Chapter 45:
With the D.A. meetings, the piling of homework, classes, Quidditch and Harry and Alicia's extra Occlumency classes January had been and gone in the blink of an eye. With it meant the coming of February and Valentines Day, in which Harry was going to Hogsmeade with Cho.
Hermione and Alicia got to the Great Hall before Harry and Ron did, the two not arriving until the post. Hermione received a letter as an owl dropped before her, and was tugging it from the beak of the unfamiliar owl when the two boys sat down.
"And about time! If it hadn't come today…" she said eagerly, tearing open the envelope and pulling out a small piece of parchment. Her eyes sped from left to right as she read through the message and a grimly pleased expression spread across her face.
"Listen, Harry, Alicia," she said, looking up between the two of them. "This is really important… Do you think you could meet me in the Three Broomsticks around midday?"
"Well… I dunno," said Harry dubiously. "Cho might be expecting me to spend the whole day with her. We never said what we were going to do."
"Well, bring her along if you must," said Hermione urgently. "But will you come?"
"Well… all right,"
"Hermione I'm not even going into Hogsmeade today," Alicia admitted
"Well that's a shame I was going to ask if you'd like to join me." Fred said sitting beside her. Ron choked on his breakfast.
"Well unless you'd like to face Angelina when I don't turn up for tryouts." Alicia smirked slightly
"Well I'm sure if you need an escape we could give you one." Fred grinned
"Except she knows all about your little treats." Alicia said
"I don't see why you need to go." George said as he sat down "You're good enough without practice."
"Yes well, our beaters aren't and what's the point in training without—"
"Alicia, I need you to be in the Three Broomsticks at midday." Hermione demanded of her causing everyone to look surprised. "It's more important than you're training.
"Brilliant I guess you're coming with me then." Fred grinned, sharing a high-five with George
"But Angelina…"
"Tell her Snape's demanding you, she knows about your extra lessons." Harry said, although he didn't sound happy seeing as Alicia was being asked to ditch her Quidditch training when he couldn't even play.
"And when she hears about me being in Hogsmeade?" Alicia questioned with a raised eyebrow. "It's not like your absence will hinder much." Ron said and Alicia looked at them all.
"But it's a commitment…" she said beginning to feel guilty. "And Harry would kill me if I didn't." she pointed to him and they all looked at him.
"Look, an hour or two will not kill you." Hermione said
"But why?" Harry said before Alicia could say anything.
"I haven't got time to tell you now, I've got to answer this quickly —"
And she hurried out of the Great Hall, the letter clutched in one hand and a piece of uneaten toast in the other.
"So are you coming at all?" Harry asked Ron, but he shook his head, looking glum.
"I can't, Angelina wants a full day's training. Like it's going to help — we're the worst team I've ever seen. You should see Sloper and Kirke, they're pathetic, even worse than I am." He heaved a great sigh. "I dunno why Angelina won't just let me resign…"
"It's because you're good when you're on form, that's why," said Harry irritably.
Ron didn't mention Quidditch again during breakfast and when they were finished the three moved to the entrance hall where Ron and Alicia went to the Quidditch pitch and Harry moved to meet Cho to go to Hogsmeade.
"So, bale you out at lunch time?" Fred and George appeared on either side of Alicia making Ron jump.
Alicia looked at them both before turning to Fred who gave her that look to just do it.
"Fine." she agreed.
They beamed and Ron stared at them.
"But in time for Hermione and then we can go do what ever." she said strongly but the two twins grinned still as they nodded.
Ron and Alicia watched them walk off before the red-haired boy turned to Alicia.
"Is there something going on?" he asked
"Hmm?" she asked
"With you and Fred?"
"No." she shrugged and moved off towards the Quidditch pitch.
Angelina had them up in the air in no time but within a few minutes rain started to fall. Alicia scored more goals past Ron than she could count but at the same time Ron saved more goals than he had before. Angelina, Katie and Alicia, the three chasers, moved up and down the pitch with the Quaffle, working in harmony as usual.
