The Truth Gets Out

Early Friday morning just at the start of breakfast, Harry got a letter from Amelia Bones. It was not very long and told him she was sorry she hadn't contacted him earlier due to an immense workload and that she had shown his memories to the Wizengamot yesterday. That she had been immensely fortunate that the story hadn't leaked already before that day, but that luck wouldn't have held much longer so she had needed to act. All the news were just too big to keep under wraps. She said she was sorry she obviously hadn't been able to keep him out of the revelation of the happenings at the end of his third and fourth year so maybe get Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley and hide for a day or so, as the Daily Prophet should be interesting today and they would surely be hounded as well.

Harry sat for a moment, staring into space. Then he nodded to himself and turned to Hermione, who was bursting at the seams to ask him about the letter, "Are you done? We need to talk to Professor McGonagall."

She looked down at her half-eaten breakfast and said, "I could stop eating now. What is it? Why do we need to talk to the professor? Did something happen? Who was the letter fr– hey!"

At this point, Harry had huffed, taken her hand, and started pulling her gently toward the head table, "No time! I will tell you as soon as I can. Time to act first. We'll talk later."

Now it was Hermione's turn to huff, but she decided to go along with it. At least they were going toward an authority figure!

At the head table, Harry asked his curios-looking head of house, if they could talk in private. Maybe in the antechamber? She agreed and under the eyes of the whole school, the three of them walked to the little room with the fireplace which only the nobility used.

As soon as they were inside, Harry thrust the letter he still held in his other hand at his professor and said, "Read it, please."

Hermione huffed again, exasperated to still be kept in the dark and Harry squeezed the hand he was still holding gently.

McGonagall was a fast reader it seemed as she soon handed Harry the letter back and said, "I see. I take it that you would like to flee before the Prophet inevitably arrives?"

Hermione said, "Oh!"

Harry nodded and answered, "Yes! It is Friday and we could spend the weekend at Sirius' place until the first hubbub dies down."

"You are right, I doubt much teaching and learning will take place today anyway after the news break, so you two may as well go to your godfather's place. I have an elf pack a few necessities for you, Miss Granger."

Hermione, who had snatched the letter out of Harry's hand nodded distractedly and Harry snorted when she distractedly answered with a "Hmhm."

Professor McGonagall's mouth twitched, and she said, "I need to go back and warn my colleagues of the coming chaos which will surely ensue. Have a nice weekend, you two." With that she quickly walked out of the room.

Harry pulled Hermione toward the fireplace and said, "Let's go, okay? The sooner we are at Grimmauld, the sooner we can talk about this."

"Right!" Now that Hermione had finished skimming the letter, she was all for it. So, they flooed to the Order Headquarters while still holding hands due to the required family ring when using this floo.

They stepped out and Hermione blinked and said, "You are much better at using the floo by now!"

Harry huffed a laugh and answered, "Having been taught how to use it correctly helped immensely!"

"Huh, but it was in the…," but here she was interrupted by Sirius quickly coming into the room, looking concerned.

"Harry! Hermione! What are you doing here? Are you alright? Is there an emergency?"

"Nono, we are just fleeing the coming chaos and barrage of questions before the Daily Prophet arrives at Hogwarts as Madame Bones showed my memories to the Wizengamot yesterday, apparently."

"Oh, good thinking then. The paper hasn't arrived yet; it's later than n normal. Did you have breakfast?"

"Only half. Then we did the strategic retreat thing."

Sirius chuckled and said, "Then come! I am in the middle of it and would be happy to have company," with that he ushered them toward the sunroom.

After they had been seated and Kreacher had served breakfast to the two teens, Sirius said, "So the news will hit the Wizarding World now. The reporters were still busy writing about Dumbledore, Umbridge, and the Death Eaters. I am curious how they will handle even more earth-shattering news!" He chuckled a little manically. "Some might implode!"

"I am just glad we escaped the barrage of questions for now!" Harry said. "Hopefully the Prophet will have a lot of information in it, so they have time to read and digest."

Hermione nodded, quite aware of their fellow student's attitudes when they needed to just know.

They ate and after having finished waited in the drawing room for the paper which was brought by a grinning Kreacher. It was huge!

Sirius took it and planted himself in the middle of one of the couches with Hermione and Harry sitting right next to him on each side and opening the fat paper.

The front-page showed only one huge, blinking headline:

He-Who-Must-

Not-Be-Named

IS BACK! (p. 2)

Then the headline was kicked off the page by another one, stating:

SIRIUS

BLACK

INNOCENT! (p.4)

That headline was shoved off as well by:

FUDGE

THROWN

OUT! (p.8)

Aaand another:

PETTIGREW

BETRAYED

POTTERS! (p.10)

The next one said:

CORRUPTION

at the MINISTRY!

(p.12)

And:

PETTIGREW

KILLED CEDRIC

DIGGORY (p.13)

They watched a couple more in amazement until Sirius cheered, "I will frame this page and hang it up in here. This is amazing! Like an ant hill that got kicked over by Amy!"

Hermione huffed and ordered, "Turn the page!"

Harry sniggered and Sirius snorted and started distributing the different sections of the paper to the waiting teens and they started reading.


That afternoon and exhausted Remus arrived with Hermione's bag. He fell onto the next couch in the room the three were hanging out and groaned.

"Hey, Moony! What's up with you?" Sirius asked.

The werewolf groaned again and said, "Well, the main witness of the events, described in today's papers had disappeared so the students looked for other people named in it. Guess whom they found?"

Sirius chuckled, "Oh, did you get hounded, wolfie?"

The teens sniggered and Remus growled.

"Well, you are here now and save. A long and busy weekend is ahead of you, future brother of mine," Sirius grinned at Remus who perked up. "At least, tomorrow will be busy. Today we will relax!"


They talked about the news and what it meant for the wizarding world and were rather optimistic about the future.

A little later they moved to other topics and Hermione said, "Oh Sirius, did anyone tell you about the Healer from St Mungo's and Madam Pomfrey doing check-ups on all the muggle-born students since Dumbledore was arrested?"

Sirius nodded, "Yes, Remus told me the bones of it, I think. How did it go?"

Harry sniggered and said, "I think Madam Pomfrey is so lucky muggles can't make howlers. But she went white and red often during the last days reading her mail at breakfast. – Hermione's parents wrote one of the letters. Oooh, and did you know they paid Hogwarts good money to organize for a healer to do a magical health check-up each year and now learned, that it never happened? They all want a refund!"

Hermione nodded heartily.

"No! He had the parents paying for it? Is that why he did it? It's just another scam?"

"It seems so," Remus said.

"I just don't understand what he needs all that money for. His robes and lemon drops can't be that expensive!" Harry exclaimed.

Sirius nodded, "Yes, that is the question many want answers for. Hopefully, we get them soon!"