𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗢𝗬

ACT TWO, CHAPTER FOUR
finally, the school comes to its
senses.

LUNA HAD VAGUELY told them vaguely that she didn't know how soon Rita's interview with Harry would appear in The Quibbler, due to the fact that her father was expecting a very long article about Crumple-Horned Sorkacks, which was obviously very important.

Venus could tell that Harry was anxious when talking about the night when Voldemort returned. He didn't let go of her hand at all and squeezed it a couple times before explaining particular hard details. Rita had pressed him for every little detail, and Harry had responded with everything he could remember. There was no telling how people would react to the story, especially since it would be appearing alongside an article about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, but at least he was given an opportunity to tell the world the truth.

"Can't wait to see what Umbridge thinks of you going public," Dean admitted in a very awestruck way at dinner on Monday night, Seamus obviously listening on his other side while shoveling down his dinner, not saying a word.

"It's the right thing to do, Harry," Neville added in a low voice, looking rather pale. "It must have been . . . tough . . . talking about it . . . was it?"

"Yeah, but people have got to know what Voldemort's capable of, haven't they?" Harry replied.

Neville nodded. "That's right, and his Death Eaters too . . . people should know . . ."

He left that sentence hanging in the air and went back to eating his baked potato. After a little while longer, Dean, Seamus, and Neville left to go back to the common room. They left Venus, Harry, and Hermione at the table to wait for Ron, who hadn't eaten dinner yet because of Quidditch practice.

Venus suddenly felt eyes on her, and with her eyebrows knit in thought, she glanced up from her plate. From the doors of the hall, Cho Chang was intently staring at her while walking in with her friend Marietta. Cho's gaze was bitter until she turned away and sat down at the Ravenclaw table. Venus sighed and shook her head. Cho was an extremely nice girl and was obviously still going through the loss of Cedric Diggory, but it wasn't Venus' fault that Harry just suddenly decided to make Valentine's Day plans in front of her.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you both, what happened on your date?" Hermione asked brightly. "How come you were back so early?"

"It was really good," Venus answered, her face feeling very hot as she shared a shy smile with Harry. "We went to Honeydukes, and then we got caught in the rain — it was nice staying in the rain for a little while, but I wasn't very keen on getting sick, so we just went to the Three Broomsticks early. Anything else to add, Harry?"

"Star didn't like me paying for her sugar quills," Harry responded.

Venus rolled her eyes. "Oh, brother."

"I wanted to."

"And I appreciate it, I do, but you didn't have to."

"Come on, let me be a good boyfriend, darling."

It was clear that there was no malice or anger in this little argument of theirs. Instead, both of them were smiling widely at each other with racing hearts and stars in their eyes. Obviously, the two had a very nice Valentine's Day. Venus' heart glowed as she felt Harry snag her waist in his arm and press a kiss to her temple.

"I'm glad you had a good Valentine's day," Hermione voiced, smiling as she watched the two of them. "Sorry I made it get cut short."

Suddenly, Ron came into the Great Hall splattered with mud while looking incredibly grumpy. He dropped down onto the bench opposite of them and pulled every dish within reach towards him.

Venus shrugged. "At least Harry now has a chance to tell the world what really happened without the lies of the Prophet."

Ginny then joined them as well, just as muddy as Ron was and looking equally displeased.

"So, how was Quidditch practice?" Harry questioned to the two siblings.

"It was a nightmare," Ron glumly said.

Hermione looked at Ginny. "Oh, come on, I'm sure it wasn't that—"

"Yes, it was," Ginny cut in. "It was appalling. Angelina was nearly in tears by the end of it."

Ron and Ginny went off to the baths after dinner while Venus, Harry, and Hermione returned to the busy Gryffindor common room to do their usual pile of homework. Venus was in the middle of writing her Charms essay while occasionally peering into her textbook when Fred and George arrived.

"Ron and Ginny not here?" Fred inquired, glancing around the common room as he pulled up a chair. Harry shook his head in response. "Good. We were watching their practice. They're going to be slaughtered. They're complete rubbish without us."

