He was ready to pry the woman's talons... fingers... off his arm with his right hand, but the clip to her ear had her release him with a startled 'yelp' and yank of her hand back, anyway.
Looking down at the woman from his extra four inches of height he snarled, "Skeeter. That was damned foolish of you."
With her left hand raised to massage her ear and set her slightly knocked askew glasses back in place, Skeeter stuttered a bit with nonsensical noise before she rallied and, trying to be smooth, said, "I believe you and I should go somewhere and... talk... about your brave defence of yourself outside Gringotts only―"
"Shut up, Skeeter," he quietly snapped at her, cutting her off.
When the woman gaped at him and began to bristle he said, "First, that you're trying to come over all the seductress is, quite frankly, disturbing. Woman, you're about thrice my age. Go try that shit with someone somewhere around your own age. You know, like Dumbledore."
When she gaped again he continued, "You want to interview me? No problem. But you lie to me; or lie about me... I will huntyou down and will squash you like a little bug. Do you understand what I'm telling you, little bug?"
Now somewhat frightened, Skeeter quickly nodded; but again rallied quickly. "Are you willing to be interviewed now?" He thought about that and glanced towards Luna, who had moved to stand behind the woman and was now grinning while rapidly nodding, and said, "You know what? Why not."
Eagerly, Skeeter asked, "Shall we get a room at the Leaky Caul―"
"There you go again, Skeeter," he snapped, cutting her off. "Trying to get me into a room, on your own, in private... You're three times my age, woman! Shame on you!"
Another glance to Luna and he could see she was now holding up a small swatch of light green fabric she'd grabbed earlier from inside Malkin's and mimicked writing something with her other hand before then pointing at Florean Fortescue's Ice Creamery, across the Alley. Harry gave her a subtle nod as he looked back down to Skeeter.
With a flick of his chin in that direction, he said, "We'll go into Fortescue's and sit at an inside table. You can also buy me lunch, as I've not had a chance to eat yet. It can go on your expense account. I'm sure the Prophet provides you with one, just for this sort of thing."
Again checking for Luna he could see she'd already gone, which meant she'd already hurried across to Fortescue's.
"Oh! And you'll be using a dicta-quill for the interview, or writing by hand. If I see the colour lime anywhere... life, for you, will quickly become unpleasant. Understand?"
Paling again for a long moment Skeeter stood still before she swallowed and said, "Understood, yes."
"If you want to write beyond the truth, then you will ensure... ensure... it is stated as your opinion, or your belief or similar," he added. "You will not deliberately mislead the readers of your article away from the truth. If you do... squish! Understood?" "Understood," she more calmly returned.
He gave a nod back and gestured to the ice creamery. "After you, Miss Skeeter."
Harry was pleased to see a vacant inside table with Luna sitting at one very close by. She was sipping on a cup of tea and nibbling on jam and cream lathered scones with one hand while reading a book with the other.
Skeeter didn't even seem to notice her 'rival's daughter' sitting at the next table and only two feet from her when she sat down. Where she sat had Luna sitting side-on and just behind Skeeter's right shoulder. In other words, in the perfect spot to listen to everything Skeeter said and see everything she wrote if she turned to look. It was obviously deliberate on Luna's part and set up with her Seer abilities in use, probably together with a targeted Notice-me-Not keyed only to Skeeter. Harry, of course, sat opposite the vile woman. He wished he knew how Luna had managed to order her tea and scones in advance enough to have them ready for her when she entered, though. He just hadn't seen her send a messenger Patronus while he'd been pulling a 'mock' robe over his head to take it off, back in Malkins.
Once seated, Skeeter called over Fortescue's only waitress and placed her lunch order. Then Harry gave the girl his own.
Once the waitress was gone with a promise not to be too long, he was pleased to see Skeeter pull out parchment and a quill that didn't have a lime green feather. This one looked like an eagle quill. However, it also demonstrated it was a dicta-quill when, after setting it up next to her right hand, the quill stood up on its own.
With a little throat clear, Skeeter seemed intent to get right into it. "Firstly, may I have your name?"
Harry smirked back and said, "It's quite long. You may use the short form of Lord Hardwin Peverell. If you remain polite and don't get pushy, you may call me Hardwin."
With a beaming smile back, she said, "Thank you, Hardwin; I appreciate that. Now, it is believed that the line of Peverell died out centuries ago. Where has the Peverell family... you... been hiding for these many centuries?"
"Firstly, we weren't hiding, as you put it; the House of Peverell was simply not interested in being in the limelight. Unlike some, we found dignity in not flaunting ourselves to the masses.
"As for me..." he shrugged and wryly smiled. "I had no personal interest in being anyone's hero... or villain. I happened to like my anonymity."
"And yet you've come out into the open now," she pressed.
"I was forced to come out into the open, because that manipulative old bum-naffer fool Dumbledore... who can't seem to help himself in doing so... outed me in public," he corrected her. "I also held off on doing anything while I was waiting for the aurors to show up to defuse the situation. However, they never did. I'm forced to wonder why."
"Yes," she nodded. "He, Dumbledore, even accused you of being a dark wizard."
"I was not surprised," he scoffed. "Dumbledore seems to be of the belief that, if you have a certain name, you must be dark. Actually, Dumbledore seems to think that, if you refuse to accept him as being some... undefined Leader of the Light... a title he gave himself, by the way... then you must be dark.
"That's a nice trick of his. Most people don't want to be labelled as being dark; so Dumbledore accuses, without any actual evidence to support his claim, people of being dark if they refuse to do what he tells them to do. And uses his self-awarded title of Leader of the Light to reinforce it. In that way, he can manipulate people into doing his bidding."
With a gleam in her eye as if she was a shark eyeing off a juicy morsel, she said, "And yet you accused him of being dark."
"That's because I believe manipulating people to do your bidding is an evil thing to do. How can people believe him to be a light wizard, let alone the so-called Leader of the Light, if he continues to commit evil acts?"
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