Unfortunately Sloper and Kirke couldn't seem to hit a bludger to save their lives. They swung wildly and Kirke even dropped his bat at one stage while Slope slopped down into the mud off his broom.
Ginny however was a brilliant flier. Even in the rain she managed to catch the snitch many times and her skills were worth being appreciated and complimented.
It didn't matter that the rain turned into a downpour, it was light enough to see and so it was light enough to play. They ended up so muddy and wet within the first half an hour that they were feeling rather heavy. Alicia's impervious charm was placed on everyone but by that time they were all wet and dirty anyway.
Eventually Alicia saw Fred and George waving at her from the floor. The two had been sitting in the stands observing and, ignoring her teammates, she flew down to see them, landing with a splash of mud.
"Alright boys, what's your plan?" she asked as Angelina shouted at her.
"It's simple really." the two shrugged.
Alicia gapped in surprised as George suddenly snatched her firebolt and the two ran off with it!
She stood there staring, her arm extended and her mouth hanging open.
"Alicia!" Angelina demanded "What are they doing?"
"They stole my broom!" she replied shocked, she was actually feeling slightly annoyed at this fact as well.
"So go get it!" Alicia turned to her surprised
"Do you have any idea how long that might take?" she asked over the rain
"You've been teaching us how many spells, do one!" Angelina demanded
"Angelina if I do a spell against them I can guarantee Umbridge will find out and I'll be off the team too." Alicia said obviously. Angelina looked off after where the twins had vanished.
"Do they want us to loose!?" she shrieked
"Have you seen those beaters?" Alicia wondered with a raised eye as Ginny had joined them while Ron blocked a goal from Katie.
Angelina looked ready to cry and to kill the twins. Alicia shrugged at her, unable to think of anything to do, before she turned and moved off through the rain after the twins.
It wasn't hard to find them.
"Knew it'd work." Fred grinned to George.
"Yeah but she'll kill you." Alicia said as she shook her hair, sending water all over the Entrance Hall.
"Well, nothing can make those two dunderheads you call beaters, better." George mumbled and Alicia could sense the irritation behind it.
"Still, she's gone through heaps thanks to Umbridge, she doesn't need us messing it up too." Alicia mumbled before turning to the marble staircase, taking her broom back from George.
"Where you going?" Fred asked
"Shower." Alicia replied simply "Get the mud off then we can go to Hogsmeade." she grinned at them before hurrying up the stairs.
Alicia was back down the stairs and rejoining the twins within twenty minutes before they began to trudge their way down towards Hogsmeade.
Alicia pulled her wand out and pointed it towards the sky in which a transparent line of magical energy travelled upwards before an umbrella of the same transparent substance was cast over her head. The rain fell upon it and around her like with a normal umbrella. The twins looked surprised before they ducked under it with her. Alicia smirked and the umbrella expanded to shield the three of them.
"That's a handy charm." George believed
"Thank you." Alicia chuckled.
They walked down the lane until they reached the Three broomsticks.
"We'll meet you back here. We're just going to go into—"
"Zonkos." Alicia nodded "Well I'll meet you there if I'm done first or vice versa yeah?" she asked and the two twins nodded before ducked away from her umbrella protection and down the lane. Alicia turned to the door behind her and moved in through the warmth of the pub.
The girl pocketed her wand before looking around. It was easy to spot Hermione with her bushy hair but who was with her shocked Alicia. The girl moved through the tables towards them before standing at the table. Harry was already there and everyone looked up at her as she looked at those occupying it with them.
"I think I walked into a parallel universe." she mumbled.
Luna Lovegood was sitting at the table but so was Rita Skeeter, ex-journalist on the Daily Prophet and one of Hermione's least favourite people in the world. Rita of course had not written anything since their previous year as Hermione was blackmailing her with Rita's biggest secret. She was an unregistered animagus, being able to turn into a beetle, and that was how she got her inside scoops. Only now, unlike when they'd seen her last, her hair in elaborate curls and her nails shined, manicured and polished, her hair hung lank and unkempt and her nails were chipped. There were even some jewels missing from her winged glasses.
"Alicia you made it!" Hermione smiled
"Thank the twins…" Alicia said still unsure "You want to tell me what's going on?"
