Question that Dumbledore took an unnatural interest in Potter from the word go.

Whether that was really in the boy's best interests – well, we'll see. It's certainly

an open secret that Potter has had a most troubled adolescence."

I ask whether Skeeter is still in touch with Harry Potter, whom she so

famously interviewed last year: a breakthrough piece in which Potter spoke

Exclusively of his conviction that You-Know-Who had returned.

"Oh, yes, we've developed a closer bond," says Skeeter. "Poor Potter has few

real friends, and we met at one of the most testing moments of his life – the

Triwizard Tournament. I am probably one of the only people alive who can say

that they know the real Harry Potter."

Which leads us neatly to the many rumors still circulating about Dumbledore's

final hours. Does Skeeter believe that Potter was there when Dumbledore died?

"Well, I don't want to say too much – it's all in the book – but eyewitnesses

Inside Hogwarts castle saw Potter running away from the scene moments after

Dumbledore fell, jumped, or was pushed. Potter later gave evidence against

Severus Snape, a man against whom he has a notorious grudge. Is everything as it

seems? That is for the Wizarding community to decide – once they've read my

book."

On that intriguing note, I take my leave. There can be no doubt that Skeeter

has quilled an instant bestseller. Dumbledore's legion of admirers, meanwhile,

May well be trembling at what is soon to emerge about their hero.

Harry reached the bottom of the article, but continued to stare blankly at the page.

Revulsion and fury rose in him like vomit; he balled up the newspaper and threw it, with

All his force, at the wall, where it joined the rest of the rubbish heaped around his

Overflowing bin.

He began to stride blindly around the room, opening empty drawers and picking

Up books only to replace them on the same piles, barely conscious of what he was doing,

as random phrases from Rita's article echoed in his head: An entire chapter to the whole

Potter-Dumbledore relationship ... It's been called unhealthy, even sinister ... He dabbled

in the Dark Arts himself in his youth ... I've had access to a source most journalists would

Swap their wands for...

"Lies!" Harry bellowed, and through the window he saw the next-door neighbor,

Who had paused to restart his lawn mower, look up nervously.

Harry sat down hard on the bed. The broken bit of mirror danced away from him;

He picked it up and turned it over in his fingers, thinking, thinking of Dumbledore and the

Lies with which Rita Skeeter was defaming him ...

A flash of brightest blue. Harry froze, his cut finger slipping on the jagged edge of

The mirror again. He had imagined it, he must have done. He glanced over his shoulder,

but the wall was a sickly peach color of Aunt Petunia's choosing: There was nothing blue

There for the mirror to reflect. He peered into the mirror fragment again, and saw nothing

But his own bright green eye looking back at him.

He had imagined it, there was no other explanation; imagined it, because he had

Been thinking of his dead headmaster. If anything was certain, it was that the bright blue

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 940