Chapter 2: Starting the Council
"Alright, for those of you who don't know, the Council is the rightful ruler of British Wizarding world. Mr. Potter, if you would." Harry stood up.
"As representative of the House of Aragorn, I hereby reinstate the Council of Istari," Harry said.
"If the Council is the rightful ruler of the British Wizarding world, then why doesn't everyone in the Wizarding world know about it?" Ginny asked.
"Dumbledore," Draco said, "The Council would put a stop to his plans, so he'd rather not have people learn of it. That's why it isn't taught about at Hogwarts. The Weasley's are nothing but Dumbledore's puppets, no offence to you, so if he asked, your parents probably wouldn't have told any of you about the Council. Your oldest brother might know of it, but that's a pretty slim chance."
"Draco's right," Harry said, "Dumbledore doesn't want the council back. He's a manipulative old codger."
"And you're just now figuring this out Potter?" Blaise said.
"No, I've actually known since Dumbledore started spreading around rumors that I'm 'going dark'," Harry said, using his fingers to make quotes.
"So how exactly was the council made?" Susan asked.
"A long time ago," Neville started, "Earth was called Middle-Earth. I won't go into specifics, but it's main inhabitants were Elves, Dwarves, Men, Goblins, and Orcs. Near the ending of Middle-Earth there was a quest to destroy a ring of great and evil power that was owned by the Dark Lord Sauron. This ring was the only reason Sauron was alive at all and it was believed to be a horcrux.
"A group of nine set out. Four Hobbits; Meriadoc, Peregrin, Frodo, and Samwise; Two Men; Aragorn, and Boromir; A Dwarf; Gimili; An Elf; Legolas; and a Wizard; Gandalf. They successfully completed their quest and Sauron was killed with only one casualty within the nine: Boromir. Two-hundred years later, as Middle-Earth was nearing it's end, decedents of the remaining eight created the Council of Istari.
"The houses were named for each member of the group, except for Boromir. He had died after falling to the ring's power. They did however name a house for his younger brother, Faramir, who went up against the ring's power and did not fall. There were houses named for Arwen and Eowyn, the wives of Aragorn and Faramir respectively, and a house named for Arwen's father, Elrond, who was an Elven Lord. The Council added the houses of Fabian and Gideon around a thousand years later, for their help in destroying the current Dark Lord, even though it cost them their lives. The sons of Fabian and Gideon were the first to hold seats in those Houses.
"They ruled until about seven hundred years ago, when the representative of the House of Aragorn had died of old age. The next in line for the Council seat was too young to take it at the time. He was three, I think. Before he could reinstate the Council when he became of age, he was killed. The next in line after him was also killed before reinstating the Council. After that, people just quit trying, and the Ministry, which was built to rule in the time that the representative of the House of Aragorn was too young to reinstate the Council, was made permanent."
"Wow," Hermione said, "Even I didn't know that much about the Council." Neville smiled, sheepishly.
"Where'd you learn all that?" Daphne asked, astounded. Neville blushed.
"My Gran," Neville said, "And she made absolutely sure I would never forget it. She quizzes me on it at random intervals."
Cornelius Fudge paled at the letter in front of him. He recognized the owl. Harry Potter was the only one with a white owl. He had thought that maybe Harry had come to his senses and was going to give him information on Dumbledore. But no. No, the letter stated the return of the Council of Istari, and his ensuing suspension. They would be coming in two days. Damn…he was, most definitely and assuredly, screwed.
The Minister was not the only one to receive a letter telling of the return of the Council. Several others did as well, including the heads of prominent families: Lucius Malfoy, Aberforth Dumbledore, and Jacob Zabini among them.
Lucius Malfoy paled as he read the letter, until he got to the part where the names were listed. A smirk grew on his face as he read his son's name as well as a few other Slytherins. Looks like he would easily control part of the council.
Aberforth Dumbledore read through the letter and smiled. It was about damn time that the Council returned. Of course, there was no law stating that he had to tell his younger brother. Let the brat find out the hard way.
Jacob Zabini blinked and reread the letter. So that's why Blaise took a portkey to Gringotts. Sneaky little brat.
Madam Malkin squealed, quite similar to a fangirl, when the goblin told her what he wanted her to do. She was to make the uniforms for the Council of Istari, although she only had a day (timeturners were useful on orders like this). The colors for the Council were silver and midnight blue. After leading the fourteen members to the back of her shop, she took measurements of each of them. While she started worked on the uniforms, the fourteen of them split up into their own groups.
Hermione and Harry continued reading the book until they got a passage that stated "all representatives of the House of Aragorn and House of Arwen are either related or married." upon which they stopped reading, and blushed brightly. Seamus and Dean got a hold of the book after that and started teasing the two of them. Draco was talking to Ginny, under the watchful eyes of Fred and George. Blaise had become enraptured with Luna, and was currently discussing the finer points of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, even though he had no clue what they were. Daphne was talking about the Council's history with a blushing and stuttering Neville, not that she wasn't blushing herself. Susan and Cho were talking in hushed voices with occasional glances and sly smiles at the oblivious Weasley twins who were still keeping an eye on Draco and Ginny.
"You realize I'm not going to be able to spy on the Order for you anymore, right?" Hermione asked quietly. Seamus and Dean were now reading the book, sitting closer together than normal.
"It's alright. I already know who's against me. We'll just find someone who's for me to do it," Harry replied. "We need some way to get information out to the public that can't be distorted by opinion too."
"We could do our own newspaper," Hermione said. "The Daily Prophet is known for writers like Skeeter that will just make things up if it's false; the Quibbler is thought by most of the Wizarding World to be a load of crock; and the Wireless is just a commentary – they don't report the news, merely give their opinions on it. All three are already tainted by some type of opinion, so we make our own."
