Black Truth [READ DESCRIPTION]

chapter twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-Four: Bubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble

Harry finished reading through the article with a scowl. "And Fudge is hiding this?"

"Yes."

"Why that-" Harry couldn't even begin to think of a word that described what he felt towards the current Minister of Magic.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "So what are we going to do about it?"

Harry looked at Draco in surprise. "What?"

Draco sighed as if he were trying to explain something to a little child. "What are you, or rather we, going to do about this?"

"I don't know." Harry muttered. Bloody hell, it was too early in the morning to be dealing with Fudge's stupidity.

Draco's smile was predatory. "We get it printed, Harry. That is what we do."

Harry blinked. "How would we do that?"

"That's your job. Get it printed somewhere, anywhere. Like you did last year."

Draco's plan began to dawn on Harry. "Can your dad keep getting articles that Fudge doesn't want printed?"

"And even the ones he does. Once this goes public, by any means, Fudge will have to let the Prophet print it. It would be bad for business and his reputation if he didn't."

"You mean the Prophet would print it anyway because they didn't want to loose customers, and then it would become clear that Fudge had stopped them from printing it."

"Exactly."

"Then that's what we'll do."

"I'll write father about our plan after class."

Harry looked to a clock. "Bloody hell, Divination is in five minutes! I gotta run." Harry grabbed his stuff and ran out of the room, ignoring the protests from Medusa about being slammed open and shut.

"You'll have to forgive him, Medusa dear. This time it wasn't his fault." Draco drawled as he left a few minutes later.

Ron had saved Harry a seat next to him and was visibly relieved when Harry ran through the door a minute before class.

"What took you so long?" he whispered.

"I'll tell you and Hermione later," Harry whispered back.

Ron nodded and turned towards the front of the room as their teacher entered in her usual fashion. "Think we'll actually learn something today?"

"I wouldn't bet on it," Harry muttered back.

Harry found Luna sitting in a corner of the library that afternoon. She seemed to be reading so he waited until she looked up at him before he spoke.

"Hi Luna."

"Hello Harry." She gave him a small smile. "Would you like to assist me in divining the future of the Muglooof clan by reading the words in this book backwards?"

Harry didn't know what a Muglooof was. "Not at the moment, Luna. I have to talk to you about getting an article published in your dad's magazine."

"What kind of article?"

Harry leaned forward to whisper, "One that the Minister of Magic doesn't want printed in the Prophet."

Luna's smile broadened. "I'll send it to him."

When Harry returned from the library, he found Hermione working on some assignment alone in the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, Hermione. Where's Ron?" he asked, sitting down on the couch next to her.