Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 34 - Having Fun
The map came to life, revealing names and locations of everyone at Hogwarts. They went through the map quickly to find their location, and were astonished to see that it was the Daily Prophet reporter, and suspected mistress of Minister Fudge, Rita Skeeter.
"She's not on the list of animagi!" said Hermione.
"Neither are we," said Harry.
"But we're not doing it to get stories," said Hermione.
"The question is; what do we do with her," said Harry with a smile.
Hermione's face brightened. "We could use this to blackmail her into not reporting anything untrue about you."
"Or I could just buy the Daily Prophet and have her fired," said Harry with a smirk. She looked at him with her eyes wide open, so he couldn't resist. "What do you think, Wide-Eyes?"
"Th-that is another option. Do you know what it costs?"
"Yes I do," said Harry, "I sent out an anonymous inquiry after challenging her to a duel. It actually costs a lot less than I thought. Apparently they lost a lot of subscribers last week after that incident. People don't believe what the Daily Prophet says anymore, so they don't see any reason to pay for a fiction magazine."
"We could buy what they have and turn it around, maybe even change the name. With your fame…Don't give me that look Harry! With your fame everybody will buy it out of curiosity. If we make sure that the articles are true and not just an attempt to insult people and ruin reputations, it could be just what the wizarding world needs! Maybe I can write a weekly article about the treatment of other sentient magical creatures like house-elves. It's not funny, Harry!" Harry was chuckling.
"Honest, Mine, I wasn't laughing at your idea. I just love seeing you so excited. But we're both students here. How could we run a newspaper? We'd have to hire someone to run it. Who do we know that could do it that we trust? I don't want to get rid of any of our teachers, and it shouldn't be someone who works for the ministry. Who else do we know?"
"Hm," said Hermione. She took a deep breath. "There's only one person I can think of, and I'm not sure she'd be interested."
"Who?" asked Harry.
"Er, can I write her and ask first? I promise you'll approve if she agrees to do it. I just don't want to put her on the spot. We still haven't decided what to do about Rita."
"I say we have a conversation with her," said Harry. He then pointed his wand at the bug in the jar and said, "Enervate."
They saw the beetle move, so Harry said happily, "Hello Rita Skeeter! Not having a very good day, are you? I'm sure you're wondering how we know who you are, but you'll have to keep wondering that. I wonder what would happen if word got out that you were an illegal animagus. I'm only gonna say this once. DON'T EVER SPY ON ME AGAIN! I ought to just squash you and claim I didn't know it was you. What do you think we should do with Rita, Hermione?"
Hermione smiled and winked at Harry while the beetle turned toward the brunette girl. "Maybe we should keep her in this jar until after the tournament."
"As tempting as that sounds dear," said Harry, "I don't think I'd want to take care of her that long."
"Maybe we should send her to Minister Fudge," suggested Hermione with a wicked grin.
Harry laughed out loud. "That's perfect! Let me write him a note and then we'll send her with a school owl. I wouldn't want there to be any proof it was us."
"I'll write my other letter, too," said Hermione.
"That's a good idea," said Harry, "Hedwig hates it if I use a different owl than her. We'll send her with your letter first."
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A few hours later, a woman was sitting on her couch, bored out of her mind. It had been like this for over two years, ever since her youngest child started at Hogwarts. During the summer, there was a lot of work to do, but not during the school year. How do you clean something that isn't dirty? She only had to worry about herself and her husband, and that didn't take much time. She was a bit surprised, though pleased when a snowy owl she recognized flew in through her window. She said, "Hello Hedwig. What has Harry sent us?" She was surprised to see that the letter was not from Harry, but Hermione. It said,
"Dear Mrs. Weasley,
I'm writing a very unusual request. Because of the irresponsible way that the Daily Prophet ruins people's reputations, Harry is considering purchasing it and trying to turn it around - to make it print only the truth, and not to unfairly criticize people. I believe that Harry's fame will probably help with sales. Since we obviously can't run it while we're busy at Hogwarts, we've been trying to think of someone whom we could hire that we trust to run it properly. There are already people there who know about printing and other business aspects of running a newspaper. We want someone to review the articles and make sure they're true and not either sensationalized or just plain lies before they get printed.
I think you would be perfect for the job. You've been spotting lies from your kids, especially Fred and George, for years. I believe you to be someone who will not tolerate the spreading of lies, and sensationalizing stories just to sell newspapers. I realize you've been an exceptionally gifted homemaker for most of your life, but honestly, with how wonderful you keep the Burrow, there can't be that much for you to do while your children are at Hogwarts. I didn't tell Harry that I was writing you about it, because I wanted to see if you were interested in the job. Please think about it, and let me know your answer.
Love from
Hermione
P.S. Tell Mr. Weasley I said hello."
Mrs. Weasley sat staring at that paper for what seemed like hours, as Hedwig flew away. She now had something to talk to her husband about besides the garden gnomes.
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Harry and Hermione were finishing up their training with Neville and Ginny the next morning in the Room of Requirement when the door opened, revealing Sirius, Remus, and Adriana, and Albus. The headmaster was holding a clear box that contained something inside it. "Hi," said Harry as Neville attempted to take advantage of Harry's distraction. Neville unfortunately fell down petrified when he did that, and his stunner hit a shield.