"I was asking Harry about his day." Rita returned "So, pretty girl, is she, Harry?"
"One more word about Harry's love life and the deal's off and that's a promise," said Hermione irritably. "Sit down Alicia." Alicia looked at Harry who shrugged and the girl did so.
"What deal?" said Rita, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. "You haven't mentioned a deal yet, Miss Prissy, you just told me to turn up. Oh, one of these days…" She took a deep shuddering breath.
"Yes, yes, one of these days you'll write more horrible stories about Harry and me," said Hermione indifferently. "Find someone who cares, why don't you?"
"They've run plenty of horrible stories about Harry this year without my help," said Rita, shooting a sideways look at him over the top of her glass and adding in a rough whisper, "How has that made you feel, Harry? Betrayed? Distraught? Misunderstood?"
"He feels angry, of course," said Hermione in a hard, clear voice. "Because he's told the Minister of Magic the truth and the Minister's too much of an idiot to believe him."
"So you actually stick to it, do you, that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back?" said Rita, lowering her glass and subjecting Harry to a piercing stare while her finger strayed longingly to the clasp of the crocodile bag. "You stand by all this garbage Dumbledore's been telling everybody about You-Know-Who returning and you being the sole witness — ?"
"I wasn't the sole witness," snarled Harry. "Alicia was with me." he pointed to her.
"Yes how did you get there?" Rita asked
"Barty Crouch Junior handed me some parchment which was a Portkey." Alicia said simple.
"And why would he bother doing that?" Rita wondered
"Probably because I'm Harry's sister." she shrugged. Rita looked at her before smiling.
"You mean his long lost sister presumed dead. Why there's been no news about that." she said
"Of course not. Fudge doesn't want to make that speculation like he doesn't want people believing Harry. But he and most in the ministry are aware of it and so is everyone here at Hogwarts, as Dumbledore announced it." Alicia explained "And why would you think Harry was the only one there?" she questioned "I did come out of the maze as well."
"Also there were a dozen-odd Death Eaters there as well. Want their names?" Harry added.
"I'd love them," breathed Rita, now fumbling in her bag once more and gazing at him as though he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "A great bold headline: 'Potter Accuses…' A subheading: 'Harry Potter Names Death Eaters Still Among Us.' And then, beneath a nice big photograph of you: 'Disturbed teenage survivor of You-Know-Who's attack, Harry Potter, 15, caused outrage yesterday by accusing respectable and prominent members of the Wizarding community of being Death Eaters…' "
"Yes that'll get us far." Alicia said acidly "If you're going to write something at least write it in favour of us."
It was an easy guess for Alicia to have an idea of what Hermione was up to. Luna, who's father was the editor of the Quibbler and Rita who was a writer, calling Harry and Alicia here, she probably wanted to try and get the correct story out. If people wanted to know what happened this was a fast way to do it. The only problem was that the Quibbler was not very popular. Perhaps though, even if it was thought to be a weird magazine, it would still attract attention if people knew Harry and Alicia's story was there.
The Quick-Quotes Quill was actually in Rita's hand for once, as it usually wrote on it's own, and halfway to her mouth when the rapturous expression died out of her face.
"But of course," she said, lowering the quill and looking daggers at Hermione, "Little Miss Perfect wouldn't want that story out there, would she?"
"As a matter of fact," said Hermione sweetly, "that's exactly what Little Miss Perfect does want."
Rita stared at her. So did Harry. Luna, on the other hand, sang, "Weasley Is Our King" dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.
"You want me to report what he says about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Rita asked Hermione in a hushed voice.
"Yes, I do," said Hermione. "The true story. All the facts. Exactly as Harry and Alicia report them. They'll give you all the details, they'll tell you the names of the undiscovered Death Eaters they saw there, they'll tell you what Voldemort looks like now — oh, get a grip on yourself," she added contemptuously, throwing a napkin across the table, for at the sound of Voldemort's name, Rita had jumped so badly that she had slopped half her glass of firewhisky down herself.
"If you want to listen to our story you're going to have to hear the name." Alicia said simply.
