PLEASE REREAD THE LAST CHAPTER. The beginning section was missing from that chapter. It has been fixed now, and it is directly relevant to events in this chapter.
(If it's not there yet, FFN can take 30 minutes to update I guess? Try clearing cookies :\ )
The issue with Tom's idea of how to save Anthea Nott was the potential collateral damage. As she was already dead, Tom didn't see an issue if Theo's mother's body was suddenly blown apart in messy chunks, but Hermione rather wanted to avoid that if as all possible. She thought Theo was likely to be displeased by such a solution, and there was no way Thoros Nott wouldn't eventually discover his wife had been rendered into bloody bits.
She let the matter percolate in the back of her mind as she went to Gringotts the next day to meet with Bloodthorne, who wore a wide, pointy grin and led her to his office with relish.
"It is finished," he declared. "If you would sign here, the contract will be completed, and the Daily Prophet would be yours."
"Excellent," Hermione said fervently, picking up a blood quill to sign. "How will they know I'm the new owner? I want to go and visit."
"They have provided," Bloodthorne said. He pulled out a blue velvet bag, withdrawing a heavy, ornate silver cuff from the bag. "This would let you through the wards into the building, and those there would recognize you from it, I am told."
A security bracelet wasn't any stranger than anything else she'd experienced in the magical world, Hermione figured, signing the contract in blood at the bottom and wincing. At least it was simple – if all she had to do was march in with a fancy cuff to establish her authority, this would be extremely straightforward.
"Thank you for all your assistance with this, Bloodthorne," Hermione said, bowing. "I really appreciate it."
Bloodthorne cackled.
"I have received a substantial fee for the work," he said, "so your thanks are not necessary. But if you would feel better expressing your gratitude, by all means, continue to think better of me than I have earned."
When Hermione strode into the Daily Prophet later that day, Leland Ollerton at her side, people stopped and stared, making Hermione smirk. She'd wanted to make an entrance, and people staring tended to help with making a statement and getting the wheels of gossip going.
To help make a striking first impression, Hermione had borrowed one of her mother's pantsuits, the kind her mother wore to conferences, and she'd put a formal black robe on over the shell instead of the jacket. Her hair wasn't quite long enough to put up into a French twist, so she settled for twisting and pinning the front parts to the back and letting the rest hang free. The result was an odd mix between muggle and magical professionalism, and Hermione found she quite liked it. She felt more confident and self-assured in trousers than she did in just a robe, the large silver bangle on her wrist providing a reassuring weight.
Leland was at her side as she strode into the building like she owned it, guiding her through the halls, skipping the front desk entirely and leaving a gaping receptionist behind them.
"The Editor's office is back here," he said, his voice low. "He's the best target to burst in on, and we can get a meeting going from there."
"Works for me," Hermione said under her breath. She squared her shoulders. "Let's do this."
Leland stopped outside an office door, rapped smartly on the window, and then pushed the door in, Hermione following in after.
The Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Prophet was a middle-aged man with coarse silver hair. He wore a royal blue robe with navy trimming, and he sat up in surprise when they entered.
"Mr. Ollerton," the man said, standing up. "This is a surprise."
"It certainly is," Leland said. "May I present to you Hermione Granger, new majority owner of the Daily Prophet? Hermione, this is Barnabas Cuffe, the current Editor-in-Chief."
To his credit, Barnabas' eyes widening was his only visible reaction to the news that there was a new majority owner of the paper. His tell was hidden a moment later as he bowed low, portraying the image of a very polite gentleman.
"A pleasure to meet you," Barnabas told her. His tone sounded sincere. Hermione matched his bow with a curtsy.
"Thank you so much," Hermione said, smiling at him as he straightened. "I'm so excited to be involved."
"Be involved…?" Barnabas looked sideways at Leland. "As the owner, that is of course your right, but the owners of the Daily Prophet have traditionally been rather hands-off—"
"That ends today," Hermione said pleasantly. "Please call an Editorial Board meeting. We have a lot to discuss."
