Harry was setting down his copy of the Prophet. Rita Skeeter had really outdone herself. Within the two weeks that had now passed since Sirius' trial she had portrayed the trial in detail, producing an outcry of unknown proportions in the population. To have proof that an innocent man, a man who was a hero, had been sent to Azkaban for ten years without ever having the chance to defend himself was outrageous. Then having no professional barrister being willing to take the case which forced an eleven year old to take a role he was much too young for normally. But who said Harry was normal? Normal didn't fit him. He was special.
The pictures of the important milestones in the article were really good and pulled the reader into the story. Next she had found out all the dirt on the Dursleys. Thankfully there were no details about the abuse besides the verbal abuse and the malnourishment she had found out about. The interviews with Mr Miller and Mrs Jannison had brought a smile on his face. He was happy that they thought so highly of him. Then now the scandal around Barty Crouch Senior sneaking his son out of Azkaban and holding him under the imperius curse for years with a house elf as the son's guard. Both Crouch men were now in Azkaban, one back in his old cell, the other awaiting trial. Harry wondered how Rita got all her facts, but she had been able to prove everything she wrote so far. Interesting what one interview and the promise of the story of the century could achieve. He wondered if she would keep to properly researching her stories.
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Today the other students would return home over the Christmas Holidays. After breakfast the carriages would take them to Hogsmeade Station from where the Hogwarts Express would take them back to London. Harry's end of term results had been very good. Professor Flitwick had been delighted with the results of his first year Ravenclaws. In the half-an-hour meeting Harry had for the month, this time all the meetings had been in the last week of term to discuss the current standing in class and the earned advancements for their rooms mainly, he had been told that he had the highest grades Flitwick had seen in a Ravenclaw student in many years after only one term of school.
Harry had scored 90 % in Potions, 93 % in Defence Against the Dark Arts, 96 % in Astronomy, 99 % in History of Magic, 100 % in Herbology, 105 % in Charms and 107 % in Transfiguration. If he had those scores in his OWL exams he would have got two E's and five O's. Which meant he got five upgrades for his room as he had got a point of the list achieved. Not that Harry hadn't already done that with a few spells already. He had wanted to wait with the essays for Potions and the star chart until he knew better what would be required there. He had had guessed he could get a few O's before Christmas, even if he didn't expect five of them just now. He additionally was in the top five of point winners for his house. Professor Flitwick told him he was immensely proud of his performance so far. Harry smiled. He always liked to hear that somebody was proud of him.
Yesterday evening Harry had played a game of chess with Draco Malfoy in the Great Hall after dinner. The blond and him had a polite conversation about how things had gone for the past term, what goals they had for the coming term and the exams, how Draco would spend his Christmas holidays and so on. Draco had really taken up Harry's advice and put all his effort into his studies while building up a network of mostly Slytherins and Ravenclaws. While he tended to keep to the pureblood students, he treated the halfbloods with normal politeness and the muggleborns indifferently. Meaning while he didn't insult them like he would have done before, he also didn't have more contact than being in the same class with them. But Harry didn't expect anything in that direction anyway. It was more than enough that he didn't bully them.
Draco was the top student of the Slytherin first years with the equivalent of two O's in Potions and History of Magic and high E's in the other five subjects. He was glad he could tell his father those good results and he hoped his father would be proud of him. Harry wondered how any parent couldn't be proud of those grades.
He knew that many wondered why he was acquainted with somebody like Malfoy, who was known to look down on muggleborns, but when he told them he saw potential in Malfoy, they shut up. It was an open secret that Harry Potter knew how to judge people and based his decisions on substantial reasons most of the time. And the pureblood students were very impressed with the network Potter had built up until now. There were only a few first years that didn't like him, mostly those that were jealous. Even if Ron Weasley didn't make a secret of his feelings for the raven haired boy, he didn't dare to cross him again. The dressing down he got after the troll incident had stuck. After one and a half weeks he had finally apologized to Hermione. Things were still a bit frosty towards him in Gryffindor house, but his classmates talked to him again.
Harry Potter had also shown he was powerful and that he was not to be crossed in the Sirius Black trial. Anybody who had the guts to take on the Ministry in their domain, take apart their arguments and win a case that was declared lost by all barristers, who now wanted to kick themselves for not taking the Black case, anybody who had the cunning to catch the Wizengamot in a well-built, multi-layered trap, anybody who worked relentlessly to get all his facts straight and have an ironclad strategy deserved respect in all houses. Harry had got many congratulations for getting his godfather freed. He had to retell the story many times. But he didn't mind that much. It was something he had achieved with his own abilities, nothing that had just happened. And he was willing to take praise for things he deserved to be praised for.
Sirius would arrive the day after tomorrow around lunch. The day before Christmas.
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