"This meeting has never taken place, you do understand that, do you not?" Rita Skeeter had never been intimidated by much of anyone in her life, but the look in Draco Malfoy's eyes promised things she wasn't at all willing to risk if the agreement was not forthcoming. Still…
"Well, if that's the case, why am I here?" She poised her Quick Quotes Quill over a piece of parchment with a smile. He simply stared at the Quill, and in a moment it stiffened then shattered over the page. She gasped, and looked at him with true concern now.
"You are here to get a very hot exclusive, Ms. Skeeter, and if you play your cards right there will be a book, probably two, in it for you as well. You will make an amazing amount of Galleons, and your fame will be absolutely secure. If, however, you give in to your rather nasty penchant for indiscretion and scandal I can assure you the loss of the money will be the least of your worries." She noted an Unbreakable Glass Terrarium sitting on his desk with some sort of exotic looking lizard in it. He noted where her gaze had fallen and smiled fondly at the creature.
"He's quite rare, you know, a species that only exists in a certain valley in Tanzania. His skin can of course change color to match his surroundings, as with most in that genus, but he also has the uncanny ability to project spines through his skin for protection, and they are quite toxic, hence the Unbreakable Glass, wouldn't want him loose about the place. Do excuse me for a moment, won't you?" he stepped to a sideboard and took a vial, tapping it with his wand, then strode back and dumped the contents into the lizards habitat. Several beetles cascaded down, and the lizard whipped about, catching the first one in its mouth with an eager crunch.
"Feeding time you know. Now, where were we?" She looked into his mercury eyes; there was no expression there, no threat, no emotion of any kind. She shuddered slightly and found her gaze drawn to the lizard again.
"I believe I understand perfectly Mr. Malfoy. What story did you wish to discuss?"
Traitor Death Eaters Memory Vials Recovered!
The headline screamed on the front of the Daily Prophet, not only above the fold, but at the top of the page. Hermoine frowned, sipping her cup of coffee, browsing down through the story.
Responding to recent rumors abounding in certain Ministry circles, an investigation was recently conducted at abandoned Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, Grimmauld Place in London. What the Ministry was hoping to find in the Order records is unknown, but a discovery made at the site by this reporter has raised several questions about the version of events leading to the Final Battle that were released by the Ministry ten years ago.
The discovery, made by the Prophet's own correspondent, Rita Skeeter, was a cask containing several bottled memories, which, upon further investigation, belonged to Professor Severus Snape, erstwhile Hogwarts Professor and proclaimed Death Eater, who fell at the Final Battle. Ministry statements at the time implicated Snape in the conspiracy to assassinate former Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Albus Dumbledore, a charge that was later dropped for lack of evidence. Snape was also said by the Ministry to have been a Death Eater for over twenty years; but, in a plea agreement with the Ministry agreed to assist in the downfall of the Dark Lord in exchange for a lighter sentence. While such an agreement seemed plausible at the time, the memories uncovered at the site tell a different story.
This reporter was moved to tears watching a memory of Professor Snape approaching Albus Dumbledore, pain of conscience on his face, asking to change sides, unable to live with what he had been forced to do in service of the Dark Lord. In a shocking revelation, we find that Snape began to spy for the Order of the Phoenix nearly seventeen years prior to the final battle!∫
Ministry officials have refused comment on this discovery, but the questions continue. Why did the Ministry conceal the actions of this brave agent? What other statements were made in the aftermath of battle that can be questioned? There are still many hours of memories that must be evaluated before the complete truth is revealed, and readers can look forward to being updated frequently as the story plays out.
The by-line was, of course, Rita Skeeter. Hermoine allowed the paper to drop from nerveless fingers, she stomach roiling. Stored Pensieve memories? She had had no idea anything like that even existed. And why had the Ministry been tearing Grimmauld Place apart again? Though abandonded and partially destroyed by a Death Eater assassination attempt on Harry a few weeks after the final battle, she had believed all the pertinent information removed years ago by the ministry themselves. Now she wondered. Had they simply taken what they thought they could use and left the rest, content that they could give whatever statement they liked? Were there records there that would have exonerated Severus, Draco and herself before any of it ever became an issue. She wanted to vomit.
Draco walked into the dining room at that moment and looked from the newspaper to her stricken face. She didn't notice the momentary look of regret cross his features before he knelt beside her chair, pulling her into his arms.
"I'm sorry love, it had to be a shock, I know." She pulled away after a moment, fighting back tears.
