Chapter 13: The Skrewts

"When were you going to tell me you were going to do this?" asked Hermione in a cross manner while sticking the front page of the Daily Prophet into his face.

On the front page, there was the clear recording of Harry's encounter with Pettigrew plastered under a sizeable headline that read;

PETER PETTIGREW IS ALIVE! THE TRUE RIGHT-HAND MAN OF YOU-KNOW-WHO?

It was one fascinating article Skeeter has put forth. Harry would say it was one of her best works reading the article taking his time to sometimes read some of the paragraphs two times.

Oh yes! Skeeter kept her word. She seems to have come lashing out at the Ministry and all but blaming them for incarcerating an innocent man in Azkaban for twelve years.

If the heir of a prestigious noble house like House Black can be chucked into Azkaban without a trial what else is the Ministry hiding! How many people have the Ministry simply imprisoned inside Azkaban without a trial?

Was Sirius Black incarcerated because of Mr Bartemius Crouch's incompetence or was there something sinister at play? It is no secret Mr Crouch's son is a convicted Death Eater. Could Mr Crouch also be one and took revenge on behalf of You-Know-Who on the godfather of Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived?

He was having a healthy amount of respect for Rita Skeeter and her cut-throat words. So long as those words were being directed at his enemies he'd have no problem. The article doesn't end there…

It is also possible that Mr Lucius Malfoy may have played a part in the illegal incarceration of Sirius Black. After all, it is to Mr Malfoy's advantage the Black family goes extinct without a male heir as his son will be the next in line to the Black fortune. Sirius Black was also a decorated Auror who fought against You-Know-Who for the Ministry!

Could it be that Mr Malfoy thought he could use the Balck fortune to do his former master's work? While Mr Malfoy claimed to be under the Imperius Curse his admission before the Wizengamote was never under the influence of Veritaserum or a magically binding oath.

This brings us, the average wizards and witches, to question the legitimacy of these sham trials conducted for the former 'self-proclaimed Imperuised' Death Eaters. If the Ministry is responsible for a grave injustice like imprisoning an innocent man in Azkaban what else have they done? What other dark secrets are the Ministry keeping hidden from the eyes of the average wizards and witches?

While Harry was impressed with Rita Skeeter's persistent attacks against the Ministry and Lucius Malfoy another major article on the third page exceeded his expectations.

Malfoy-Snape-Crouch! The axis of Evil?

The conspiracy to assassinate the Boy-Who-Lived via the Tri-Wizard Tournament!

The attack at the World Cup. Is the Ministry involved in the coverup?

The greatest coverup of this century! Death Eaters walking scot-free while heroes languish in prisons!

These were the headlines of other articles regarding his performance and selection in the Tournament and Skeeter make several leaps and conjectures. Basically, she blames Harry's entry into the Tournament on Malfoy, Crouch and Snape. The ministry is involved in a big conspiracy and good-working wizards and witches could all be thrown into prison by the evil ministry. This was the general tone of her columns.

Harry was quite surprised at Skeeter's blatant attack on Malfoy of all people. The last time he spoke she was afraid of Malfoy's influence on the Prophet. But now all of a sudden she was attacking Malfoy head-on.

What changed?

'It can't be solely based on the blackmail material I have over Skeeter.' Harry thought with a frown as he read the article greedily.

Someone else must have a stake in bringing Malfoy down.

But who?

Sure, Malfoy must have made enemies throughout the years and riding on the present controversy was surely an advantage for any would-be enemy of Malfoy. It was something worth looking into in his opinion.

But, that could wait as he had an annoyed bushy-haired friend who was frowning quite heavily expecting a response.

"As soon as the article was published I suppose." he answered honestly which made Hermione stutter who was no doubt gearing up to face a denial.

"You kept this from me. Me! Why?" Hermione asked and Harry could see she was hurt that he'd keep secrets from her.

"Hermione you are a muggleborn and this world is filled with racist bigots who hate your existence. If they think you have sensitive information regarding an accused criminal can you even imagine what they'd do to you?" Harry asked

His question drained Hermione's ire in an instant.

"Professor Dumbledore will…"

"…do nothing just as he has done nothing in the First Year, Second Year, Third Year and this year." Harry finished for her looking at her challengingly to see whether she would argue.

