Disclaimer: I own nothing but my mistakes.
Chapter 11: Love Potions? No.
0-0
The champions and their dates entered the great hall, they staired at the winter wonderland that had been created around them. Floating ice sculptures, falling snow, it was all very impressive. They made their way towards the largest table while the rest of the students filed in behind them. Unsurprisingly Cordelia had attracted a great deal of attention from the female students and was very pleased with herself.
One of the few not smiling was Umbridge. Fudge had come that evening with his wife and could not very well tell Umbridge not to come. That would have been very insulting and he needed all the support that he could muster.
She didn't think that it was right that Daniel Potter had shown up with that creature on his arm, she didn't think that muggles should be in Hogwarts and she certainly didn't think all those witches should be so interested in something as disgusting as a mudblood child. Thankfully she was seated away from all of them.
One of the others who was rather upset didn't have the luxury of sitting away from the champions and instead chose to make his displeasure known. Percy Weasley stalked around the large table towards Hermione. "Miss Granger, I do not know why your parents failed to teach you manners but you have acted in a most disrespectful way towards my brother and I have half a mind to demand satisfaction."
It took Hermione a moment to remember the scrunch faced man with red hair as Percy, one of Ron's older brothers. "I suppose I shouldn't expect more from your family. Clearly your parents failed to teach you manners. Ron was the one at fault, I cannot be held responsible for what that idiot does."
"How dare you, I am the personal secretary to Mr. Crouch! You will treat me with respect." Percy demanded, drawing the attention of a number of people to their argument.
"You have done nothing to earn my respect, you are acting like a whinny child. I suppose you're the one who taught Ron how to act like that?" Hermione replied.
"I should demand a duel for your words." Percy was as red as his hair.
Viktor slowly stood and drew everyone's attention towards himself. "As Miss Granger is my date you would first need to duel me to reach her."
"Hey she's my girlfriend so it's my reasonability to defend her." Harry said with a predatory smile.
"Can I join in? Percy was a right pain to Hufflepuffs backside while he was here." Cedric asked.
Percy wilted under the prospect of fighting any one of the three champions. He had always leaned more towards the theory of magic rather than its use. That and his love of rules was all he had needed before.
Hermione cleared her throat, "Thank you all but I am perfectly capable of defending myself."
The other three nodded and sat back down, they had all heard, or in Harry's case, seen, what Hermione was capable of.
She turned back towards Percy. "Well, are you going to demand a duel?"
Percy sniffed and tried to save some of his reputation. "I see no reason to rune everyone's evening because of one ill-mannered muggle born girl." He spun on his heel and took a seat far away from them.
The meal began and the group had an enjoyable time. When everyone had finished eating, which took some time as Ron kept ordering more food for his plate, the champions of their dates stepped onto the dance floor.
Part way through the first song Harry gave a signal and he, Viktor and Cedric all changed partners. A number of the representatives frowned as this was not what was supposed to happen. A moment later they switched again.
As the first song ended and other couples made their way onto the dance floor several people rose to protest what they felt was a great insult against the Yule Ball, or their plans for it. The champion's response was a simple. 'I don't care, you said this tournament was about cooperation and that was what we did.'
Those same people tried to raise a fuss when they realized that both Harry and Viktor were actually there with a student from their own school but soon realized there was nothing to be done about it.
Harry was sure that he had the busiest dance card of the night, not only didn't he dance with Hermione, but also Luna, Tonks, Wendy, Sharra and Cordelia who had grabbed his hand during a break and motioned towards the dance floor. Unable to say no Harry had picked her up and carried her to the edge of the dance floor where he swayed with the music, this had been enough for the little girl who giggled and laughed the entire time.
Dumbledore wore a sour expression throughout the evening. This was not how the night was supposed to go. How did Black continue to turn his plans against him?
0-0
James and Lily Potter had copied Sirius and moved to Hogwarts as volunteers so that they could stay close to Daniel and help him prepare for the tournament. They were also in attendance at the Yule Ball and couldn't help but compare Daniel and Harry.
While Daniel spent most of his time either dancing with his date or talking to friends at their table it was easy to see that his attention was elsewhere and his date was less than pleased.
