RITA SKEETER INTERVIEWS HARRY POTTER
During a lunch break, I was walking in Diagon Alley when I bumped into a small child with round glasses dressed in muggle rags. Thinking him a needy muggle-born child, I was about to give him a sickle for ice-cream, when I was surprised by his polite apology.
"I'm sorry, madam, I was not looking where I was going. Are you ok?"
It was then that I took a closer look at the child and noticed a lightning bolt scar on his forehead! I could only stare in horror as the saviour of the wizarding world, heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter, descended from Ignotus Peverell (one of the three brothers mentioned in The Tale of the Three Brothers), stood before me looking like a muggle beggar child! How was this possible? Was it a disguise to move around incognito?
"Are you Harry Potter? Why are you dressed in rags?" I couldn't help but ask, this was possibly the most talked-about child in wizarding history!
"Yes, madam. These are the only clothes I have other than my Hogwarts robes, and I don't want to get them dirty." The boy politely replied.
How could this be? The House of Potter was quite wealthy, could his guardian not even afford proper clothes for the future Lord? As a journalist, I could not resist a scoop such as this, but as a witch that benefitted from this boy's noble actions, I felt obligated to try and get to the bottom of this mystery and help him as much as I could.
As an apology for bumping into the poor dear while he walked wide-eyed through the Alley, I suggested some ice-cream to make it up to the obviously hungry boy as I asked about his life. My fellow readers, I ask those with bad tempers to stop reading, as what I found out filled me with rage!
Harry Potter, the boy who defeated 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' had only found out he was a wizard one month ago on his eleventh birthday!
He never received any mail from his adoring fans and well-wishers.
He did not even know there was a whole series of children books about him and his obviously fictional adventures, nor receive any money from it.
He knew nothing about our world and had been raised by magic hating muggles!
He didn't even know what his parents looked like and only recently found out how they died, believing what his so-called guardians had told him, that they were 'drunken layabouts' that died in a muggle automobile accident. This was also how he thought he received his famous scar.
I am ashamed to say that I cursed in front of the child. Then I vowed that I would get to the bottom of this travesty! What had me confused was his retelling of the 'best day of his life' when Hagrid, the groundskeeper of Hogwarts, appeared to personally deliver Mr Potter's letter after hundreds had been sent, but kept from him by his 'caretakers'.
'Didn't a Head of House Professor deliver Hogwarts letters to children in the muggle world' I couldn't help but think to myself.
"The letters were obviously magical," he spoke with childish innocence, "they even knew I lived in the cupboard under the stairs!"
Once again, I could only stare in disbelief as the naive boy showed me his Hogwarts letter, 'keeping it on him at all times just in case everything was a dream!'
'Did he not realise that he was being severely mistreated?' I wondered.
After that shocking fact was revealed, I could not help but dig further. Harry Potter had been treated no better than a house-elf! He was excited to go to Hogwarts to escape his captors, not to learn magic!
Why has the Ministry of Magic given the saviour of the Wizarding Britain to magic hating muggles to be raised as a house-elf? Surely a magical Family could have taken him in to give him a decent wizard upbringing! There were a couple questions I could not help but ask myself.
What of his Godparents?
What did the Potter will say about his chosen guardians?
Did the Ministry even care when they threw away our saviour like he was trash?
Which Ministry official delivered a one-year-old baby to a muggle house with no toys or keepsakes of his deceased parents?
Why was he never told about his heritage or checked up on?
Or was there a darker and more sinister plot afoot? Harry Potter was told that he was hidden in the muggle world to protect him from 'You Know Who' and his Death Eater sympathisers. But we all know that is a lie, as we were assured that 'He' was dead and that every Death Eater was in Azkaban!
If there is still a threat to Harry Potter's life?
What is being done to protect him?
What are the Aurors doing if they let a child live in fear for his life since finding out he has been hidden from his heritage and placed with muggles because they failed their job?
I asked the brave little wizard how he had managed to find the courage to venture out in public when he was in danger.
"Diagon Alley is too amazing to visit only once. I could not look around properly last time as we had to shop for my school things. This time, I wanted to explore more before I have to travel to Hogwarts. Even the extra chores I will have to do to pay for the travel fare or the threat of the people that killed my parents, can not stop me from visiting this magical world!"
I could not stop the tears that fell from my eyes as I stared at this child with the weight of the world on his shoulders, yet walked tall. After hearing such a heartbreaking story of poor Harry's life, I knew that I had to help him even if the Ministry wouldn't!
