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Chapter 16: Another Work

You would think that Danny was ditching his duties, being away during Quidditch match. But having duplicates helps not only in the lazy moments. It also disperse any suspicions. So, he decided to catch some Death Eaters out of boredom. Along with Fright Knight, just for fun. Clockwork told Danny, that Antonin Dolohov was currently in Leaking Cauldron undercover. Risky mission, especially with King of Ghosts on your tail.

Phantom and his servant were invisible, with the first one being without disguise. Death Mark was easy to spot. Dolohov was currently having breakfast in the end of the room. Suddenly, the seat was removed from under him, causing Antonin to fall on the floor. Childish laugh filled the air. He started to look around furiously.

"Oh, so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going!" The laughter started again.

"Show yourself, brat! I want to see the person I'm about to kill!" Dolohov shouted.

"Can't kill someone who is already dead!" Was the response.

"Then leave me alone, ghost," he spat, but immediately something cold collided with his gut and he was thrown on the nearest table, plates and mugs flying everywhere. Dolohov jumped on his feet, "Show yourself, coward!" He roared.

"Your wish is my command," immediately a person appeared in the air, scaring most of the customers.

Phantom was wearing black clothing with white belt and cape. On his flaming hair was an unmistakable burning crown. However it wasn't his attire which scared them. Pointy ears, fangs and arrowed tail immediately told everyone, what this person was. Even Dolohov started shaking a bit, but he still shot a spell at Danny. He just waved a hand and it bounced.

"You wizards never learn," with that Phantom lifted Death Eater in the air and threw him into the wall.

"Who in the Bloody Hell are you?!" Antonin shouted.

"Funny that you said that. I'm known by many names. Pariah's Bane, Dark Prince, Undead King..." Phantom waved his hand nonchalantly. People stared at him, terrified, even Death Eater.

"Okey-dokey," Danny hopped on a chair, "I'm bored. Fright Knight, finish him"

Immediately The Spirit of Halloween appeared, his sword shining in green light. He slashed Dolohov with Soul Shredder, sending him to face his worst fears. Phantom facepalmed.

"I meant knock him out!"

-Laterr-

Griffindor Trio entered the Great Hall for breakfast at exactly the same moment as the post owls on Monday morning. Hermione was not the only person eagerly awaiting her Daily Prophet: nearly everyone was eager for more news about the escaped Death Eaters. They talked about yesterday event. About demon, who caught Dolohov.

Hermione gave the delivery owl a Knut and unfolded the newspaper eagerly while Harry helped himself to orange juice; as he had only received one note during the entire year, he was sure, when the first owl landed with a thud in front of him, that it had made a mistake.

"Who're you after?" he asked it, languidly removing his orange juice from underneath its beak and leaning forwards to see the recipient's name and address:

Harry Potter

Great Hall

Hogwarts School

Frowning, he made to take the letter from the owl, but before he could do so, three, four, five more owls had fluttered down beside it and were jockeying for position, treading in the butter and knocking over the salt as each one attempted to give him their letter first.

"What's going on?" Ron asked in amazement, as the whole of Gryffindor table leaned forwards to watch and another seven owls landed amongst the first ones, screeching, hooting and flapping their wings.

"Harry!" said Hermione breathlessly, plunging her hands into the feathery mass and pulling out a screech owl bearing a long, cylindrical package, "I think I know what this means, open this one first!"

Harry ripped off the brown packaging. Out rolled a tightly furled copy of the March edition of The Quibbler.He unrolled it to see his own face grinning sheepishly at him from the front cover. In large red letters across this picture were the words:

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED

AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

"It's good, isn't it?" said Luna, who had drifted over to the Gryffindor table and now squeezed herself on to the bench between Fred and Ron, "It came out yesterday, I asked Dad to send you a free copy. I expect all these," she waved a hand at the assembled owls still scrabbling around on the table in front of Harry, "are letters from readers"

"Well, there is plenty," Danny said, appearing from nowhere, hands behind his back, "There might be a problem, though"

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"Toad"

"What is going on here?" said a falsely sweet, girlish voice.