Rita blotted the front of her grubby raincoat, still staring at Hermione. Then she said baldly, "The Prophet wouldn't print it. In case you haven't noticed, nobody believes his cock-and-bull story. Everyone thinks he's delusional. Now, if you let me write the story from that angle —"
"We don't need another story about how Harry's lost his marbles!" said Hermione angrily. "We've had plenty of those already, thank you! I want him given the opportunity to tell the truth!"
"There's no market for a story like that," said Rita coldly.
"You mean the Prophet won't print it because Fudge won't let them," said Hermione irritably.
Rita gave Hermione a long, hard look. Then, leaning forward across the table toward her, she said in a businesslike tone, "All right, Fudge is leaning on the Prophet, but it comes to the same thing. They won't print a story that shows Harry in a good light. Nobody wants to read it. It's against the public mood. This last Azkaban breakout has got people quite worried enough. People just don't want to believe You-Know-Who's back."
"So the Daily Prophet exists to tell people what they want to hear, does it?" said Hermione scathingly.
Rita sat up straight again, her eyebrows raised, and drained her glass of firewhisky.
"The Prophet exists to sell itself, you silly girl," she said coldly.
"My dad thinks it's an awful paper," said Luna, chipping into the conversation unexpectedly. Sucking on her cocktail onion, she gazed at Rita with her enormous, protuberant, slightly mad eyes. "He publishes important stories that he thinks the public needs to know. He doesn't care about making money."
Rita looked disparagingly at Luna.
"I'm guessing your father runs some stupid little village newsletter?" she said. "'Twenty-five Ways to Mingle with Muggles' and the dates of the next Bring-and-Fly Sale?"
"No," said Luna, dipping her onion back into her gillywater, "he's the editor of The Quibbler."
Rita snorted so loudly that people at a nearby table looked around in alarm.
" 'Important stories he thinks the public needs to know'?" she said witheringly. "I could manure my garden with the contents of that rag."
"Well, this is your chance to raise the tone of it a bit, isn't it?" said Hermione pleasantly. "Luna says her father's quite happy to take Harry and Alicia's interview. That's who'll be publishing it."
Rita stared at them both for a moment and then let out a great whoop of laughter.
"The Quibbler!" she said, cackling. "You think people will take him seriously if he's published in The Quibbler?"
"Some people won't," said Hermione in a level voice. "But the Daily Prophet's version of the Azkaban breakout had some gaping holes in it. I think a lot of people will be wondering whether there isn't a better explanation of what happened, and if there's an alternative story available, even if it is published in a" — she glanced sideways at Luna, "in a — well, an unusual magazine — I think they might be rather keen to read it."
Rita did not say anything for a while, but eyed Hermione shrewdly, her head a little to one side.
"All right, let's say for a moment I'll do it," she said abruptly. "What kind of fee am I going to get?"
"I don't think Daddy exactly pays people to write for the magazine," said Luna dreamily. "They do it because it's an honour, and, of course, to see their names in print."
Rita Skeeter looked as though the taste of Stinksap was strong in her mouth again as she rounded on Hermione. "I'm supposed to do this for free?"
"Well, yes," said Hermione calmly, taking a sip of her drink. "Otherwise, as you very well know, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider's account of life in Azkaban…"
Rita looked as though she would have liked nothing better than to seize the paper umbrella sticking out of Hermione's drink and thrust it up her nose.
"I don't suppose I've got any choice, have I?" said Rita, her voice shaking slightly. She opened her crocodile bag once more, withdrew a piece of parchment, and raised her Quick-Quotes Quill.
"Daddy will be pleased," said Luna brightly. A muscle twitched in Rita's jaw.
"Okay, Harry?" said Hermione, turning to him. "Ready to tell the public the truth?"
"I suppose," said Harry, watching Rita balancing the Quick-Quotes Quill at the ready on the parchment between them.
"Yes." Alicia said in response. "I think it's about time." she decided and looked at Harry who glanced from Rita to her before nodding in agreement.
"Fire away, then, Rita," said Hermione serenely, fishing a cherry out of the bottom of her glass.