Chapter 46

Breaking News

So, once again, there has been a delay. Real life sucks sometimes, and we're sorry for this. Because this chapter is a news story, as usual there are two chapters this time. We hope you enjoy this chapter, and as always, your reviews and comments are always welcome.

Today, this story is not going to be the one planned. After all, today is the day that the Tri-Wizard task finishes, with the final task going on tonight, and everyone should be excited.

However, this reporter has been doing some research into a story that will shock everyone, a story about You-Know-Who.

As we all know, and some remember, You-Know-Who, the Dark Lord who terrorised our entire country for years, wanted to make our society a pure-blood sanctuary, and to rule, killing and torturing muggle born and half-blood witches and wizards, with many joining him and helping his reign of terror.

You-Know-Who was very well known for his views on anyone who wasn't a pure-blood, feeling they didn't belong in our world, and that they had stolen their magic. However, evidence has come to light that might shock all of you. You-Know-Who was a half-blood himself, called Tom Marvolo Riddle!

Born on 31st December 1926, he was raised in an orphanage, after his mother, Merope Gaunt, died moments after giving birth to him at the orphanage, saying he was to be called Tom after his father, and Marvolo after his grandfather.

His father was a muggle, Tom Riddle, from Little Hangleton, born in 1905. Merope lived near there with her father, Marvolo, and her brother, Morfin. Both Marvolo and Morfin were muggle haters, and at one point, both were sentenced to spend time in Azkaban for assaulting Tom Riddle Sr.

After her father and brother were sentenced to Azkaban, Merope got married to Tom Riddle. However, not long after the wedding, Riddle returned home. According to my sources, Merope used a love potion on the poor man, blindly in love with him.

When Riddle Jr. went to Hogwarts in 1938, he immediately became the leader of a group of students in Slytherin who would eventually become the first Death Eaters. Despite this, he was known as a charming young boy, clever, wise, and brave. He was credited with stopping the attacks from the Chambers of Secrets, blaming Rubeus Hagrid, when, in fact, it was Riddle who opened the chamber. This was revealed by Lily Potter when she led the charge to attack and destroy the creature from the Chamber of Secrets, which turned out to be a Basilisk, thought to have been there since the time of the founders of the school.

This evidence has now been sent to the Ministry, in order to clear the name of Rubeus Hagrid, who was accused once again of opening the chamber, and was taken to Azkaban. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge took Hagrid to Azkaban, saying that 'he needed to be seen doing something.'

Of course, when the truth came out, Fudge was the first to apologise to Hagrid, promising to make amends, and starting a long-term investigation into the chamber. This reporter, however, believes amends will not be made until Hagrid is permitted to learn magic properly, an experience denied to him because of You-Know-Who.

In 1943, Tom Riddle Sr, and his family were killed, and the murders were blamed by the muggles on the old housekeeper of the Riddle house. However, Auror's knew immediately that it was a wizarding murder, and the blame fell to Morfin Gaunt, who took full credit, and later died in Azkaban for the crime.

However, it is believed by some that the true murderer was, in fact, Riddle Jr, but no evidence was ever provided to this.

When Riddle left Hogwarts, he worked for a time for Borgin and Burkes, surprising everyone as they all thought he would take a job at the Ministry of Magic. However, after a short time, he vanished, until returning years later as the Dark Lord.

The evidence of this wasn't known until recently. The Chamber of Secrets incident two years ago was, in fact, perpetrated by a shadow of Riddle, who had enchanted a diary, which was given to a Hogwarts first year student. This reporter would like to reveal the identity of who gave the student the diary, but as we have no evidence, all I can say is that it was done by someone pure evil, who clearly followed You-Know-Who.

Ironically, if you rearrange the name Tom Marvolo Riddle, you will get the words "I AM LORD (Redacted)" a clue that no one seemed to put together.

When the diary was destroyed by Lily Potter, it was felt that to reveal all of this would cause panic. However, the job of an intrepid reporter such as myself is to find the truth, and to let everyone know of this.

With the truth now known, how will You-Know-Who's supporters feel, knowing that their once leader was, in fact, the greatest hypocrite of all time?

Lockhart: The Truth Revealed

Two years ago, Gilderoy Lockhart was one of the most famous wizards of our time, having won the Witch Weekly most charming smile award five times, best-selling author, and noted hero who had saved many lives, as detailed in his books. The truth, however, is that he is nothing but a fraud and a liar!

Lockhart took a job at Hogwarts, which would start to be his downfall. He started by attempting to capitalise on Lily Potter, who hadn't yet come out as Transgender, and then tried to claim that he alone could protect the school when Hogwarts was threatened by Tom Riddle's memory.

When I learnt of this fact, I began to dig deeper into the history of Lockhart, and the truth became evident rather quickly. I discovered that when Lockhart supposedly defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf, he was in America with his family! So how could he have defeated the Werewolf?

Likewise, the Bandon Banshee, when it was defeated, Lockhart was elsewhere, with someone who said that Lockhart was working on inventing a shampoo which gives luscious locks. This may be one of the only true things that he had done, but the primary ingredient of the shampoo is an extremely hard to get item. The shampoo was never mass produced because of the difficulty and danger of getting said ingredient.

Lockhart was very good in one area whilst at school: Memory Charms. He became one of the most noted students when it came to certain charms, including Memory Charms. So the truth is that others did the deeds Lockhart spoke of, and he merely took the credit and erased the memories from the real heroes.

How was it this was able to be done without anyone knowing? Did the original heroes not speak to anyone of their work? After spending a week investigating, thanks to a team of highly skilled truth seekers, it was discovered that the village where the Wagga Wagga Werewolf was known to terrorise all had their memories wiped of the true hero of the time, an Armenian Warlock. Sadly, his identity is still unknown.

When Lockhart was confronted with this evidence two days ago, he attempted to cast a memory charm on myself and my photographers. However, knowing what we did, we came prepared, and went with Auror's, as well as shield charms up. Because of our shield charms, Lockhart's memory charm bounced off and, perhaps in a moment of karmic justice, struck Lockhart, hard.

Currently, Lockhart is now residing in St. Mungo's, where he has no memory of who he is or anything he has done. Whilst this may be poetic justice in a form, it does mean that the true heroes will never be known. Who really did banish the Bandon Banshee? Who vanquished the Wagga Wagga Werewolf? Healers are attempting to help him, but the strength of his memory charm was so great, it is highly unlikely that he will ever recover.

Every single one of Gilderoy Lockhart's books have now been removed from bookshelves across the world, and if he is ever healed, Lockhart will be tried for his crimes of fraud and assault.