No Laughing Matter

Chapter Fourteen

As it turned out, the Order didn't have to use any influence at all to unseat Fudge. Strangely enough, it had been Narcissa Malfoy's capture that had turned public opinion irrevocably against the Minister. She had been apprehended only three days after the incident at her estate, and had wasted no time in seeking her revenge against Fudge for failing to help her free her husband. She had implicated him in several crimes involving bribery and misappropriation of funds that were supposed to have been donated by the Malfoy family to St. Mungo's Hospital. That information, coupled with a well-worded article by Daily Prophet reporter Rowan Winters, had helped to seal the Minister's fate. Within a week, Fudge had been forced by the Wizengamot to step down as Minister, and had appointed Madam Amelia Bones to the position of Acting Minister until an official Wizarding Election could be held.

While the Dark Mark had been spotted twice more over wizarding houses in Britain, there had been no sign of Percy in the two weeks since he had been seen in the company of Death Eaters. He had, of course, failed to return to work at the Ministry, and his apartment was being closely watched for any sign of his return. During that time, Molly held herself together by diverting her attention to other things, and keeping busy. She began helping out at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes by keeping their books and taking care of their banking; occasionally minding the counter. Fred and George doubted that the shop (or the apartment above it) had ever been so clean since it had been built; in view of the fact that their mother had been coming regularly to Scourgify it. When she wasn't at the shop, she worked for the Order and made wedding plans with Fleur and Bill. The family seemed to be silently banding together to preserve their mother's sanity, and keep spirits up. Arthur worried that she was pushing herself too hard, but remained silent on the subject; he understood her need to try to forget for a few hours each day that one of their sons was a wanted criminal.

Fred and George carried on in the shop with a feeling of anti-climax. They still had products to sell and develop, and a lot of curious customers to deal with. Now that the fight against Voldemort had hit so close to home, they felt divided between running their shop and going out to search for Percy on their own. The fact that they had no idea where to begin looking, and the Order wasn't giving them any clues, was a major factor in their decision to maintain the status quo. At any rate, Halloween was fast approaching, and the shop was busy with customers preparing for the holiday. Molly was recruited to package and send out all Owl orders, and Lee worked at the counter as Fred and George replenished supplies as they depleted. The Shrieking Snaps were a particularly popular item, and Molly amazed them all by snorting in amusement, but saying nothing, as she packaged a particularly large order of them for Harry and Ron.

It wasn't until Halloween itself that things took an interesting turn. The morning edition of the Prophet featured a front-page article by Rowan about the "real" events surrounding the deaths of Lily and James Potter fifteen years ago. The story asserted that Peter Pettigrew, long thought to be a tragic martyr, was alive and well, and in the service of Lord Voldemort. Furthermore, it was reported, it had been Pettigrew, not Sirius Black, who had betrayed the Potters and murdered a dozen muggles all those years ago. It claimed that Peter Pettigrew had been, and indeed still was, an unregistered Animagus, who had cut off his own finger and fled into the sewer system in the form of a rat to save his own skin when Black had caught up with him. Black had been blamed unjustly for the deaths of twelve muggle bystanders, and the alleged murder of his one-time friend Peter Pettigrew. He had been innocent of the crimes that he had been imprisoned in Azkaban for.

George sat at the table of Rowan and Carly's apartment, reading the article with his mouth hanging slightly open, his eggs and toast forgotten on his plate. The article was very well detailed; a little too well detailed, George thought, for someone who didn't have access to personal information about the events Rowan had reported. The article maintained that Harry Potter had given former Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, information regarding these facts well over a year previously, but had been ignored. Now George was left wondering how Rowan could have known that without interviewing Fudge (who was likely to deny it), the Weasleys (which he would have known about), members of the Order (whom she shouldn't be aware of), or Albus Dumbledore (whom he doubted would freely give out such information). His mind was sorting through all of the possibilities with one other underlying idea: 'I'm going to be blamed for this.'

"So what do you think? I can't believe my story is on the front page!" Rowan had been watching George's reaction to what he was reading, from the doorway to the kitchen. When he looked up at her with an odd, calculating expression on his face, she moved forward and sat on his knee. She picked up his toast and took a bite before saying, "Brilliant, isn't it? I couldn't believe how easily it came together... all of the pieces just fell into place once I started comparing all of the notes.... What's the matter?"

George shook his head for a moment, and then finally asked the one question that he couldn't find the answer for. "Where did you get all of this information?"

"I'm a reporter," she shrugged, feeling a little uneasy. He was looking at her very strangely now. "It's my job to dig up facts and then put them into a cohesive...."

"Where did you dig up these particular facts?" he asked, with a trace of a growl in his voice, noticing that she wasn't looking him in the eye, "This isn't the sort of thing that's a matter of public record for anyone who wants to research it."

