Chapter 7
1994-1995 School Year
There wasn’t much that I fictionalized about this school year. If you’ve read my book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , you might now be surprised at how negatively I obviously portrayed myself in it. You might wonder whether I portrayed myself accurately—but I did. I really did write all those false articles in the Daily Prophet . I wanted to carve out a reputation for myself as a sensationalist reporter. I thought that, as a result, when I finally published the Harry Potter books (which I was waiting to do until we knew whether Voldemort would return, so that he and his followers wouldn’t find out any information about Harry that it would be dangerous for them to know), no one would suspect that I myself was writing under the pen name “J.K. Rowling”.
Andromeda Tonks: I own a Quick-Quotes Quill, too, but I use it in a more ethical way than you do, Rita. That’s why my quill is writing here with my own handwriting… Well, you did a good job of hiding your identity—even from me. I bought a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone the moment I saw it at Flourish and Blotts. (As you know, American readers—both wizarding and No-Maj/Muggle—know that book as Sorcerer’s Stone .) I knew that all the information about Harry contained in that book was true—but I had no idea how anyone but myself could know most of it. Harry wasn’t even a patient of mine yet at this point—you were listening in on Hermione’s therapy sessions! Quite a few of my patients have had their privacy violated by you, in a much worse way than you ever reveal in your books—even in Goblet of Fire !
Do you realize what you did to me, Rita? Besides my grandson Teddy, my job as a therapist is all I have left. It looked like I would lose that job if anyone—especially the Ministry of Magic—suspected that “J.K. Rowling” was my pen name. So that’s why I am so determined to expose you.
Rita Skeeter/J.K. Rowling: At least I’m not like Gilderoy Lockhart! I’m telling the whole truth in my books except where I have to cover up your involvement in the story. That wasn’t often, since you’re not allowed to see Harry outside of work. To the readers… I was able to do exactly what I meant to do. I was able to make myself look like a sensationalist reporter, who never tells the truth if a lie sounds more exciting. This is why no one—not even Andromeda—suspected “J.K. Rowling’s” true identity until I, the author of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , was present in person to sign people’s copies of Deathly Hallows on launch night at Flourish and Blotts. I had had a separate launch night for the Muggle world, at a bookshop in that world.
One other thing I fictionalised? After the severe trauma of seeing Cedric Diggory killed (how could the Ministry brush that one off?), seeing Voldemort return, and escaping from Voldemort’s next attempt on Harry’s life, Harry needed so much help that he went to see Andromeda twice a week for the rest of the school year—and even over the following summer. Just as in The Order of the Phoenix , though, Harry still didn’t know anything about what Voldemort was up to for the whole summer; Dumbledore had advised Andromeda not to tell Harry, with the excuse that he must be traumatised from seeing Voldemort return, and almost killed by Voldemort.
There’s one more thing I fictionalised: even after what had happened at the end of the previous school year, Andromeda had continued to use Sirius/Padfoot as her therapy dog—so Harry knew he didn’t have to send a letter to Sirius about his scar hurting at the beginning of the book, as Sirius would know about it as soon as Harry had his next session with Andromeda.
Posing as Andromeda’s therapy dog was not enough for Sirius; he wanted to be able to transform into a human and talk with Harry, not just show dog-like signs of recognition such as licking Harry’s hand and face. So, in addition to writing to each other at great risk, Harry, Ron, and Hermione really did meet Sirius in a cave in Hogsmeade. After Harry and Andromeda’s session that day, Andromeda was able to communicate with Ron and Hermione to join Harry and Sirius/Padfoot without anyone else knowing what she really meant. She did this by saying, “Ron? Hermione? I let Harry take Padfoot for a run, it might be fun for you guys to join them. You know how dogs love running with humans they trust, or with other dogs.”
Only after Voldemort returned did Andromeda realise that it was no longer safe for Sirius, even as a dog, to be out in public. This was because Voldemort had a follower—Wormtail—who had not only helped Voldemort return to power, as his former friends and current enemies predicted that he would do, but knew what Sirius looked like in his Animagus form. Wormtail would betray Sirius to the Ministry if it suited him, too, no doubt; Wormtail was fortunate that the Ministry still believed Sirius to be guilty of the crimes that were actually committed by Wormtail himself. So Andromeda not only stopped using Sirius/Padfoot as her therapy dog, but also stopped letting him live with her, realising how much trouble her whole family would be in if they were found to be harbouring a fugitive.
One other thing I fictionalised about this school year? I had to write the story as if Harry had never seen a Pensieve before he saw the Hogwarts Pensieve in Dumbledore’s office. But you’ve seen that Harry actually had seen a Pensieve before—he knew that Andromeda often viewed her patients’ memories in her Pensieve, and sometimes she had had Harry view his own memories with her after she had put them in the Pensieve.