A.J RYAN IN THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

Chapter 27 - Voldemort Knows

The Quidditch match on Saturday was only twenty-two minutes long. Ron had missed fourteen goals, and one of the beaters had hit Angelina instead of the bludger. Ginny had caught the snitch, so they only lost by ten points to Hufflepuff, two hundred and forty, to two hundred and thirty.

The atmosphere back in the common room was bleak, as Slytherin were now favourites to win the Quidditch cup. Ron was sitting by himself, staring absently at his feet.

Fred and George had wandered over to Harry and Ginny.

"I haven't even got the heart to take the mickey out of him," Fred looked sadly over at Ron. "Mind you, when he missed the fourteenth-" He waved his arms in the air in imitation of it "-well, I'll save it for parties, eh?"

When the post owls arrived on Monday morning the whole Gryffindor table had turned to watch Harry, as multiple owls were in front of him, carrying letters. Harry never got mail, A.J listened as Hermione spoke;

"I think I know what this means, open this one first." She had handed him a long brown cylinder package.

A.J had received the same package yesterday evening. It was the March addition of the Quibbler. It wasn't a magazine she usually got but had requested since she knew Harry's interview was to appear in it. She had opened it to a large picture of Harry on the front, and large red letters read;

SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

As Harry looked at the front cover, Luna Lovegood had wandered over and sat between Fred and Ron.

"It's good isn't it? It came out yesterday, I asked Dad to send you a free copy. I expect all these are letters from readers." Luna gestured to all the owls still in front of Harry.

Umbridge came over in all the commotion. She gave Harry a week's worth of detentions, banned him from Hogsmeade, took fifty points from Gryffindor, and stalked away with the Quibbler.

"Nah, you can't win them all." A.J said as she watched her go. "Nice job Harry." She beamed at him.

"Have you read it?" Hermione asked.

A.J nodded and left them to it.

Umbridge had pulled her and Simon out of the morning Herbology lesson and had them plaster signs of the new Decree on their common room notice boards and all over the school.

She handed one to Professor Flitwick as she entered charms class, for the period before lunch.

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

A.J stood at the front of the class as Simon sat down. She held up the notice; "If you haven't already seen the large amount of notices posted everywhere you look, this is Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven..." After reading out the notice she turned back to the class.

"If anyone is in possession of the Quibbler, please hand it over now, and you will be granted a free pass." She looked around, waiting for a few moments. "Last chance?" She offered.

She went and sat down.

A.J sat in the back of the class, disguising a bunch of the Quibbler magazines to look like textbook printouts. Which would be discreetly handed out later, the magazine would only be visible to the person who first took it from her.

By the end of the day, there wasn't a Quibbler to be seen, but everybody was quoting bits of the article to each other. Umbridge was stalking corridors asking students to turn out their bags at random, obviously finding nothing. A.J and Simon were supposed to be patrolling as well, but when A.J came across a first year, with one, she disguised it for them, winked and handed it back.

Back in the common room that night, Fred and George had put an enlargement charm on the cover of the Quibbler. They had hung it on the wall, and it would say things like "THE MINISTRY ARE MORONS" and "EAT DUNG, UMBRIDGE".

Harry was bombarded with questions about his interview and retreated to bed early that night.

Elska, A.J's house-elf had found her in her office that night bringing her a memory.

A.J placed it in her Pensieve, swirled the silver strand, and watched as a ghost-like image of Harry appeared;

He was lying in bed stirring; "I have been badly advised, it seems." Harry said in a high, cold voice.

There was a pause.

"I do not blame you, Rookwood." Harry said cruelly.

Another pause.

"You are sure of your facts, Rookwood?"

Pause.

"Avery told me Bode would be able to remove it."

A longer pause.

"Stand up, Rookwood." Harry whispered.

Pause.

"You have done well to tell me this. Very well...I have waisted fruitless schemes, it seems...but no matter...we begin again, from now. You have Lord Voldemort's gratitude, Rookwood..."

Slight pause.

"I shall need your help. I shall need all the information you can give me."

Pause.

"Very well...you may go. Send Avery to me." Harry ordered.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Harry yelled, waking himself. He had tangled himself in his bed hangings and landed on the floor, as Ron ran over to him.

The memory ended, and A.J turned to her house-elf; "This has happened just now Elska?" She asked kindly.

The house-elf nodded nervously.

"Thank you." She beamed at her, before scooping the memory and leaving her office.

She ran straight into Fred in her haste to get to Dumbledore. He grabbed her waist to stop her falling over. "Oi, watch where you're going." Fred laughed.

"There should be no one out of their common rooms at this time." She countered. It was half past nine.

"Where did you come from anyway?" Fred asked, looking around.

"None of your business." She ducked around him.

Fred stood there, at first shocked, but settled for amusement.

A.J had given Professor Dumbledore the memory and sat quietly as he entered the Hogwarts Pensieve.

Before A.J left she voiced a few things;

"Having one side of the conversation is a bit annoying, but Voldemort's side was very enlightening. He's now on track with how to get the prophecy." She said with a meaningful expression.

"Harry will be piecing quite a few things together, not to mention in a lot of pain if Voldemort is now punishing Avery." Professor Dumbledore said in a calm voice.

They were both thinking of Bode's murder by a pot of devil's snare in the hospital.

Now Voldemort knew that only he and Harry could retrieve the Prophecy. Professor Dumbledore was more worried than he had been all year.