Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

awful paper,’ said Luna, chipping into the conversation unexpectedly. Sucking on her cocktail onion, she gazed at Rita with her enormous, protuberant, slightly mad eyes. ‘He publishes important stories he thinks the public needs to know. He doesn’t care about making money.’
    Rita looked disparagingly at Luna.
    ‘I’m guessing your father runs some stupid little village newsletter?’ she said. ‘Probably, Twenty-five Ways to Mingle With Muggles and the dates of the next Bring and Fly Sale?’
    ‘No,’ said Luna, dipping her onion back into her Gillywater, ‘he’s the editor of The Quibbler .’
    Rita snorted so loudly that people at a nearby table looked round in alarm.
    ‘“Important stories he thinks the public needs to know”, eh?’ she said witheringly. ‘I could manure my garden with the contents of that rag.’
    ‘Well, this is your chance to raise the tone of it a bit, isn’t it?’ said Hermione pleasantly. ‘Luna says her father’s quite happy to take Harry’s interview. That’s who’ll be publishing it.’
    Rita stared at them both for a moment, then let out a great whoop of laughter.
    ‘The Quibbler!’ she said, cackling. ‘You think people will take him seriously if he’s published in The Quibbler ?’
    ‘Some people won’t,’ said Hermione in a level voice. ‘But the Daily Prophet ’s version of the Azkaban breakout had some gaping holes in it. I think a lot of people will be wondering whether there isn’t a better explanation of what happened, and if there’s an alternative story available, even if it is published in a –’ she glanced sideways at Luna, ‘in a – well, an unusual magazine – I think they might be rather keen to read it.’
    Rita didn’t say anything for a while, but eyed Hermione shrewdly, her head a little to one side.
    ‘All right, let’s say for a moment I’ll do it,’ she said abruptly. ‘What kind of fee am I going to get?’
    ‘I don’t think Daddy exactly pays people to write for the magazine,’ said Luna dreamily. ‘They do it because it’s an honour and, of course, to see their names in print.’
    Rita Skeeter looked as though the taste of Stinksap was strong in her mouth again as she rounded on Hermione.
    ‘I’m supposed to do this for free ?’
    ‘Well, yes,’ said Hermione calmly, taking a sip of her drink. ‘Otherwise, as you very well know, I will inform the authorities that you are an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the Prophet might give you rather a lot for an insider’s account of life in Azkaban.’
    Rita looked as though she would have liked nothing better than to seize the paper umbrella sticking out of Hermione’s drink and thrust it up her nose.
    ‘I don’t suppose I’ve got any choice, have I?’ said Rita, her voice shaking slightly. She opened her crocodile bag once more, withdrew a piece of parchment, and raised her Quick-Quotes Quill.
    ‘Daddy will be pleased,’ said Luna brightly. A muscle twitched in Rita’s jaw.
    ‘OK, Harry?’ said Hermione, turning to him. ‘Ready to tell the public the truth?’
    ‘I suppose,’ said Harry, watching Rita balancing the Quick-Quotes Quill at the ready on the parchment between them.
    ‘Fire away, then, Rita,’ said Hermione serenely, fishing a cherry out from the bottom of her glass.

 
     
— CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX —
     
Seen and Unforeseen
    Luna said vaguely that she did not know how soon Rita’s interview with Harry would appear in The Quibbler , that her father was expecting a lovely long article on recent sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, ‘– and of course, that’ll be a very important story, so Harry’s might have to wait for the following issue,’ said Luna.
    Harry had not found it an easy experience to talk about the night when Voldemort had returned. Rita had pressed him for every little detail and he had given her everything he could remember, knowing that this was his one big opportunity to tell the world the truth. He wondered how people would react to the story. He guessed that it would confirm a lot of people in the view that he was completely insane, not least because his story would be appearing alongside utter rubbish about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. But the breakout of Bellatrix Lestrange and her fellow Death Eaters had given Harry a burning desire to do something , whether or not it worked …
    ‘Can’t wait to see what Umbridge thinks of you going public,’ said Dean, sounding awestruck at dinner on Monday night.