I guided the poor child to my secret potion master (the same one that supplied my permanent modified beautification potion). I had him brew potions to fix his malnourished body and reveal his beautiful green eyes from behind those atrocious glasses. (The two pictures below, before and after treatment, show just how abused Harry Potter was)
The polite and noble child that he was, he immediately suggested that he use his recently found trust fund to pay me back in thanks, but I couldn't allow him to do that.
This child deserves more than just potions to fix the mistakes of our government made that caused his suffering. He needed our help to give him justice!
Dear readers, we must support this child that has lost everything to save us! We must demand answers from the Ministry about how this was allowed to happen!
I know only one thing, my faithful readers, I am furious!
And I will not rest until I get that boy the life he deserves!
By Rita Skeeter
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Today was the day that most eleven-year-old wizard and witches looked forward to the most. The day they travel to Hogwarts. Chad, however, was merely interested in how events would unfold after his first strike against the Ministry and Dumbledore would go today. The Daily Prophet sent out its newspaper at 7am sharp, but the Hogwart's Express didn't leave until 11am. This was a potentially dangerous time for Chad as Dumbledore could decide to take a more 'forceful' approach to his sacrifice's personality and do damage control.
For this reason, Chad had made sure Vernon was driving him around London in an attempt to throw off Dumbledore's teleporting/Phoenix travel or make him decide to play the long game. Canon had him taking the adverse publicity head-on without caring. Hopefully, he would also deem this situation unworthy of acting. Besides, Chad had made sure Rita aimed mostly at the Ministry of Magic with only a mention of Hagrid and the Hogwarts letter delivery.
Vernon dropped him off at King's Cross Station at 10.30am, giving him half an hour to witness the Weasley show and catch the train. He was curious if Mrs Weasley would actually say what was in the book. Not knowing which platform the Hogwarts Express was at, the only magical train in the station, after five of her children had attended and two had graduated, was ridiculous. Not to mention that she must have ridden the train to Hogwarts herself.
Sure enough, at ten minutes to eleven, a mob of red-heads came barreling down the path, late for the train. Chad stood a few metres away under a Disillusionment Charm to watch the spectacle.
"Packed with Muggles, of course..."
The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair, each of them pushing a trolley carrying a trunk. There was even an owl in a cage on one of them. Chad had sent Lilith off to make her own way to Hogwarts as she didn't like being cooped up in a cage.
"Now, what's the platform number?" said Mrs Weasley.
"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, who was holding her hand, "Mom, can't I go... "
"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first." Percy walked into the seemingly solid wall and disappeared.
"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"
"Sorry, George, dear."
"Only joking, I am Fred!"
These two jokers were the only Weasley children at Hogwarts that Chad like in the books, hopefully, that was also accurate now he was living alongside them. He watched as the red-headed woman looked around a bit frantically, obviously not finding what she was searching for.
"Wait a minute, Ron, there are too many MUGGLES around at the moment." Mrs Weasley said, raising her voice when using the word muggles.
Chad laughed to himself as he walked through the wall before them to arrive at platform nine and three-quarters, still invisible. There would be no 'innocent meeting' that would create an opening for friendship today.
But Chad's silent laughter stopped immediately at the scene in front of him. There was a scarlet steam engine waiting next to a platform packed with people. The problem was that there was a group of official-looking people that could only be Aurors. They also looked worried.
Knowing that they could only be there in response to the article in today's paper, he could only curse at himself for the change in plans. He thought it was bad enough that he had to paint himself as a poor, deprived and abused orphan to get the media train pointed at Dumbledore and the Ministry. He had not thought about the repercussions other than Dumbles attacking him for a personality change.
Still, he could also use this to his advantage, he just had to play it right. The rest of the Weasley family came through the portal, and only his quick reflexes prevented a collision and his subsequent discovery. Pulling his shrunken trunk from his pocket, he made it full size as he released his invisibility on himself, hopefully making it look like he had dragged his trunk through the magical portal.
Everyone still on the platform turned their disappointed gases from the red-headed family to him with eager eyes.
"Um... Hello?" He nervously said under the combined scrutiny of everyone. Luckily he was dressed as a noble and not under an illusion of a skinny glasses-wearing slave. Thanks to Skeeter, he now had an excuse for his full-grown appearance, even if it was a little weak.