Michael Brown

I looked at the audience, honestly surprised by the number of people attending our lecture. I was expecting to see maybe ten people there, with more than half of them being Ministry agents, but the classroom we borrowed was almost full, with over forty students watching us in silence, waiting for me to begin.

It was quite an impressive number, even taking into account the presence of Ministry spies. While I wasn't that surprised to see my Ravenclaw followers among the audience, there were also a lot of other people present, some of them quite unexpected.

For example, Robert Danvers, the first student to decide to seek the truth under mine and Luna's guidance, brought along several vaguely familiar students, including Colin Creevey of all people, which was quite unexpected. Even more surprising was the sight of Fred and George Weasley, the infamous Gryffindor pranksters, who sat in the third row, quietly whispering something to each other and pointing at me once a while.

Most alarming, however, was the presence of Hermione Granger, a member of the propaganda trio, who sat in the last row of the classroom, constantly watching me with frankly disturbing intensity. She was barely blinking! While I expected for some of the Ministry's spies to attend the lecture, I thought they would do that in disguise. After all, Hermione Granger was one of the Ministry's most famous operatives, so her presence had to be some sort of message to me. Was it a warning? Were they telling me to keep my mouth shut by sending an obvious agent to observe me during the lecture?

I had no way of knowing, but in the end, it didn't even matter. After all, I already decided to share the truth with the world, so there was no way I would give up just because of some vague threats.

Feeling a newfound determination, I began speaking.

"Before we start this lecture in earnest, I'd like you all to do something. Don't worry, it's nothing complicated. I just want you to look to the left, then look to the right" I said to my audience, patiently waiting for them to follow my instructions. Most of the group listened to me, looking at each other with some curiosity, surprised by my request. After seeing that most of my listeners did that, I continued "Did you take a good look at the people sitting next to you? Have you taken a good look at your friends, acquaintances, possibly even family? As unfortunate as it is, it's quite likely that at least one of these people is an agent of the ministry, sent to spy on me, and by extension, on you"

As the classroom filled with whispers of students either discussing my words or reporting them to their superiors, I smiled. It was a simple smile, born of the realization that I was about to shape the minds of all these hopeful youths, allowing them to finally see the reality hidden behind the Ministry's curtain of lies. It was a victorious smile.

"Although my words might have been alarming to you, please don't be afraid. Remember that knowing your enemy is half the battle. The Ministry of Magic, or rather the Ministry of Lies, has created countless lies throughout history, brainwashing the population of the wizarding world into submission. This lecture, however, is meant to show you some examples of these manipulations, hopefully allowing you to live your lives free of Ministry's deceptions and making you capable of making your own decisions for the first time in your lives" Seeing that most of the audience was listening intently, with only the Weasley twins watching me with amusement and Hermione glaring at me with eyes full of burning hatred, I smiled and continued "We decided to start this lecture with a subject familiar to all of you: systematic oppression of discrimination of muggle-born hidden behind the house system…"

Hermione Granger

How was he getting away with doing this?!

"The artificial inequality between Muggle-born and purebloods cultivated through education at Hogwarts is quite blatant, especially since it starts as early as the sorting ceremony."

Why did Professor Lockhart even agree to supervise this obviously radical lecture! There was no way he didn't know the consequences of a teacher endorsing this pseudo-intellectual abomination, so why did he do it?!

"The entire house system only serves to accommodate purebloods by reinforcing their worldview while also sabotaging muggle-born wizards and witches in the process. After all, almost every conservative purebloods goes to Slytherin, a default house for noble scions. The fact that they all go to one house creates a certain bubble around them, stopping them from interacting with muggle-born in any meaningful manner. This carefully cultivated ignorance and isolation leads to contempt towards muggle-born, perpetuating the circle of discrimination"

The worst part of this lecture was that Brown's arguments sounded sensible, despite the chaos he was attempting to spread through the school. He was like a devil, softly whispering technical truths mixed with blatant lies into students' ears, trying to corrupt the very foundations of the society for his own, perverse amusement!

"Purebloods have their own house, but what happens to muggle-born? Well, they are spread between Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, with unsaid suggestion that Gryffindor takes the brave ones, Ravenclaw takes smart ones and the rest goes to Hufflepuff. What's worse, Hufflepuff is treated like a joke by other houses, unknowingly reinforcing the lie about the inherent difference between muggle-born and purebloods"

That wasn't how the house system worked! Four Founders created Hogwarts to serve as the place of learning, where children would be able to discover their true potential and control their magical talent! House system was meant to represent virtues of the founders, allowing the students to carry their ideals into the future, changing the wizarding world for the better! And now this madman was trying to convince everyone that it was a broken system, meant to divide people!

"This is probably a good place to mention that, contrary to what some of you may think, Hogwarts is not independent of the Ministry. All teachers, including Professor Dumbledore, are employed by the Ministry, which makes them government employees. The Ministry could reform the education system, stopping division and injustice from happening, but they don't want to. For them, it's better for the feuds to continue, because that would make it easier for them to control the population. They even decided to make Dumbledore headmaster of the school, despite his obviously suspicious actions during Grindelwald's war, which I will describe in detail during the next part of the lecture."

Hermione hid her face behind her hands and started crying.

Fred/George Weasley

"When I went to the woods south of Hogwarts, I noticed unusual footprints on the ground. At first I thought they belonged to a glubber, as they had visible claws, but upon closer inspection I noticed that the tracks had five claws instead of six," Luna, the Ravenclaw in charge of the current part of the lecture, said to the audience, sketching the shape of the footprints she found on a drawing board "However, I also found some half-eaten berries near the tracks, so I think I just discovered a new subspecies of glubber, adapted to live in the woods instead of living under people's beds."

