章 7: Ch 7 The Beginnings of a Beautiful Relationship

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Dear Mr. Lovegood,

I accept your offer. Enclosed is my first article. If it doesn't meet your standards, please let me know and I will rework it.

Also enclosed is the number of my vault under the name of Oliver Twist. Please remit all payments to Gringotts as I would like to remain anonymous. This way we are both protected as you only know me my my pen name. I hope this will prove as protection for you from ministry harassment and is not too much of an inconvenience for you.

I look forward to a long and interesting career working for your newspaper.

Oliver Twist

0o0o0o0

Harry smiled as he watched the landscape go whipping by. He was sure that by now that Mr. Lovegood had received his letter and his column. He had, at first, been worried that he'd given away too much information in his last published letter. However, for some reason, it seemed to have gone over everyone's head.

'I guess it just goes to show that wizarding society needs someone to do their thinking for them,' Harry thought with a mental snort.

Sitting across from him was a blonde haired girl reading the Quibbler upside down. Hermione and Ron had left the compartment to go to a prefects' meeting. In Harry's opinion, making Ron a prefect was one of the more asinine ideas the staff of Hogwarts had. Then again, it probably wasn't the staff, more like Dumbledork -er- Dumbledore rewarding the Weasleys for their blind obedience.

Don't get him wrong, he liked Ron – up to a point. Ron protected Harry from their more over zealous classmates for which Boy-Who-Lived was grateful but not that grateful. Again in Harry's opinion, Neville would make a better prefect than Ron Weasley ever could. He wondered how long before McGonagall pulled his badge. 'Probably for fighting, what with that temper of his,' he mused.

The train ride did nothing to ease Harry's mind about the upcoming term. If anything, it was undoubtedly going to be business as usual. Hard telling what kind of a 'test' the Headmaster had planned for this year. If past years were any indication, it'll be a near death experience as usual. How near was any one's guess.

0o0o0o0

Exiting the train, Harry hurried to an open carriage. He hesitated before entering it. For the first time he could see what kind of a creature usually pulled the carriages to Hogswarts. Now that was freaky.

0o0o0o0

Filius Flitwick sipped his tea as he mentally sighed. He had several things he needed to finish before the students arrived, and here he was, stuck in yet another of one of Albus' "let's get on the same page" staff meetings.

". . .Of course, this Twist is a Ravenclaw," Severus Snape, the resident Potions master snarked, breaking into the diminutive Charms Master's thoughts.

"And why do you think that?" Filius asked, finally taking an interest in the topic at hand.

"Well, for one, it can't be a Gryffindor as they are not thinkers, and for the most part are barely literate," Severus sneered causing Minerva to huff.

Severus smirked at her as he continued. "Now don't deny it, you old tabby. We all know that your little lions are not capable of questioning anything, much less writing about it coherently. They tend to leap before they think."

"Well, there is Miss Granger. . . " Pomona started to say.

"Oh please," he interrupted with a roll of his eyes, "that little know it all does not question anything coming from an authority figure. And everything she reads, she takes as gospel. It stands to reason that this Twist is a Ravenclaw. I am sure that Filius would back me on this."

"Don't get me involved in this discussion," Filius said. "I really do not care who Twist is. I applaud any student that questions the world around them. It is a sign of an inquisitive mind and should be encouraged rather than slapped down."

"Then he, or she, is not a Ravenclaw?" Albus asked.

Filius shrugged taking a sip of his tea. "I did not say that. I said I really don't care who Twist is. Be they a Ravenclaw or not, the questions being asked need answers and I commend whoever is brave enough to ask them."

The meeting went on to other things. Finally, everything covered, hashed and re-hashed until it was down to a couple of hours before the train was due to arrive.

'Thank Merlin that this is over with,' Filius thought as he hurried to leave. 'Honestly, doesn't anyone pay attention to the essays that are turned in around here? Students rarely change their writing style over night.'

The Charms Professor found Twist's letters intriguing and their tone somewhat familiar. It had taken him several letters before he had narrowed it down to who he felt was writing as Oliver Twist, but he wasn't about to say anything. Plus there was the clue in the pen name as well. Oliver Twist was a well-known and well loved character in muggle literature. This alone was enough to point towards a muggleborn or muggle-raised.

After all, it wasn't his place to identify the writer and frankly, he agreed with his goblin brethren. The Wizarding World, in his opinion, needed a good shaking up.

0o0o0o

While the Hogswart Express huffed its way through the midlands of England on its way north, Lord Peter strode purposefully through the Halls of the Ministry. He was on a mission and he really did not want to be intercepted or deterred.

His first stop would be at the Children's Wizarding Services. He would need a copy of Lord Harry's file before he met with Madams Marchbanks and Bones. If everything went well, then the first step of the emancipation of Lord Harry James Potter would be well on its way. By the time Lord Peter was finished, the exalted, at least in his own mind, Albus Dumbledore would be unable to say or do anything about it.

0o0o0o0

Xeno Lovegood looked over the final draft and was well pleased with Oliver's first article. The theme was perfect for the fall opening of Hogwarts.

Today, it is with great pleasure that we, here at the Quibbler, now publish Oliver Twist's first column under his own by line. We hope to see many great things from this inquiring young journalist. -Xeno Lovegood, Editor-in-Chief.

Reflections on a New School Year

by Oliver Twist

As the Hogwarts Express barrels through the English countryside towards a new school year, I find myself anxious about what lies ahead. I noticed that all my friends are excited for the term to start, but I have to wonder. . .

The professors, are they ready for us this year? I hope so. I know I am ready for the term to start.

Who will be our new DADA instructor, will they be competent? If so it will be a pleasant surprise. Last year's was supposed to be a retired auror, but rumor has it, he was a former Death Eater. The bloke was strange to say the least, and taught us some highly illegal spells. He even demonstrated all three unforgivables in class! And then, he even turned a student into a ferret.

Will our next DADA professor have a Master's in Defense, or at least an 'O' level N.E.W.T in the subject? Will he or she be competent enough to teach us. Will we be subjected to incompetence again? One can only hope not. Believe it or not, in the past five years, we have had only one competent instructor only to have him fired for being a werewolf at the end of the year.

Speaking of learning, did you know that in order to teach all the major core classes (Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and Defense), the professors must have either a masters in their chosen fields or at least O's in their N.E.W.T.S?

If you look at the scores and percentage rates of the three top magical schools in Europe versus the top three magical schools in the United States, you will note that the schools in Europe come out second best. Don't believe me? Owl the International Wizarding Council. They have all the records. Hogwarts ranks 4th, followed by Beauxbaton then Durmstrang. The top school in the world is in Japan.

As we near Hogwarts, my thoughts also turn to Potter. He always seems to come back thinner and more haggard each year. For someone who is supposed to be from an old pureblood family, he doesn't seem to care how he presents himself.

Last year, the so dubbed Golden Trio seemed to be splitting at the seams. Will they come back together now that two of the three are prefects or will it divide them further?

I want to thank Mr. Lovegood for allowing me the chance to ask these questions and to point out my observations of the Wizarding World. However, it also has me wondering why no one else has spoken up in the past?