Professor Dumbledore said, "If it's not inconvenient, we'd like to have a word with Harry and Hermione."
"Is that a horcrux?" asked Ginny, shocking Professor Dumbledore as Hermione unpetrified Neville.
"What?" the aged man said.
Harry said simply, "I thought she had the right to know what Tom's diary was. Both Neville and Ginny are our most trusted friends. They're the only people we've told. Anything you can tell us, you can tell them." Harry smirked and then added. "You brought in Professor Brooks, and I brought them in."
Dumbledore sighed. "Very well. You are correct Miss Weasley, it is indeed a horcrux. We obtained it at the house where Tom's mother spent most of her life. It's a good thing I brought Professor Brooks with us for this mission, because there was one defense in its hiding place that only Tom, Professor Brooks, and Harry could have neutralized. There was a carving of a snake that she had to speak parseltongue to. If she hadn't, a powerful curse would've at the very least destroyed my hand when I reached in, and possibly killed me. As it is, we have destroyed the horcrux successfully with no injuries."
Harry said, "Two down, four more to go."
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Later that day, Hermione was on her way to the library alone when she walked around the corner to see none other than Viktor Krum. He smiled at her as his eyes wandered down her form, making her feel dirty. He said, "Your boyvriend may have gotten virst place in against the dragon, but he fought like a coward. I, on ve other hand, faced the dragon bravely, rather than make him ill. I would properly protect you. He only got lucky…"
"THAT DRAGON WAS A JOKE TO HIM!!! He couldn't believe anybody got hurt by those stupid dragons! He was not the least bit afraid of it. I could've handled a dragon better than you did!"
Krum laughed at her, which started to infuriate her. He put his arms over her shoulders, pinning her against the wall. She was contemplating which curse to give him. "You are very spirited. I like that. Allow me to show you how a man kisses a voman." He lowered he face toward hers as she brought her right knee up into his crotch, powered by a charm she'd found to triple physical strength for ten seconds. "OWWW!" he shouted with a high pitched voice as he fell to the floor, grabbing his crotch in agony.
Hermione then pulled out her wand and muttered a nonsense phrase as she willed his nose, lips, and ears to double in size while his injured parts halved in size. She then walked off happily thinking, `How do you ask Madam Pomfrey to enlarge that?'
-
In the meantime, Harry was in the owlry sending a letter to his account manager at Gringotts about his intention to purchase the Daily Prophet, when Cho Chang walked in.
"Hi Harry," said Cho with a slight blush as she got a school owl and starting tying her package to it.
"Hi Cho," he replied indifferently.
"I-I'll bet you miss quidditch this year," she said shyly.
"Yes. Hermione was gonna try out as a chaser this year if they hadn't had this stupid tournament."
Cho looked a bit skeptical. "Really? I, of course have enjoyed the tournament. That was an, er interesting way you handled the dragon."
Harry smiled slightly. "Yeah, I guess so. The youngest champion gets the worst dragon. But it doesn't matter. All you have to know about dragons is to aim your spells at their eyes."
She looked shocked. "That's all you do?"
"Yeah," he said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"I, er, heard what you said after the tournament, that you weren't under any enchantment like the prophet said. I know that's true, but, er, well, I was wondering how close you really are to Hermione. I, well, I've never heard of you dating anybody else. You know there are other girls out there that fancy you, er, including me." With that said she walked closer to him, looking as sexy as she possibly could. "I'd never want to speak ill of Hermione, but she does seem to lack in some of the more…feminine attributes." As she said this, she got very close to him. There's nothing wrong with seeing what's out there."
"Cho," Harry said firmly, "I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything, but I am in love with Hermione. You're a beautiful girl and I'm sure there's a ton of blokes out there wanting to date you," he took a deep breath, "but I'm not one of them. I'm completely satisfied and happy with Hermione, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that." He then rushed out of there as fast as he could, so fast that he didn't see her start crying.
-
When Harry and Hermione finally met up in the common room, they both said, "Am I glad to see you!" at the same time. "What happened?" they said together as well, and started chuckling.
Finally, Harry said, "Cho Chang hit on me today."
Hermione looked worried. "You mean that pretty seeker from Ravenclaw?"
He sighed, "Yeah. Now she's seeking me. I told her that I'm very happy with you."
She smiled slightly. "Good. I do hope you are happy with me. Er, if you're ever, well, unhappy with me, I hope you'll talk to me about it and not, y'know…"
"Of course I will," said Harry quickly, "but I doubt I'll ever be unhappy with you. Now, what happened to you today?"
"Viktor Krum started to make, well, unwanted advances on me…"
"I'LL KILL HIM!!! What did that bloody git do?"
Hermione smiled. "Don't worry about it, I got him good. You'll love what I did to that creep!"
As she told him what she'd done, his anger turned into laughter. He tried imitating Krum visiting the Hospital Wing. "I svear, Madam Pomvrey, eet used to be bigger!" causing them both to fall off their chair laughing. "Trust me, Hermione, if he's got any brains at all, he will never want to be in the same castle with you anymore.
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