Professor Umbridge was standing behind Fred and Luna, her bulging toad's eyes scanning the mess of owls and letters on the table in front of Harry. Behind her he saw many of the students watching them avidly.

"Why have you got all these letters, Mr. Potter?" she asked slowly.

"Is that a crime now?" said Danny loudly, "Getting mail? Then you are breaking a law everyday"

"Well, Mr Potter?" Dolores growled, it was best to ignore him.

"People have written to me because I gave an interview," said Harry, "About what happened to me last June"

"An interview?" repeated Umbridge, her voice thinner and higher than ever, "What do you mean?"

"I mean a reporter asked me questions and I answered them," said Harry, "Here"

And he threw the copy of The Quibbler to her. She caught it and stared down at the cover. Her pale, doughy face turned an ugly, patchy violet.

"When did you do this?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.

"That's none of your business, Jane," Danny said in singsong voice, "Since this information is not related to your subject"

"Even so, I'm still High Inquisitor, Work. Fifty points from Griffindor and week of detentions, Mr. Potter," with that she walked away.

"You better watch your mouth, Harry," Danny said quietly, "If she will get a word that you did it during Hogsmeade trip, then she will ban you from that as well"

By mid-morning enormous signs had been put up all over the school, not just on house noticeboards, but in the corridors and classrooms too.

BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS

Any student found in possession of the magazine

The Quibblerwill be expelled.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven.

Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor

By some reason Danny started to laugh at the sight of one of this signs.

"What are you so happy about?" Luna asked him.

"Oh, Luna, don't you see?" Danny breathed, "The Forbidden fruit is sweet. Soon every single person will talk about it"

And it seemed that Danny was quite right. By the end of the day, though they had not seen so much as a corner of The Quibbler anywhere in the school, the whole place seemed to be quoting the interview to each other.

Harry was a hero in the Gryffindor common room that night. Daringly, Fred, George and Danny had put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall, so that Harry's giant head gazed down upon the proceedings, occasionally saying things like 'THE MINISTRY ARE MORONS' and 'EAT FLIES, UMBRIDGE' in a booming voice.


-Laateer-

"Harry, Harry, get up!"

A couple of weeks after his dream of Rookwood, Harry was to be found, yet again, kneeling on the floor of Snape's classroom, trying to clear his head. He had just been forced, yet again, to relive a stream of very early memories he had not even realised he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.

"Are you alright?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Harry.

"That last memory," said Danny, "What was it?"

"I don't know," said Harry, getting wearily to his feet. He was finding it increasingly difficult to disentangle separate memories from the rush of images and sound that Danny kept calling forth, "You mean the one where my cousin tried to make me stand in the toilet?"

"No," said Phantom softly, raising an eyebrow, "I mean the one with a man kneeling in the middle of a darkened room ..."

"It's ... nothing," said Harry.

"How do that man and that room come to be inside your head?"

"It...it was...just a dream I had"

"A dream?" repeated Danny, "What was there?"

Harry was surprised that he was interested, but told the story nevertheless.

"So...Department of Mysteries?" Danny asked.

"Voldemort must be searching for something there," Harry nodded, "Why do you ask?"

"I share your point of view, Harry. We need this dreams. But protection is still a good thing to have. For how long do you have this 'connection' with Voldemort?"

"As long as I remember. The scar hurts more since he returned. Why?" Danny looked at him with thoughtful look on his face.

"Of course," he muttered, "he used Avada Kedavra against you. There is no need to sugarcoat this. There is a stinking piece of Voldemort's soul inside your skull," he said loudly. They were silent for some time. Then...

"WHAT?!" Harry shouted.

"I suppose it happened when he tried to kill you fourteen years ago..."

"Can you remove it?!" Harry started to panic.

"That is where dilemma is. I can. But for that I need all my power, which can seriously hurt, if not kill you. I'm trying to find a solution. I will ask you to keep it a secret from now on. Even from your friends and other Order members, can you do it?"

