A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the ce to vote on the dire of the story!

  Rita's article proves to be everything Harry wa to be~

  -x-X-x-

  The story doesn’t run in the edition of the Daily Prophet. Or even the oer that. But then, Harry isn’t too worried. He’d told Rita to do her due diligeh this story and he expected her to follow his orders. In the end, it takes a few days… but finally the Daily Prophet’s headline reads rather damningly.

  SIRIUS BLA?! INFAMOUS AZKABAN ESCAPEE AO BLACK FAMILY FORTUNE IMPRISONED WITHOUT TRIAL!

  Sitting there reading the story, Harry remains stone-faced, not wanting to give anything away to those around him. Certain individuals knew Sirius was i of course. Dumbledore. Lupin. Him, Hermione, and Ron. Ugh, and Snape.

  But the rest of Hogwarts, as they read Rita’s article, are pletely blindsided by the thought. As far as they’re all aware, Sirius Bck is the man who betrayed Harry’s parents, escaped from Azkaban, and terrorized them all year long st year. In their eyes, Sirius is the reason Hogwarts was surrounded by Dementors all year long.

  The article tears that all to pieces and paints a differe of individuals as the vilins of this tale. Iingly enough, Rita doesn’t linger for very long on Sirius’ betrayal of the Potters. She did, however, mao get a quote from Lupin himself where Remus had said that IF Sirius wasn’t the Potter Secret Keeper, it WOULD have beeer and that might have expined why they fought just as easily as the opposite being true.

  Harry wondered whether Remus had actually given that quote or not. It sounded like he was trying to defend Sirius after spending over a decade believing him a traitor, without exposing the fact that he was in tact with the escaped fugitive. It made sense, but Harry also wouldn’t put it past Rita to just manufacture a quote from Remus without even tag the poor werewolf. Given Lupin’s status as a ‘magical creature’ in a wizard-dominant magical world, even if he tried to cim he hadn’t said such things to her, no one would believe him over the Daily Prophet’s most sensational reporter.

  But that wasn’t everue meat of the article. Remus’ quote and the idea of Sirius Bot even being the Potter Secret Keeper are barely mentioned before Rita unches into her true goal for the article… exposing a massive spiracy within the Ministry itself to rob the Bck Family of its fortune.

  She does so first by exposing the fact that there are no records of Sirius Bck receiving a trial. That iermath of the Dark Lord’s Fall, certain Ministry Officials decided there was no need for certain wizards and witches to receive due process. Rita cleverly pares the trials of Sirius’ cousirix Lestrange and her cohorts, among them being Barty Crouch Jr., to Sirius’ ck of ohe fact that Bartemius Crouch Senior had been the oo decide Sirius’ fate without a trial, but made sure his own son still got one, is spelled out quite clearly in the front page article.

  Furthermore, it seemed Rita really has done her due diligend researot only had she firmed the ck of a trial or any relevant paperwork for one Sirius Bck at the Ministry, but she’d also followed up with the goblins otts. As Harry had already known, Sirius was his grandfather’s st living heir when the older assed during Sirius’ incarceration.

  The moment that the old Lord Bck passed; the Ministry had attempted to get at the Bck Family Vaults. By Wizarding Law, they teically had a right to said vaults so long as Sirius had been properly victed aeo life impriso. In fact, they had a right to Beltrix’s vaults uhe same w if they could either get Lord Bck’s approval or prove Lord Bck to be a criminal. Sihey didn’t have the old Lord Bck’s approval, they’d waited until he was dead to make their move.

  The problem was, they couldn’t prove Sirius Bck was a criminal because he wasn’t given a trial. And so the goblins had held the Ministry off, with Gringotts refusing to grant access to ANY vaults belonging to any members of the Bck Family that might have been incarcerated in Azkaban Prison for as long as Lord Bck did not sign off on the seizure.

  It was the smoking gun, to borrow muggle par roof’ that the Ministry was corrupt and that Sirius Bck had only been imprisoned because they wao eventually seize the Bck Family’s assets. An A and Noble Family of Wizarding Britain, targeted by an aggressive and corrupt Ministry… a chilling picture to be sure, and ohat would have all of the Purebloods up in arms, no doubt.