"Come on, Ginny's not bad," George replied fairly as he sat down next to Fred. "Actually, I dunno how she got so good, seeing how we never let her play with us . . ."

"She's been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren't looking," Hermione revealed from behind her tottering pile of Ancient Rune books.

Venus shrugged, not looking up from her parchment. "Sounds like something Ginny would do.

George looked mildly impressed at that. "Oh. Well — that'd explain it."

"Has Ron saved a goal yet?" Hermione asked, peering over the top of Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms.

"Well, he can do it if he doesn't think anyone's watching him," Fred stated, rolling his eyes. "So all we have to do is ask the crowd to turn their backs and talk among themselves every time the Quaffle goes up his end on Saturday." He got up once more and moved restlessly to the window, staring out at the dark grounds of Hogwarts. "You know, Quidditch was about the only thing in this place worth staying for."

Hermione gave him a stern look. "You've got exams coming!"

"Told you already, we're not fussed about N.E.W.T.'s. The Snackboxes are ready to roll, we found out how to get rid of those boils, just a couple of drops of Murtlap essence sorts them, Lee put us onto it . . ."

George let out a wide yawn and looked unhappily at the cloudy night sky. "I dunno if I even want to watch this match. If Zacharias Smith beats us I might have to kill myself."

"Kill him, more like," Fred corrected.

"That's the trouble with Quidditch, it creates all this bad feeling and tension between the Houses," Hermione said absentmindedly, still bent over her Rune translation. She then looked up to see Fred, George, and Harry looking at her with a mixture of disgust and incredulity on their faces. "Well, it does! It's only a game, isn't it?"

Venus pointed her quill at Hermione. "Amen, sister."

"Star!" Harry protested.

"Quidditch, Quodpot, heck, even football — the American kind, mind you — has people going wild." She wrote the last of her sentence before looking up at Harry. "No offense, love, but I just do not understand how people's lives revolve around throwing a ball around."

"It's called a Quaffle."

Venus went back to her essay. "And this is called me returning to my homework."

Hermione sighed. "At least our happiness doesn't depend on Ron's goalkeeping ability."

The match the next day — well, the best thing to say about it was that it was short. All of Gryffindor only had to endure about twenty-two minutes of agony. Here's some things that happened — Ron missed fourteen saves in a row, Sloper missed the Bludger and hiting Angelina in the mouth with his bat, and Kirke shrieking and falling backwards off of his broom as Zacharias Smith zoomed at him with the Quaffle clutched in his hand. Gryffindor had only lost by ten points, however; Ginny managed to catch the Snitch from right underneath Summerby's, who was the Seeker for Hufflepuff, nose, making the final score two hundred and forty to two hundred and thirty.

Harry, his hand gripped in Venus' was standing by Ginny in the common room that night, which had the atmosphere of a particularly dismal funeral. "Good catch."

"I was lucky," Ginny replied with a shrug. "It wasn't a very fast Snitch and Summerby's got a cold, he sneezed and closed his eyes at exactly the wrong moment. Anyway, once you're back on the team—"

"Ginny, I've got a lifelong ban."

"You're banned as long as Umbridge is in the school. There's a difference. Anyway, once you're back, I think I'll try out for Chaser. Angelina and Alicia are both leaving next year and I prefer goal-scoring to Seeking anyway."

Venus then frowned at Ron, who was sitting in a corner staring at his knees with a bottle of butterbeer clutched in his hand. "I hope he's all right."

"Angelina still won't let him resign," Ginny added. "She says she knows he's got it in him."

It was nice of Angelina to show her faith in Ron, but if Ron really wanted to leave the team . . . Venus means, Ron had left the pitch with another booming chorus of Weasley Is Our King from the Slytherins, who were now favorites to win the Quidditch Cup. Even Penelope wasn't able to cheer him up afterwards.

Fred and George then wandered over.

"I haven't got the heart to take the mickey out of him, even," Fred admitted, looking over at Ron's crumpled figure. "Mind you . . . when he missed the fourteenth . . ." He made wild motions with his arm. "Well, I'll save it for parties, eh?"

