Rita Skeeter smiled to herself, putting down her quill. Persuading a few prominent Pureblood Families to support her new wizard paper had been a roaring success. After her literal flight from The Daily Prophet's offices during the liberation of Wizard Britain from Lucius Malfoy, Delores Umbridge and their cronies, she had spent time in the United States. There she had learned of such things as "spin-cycles", "blowing the dog-whistle", "the Republican Southern Strategy" and more. She had known the basic ideas behind these terms, for she was cannier than people credited her as being. That said, it was still a shock to learn that American no-majes had turned such practices into an art form.
It's a pity we are still in the early stages of developing a wizard internet, Rita mused. With a Wizard Twitter or Facebook, I could reach half of Magical Britain within twenty minutes! Not even Harry Potter and his freakshow of circus turns are that fast!
Thanks to Minister Shacklebolt establishing press freedom in the British Wizard World, I can be sued for libel, but nothing else. Indeed, since the latest Weasley child is clearly not a Weasley, the facts are on my side. All I need to do now is to keep up the pressure on that accursed Hermione Weasley until she and her friends leave Wizard Britain in shame. My supporters shall then get to inaugurate their perfect pureblood society, and I, as editor of The Daily Owl Post, shall be running the official British Wizard newspaper and be rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
I wonder how pleased with me the Conservative Purebloods would be if they knew where I got my ideas from, to say nothing of the other details I haven't disclosed to them? Well, they don't need to know at this stage! Later, even if they find out, I shall have protection that they could only dream of…
"Hi, Florence!" Hermione beamed over the Skype-link to Saint Marie. "Meet Hope Pansy Weasley, my beautiful baby girl!"
"Hi Hermione!" said the Detective Sergeant Florence Cassell of the Saint Marie Police. A curvaceous, pretty woman of about thirty, her mixed Franco-Caribbean descent testified to by her French accent and bronzed skin respectively. Florence was generally a kindly sympathetic woman but was equally a dogged pursuer of potential felons. Hermione would never forget how Florence had comforted her after her ordeal in Gallia's island fortress lair. The English witch knew that she had found a life-long friend in the detective.
"Well, your daughter is definitely pretty, but… I'm so sorry, Hermione! She's Gallia's! How is Ron…?"
"As far as Ron and all my family and friends are concerned, Hope is as much Ron's child as Rose and Hugo are. He has been magnificent, Florence! I love him more than ever!"
"I never doubted that, Hermione! You are a very lucky woman to have found the love of such a good man.
"Hopefully, I shall find my own man like that one day…"
"You deserve that, Florence!
"In the meantime, Pansy has agreed to be one of Hope's two godmothers. I hope that you will agree to become her other one."
"I didn't know that you were Catholic, Hermione!"
"As it happens, I am an Anglican, Florence. The offer still stands, if you are interested."
"What spiritual guidance could a Catholic with Voodoo sympathies based in Saint Marie offer to an English Protestant? Thank you for the offer, which was most kind, but…"
"To the limited extent that she does practice a religion, Pansy is a follower of Classical Greek Paganism, Florence. Harry, the godfather to be, barely even counts as nominally religious! At least you are a Christian.
"The Potters will take all three kids in if anything happens to Ron and me before they are of age. All that you have to do is continue being a friend of the family."
"Then, Hermione, I would be delighted to accept your kind offer…"
"Rita Skeeter is vile!" Wanda Maximoff declared, reading the latest issue of The Daily Owl Post. Harry had brought a copy to The Alchemists Arms, a restored hotel on the outskirts of New York. Any no-majes passing would see a derelict building, but three taps on the gate with a wand or stave would reveal a high-class private members club that doubled as the Headquarters of the Secret Circle. When Stephen Strange had been looking for a Headquarters for his taskforce, Gomez Addams had offered the hotel that he had bought some time before. Jason Blood had suggested making it a place where trusted mages and no-majes, empowered or otherwise, could pay a small annual subscription and get access to a top restaurant, two themed bars for casual dining (one patterned after an American diner and the other after an old-fashioned British and Irish pub), four fully-stocked libraries, a games room, a ballroom, indoor and outdoor heated swimming pools, extensive gardens, a putting green and a quidditch pitch. There are even rooms and suites available for overnight stays. The only additional payments were modest charges for food, drinks and overnight stays. In short, it was the club for good wizards!
