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Chapter 31: Public Knowledge

It seemed that thanks to Luna's editorial piece there was an up roar about the lack of professionalism in the wizarding world of journalism. Yet the girl centre stage in the media circus was trying to go on with life as normal in public but in private she was extremely upset. The only warning she got about the piece was a clipping on the day delivered to her apartment via Tinky with a short note from Luna explaining why she had written the piece and not told her until it was printed. Hermione did not want the media attention as she did not want to be the focus of gossip.

The stress of trying to maintain her professionalism made the last week almost unbearable for her. There were the looks of pity. There were the sudden silences when she entered a room that turned into hushed whispers when they thought she was out of earshot. Then the icing on the cake was the uniformed intrusive questions that she found to be particularly rude. It was her personal details not everyone's business.

The Gryffindor witch did not need to be reminded that as a Spinal Cord Injury she could have some issues with pregnancy and higher risks for kidney and bladder infection. Hermione did not need the sanctimonious false sympathy of those who did not have a clue of what she had to endure every day and what the implication of having a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia meant. Those holier-than-thou former peers like Lavender Brown and Parvarti Patil seemed to think that she was an asexual individual and now critiqued her on her unsuitability for marriage. "Yes it was a good thing the injury had happened to her since Hermione was the know it all Bookworm who did not have an ounce of passion except for dry dusty books" was one comment she had the unfortunate pleasure of overhearing. Tack was a non-existent idea for all most all the student population.

Hermione had cried herself to sleep every night since the Monday release of the Quibbler and the associated second article in the Daily Prophet by that pesky bug Rita Skeeter. The second Skeeter written article after the first expose on the Sunday had basically aired all her dirty laundry out in the press. It had been a scathing attack in wizarding world daily's front page that just reconfirmed that the blindly ignorant sheep following masses that Hermione Granger was a sluttish fame whore who was totally self centred that did not care whom she trampled over. There were also snide allegations that she was not really a war heroine but rather an obnoxious fan girl who was the ultimate example of a glory hound. The gory intimate details could only have come from one place: Ronald Weasley and his fan girl psychopathic sister, Ginny.

It was with appreciative relief for Hermione that Friday finally arrived and the students send off on the Hogwarts Express had been completed. Hermione interestingly observed the silliness of the staff as they let off steam and celebrated the students' return home. There had been two students who did not have somewhere to go for Christmas and Harry upon hearing of their circumstances as war orphans immediately offered an invitation to his home for the seasonal holiday. The two students had been seen off on the train with the rest of the student body and Harry was meeting them at Kings Cross. Hopefully these two young first years would get on better with their peers in the future but it looked like Harry had quasi adopted them into his eclectic self made family that was the Potter Lupin Granger household.

oOoOo

The Staff Christmas luncheon was a bit of riotous affair and the Kriskindle reveal produced uncontained laughter for all. It was a strange experience for Hermione to hear Severus Snape repeated bursts of laughter as she had six years of memories of his biting anger from classes with him. The sound of his laugh was one of the best rewards the young witch had for saving his life. It was wonderful that this man who had suffered so much could now laugh so easily. Hermione knew that the stored memory would make a good way for dispelling her glumes like those she had over the last week with the media circus.

Miss Granger had Pomona Sprout for her Kriskindle recipient so the muggle born witch had acquired the green fingered witch a cress seed head pot. The Herbologist had a boisterous gwaffle of laughter on opening the gift and proceeded to use her magic to speed up the growth of the plant so she shortly had after watering the terracotta pot supported a mop head sitting in front of her place setting on the table.

Hermione's gag gift was a bicycle bell and what appeared to be a large whippy rainbow bike flag. She looked at Severus to see if it was him and there was no hint. Remus and Tonks had no sign that they were culprits but rather inquisitive looks of their own wondering who was brave enough to give the gag gift to the young witch. Looking round the table she was wondering who it was and suddenly Ken Thompson's wife Bonnie giggled and she had her culprit. The next thing she found the items were attached to her wheelchair and Filius had added to it by giving her click clacks on the spokes of her wheels.

Some of the purebloods and half bloods of the staff didn't quiet get what the joke was about but Hermione had a laugh. The witch remembered her first bicycle and her father teaching her to ride it. At least they had not given her pink and purple tassels for her handlebars. She did a double take to make sure that she did not have tassels on her wheelchair.

The distribution of the gifts was completed and everyone had enjoyed their luncheon main meal. There was a bit of seat swapping as different members of staff were catching up with each other when Bonnie came and sat down next to Hermione.

"I believe it was you who gifted me the bike accessories," inquired Hermione with a raised eyebrow and a barely contained grin of laughter.

"Yeap I had to do it and Poppy here I believe will thank me for it. According to Ken you have a habit of running students down on your made dashes down corridors. However I am not taking the blame for the click clacks," she advised Hermione.

"That would be Filius I recognised his delicate charms touch any where. I heartily approve of the safety device additions; hopefully I wont get many more tyre track patients in the infirmary. After the golden trio years here I was hoping that the workload would have decreased this year but no I now have trio members sending me patients rather than being the patients themselves. I still have the name label on Mr Potter's bed since he seems to live here" informed Poppy.

After a lovely little chat with both women Hermione excused herself from the pair of matrons and wheeled herself round the table down to where Filius was sitting.

"What on earth is that god awful noise?" inquired Minerva.

"That would be the click clacks. I remember them from my childhood on the spokes of the choppers in our neighbourhood. If you had a bike it was a chopper and the coolest choppers all had click clacks. The really posh bike owners had click clacks which would light up at night when they rode their bikes," reminisced Severus.

