Rita was startled out of her carefully prepared introduction when her acid-green Quick-Quotes Quill, which had been furiously scribbling away on a floating notepad - clearly writing far more words than Ria was uttering - burst into flames. That this also set fire to the notebook didn't seem to bother anyone. As the items took only a couple of seconds to become fine ash -before then disappearing - all eyes were now locked on Harry.
"Sorry about that. Last year I was almost killed by something that wrote by itself and I couldn't see its brain. Not a mistake I want to make again, my magic must have gotten away from me." With no wand in his hand, Harry was being believed by the group.
"Miss Skeeter, I have no idea who you are. I simply won't read the Daily Prophet. The new Steward of House Potter though will be searching through back issues, looking for mentions of me. You see, today's article in the Quibbler is the first time I've ever given an interview. I'm led to believe your newspaper pretends to have quotes from me on a regular basis, that will be stopping."
Seeing the possibility of his intended good press going up in flames too, Cornelius attempted to play peacemaker here. "Now Harry, a bit of free advice. It doesn't do to upset our friends in the Press."
"Oh, that's okay, Minister. Miss Skeeter here is not my friend. My real press friend already has a second interview from me. In it, we talk about how the British Ministry of Magic is the only ministry in the world to issue a kill on sight order against a pureblood Head of House - one who was never even granted his legal right of a trial. This is the same Ministry of Magic who thought it was a good idea to surround a school with dementors, an action that almost cost me my life on THREE separate occasions."
The only person Harry or Hermione had ever seen wearing a monocle then interrupted. That she was a witch just made this particular choice of eyewear all the more strange. "Excuse me, Mr Potter. Are you claiming Black is innocent? Oh, excuse my rudeness, I'm Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE."
Harry just continued staring at her. "DMLE?"
"Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Sorry, Miss. Dumbledore made sure I didn't know anything about magic before I came to Hogwarts. The standard of teaching here is so bad, I probably won't know much more than I do now after I leave. So does that make you the person responsible for the kill on sight notice on my innocent Godfather?"
Cornelius spoke before Amelia could get her gander up. "Harry, we spoke about this. Black confounded all three of you."
"No, Minister. You took the word of a Death Eater rather than listen to us, simply because he was saying the things you wanted to be true." Turning his attention back to Bones, Harry then asked a rather impertinent question. "What exactly is the Dark Mark?"
Harry Potter was nothing like Amelia was expecting, Susan had said he was almost cripplingly shy. Coming from Susan, who had more than a touch of shyness about herself too, Amelia thought she would have to coax any answers she wanted out the boy.
Deciding to play along and see where this led, she gave his question the textbook answer. "The Dark Mark is Lord Voldemort's trademark, he brands his followers with it and it's cast into the sky after battles."
Shaking his head, Harry's frown let everyone know what he though of that answer before he'd even opened his mouth to reply. "I wouldn't even give that an 'acceptable' grade. The only bit of that I agree with is he designed the mark as his motif, though he's certainly no Lord. Tom Marvolo Riddle is the offspring of Merope Gaunt, an impoverished pureblood, and Tom Riddle - a local muggle she used a love potion on."
Although he'd not been introduced, both Harry and Hermione recognised Macnair from his visit to Hagrid's while attempting to execute Buckbeak. More importantly, they recognised from Tom's memories that he was an Inner Circle Death Eater - which was why they were pursuing this topic.
Macnair looked as if he as trying to lay a dragon-sized egg after hearing that about his master's blood status, though the rest of the company appeared just as shocked. Harry pushed on toward their objective.
"The Death Eaters don't fight battles, the cowards ambush or murder people in their sleep - using that disgusting mark to then lay claim to their kills. That mark isn't branded or tattooed on either, really poor research by the DMLE. Then again, an innocent man has a death sentence on him so no surprise there. Hermione, on the other hand, is a fantastic researcher. She misses nothing - care to set them straight, Hermione?"
As Hermione took over the narrative, it was now Harry's job to keep an eye on Macnair.
"Riddle's Dark Mark is a bastardisation of the Protean Charm. It links him to his followers, allowing Riddle to contact - and even punish them - through their mark. You see Riddle binds his followers to him using soul magic, and what is the one thing that's universal to all forms of soul magic?"
The answer hit Amelia like a sledgehammer. Where seconds before she'd been turning red with anger, her complexion now had a distinct grey parlour to it as the implications of this hit home. If this girl's facts turned out to be true, it would shake the very foundations of their society. Amelia muttered what the girl was obviously alluding to. "Soul magic has to be accepted voluntary. A person's soul can't be fooled with a curse or potion - the magic simply wouldn't take."
This news getting out could spell disaster for Cornelius, and some of his close friends. He was now regretting inviting Rita along, and wondering how much her silence on this matter would cost those friends. He had no idea Harry was nowhere near finished yet.
"Riddle is a parselmouth, and used parseltongue magic to administer and then control those who wear his Dark Mark. Dumbledore thinks I inherited my parseltongue ability the night Riddle hit me with the killing curse. I suppose I really should thank the Ministry, they actually helped me too - in a roundabout fashion. Being attacked by dementors has been unlocking some of my parsletongue abilities, and I had already been attacked twice before I met my godfather."
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