Daddy Dearest - (No Update, Edit)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
*******************************

Chapter 91 ~ Sad Tidings

An hour later, court reconvened. Hermione watched as the Council filed in, but noticed they seemed to be upset. A very solemn Minister Figglesworth stood up.

"Before we resume this trial, it is with great sadness I must inform you that reporter Rita Skeeter has been found dead in her office at the Daily Prophet. Aurors are now on their way to investigate the scene. Initial findings suggest it was foul play," the Minister said.

Gasps went up around the chambers, then quiet sobbing began.

Rita Skeeter, the Voice of Conscience had been silenced, quickly and permanently.

Hermione sat quietly next to Cronnie, her amber eyes glistening. Rita had stepped up to the plate and paid the ultimate price for it. Cronnie's gray eyes were sober and cold. He looked over at Draco, who evidenced no emotion at all about the news. He simply looked at the Council stoically.

Better Rita than him.

Outside the Ministry, the picketing crowd went silent on both sides as Rita Skeeter's death was announced. Cries of anguish rose from the anti-DKV side, while the DKV members all were shocked and silent. They had read her article this morning about the visitation of Mrs. Sludge. She was a prominent member, and it had not been taken well that she attempted to bribe the witch. The DKV should have been able to weather the storm if the organization was as righteous and strong as it claimed to be. Doubt was moving strongly through the ranks. Something sinister was happening in the organization…something worse than mere bigotry and the removal of muggle-borns from positions of authority. Someone who had spoken out against them had been murdered.

A cry went up from the anti-DKV side.

"Murderers!" a witch screamed at the top of her voice.

Suddenly, the entire anti-DKV group as a whole lunged at the barricade, bursting through it, some people being trampled as the enraged mob closed over the ranks of the DKV and began fighting. Aurors burst out of the Ministry, firing binding spells at the grappling crowd and trying to separate the witches and wizards.

Children were screaming and crying, separated from their parents and being buffeted about by the fighting adults. It was all mayhem and madness as rage at the reporter's death ran rampant through the crowd. And the DKV was getting the worst of it.

Justice Forall burst into the Council chambers

"Council members, we have to move you to safety! The protestors are rioting outside! Please leave the chambers!" he shouted at them.

"This trial will resume tomorrow at nine AM," the Minister said hurriedly, following the other Council members out of the chambers and into a secret, heavily warded room created for such emergencies.

"Hey, what about us?" a voice cried out from the audience.

"The rest of you, stay here. No one is allowed to leave," Justice said. He exited the chambers and warded the doors securely.

Hermione looked at Cronnie with frightened eyes.

"It's because of Rita," she breathed.

Cronnie nodded.

"Miss Skeeter's death just cinched it, Miss Granger. The DKV is officially dead," the wizard said. "At least as we know it. A few hardcore members will go underground, but the majority will want to remove themselves from any association with the organization. Rita wrote her own eulogy this morning. The poor, poor witch."

Hermione hung her head. She was the one who got Rita involved in this. But Rita knew the risk…and knew she was targeted. As much as Hermione irritated the reporter, Rita wouldn't have blamed her for her death.

But Hermione didn't know that as the tears fell from her eyes.

*********************************

The Aurors stepped carefully around the crime scene, a chalk outline surrounding Rita's twisted and broken body. Whoever had done the witch in, did it with extreme violence. The killing blow was her Quick-quotes quill stabbed into her jugular. Blood had spurted everywhere.

The reporter's body was discovered by a mousy little clerk who came to deliver the list of freelance articles available. The door opened easily, and the little witch screamed as she saw Rita sprawled on her back on the floor, bruised and battered, her limbs twisted awkwardly, and the quill stuck in her neck, blood still dripping slowing from the mortal wound.

Barnabas Cuffe stood in the doorway, sickened. Rita was just starting to come into her own as a reporter to be taken seriously after all her years of writing trash. Such a terrible way to die.

