The article that was printed by the Daily Prophet the following day was astonishing. Harry was sitting on his bed, reading his newspaper calmly.
"… The trail of the Boy-Who-Lived was held in front of the Wizengamot because of the gravity of his offence…" Harry read to himself.
"…'The boy is guilty, there was no arguing about that fact. Everybody knew. The trail itself was just a formality' said Minister Cornelius Fudge…"
"… At the end it was a formal error that got the Boy-Who-Lived off the hook…"
When Harry finished the front page headliner article he snorted.
"So you're trying to legalize your actions on that way, Minister" he finally said to himself. "Way to go. You really should not start the next round of our game without even looking at your opponent…"
"Talking to yourself again, Harry?" another voice interrupted. Harry blinked and looked up.
"Shouldn't you stay hidden, Reg? It's the middle of the day."
"Hardly" Reg snorted while looking pointedly at a snoring Ron in the bed next to Harry. "It's six thirty in the morning. Only you would be awake this early."
Harry shrugged.
"The sun's out" he countered. "There is no way I could sleep at a time like that."
Reg snorted.
"Yeah, but you're not normal" he said while shaking his head in disbelief. "If I would not know you for at least ten years now I would think you are absolutely crazy just for opening an eye at that early hour."
"So you don't think I'm crazy because you know me?"
"No - I know you're crazy. I do not have to think it anymore."
"Very funny, ha ha."
Reg did not counter that one, instead he sat done next to Harry and looked at the newspaper in Harry's hands.
"What will you do against…?"
"Nothing much for now" Harry answered. "I am not ready to show my cards openly. There's still way too much to do until I am."
"You should have started earlier…"
"I could not" Harry answered sincerely.
"But… ten years ago…"
"Was not a real Horcrux" Harry answered softly. Reg's eyes widened. All the years he had thought…
"What… what was it?"
"When Riddle came to the Potters that night…" Harry started softly. "He was still missing a Horcrux to his perfection. He wanted to have seven pieces - at that time he had six. The last one… that one that now is imbedded in his snake… he wanted to make it with Harry Potter's death - to emphasise his power. Riddle is arrogant. The death of Harry Potter should have been his absolute triumph above death. The day of his absolute victory…"
"I still don't understand…"
"A Horcrux is fool magic. You cannot make a Horcrux by simply killing someone. You make it by doing a lot of rituals beforehand and then channelling your longing for eternity in the time of your victim's death" Harry answered sighing.
"That sounds as if you know how to create one" Regulus said frowning.
Harry just shrugged.
"I know how to do it" he answered unconcerned. "I learned it a long time ago."
"But…"
"You know that you have to have knowledge about something to be able to create a ritual to destroy something" Harry remarked and rolled his eyes. "Anyway… the artefact we destroyed ten years ago was the artefact Riddle wanted to use at that time to create his Horcrux…"
"But why…?"
"Because the magic of a Horcrux begins way before the ultimate killing. He still could have used this artefact to create a new Horcrux. It was prepared. I doubt he would have used it - but I also was not willing to take the risk" Harry answered sincerely.
"So we destroyed it."
"Yes."
"Well - I understand your reason" Reg finally said sighing. "But I still do not understand why we waited…"
"… Because we had to, to be sure" Harry interrupted.
"Had to? Had to be sure about what?"
Harry snorted.
"You sound like a parrot today, Reg" he said amused. "I waited so long to be sure Riddle's last ties with his Horcruxes really were cut. Except of the dairy there is no way telling when Riddle created his Horcruxes. It takes some time until the split soul parts are not able to feel each other. The safest bet was to wait until Riddle lost and regained his body - which he finally did at the beginning of the summer."
"Wouldn't it have been safer to destroy them while Riddle had no body…?"
"No" Harry answered. "A wraith has a better connection to other spirits. The Horcrux has to be on its own for a long time until it cannot be felt by a wraith anymore. The only Horcrux that I know is old enough for something like that is the diary. Maybe there is another… but I dared not to risk it until Riddle regained his body and with it lost the connection with his other soul parts he had as a wraith."
"Well - thanks for the lecture. I am certain I know enough about it now" Reg said snorting. "I even know more than I ever wanted…"
"Don't sulk. Knowledge is power and you know it."
