Chapter 15
September 15, 1998
The Daily Prophet
MANY VOICES HEARD
Insight into the mass slaughter of innocents last year
Josie Geller, reporter
In our ongoing efforts to remain steadfast in presenting the unvarnished truth from both sides of the fence, this reporter has spoken with quite a few students and professors about the murders last year of nearly every Slytherin seventh year student and professor Severus Snape, whose only crime was supporting Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived. I’ve tried to remain impartial, but what I’ve discovered has shaken my faith in the goodness of people and the Light. I’m sure it will have a drastic effect on you, gentle readers.
My first interview was with Astoria Greengrass, surviving sister of Daphne Greengrass, Slytherin seventh year, who was the first of many Slytherins murdered by the seventh year Gryffindors. I asked her what she thought about the tragedy at the end of last term, and she had this to say.
“I think it’s dreadful that the people who rabbit on about fairness and equality and second chances never even bothered to give my sister her first chance. Potter’s friends and housemates waded into the crowd of Slytherin students and just started flinging lethal curses left and right. My sister, Daphne, was felled by a bombarda that obliterated her midsection. Bombarda is a Light spell, and they used it to murder an innocent girl, whose only crime was being sorted into Salazar Slytherin’s house.” I must inform my readers, should they doubt Miss Greengrass’ words, as well as others, that memories of the events of that fateful day, when Harry Potter lost everything just before he eradicated Lord Voldemort, have been donated by no less than two hundred different people. Students and professors alike, who witnessed that final confrontation, submitted their remembrances of events so that we could have an accurate, clear picture of what actually happened.
I next spoke to Minerva McGonagall, who had prevented some of the younger students from getting involved in the battle. She protected whomever she could, be they Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, and she saw the moment that Severus Snape was executed by his mentor, Albus Dumbledore. This is what she had to say.
“I never would have believed that Albus could be so heartless and cruel. I mean, even in that famous duel between Gellert Grindelwald and he, Dumbledore didn’t kill the man. He had his ex-lover incarcerated at Nurmenburg, the prison built to house the muggles as Grindelwald’s and his ‘final solution’. I’d always thought that Severus and Albus had a mentor-protégé relationship; that Albus had seen the younger man as a grandson, of sorts. It was horrifying, watching as the sword of Gryffindor sliced through professor Snape’s neck like a hot knife through butter. It was in that moment, as the glee shone from the old man’s face, that I knew that Dumbledore had planned for the deaths of Severus and Harry from the beginning.”
Colin Creevey was the next to volunteer to speak with me, and his story was simply heartbreaking.
“A bunch of us were hiding in the Room of Requirement; mostly the fifth years and younger, and Hogwarts provided a way for us to watch the battle while still being protected. I had my camera, and I started taking pictures; I thought I might be able to sell them. It shocked me to see how many Slytherins had turned their backs on their parents’ ideals and stood with Harry, but Draco was the most surprising of all. None of us knew that Malfoy and Harry were in love, let alone married, but seeing the blond standing at the side of our hero made us very happy. More people to help Harry do what he needed to do. But then his best friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, started attacking the Slytherins. Ron chopped Pansy Parkinson to pieces with a sword he had in his hands, and Hermione cut Draco’s neck with a severing charm. Right in front of Harry, she executed his husband! The look on his face… I don’t ever want to see anything like it again. It broke my heart, the devastating grief on my hero’s face, and then he walked up to V-Voldemort and ended the man’s life before lapsing into a coma and falling to the ground.”
I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. Harry Potter had very little in his life that made him happy, but his friendships counted as one of those things. His relationship with the Slytherins counted as another, but the best thing that happened in his life was his marriage to Draco Malfoy, which gave him two beautiful twin sons. Sons that are now in the custody of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, and have been secured behind the ancient family wards of Malfoy Manor. Lady Malfoy was kind enough to send me a picture to add to this article, and I do so with a heavy heart. These beautiful boys and his husband were the reason Harry had for living, and a large part of his heart was ripped away by the actions of people he thought really cared for him. It seems that the Potters never had any luck when it came to friends.
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September 18, 1998
Advances in Education
Volume 23, issue 104
HOGWARTS SET TO BECOME PREMIER MAGIC SCHOOL ONCE AGAIN
Hogwarts has long been held as a bastion of supremacy for magical education, but over the last several decades, that excellence has declined. The elimination of many core classes and electives, along with the poor quality of professors has caused the school to languish at the bottom of the rankings. The student population had also declined due to the denial of creatures and mixed breed magicals attending the school.
Since the crimes of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore came to light, which we won’t belabor here, and the promotion of Minerva Melanie McGonagall to headmistress, things are finally looking up for one of the oldest magic schools in the world. Through generous bequeathments, at the cost of a young man’s life, Hogwarts will once again become the premiere magic school in the wizarding world. One of our staff reached out to her for her plans and she sent us a prospectus, which we will outline here.
