Harry Potter and the Secret Nurse

Chapter Twenty-Six
Witch Hunt

Late Sunday night Harry passed by Ron and Luna’s room, who were screwing as hard as they could for their last night together for another week. Harry just shook his head and wondered if they ever thought they were ever going to have a chance to be alone together again. He made his way down the stairs himself without his chair, sitting on the steps and inching his way down a step at a time on his buttocks. In the kitchen Harry got a can of root beer from the fridge and cracked it open as he joined Hermione in front of a muggle TV she was watching on the kitchen table. There was an interview on BBC with a woman with red hair that was stringy and wild, just like Hermione’s, but this woman wore bad lipstick that stood out too obviously.

“Who’s that?” asked Harry.

“Rebekah Wade,” said Hermione.

Harry slammed his can on the table, causing the pop to fizzle over the lid.

“Isn’t she-“

“The editor for the Sun newspaper,” said Hermione, “They’re talking about my photo.”

Harry turned up the volume and listened to the woman speak.

“It isn’t just the fact that our mystery girl is quite beautiful with a nice plump rack that appeals to our male readers. But there’s an issue of where did this photo come from?”

The interviewer off camera asked, “But, it seems to be pretty obvious that this very young woman was getting changed, or caught in a personal moment in a closed space where she wanted to be alone. Isn’t this an invasion of privacy?”

“It is if she or the school she attends wishes to make a complaint, but no one has come forward, which is very suspicious,” said Wade, “Take a look in the top left corner of the photo.”

The television showed a digital enhancement of a large and tattered old school banner hanging on the wall with the school crest in prominent sight.

Wade’s voice could be heard, “I have it on good authority this photo came from Scotland, or at least the northern part of England. There is no record of this school crest anywhere in educational records, and we researched it quite thoroughly. So when we could not determine where this photo came from we believed we had not just a photo, but a news story on our hands about a secret school.”

“If it’s a news story why put it on page 3?”asked the interviewer.

“Page one two or three, no matter where we put it, it’s still news,” said Wade, “We put photos of topless women before on page three when it was related to a news article, like the time the former Princess of Wales was seen sunning herself topless on a Mediterranean beach in the south of France.”

The interviewer wrapped it up with, “And there you have it. Who is our beautiful nude goddess and what school in England allows young women to walk around with bare breasts? Until we actually hear from the young lady or the school, it doesn’t seem likely we’ll find out.”

Hermione slapped the power button on the TV and muttered, “Walk around with bare breasts? They make Hogwarts sound like a hedonistic playpen! They even acknowledged at the very beginning of the interview I was in a broom closet, then they finish up with me just walking around with my jugs hanging out.”

“Are they even allowed to show this on TV? You’re not eighteen, Hermione,” asked Harry.

“Plausible deniability, they don’t know who I am, they don’t know I’m under aged. They can just say I looked eighteen,” said Hermione who then sighed and looked at the floor, “But that’s not the real topic now, is it?”

“They’re looking to expose Hogwarts,” said Harry.

“Muggles have been real suspicious of the magical world for some time,” said Hermione, “Journalists even more so, since they’ve investigated the world so much, they’ve come across things from time to time. I heard many stories at that summer job I had at the paper they’ve found loads of stuff they were afraid to put to print because it might make them look like fools. But if they ever had any solid proof, something real they or anyone can take pictures of, they’d swarm on it like mad.”

“Do you think maybe she already knows about Hogwarts?” asked Harry.

“A person in her position? She must have heard something,” said Hermione.

The kitchen wall phone rang and Hermione answered it.

“When? Just now? Is Laura now involved? Okay,” Hermione asked as she held the phone to her ear, “What about dad? Okay mom, whatever you do, don’t let dad go up north looking for me alone. Send me an email first.”

After Hermione hung up Harry asked, “What was that about?”

“Somebody from the paper I work at recognized my face in the photo and told the Sun,” said Hermione, “Now my house is getting phone calls asking for me.”

“Oh my god, Hermione, your parents,” said Harry, “By tomorrow morning your house will be under siege.”