"How Slytherin of you, Harry. You know you are supposed to be a Gryffindor" Reg retorted. Harry just shrugged.
"Ron's still sleeping and the others are downstairs. There is no-one in the room who would feel horror-stricken about it" Harry said while shrugging again. "So why bother to hide my true self from you? You know I am no Gryffindor material. I know I am no Gryffindor material. Even if I stay silent - this truth will not change."
"Definitely not."
"And now be a good boy and go back hiding. You do not want to be found by your brother, do you? It would be hard to explain how you are still alive after all…"
"Believe me - there are a lot of things harder to explain than that" Regulus said shrugging but he complied and left the room.
Harry smiled but said nothing. He knew that Regulus was right… but he also knew that telling Sirius that Regulus was still alive and well would be a hard task if they ever had to do it…
"Well… there are other things to worry about" Harry finally said to himself. "What to do next… what to do next…"
When Xenophilius Lovegood sat down at ten in the morning at his breakfast table he still was thinking what to put first in his next edition of The Quibbler. He was still contemplating between the article about Nibblers and their breeding and the article about Cackling Cracklers.
Both, of course, were important articles - and they both deserved to be treated that way… but what to choose… what to choose?
He wasn't anywhere near the answer to this important question when the owl post arrived. Well, at least he wasn't near it until he saw an innocent looking envelope between his normal mail.
Xeno raised an eyebrow. The last Muggle-looking envelope he had received had been a few weeks ago by proxy. Rebecca Amorin of the Daily Prophet had somehow lost it in Xeno's study at that time…
"Well… let's look at this" Xeno decided and opened the envelope to pull out a letter. He read it and his eyebrows shot in the air.
It seemed as if he had to change some of his plans for the next edition of The Quibbler…
So instead of pondering which article to use for his next edition, Xeno Lovegood hurriedly stood up in search of quill and parchment. He spilled his coffee when he sat it down on the table but did not even look or mourn the loss of his favorite beverage.
He had other things to do after all…
Ten minutes later he finally had found an intact quill and enough parchment to take some notes for a first try in answering the letter.
He returned to the table and vanished the mess he had created when setting down his coffee mug - not even noticing when he not only vanished the coffee but also the mug as well.
"So… what to write" he pondered instead, excitement in his eyes. "What to write…?!"
His eyes returned to the letter, reading it again, this time slowly and carefully while his right had travelled over the parchment, printing down answers and questions of his own.
Dear Editor, the letter read,
Thank you for answering my questions as good as you have been able to. I do understand the mechanism of the press a little better now.
But there are still other things I do not get.
The day before yesterday the Daily Prophet has been printing an article about Harry Potter's trial and stated in it, that there has been a formality which prevented that Mr. Potter has been judged.
Well, when I read this, I got hooked and decided to research myself. So I asked at the Ministry for a copy of the court script - did you know those are public after a trial?! - and read it.
The content of the script made me wonder again if the Daily Prophet is simply a propaganda campaign for the Ministry.
How come, they can call it a "formality" that prevented Mr. Potter be tried, when in truth the Minister seems to try all to prevent to even have a fair trial at the beginning?!
If it would have been me, my parents would have sued him for withholding evidence!
The trial script clearly states that the Minister did not do the minimum to hold up our own laws.
Did you know that there is a law that the crime scene has to be visited by Aurors and evidence against the accused has to be found? Without evidence the accused cannot be judged.
That the Minister let something crucial as that slide lets me think about all the other prisoners in Azkaban. What is with them? Had they had a fair trial? Have they been able to contact a lawyer? Have they had evidence against them to prove their guilt? Or have they been judged like Potter nearly would have been judged: without evidence, just by hear-say?
A trial like Mr. Potter's even raises the question about Mr. Sirius Black's guilt. How do you know if Mr. Black really was guilty, when the trial was faulty like Mr. Potter's? I would seriously check this trial also, like all the others since Grindelwald. I don't know how you feel, but I would sleep better, knowing that the persons in Azkaban really belong there and knowing that I will not be sentenced to Azkaban without a proper trial.
Think about that yourself: Do you want to have a trial knowing that you cannot defend yourself because someone is withholding information necessary to prove your innocent?