Her first order of business, after the rebuild of the castle, is to return to the students all of the classes that the former headmaster had eliminated so that he could keep the British wizarding population weak, ignorant and dependent on him for guidance. She has also spoken of including muggle core classes, such as maths, English and the sciences. Too many of the graduates have come to the Ministry, or have approached other businesses in the magical world, not knowing how to write a proper essay or answer application questions with any literacy. Tests given to the prospective employees have the shop owners shaking their heads; very few of the applicants are capable of solving even the simplest math problems. This enforced ignorance has left the door wide open for any megalomaniacal despot to step in and overtake our corner of the magical world, as evidenced by Tom Marvolo Riddle’s attempts in the past few years.
She is including the study of Dark Arts; her reasoning is, ‘how can you be prejudiced against a magic that you don’t understand?’. She is also very aware that magical affinity plays an important part in learning to control one’s power, and not having core classes that work with all branches and affinities of magic results in damage to the children’s cores before they’ve been fully developed. Forcing a child with a Dark core to perform only Light spells can have far-reaching consequences to that child, up to and including burning out his or her core before it has had a chance to mature, which could lead to madness later. Albus Dumbledore knew this, and used this to cripple many of our citizens, including some of the Black children.
She has done away with the house system; a long-held, tried and true tradition started by the Founders who, to be fair, had far, far fewer students than there are today. She states that the separation of children into different houses based on personality traits, ambitions and upbringing, when those children are eleven, creates a kind of divisiveness that lingers on throughout their school careers and on into their adult lives. Kids who have made friends with other kids on the Hogwarts Express, once sorted, are unable to maintain those friendships, especially if they’re sent to Gryffindor or Slytherin, because the bias against the snakepit is so prevalent and virulent. Dumbledore encouraged the exclusion of Slytherin house, claiming that evil wizards only came from that house. However, history has shown us that evil lives in all houses; that it’s not the house itself that decides the future of the student, it’s his or her upbringing, family ties, traditions, history and education that help decide which direction a graduate goes after Hogwarts.
Finally, in the biggest and best change to the school, headmistress McGonagall is offering placement to all sentient magical beings, be they human, elf, goblin or centaur. Human-creature hybrids are welcome as well, and she will have private instructors to help the children learn to use the extra gifts that come with being a mixed race magical. More instructors will be available for all the students who want to learn about, not only human magic, but creature magic as well. Professors must have a Mastery in whatever skill or topic they wish to teach. No more will our children’s education depend on the whims of a man who only wanted mindless, obedient soldiers and government workers willing to bow to his ‘Greater Good’.
Written by Heather Holloway
Pictures by Jimmy Olson
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The elf popped into the DMLE late on September 23, after everyone else had gone home. He quickly scampered to Amelia Bones’ office, the light indicating that she was still inside, and he tapped gently on the closed door. “Enter,” came from within, and he pushed the door open, standing in the portal and looking at the department head with expectation. “Hello, Dobby,” she said with a small smile. She was introduced to the little being a few years earlier, when Harry had sent the woman a plea for information on how to change one’s magical guardian. She had met with the teen in Gringotts two days after the note, and, after hearing about the young man’s living arrangements and at whose hands that had happened and how, she immediately filed for custody of the boy. It was granted fairly quickly, and Dumbledore’s hold over his puppet was severed.
At fourteen, the child was already confident and self-assured, and he earnestly promised that he had friends with whom he could camp out during the summer break. Taking him at his word and providing him with an emergency portkey should he need to escape to Bones Manor, she granted the teen a freedom that he’d never experienced before. He never once abused her trust in him, and he grew to love her like a real aunt. For her part, Amelia Bones cared very deeply for Harry and did all she could to ensure his safety and well-being. Several times over the intervening years, Dumbledore had stormed the Ministry, demanding that guardianship of Harry Potter be returned to him. Every attempt ended in failure, and Bones couldn’t help but think that it was Harry’s break from the headmaster that eventually resulted in the deaths of his friends and family.
“What can I do for you?” she asked the hyper little being. With a wide, malicious smile that made Amelia a little uneasy, he handed her a writ from Gringotts and popped away. She opened it, eyebrows fleeing into her hairline in shock at what she read.
Be it known by all these presents that on this day of September 23, 1998, evidence has come to light implicating Remus John Lupin in the lycanthropy infection of at least five students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The case remains open until every student that has been afflicted is discovered. We of Gringotts will set aside the vaults and properties of Remus John Lupin as compensation to the victims for his violent assaults on innocent children.
Gobbo Breathstealer
Manager, Gringotts UK
“Finally,” she hissed, a feral grin on her face that didn’t really belong there, “another of Dumbledore’s sycophants, ripe for the plucking. I’ll have Macnair and Greyback hunt him down and execute him. We’ll put his severed head at the base of that abhorrent fountain in the atrium for all to see what happens when you betray magical England for some galleons and a cushy life.”