"Sounds good to me, but how do we do it?"
"We'll start by asking the goblins.
Alexander Jimbly was a thirty-three year old muggleborn. His parents had died in a car accident right after he graduated from Hogwarts. Disheartened, he still tried to go through with his dream to open his own Newspaper, one that wouldn't be as opinionated as others that were around. He had taken out a loan from the goblins – a large loan to be paid back within a year – only to have his paper flop when the Ministry put it down hard after getting a large bribe from a pureblood enthusiast.
The goblins had been uncharacteristically understanding, giving him ten years to pay back the loan instead of one. That ten years was up today, so he wasn't surprised when goblin guards surrounded him and dragged him to Gringotts Bank. And if he wasn't mistaken, the pureblood who had bribed the Ministry in the first place was standing just down the street, smirking. He was put in a room with the goblin that had given him the loan in the first place – Goldteeth – and the Head of the Bank.
"Look, I know time is up, but it's just a few thousand more galleons. I can make it up if I had another year," Alex said. He expected the goblin to snarl before demanding his head as payment or maybe one of a thousand other scenarios that had rolled through his mind as the due date got closer.
"You're loan has been paid off by Harry Potter," Goldteeth said, grinning. Alex definitely wasn't expecting that.
"What?"
"He said, I paid your loan off," a voice from behind him said. Alex turned to see the Boy-Who-Lived smiling at him. "I have a deal for you – one that would make both of us happy."
Alex could hardly believe his luck. Not only had Harry Potter – HARRY FREAKING POTTER! – paid off his debt to the goblins, he was giving Alex a chance to start up his dream again. A newspaper that would only print the truth.
The girl, Hermione Granger, had explained about the Council of Istari and how they needed a newspaper to help them talk to the public, without all opinions of the writers getting in the way, or opinions of the readers of the paper. Everything had been set up already, and now he was in a conference room with the whole Council, planning the name of the paper.
"It has to be something that would make people buy the paper, even if they don't really want to read it," Harry said.
"Yeah, something that would make it look like they were smarter than they actually are," Ginny said.
"Something catchy, with 'Istari' in the name," Blaise said.
"Istari Times?" Neville offered.
"Good, but not that catchy," Fred said. "I've got it. The Istari Intellectual!"
"It would definitely make anyone who read it seem smarter," Draco said.
"I like it," Harry said. "Anybody vote a nay on this one?" No one did. The name of the newspaper had been agreed on.
"Now, how do we get everyone interested in buying it?" Cho asked.
"During the first week, we send it to everyone for free, along with a form in the back to be put on the mailing list, as well as the price. What would the price be?"
"It'll be ten Knuts or so to produce every paper, depending on the size, and then you definitely will want to make a profit."
"The Prophet is only a few Knuts a day though, and that's pretty big," Seamus said.
"They cheat," Alex said, "They only print one copy, and then use spells to duplicate it and send the duplicates out. The Ministry owns the Prophet, and they want to make as much money as possible over it. But each copy only lasts a few days at the most."
"I want ours to last," Harry said. "A Sickle per paper?"
"That's a good price," Luna said. "Copies of the Quibbler sell for 5 Sickles every week."
"We could do free weekend copies for those on the mailing list," Daphne suggested.
"What about those who couldn't afford a Sickle a day?" George asked.
"Hmm…we have a subscription payment service. They get the paper for a year and pay it off when they can afford to, and then end up only paying fifteen Knuts per paper instead of a full Sickle," Neville said.
"That works," Harry said. "Now we need to find some journalists that are capable of writing without putting their own opinion in it."
"I've already taken care of that," Goldteeth said, placing a paper in front of Harry. "This is a list of witches and wizards who just graduated their journalism classes. They have either no affiliation, or little affiliation at all, with Dumbledore, Voldemort, and the Ministry. There are only ten right now, but there are others that are still being screened."
"This is great," Harry said, passing the paper around.
"Hey Harry?" Dean asked, "What about a kids section of the paper? To make it more appealing to people with younger kids."
"We could have all sorts of neat activities for the kids to do," Susan said.
The Order of the Phoenix was in a frenzy. They had misplaced not only Harry Potter, but Hermione Granger, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Ginny Weasley. Molly Weasley was hysterical, and no one could calm her down. Anyone who tried got a fry pan thrown at them, and after the first few concussions, the other members of the Order gave up.
Dumbledore had, with his grandfatherly mask on, said that Harry must have finally snapped and kidnapped the other four to torture them or commit some other dastardly deed upon. The Order members, save the few that believed in Harry, soaked it right up, and started calling for Harry's head. Dumbledore calmed them.
"We will have to find him. He must be saved from himself," Dumbledore said. "I will leak out that he is missing to the Prophet. I expect it will be in a special evening edition." The Daily Prophet only had evening edition when such important news happened that it couldn't wait till the morning.
Dumbledore was only partially right. There was an evening edition of the Prophet, but it didn't say anything about Harry Potter being missing – quite the opposite in fact.
Potter Reinstates Council of Istari
By: Rita Skeeter
Our very own Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, is not only the heir to the Potter Family, but also the Lord of House Aragorn of the Council of Istari. He has chosen to reinstate the Council, only hours before letters went out to all Family Heads and several important people at the Ministry of Magic.
Dumbledore read the rest of the article and fumed. This would not be good for his plans.
If anything is confusing, leave it in a review or PM me and I'll try to explain it more in the next chapter. This is part of a huge update of all my unfinished stories. This being story number twenty of twenty-seven. Only seven more stories to write, and then I start posting the chapters. Yay! Read and Review please! Smiles!
Rune