By contrast Harry had spent the evening dancing with several girls all who appeared to be having a good time. It was easy to see that he and his friends were happy and he had somehow intergraded himself with two of the other champions.
As the night wore, they saw their son begin to sulk more and more as he also watched Harry. They made a point to talk with him about his behavior.
0-0
Rita flew all around the dance floor, she'd come up with a dozen new stories about Harry Black. Thankfully all she needed to do was tell her quick quotes quill the ideas and they took care of the rest. As she watched Harry dance with different women the idea for her next big story all but smacked her in the face. A couple was arguing in hushed tones, the girls arm nearly hitting Rita.
She didn't pay attention to them though as something the girl said sparked the idea, love potions. That muggle born girl was feeding him love potions, keeping young Harry away from the others who cared for him. It practically wrote itself. She could get at least a dozen articles from it.
0-0
As the ball began to break up Harry escorted Hermione to the garden that had been set up outside. It was lovely and they took their time strolling through it. They came across several other couples. They found their own little alcove hidden between rows of bushes and spent a good deal of time just enjoying each other.
Hermione rested her head against Harry's shoulder. Their arms wrapped comfortably around each other. "I never thought that I would have any wonderful memories of Hogwarts but tonight was amazing. Thank you."
"Why thank me? It was amazing because of you. the only thing that could have made it better was not having to deal with those idiots." Harry leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
"That would have probably been too much to ask for."
When they finally made their way back to the airship, both flushed and grinning like mad. On their way they meet Luna who was in a similar state to them. "Hello. Did you have an enjoyable evening?" Her voice was soft and dreamy.
"We did, it looks like you did as well." Hermione said while Harry wondered if he needed to have a talk with Cedric.
"Oh yes, Cedric was a perfect gentleman, so I grabbed his head and snogged him. I may have broken him though because when we said goodnight, he could only grin and stumble off." Luna giggled, drunk on her wonderful evening.
Harry and Hermione looked back in the direction that Luna had come from. "Do you think one of us should go and make sure Cedric is alright?"
"He'll probably be fine." Hermione answered, still shocked that the girl who just days before had been so nervous could do such a thing.
0-0
Umbridge had spent a good deal of the evening watching that Black brat and his mudblood. The altercation with whatever his name was had given her an idea. She waited until the evening was ending to approach him. "I am deeply sorry that Black was able to disrespect your upstanding family in such a way."
Percy couldn't help but beam that someone as important as the under secretary to the Minister himself was speaking to him. "Yes, but really what can you expect considering where he was raised, barely better than animals."
"Oh yes, horrid place, I've had the misfortune of needing to deal with them on a number of occasions. And I have learned a few things. You are Crouch's aid, correct? You handle most of the matters when he isn't available?" Umbridge already knew the answer but decided to play dumb. This boy wanted to play the game then he would learn that he was nothing but a pawn.
"Yes, it's an incredible amount of responsibility but I am well up to the task." Percy said with pride, his chest swelled proudly at what he felt was some proper recognition.
"Well then you might have a way to help reclaim some of your family's honor. Black cheated to get into the tournament so there is no reason we shouldn't make it harder for him, no we won't cheat. We will work within the rules of the tournament as any civilized people would do. But we cannot just allow him to continue to flaunt his disrespect, can we?"
"Of course not." Percy hurried to agree.
"Wonderful, I'll leave it to you. Try to have some ideas by the first of the year." Umbridge said pleasantly. She could have her revenge and a perfect patsy if things went wrong. Just the way she liked it.
0-0
The Blacks and Grangers arrived at a cabin that Sirius had rented somewhere in Scotland. They had considered returning home for Christmas but decided it would be best to remain close to Hogwarts in case someone tried something. It was becoming very tiering trying to predict what new idiocy some of the English would come up with next.
Through a large window they watched heavy snow fall on the forest. If the Yule Ball had been wonderful, they all agreed that their time in the cabin was perfect.
0-0
Oldster Crown was not having as nearly a pleasant holiday as he checked the numbers for the Daily Prophet again. He had been their accountant for nearly fifty years but he had never seen things looking so grim.
