Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-Four: Black Marble, White Marble, and Gold

Ron was just finishing the last of his History of Magic essay when Hermione excitedly pulled him over to an abandoned corner of the Gryffindor Common Room.

"I finished!" she said excitedly as she pushed him down into a chair and sat down in the opposite one.

"Finished what?"

"My plan for revenge on Rita Skeeter."

Now Ron was interested. "I'm in."

"You don't even know what it is yet."

"Doesn't matter. What are we doing?"

Hermione smiled and outlined the plan. "Well, first I wanted to go after her personally and practice some spells on her, but I couldn't do that until vacation and by that time it would be to late for this plan. What I want to do is discourage her from ever writing about Harry ever again."

"Sounds good. How do we do it?"

"Well, the only reason she gets to write the articles on Harry is because she uses her animagus form to snoop around for information. She then has something that no other reporter has, inside information on Harry Potter. But what if we took that away?" Hermione's eyes glittered with triumph. "What if we gave the Prophet another reporter, closer to Harry Potter than Rita Skeeter could ever be? Someone like those who really know him?"

"People like us!"

"Exactly. And since you're willing to help, and if we can get Ginny to help too, we can have one reporter for all the major journalism outposts."

"But will Harry go with it though?" Ron looked skeptical. "I mean, it would kinda be like spying on our own friend."

"But he'll get to decide what gets printed. He knows we wouldn't print anything bad or untrue and he knows that if he wanted something kept secret we could keep it. So why wouldn't he?"

"Good point. We'll ask him first before we go through with it though."

"Of course. But going on the idea that he will. You, Ginny, and I will write to the Prophet, the Quibbler, and Witch Weekly. We'll offer to write articles about any of the newsworthy actions of Harry Potter. What they won't know is that we'll shuffle all the information between the three, so each publication will have some details that the others won't. Therefore, they'll see our input as priceless. Other than a stipend for our articles, we'll demand that in return no other writer can be allowed to write an article exclusively about Harry Potter or those connected to him."

Ron's grin was akin to that of the grins normally seen on the faces of his two brothers, Fred and George. "Let's go ask Ginny if she wants to help."

All the next day, Draco refused to let himself think about the trial, or Harry, or Harry's… idea of how to win the trial. The funeral the next day, he reasoned, took precedence. The very fact that he was putting off thinking of what Harry had said did not enter his mind, although on some level he knew he was doing it.

Harry seemed to have realized that Draco did not wish to discuss what he had brought up and kept his distance. But Draco could feel the weight of his stare whenever they were in the same room together, even though he ignored it.

He wouldn't allow himself to think about anything regarding the trial until his father's funeral was over.

The day of the funeral dawned bright and sunny, and as warm as the weather can be in the third week of February. Dumbledore himself had given his consent for Harry and Draco to miss both Friday and Saturday, on the condition that they had to come to his office immediately after they arrived back at Hogwarts Sunday night. He presented them with four tickets for the Hogwarts Express, two to go back to London that morning, and two to come back Saturday afternoon. Harry was secretly relieved that Dumbledore did not ask if they'd rather travel by floo powder. He didn't think either he or Draco would have been able to do that yet.