"No, of course not, or people would already know it, and I wouldn't need to tell them!" She got to her feet and walked over to the window before continuing. "I didn't do anything really dangerous, but I can't tell you anything more than that." He was sitting where she'd left him, looking stonily at her over the rim of his teacup, which he had lifted to his lips only a moment before. She studied him for a moment, realizing that while he was upset about the article itself, it wasn't the content of it that was worrying him. Finally it dawned on her. "You're not the least bit surprised by anything I wrote in that piece." It wasn't a question. "None of it is news to you."

A flush crept up George's neck as he set his cup down, and he willed himself stay calm and not let her turn the tables on him. She was really good at diverting things away from herself by changing the subject. "Of course I knew all of this. Harry Potter is practically one of my brothers; I'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to have known it."

Rowan had the distinct impression that he was keeping something from her, but couldn't fathom what it might be. He was still looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer to his original question; he was really good at staying on topic, even when she was trying to change it. She returned to the table, and sat in the chair across from George, saying, "I don't get what the big deal is. What does it matter how I know what I know, as long as I didn't put myself in danger to find it out?"

"Because there are only a handful of people who know... or I should say knew... this information. I can't imagine any circumstance in which any of the people who did know it would have told anyone." He said. "I can't help but wonder about who else might have had this information.... Oh my God, I sound just like my father!"

Rowan giggled at the sudden comical switch from his concern over her investigative sources to horror at sounding like a parental figure. "See," she smiled sweetly at him. "Even you think that you're being too harsh. I can't give you my source of information, but I will guarantee that I wasn't in any situation I couldn't handle, and that I don't think that anyone you know is telling tales out of school."

George realized that he couldn't continue to press the issue without compromising his own secrets about the Order. He couldn't tell her about the order until he got permission to do so from Dumbledore. Unfortunately, he knew that it was going to seem to many that he had "leaked" information to his girlfriend, and he wouldn't be able to tell them where she had gotten the information. With a sigh, he nodded, re-warmed his breakfast with a wave of his wand, and picked up his fork. "As long as you're not putting yourself in danger."

"Good," Rowan smiled, reaching across to take his teacup, "I'm glad to hear you say that, because for the second part of this story, I'm going to try to find Peter Pettigrew."

"You're what?" he asked sharply, dropping his fork with a clatter.

"I'm going to try to find Peter Pettigrew." She repeated the phrase again, as calmly as if she was announcing that she was going out to buy a new pair of shoes.

"The hell you are!" he said, standing up quickly, with no real idea of what he meant to do. He shoved frustrated fingers through his already sleep-tousled hair and paced back and forth a few steps before coming to a stop in front of her. "Do you realize that looking for that... that man could land you in St. Mungo's again? Or worse? He handed over one of his best friends to You-Know-Who, and let another one be sent to prison for more than a decade. He murdered a dozen muggles without even blinking!"

"I know this, George." Her voice was quiet and serious, now. "Don't you think that everyone else deserves to know it to? There's an innocent man out there, somewhere, forced into hiding for a crime he never committed."

George digested this bit of information slowly. If Rowan believed that Sirius was still alive, then it was certain that it wasn't a member of the Order who had given her the information for her article. That was some small measure of comfort, at least. He was left with the struggle with himself between telling her that Sirius was not, in fact, in hiding anymore, and the fact that he would be divulging information that he really shouldn't know. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she wasn't going to let this drop, and so he simply said, "It's too dangerous. You've told your story. Now let the authorities do their job and let them be the ones to find him."

"The authorities?" Her tone and her expression were both incredulous. "The Minister for Magic himself knew about this two years ago! He did nothing!"

"There's a new Minister now," George said. "Why not wait and see if she takes any action before jumping into this on your own."

The look she gave him was all the answer he needed. He finally decided that he would be better off agreeing with her, and insisting on being present when she searched anywhere outside of The Daily Prophet offices. 'After all,' he thought to himself, ',if the Order of the Phoenix hasn't been able to find Pettigrew for two years, what are the chances that Rowan will be the one to hunt him down?'

"Okay, I'll make you a deal," he said. "I won't try to stop you from looking for Pettigrew, if you promise that you'll take either me or Fred with you whenever your search takes you out of the office. And if you find Pettigrew, you alert the MLE immediately."

She thought about it for a few moments. George really only wanted to protect her from danger, she knew, and not without good reason. He had already proven that he was not only good company to have, but very useful; the Extendable Ears had been especially helpful. "Deal," she said. "As long as you let me do my job and don't get in the way."

"Deal." He bent forward to seal it with a kiss.

"You're going to need some Muggle clothes today," she said when the kiss ended.

"Why?"

"Because I just promised you that I wouldn't search for Pettigrew outside of the office, and that's what I'm doing today."

With a sigh, George went to get his cloak and his shoes. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long day.