Their circulation had spiked when they began running mostly articles about the Blacks. But those numbers had quickly dropped off, in his opinion that was because those articles were so poorly written even the sheep had trouble believing some of them. Besides people did expect some real news from the Prophet but that had been pushed out more and more for the cheap slander articles the editor seemed to love.
Add in a drop in advertising revenue and a massive increase in the price of their ink and the Prophet was quickly sinking into the red.
Crown decided that he needed to speak with the paper's owner, Lord Inkwel. But first he would make some floo calls and try to track down what was going on.
0-0
Lord Inkwel was a minor Lord, hardly worth taking notice of if it wasn't for the influence that his family had wielded since they took position of the Daily Prophet. The paper had always provided a nice bit of money to the family. Now, for the first time in living memory the Daily Prophet stood to have a loss at the end of the year. "Crown, just how can my paper suddenly be in such bad shape?"
"The easy answer? All those attacks on the Blacks." Crown answered
"But circulation boomed after they started the smear campaign." Inkwel pointed out, the numbers had predicted that they'd have their best year ever. He couldn't understand the sudden change.
"For a short time, but in the long run we've lost more readers than we gained. It's not that people don't like reading about the supposed dirty laundry of the Black family but, well when was the last time you read it?" Crown asked.
"Not recently." Inkwel admitted.
"The editor was so concerned with filling the paper with those stories that he let quality slip, I'm pretty sure he got children to write some of them. The spelling mistakes alone were a huge embarrassment. And the people still expected some actual news in their newspaper. When they started there was a seven percent increase in sales, now they are nearly thirteen percent below the subscriptions we had back in July.
"That would be bad enough but a number of companies have pulled their advertisements from the Prophet as well. Some said it had become an embarrassment, others that they didn't want to be associated with what was happening." Crown began to slide pieces of parchment across Inkwel's desk showing just how much they were losing.
"All of these companies have pulled their advertisements?" Inkwel was astonished by the sheer number.
"If this keeps up by February, we'll be down to half of what we had last month. And don't forget each article that slanders the Blacks also results in multiple lawsuits by them." Crown pushed a stack of papers across the desk, each one a different law suit.
"But we've won all of these, how are they costing us money?" Inkwel didn't even bother to look through the stack, it was almost as thick as his fist.
"True but we have to pay our legal team for dealing with each one of them. win or lose, we lose money. What is really killing us though is the price of ink. It went up nearly a fifth recently and-"
"What?! How did that happen?" Inkwel demanded. It was outrageous. His family had been buying that ink for nearly two hundred years. How dare they.
"It's, a bit complicated. It all goes back to when the company we buy the ink from joined with another family and control shifted. That was several years ago by the way, but from what I can tell the current owner has several business deals with Lord Black. Apparently, he hasn't taken to kindly to what the Prophet is doing." Crown explained.
"So that's it? how do we fix it?"
"Easy answer? Reduce the number of articles about the Blacks, less money to legal, more real news means more readers. Maybe we can get back some of the advertisements. The biggest help would be if you started to produce the magical ink again." Crown knew it would be more expensive than what they had been importing but it was still better than current prices.
Inkwel almost flinched, his family hadn't made their own ink in decades, not since his grandfather, and even then, it had only been small batches for special issues. He wasn't even sure if they still had the recipe. He'd have to get an elf looking for it.
Crown decided to hammer home just how serious this was. He liked his job, it was easy and paid well, he didn't want to have to look for another one. Having been attached to the Prophet when it went belly up wouldn't make it any easier for him either. "The only reason that we'll make it through these loses without needing a major loan is because our wonderful editor slipped in a clause for the Ministry contract. Fudge agreed the cover any loses the paper sustains until the end of the Triwizard Tournament. We have until the end of June to fix this."
"I'll call the senior staff together as soon as soon as the New Year starts and we can deal with these issues then." Inkwel said, that would hopefully give him time to find his family recipe for magic ink, or steal someone else's.
0-0
The Blacks and Grangers returned to the airship the day before the Hogwarts students who had gone home were due back. Cordelia had her arms wrapped around a stuffed dragon as big as she was. It had been a gift from Sirius and Violet and the Grangers were very grateful. Cordelia had become a night owl in recent months, waking up multiple times and getting into all sorts of trouble.