  Never mind that Fudge probably had no idea that some minor official in his Ministry was carrying out their routiasks by sending Gringotts repeated messages attempting to seize a criminal wizard’s assets for Ministry use. As far as Rita’s article was ed, Fudge was the one behind it all and he and his Ministry hadn’t just betrayed the public’s trust, they’d endahe Wizarding World’s children by sig Dementors on Hogwarts the ey of st year.

  Harry himself gets one single mention iire article. At the very end, as if to drive one final nail in the coffin, Rita points out that if Sirius Bck really was i all along, then the Ministry didn’t just try to steal the wealth of an A and Noble Pureblood Family, they also robbed the Boy-Who-Lived of his godfather for over a decade of false impriso.

  Rita makes it sound like she’s been researg this for the past year and some ge ever since Sirius escaped from Azkaban two Summers ago. She acts as though everything she’s uncovered has e from either unnamed sources in the Ministry or amused goblins at Gringotts who find the Ministry’s attempt to seize their ts’ assets without following proper procedure to be the height of eai.

  Of course, anyone who actually knows Rita would know that’s a pile of shit. Sure, she hold onto something if it means she’s going to eventually use it in one of her hit pieces disguised as autobiographies. But spending almost a year and a half oicle for the Daily Prophet? She would never waste so much time with such things.

  But her readers and the readers of the Daily Prophet… they were sure to eat this up. And depending on how the dust settled and the fallout from this article, Rita might very well win awards. Either that or the Ministry would try to e down on her rather hard. Hm, but that wasn’t part of Harry’s pns. Which meant his steps were obvious.

  “Harry…”

  Pulled from his thoughts, Harry pauses as he looks over at Hermiohe Great Hall is jampacked by this point in the m, and everyone has their nose buried in their copy of the Daily Prophet, all of them voraciously dev the article that Harry had just read. Some have already fi though and are beginning to talk among themselves. All around him, he hear versations about Rita’s writing. Mostly, people are disgusted with the Ministry of Magid questioning whether it could really be true or not.

  No one is really talking about Sirius as though he might be i, but they also aren’t really mbasting him either. In the end, Sirius is a small piece of what might be a wider spiracy by the Ministry to seize more power for themselves and further marginalize the old Pureblood Families. Something none of them want, obviously.

  Fog on Hermiohough, the brue looks rather pale and wide-eyed at him. As one of the few people who is very aware of Sirius’ innoce, it’s clear that she’s w how exactly Rita found out about it. Giving Hermione a reassuring smile, he takes hold of her hand uhe table and offers it a f squeeze.

  “We’ll be okay Hermione. Hey… maybe this will lead to a trial happening after all.”

  He keeps his voice as quiet as he of course, for Hermione’s ears only. Still wide-eyed, she nods at his hopeful tone. Meanwhile, Harry is very specifically not looking at the Great Hall’s High Table. He practically feel eyes burning a hole in the side of his skull. And not just o of eyes either. Dumbledore is definitely studying him right now… but the far more intense gaze es not from the Headmaster, but from Hogwarts’ resident Potions Master.

  Severus Ses Sirius Bck with every fiber of his being. He dislikes Harry quite a lot as well, but of course Harry is well aware that Snape loathes himself more than he loathes Harry. Harry just looks like James Potter. Snape, meanwhile, is the bastard who helped get his only friend in the whole wide world, Harry’s mother, killed.

  That said, it’s obvious Shinks Harry had something to do with this. Whether that’s just his bias talking or something else… it doesn’t truly matter. Severus Snape doesn’t matter. Fuck, Albus Dumbledore barely even matters.

  In fact, Harry would go so far as to say that… as far as Rita’s test article was ed, nobody at Hogwarts truly mattered. What mattered was what was happening at the Ministry right now. elius Fudge’s Ministry had holy never beeed like this before, not really. Even st year when Sirius escaped, that had been small beans pared to this. sidering Fudge’s overrea then and the way the Ministry had sicced Dementors on Hogwarts… well, it stood to reason that Harry should keep a close eye on how Rita’s article would shake things up at the Ministry over the wenty-four hours.