“They’re going to stay with my dad’s sister,” said Hermione, “My mom says my editor called Wade’s office to let them know they’re printing pictures of under aged nude girls.”

“Well that’ll stop them from printing more,” said Harry.

“No, now they’ll just print it with a mosaic over my nibblies,” said Hermione, “Wade smells a story, this is just going to get bigger.”

Hermione clasped her arms over her chest and seem to withdraw into herself, feeling ashamed.

“I don’t want it to be my fault our world get exposed to muggles,” said Hermione.

Harry held Hermione and said, “It’s not your fault, you didn’t send that photo to the muggle paper.”

“That’s not what everyone will remember,” said Hermione, “I’m in that photo, it’s the picture everyone will remember, not the one who took it.”

Monday morning had a rather sombre mood to it. Hermione\'s situation was not just the talk of the school, but of the whole wizarding world as even the Daily Prophet had now picked up on it. Instead of it turning out to be a source of ridicule against Hermione the girls of Hogwarts felt like they had been personally violated and showed great sympathy. This was a large departure from what she received the time Hermione wound up in print in the Daily Prophet and was branded a \"scarlet woman\". There was a lot on inevitable talk among the boys, that, although one of their own kind had been violated, Hermione truly had an awesome rack. This was a greatly repressed opinion whenever Harry Potter was nearby, and a few learned to keep their ogling to themselves around particular DA members.
No one needed to see a copy of the newspaper anymore, the photo had been circulated around the internet and of course was on the Sun\'s webpage. To anyone with a computer it was just a mouse click away. Harry was checking the internet off his laptop himself periodically. Hermione\'s newspaper, The County Echo, had come to the defence of one of their journalists and attacked the editor of the Sun with harsh accusations that Rebekah Ward was exploiting a victimized young woman to make money. Then he saw The County Echo also printed Hermione\'s picture but with a black bar over her breasts. The editor of The County Echo said Hermione was unavailable for comment and shouldn\'t be obliged to respond to outrageous allegations that she was the student of a secret \"cult\" school.
Harry just couldn\'t help but feel this was dragging the whole incident out and was putting Hermione under a very uncomfortable microscope. Earlier articles she published were now being scrutinized with incredible detail to find damaging evidence that would expose the nature of the school she attended. However, Hermione\'s writing skills would make that venture a truly frustrating one for anyone trying to find anything a little unusual. Not once did she ever present her own education in anything more than a truly generic setting. That in itself proved to be damaging because the Sun interpreted that as a means of covering something up. They could only bring that to a certain point, which fortunately left Hermione completely blameless from the point of view of the magical world. Before breakfast started, Dumbledore addressed the school with a look that made everyone\'s spine shiver. This was a wrath the headmaster usually reserved for people trying to attack the school, and it actually frightened Harry.

\"I\'m sure you all must have heard what has happened. An unforgivable and despicable act of intrusion has taken place against one of our best students, who could not have possibly done anything to deserve this crime committed against her. I must impress upon you, that the viciousness that has taken place within these hallowed walls has broken our most sacred wizarding laws, and whoever committed this crime will not profit from it. For as long as this exposure will propagate throughout the muggle world, the damage will far outreach the unfair suffering of just one student, it will affect us all. Whoever has done this has not just attacked a certain person, or a certain house, they have turned on Hogwarts. The school as well as the entire magical world will anguish as a whole because of it.\"

We do not know who is responsible for this crime, yet, and I must emphasise the key word “yet” because we will find out who\'s responsible for it. I must reveal that an investigation by professor Bardwell, who is an expert in covert communications both magical and muggle has successfully traced the crime to this muggle device.\"

Dumbledore levitated a laptop computer that Harry did not recognize. It looked like a highly modified machine with custom LED lights all over it.