The dragon was charmed to always be warm and purr. Since she had gotten it Cordelia had slept through the night every night and finally let her parents do the same.
Their collectively happy mood lasted until they saw the issues of the Daily Prophet that had been printed since they left. Since the first of the month the paper had printed story after story accusing Hermione of using love potions on Harry to control him. As well as Cedric and Krum. One of the stories suggested that Luna had found proof and blackmailed her into sharing. Another hinted that her mother might be doing the same thing with Sirius.
The Dean also informed them that a large amount of dangerous hate mail had been sent to Hermione. "Apparently they forget their lessons quickly and another round of summons will shortly be sent out to deal with most of them."
"Most?" Dan had an edge in his voice, he wanted everyone who would dare to try and harm his daughter punished.
"Yes, it seems a few learned enough to have a member of the ministry send their letters. While we can't do anything because of the rules of the tournament they won't be getting away." The Dean assured them.
0-0
The Minister's office was a gloomy place recently. In no small part because Fudge was forced to spend most of his time and effort in keeping his position. Madam Bones already had a good idea of what the Minister wanted to see her about and had her reply ready. "You wished to see me?"
"Yes, you fired an outstanding officer this morning on some worthless accusations that he allegedly sent hate mail to the girl, Grimmy. I have reinstated him and-"
"You can't." Madam Bones calmly pointed out. "As Minister you lack the authority to appoint personal to my department."
"Now see here I am the Minister and-" Fudge began.
"A position you are hanging onto by a thread. Mr. Bilster was not only confirmed as the sender by way of charms but freely admitted to doing so in exchange for money." Madam Bones stated.
"That doesn't matter! You can't go a fire a pureblood just because he supposedly sent some mean letters to a muggleborn." Fudge was somewhere between pleading and shouting.
"Oh, I see, I'm afraid you are mistaken I didn't fire him because he sent Miss Granger those letters. I fired him because he admitted to accepting money to break the law. If you are insistent to rehiring him then you are free to add him to your personal security. But I wouldn't trust him to watch my back when he could so easily be bought." Madam Bones enjoyed watching Fudge shift uncomfortably in his chair.
"Those charms would never hold up in court if he decides to bring us up on charges of letting him go without cause." Fudge almost whined. Why couldn't things go his way? He wasn't asking for much. A few decades as Minister, to line his pockets with some extra gold and retire somewhere nice. He didn't care what happened to the ministry after that.
"No but his confession to me and several others when he bragged about it would. If that was all?" Madam Bones stood and left after Fudge gave a disheartened nod.
At least there was still one bright lining to this mess, he'd make a big show of arresting that girl for attempted line theft. The Blacks would be so grateful they might even stop causing problems.
0-0
Inkwel looked over those who played a major roll in the running of the Prophet. "Gentlemen we need to fix this, our agreement with the Ministry has so far shielded us from the losses we have taken but when it's up we are sunk unless we can turn things around. You all have the report on our current numbers and-"
"Excuse me sir." Crown interrupted. "Since these reports were made there has been a massive increase in the price of ink, again."
"What?! Why?" Inkwel was sure this bad business would give him a heart attack soon.
"I believe it is in retaliation for the most recent stories attempting to smear the name of Miss Granger and her family. From what I have been able to dig up Lord Black is a close associate of our current ink suppliers. Apparently he is the one behind the price increases as a way to retaliate against the lies being printed about him."
"You can't prove they are lies!" The editor shouted. The other occupants at the table gave him unamused looks. None of them doubted that most of the stories he was currently printing were mostly made up.
"Have you found you family's old ink recipe?" Another asked.
"Sadly no, it may very well have been lost by my father." Inkwel answered. He didn't want to admit that he had probably gotten rid of it when he had his study redone a number of years. All those old useless tomes had been sold. He wasn't even sure that it would do them any good, their printing press had been heavily altered to work on the cheaper imported ink and to make it work with the old ink again might not even be possible. "What about other sources?"
"Wouldn't matter, four decades ago you pushed through a law on importing inks. Even if we could find another supplier at a close to reasonable price, we couldn't use them for almost another decade." One of the solicitors said.
