Chapter 40
The next morning was a Monday and Harry had to get up early for work. He got up quietly and showered and dressed. He traveled down to the kitchen as quiet as he could and opened the door silently and crept into the kitchen. When he turned around he saw James and Sirius grinning at his stealthy behavior.
Harry rolled his eyes and stood up straight.
"What are you guys doing up so early?" he asked them as he headed over to the pantry and grabbed a box of cereal.
"We're going to head over to Godrics Hollow and do some clean up in the yard and around the house. Your mum wants to start the garden again soon and get the house up and running like we had it before. I wanted to get an early start today because Kingsley wanted Sirius to come in and give a full testimony. He said he was going to get your memories from you and your testimony about Peter during your lunch meeting," said James as Harry took a huge bite of cereal.
Harry chewed and swallowed before answering.
"I didn't know he'd scheduled a lunch meeting today. Did the Prophet come?" he asked.
"Oh yeah, it came…I don't think your going to like what your old friend Rita Skeeter had to say," replied Sirius from behind the paper. Harry groaned.
"Rita who?" asked James. "What did she say?"
"Rita Skeeter is a reporter out to make life a living…er, to make my life difficult," Harry finished sheepishly. Having been called on the swearing issue a few days earlier he'd been trying to cut back in front of his friends and family. His fellow Auror trainees had gotten him into the bad habit and he was finding it hard to stop.
"Don't worry about swearing in front of us two. Just watch it when your mum's around," said James smiling. "Why is she out to make your life difficult?" he asked returning to the subject.
"I don't know why, just that she enjoys ruining peoples lives for a story. In my fourth year we met at Hogwarts. She was doing the interview for the Prophet on the Tri-Wizard contestants. She just wanted my life story for the fact that she'd get a lot of attention and more publicity. She has no morals and doesn't care about stooping to illegal means to get a story. The juicer the better, and if it makes a good person look bad she loves it even more. Tell you what, ask Hermione, when you see her, what her opinion of Rita Skeeter is. I'll read that now, please," he said as Sirius put down the paper next to his plate.
"Are you sure kiddo? It's not very nice. I don't want it to ruin your day," he said thoughtfully.
"Better I see what it says before I have coworkers recite it to me and have no idea what they're talking about." Harry took the paper and opened it up and read.
Minister Overlooks Crime and Potter Harbors Known Fugitive
Harry Potter, savior of the Wizarding world, was at a Press Conference yesterday. The subject of the PC? James and Lily Potter are alive and well and didn't die seventeen years ago on that fateful Halloween night.
According to what Interim Minister Shacklebolt says, "Albus Dumbledore was informed of an attack that was to happen on Halloween [1981] in the Potters home in Godric's Hollow. He traveled there with an experimental spell that would place someone in a magical coma…The reason he didn't bring forth this spell while he was alive was because this was a blood ritual and he wasn't sure that it was a good idea to use it..."
Everyone who has read this reporter's novel The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, all know how prone to illegality Albus Dumbledore was. As long as he thought it was for the "greater good" it was okay for him to do. We are all taught that Blood Rituals are banned in Great Britain and many other countries in the world, because of the Dark nature of them, yet Dumbledore used one anyways.
When asked if the ritual was illegal, Interim Minister Shacklebolt went on to say that, "Even if it was illegal, Albus Dumbledore is dead, so there [won't] be any real repercussions towards him anyways." After answering the question as quickly and evasively as he could, the Interim Minister went on to the next question, refusing to answer any more queries into the illegality of Dumbledore's action. What this implies to this reporter is that the Interim Minister is shunning his oath to protect our nation's population by casting aside crimes, just because he doesn't want to deal with the pressures of actually doing his job.
Further into the PC, someone in the audience asked the newly alive Potters if notorious Sirius Black, convicted Murdered of thirteen people and prisoner of Azkaban for twelve years, was really their Secret Keeper. This person, who was obviously planted in the audience to ask that specific question, was then answered negatively.
Harry Potter then stepped forward and told a particularly unmoving story of his third year when Black escaped from Azkaban, in ways still not known to the public, and was on the run for the last five years. He complained that Black was innocent and guilty of no crimes and didn't deserve the imprisonment of twelve years in Azkaban. Harry Potter ended his spiel with, "Now, maybe Sirius will come forward and he can be pardoned for the crimes he didn't commit." A man in the front row stood up and walked up to the stage, and revealed himself as Sirius Black in front of everyone, right in the heart of the Ministry of Magic.