\"Whoever used it thought they were clever in using a machine that was accessible to many. There were records of communication between this machine and the editor of the Sun using something called \'Electronic Mail\' or \'email\' as the common muggle phrase in known. Although the number of people who openly had access to this computer was substantial, it does narrow the field somewhat, considering where this computer was confiscated from.\"

Dumbledore rotated the laptop around so the lid could be seen in clear view to the whole hall. An extremely elaborate and metallic print of a green snake was on it. It was a highly stylized graphic of the symbol of the House of Slytherin. That was it, thought Harry, they turned on Hogwarts. Just as they did when they joined the Inquisitorial Squad last year. All the shit was going to land back on the heads of Slytherin.
Gully was furious. Her wrath was felt upon the entire Slytherin Tower to the point where Harry pitied his ward Tim all the more for being caught in her firing range. She deducted house points, she handed out detentions, she made all sorts of threats that whoever was responsible and anyone who tried to cover for them would wish they\'d only wind up in Azkaban for it. For a moment Harry wondered how Snape would have handled the situation, and to be honest he didn\'t have a good answer. He always accused Snape of showing favouritism to Slytherins, yet at the same time he knew Snape took the exposure to the muggle world very seriously, it was very likely Professor Snape may have reacted no different than Gully.

\"Sucks to be a Slytherin,\" Ron pouted when he saw Slytherins being escorted by Aurors from class to class with no chance of mingling in between.

\"It\'s not a whole helluva lot of fun being Hermione Granger either,\" Harry whispered back.

Hermione had taken to her prefect duties around the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff towers, she just couldn\'t bring herself to go near Slytherin again. Harry saw Tim being shuffled from one class to another but he couldn\'t talk to him, as the Slytherin prefects were now herding their classmates to and fro with no chance to make mischief. It was a hard crackdown that kept Harry away from Tim and busted Harry\'s insides that now, in a cruel fate so wickedly unfair, somebody he really cared about was in Slytherin when that house was finally getting what it so long deserved. Harry hoped maybe this would be the one incident where Tim would finally want to leave Slytherin and come to Gryffindor. He admitted it was a selfish hope, as Tim would lose his friends, but things were so serious he didn\'t care.
At the end of his next tutorial class with Slytherins, which was a really uncomfortable standoffish experience, Harry saw Goyle was shuffling around. He was deliberately delaying his leave with the other Slytherins so he could be alone with Harry and again Goyle shut the door behind the last one who left.

\"You won\'t get into trouble for lagging behind?\" asked Harry, \"I hope you still have a few computers left after Bardwell’s crackdown.\"

Harry took out the CD Hermione worked on that would help the Slytherins learn how to read, not that they deserved it, but Harry wanted to play a bargaining chip. Goyle couldn’t make eye contact with Harry, he took the CD and said;

\"We\'re grateful for what you\'re doing for us.\"

Harry slapped the Saturday edition of the Sun right down on the station in front of Goyle and said, \"You have a funny way of showing it.\"

\"That wasn\'t us!\" said Goyle, \"It may have been someone from Slytherin, but it wasn\'t anyone we hang with.\"

\"Fine, I believe you.\"

\"You do?\"

\"This photo was taken through the window above the door to the broom closet,\" said Harry, \"So whoever took it must have been very tall. I think that can rule out just about all the first and second years. You wouldn\'t know anyone really tall who owns a cell phone? Maybe a seventh year?\"

Goyle thought it over and said, \"Not a seventh year, a fifth year. He had a cell phone he showed off last year, it took pictures an all. But he stopped bringing it because it wouldn\'t work on Hogwarts grounds.\"

\"They seem to work now,\" said Harry, \"What\'s his name?\"

\"His name\'s Rudge,\" said Goyle, \"You\'ve seen him, he was that guy who patted Tim on the back last week in the great hall.\"

Harry remembered him, it wasn\'t much to go on, but it was something. Harry then pressed Goyle on what he knew about this Slytherin.

\"Not much, he\'s just in a different group of friends, that\'s all,\" said Goyle, \"I know he tried to get on the Inquisitorial Squad last year, him and some other fourth years, but was rejected because Draco said they were too young. There were no rules saying we had to follow the same age restrictions as prefects. Draco just made up a rule on the spot that kept just us in it. Rudge was really pissed about that.\"

\"I\'ll bet,\" said Harry as he pulled a brass spider out of his pocket and tossed it to Goyle, \"He missed out on the opportunity to plant these on us.\"

Goyle looked at it.

