Gloves, Toaster and Toilets

As March came, Arthur's life slowed down a little more. Before the ending of January he was back to normal in his job and treated as he had been before Christmas. Over the course of February, his Order work also came back to normal. He was now assigned to guard duty on a regular schedule and he was reassigned to old missions, mainly recruitment.

The winter months passed all too quickly and the weather was warming up once again. Muggle baiting was up, but it wasn't something Arthur complained about. He enjoyed his job and for him, the more work the more interesting it was. Anyway, Muggle baiting was at its peak in the summer and that was still a ways off.

Arthur had had a long day and was strolling back to the lift so he could get to the atrium and get back to Grimmuald Place. There was going to be a meeting later on and he wanted to get a bit of rest beforehand. As he was passing by the Auror department, he bumped into Kingsley.

"Look through this," he whispered, handing him a rolled up magazine. He raised his voice a little. "Doing good, Weasley?"

"Yes, yes, fine." Arthur waved off the question and walked away. It was a little strange to be pretending not to know him, but it was necessary. And anyway, it was fun. (For Arthur anyway, he wasn't so sure about the rest of the people.)

He quickly got down to the Atrium and apparated home without unfurling the magazine to not arouse suspicion; after all, he had no idea what was in the magazine. It could be a harmless article or some important information for the Order. What really puzzled Arthur was why it couldn't wait until the meeting.

Arthur was already at Grimmuald Place so he walked to the living room and sat down, resting his tired limbs. He opened the magazine and saw that it was a copy of the March edition of The Quibbler. He rarely read the magazine himself because it was usually just a bunch of rubbish, but there were interesting things in there sometimes.

Arthur was surprised to see a picture of Harry on the cover of The Quibbler. Below the picture was the headline:

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED

AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

Arthur turned to the article and quickly skimmed it to see what it was about. So Harry had given an interview... But why The Quibbler?... Arthur supposed that was because no one else would print it. He wondered briefly who had written it and when he checked, he got a bit of a shock. It was Rita Skeeter. But she had started all of the propaganda against Harry in the first place. Why did she print it? In the end, Arthur decided that it didn't really matter as long as it had been printed.

The article itself was a very smart idea on Harry's part. It assured that people would know what had happened with Voldermort at the end of the previous year, whether they believed it or not. There was at least assurance that people would be interested in the matter because of all the media surrounding it and the gaping holes in the Ministry account.

Arthur re-read the article, this time carefully. He himself had wondered exactly what had happened in the Triwizard Tournament, and this was a first hand, full-proof version. After seeing what had really happened, Arthur was a little bit surprised. He had known that Harry had gone through a lot but this was a lot, even for him. It made him understand Harry's problems a little more.

After seeing what the article was about, Arthur understood why Kingsley had given it to him. This was the kind of thing that was probably going to be a main subject in the meeting and it was important that everyone knew about it even if it wasn't.

There was still time until the meeting, so Arthur decided to relax a little beforehand. He took out the gloves and placed them and a roll of parchment on the table in front of him. He found a quill and some ink and he gave those to the gloves. They immediately perked up upon the quill arriving and did the now ritual action of picking up the quill and getting ready to write with it.

"I got a magazine today and--"

What did we tell you about those things? They aren't trustworthy!

"This is reliable. Well -- the magazine isn't but the writer -- no... erm... well -- I know it's true so that's the only important thing."

Sure. It's always true.

Arthur decided to ignore the gloves' commentary. "Yes, it actually is true. Harry gave an interview on what happened when Voldermort came back."

Wow. That must have caused a stir.

"I'm not sure yet, but it's bound to have some effect. I'm not all that sure what it's going to be."

Whether they believe it or not, people are going to want to read and word is going to get around. But whether it helps you cause, which it probably will, or deters it, it's important to have that kind of article out.

"That's for sure. I'm not really positive how Harry got such a good idea..."

Didn't you say one of his friends was really smart?

"Hermione? Come to think of it, she probably did give him the idea..."

Anything else happen that was even remotely interesting?

"No. I just talked to you a few days ago, nothing interesting happens that quickly. The only real reason I bother was because these are big news."

Yes, well, we don't want to exert ourselves so... bye. The glove dropped the quill and then the two of them jumped into their respective pockets.

Arthur put away his things and laid down on the couch. He was actually looking forward to talking about the article at the Order meeting and learning more about it. It was sure to be an interesting and informative meeting. He continued reading some more interesting, yet unimportant articles until it was time for the meeting.