Inkwel cursed. That had been such a good idea at the time as it had stopped others from having easy access to printing grade magical ink. He already knew that the ink used by the large book publishing companies was worthless for the newspaper. "What about the insane man who runs the, whatever it's called. That rag about the made-up creatures?"
"Lovegood?" Crown asked.
"Right! That fellow, surely, we could work out a deal with him for some ink. Maybe his recipe." Inkwel knew that the man made his own ink, as he'd tried to block the publication some years before.
"Do you even read your own paper? Several of those articles that attacked Miss Granger also did the same to Luna Lovegood, his daughter!" Crown shouted.
"Crap." The only thing that held Inkwel's hand from firing the editor was that he was planned to demand that the man dig his paper out of this mess. Then he would fire him.
"There are also a number of other issues, among them are the numerous lawsuits being filed against us by Black every day we print another story about his son, as well as a decline in our international fees. Since we stopped printing stories anyone else in the world cares about other papers are no longer buying copies of our stories for themselves."
Yes, definitely fire the editor, from a cannon, that had to be a business expense. He'd ask Crown later.
0-0
Sirius had explained to the Grangers that being accused of using a love potion on a member of an Ancient and Noble house was considered the same as line theft, one of the most serious crimes in the country. In some cases, considered worse than murder. He wanted to get it cleared up as soon as possible.
That was why everyone, including Cedric and Viktor, found themselves in the Hogwarts hospital wing to be tested for potions. Andromeda would also perform her own exam, but it had been decided that it would look better not to have the exams carried out on the airship.
Madam Bones had also been invited in an attempt to head off any trouble. She had accepted and because the exams would take most of the morning she arranged to stay for lunch with her niece.
To no one's surprise each of them came up potion free, with the exception of Viktor who had traces of a pain relief potion in his system from his quidditch practice over the holidays.
After the examination Poppy took Hermione aside and attempted to apologize for not doing a better job of healing her hip. Hermione waved off the apology as the med-witch had never had a chance to examine her after the troll incident and could hardly be faulted for believing an official medical report.
Unfortunately, while they were proving none of the claims of love potions were true their absence from breakfast was seen as guilt. By lunch the rumors were wild, including the arrest of Hermione and Luna, a wild magical duel by the lust filled victims and even the reported death of Harry.
Needless to say, when the missing students turned up for lunch as normal most of the great hall was confused. Malfoy couldn't let the opportunity pass; his father had instructed him not to bother Black but this was just too perfect. A chance to get back at them for his humiliation when they arrived.
Malfoy strutted confidently to the Hufflepuff table.
0-0
The Wandwood students' reception at the Hufflepuff table was less than pleasant. Due in large part to Cho loudly proclaiming that she knew something was wrong with Cedric. How else could anyone explain him going to the ball with that bint Loony instead of her, or breaking up with her. Her rant last as long as it took Cedric to set the results of his recent exam on the table that declared him potions free.
Cedric then loudly reminded her that she was the one who broke up with him and that she was no longer welcome at their table.
Cho had left promising retribution against Loony.
Just when it seemed that they might finally be able to enjoy their lunch Malfoy decided to come over and bother them. "So mudblood enjoying your last meal? You'll be kissed by dinner. Your parents too if there is any justice in this world."
Harry stood and turned to face Malfoy. "Once again you have insulted the House of Black and those under its protection. Has your father not taught you manners?"
"Shut up Black. My father is ten times the person that mongrel you call father is." Malfoy replied, he was sure that would get Black to draw his wand then he could legally show the waste of magic what a true wizard could do. It was how he always did things with Potter.
"You have the manners of a gutter rat. Issue a public apology for your words and that will be it, if you do not then this matter will be brought to your father." Harry said formally. Sirius had been pushing for him to learn all the official pure blood customs.
"Apologize? To that mudblood filth? Are you insane. When my father hears about this you will be sorry, he will see all of you dead." Malfoy said.
"And how would he do that Mr. Malfoy?" Madam Bones asked from behind him.
Malfoy spun and paled. "What are you doing here?"
"I was trying to enjoy a lunch with my niece until you came over acting like an ill-mannered Gryffindor, now I ask again how will your father see them dead?" Madam Bones asked.
