Harry asked, looking around at them all. They were all regarding him warily.
‘Haven’t – haven’t you been getting the Daily Prophet?’ Hermione asked nervously.
‘Yeah, I have!’ said Harry.
‘Have you – er – been reading it thoroughly?’ Hermione asked, still more anxiously.
‘Not cover to cover,’ said Harry defensively. ‘If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn’t it?’
The others flinched at the sound of the name. Hermione hurried on, ‘Well, you’d need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they – um – they mention you a couple of times a week.’
‘But I’d have seen —’
‘Not if you’ve only been reading the front page, you wouldn’t,’ said Hermione, shaking her head. ‘I’m not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you’re a standing joke.’
‘What d’you —?’
‘It’s quite nasty, actually,’ said Hermione in a voice of forced calm. ‘They’re just building on Rita’s stuff.’
‘But she’s not writing for them any more, is she?’
‘Oh, no, she’s kept her promise – not that she’s got any choice,’ Hermione added with satisfaction. ‘But she laid the foundation for what they’re trying to do now.’
‘Which is what?’ said Harry impatiently.
‘OK, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?’
‘Yeah,’ said Harry, who was not likely to forget Rita Skeeter’s stories about him in a hurry.
‘Well, they’re writing about you as though you’re this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he’s a great tragic hero or something,’ said Hermione, very fast, as though it would be less unpleasant for Harry to hear these facts quickly. ‘They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like, “A tale worthy of Harry Potter”, and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it’s, “Let’s hope he hasn’t got a scar on his forehead or we’ll be asked to worship him next” —’
‘I don’t want anyone to worship —’ Harry began hotly.
‘I know you don’t,’ said Hermione quickly, looking frightened. ‘I know, Harry. But you see what they’re doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I’ll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you’re just some stupid boy who’s a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going.’
‘I didn’t ask – I didn’t want – Voldemort killed my parents!’ Harry spluttered. ‘I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn’t kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don’t they think I’d rather it’d never —’
‘We know, Harry,’ said Ginny earnestly.
‘And of course, they didn’t report a word about the Dementors attacking you,’ said Hermione. ‘Someone’s told them to keep that quiet. That should’ve been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors. They haven’t even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off. We think they’re biding their time until you’re expelled, then they’re really going to go to town – I mean, if you’re expelled, obviously,’ she went on hastily. ‘You really shouldn’t be, not if they abide by their own laws, there’s no case against you.’
They were back on the hearing and Harry did not want to think about that. He cast around for another change of subject, but was saved the necessity of finding one by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.
‘Uh oh.’
Fred gave the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanished. Seconds later, Mrs Weasley appeared in the bedroom doorway.
‘The meeting’s over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone’s dying to see you, Harry. And who’s left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?’
‘Crookshanks,’ said Ginny unblushingly. ‘He loves playing with them.’
‘Oh,’ said Mrs Weasley, ‘I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don’t forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please.’
Ginny grimaced at the others and followed her mother out of the room, leaving Harry alone with Ron and Hermione. Both of them were watching him apprehensively, as though they feared he would start shouting again now that everyone else had gone. The sight of them looking so nervous made him feel slightly ashamed.
‘Look …’ he muttered, but Ron shook his head, and Hermione said quietly, ‘We knew you’d be angry, Harry, we really don’t blame you, but you’ve got to understand, we did try to persuade Dumbledore —’
‘Yeah, I know,’ said Harry shortly.
He cast around for a topic that didn’t involve his headmaster, because the very thought of Dumbledore made Harry’s insides burn with anger again.
‘Who’s Kreacher?’ he asked.
‘The house-elf who lives here,’ said Ron. ‘Nutter. Never met one like him.’
Hermione frowned at Ron.
‘He’s not a nutter, Ron.’
‘His life’s ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque just like his mother,’ said Ron irritably. ‘Is that normal, Hermione?’
‘Well – well, if he is a bit strange, it’s not his fault.’
Ron rolled his eyes at Harry.
‘Hermione still hasn’t given up on S.P.E.W.’
‘It’s not S.P.E.W.!’ said Hermione heatedly. ‘It’s the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. And it’s not just me, Dumbledore says we should be kind to Kreacher too.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Ron. ‘C’mon, I’m starving.’
He led the way out of the door and on to the landing, but before they could descend the stairs –
‘Hold it!’ Ron breathed, flinging out an arm to stop Harry and Hermione walking any further. ‘They’re still in the hall, we might be able to hear something.’
The three of them looked cautiously over the banisters. The gloomy hallway below was packed with witches and wizards, including all of Harry’s guard. They were whispering excitedly together. In the very centre of the group Harry saw the dark, greasy-haired head and prominent nose of his least favourite teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Snape. Harry leant further over the banisters. He was very interested in what Snape was doing for the Order of the Phoenix …
A