  With that in mind, while he does wait to make sure no one from the Faculty is going to seek him out over this or try t him into another meeting with Dumbledore, Harry ultimately slips out of Hogwarts again as soon as he possibly get away without his absence being noticed. From there, it just makes seo head straight baelia Bones’ offid see how the Director of the DMLE is doing.

  However, when he first arrives in Amelia’s office, he finds himself alohe DMLE Director is o be seen and Harry has to admit he doesn’t really feel like looking for her. Instead, making sure he’s pletely uable, he begins perusing through her desk and looking over the files she has out in the open.

  Uhe first three files he gave her, it would seem Amelia has been takiime with these hree. That makes sense because while Harry has given her plenty of evideo hahe set of Death Eaters, there’s no denying that they’re a little higher up on the food . ‘Respectable’ members of society, if you will. More than that, the lightning raid she’d pulled off against the first set of Death Eater scum could really only work ohis ime, she o have all of her ducks in a row before she moved.

  Still, from the look of things she’s well on her way. Harry finds himself nodding in approval as he looks over the work she’s managed so far. Until finally the door to the office opens and a harried, exhausted Amelia Bones es inside, closing it behind her with a loud sigh. Harry watches with a raised brow as she makes her way over to the desk… only to freeze up. He’d barely moved anything, but he HAD moved a few files. Still, surely she wouldn’t…

  “You’re here, aren’t you?”

  The certainty in her voice has Harry crag a grin. She really is quite an iing individual, Direelia Bones. He likes her a lot. With a twist of his magic, Harry reveals himself as the same figure wreathed in shadow as before.

  “Well done, Madam Bones. Most impressive.”

  Strangely enough, Amelia actually flushes a little bit at that. She straightens up as she looks at him, g her jaw for a moment before sighing.

  “Did you have anything to do with this mess? Skeeter’s article has the entire Ministry of Magi an uproar. Fudge is trying to have my Aurors arrest Skeeter for her ‘lies’, but I’ve had my people doing some iigating instead and what I’ve found so far… it’s chilling.”

  Humming, Harry just nods his shadowy head.

  “Sirius Bck is i. He was not the Potters’ Secret Keeper. Peter Pettigreeter betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord, causing the Fidelius Charm to fail that fateful evening. When Sirius realized what must have happened, he went after Peter, leading to the events that elius Fudge bore wito. Sirius didn’t blow up the street, Peter did. Nor did Peter die in the resulting explosio off his finger and faked his owh before esg in his illegal animagus form… that of a rat.”

  As Harry speaks, Amelia’s eyes grressively wider and wider, until eventually she sinks down into her chair behind her desk, putting her head in her hands. Only for a moment though, with the Director showing her fortitude as she snaps up her head a sed ter with her eyes narrowed.

  “So Sirius Bck was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t it. Why did he wait over a decade to break out of Azkaban then?”

  “He bmed himself for trustiigrew and sidered Azkaban a fitting pce for his failure to protect his friends. But then it came to his attention that Peter Pettigrew had survived and been living as a pet rat at Hogwarts for the entire length of his impriso. Needless to say, Sirius Bck’s drive for vengeance overwhelmed his self-loathing and need for penance.”

  Amelia slowly nods at this, before fixing Harry with a pointed look.

  “Are YOU Sirius Bck? You certainly seem to know an awful lot about his headspad these events that only he aigrew were present for.”

  Heh, not a bad dedu, admittedly. With the information she had at hand, it certainly made sense for him to be Sirius, perhaps with some sort of magical artifact held by House of Bck that allowed him to circumvent Ministry Wards. For a moment Harry even siders lying to her aihink he was Sirius. But… no.

  “I am not Sirius Bck.”

  It’s iing how easily Amelia believes him. She just nods, her shoulders slumping as she leans ba her chair with a sigh. The Director of the DMLE looks withdrawn and weary, and like she hasn’t slept in days, perhaps ever sihe night Harry made her sleep even. He wants to take her to task on that. But this is more important.

  Right now is the perfect time to destroy Fudge’s credibility ond for all and begin the process of repg him with Amelia. But if Fudge fires Amelia first for insubordination, that would be annoying. Which means Harry should help out in some way. But what was the best way to help Amelia firm the truth of Rita’s article, exactly?

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