The Editorial Board of the Daily Prophet consisted of the editors of each section, as well as a couple of the senior-most writers. Hermione and Leland watched as they each entered the room. Most of them seemed rather puzzled but amicable enough, chatting idly as they took their seats at the conference table. Rita Skeeter raised her eyebrows as she entered, and Hermione gave her a smile that made Rita's eyes narrow.
"Thank you all for coming, especially on such short notice," Barnabas said, once everyone was present. He sat and took a deep breath himself. "This isn't exactly a typical meeting. The long and short of it is that the Daily Prophet has a new owner."
"Are we going to lose our jobs?" one person asked immediately, eyes going wide.
"I don't believe anybody's in any danger of that," Barnabas reassured them. "But the new owner would like to discuss our current editorial policy and become more involved in the paper than the previous owners were. Team, meet Hermione Granger, new majority shareholder for the Daily Prophet."
"Pleased to meet you all," Hermione said, smiling. "I look forward to working together."
There were murmurs of 'nice to meet you' from all around, people exchanging wary glances with each other.
"So we're just going to ignore the fact she's a kid?" one of the editors drawled.
"Alexander!" Barnabas admonished sharply. "Show some respect—"
"You're not wrong," Hermione said, cutting in. She shot the man who'd spoken up a grin. "I'm nearly fifteen – definitely still a child legally."
"But she's allowed to own the Prophet?" one of the women protested.
"No laws against it," Leland chimed in, shrugging.
"Please don't fret yourselves over me," Hermione demurred. "This meeting is to discuss the paper's current editorial policy and outlook. I'm hoping to get up to speed."
The editors looked around at each other, no one speaking up.
"I don't really know what you mean," one of the women said finally. "With my team, we just cover the news. That's it, really."
"This is Sherrie Dunlap," Barnabas introduced, "Editor of the News section."
"Good to meet you, Sherrie," Hermione said, smiling. "When you cover the news, what angle do you usually take in the stories?"
"That depends on the writer," Sherrie said slowly. "We allow our journalists a lot of leeway in how they choose to convey a story." She glanced at Rita Skeeter. "Would you say otherwise?"
"That's about right," Rita said. She adjusted her glasses, giving Hermione a square look. "Are we to do differently now?"
"Yes," Hermione said firmly. "The Daily Prophet's opinions and portrayals of issues are too disjointed and uneven. We need to decide what the paper stands for and what sort of outlook we have."
There were groans all around at this. Hermione gave Leland a look, who cleared his throat and took control.
"Let's begin with the basics," Leland said pleasantly. "Let's go around the table, and everyone state one thing they're passionate about with the paper."
As the meeting wore on, Hermione taking notes, it became very apparent that the current unspoken editorial slant of the paper was 'write whatever will sell the most papers', which explained a lot about the stories she'd seen over the years. The Daily Prophet could be counted on to cause alarm and break astonishing stories, but not necessarily to accurately cover the minutia of everything going on. More importance was placed on the Society and Sports sections than anything else, it seemed – Ripley Taylor took the even coverage of Quidditch teams and factual reporting on games incredibly seriously, and Antilia Romero spoke for a while on the importance of covering societal events truthfully without offending any of those in society who might take offense and later exclude the paper.
"This is going to take some work," Hermione said under her breath to Leland, as the Classifieds editor described how they decided how best to arrange the ads on a given day. "Not that I expected much, but this…"
"We'll start with a few basic prescriptive statements for now," Leland reassured her. "We can build off of them later."
The discussion went on for an hour as the editors began debating with Hermione and Leland over proposed goals and principles for the paper. When they were done, there was a list of five items left behind, and Hermione was exhausted.
"Let's take one more vote," Barnabas suggested. "Just to be sure that we're all unanimous on these."
Hermione barely refrained from snarling at him.