Ron then dragged himself up to bed shortly after that. Venus noticed Harry was waiting to go up so that Ron could pretend to be a sleep. Finally, after a little while of Harry sitting on the armchair by the fire with Venus on the floor, he kissed her cheek goodnight, and Venus was left to stare in the fire alone.

╞════════ ༺ ༻ ════════╡

CHARLOTTE AND ELIJAH were waiting outside the Great Hall for Venus, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George. The group of eight walked into the Great Hall for breakfast at exactly the same time as the post owls. Hermione quickly rushed up to the table to eagerly get her issue of the Daily Prophet, but she wasn't the only one. Many people were wanting more news about the ten escaped Death Eaters who had still not been caught despite many reported sightings. Hermione handed the delivery owl a Knut and unfolded the newspaper eagerly.

Venus took her usual seat next to Harry and poured herself some pumpkin juice. An owl suddenly landed in front of Harry — one that definitely wasn't Hedwig.

"Who're you after?" Harry questioned to the owl, removing his orange juice from underneath the owl's beak and leaning forwards to see to whom it was addressed to.

                               Harry Potter
                               Great Hall
                               Hogwarts School

Harry frowned and went to go remove the letter from the owl. However, before he could do so, about five more owls fluttered down beside the original one and were fighting to give Harry their letters fist, treading in the butter and knocking over the salt in the wake.

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

"I think you've got a fan base, Harry," Charlotte joked.

"Harry!" Hermione breathed out, plunging her hands into the mass of owls and pulling out a screech owl that was carrying a long, cylindrical package. "I think I know what this means — open this one first!"

He instantly ripped off the brown packaging. Inside of it was a tightly furled copy of March's edition of The Quibbler. He unrolled it, and Venus peered over his shoulder to see Harry's face smiling sheepishly from the front cover. There was a headline in large red letters across his picture.

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?" Luna announced, who had drifted over to the Gryffindor table and was now squeezed on the bench between Fred and Ron. "It came out yesterday, I asked dad to send you a free copy. I expect all these—" she gestured to the owls "—are letters from readers."

"That's what I thought, Harry, d'you mind if we l—?" Hermione began eagerly.

"Help yourself," Harry responded.

At once, Venus, Ron, Hermione, Charlotte, Elijah, and the twins all began to rip open the envelopes.

Ron glanced down at his letter. "This one's from a bloke who thinks you're off your rocker. Ah well . . ."

"This woman recommends you try a good course of Shock Spells at St. Mungo's," Hermione revealed, looking disappointed as she crumpled up the paper.

"This one looks okay, though," Harry admitted slowly. "Hey, she says she believes me!"

"This one's in two minds," Fred stated. "Says you don't come across as a mad person, but he really doesn't want to believe You-Know-Who's back so he doesn't know what to think now . . . blimey, what a waste of parchment . . ."

"Hey, you've got this one convinced," Venus voiced. "Having read your side of the story I am forced to the conclusion that the Daily Prophet has treated you very unfairly . . . little though I want to think that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned, I am forced to accept that you are telling the truth . . . that's pretty good, huh?"

"Here's another one who thinks you're out of your mind," Charlotte said, crumpling up the paper in her hands. "Losers."

Elijah then cleared his throat. "I think Lottie was right about you having a fan base. This girl says you convinced her and now thinks you're a hero. She even put in a photograph."

Charlotte laughed. "Looks like Venus has some competition."

Venus rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "Quiet, Charlie."

"What's going on here?" a falsely sweet, girlish voice demanded.

Venus looked up. Standing behind Fred and Luna was Umbridge, her bulging toad eyes scanning the mess of owls and letters on the table in front of Harry. Behind her, many students were watching them intently.

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

"Is that a crime now?" Fred questioned loudly. "Getting mail?"

"Be careful, Mr. Weasley, or I shall have to put you in detention. Well, Mr. Potter?"

