Standard disclaimers apply!

I do not own Harry Potter. I have nothing to do with Scholastic, Warner Bros or Bloomsbury. I'm not JKR and I am certainly not making any profit out of this.

I really wasn't kidding when I said updates would be patchy, was I?

~oOo~

The Daily Prophet

25 January 1999

SHOCK AS WIZENGAMOT HEARS EVIDENCE AGAINST DOLORES UMBRIDGE

Apollonia Wolf

The wizarding community is reeling in shock, today, as evidence was given against Dolores Umbridge to the Wizengamot, the high ranking ministry official, while not strictly considered popular, was none the less extremely influential over the last decade.

Apollonia sighed, rather dramatically, and rubbed her forehead with her inky fingers. She had NOTHING.

None of her fellow reporters could add to the dearth of information from the ministry.

That buttoned up wanker, Percy Weasley had addressed the press with a farce of a statement without saying anything at all - and after the Skeeter disaster, the courtrooms were sealed up tighter than a dragons arsehole. Clearly, this would require a lot of thought.

What did they know? Nothing of much use.

Think.

She had seen several people entering the courtroom together.

Harry Potter. Hermione Granger. The three youngest Weasleys. Neville Longbottom. Luna Lovegood. Lee Jordan. A large handful of young people she didn't immediately recognize, in Hogwarts uniform.

Ok. So were they there to give evidence about Umbridge during her time as High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, as well as what happened after? Apollonia had heard some pretty nasty rumours.

Excluding the Weasley kids, Potter, and Granger, the rest had come back out in dribs and drabs after an hour or so. After that several more people had been called in. Adults of varying ages. Muggle-borns most likely. So the court was hearing about that, which took until mid-afternoon.

Yet another Weasley had appeared, just how many of them were there? She'd been told this one was Bill the curse breaker, by Leopoldine Franz, who was replacing Rita Skeeter in "Tattle". Bill had been in the courtroom for exactly 27 minutes.

Curse Breaker? What kind of curses? That would imply that something to do with Umbridge had required curses to be broken. Scuttlebutt had been that Granger had been given direct access to Umbridge's office not long after the war.

Apollonia shot Poldy a quick memo; a promise of a night out with a few butter beers, in exchange for a few hours to pick her brain a bit.

Not a lot to work with yet, though. She sighed again, waved her wand over the parchment until it was completely clean, then she started again.

The Daily Prophet

25 January 1999

WIZARDING COMMUNITY KEPT IN THE DARK

Dolores Umbridge Faces The Wizengamot

By Apollonia Wolf

A short statement by Senior Undersecretary Weasley, gave limited information this morning, as his previous superior faced the Wizengamot for the first day of what has the potential to be a long and involved process.

What do we know? Umbridge, an influential if not particularly popular character, is facing charges that include waging a war of aggression, torture and ill treatment, and unlawful imprisonment.

Seen entering the courtroom today were several well known witches and wizards. Instantly recognizable were Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. Indeed, if rumour is to be believed, certain key pieces of evidence have been made available due to the methodical diligence of Ms Granger, with the help of one Bill Weasley, respected curse breaker with Gringotts Bank.

Also in attendance were Neville Longbottom, Ginevra Weasley, and Luna Lovegood, unofficial leaders of "The DA", the now lauded Hogwarts student resistance group who worked from within to destabilise the death eater regime during the height of the war.

Lee Jordan, the driving force behind "Potter Watch", arrived with George Weasley. It is not known, however, if their presence was required as students of Hogwarts at that time, or for other matters. Several other Hogwarts students were also in attendance, no doubt to give evidence of the treatment they reportedly received by Umbridge and her "Inquisitorial Squad", during Umbridge's time as a staff member – and later Headmistress – at the school.

Also present, in greatest numbers, were the surviving muggleborns who had fallen foul of Umbridge's Muggleborn Registration Commission, with that order of business taking up the greatest part of the day.

So, dear readers, while the Ministry sees fit for us to all be kept in the dark, you can depend on your reporters at The Daily Prophet to bring you the breaking news as it happens.

That would have to do, Apollonia thought sourly to herself as she watched the scroll float to her editors desk. Without Skeeter around to get the skinny on things, no one was going to do much better than that, at this point. She'd make sure she was back at the ministry first thing in the morning, and maybe tonight she and Poldy could hatch out some kind of plan.