Harry, Wanda and others were gathered in the main conference room, seated around a large round table. Ginny, Wednesday, Millie and Pansy Potter; Bill and Fleur Weasley; Gomez, Morticia, Fester and Pugsley Addams; Stephen Strange; Giovanni and Zatanna Zatara; Jason Blood; John Constantine; Madam Xanadu; Endora; Samantha and Tabitha Stephens; Hadji Quest-Singh; Emma Swan and Regina and Zelena Mills were also gathered around the table. Clea was in the Dark Dimension and Mandrake and the Sar Dubotnal are both largely retired from active combat.
"No Ron and Hermione today?" asked Regina. "It is not like Ron to miss out on a free, all-you-can-eat buffet!"
"They are both on Potter Island," Millie assured her, referring to the small island off Themyscira that the Six Goddesses had given her and Pansy as a wedding present. "Kingsley thought that they could spend as much of Ron's paternity leave as possible away from Wizard Britain. If nothing else, it keeps them from the fallout from Rita Skeeter's latest libellous campaign against us.
"We need to do something about them, my friends. Unfortunately, punching, kicking and even casting offensive or defensive spells don't work against the Free Press!"
"Unlike the Daily Prophet," Gomez sighed, "I doubt than I could gain a majority shareholding in The Daily Owl Post. I have never even seen shares listed on the market. It's far from unheard of for the Conservative British Purebloods to haggle their finances out behind closed doors, but I doubt that her principal backers would have the amount of ready cash to get the newspaper up-and-running as fast as they did.
"Some additional person or persons must be financing Ms Skeeter, Harry my boy. Follow the money to find out who!"
"I'll speak to the goblins," Bill stated. "Whilst there are strict confidentiality rules, the support of the Minister of Magic and the Head Auror should be enough to get sufficient information. Since Kingsley has promised Harry his full support, that won't be a problem."
"Oui!" his wife agreed. "Zhe goblins don't like Rita either!"
"I have yet to meet anyone who actually does!" Ginny muttered.
"Luna and Rex are currently interviewing Ron and Hermione for The Quibbler. Hopefully, we can start getting our message out there among the moderate and liberal factions in the Ministry of Magic and the Wizengamot."
"It isn't them that I worry about, my darling," her husband said softly. "They probably will support us when push comes to shove. It is the Conservative Purebloods encircling us like sharks with the scent of blood in the water…"
"Aren't you adorable?!" Luna cooed, Ron having handed her Hope. "You love your Auntie Luna very much, don't you?!"
"Well, Ron, you seem most lucid for someone who… What was it again?! Ah yes, you must be being held under the Imperius by your wife, as there is no other way that you would agree to raise the child of a muggle crime lord as your own.
"Petrified Paintpots! Does Rita appreciate that you are second-in-command of the Aurors and can throw off that curse as easily as Harry Potter can?"
"Of course, Rex!" Hermione grumbled. "Contrary to all indications, the old bat isn't stupid! She is just a complete cow!
"I hate Rita bloody Skeeter! Why won't she just leave us all alone?!"
A bikini-clad Tracey Greengrass-Potter entered the room, her hair wrapped in a towel. "I'm just going to get changed, before picking Lily and Hugo up from school. Do you want me to pick Harriet up too?"
"Thank you for the offer, but no thanks," Louise smiled, as she looked at the portal-mirrors in the hall of the main house on Potter Island, including the one that had glowed white a few minutes earlier to let Rex, Luna and her in from The Alchemists Arms. "Jean and Linda have already promised to take her to the Rancho del Sol for a line dancing lesson."