Harry hesitated for a moment. He glanced over to Venus, who shrugged. It would only be a matter of time before Umbridge saw a copy of The Quibbler. Might as well rip off the band-aid now.

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

"An interview?" Umbridge repeated, her voice thin and high. "What do you mean?"

"I mean a reporter asked me questions and I answered them. Here l—"

He threw the copy of The Quibbler at her. She caught it and stared down at the cover. Her pale, doughy face suddenly sprouted patches of an ugly shade of purple.

"When did you do this?" Umbridge inquired, her voice slightly trembling.

"Last Hogsmeade weekend," Harry replied.

She looked up at him, fiery with rage and the magazine shaking in her stubby fingers. "There will be no more Hogsmeade trips for you, Mr. Potter. How you dare . . . how you could . . ." Umbridge took a deep breath. "I have tried again and again to teach you not to tell lies. The message, apparently, has still not sunk in. Fifty points from Gryffindor and another week's worth of detentions."

Umbridge then walked away, clutching The Quibbler tightly to her chest as many students' eyes followed her.

By mid-morning, huge signs had put up all over the school. They weren't just on the House notice boards this time — now, they were in the hallways and classrooms as well.

━━ BY ORDER OF ━━
𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕳𝖎𝖌𝖍 𝕴𝖓𝖖𝖚𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖙𝖔𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝕳𝖔𝖌𝖜𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖘

Any student found in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled.

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

Signed:
𝓓𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓻𝓮𝓼 𝓙𝓪𝓷𝓮 𝓤𝓶𝓫𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓰𝓮
High Inquisitor

Hermione had beamed with pleasure every time she caught sight of one of the signs.

"What exactly are you so happy about?" Harry asked.

"Oh Harry, don't you see?" Hermione responded. "If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!"

Hermione had been quite right. By the end of the day, people were practically quoting the interview to each other despite no physical copies of The Quibbler being present. Whispers were heard in the lines outside classrooms, during lunch, in the back of lessons — pretty much everywhere. Hermione had even reported that every cubicle in the bathroom had been talking about it when she went before Ancient Runes.

"And then they spotted me, and obviously they know I know you, so they were bombarding me with questions, and Harry, I think they believe you, I really do, I think you've finally got them convinced!" Hermione had exclaimed, her eyes shining.

People continuously stopped Harry over the next few days to talk to him about the interview. Among these was Seamus Finnigan, who had believed the Prophet instead Harry at the beginning.

Meanwhile, Umbridge was stalking the school, stopping random students and demanding that they turn out their books and pockets. It was quite obvious she was looking for copies of The Quibbler, but the students were already several steps ahead of her. The magazine had been bewitched to resemble extracts from textbooks if anyone but themselves read it, or else they were wiped blank magically until they wanted to read it again. Soon it seemed that every single person in Hogwarts had read it.

People continuously were coming up to Harry in the hallways over the next couple of days. Among them was Seamus Finnigan, who had believed the Prophet over Harry in the beginning. He even sent a copy to his mom.

Venus could tell Harry was the most happy seeing Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's reactions. They were seen in the library with their heads together with a boy that Penelope had told them was Theodore Nott. All of them looked at Harry as him and Venus looked at the shelves for a book on Partial Vanishment. Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly and Malfoy probably whispered something malevolent to Crabbe.

"And the best bit is they can't contradict you, because they can't admit they've read the article!" Hermione whispered gleefully as they left the library.

Just to cap it all off, Luna had admitted to them during dinner that no copy of The Quibbler had ever sold out faster.

"Dad's reprinting!" Luna said, her eyes popping in excitement. "He can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!"

Harry was the hero in the Gryffindor common room that night. Fred and George had even put an Enlargement Charm on the front cover of The Quibbler and hung it on the wall. Harry's giant head gazed down upon them all, occasionally saying things like The Ministry are morons and Eat Dung, Umbridge in a booming voice. Hermione didn't find this amusing at all — since it interfered with her concentration — so she went to bed early out of irritation.

