An Opus Alchymicum Vol 2: The Witch-Consul's Riddle

A Spot of Spotting

Sirius had been laughing for fully ten minutes. Harry had been scowling for precisely the same amount of time. Minerva, on the other hand, was trying to remain neutral, though the pull at the corners of her mouth and the sparkle in her eyes were a total giveaway.

Then there was Lily and James, who had brought them the source of this mirth and were trying to be supportive of their son, who was the subject of it.

"Potter Spotters! Really?" Harry moaned with a grimace. "How can that even be a thing?"

"Just wait till you're a bit older, and it becomes 'How to Marry Harry'," James teased. "Then you'll need to watch out. There is nothing quite so scary as a pack of vapid girls baying for a bit of flesh!"

"Pfft! Like you'd know anything about it!" Lily taunted with a grin and a wink. Sirius just howled out another peel of laughter as James screwed up his face at his wife.

Harry frowned harder still, and looked daggers at his Godfather. Once that was done, he turned his eyes back to the glossy magazine on the coffee table, that was still open to the centre page spread that was causing so much consternation. It was from Mizz Magic, the premier bi-weekly source of gossip, celebrity and fashion for the young witch about town. Whatever that meant.

And now, it would seem, they had taken an interest in all things Harry.

He was about to start school, so his sheltered life was about to come crashing down around his skinny shoulders. It was as if the press had been dying for this moment, and now they were just chomping at the bit to get a piece of him. The furore surrounding the Gringotts break-in had stirred both fears of Voldemort and interest in his vanquishers. And Harry was going to be thrust front and centre.

"But its not fair," Harry complained bitterly. "How can they be asking for pictures of me ... from the public? It's wrong, it's immoral ... it's not funny!"

Harry directed his ire at James and Sirius, who were finding his disconsolate moaning indescribably amusing. This, in turn, Harry found highly irritating. He turned to his mother for support.

"How can they do this to me?" Harry begged. "Cant you make it stop?"

"They aren't technically doing anything wrong," Lily soothed, though she sounded angry, too. "As long as the photos aren't indecent they are perfectly at liberty to print them."

"So I just have to put up with it?" Harry huffed. "Is that what you're saying? Great. That means everyone at Hogwarts could potentially be a part of the paparazzi!"

"Especially little ginger-haired super fans ... from what I hear!" James teased.

Harry glowered at Sirius. "You told him!"

"He had to!" James guffawed. "We're worried for your safety. You forget ... we've been through this before!"

Sirius stopped laughing at a stroke. He turned to James in deathly seriousness. "No ... you don't think ...

This time it was Lily who laughed. "Oh, yes, Sirius! Only we don't just think ... we know."

"But ... but ... it's impossible," Sirius argued. "The Weasley Curse ... they cant have daughters, can they?"

Harry frowned at his father. "That's not true, is it? They weren't cursed to not have daughters, surely?"

"That was always just a rumour," James explained. "But there is the curious fact that Ginevra Weasley was the first female born into the family in a long, long time."