"That sounds fun!" Tracey agreed. She went over to hug Hermione briefly. "Just ask Kreacher if you need anything. Daffy is busy bathing Dora.
"Now, I really must get changed. I'm comfortable enough with you two fine gentlemen seeing me this scantily-clad. All the dads and male teachers at the school getting a free show is another story!"
"Is it really all that much less revealing than your armour as a Fury, dear?" Hermione asked drily.
"Now that you mention it, the armour covers most of my torso and my bum, the skirt my upper thighs, the boots my lower legs and the bracelets my forearms. This bikini just covers my boobs and bum, so yes."
Once Tracey had gone upstairs, Rex brought out a pen and an exercise book. "Hermione, can you tell me in your own words how Hope was conceived please? I know that this will be distressing for you, but…"
"That's OK, Rex. I was expecting that question. You have every right to ask it too.
"Well, the Saint Marie police, a couple of ex-guardsmen, Ron and I were inspecting the main premises of Black Widow Incorporated. We had come to believe that Buonaparte Ignace Gallia the Fourth, who was the owner, was involved in the murder of a British wizard in Saint Marie. At that point, Ron and I were using the standard police detective and his Foreign Office legal expert wife cover story. After DI Jack Mooney, DS Florence Cassell and Ron had received text alerts, we gathered everyone around in Gallia's office.
"Just as Jack Mooney was laying out the evidence, a bookcase swung open. You, Louise, Jean and the then Bernadette Imogene Gallia, now Harriet Milligan, were standing at the top of a stone stairway that led to a network of caves in the cliffs below. We had our man bang to rights – or so we thought!
"Florence Cassell and I were seated on the opposite side of Gallia's desk to the monster. He had some device, however, that had the barrels of twin muggle guns emerge from desk keyholes facing us. A second contraption had a section of the floor descend into a lift shaft. This floor included the desk, Gallia's chair, mine and Florence's chairs and a couple of Gallia's hoodlums. A trapdoor closed above our heads as we neared the bottom of the shaft, sealing the shaft. Mundungus Fletcher apparated in as we reached the bottom. Florence and I were at both wand- and gunpoint.
"Ron used a blasting curse to destroy the trapdoor, but Fletcher summoned my wand and dropped it on the desk. He then activated a portkey that he, Gallia and his couple of thugs were touching. Since said thugs also held Florence and I by a shoulder, we were dragged along for the ride. Once we had arrived, our mobiles and my mirror were confiscated, and we were tied to chairs.
"After we had been secured, Gallia told me of his dishonourable intentions, planning to breed a seer to aid him in his criminal endeavours. When I refused, he gave one of his bully boys the order to break one of Florence's fingers. I shall never forget that sickening snap and her agonised cry. Gallia and his men left us helplessly bound, so that I could reconsider my refusal…"
"The bastard!" growled a voice from the doorway. Daphne was cradling a now freshly-bathed Dora in her arms. "There is nothing worse than seeing your loved ones being mistreated.
"Under the Carrows, Tori and I received three strokes across our non-wand hands with a light cane on a handful of occasions. On another I had to remove my robes, lift my skirt and bend over for four strokes across my knickers with a medium cane. On the same occasion, Millie got twenty-four strokes across the skirt and Pansy and Trace twelve apiece across their bared bums, followed by a minute for all three under the Cruciatus. Once that was lifted, Pansy and Trace were dragged off to the boys' dormitory, so Nott, Crabbe and Goyle could rape them both again. That was the first time that Nott decided that half-bloods like Trace should be buggered as well. It was far from the last – and most of them came immediately after a bare-bottomed caning and the Cruciatus.
"I could use my wand to heal their wounds and comfort them as best I could in our dorm after each session of physical and/or sexual abuse. After we got together a month or so later, I would make love to Tracey on a regular basis, reminding her that sex is for pleasure as well as pain. The four of us were close friends already, but we really became a family in the seventh-year dorm in Slytherin amongst the rape and the beatings."