Venus had to admit that after an hour of two, the poster was not as funny as it once was. The talking spell was starting to wear off, now only shouting disconnected words at frequent intervals in a high voice. She also noticed that Harry wasn't looking well. He had whispered to her that the poster was giving him a headache and his scar was prickling uncomfortably again. With a frown of concern, she told him to go to sleep. Much to the dismay of the people sitting around him asking him to relive his interview again, he announced to them all that he needed an early night.

But something that made their disappointed moans turn into excited cheers was Harry kissing Venus goodnight — because, after all, Venus Black was dating the famous Harry Potter.

The next morning, during break, all that happiness inside of Harry seemed to deflate. Venus, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Charlotte, and Elijah stood in a corner of the cool and breezy courtyard as Harry recounted his dream. Apparently, Bode — the same one who died — was put under the Imperius Curse by Lucius Malfoy (Draco's father) to remove the weapon from the Department of Mysteries. Avery, another Death Eater, had apparently supplied Voldemort with the wrong information. Rookwood, one of the Death Eaters who escaped from Azkaban, was going to help Voldemort now. And, worst of all, Harry had admitted he was actually seeing things through Voldemort's eyes now.

Once he was finished, none of them said anything at all for a few moments. Charlotte had her arms crossed as she stared at the ground. Elijah was chewing on the inside of his lip in thought, the gears turning in his head practically visible. Venus had a frown on her lips, obviously concerned for her boyfriend. Hermione was merely staring at the Weasley twins, who were both headless and selling their magical hats from under their cloaks on the other side of the yard.

"So that's why they killed him," Hermione stated quietly, finally looking away from Fred and George. "When Bode tried to steal this weapon, something funny happened to him. I think there must be defensive spells on it, or around it, to stop people from touching it. That's why he was in St. Mungo's, his brain had gone all funny and he couldn't talk. But remember what the Healer told us? He was recovering. And they couldn't risk him getting better, could they? I mean, the shock of whatever happened when he touched that weapon probably made the Imperius Curse lift. Once he'd got his voice back, he'd explain what he'd been doing, wouldn't he? They would have known he'd been sent to steal the weapon. Of course, it would have been easy for Lucius Malfoy to put the curse on him. Never out of the Ministry,is he?"

"He was even hanging around that day I had my hearing," Harry replied. "In the — hang on . . ." Harry trailed off for a moment. "He was in the Department of Mysteries corridor that day! Your dad said he was probably trying to sneak down and find out what happened in my hearing, but what if—"

"Sturgis," Hermione suddenly gasped, looking very thunderstruck.

Charlotte blinked. "Huh?"

"Sturgis Podmore. Arrested for trying to get through a door. Lucius Malfoy got him too. I bet he did it the day you saw him there, Harry. Sturgis had Moody's Invisibility Cloak, right? So what if he was standing guard by the door, invisible, and Malfoy heard him move, or guessed he was there, or just did the Imperius Curse on the off chance that a guard was there? So when Sturgis next had an opportunity — probably when it was his turn on guard duty again — he tried to get into the department to steal the weapon for Voldemort — Ron, be quiet — but he got caught and sent to Azkaban . . ." She gazed straight at Harry. "And now Rookwood's told Voldemort how to get the weapon?"

"I didn't hear all the conversation, but that's what it sounded like," Harry responded. "Rookwood used to work there . . . maybe Voldemort'll send Rookwood to do it?"

Hermione nodded, apparently still lost in her thoughts. "But you shouldn't have seen this at all, Harry."

Harry was taken aback at that. "What?"

"You're supposed to be learning how to close your mind to this sort of thing."

"I know I am. But—"

"Well, I think we should just try and forget what you saw. And you ought to put in a bit more effort on your Occlumency from now on."

Venus knew that was obviously not the right thing to say. For Harry was angry the rest of the day, and seemed to be the same during the rest of the week. Voldemort and this whole thing about the Department of Mysteries were messing with his mind, and all Venus wanted to do was help — but she didn't know how.

» • » ✧ « • «

not many loveruler moments in this chapter whoopsies

also I jumped in a fountain yesterday <3 we love college freshman traditions