\"Is there anything else I should know about in Gryffindor Tower?\" asked Harry.

\"The third toilet in the boys bathroom,\" said Goyle, \"The plunger is a spying device.\"

\"Unless Umbridge was hoping to catch a few sixth and seventh years having a cigarette there wasn\'t a whole heck of a lot going on in there,\" said Harry.

Goyle suddenly looked very uncomfortable and said, \"Well, there was a lot going on in there, actually.\"

Harry looked at Goyle oddly.

\"I saw her spying on them through her looking glass in her office,\" said Goyle, \"It was the receiver for all the devices planted all over the school. She was fixated on two seventh years last year.\"

Harry didn\'t know what the hell Goyle was getting at, then he remember that issue of a gay porn magazine in her office. Immediately Harry raised his hand and said he didn\'t need to hear anymore.

\"It was pretty nasty,\" said Goyle, \"Oh, and you might want to check out the toilets in the girl\'s dorm as well.\"

\"I\'LL BET!\" said Harry, \"Any of those receivers for the bugs in the girl\'s dorm happen to be in Slytherin by any chance?\"

\"Not for spying on Gryffindor,\" said Goyle, \"Just Ravenclaw. What those girls do is unbelievably hot.\"

Harry was about to tear into Goyle, but then he stopped and asked, \"How hot?\"

\"Cripes, it\'s like a free porn film that never ends,\" said Goyle, \"I can get you one. Just tell the DA not to make trouble for us.”

Harry turned his head away in thought, then he agreed. He warned Goyle to keep his circle of friends away from Rudge, yet, at the same time he said make sure Rudge didn\'t get close to Tim. Just before Goyle left, he thought of something.

\"You know, a first or second year could have taken that picture,\" said Goyle, \"If they levitated the camera-\"

\"Without shorting it out?\" asked Harry, \"Wingardium Leviosa is a pretty powerful spell. And how do they get the camera to take the picture once it\'s up there?\"

Goyle shrugged and said, \"They could have climbed onto another one\'s shoulders.\"

\"Nah, we would have heard something.\"

Goyle smiled and asked, \"We?\"

Nodding his head, Goyle left, and left Harry feeling like the world\'s biggest idiot. He couldn\'t believe he just shared a personal piece of information like that with a Slytherin. He was going to have to watch his mouth a lot more carefully in the future. This was something he was not looking forward to telling Hermione about. Ron met up with Harry in the hall and was surprised to see Harry wasn\'t in his wheelchair.

\"There\'s not a lot of stairs for me to deal with today, as long as I\'m on level ground I\'m okay,\" Harry explained, \"I left the chair in the great hall after coming down from Gryffindor Tower. I\'ve got to start walking sooner or later.\"

\"Think you\'ll be up for Quiddich practice this weekend?\" asked Ron

\"Too right I will.\"

\"Great!\" said Ron, \"Hey, I\'ve got a message from Dumbledore he wants to see you.\"

Harry didn\'t react at all, but Ron kept an expression like Harry should be telling him something.

\"What?\" said Harry, \"I didn\'t do anything! It\'s probably something to do with the class I\'m teaching. I\'ll probably have to have meetings and stuff.\"

\"You\'ll need your own password for his office, then,\" said Ron, talking all haughty like Harry was acting like a big shot, \"It\'s flibberty-gibbet.\"

Of course it is, thought Harry. Flibbertty-gibbet, abra cadabra, woozle wazzle, why the hell couldn\'t anyone pick a normal word for a change? Harry wondered if anyone\'s head would explode if he chose a password with mundane phrases like Echo-Tango-Charlie-Bravo. The floor Dumbledore\'s office was on was a few flights up and Harry had to sit on the steps by the time he was through climbing them. A few minutes of rest was needed before he could struggle to his feet and leaned on the wall almost all the way to the entrance to the head master\'s office.