No one noticed the small roach hugging the wall. It waved its feelers about, then crept outside and climbed up the wall to avoid the crush of feet as people stood in the hallways, shaking their heads in disbelief. When the bug reached a relatively clear area, it transformed into a piece of parchment and floated down the hallway, tumbling as if carried by a low breeze.

It made it to the stairs, when someone picked it up, crumpled it and threw it into a waste bin.

"Damn it," Voldemort cursed, then transformed back into the roach, crawled out of the bin and to the stairwell.

He narrowly avoided getting crushed by several passing Aurors and employees. He turned back into the parchment, a crumpled ball this time and bounced down the stairs. He was almost out of the building. Neither visitors nor employees could apparate into or out of the Daily Prophet offices, and had to enter through the lobby the muggle way. Voldemort rolled to the glass doors and slipped out when someone exited the building. Once in the grass, he transformed into a small snake and slithered away until he found a secluded area behind the building. He transformed quickly back to wizard form and disapparated to his throne room.

The sound of apparation brought Aurors running from every direction, but they found nothing. Voldemort always kept his signature hidden.

The wizard returned to his throne room satisfied with his work. The witch had suffered greatly before she died, but she would not call him Lord. That irked him and he beat her viciously to no avail. Finally, he killed her with her damnable Quick-quotes quill.

Goodbye Miss Skeeter.

One down. A world to go.

Voldemort had plans to make. He had an entire disposable army to work with. All he needed was a contingency plan to place himself in power. It was time for a coup.

Taking Hogwarts would be the biggest problem.

Well, he would work on that little problem. Draco was an idiot, but he was a good idea man when he wasn't pissing on himself with fear.

He'd keep him around a while.

And as for Draco's daughter…well…he thought he'd like to get at the witch a bit sooner now. He would be quite busy later on, and he could take out his displeasure with her father on her supple little body. She was quite a lovely little witch. He'd love destroying her innocence.

Yes. That idea appealed to him.

*********************************
A contingent of Aurors was at Rita Skeeter's house, trying to get in to see if there were any new clues to be found, having been there earlier that day...but Gabby wasn't having any of it. The weredog stood in front of the foyer, growling viciously. He felt something was very wrong…something with his Mistress. These people weren't going to enter her territory without a fight.

"We're going to have to kill it," said one Auror, leveling his wand at the animal.

Tonks stepped forward.

"No. No, wait…don't do that yet, Justin. Let me see if I can reach him," Tonks said.

Gabby's yellow eyes were fixed on the wand the Auror had pointed at him, and watched as the female pressed it down, lowering it. She turned to the weredog.

"Gabby, I'm not sure if you are just a pet, or a familiar…but Rita isn't coming back," the witch said in a soft, soothing voice. The weredog recognized the sound of kindness and stopped snarling. There was something sad in the voice too. The weredog whined.

"You have to let us in, Gabby…or they are going to kill you," Tonks said softly.

The weredog realized the witch wasn't an enemy or a threat. He backed up and sat on his haunches.

Tonks advanced slowly into the house.

"You better take out your wand, Tonks. That thing ate a wizard," Justin said, frowning at the animal. He thought it should be put down even though it killed the wizard in defense of its owner.

"No. Gabby knows wands can hurt him. It would put him on the defensive," Tonks said, moving carefully but confidently.

Gabby let Tonks enter, then slunk over to the corner and laid down, placing his head on his paws, and looking very sad. So many people in his Mistress' flat was bad. Normally she would be here too. But she wasn't. Gabby suddenly felt very alone.

The Aurors entered the flat. Other than twitching his ear, Gabby did nothing.

Justin looked at the beast, then at Tonks who stood looking at the weredog too.

"We should put him down. No one's going to adopt a beast like that…he's terrifying," the Auror said.

"I bet he's hungry," Tonks said.

"I doubt it. He just had almost a whole wizard," Justin said.

Tonks looked at the weredog.

"Gabby, are you hungry?" she asked him.

Gabby recognized two words in that sentence. Gabby and Hungry. He stood up.

"Come on, boy," Tonks said, walking through the living room and into the kitchen. Gabby recognized that command too, although it was a different voice. The kind female walked into the kitchen, so he followed her.