She whipped out her wand, and a quick "Gemino" duplicated her sheet of paper, wind gusts sending a copy over to each person. A few people were openly surprised by this, but Hermione ignored them, looking at her own list as Barnabas began to read them aloud.
.
Daily Prophet Journalistic Standards
· We will provide balanced but fair and accurate coverage of events
· We will prize truth and facts over rumors. We shall prioritize factual, backed-up sources over word of mouth, and we shall protect anonymous informants with our lives.
· We will question people's motivations. We shall seek the 'why' behind everything and not take what we're told at face value.
· We will be critical of authority and suspicious of their motives as a rule. We believe the media must keep a close eye on the government to make sure it does not lose itself in its power.
· We will continue to refrain from endorsing a specific Quidditch team over another. This policy may be suspended for national games, whereupon we may openly support a national team. Other editorials and endorsements will be decided upon on a case-by-case basis at the editorial board's discretion.
.
After they were read aloud, there was minor quibbling over the definition of 'national team', which Hermione found she honestly couldn't care less about. When it was finally done and everyone had agreed, signing off on Barnabas' copy, Hermione's own signature was a frustrated scrawl.
"So, Miss Granger," Rita purred, once the document was completed. "Give us a bit of guidance on what you are expecting on upcoming news. We are happy to follow your directive, but this may take us some getting used to." She withdrew a quill. "For example, what do you want us to do to ensure fair and balanced coverage on this turn of events?"
"Nothing," Hermione said firmly. "Companies change Boards of Directors all the time, and without a Business section, there's not really an appropriate place to cover it. We'll just update the masthead."
"You don't want us to cover your own story?" Sherri said, surprised. "That's… certainly a choice."
"To answer your question directly, Rita," Hermione said, turning back to the reporter, "I'd encourage the paper to scrutinize the Ministry and its actions. There's been two terroristic werewolf attacks and an attack on Azkaban in the past two months. What is the Ministry doing to make sure people are safe? What are they doing to ensure adequate security at the World Cup? It wouldn't take much to potentially cause an international incident at such an event, don't you think?"
Rita's eyes began to gleam.
"So it's not that we're not going to dig into matters," she said, "but just what types of matters we dig into."
"Precisely," Hermione said. "The Minister says that safety measures are being taken – but what are they? Who is overseeing them? Are they working? The paper needs to keep the public informed so the public can hold their elected representatives accountable."
"Wait, wait, wait," Barnabas said worriedly, cutting in. "You're not suggesting we openly challenge Fudge, are you?"
"I'm suggesting that you gather the facts, and the public draws their own opinions from them," Hermione said, giving Rita a sly look. "If Rita investigates werewolf security, for example, and it turns out that the Minister has a highly-detailed plan with people patrolling and action plans and adequate protection and coverage for the public, our readers will conclude 'the Ministry has this under control'. If Rita discovers that the Minister does not have any such plan, and has been just saying whatever he can to make the public look the other way…"
Rita's eyes glinted as a slow smile spread over thin lips, while Barnabas looked sickened.
"I don't like this," he said, shaking his head. "I support fair and balanced coverage, sure, but taking on the Ministry…? I don't like it."
"Why not?" Hermione challenged.
"Because we need the Ministry to play nicely with us," Barnabas protested. "If they start denying us access to things, or start censoring the paper—"
"If they don't give us access, they we just won't cover their news," Sherri said, tossing her hair. She nodded to Hermione. "I'm with you, Granger. They need us more than we need them. If Fudge doesn't want to talk, we'll go find his challenger and interview them about what they would do better than Fudge."
"Give them an early campaign boost," Rita said, smirking. "We'll see how fast Fudge folds then."
"I don't like this," Barnabas said plaintively. "In my day, we treated elected officials with respect. We didn't go digging around for dirt on them—"
"Investigating is not the same as slandering," Hermione said sharply, losing her patience. "You may trust the words of authority figures. That's great. But it hurts nothing to verify what they say. If the facts support their statements, you can rest easy. But if they don't…" She shrugged. "Then you potentially have a big story to break."