Harry caught his breath and said, \"Flibberty frikkin giblets already, you stupid gargoyle.\"

An annoying pause followed that led Harry to toss a crumble bit of parchment at the gargoyle\'s nose. Then the passage open up that led up to Dumbledore\'s office.

\"Great, more stairs,\" said Harry.

No sooner did he say that, did the stairs magically come alive and worked like an escalator up to Dumbledore\'s office. It was nice to be visiting the place without it being an impeding tragedy for a change. At the top Harry smiled and hobbled forward to pet Fawkes. The phoenix bird was looking in great shape and from the ashes Harry figured Fawkes must have had a burning day recently.

Dumbledore came down from his upper library with a small owl on his shoulder, \"You might want to get back to London soon, I hear Hedwig and his mate\'s eggs will be hatching any day now.\"

Dumbledore invited Harry to have a seat, which he gratefully took, and Dumbledore also sat after conjuring up some tea.

\"How\'s things?\" he just asked.

Harry was caught a little of guard figuring Dumbledore wanted to see him for something more important than small chit chat.

\"Not bad, considering,\" said Harry, \"I mean... well... the stuff with Hermione- she\'s pretty worked up about it. But I think she\'s coping well. Can I have some tea, please?\"

Dumbledore offered Harry to help himself, and he noticed Harry was able to levitate cups and spoons by sheer force of will, but didn\'t say anything.

\"The class is going well,\" said Harry magically stirring his tea, \"The Slytherins are keeping up with the curriculum Gully prepared for us. Most of them will be ready to upgrade their OWL\'s by the end of the month, I think.\"

\"I understand you\'ve had to arrange a little curriculum of your own?\" Dumbledore asked and winked.

Harry knew better than to ask how on earth did Dumbledore figure that out and he said, \"It\'s... we\'re working on it. Hermione and I arranged for something, but how well they do depends on how bad they want it. What I\'d like to know is how the hell did they make it this far without knowing how to read?\"

\"Hogwarts picks up students at the age of eleven,\" said Dumbledore, \"Because at that age, at least for the longest time the reading level they attained at grade schools used to be more than enough to function in the wizarding world. But in recent decades the quality of some public schools has been degrading somewhat.\"

\"You may have to rethink some of the curriculum for first years when students come here,\" said Harry, \"And another thing. I think we should really have a sex ed and arts class and why the heck did we never learn music and-\"

Harry stopped himself when he realized who he was talking to, dictating what should be taught at Hogwarts.

\"Well, it\'s just an idea,\" Harry shrank away and shrugged.

Dumbledore smiled and said, \"I never had the opportunity to say how proud I am of you this year. Taking in an orphaned wizard that slipped through the cracks, teaching a class, saving the train, not to mention the restraint you have actively shown about the incident with Ms Granger. None of these responsibilities you asked for, yet you have taken them on with a wisdom beyond your years. It has shown me, once again, how much I have tragically underestimated your maturity.\"

Harry slurped his tea and had to stop himself from making little bubbles in it, as he did from time to time.

\"It\'s been a helluva couple of weeks,\" said Harry.

Dumbledore smirked and said, \"Just to let you know, at the end of the term there will be an assessment on your performance based upon how much improvement is seen in the Slytherins, and it may affect your end of term grades,\" said Dumbledore.

\"You mean my grades can be affected by how well the Slytherins do?\" asked Harry.

\"Only in the sense of how well you will qualify for the job as an instructor,\" said Dumbledore, \"Don\'t worry, every professor at Hogwarts goes through the same thing.\"

\"I\'m not a professor,\" Harry almost laughed out.

\"Really? I heard from Bardwell you might be interested in becoming an instructor,\" asked Dumbledore.

\"At the Academy, maybe,\" said Harry, \"But you have to graduate from the Academy and work in the field for a few years in the field first.\"

\"Have you considered teaching at Hogwarts after that?\" asked Dumbledore.

\"You mean... become a professor?\" asked Harry, not believing it.

