Poison Pen

Chapter 7: Beginning of a Beautiful Relationship

Dear Mr. Lovegood,

I accept your offer. Enclosed is my first article. If it doesn't meet your standards, please let me know and I will rework it.

Also enclosed is the number of my vault under the name of Oliver Twist. Please remit all payments to Gringotts as I would like to remain anonymous. This way we are both protected as you only know me by my pen name. I hope this will prove as protection for you from ministry harassment and is not too much of an inconvenience for you.

I look forward to a long and interesting career working for your newspaper.

Oliver Twist

~~

Harry smiled as he watched the landscape go whipping by. He was sure that by now Mr. Lovegood had received his letter and his column. He had, at first, been worried that he'd given away too much information in his last published letter. However, for some reason, it seemed to have gone over everyone's head.

'I guess it just goes to show that wizarding society needs someone to do their thinking for them,' Harry thought with a mental snort.

Sitting across from him was a blonde haired girl reading the Quibbler upside down. Hermione and Ron had left the compartment to go to a prefect's meeting. In Harry's opinion, making Ron a prefect was one of the more asinine ideas the staff of Hogwarts had. Then again, it probably wasn't the staff, more like Dumbledork – er- Dumbledore rewarding the Weasleys for their blind obedience.

Don't get him wrong, he liked Ron – up to a point. Ron protected Harry from their more overzealous classmates for which the Boy-Who-Lived was grateful but not that grateful. Again in Harry's opinion, Neville would make a better prefect than Ron Weasley ever could. He wondered how long before McGonagall pulled his badge. 'Probably for fighting, what with that temper of his,' he mused.

The train ride did nothing to ease Harry's mind about the upcoming term. If anything, it was undoubtedly going to be business as usual. Hard telling what kind of a 'test' the Headmaster had planned for this year. If past years were any indication, it'll be a near death experience as usual. How near was any one's guess.

~~

Exiting the train, Harry hurried to an open carriage. He hesitated before entering it. For the first time he could see what kind of creature pulled the carriages to Hogwarts. Now that was freaky.

~~

Filius Flitwick sipped his tea as he mentally sighed. He had several things he needed to finish before the students arrived, and here he was, stuck in yet another on of Albus' "let's get on the same page" staff meetings.

"...Of course, this Twist is a Ravenclaw," Severus Snape, the resident Potions Master snarked, breaking into the diminutive Charms Master's thoughts.

"And why do you think that?" Filius asked, finally taking an interest in the topic at hand.

"Well, for one, it can't be a Gryffindor as they are not thinkers, and for the most part are barely literate," Severus sneered causing Minerva to huff.

Severus smirked at her as he continued. "Now don't deny it, you old tabby. We all know that your little lions are not capable of questioning anything, much less writing about it coherently. They tend to leap before they think."

"Well, there is Miss Granger..." Pomona started to say.

"Oh please," he interrupted with a roll of his eyes, "that little know it all does not question anything coming from an authority figure. And everything she reads; she takes as gospel. It stands to reason that this Twist is a Ravenclaw. I am sure that Filius would back me on this."