminal record—Hermione rather hopes she's not there anymore.