Tonks walked over to the cooler and opened it. She found makings for salad, bottled water and a very large brown package. One end was bloody.

"I guess this is yours, Gabby," she said to the weredog, who was sitting on his haunches, looking up at the Auror expectantly.

"I wonder what it is?" Tonks mused, taking the package out of the cooler and setting it on the counter. It was tied securely and marked "Special Order."

"Rita pampered you, didn't she?" she asked the weredog. Gabby thumped his tail.

Tonks untied the package and her nose wrinkled up.

"Ugh! This is what you eat?" she said, frowning at the weredog who was on his feet now, stepping side to side in anticipation.

Tonks gingerly picked the zebra haunch up by the hoof and flung it at Gabby, who snatched it out of mid-air and went to work on it. Tonks watched the weredog devour the zebra haunch, ripping through the flesh and cracking the great thighbone easily. She could only imagine how he wolfed down that wizard.

Justine was right. No one would adopt a weredog that had eaten a wizard…no matter how noble the deed was. As far as everyone was concerned, Gabby was a man-eater.

Tonks looked at the weredog consideringly.

She decided to contact Albus.

*******************************

Back at Hogwarts, Andreas was reading an assignment in Potions, when suddenly he was hit with a great pain in his head. The wizard dropped his face in his hands, his eyes tightly closed. Then he stiffened and stayed that way for several minutes. Finally he raised his head…his eyes haunted.

"We don't have much more time," he breathed. "Things have changed…both for the better and for the worse."

He looked up at Professor Snape, who was grading papers. The wizard hated to be disturbed when grading papers. He didn't care who it was.

Andreas stared at the wizard so intently, Severus' quill slowed and finally he looked up to see the boy staring at him intently.

"Do you need something, Mr. Mbutu?" he asked with irritation in his voice, "There must be some reason you are trying to stare a hole through me."

"Yes sir. I need to talk to you sir. Now sir," Andreas answered him hesitatingly. You didn't tell the Potions Master to do anything "now."

Severus scowled at him blackly, but the boy looked so intense and was acting so out of character, that he rose from his desk. The class looked up.

"Keep reading," Severus hissed.

Every head dropped back to their books.

"Come with me, Mr. Mbutu," the Potions Master said, striding to the back of the class and out the door into his office. Andreas followed him.

Severus turned and leaned back on his desk, folding his arms and resting his eyes on the wizard.

"Now what is it, Andreas?" he asked informally.

"It has all changed, Professor. Everything. The Dark Lord is going to start his war very soon. We must stop him before that happens," Andreas said.

Severus looked at the boy. Yes, things had changed enough were Voldemort might feel he had to act soon and quickly. The DKV may be crumbling, but he still had his mark on over one hundred thousand people. People he could turn into killing machines.

"When?" he hissed at Andreas.

"By the New Year," Andreas responded.

That was four months away.

"New Order…New Year," Andreas said in a rather hollow voice, his eyes glazing.

"I will inform Albus. He will probably want a pensieve of the vision from you," Severus said to the wizard.

Andreas nodded.

"Do you feel well enough to return to class?" the Potions Master said, concern in his voice. He had come to care about the young wizard very much in the past year, though he hid it. But Andreas knew the Potions Master worried over him.

"I'm fine, sir. I can read a book," Andreas replied.

Severus smirked at him.

"Return to class then, Andreas…thank you," Severus said.

Andreas walked back into the class, followed by the Potions Master, who returned to his desk. He hadn't yet heard about the death of Rita Skeeter.

Hermione would be sure to let him know.

As Andreas sat down at his desk, his dark eyes were still worried. He had seen something else too. Something about Jasmine.

She didn't have much time either.

Voldemort would take her just before he started his war.

***********************************
A/N: Well, Rita's gone, martyred for the side of Good. Gabby's in a bad way…maybe Tonks can help the weredog out. Andreas received a vision of a change in Voldemort's plans, and Jasmine…poor Jasmine. Her consortship has been up by a couple of years, and Voldemort seems to have some awful plans for her. Please review.