Interim Minister Shacklebolt then proceeded to say, "[As an Auror] I was placed on the duty of finding Black and bringing him to justice. I could never find him…I asked Harry here to inform Sirius of this [PC] and tell him to come out of hiding and be here today…" This reporter finds this to be very fishy that the one man in charge of finding the Notorious Black for almost five years mysteriously couldn't locate a man who had no wand, no money and no friends or family to help him? But he just happens to know that Harry Potter knew where to locate Black and tell him to be at the Ministry, in a simple disguise that a child could counter, and did nothing about it when charged with finding and bringing to justice that very man?
How did Kingsley Shacklebolt become Minister, even for the Interim? He was a bad Auror who either didn't know how to do his job, or he purposely mismanaged the case he was on so as to mislead the other Aurors in their jobs. How can we accept this kind of poor leadership, corrupt ethics, and bad morals as our Minister?
Not only that, but how can he pass off the fact that Harry Potter knew where a highly wanted criminal was and didn't help the Ministry by informing them of the whereabouts of said criminal? Justice needs to be served and this reporter urges everyone who reads this article to send a letter to the Minister demanding him to act as a leader should and revoke the pardon on Black and punish Potter as the criminal he is. Savior or not, Potter needs to know he can't just get away with anything and everything, or we'll have another Dark Lord soon, by the name of Harry James Potter.
"Huh. I don't know whether to laugh at the audacity of this rag, or march down there and demand her termination as their reporter," Harry said before chuckling. Sirius was watching him carefully remembering the rants Harry used to go on regarding Skeeter's articles.
"Apparently, I'm going to go Dark soon. Better watch out, I might brand you guys with a Lightning Bolt and call you my minions. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!" he laughed. Sirius smiled.
"I don't know Harry, minions is a little outdated. You could call us Potter's Malevolent Predators," he said with a domineering pose.
"Nah, that's too many syllables. Death Eaters is three syllables, Malevolent Predators is seven. Way too much of a mouthful," said Harry with a straight face. James finished reading the article and looked at Harry.
"How can you joke about this? This…this…rag said you might become the next Dark Wizard!" James said as his voice raised an octave.
"I know dad. But the thing is, I have…well, Hermione has blackmail material on Skeeter. I'll have to talk to Kingsley and see what the damage is. If it's too serious and people are panicking I'll come forward about her being an unregistered Animagus and that she's just out to get me bad publicity. But first, I'll have to leave a note for Hermione. Please make sure she reads this article only if Ron is awake also. He knows how to calm her down and this will more than likely set her off big time," he said as he jotted down a quick note for her. He stuck it to the top of the newspaper with a light sticking charm and stood up.
"I best be off now. I'll see you guys later." He walked to the large fireplace and threw the dust in as his dad and Godfather said goodbye. Harry arrived at the atrium of the Ministry and was instantly shoved into the wall and jostled around.
He got his bearings and stood off to the side, what he saw shocked him. He saw signs in people's hands and people were shouting. The overall theme of the chaos was himself. He read a sign that said, "Rita Skeeter Went Too Far, May She Rot in Hell!" and "Harry Potter is a Hero, Not a Dark Lord!"
He chuckled and ducked through the crowd until he got to the lifts. He squeezed in beside a woman with brown hair and dimples.
"Looks like you have some fans out there, Mr. Potter," she said. He chuckled and nodded his head.
"Yeah, I'm just glad they didn't take that ridiculous article seriously. Rita Skeeter is a foul woman who deserves to have her quill snapped. All she does is try to ruin peoples lives or past careers."
"Can I put you on record of saying that, Mr. Potter?" she asked him. He looked at her and she smiled. "Wanda Ellington, Witch Weekly," she said as she stuck her hand out. He shook her hand warily.
"I don't know Ms. Ellington. I figure a quote of what I just said could get me into a pretty big, public war with someone who has uncanny abilities to find out every dark secret and bring it to light. I'd prefer if you'd keep quiet about what I just said, if you don't mind," he replied nervously. She laughed a tinkling laugh.
"Don't worry, Mr. Potter, I write the Relationship Advice column. Though your relationship history could make me a mint, I won't bother you. You deserve respect, you've earned it. But I might ask if I could say, off record of course, what you said to some other reporter friends who I know to hate Rita also. They'd get a kick out of it." Harry chuckled.