"You've got to admit Hermione. Dumbledore's been awfully quiet after Harry's name came out of the Goblet." supplied Ron, who for once was speaking sense after a long while.

"But Harry! This is Dumbledore we are talking about." said Hermione, looking imploringly at both Harry and Ron in disbelief.

"You've got to admit Dumbledore's been fat lot of good in clearing Sirius's name even with his position in the Wizengamot." said Ron

"Exactly!" Harry agreed, finding himself pleasantly surprised by Ron who was rather insightful in the matter. The kid was not hopeless it'd seem. "Dumbledore is the head of Wizengamot and he also wields enormous influence. You'd think someone like that who is supposed to be a virtuous man would stand up for what's right rather than what's easy."

"If Harry can manage to do all this with talking to a single reporter then imagine what Dumbledore could do. I wonder what he's planning. Maybe he is barmy!" said Ron despite Hermione's scandalized outcry 'Ron!'.

"Is the Prophet true Harry?" asked Neville who was so far been quiet and silently observing the conversation.

"Yes, Neville. There is quite a good story behind the whole fiasco of last year. I'll fill you in on the History class." said Harry

"Harry! You can't make plans like that for a class." said Hermione, disapproval written all across her face.

"Oh come on Hermione. Binns is crazy!" Ron cried.

The two began arguing in earnest while Harry and Neville watched on amusedly from the sidelines.

A bit of time passed and Harry was sitting in the Divination class bored out of his mind. He genuinely wondered why the fuck would any sane person intentionally struggle through this useless piece of subject. He had of course given a written request to McGonagall to have his Divination classes cancelled in favour of something more useful like Arithmancy.

Of course, the Deputy Headmistress has been less than impressed by the request and merely gave him a crisp 'I'll think about it.' before shooing him away. This was before the First Task. Since then, he has been buttering her up slowly here and there to escape this hell created by the most lunatic person in Hogwarts and that was saying something.

Harry could not stand to breathe the same air as Professor Trelawney. The woman was batshit crazy and focused on teaching a branch of magic that was useless.

"Hey, Harry. How did you die this time?" asked Seamus Finnegan who was sitting directly behind his seat.

"A lightning bolt hit me when I was flying on a broom." Harry answered blandly.

"Trelawney will like it. Say, any clue about that Egg of yours?" asked Dean Thomas

"You want another screeching banshee on your hands?" he asked, quirking his eyebrow.

"Nope! I'm good." said Dean, blanching at the thought of gracing the sweet music that came out the last time the Egg was opened in the common room.

"What could that mean though?" asked Neville who was sitting beside Harry.

"Maybe Harry has to brew the Mandrake potion" Ron suggested

"I don't think that's the one Ron. They brought dragons for the First Task! Surely, they are going to bring some magical creature that has a shrill screaming voice." Seamus reasoned.

"What is that dears?" asked Professor Trelawney approaching their general direction.

"Uhh…I was asking Ron whether Pluto is kind on me, professor." said Seamus barely holding back a snicker.

"Well, death is circling you, Mr Finnegan. But not so much as our dear Mr Potter." said Trelawney letting out a dramatic shudder for the effect.

It'd have been fun if it wasn't for the fact that Harry hasn't been seeing this stunt for quite a while now.

"Why the delay then? Wouldn't he get tired of circling around and getting cross-eyed by all the circling he has been doing for a long time?" Harry snapped out before he could control himself.

Trelawney discarded his snarky tone in favour of dramatically throwing her head back and shaking her head side to side like a mad horse.

"Oh, but dear. Death is a patient entity. It strikes in the most unexpected of times."

Harry scowled while swallowing the urge to snap back at this loon. Instead, he went back to thinking of other more important matters. Like, how to clear Sirius's name or where to go from the present state of his plans. He was waiting for Andromeda Tonks and her progress in the courts before taking a hands-on approach in the matter. There was yet a card to play but he'd rather not play that card until there was another tangible way of getting Sirius a free man.

If Divination was bad the Care of Magical Creatures class left him stumped. On one hand, Hagrid was a friend and a gentle soul….most of the time. Hagrid's gentle nature took a backseat when it comes to dangerous creatures.