\"I\'m sure Bardwell must have told you about the problem with finding qualified instructors,\" said Dumbledore, \"Hogwarts suffers the same problem.\"

\"But, you and McGonagall, Flitwick, you\'re all spectacular,\" said Harry.

\"You might have noticed Harry, but we\'re getting a little on in years,\" said Dumbledore, \"Many of us are reaching the age when we would like to retire. Some of us should have done so some time ago, but have clung onto our positions for fear that no one of reasonable qualifications have yet come to take our place. I would ask, that after you are through with whatever post educational training you wish to experience and maybe a few years afterwards, that you consider a tenure at Hogwarts.\"

\"Well... who knows what I\'ll be doing in a few years from now?\" said Harry, \"But I can\'t believe your asking me. What about Hermione? She would be dazzling as a teacher, I\'ve learned so much from her.\"

\"Hermione Granger will have her turn,\" said Dumbledore, \"Right now I\'m asking you.\"

\"If I ever had a chance for a permanent job at Hogwarts, I\'d take it, without hesitation,\" said Harry, \"I\'d be crazy not to. I don\'t know if it\'s as fun as being a student-?\"

\"It has its perks,\" said Dumbledore.

\"If you don\'t mind me prying, how many students a year do you ask?\" asked Harry.

\"Oh, I always average around seven to ten every time they near the end of their stay at Hogwarts,\" said Dumbledore.

\"That many? Well shouldn\'t there be more former students teaching right now?\" asked Harry.

\"Truly talented wizards or witches like to spend their talents on ventures all over the world,\" said Dumbledore, \"Maybe they forget us after a while, gaining status with the ministry or making well on their own.\"

\"I can\'t imagine anyone forgetting Hogwarts,\" said Harry.

\"I definitely think you should follow in their footsteps, for a while at least,\" said Dumbledore, \"There\'s much more to the world than Hogwarts. Have you even given any thought to traveling, Harry?\"

\"Uhm, Frankly? No, I haven\'t,\" said Harry.

\"Start,\" said Dumbledore, \"At least get off the island for a while, Harry.\"

Harry thought this was a heck of a thing to be considering with a war on. Then Dumbledore brought the conversation to another direction.

\"Something I should have given serious consideration to much earlier,\" said Dumbledore, \"Considering your experience with Voldemort, the death in your family, and the unspeakable horrors you\'ve had to endure I\'m arranging for you to see a councillor.\"

Harry surprised Dumbledore with an \"It\'s about time\" reaction, as he expected Harry to oppose the idea and even prepared, and practiced, a long speech to talk Harry into going. Caught off guard by Harry\'s compliance he explained Harry would see the councillor every Wednesday afternoon after he tutored remedial potions.

\"Her office is on the second floor corridor, to the far left,\" said Dumbledore.

The soundproof room, thought Harry.

\"How do I get in?\" asked Harry, anticipating there would be some password needed.

\"Just go, the door will open for you,\" said Dumbledore, \"And no need to feel nervous, you\'ve already met the councillor before.\"

\"I\'m not nervous,\" Harry said with very convincing comfort in his voice, \"How is Fluffy, by the way?\"

\"Hagrid had to let him out years ago,\" said Dumbledore, \"A big dog like that needs its exercise.\"

Harry laughed and said good-bye, forgetting to ask who on earth that councillor could have been. To Dumbledore, it was both a concern and a comfort that Harry conceded to going so readily, even eagerly. It wasn\'t until Harry was halfway there did he start to think who was this person could be. Dumbledore said it was someone he met before. When did Harry ever meet a councillor before in the magical world? St. Mungos? No, they were healers.
The only real councillor Harry ever knew his whole life was the one he knew for a short while when he went to grade school. Could it be her? Was it possible for Hogwarts to bring in a muggle councillor? The Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge used muggle council at the hearing in the House of Black. If Dumbledore ever saw Harry\'s educational records he could have found out who the woman was. Was is possible for him to find her and bring her here? Or even, was it possible she herself was a witch all the time?