"It might have all been avoided. The bastards! If they had found all of it, if they'd really looked, it all might have been different!" He shushed her softly, his expression pensive over her head. She might have been correct, he acknowledged inwardly, had the cask truly been in Grimmauld Place as Skeeter had thought, but it had not. It had been secreted in a secret room in the tiny lab Severus had kept in his childhood home in Spinners End. Eli, Severus house elf had discovered the cask, as well as a stack of journals less than six months previously when the enchantment hiding the small cupboard finally faded. It was a testament to Severus power as a wizard that the wards had taken so long to fade, and Draco was extremely grateful to Eli for bringing them to him as Severus closest relation of any kind. He had bound the elf to Malfoy Manor in gratitude, after, in deference to Hermoine's strange notions on the subject, asking the elf if he would prefer to take clothes and gain his freedom. Eli had been appalled at the very notion, insisting that he would work for the young master if he liked, having no master any longer. Draco's offer to bind him was, to the house elf, more like an adoption into a new family, and he was happy to grant it. Malfoy Manor was a nightmare of upkeep, and Voldemort had dwindled their staff quite a bit in fits of temper, beheading elves simply for the enjoyment of it.
He had, of course, reviewed all the memories himself before planting them for the reporter to find, giving her the tip that would lead her to them, and instructing her in no uncertain terms in how they would be handled. Hermoine's disclosure to him of her unregistered animagus form had given him the perfect leverage to keep her in line, the threat of his new pet a far more effective leash on the vicious bitch than turning her in to the Ministry would ever be. It helped that he had no problem whatsoever in carrying out the implied threat, and she was perceptive enough to realize it.
He was still reading through the journals before allowing them to be found in a similarly obscure place. Rita would then have the material for her first book, and Severus, Hermoine, and his own reputation would be salvaged. Well, mostly at any rate. No one would take especially kindly to Hermoine's affair with Snape, he was still her professor at the time, and while the wizarding world had no problem with the significant age difference, after all, when one normally lived to be nearly two hundred, one tended to take the long view, and twenty years seemed quite paltry in the grand scheme of things. That more than anything was why the rules governing students and teachers were so strict. Wizards and witches tended to mature quickly and marry young. If such liaisons were permitted it could cause bloody havoc in a system that had been stable for over a thousand years.
Hopefully the extenuating circumstances would play in their favor, as would the fact that he was fairly certain that Hermoine had been the major aggressor in that arrangement. He knew his godfather well enough to know that he would have pined for her forever rather than make the first move. That was providing Hermoine would talk to the press about it later. He was certain she would come around to it, though, if only to shift the blame onto her own shoulders.
She shifted on his shoulder and he frowned at the guilt churning his stomach. He knew bloody well this had to be done, but her fight to hold back tears upset him far more than he would have liked. Certainly he cared for her, and was extremely possessive of her, but this guilt smacked of weakness he could still not afford. He sighed.
"Love, it's better it come out, you know that," he said, trying to distract her. She nodded, a finally a tear fell.
"I know, but he would be so humiliated! He was such a private person and to have his thoughts on display for that woman!" she shuddered.
"If it brought the truth into the open her would have done it."
"Bollocks. He would have sneered at the entire Ministry and told them to believe as they liked and bugger off." That startled a laugh from him and he could only nod.
"If it were only effecting him, yes, that is exactly what he would have done, but Skeeter said she is only partway through all the memories. If that's the case I am betting she's already viewed every single one and is simply working on the best angle to present the rest of what she saw. That woman loves nothing better than scandal, and the Ministry is a ripe target. She would make every Death Eater that ever walked look like a sad, targeted minority if it would sell more papers. And if she's already taking his case I would put as many Galleons as you like on the idea that she is going to make the Ministry into the villains. They have, after all, been censoring the press for quite a while. She should have quite the axe to grind."
His words were damn near prophetic. After two more revealing articles, Kingsley called in a favor and had the story squelched at the Prophet, only to have it taken up and continued the very next day by the Quibbler.
Severus, Draco and Hermoine's roles in the war were featured prominently, with the descriptions of the tortures they received at Voldemorts hands related in such detailed language that many people could not find the stomach to read the articles at table.
Wisely, he and Hermoine avoided the press during the run of the serial, Hermoine's haunted looks and his own closed, stiff expression in photos caught by paparazzi photographers spinning stories of them suffering through reliving the memories, and being unable to stand to comment on them. Even he could not believe the level of change in their standing that those few stories created, doors that had remained all but sealed to them with influential muggleborns reluctantly opening enough to finally speak. And once that happened Draco found, to his surprise, that he only had to be honest. Apparently he really had changed that much, he thought with some bemusement.