"Thank you, Daphne," Hermione said softly. "It was agony, knowing that I would have to give in to his demands to save Florence from much worse tortures or even a painful lingering death…
"When Gallia and his men returned, I consented to let him have his way with me. We were untied, and I persuaded Fletcher to heal Florence's finger magically, before we were taken to a cell with an entrance into Gallia's bedroom. En route, Gallia showed us a family of American crocodiles in an old boathouse that he had converted into a tropical reptile house. There was a large feeding platform on a pulley system near a gantry above the crocodiles that the fiend threatened to use to feed Florence alive to the crocodiles should I refuse. I couldn't let that happen to my new friend.
"We were locked in a room with twin beds, two chairs, a table, an en suite shower room with shower, toilet and basin and another locked grilled door into his room. I was told to stand naked in front of that door half-an-hour later. Having done so, I was taken into the bedroom and chained spread-eagle to the bed. I was unable to push him off or close my legs! Then… Then, all I remember was distress, shame, terror and revulsion as he…" Hermione broke off, tears running down her cheeks. Ron and Daphne both threw their arms around her tightly, the latter having placed Dora in a cot next to Hope's.
After a few minutes, Rex said gently, "You don't have to continue, Hermione. It must have taken a lot of courage to say all that…"
"Yes, I do Rex!" Hermione replied. "I'll never forget Gallia's wandering hands, my helpless struggles against my chains and the feel of him in me! Only Ron has that privilege!
"Once it was finally over, I was unchained and returned to my cell. Florence hugged me tightly, then I showered and dressed.
"Shortly afterwards, the fortress was hit by a muggle artillery barrage. Two of Gallia's thugs entered the cell, tied our hands together behind our backs and dragged us to Gallia's office. There, our legs were tied, and we were carried from there to the gantry over the crocodile house. Florence was put down on the feeding platform and I on the gantry. Gallia made it perfectly clear what would happen to poor Florence if a rescue effort was fully made.
"The Doctor's TARDIS materialised, as Wonder Witch and her Furies ripped the roof off. Gallia ordered that the feeding platform be lowered, but the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to reverse the winch and Wonder Witch flew to rescue Florence from the platform. Fletcher and Gallia's heavies were all captured or killed in a fight. Gallia cut my legs free, dragged me off with my hands still tied behind me and tried to block the path behind him with fire. Unfortunately for him, Jason Blood was among the rescuers – and fire is no handicap to Etrigan! The Demon vaulted over the flames, threw Gallia back over and then leapt me safely over. Once Etrigan had untied my hands, I hugged him briefly, before I kissed Ron with more passion than I ever had before.
"Gallia ended up on the feeding platform. A blasting curse from Ron sent him falling into the crocodile enclosure, where he was quickly eaten by the breeding male. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
"I underwent a muggle rape examination at Saint Marie hospital. Harry Potter received the results shortly afterwards and relayed them to Ron and me. Thankfully, it was negative for venereal diseases, but was positive for pregnancy! You can imagine how I felt…
"For the last nine months, I was dreading having Gallia's baby rather than Ron's. Hope is not Ron's daughter by blood, no. That said, he has adopted her as his own legally, so by law she is as much his daughter as Rose is.
"I must end by paying tribute to Ronald Weasley, my best friend, spouse, lover and soulmate; my two older children Rose and Hugo; my parents; the other Weasleys, Potters, Longbottoms and every other person or family who has supported me through this terrible time. Love is always stronger than evil."
"Thank you, Rex, Luna. Also, Ron, Daphne, thank you for the hugs."
"Hi Mummy and Daddy!" called Hugo, Tracey having just brought him and Lily back from the Serafina Picquery Elementary School.
Hermione smiled through her remaining tears, before looking again at Hope's cradle. My family is all the support that I need. We will get through this together. Rita might be a bitch, but she won't destroy our love for each other.
That said, I doubt that Rita's response to this interview when Rex writes it up and publishes it will be a public apology for being an antediluvian prat...