"As long as it stays off record I don't mind. But here's my stop. It was nice meeting you. Knowing that not all reporters are like Skeeter is refreshing."
"No problem, Mr. Potter, it was nice meeting you as well. Have a nice day," she replied as the lift doors shut.
Harry walked to the Auror Academy entrance and signed in. He slowly walked to class, hoping he wouldn't be hassled about the crowd in the Atrium.
James and Sirius finished breakfast and just as they were about to discuss what to do about the newspaper Ron walked in with Hermione. He was grumbling about being woken up too early and she was ignoring him. She poured herself a large steaming mug of Earl Grey tea and plopped down into the seat pulling the newspaper to her.
She stopped when she saw the note. She skimmed it then read it out loud to the room.
"Hermione," she read out loud. "Rita's at her old tricks again, and this time it's much nastier. Could you think of something? I'll talk to you later, have a good day. Don't read the article without Ron nearby, he'll want to hear it too. Harry."
"Bloody hell. Just what I wanted to wake up too," Ron mumbled. Hermione ignored him again and skipped straight to the article. Instead of skimming it she read it out loud to Ron. By the end, both were wide awake and fuming.
"I cannot believe that utter COW!" Hermione shrieked. "How did Harry react to this?" she demanded of Sirius. He shrank in his seat a little before answering.
"He laughed. Then told us to make sure you read it while Ron was in the same room," he said. James chuckled. Hermione stomped out of the room and Ron followed.
"I guess I'll see you guys in a few hours. It'll take that long for her to rant this out of her system," he whispered.
"That's relationships for you," replied Sirius. He and James walked to the fireplace and took turns Flooing to Godrics Hollow.
When they arrived they entered the living room and looked around. The place was very dusty and looked as if the inhabitants had just abandoned the place in the middle of their day. A short pile of books were stacked on the desk along with several documents and paperwork. A quill was sticking out of a dried up, blackened ink pot, the feather crumbling onto the desk below.
There were several baby toys littering the edge of the room, a little blue blanket was sitting folded on the sofa next to a toy dragon.
James walked to the sofa and picked up the dragon and stared at it for several minutes.
"James, I know this is going to be hard on you and Lily, coming back here, knowing what happened and why. But the important thing is to remember Harry is okay and so are you two. You did this for him, and it all turned out okay." James sighed and shook his head.
"Padfoot, you read that article this morning. My son is going to be followed around all his life with nut jobs either calling him a Dark wizard or trying to get a piece of him because of his fame. He's never going to have a normal life. I just can't help think what would have happened of Lily and I would have said no and fought Voldemort instead. Would we have had a normal life?" James asked.
Sirius saw the raw emotion in James eyes when he said this and knew that his friend, no matter how he hid his feelings from Harry and Lily, needed to talk to someone about this.
"No, James we know what would have happened if you'd have fought Voldemort that night. You died, both of you, and Harry was orphaned. That's why Dumbledore concocted this plan. This was the only way you could live and be with your son. It may not be the most normal relationships but like we're all fond of saying, Harry's life isn't exactly normal. And personally, normal is boring. Now, why don't we work on cleaning out seventeen years worth of dust from this room? Okay?" James looked at his best friend and smiled sadly.
"James, I'm here for you. You know that right? You can talk to me about stuff you don't want to share with your wife or son. I'm here to knock some sense in you, it's what best friends are for," Sirius said as he picked up a throw pillow and chucked it at James as hard as he could.
A plume of dust puffed in the space around James head. He emerged coughing and eyes watering.
"Prongs! Are you crying? Okay that's it, no more emotions today, not if you're going to go all girlie on me!" Sirius cried out as he backed away from James, laughing.
"You prat!" James shouted between coughs. Sirius was laughing when a different pillow smacked him in the face and he found himself in the same situation as James. The two laughed and started throwing pillows at each other after placing Bubble-Head charms on themselves.
Eventually, they calmed down enough to actually clean for a while before Sirius left to go talk to Kingsley and James went back to Grimmauld Place.
a/n: Okay so i was really bored and decided to get this chapter done much earlier than expected! Please let me know what you think of the Rita Skeeter article! I tried really hard on it, and i want to know if it sounds like her. I've never had to write a Rita article before. it was fun! Now i made an outline of all the memories and stuff harry should be telling his parents still, i want everyone to let me know, should it be a big part of the rest of the story or should i just skim through that now. Please review! You guys are awesome!!!