"Thank you for your lovely additions to my wheels but do you think you can either silence them or take them off as I really don't want to go out in public with click clacks on my wheels please" asked Hermione.

"Certainly" Filius agreed with her taking off her noisy spoke accruements and even gave her the flag and bell all packed up for her so she could add them easily to her wheelchair backpack.

They were called back to order and a short seasonal staff meeting was held over coffee and dessert. Just at the end of the meeting Severus called on Minerva for her special agenda item.

"As a Head of House I am always pleased when one of my cubs does well on their examinations. Recently Hermione completed her NEWTs and I have her final grades. It is my pleasure to announce her graduation from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she advised before she moved round the table to where Hermione was sitting to give her a scroll and an envelope.

Opening the envelope Hermione got to read her grades on her exams and was shocked to find that she had received all Outstandings for all her subjects. Filius moved round to Hermione and gave her another gift along with a boxed medallion. "Today we are awarding you the Ravenclaw prize for your exceptional marks. The only other recipient in the last 100 years was our current headmaster when he graduated. By the way Severus she tied with you for your potions score but overall she has a higher total number of marks".

"That's because the Know-it-all witch has done every sodding subject and then some" he snarked. To which many of the staff laughed before he turned to Hermione to say his own congratulations. "Just so you are not surprised I thought I should let you know that your marks will be printed tomorrow in the Daily Prophet. They did it to me when I got the Ravenclaw prize. I did not want you to be surprised like I was," he advised her.

"So I can not seem to go a couple of days before getting back into news print. Do you think they will ever calm down about me?" she inquired hoping he would have some idea if she would ever not be living in a goldfish bowl.

"They will but you also need to develop a thicker skin to the barbs and arrows that you will attract. Jealous people often lash out those whom they don't understand or they believe don't have the right to be happier than themselves," he advised her thinking of her not so loyal friend the red headed walking food disposal unit, Ronald Weasley.

It was not all sweetness and light at the luncheon as the Slytherin Head of House Marcus Turner was muttering his annoyance about the focus on the young witch. "So what! She pass her exams you don't have to waste our time with this who ha!"

oOoOo

After flooing in from Hogwarts with Tinky, Hermione checked with Kreacher and Winky that everything was ready for the mass arrivals of houseguests who would be staying for the Christmas break. Some were work colleagues like Ken and Bonnie Thompson and others were considered family such as the Weasley Twins and Charlie. The older Weasley brothers were all apparently in the doghouse with their mother and had accepted Harry's invitation to his Orphan's Christmas House party. Harry was picking up the two first year orphans, Duncan and Ryan, from the station and then was going to take the boys shopping in Diagon Alley to help complete the Christmas shopping for the large household.

Hermione greeted the various guests as they arrived ticking them of from the master room allocation plan that they had. Tinky had whipped through her apartment and now it seemed to gleam and sparkle with Christmas decorations. Bonnie and Ken were in their guest suite and former members of the Order like Poppy, Minerva and Severus had all moved into rooms on the third floor. Charlie Weasley had arrived from Romania earlier in the day so after a nap he joined Hermione in the welcoming role helping to sort out the guests. Harry phoned to let Hermione know that he could do with a pick up on Charing Cross Road in about half an hour. Leaving Charlie alone on welcoming duty she waved her keys as she headed out to the garage to go and get Harry and the two boys from Diagon Alley.

Driving in the car she enjoyed the relative peace that herself and the car radio created. Hermione was still angry with Luna and she had recognised who the other blabbers were from the details and quotes but she did not want to fight over Christmas. When she pulled up near the entrance to Diagon Alley on Charing Cross Road Hermione observed that Luna was with Harry and the two first years. It was a little tense in the car drive back to the house as Hermione did not make a comment about anything rather she drove on in total silence.

Herding the boys into the main house Hermione introduced the two Muggle born wizards to house elves. Kreacher was excited to have Master Harry's guests arrive that he hustled them and Luna into the lift along with Harry and their shopping to the second floor.

Checking with Charlie and Tinky Hermione confirmed that most of the guests had arrived and there was only Draco and Pansy that they were waiting for to finish the list of arrivees.

oOoOo

There was a phone call from Draco to Hermione and she just advised, "Bring her too. The more is the merrier. It seemed that Kingsley had given Draco an early Christmas present with the release of Narcissa from detention. When the Lady Malfoy arrived in her former family home she was surprised to be greeted warmly by Kreacher and Hermione.

Taking the lead Hermione guided the Slytherin party into her apartment where she proceeded to ask Tinky to draw a bath for Narcissa. Pansy went out to the Floo and whipped out to do some urgent errands so that Narcissa had something nice to change into when she got out of the bath.

oOoOo

Harry knew that Hermione was upset and little miffed at Luna over the Quibbler article but it had really helped in the last week to challenge the perspectives of the wizarding world particularly about the truth of what the Daily Prophet was publishing. It seemed that the article had made people discuss the press and while some were readily accepting of the trash that Rita Skeeter had published like the sheep they where others in the magical community were more questioning.

Harry hoped that he would get back into Hermione's good books soon but he could not tell about what he knew was happening as he was only a junior Auror. Nope it had to come from someone well above his pay grade. Hopefully Kingsley would get all his ducks in a row soon and sort it out as he really missed their easy comradeship. He was worried about how morose she had become in the last week and the icy exchanges in the car journey back from Charing Cross Road were bitingly cold.