Barnabas sighed.
"You are the owner," he conceded. "Fine. We'll try it your way."
"Question," one woman said, raising her hand. "Estelle Bletchley, by the way – main reporter for the society section. Do you want us to run human interest topics by you first?"
Hermione considered.
"I don't think that will be necessary," she said. "Unless it's going to interfere with me personally, your own discretion should be fine. Though I might owl suggestions for story ideas from time to time, if I get wind of something big happening that should really be covered."
"Isn't that a conflict of interest?" Ripley Taylor, the Sports editor, spoke up. "You're in the Wizengamot – should you really be leaking things to us from there?"
"Unless it's a confidential session, I don't see why not," Hermione said, smirking. "The workings of government should not be a secret from its people."
"Ooh, this is excellent," Sherri said, grabbing a quill and flipping her parchment over. "I forgot you were in the Wizengamot, Granger. Go ahead – give us some leads. What should we be looking into?"
"Um," Hermione said, blinking. "Err—the construction of the werewolf house and its completion date, if the Ministry is being entirely honest about what all occurred at Azkaban…"
"We know about that," Rita said, rolling her eyes. "Give us small details that you've overheard. Things that require investigation. Things that can turn into a story we can break."
"There have been more reports of goblin issues above ground," Hermione said slowly, thinking of Era and Royce's complaints. "Maybe subtly poke into that – what's going on with the goblins? Don't take an anti-goblin stance, though – let's presume that the Ministry is somehow at fault for whatever's going on there."
"Probably because their land is still poisoned," Sherri said darkly, scribbling on her parchment. "What else?"
"Look into 'the Triwizard Tournament'," Hermione suggested. "I've no idea what it is, but Bagman let it slip that it was coming up, and the Department for International Cooperation is getting involved as well."
"Can do," Rita said promptly.
"Ah – minor human interest story – Chocolate Frogs are coming out with a limited edition 'Young Wizards' card line this winter," Hermione said. She frowned. "Or it was something like that. I don't remember the details."
"You'd be surprised how much some people care about chocolate frog cards," Antilia Romero said, amused. "We covered an auction of a rare misprint of Merlin's card; instead of 'the Prince of Enchanters', it called him 'the Ponce of Enchanters'. It went for 800 galleons."
Leland looked at Hermione, before speaking up himself.
"Nothing's happening now," he said. "But… we think the paper should prepare itself. With You-Know-Who attempting to get the Philosopher's Stone a few years ago, with his servant Pettigrew now on the loose, and now with the Azkaban attack…" He shook his head, trailing off. "All I'm saying is I think we all need to be ready. If the paper can start getting sources into place now, then if bad things start happening again…"
"We'll be ready," Rita said firmly. Her eyes flashed, cutting over to Hermione. "I take it we will not just be publishing the Ministry's official statements and safety protocols this time?"
"Absolutely not," Hermione said vehemently. "And if the Ministry falls, the Prophet will go underground to continue publishing the truth. We'll put a Fidelius Charm on the whole building if we have to."
Barnabas looked ill, while the others looked amped up, exchanging excited glances among themselves. The journalists seemed invigorated, like the new ideas had rejuvenated them, taken them back to the roots of why they'd wanted to get into journalism in the first place. Barnabas might look queasy, but he was a manager-type businessperson, not a reporter, so Hermione didn't care as much about what he was thinking.
"We'll be ready," Sherri assured Leland. She nodded at Hermione too. "If something's coming… we'll be the ones to speak the truth this time – not just what those in power want people to hear."
Barnabas moaned softly, as if ill, while everyone ignored him.
"This was an excellent and productive discussion," Hermione said, standing and thanking them all. "You all do an excellent job, really – that's why I bought the paper. I just think with a little bit more direction, we could build this paper into something really incredible."
"It was a pleasure, Miss Granger," Rita said, her eyes glinting behind her glasses. "Hopefully we'll do you proud."