"Eh… just a figure of speech." Malfoy replied lamely and scurried away.
Madam Bones had just returned to her seat when Fudge entered accompanied by a dozen aurors. One of the aurors stepped forward. "Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood you are both hereby placed under arrest for multiple charges of line theft. Surrender your wands and come with us."
With a sigh and complaint about never getting to finish lunch Madam Bones stood again. "What are you doing?"
"Gah! What are you doing here?" Fudge asked, not at all happy to see her. The students could be forgiven for asking if he was related to Draco, their reactions to Madam Bones being so similar.
"I am trying to have lunch with my niece. Now why have you brought my aurors here and why are you trying to arrest Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood?" Madam Bones asked again. Though she already had a very good idea and was looking forward to popping the Ministers bubble.
"We have come to arrest two dangerous criminals who have attempted to use potions to steal several pureblood lines." Fudge puffed out his chest in importance.
"And you have proof?" Madam Bones asked.
"All the proof that is needed, I will not sit by and allow our proud pureblood lines to be stolen by those unworthy of them." Fudge declared. A few of the Slytherins clapped for him.
"Interesting, because just this morning Lord Black invited me to oversee the exams of everyone accused of being involved in this so-called case of line theft. None of them showed any trace of love potions. The exam was confirmed by separate healers in the Hogwarts infirmary. So, I can't imagen what proof you believe you have that is better than that." Madam Bones smirked at the bewildered looks on a number of students.
"But… but that's impossible! I have it on very good authority that they were using love potions!" Fudge shouted.
"Then I would like to speak with your very good authority and see what proof they have. Or what charges will be brought against them for making such a claim without proof." Madam Bones apologized to Susan for their interrupted lunch before she escorted Fudge and the aurors that he had brought back to the Ministry.
Dumbledore was just happy to have not been part of the embarrassment this time. Content to sit on his throne and watch the drama unfold. He also hoped that after the dueling tournament the Potters would be able to reconnect with their wayward son, getting involved in this matter would have only hurt their chances so he felt pleased to have avoid notice altogether.
0-0
True to his word Harry and informed Sirius about Draco's threats and the House of Malfoy received another political black eye when Lord Malfoy was forced to make the apology. He had taken his displeasure out on Draco for getting them into such a mess in the first place. Draco quickly decided that it was all Black's fault, well his and his mudblood and began work on a way to embarrass him.
0-0
Tess had been a werewolf as long as she could remember, she had been infected just after she had learned to walk. She had been asked by Black Moon, the security firm that employed most werewolves, to make contact with several of the European packs. She knew that her employer was looking to see if any of them would be interested in relocating to North America and joining the company.
She also knew that it would be a hard sell, while werewolves in ICW controlled countries had it bad they were often told horror stories about the rest of the world.
The meeting went about as well as she had expected, none of them trusted her and none of them believed that the small pink pill she showed them was what they used instead of wolfsbane. They just couldn't believe that it would prevent them from transforming at all and the only side effect was the equivalent of a bad hanger over the next morning.
Tess had offered to demonstrate it for them during the next full moon and two of the pack had agreed to try it as well.
That was how Tess found herself locked in a large cage during the full moon. The two other werewolves were each in a cage on the other side of her. Several trusted people who were not werewolves themselves had been chosen to watch what happened.
They observed as each of the tree took the small pill and quickly fell asleep. They slept until morning and showed no signs of transformation. A few hours after they woke up and had recovered from the pills side effect, they admitted they both felt fine, and much better than they had ever felt right after the full moon.
More of the pack agreed to try the pill the following month. It was the first step in relocating a large number of them to North America.
0-0
Daniel fell to his knees panting. His father and Remus had been working him to exhaustion, teaching him everything they could about dueling, the most common blocks and tactics. Daniel learned them as quickly as he could, he was determined to beat Harry.
His holidays hadn't been as pleasant as he had expected, chief reason being his parents had talked to him about trying to reconnect with his brother. As if Daniel would let that happen. He was the Boy-Who-Lived. He wasn't going to share that fame with Black.
0-0
(A/N: Sorry it's been so long; I've been very tired. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and you're looking forward to the next one.)