"Of course I do. I've put far too much time and effort into you to see you kill yourself with some crazy training routine." she said smiling sweetly back at him.
"Fair enough. I will talk to Professor Dumbledore. Happy?"
"Ecstatic." she answered and brought her head up to kiss him. "I wonder where he's been lately anyhow. He hasn't been at meals all week."
"I'm not sure, but Professor Moody has been gone a lot too." Harry thought about it for a moment and wondered what they could be up to. Dumbledore had mentioned that he had important work to do and that Sirius was a part of it, but his godfather had not given him any hints about what he was spending his free time doing or even where he was currently living. Wondering if the Headmaster was even in the castle at the moment Harry pulled the Marauder's Map out of his book bag which was lying next to him. After speaking the code phrase to activate it and tapping the map with his wand Harry began looking for the Professor. He was not in his office or anywhere else on the grounds that Harry could see,
"Harry! Look!" Daphne said excitedly and pointed to a part of the map far from where he had been looking, Looking at the point she was drawing his attention to he saw his name and hers together like he expected them to be. That, however, was not what she was pointing at. Not far from their names was one he did not expect: Rita Skeeter.
Harry's head turned towards where he expected her to be but saw nothing, Slowly, hoping she would not see what he was doing, Harry reached for his wand. He tried not to stare at the spot where he knew she was until the moment he knew he was ready.
"Accio invisibility cloak!" Harry said, pointing his wand towards where the map said Rita Skeeter was. But to his surprise, nothing happened. On the map the dot marked Rita Skeeter was making a rapid retreat. He kept looking, but still saw nothing, "Damn! She was here, she had to be, I thought that would work,"
"Harry, I don't think she was using an invisibility cloak…"
"No, she must not be. It wasn't a disillusionment charm either. We would have been able to see it when she moved, What then?" Harry said, mostly thinking to himself.
"I'm not sure, but I think I know." Daphne said, quickly catching Harry's attention. "I thought I saw something flying off where she was supposed to be. Something small, some type of bug maybe." Harry thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out what it meant.
"There's got to be a minimum size on Animagus forms, right?" Harry said eventually.
"Probably, but remember that Pettigrew is a rat. A rat is a lot smaller than a person, so it might be possible. But I know for a fact that Skeeter isn't registered as an Animagus with the Ministry. That's illegal Harry, and punishable with a big fine and possible time in Azkaban. Maybe more depending on if they've used their form to commit crimes."
"This is what we've been looking for Daphne." Harry said with a mischievous grin on his face. "We can take Skeeter down with this."
"That's one way to look at it, but I think she deserves worse than a fine and a few months in Azkaban for what she's done to us. I'll owl my father and let him know what we found. Don't worry Harry, we'll come up with a good punishment. Her days of attacking us are over." Daphne said with a grin. Harry shrugged and agreed, knowing that his girlfriend had a much better imagination than he did when he came to this type of thing. And he wanted only the worst for Rita Skeeter.
...
It took a few days but Harry was eventually able to schedule a meeting with Dumbledore. They agreed to meet in his office after dinner, but when Harry gave the gargoyle the password and walked up the stairs he found that the door to the office was closed. He listened closely to see if he could hear anything to indicate that Dumbledore was inside but heard nothing, Harry decided to try and open the door to see if it was locked, but when he put his hand on the doorknob he froze and looked at in with a confused look on his face. The doorknob felt different in some indefinable way. It was not hot or cold and it wasn't moving at all but there was something about it that made his fingers tingle when they touched it. The feeling most reminded him of the time when he was much younger and had accidently touched an electrical cord with some of the protective covering stripped off and had received a brief but painful shock. Unlike that sensation though, this was not painful. Just different.
Harry took his hand off the door and the feeling faded, but when he put his hand back on the door it returned. Still curious about what he was feeling, Harry put his hand on a different spot on the door and found that it felt the same. While he was thinking about what it could be the sensation suddenly stopped and Harry heard the lock on the door click open. There were also voices inside talking. One was obviously Professor Dumbledore and though the other sounded somewhat familiar he could not place it. A few moment later the door opened revealing Professor Dumbledore.
"Right on time, Harry. I apologize for the delay." the Headmaster said. Harry took a step into the office and saw who Dumbledore had been talking to. It was the large, black Auror that had questioned him after the Dementor incident. Harry thought he had remembered being told that the man was Auror Shacklebolt at some point.
"Thank you again, Albus. I will begin work on the issue we previously discussed at once." Professor Dumbledore nodded and the Auror turned to leave. As he walked past Harry he paused and smiled at the young man. "Mr Potter." he said as a greeting before continuing out the door, shutting it behind him.
"I trust you remember Auror Shacklebolt, Harry?" Professor Dumbledore said while motioning for him to sit down.
"Yes, sir. Why was an Auror here?" Harry asked, wondering if perhaps they had heard news on Barty Crouch Junior.
....
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