The Intelligent Potter

*** Present

"What could be more pertinent than the return of the Dark Lord?" Hermione asked.

"What do we tell the press…" Arcturus said.

Dumbledore let out a little laugh but Arcturus was serious.

"We have to placate Fudge before he slanders our name, then release the evidence that we do have to the Prophet, otherwise, we won't be taken seriously. The Minister will push all his clout behind defaming us." Arcturus said.

Dumbledore frowned, "Cornelius is harmless."

"No Albus. Because of your willingness to believe in the good in him, you're not seeing what he truly is. He's afraid. He would do anything to avoid such a scandal in his term, including sticking his head in the sand and murdering you politically." Arcturus said.

At that very moment, Fudge burst into the room, "What is going on with the Potter boy!?"

"Ah Cornelius, we're glad you came." Arcturus said smoothly.

"Yes, Lord Black." Cornelius said, trying to suck up to Arcturus.

"Harry was kidnapped by a crazed and delusional follower of the deceased Dark Lord." Arcturus said, "The Dark Lord isn't back but some man had a delusion that he could bring him back by murdering Harry. Harry managed to duel him to a standstill, suggesting that he was a weaker man, and then managed to grab the portkey back to Hogwarts."

"Who was it!" Fudge said, completely buying it.

"We don't know, he was wearing the Death Eater uniform and Harry was unable to identify him." Arcturus lied deftly, thinking it too inconvenient to explain to the Minister that a dead Death Eater buried in Azkaban was actually alive and with the Dark Lord.

He would find out soon enough anyway.

With a few more placating answers, the Minister was sent away and the real business started.

"You can come out now, Rita." Arcturus said.

Harry and Hermione both looked surprised but Dumbledore also seemed privy to the presence of the reporter.

Nothing happened for a second, and Harry wondered if his two mentors were wrong this once, but then, quick as lightning, Arcturus flicked his wand and a bug on the wall transformed into the form of the vicious reporter and fell to the ground with a shriek.

The reporter immediately tried to exit the room but found the door to be locked.

"You can't escape Rita." Dumbledore said simply.

"I- I will sue you for kidnapping." Rita said desperately.

"And I'll sue you for invading private property and being an unregistered animagus… and I'm allowed to detain criminals until their trials due to my Order of Merlin 1st Class." Dumbledore said, his voice cold and threatening, the cushy and comfortable aura of the Headmaster suddenly turning to a far more serious and intimidating aura.

"What do you want." Rita spat.

"Voldemort has returned." Dumbledore said simply.

"B-But I heard your talk with the Minister! Don't lie to me Dumbledore."

"I had to give the Minister a story he liked otherwise he would kill me in the media before the world got to know of the return of the Dark Lord." Dumbledore said, "You may view young Harry's memory in the pensieve."

They all viewed the memory once more, before the pensieve shot them out again.

Rita was white as a sheet, "I can't print that…" she said shakily, "The Ministry won't like it, they won't like it at all…"

"Isn't it your job to relay the news to all the people of Britain!" Hermione shot, "What kind of corrupt reporter are you!?"

Arcturus smiled thinly, ignoring Hermione outright, "I think you're forgetting, we know your biggest secret Rita."

Her eyes widened, "You can't tell anyone!" she said urgently, "My entire career would fall in on itself like a house of cards!"

"Exactly." Arcturus said smugly, "So you write our completely truthful article and we don't destroy your career."

Skeeter stood up to her full height and glared at Arcturus who simply stared back.

After a few seconds, she sighed, defeated and turned to exit the room.

Just as she was about to exit the room, she spun around with the obliviate spell half out of her mouth before she found her wand in Arcturus' hands, with both Dumbledore and Harry having their wands out, and Hermione in the process of drawing hers.

"I had to try." She said simply, retrieving her wand from Dumbledore and walking out of the door for real this time."

"She was going for you." Arcturus observed, "She thought she could beat me." He stated.

Dumbledore smiled wanly, "You are an old man, my friend."

"As are you, Dumbledore."

"Ah, but you have not been able to garner quite the reputation I have among the masses." Dumbledore said.

"Well, now what?" Harry asked.

"Now, my boy, you get back to classes." Dumbledore said playfully, "You've missed a fair few in your recovery."

Suddenly Hermione burst into action, "Ah Harry! I've collected all the homework you've missed; I can help you with it! Also, I've taken copies of my notes so that you can study them with me! Also, the second task will be coming up and you need to figure out what exactly the egg is." Hermione started on Harry.

"Hermione, you know that we're both already far ahead of most subjects." Harry said.

"Yeah, but we don't know all the details of what is taught in class." Hermione argued, "It's important to know all the theory."

"Anyway, I think it's more important to focus on the TriWizard tournament." Harry said before looking towards his mentors, "Any advice?"

Arcturus shared a glance with Dumbledore, "Normally, I wouldn't help you out with information like this, because Albus and I want you to do this yourself, but in this case, I think we need you to dedicate a lot of your time to training, we will tell you…Albus, tell him."

"You must listen to the egg underwater." Dumbledore said, "There will be a message in mermish, but the gist of it is that you will have to retrieve another object, one that will aid you in the final task if you retrieve it, from inside the lake."

*** end of chapter