Chapter 16
The conversation with Dumbledore about prophecies ultimately turned into something rather interesting. He decided to start teaching us Occlumency, as he said, primarily so we would be able to extract our own memories for viewing in the Pensieve. This would make it possible to do something truly unique in the magical world — to directly see a prophecy as it is seen by Seers in the moment of trance, rather than just a few confusing or ambiguous phrases. However, what was extremely pleasant, though surprising, was that he added: if he was going to teach us, he would do it properly, so we would also be taught Legilimency. Originally, we hadn't included it in our main plans: we had no one to practice on, and we were obviously not ready to "invade" the minds of criminals in prisons, as some transmigrators did in fanfics.
So, in this sudden way, our plans for the near future studies of magic changed.
"Regulus, Andromeda, when did you manage to become the headmaster's personal students?!" asked Percy Weasley, looking rather shocked and holding the morning issue of the Daily Prophet in his hand.
"What are you talking about?" asked Regulus, frowning slightly. After all, besides Hermione, we hadn't told anyone about the upcoming lessons with the headmaster.
"Here, look," he said, handing over the newspaper, and there on the front page we were met with the haggard face of Sirius Black after many years in Azkaban, with a loud headline: "Wrongfully Convicted and the Negligence of the Old Administration." And, of course, the author of the article was the ubiquitous Rita Skeeter.
Seeing the topic of the front page, we immediately, feigning interest, also looked into the paper with Andromeda and began to read together.
In short, it all started with a description of what crime Sirius was imprisoned for, how the trial went, and finally it moved on to yesterday's incident, which was described suspiciously in detail, along with a photo of an enraged Harry Potter, who also got "covered" as an orphan, with plenty of exaggerations added. And finally, the article got to us.
"…Suspecting something was wrong, the heir of the ancient and noble House of Black turned to the headmaster, which led to the revelation of the real truth about that day…" — although some details were blatantly made up, the essence was correct: we had indeed told the headmaster about Pettigrew, triggering the chain of events. Then, a bit further down, we saw what seemed to be the reason for our prefect's question. That bug-woman decided it was a good idea to cram into the article information about our life before school, somehow obtained in such a short time. However, what really made us worried was a quote she had inserted.
"…There is reason to believe that the Black twins possess the gift of foresight. — 'When we turned eleven, we felt that unless we hurried, something bad would happen, and then, if we hadn't made it in time, our caretaker might have died. When we approached her, she was about to open a box with an inheritance from our grandfather, and most of our family aren't exactly paragons of rationality. So, the curse on the inheritance was deadly.' — Apparently, this moment from the past of the two orphans was the reason that Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore decided to personally teach them."
She had literally quoted what we told Hermione yesterday in the girls' dormitory, which meant she had heard everything else too, and, more importantly, she had probably heard about our special situation.
"Damn bug-woman," we hissed, and, ignoring those around us, jumped up from the table and rushed to the owlery.
She basically has dirt on us. In the magical world, there are certainly people who won't care about laws, and, if they found out about our case, would try to kidnap us for experiments. So, we had to threaten her with some dirt in return before it was too late — she wouldn't want people to find out how she gets her information.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, having caught up with us in the owlery and now greedily gasping for breath with her hands on her knees.
"Nothing special, we just need to send a little threatening letter," Regulus explained casually while Andromeda was writing the letter.
"I see… Wait, what?" the girl exclaimed, momentarily thrown off by the casual tone.
"Rita Skeeter is an unregistered animagus-beetle, and judging by the article, she definitely heard what we talked about with you yesterday. We have to make sure she keeps her mouth shut, or she'll get a nice vacation in the company of dementors — she's ticked off too many people, so they won't miss that opportunity," we explained, while choosing which school owl to use.
"Is it really okay to threaten an adult witch?" Hermione asked a little uncertainly.
"Pfft. Most adult wizards are like Muggles with wands. They can sort of do some things, but the only thing magic about them is the name. They don't care about magic, and I doubt a sensation-obsessed reporter is much interested in magic itself. By tomorrow, there could easily be an article about a Muggle-born girl wagging her tail around pure-blooded heirs from wealthy old families, already eyeing a comfortable and successful future," Regulus snorted.
"That's not true!" the girl exclaimed indignantly.
"And we know that perfectly well. Don't worry. It's just that Rita Skeeter is famous for scooping up a scrap of truth and piling so many lies on top that she can shake the whole of magical Britain with her articles," Andromeda said calmly, handing the letter to a school owl, putting a couple of Knuts into the little pouch tied to its leg, and saying: "Deliver it personally to Rita Skeeter, no one else should read it."
As the bird was readying to take off, a beetle flew in through the window, turning mid-flight into a middle-aged blonde woman, who immediately broke out in an angry tirade:
"Enough, stupid girl, do you even understa—"
She didn't have time to finish as Regulus, without a wand, hit her with Petrificus Totalus, and the paralyzed woman collapsed onto the cold owlery floor, covered in straw and dried droppings, with the owl carrying our letter landing on her back.
"Well, I guess we don't need to send anything now," Hermione said, a little stunned.