Chapter 56 - Daily Prophet

The whole incident provided me with a great opportunity to destroy Dumbledore's image or at the very least make people doubt Dumbledore. I wrote a letter to everyone's favourite reporter and told her the details of the many events that had taken place at Hogwarts this year. I can't wait to see what she does with this information.

Next day, the Daily prophet contained a long beautiful article that covered the whole front page.

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BOY-WHO-LIVED NARROWLY ESCAPES DEATH FOR THE THIRD TIME AT HOGWARTS

IS HOGWARTS SAFE FOR OUR CHILDREN?

By Rita Skeeter

We all believe Hogwarts to be the safest place on the planet. But Hogwarts has been the most dangerous place for the past few months ever since Harry Potter, the Boy-who-lived started attending the school. Harry Potter has faced multiple attempts on his life during his short term at Hogwarts and he has narrowly escaped death every time due to luck just like he did all those years back.

Just yesterday at midnight, he was attacked by a dangerous creature in the Forbidden Forest and would have died of not for a centaur saving him. Now everyone will be wondering what was he doing inside the dangerous Forbidden forest in the first place when students are forbidden from entering it. Well I was shocked after finding out the reason. It seems Harry Potter was attending a detention in the forest with his friends.

Now you will be wondering what terrible crime did he and his friends commit for them to be punished this severely. Well it was a something small, the act of roaming out on the halls after curfew. We would think the professor will favour the Boywholived and not penalise him for something like this but it was the opposite. He was harshly punished. He and his friends were penalised 50 points each. This was severe enough but the professor was not satisfied, she wanted to punish them more and decided to give them detention in the forbidden forest.

You would think detention at Forbidden forest was bad but this detention was much worse than a simple visit to the forest. The four first year students were tasked with finding a creature that was hunting unicorns in the Forest. Four first years who may not know even a single spell to be able to defend themselves were tasked with finding a dangerous creature in the dangerous Forbidden forest. Headmaster Dumbledore should have called Aurors for something like that.

You would think that at least there will be a professor to protect them from the danger but you will be wrong. The ȧduŀt they had with them for protection was Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gatekeeper who cannot do magic.

It seems like Headmaster Dumbledore has gone senile with old age and started to believe the story books about the Boy who lived. He must have thought that Harry Potter will take care of the creature easily like he does in the books. We know he knew about this detention because without his approval a detention like this would not be allowed.

What worries me is the identity of the other children involved. The four children were Harry Potter, Madam Longbottom's grandson Neville Longbottom, Lord Malfoy's son Draco Malfoy and a muggleborn witch. Makes you wonder if this was a political move by Dumbledore giving a warning to the Light and the Dark side that he has their children in his control and they must agree to his demands in the Wizengamot to ensure the safety of their children at Hogwarts. We know that madam Longbotton and Lord Malfoy are not his loyal supporters.

This incident was not the only time that Harry Potter had a close encounter with death at Hogwarts. On Halloween a Troll somehow made its way into the castle and nearly killed him and other students. It was quick thinking by Harry Potter that saved his and another student's life. I wonder how a Troll was able to enter Hogwarts when Hogwarts is known for its strong wards that repel magical creatures. Another thing to consider is that there is no troll habitat near Hogwarts. Someone brought it inside Hogwarts. I wonder why Aurors were not called for an investigation.

Another incident where Harry Potter was nearly killed was during a Quidditch match. Harry Potter, the youngest seeker in the century was playing in that match. In the match it is suspected that someone was jinxing his broom as he lost control of it in the middle of the game when he was high above the ground. Only after a small fire broke out in the professor's stands did he get the broom back into his control. Makes you wonder if a professor was involved in the jinxing incident. We know that there is a Death Eater posing as a professor in the school.

Now you can see one thing common in all three incidents. All the three incidents happened due to the hostile actions or the negligence of the Headmaster and the other professors. It seems like Hogwarts is not safe for our children anymore.

My sources say that You-know-who cursed the Potter that night when he was vanquished. The boy was cursed to face many dangerous situations in his life. I believe my source is right. This is just the first year and already our children were put in deadly danger. If the troll had found a group of students before it was taken care of, we would be mourning the deaths of the children. Harry Potter still has 6 more years at Hogwarts. I am not sure if Hogwarts will still be standing by the time he graduates.

For the safety of our children we must transfer them to other schools or expel Harry potter and let him be privately tutored like he was taught before joining Hogwarts. None of our children have his luck and will die when get pulled into the dangerous situations involving the Boy-Who-Lived. I hope the Hogwarts Governors get involved.

I was amused after reading the article. I only gave her the information about the incidents and did not tell her how to write the article. It seems Rita skeeter cannot write an article without ruining the image of the people involved. I should have given her some guidelines to follow. I did not like her blaming Harry and an imaginary curse but there is nothing I can do about it.

Harry, McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore. All of them were insulted and blamed in the article. Rita was not worried about the retaliation. It seems like she believes that her Beetle animagus form will allow her to escape and hide from all threats. I cannot wait for the aftermath of the letter.

I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at Harry and blaming him for the dangerous situations. Harry was pale with fear. Maybe he was wondering if there really was a curse involved since for him it looked like his life was cursed. He was in danger everyday he was in the Dursley house.

I got some good reactions from the professors too. Snape was angry that he was blamed for the Quidditch incident. McGonagall looked pale with fear.She did not like being compared to a Death Eater. Quirrell was conflicted. Happy that Dumbledore was going to have a tough few months but worried that now Aurors will come to investigate. Dumbledore did not have the twinkling eyes and smile anymore. I think his brain is working in overdrive to find a way to get out of this situation.

I can't wait to see the reactions of the parents of the children and the Minister of Magic.