Harry nodded slowly. Then they heard someone's screaming.

-Laater-

The screams were indeed coming from the Entrance Hall; they grew louder as they ran towards the stone steps leading up from the dungeons. When he reached the top he found the Entrance Hall packed; They pushed forwards through a knot of tall Slytherins and saw that the onlookers had formed a great ring, some of them looking shocked, others even frightened.

Professor Trelawney was standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall with her wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other, looking utterly mad. Her hair was sticking up on end, her glasses were lopsided so that one eye was magnified more than the other; her innumerable shawls and scarves were trailing haphazardly from her shoulders, giving the impression that she was falling apart at the seams. Two large trunks lay on the floor beside her, one of them upside-down; it looked very much as though it had been thrown down the stairs after her.

"No!" she shrieked, "NO! This cannot be happening ... it cannot ... I retuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realise this was coming?" said a high girlish voice, sounding callously amused, and Harry, moving slightly to his right, saw that Trelawney's terrifying vision was nothing other than Professor Umbridge, "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrows weather, you must surely have realised that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?"

"You c-can't!" howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, "you c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!'

"It was your home," said Professor Umbridge, and Harry was revolted to see the enjoyment stretching her toadlike face as she watched Professor Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, on to one of her trunks, "until an hour ago, when the Minister for Magic countersigned your Order of Dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this Hall. You are embarrassing us," Danny already planned ten very embarrassing pranks.

"There, there, Sybill ... calm down," said Professor McGonagall, "blow your nose on this ... it's not as bad as you think, now ... you are not going to have to leave Hogwarts ..."

"Oh really, Professor McGonagall?" said Umbridge in a deadly voice, taking a few steps forward, "And your authority for that statement is ... ?"

"That would be mine," said a deep voice.

The oaken front doors had swung open. Students beside them scuttled out of the way as Dumbledore appeared in the entrance.

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge, with a singularly unpleasant little laugh, "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here," she pulled a parchment scroll from within her robes, "an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister for Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation and sack any teacher she, that is to say - I, feel is not performing to the standards required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her"

Dumbledore continued to smile. He looked down at Professor Trelawney, who was still sobbing and choking on her trunk, and said, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have every right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid," he went on, with a courteous little bow, "that the power to do that still resides with the Headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts"

At this, Professor Trelawney gave a wild little laugh in which a hiccough was barely hidden.

"No-no, I'll g-go, Dumbledore! I sh-shall...leave Hogwarts and s-seek my fortune elsewhere..."

"No," said Dumbledore sharply, "It is my wish that you remain, Sybill"

He turned to Professor McGonagall.

"Might I ask you to escort Sybill back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"

"Of course," said McGonagall. "Up you get, Sybill ..."

Professor Sprout came hurrying forwards out of the crowd and grabbed Professor Trelawney's other arm. Together, they guided her past Umbridge and up the marble stairs. Professor Flitwick went scurrying after them, his wand held out before him; he squeaked "Locomotor trunks!" and Professor Trelawney's luggage rose into the air and proceeded up the staircase after her, Professor Flitwick bringing up the rear.

Professor Umbridge was standing stock still, staring at Dumbledore, who continued to smile benignly.

"And what," she said, in a whisper that carried all around the Eintrance Hall, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination teacher who needs her lodgings?"

"Oh, that won't be a problem," said Dumbledore pleasantly, "You see, I have already found us a new Divination teacher"

"You've found..." said Umbridge shrilly, "You've found? Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Number Twenty-two..."

"The Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if, and only if, the Headmaster is unable to find one," said Dumbledore, "And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?"

He turned to face the open front doors, through which night mist was now drifting. Through the mist came a man, dressed in purple cloak, with a strange staff in his hand. He took off the hood, revealing a man with brown-reddish eyes and scar, coming through his left eye.

"Dad?" asked Danny happily, shocking students and making Umbridge faint.

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