Hogwarts Under Siege! -Reported by Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent for The Quibbler
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a bastion of higher education and a cornerstone of Wizarding culture has long been a refuge for students as they struggle to master their magical gifts. Pureblood scions and wide-eyed muggleborns alike spend long hours mastering the craft under the watchful eyes of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and his hand-picked teaching staff. These children, our children, represent the future of the Wizarding World, and their safety must be held paramount in the minds of all responsible adults. Unless those adults work for the Ministry of Magic.
In a maneuver that has many shaking their heads, Minister Fudge has ordered Dementors, the grisly creatures that guard the wizarding prison of Azkaban, to lay siege to Hogwarts. The Ministry claims that this is being done to protect the school from the menance that is Sirius Black. Of course, one might wonder about this, considering recent objections aired in the press (including those raised by your faithful correspondant) regarding certain irregularities in the original proceedings against Mr. Black. The stated rationale given for this move is a string of dubious “Sirius Black sightings” that the Ministry claims they have received over the summer – placing him near the magical village of
Hogsmeade. The possibility that the notorious fugitive is in the area would merit some action by the Ministry. However, to date no one in the press has been able to find any Hogsmeade residents who will verify that they saw Mr. Black, let alone alerted the Ministry. A curious state of affairs. This year’s students returned to their school, their refuge of higher learning, only to find the gates guarded by soul-sucking monsters out of their worst nightmares. Such of wonderful introduction to our world for eleven year old muggleborns who have just discovered their magical heritage – being exposed to creatures whose very presence is used to punish societies most hardened criminals. Of course, if the Ministry were to go to such extremes to guard the public safety, surely they would not allow the grisly creatures near our children unless they were firmly controlled. That is something that concerned citizens and members of the Hogwarts Board of Governors was assured of when Minister Fudge issued his commands.
Therefore, one might be shocked to discover that these horrible monsters in the service of our Ministry ran amuck this past weekend, entering the grounds of Hogwarts itself, and attacking the gathered students during an intramural Quidditch Match! If not for the quick reactions of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, who knows how many students might have had their very souls forcibly removed? How many others might have died in the panic as the stands emptied? How many of our children would have died to satisfy the Ministry’s vindictive need to pursue a man that many credible authorities assert may be innocent of all wrong-doing? As it is, one student still lost her life in the melee. We at the Quibbler would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of Prefect Melissa Bulstrode.
And we would also pose this question to the responsible parties in the Ministry, who have hands wet with the blood of a sixteen year old witch: How many more must die before they are satisifed?
fantastic! Looking forward the rest
So nice how you’ve got Rita on The Team ^_^.
Quibble: “… only to find the gates guarded by soul-sucking monsters out of their worst nightmares.”
You may want to continue with this standard turn of phrase, and for those who know about Dementors, it’s enough, but that they bring forth one’s worst nightmares—well, this is the Quibbler, I’m sure that’ll be in a sidebar or article, they are weird magical creatures. Perhaps include a reference inserted by the editor to the inevitable article(s) on Dementors in the same issue, “A beast so nasty even Rebus Hagrid hates them”….
MUCH bigger point: this it *Rita Skeeter* published in the *Quibbler*. A Pureblood (right?) has died in this event … yet that is only mentioned in passing at the end, at which the rhetoric is then turned up 100x times.
BTW, “wet” is unsatisfying. “stain”, something in the direction of “runs with”???
Anyway, not a small number of people (the non-sheep) will read that and wonder “WTF?!?!?!!!!” The lack of emphasis given to it by Rita of all people and the Quibbler of all rags (well, we don’t know that they’re this sort of salacious, actually probably not), but it violated the “if it bleeds, it leads” rule of yellow journalism….
Given the danger to Millicent … should her older sister be left out entirely? For those with a clue, if you were to have her do that, it would the biggest “news” “delivered” in this piece….
– Harold
Woo hoo! Glad to see the NoFP meter move!
It’s funny to have Rita on Harry’s side … or ‘her’ side, I guess; Harry’s thought before of his ‘carrot and stick’ approach. I wonder if Rita was a Slytherin?
I’m also wondering if Harry’s friends are going to berate him for hiding his ability to cast a patronus; something I’ve wondered about in a couple of reviews, I think. He always took pains to be as open as possible before they learnt occlumency, and now that they are occlumens, what is his excuse?
Brilliant read. You just have to love Rita and her dashing quick quills note sometimes…
Couldn’t help but notice she was reporting from the Quibbler. Is she having some kind of trouble with the Daily Prophet?
I’d thought I’d add that the way you write Rita is amazing, you have down pat! As for the Quibler, sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my freind.
On the note of Xeno (what a name) are you going to be covering the knowledge of the Deathly Hallows or are you going to completely ignore the 7th book in favour of your own timeline?
Excellent. Teaser says it all…..I can’t wait until chapter 35 is finished.
Well that is a very nice teaser for the latest chapter. I like how Rita wrote the article because it is a rather good attack that’s hard to refute due to facts brought up in it (after all the residents of Hogsmede haven’t seen Black, and no one called the Ministry so why exactly were dementors stationed there is what most people would wonder). As for Rita having written the article for the Quibbler, that could be due to spreading out the story through multiple publications (unless the Ministry was pressuring the Daily Prophet, they’d most likely carry Rita’s article considering it affects people children and most folks in the wizarding world don’t like dementors).
As for brad’s comment about Harry hiding his ability to cast a patronus. His friends and the other Weasley’s know about him being from the future, so of course his magic is more developed and he also knows more spells. Second during the summer tutoring they were getting from Remus and after the demontor attack, Harry requested that they they be shown how to do the patronus charm even though Remus mentioned that it’d be unlikely for them to do it since it was highly advanced magic. Even then when Remus was around Harry went as far as he could show Remus and not be questioned too much about it. And they very well could have seen it when they were practicing on their own (so they know just what a properly cast patronus looks like exactly).
I agree with S_Wander aout the Quibbler part, after all- in the books the Ministry does pressure the Daily Prophet, so it can hardly be expected of them to print the article. And i also agree with the others when i say that you are a fantastic writer, and that i can’t wait for updates.