Do you want to be in Azkaban for decades, knowing you're innocent but unable to prove it because someone did not even permit you to take Veritasserum or show your memory?
Is this the justice of the wizarding world you are hoping for?
After all we cannot all be a Harry Potter who seems to have eaten the law-books for breakfast…
I did include a copy of Harry Potter 's trial script to show my point.
Oliver Twist.
After that, the court script had been added to verify Oliver Twist's words. Xenophilus Lovegood grinned. As important as Nibblers and their breeding and Cackling Cracklers were - sometimes important articles had to take the second place for something less important but more informing…
Now he just had to ponder which of the other two articles he also would add as the next important ones…
But this answer could wait - anyhow, there was an answer to write. There was no way that Xeno Lovegood would let a student's questions unanswered, after all…
Diagon Alley normally was an idyllic place. The people who lived there knew their neighbours often better than they knew themselves and secrets really did not stay secret very long.
As it was, it was an absolutely surprise for the inhabitants of Diagon Alley that they suddenly seemed to not understand one of their own anymore.
Ollivander had finally gone insane.
First it had not been spotted. He just had changed his usual habit a bit. Instead of staying in his shop all day Ollivander had gone outside and had sat down in front of his entrance, in his hands a huge book.
"Not this one… this isn't it also" he was heard muttering while leafing through the book. "It has to be an ancient one…"
Two days later he had exchanged the book for very, very old scrolls.
Three days later he finally sat down one of the scrolls, a huge smile on his lips.
"There it is!" he said and then picked up the scroll to read further - just to pale more and more the more he read what was written on the scroll.
That was the final time the people in Diagon Alley had seen him sane.
After that, well…
Ollivander definitely had lost his mind that particular week - and he had not found it again, even all those weeks later…
A few weeks previous - after the visit of one particular wizard - it had suddenly happened. Garrick Ollivander had snapped. Like an old, dry branch he had snapped into two when the pressure was suddenly too much for him to handle, or so the inhabitants of Diagon Alley said.
One day, Garrick Ollivander had minded his shop like usual and the next he suddenly had started to… well, to clean would be the right word. There was just one problem involved: Never had people ever seen Ollivander clean his shop as thoroughly as he did after that day.
"What are you doing, Garrick?" Florian Fortunescue finally asked after watching the wizard working for the last few weeks.
"Preparing" Ollivander answered without looking up while carrying out boxes of stuff and vanishing them on the streets or tucking them away in other, expanded boxes.
"I see that - but why?"
"I have to empty my basement" Ollivander answered without looking up. "And I just have half a year at most to do it. I have to be prepared until Christmas."
"Prepared? Prepared for what?!°
"For what might happen" Ollivander said. "I am no fool. I have seen this staff once at the time of Grindelwald. Father also has seen the staff when it was time to bring down Lord Morgan - even if it was Grandfather who made that bargain that day…"
"Bargain? What are you talking about, Garrick?!" Fortunescue asked again and this time the slightly strange and now utterly insane wand-maker looked up in Fortunescue's eyes.
"I have gotten a warning. Uncertain times lay ahead of us. I will have to be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. I have seen the staff of destiny" Ollivander answered and Fortunescue gave up.
The man had definitely snapped.
Utterly insane.
Absolutely crazy.
Disturbingly mad.
Yes, that was Garrick Ollivander now…
But, so guessed Fortunescue. That was okay. Ollivander was after all quite old - if he wanted to get odd quirks, who was Fortunescue to stop him?!
As long as the man still produced his superb wands he could be crazy for all Fortunescue cared.
"Well, then have fun preparing" Forunescue finally said, turning away from the man. "I hope your staff of destiny will come again to tell you the danger has passed someday…"
Ollivander just sighted.
"You don't understand" he said.
"I am sure it somehow makes sense to you" Fortunescue offered.
Ollivander just sighted again.
"Think of me what you want. You will be grateful long before the end" he replied the ice cream shop owner. "You will see."
And with that he turned away for the disturbed man and returned to his work.
He had to clean his basement and he had to activate the old, dormant wards on his property. After all what good would it do to have wards as good as Gringotts and Hogwarts when he did not activate them before the storm?
And then there were the other preparations. The food, the linen…
Suddenly Ollivander wished he had never seen Harry Potter again…