From Harry's observation, Hagrid thought of dangerous magical creatures as misunderstood puppies. It'd have been not much of an issue if Hagrid kept that fascination to himself. Sadly, Hagrid was adamant everyone else learns to befriend and handle dangerous creatures.

For example, the horses of the Beauxbatons' carriage were of a different breed than normal horses. They were breathing out fire from the corner of their mouth the last he saw them and the class was supposed to feed them firewhisky. Apparently, the French horses love whisky and Hagrid took that as an opportunity to teach them how that's done.

It didn't help the Care of Magical Creatures class was shared by Gryffindors and Slytherins. Tension was thick between the two houses especially with everything that was happening. According to Dobby, who had made his personal job to watch Malfoy and the mini Death Eater squad, was having some troubles in the House. Some of the older students in the House of Slytherin became tired of Malfoy's appalling ability to embarrass the whole house at every turn. Their little group has been shunned for the time being and asked to stay the hell away from trouble.

Harry didn't know how long that'd last. Malfoy's usual rhetoric was never about his personal power. It was all about his father's influence. Well, Malfoy had learned his lesson and never tried to pick a fight with him after the First Task.

So, Harry was comfortable with leaving Malfoy out of his mind so long as the blonde never steps into his path ever again. It also helped Snape was under probation as he was undergoing a disciplinary hearing from the Hogwarts Board of Directors. He learned that bit of detail from Neville who's grandmother was now a member of the Board.

With Snape on probation, the man also lost his power to award or subtract points from students. Same with detention and this made Hogwarts a better place as the greasy bat of the dungeons focused on teaching for once instead of being a douchebag.

Harry flinched as the Skrewt he was handling turned its scaly body into a bludgeoning weapon and smashed on his knees. It was by luck he had the presence of mind to cast a hasty protego else he would've had a broken leg.

"Easy does it Harry. Jus' 'andle them with a gentle touch." cried Hagrid

Harry stared incredulously at Neville who shook his head in disbelief while looking at the Skrewts with unabashed fear. Hagrid on the other hand continued on with his explanation to the class.

"I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not…" Hagrid told the students who were desperately trying to wrestle the Skrewts into their paddocks. "We'll just feed them and keep 'em in these boxes."

There were five more Skrewts left to be locked in their paddocks and they were causing mayhem all around. They were fighting the students every step of the way while they were also fighting amongst themselves.

In Harry's opinion, the Skrewts should be allowed to fight amongst themselves. That way, they could all sit back and watch while they tire themselves out.

"We'll just get 'em in the boxes nice and easy. We let them sleep for a bit an' they will be back to normal." said Hagrid

"Define normal." Harry muttered as he finally managed to wrestle a Skrewt into a box lined with cushy pillows.

But the Skrewts, it transpired, did not sleep nor did they appreciate being surrounded by a closed container that inhibited their free movement. Soon the blasted creatures were focusing their energy on smashing the boxes to make their escape.

Hagrid tried to keep the situation under control but once again everything dissolved into chaos. The Skrewts broke through and began a whole new rampage.

Harry could see Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle making a run for Hagrid's cabin.

Shaking his head Harry began to fire away Stunning spells that managed to put the creatures down. It took him three or four spells to put down one Skrewt to sleep.

Hagrid was not so happy with his method of putting down the Skrewts but there was simply no other way. Somehow, they managed to put the last Skrewt into sleep and bound all of them in ropes.

When all was said and done, Harry sported several cuts all around his left leg and arms. Others were not fairing any better.

"Well, we managed to keep the Skrewts safe." said Hagrid with a giant smile.

"He's gone bonkers." Ron whispered.

"I think this is a pre-existing condition, Ron." Harry whispered back.

"You are right. Merlin save us." Ron whispered hoarsely.

"Merlin might be too afraid to step into these grounds."

Before Harry could take his leave to the castle Hagrid held him back before giving him a note.

"It's from Professor Dumbledore." Hagrid explained when Harry looked at him questioningly.

Opening the parchment he read the note. It was an invitation to meet with Professor Dumbledore in his office.

'Looks like the jig is up.'