"Fred?" started George slowly, watching the spectacle before him with certain confusion.

"Yes, George?" replied Fred, doing the very same thing.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" George asked, not even trying to make sense of Luna's ramblings anymore.

"I'm thinking exactly what you are thinking" Fred responded.

"Why are we even here, listening for the last ten minutes to some unknown girl talking about some imaginary animals?" they asked in sync, though they did so quietly to avoid interrupting the lecture, as strange as it sounded. After all, they didn't want to ruin the prank possibly taking place.

"Well George, I'm here because I suspect this whole lecture is just a prank by Michael Brown, and he's going to announce it after two hours of convincing everyone that his wild conspiracies are real" stated Fred, looking at their fellow prankster, who was currently listening intently to Luna's speech "You, on the other hand, are only here because you're my evil twin who works for that dastardly Ministry."

"Wait a minute! I thought you were the evil twin!" George exclaimed with mock surprise.

"I am, that's why I'm trying to make you think you are the evil one"

"Oh, very dastardly. As expected from a Ministry agent"

"Thank you, brother" Fred said with a smile before frowning, realizing something. "You know, we are wasting two hours just to see Brown's prank, but what if he doesn't announce it after the lecture?"

"Then I guess we would be the ones pranked, brother"

Robert Danvers

"...and therefore it is clear that the Ministry is using house elves to assassinate inconvenient wizards and witches." declared Michael Brown with absolute certainty, before looking at the clock on the wall, "Well, it looks like it's time to end this lecture, as we've been talking for over two hours already. Don't you agree, Luna?"

"Yes, we would like to thank you all for coming to listen to us, especially in such a huge number," said Luna, bestowing a small smile on everyone "We are already planning to hold more events like this in the future, so we hope to see you again soon."

"Yes, thank you and see you next time" Michael said, finishing the lecture with a smile on his face.

After Robert's group left the classroom, finding a good spot for them to sit and talk about the lecture, he looked at the rest of the members in anticipation.

"So…what do you think? Wasn't it amazing? Brown is truly brilliant to see the truth so clearly" Robert asked, unable to contain his excitement "Lovegood was great too, with her intimate knowledge about obscure species of magical beasts!"

Samantha, Colin and Albert looked at each other, their faces quite conflicted.

"Certainly some of the things they said made sense" responded Samantha hesitantly, trying to find the right words "But don't you think that the rest was a bit far-fetched?"

"What do you mean? They wouldn't have made it all up just like that, right? Brown's opinion of the house system was very insightful, so the rest of the lecture content should be at least partially true, don't you think?" Robert replied, not quite understanding what the problem was.

"That makes sense…I think?" stated Albert, still a little unsure.

"I mean, they wouldn't speak so confidently if there was no proof of these things actually happening…" Colin said slowly.

"But where would you obtain such a proof? If Brown is right, we wouldn't be able to find anything truthful in the Hogwarts library or in the Daily prophet" wondered Samantha, at least trying to verify the validity of Brown and Lovegood's words.

"Wait, doesn't Lovegood's dad have his own magazine, where he writes about stuff like this?" Albert asked, his face brightening.

"The Quibbler? Isn't it full of conspiracy theories?" Samantha asked, tone doubtful.

"Didn't we already agree that at least some of Brown and Lovegood's theories make sense? Maybe it's the same with the Quibbler" responded Colin.

"…Well, it's not like it would hurt to order an issue or two…" Samantha surrendered.

"Then it's decided! Let's order some Quibbler!" declared Robert triumphantly.

Harry Potter

Harry and Ron were sitting in the Gryffindor common room, playing wizard chess while waiting for Hermione to return from Brown's lecture. To be honest, Harry didn't have much fun playing with Ron, as the red-haired boy was simply too strong for Harry to beat, making the whole activity quite pointless.

Ron was just about to win another game, a victorious smile already on his face, when the door to the common room opened, revealing Hermione. Something must have happened during the lecture, as she was walking towards them with a furious scowl on her face, her eyes full of unholy wrath. As she approached them, Harry, not quite understanding the reason for her foul mood, spoke up hesitantly.

"…is everything all right, Hermione?" He asked slowly, trying to calm her down. The girl only looked at him, making it clear she wasn't all right by any measure. Even knowing that her wrath wasn't directed at him, Harry shook, unable to bear the sheer intensity of her glare.

" . . " Hermione ground out slowly, each word coming out of her mouth with some difficulty, as if she had trouble forming words, too consumed by her anger.

"…Don't you think you are overreacting? It was just a lecture…"Ron started, but was unable to finish his sentence as Hermione grabbed him by his arms and forced him to stare into her bloodshot eyes.

"Overreacting? I just spent two hours listening to this madman spitting terrible heresies and watching other students succumb to this madness. I've spent almost twenty minutes learning about new subspecies of some imaginary animals that exist only in the mind of some demented girl!" Her words were like an avalanche, gaining intensity with each passing second, with her practically shouting at the end of the sentence, "So don't you dare tell me I'm exaggerating! We are bringing him down, do you understand?""

"…yes" Ron whimpered, unable to say anything else, too scared to argue with her.

"Good, unless you have any more stupid questions, then let's not waste time and think about how to get Lovegood's hair," stated Hermione, still irritated, and sat down on the couch. Seeing that neither of the boys followed her, she continued, "Are you going to sit down or do you plan to stand there all night?"

Harry and Ron exchanged glances. It was going to be a long night.