"A very good question," she replied. "I also saw the speed in which you took Dumbledore and members of his Order down outside Gringotts. How did you learn to duel so well?" "Okay," he said. "Let's clarify a few things first. One: Dumbledore's so called Order of the Flaming Fairies, or whatever it's called, is actually an illegal vigilante organisation. I believe the ministry should immediately move to label it as a proscribed organisation and make anyone who's a member of it a recognised criminal. We are a society of law; vigilantes should play no part of that.
"Two: I see Dumbledore's vigilantes as his personal minionsand thugs, not as members of an illegal organisation. Calling them members seems to me to legitimise them and what they do.
"And three: I did not duel Dumbledore and his minions, they ambushed me as I was carrying out lawful and peaceful business as I stepped out of Gringotts and was heading to spend gold with other businesses of the Alley. In other words, they attempted to mug me. "Their attempt failed because, as a bunch of amateurs... including Dumbledore... who had no business ambushing people, they stepped out of their places of concealment too soon. I was still on sovereign goblin soil, being on the steps of Gringotts, when they got it wrong and moved too soon. This meant I merely had to remain where I was and, safe in the knowledge they wouldn't attack me while on goblin soil, laugh at them at how pathetic they showed themselves to be.
"It is also very apparent Dumbledore has made no effort to train his people in unit combat tactics. They acted like all thugs usually behave, as just a collection on individuals who happen to be together at the time. There was no use, whatsoever, of how to work as a cohesive unit. As Dumbledore has determined himself to be the leader of those vigilantes, I would have thought he would have gotten off his wrinkly, bony, geriatric arse and actually trained the people he leads in working together as a team. Luckily for me, he's shown himself to be completely incompetent at that, too. After all, it was his failing to train Harry Potter... as he bloody well should have, as he knew of the prophecy well in advance... that likely led a great deal to the boy getting hexed through that so-called Veil of Death in the Department of Mysteries. Dumbledore's negligence... criminal negligence, some would say... may have well doomed us all.
"As for what you called a duel, a duel is a sanctioned, controlled, one-on-one combat between two individuals. What we had at the steps of Gringotts was a dozen people, Dumbledore and Neville Longbottom included, waiting to attack a man who didn't even have his wand in his hand... me.
"While I deliberately delayed matters while waiting for aurors... who never showed up... to show up and send Dumbledore and his minions, including Longbottom, on their way seeing as what they were doing was illegal... I laughed at the old fool and gave him a piece of my mind. When I realised the aurors weren't going to show up after all... and one must wonder why not, when you consider our society is currently at war... I warned all the bystanders that curses were going to start being fired. I, conscientious and fine upstanding citizen I am, knew I was placing myself at greater risk to do so; but did not want to see innocent bystanders hurt, no matter how stupid they were being by just standing there.
"Then I stepped off the step, still without a wand in my hand. Dumbledore immediately barked out, 'Now!'; showing it was his plan, all along, for me to be attacked by himself and his criminal minions. They all fired curses at me at the same time.
"That is not a duel. That is, as I've implied, an unprovoked attack." "And yet you handily defeated them all," she pressed.
He shrugged and replied, "I do not like bullies or thugs. And Dumbledore and his minions showed that is what they truly are. Besides that, I was defending myself from their unprovoked attack. A quite lawful thing to do; unlike what Dumbledore and his pathetic lackeys tried to do."
The interview was then interrupted by the delivery of their lunches. However, Skeeter kept pressing her questions right through the meal. Thankfully, she seemed to forget she'd also asked him how he'd managed to be so fast. Sadly for her, he had no intention of reminding her of it.
Once finished, Harry thanked the woman for the lunch, warned and reminded her to write her article in a way that did not mislead the reader and firmly stated what he said was to be faithfully quoted. If she quoted him for something he hadn't actually said, or even misquoted him, he'd hunt her down.
Skeeter nodded back and replied, "I believe, almost exactly as transcribed, this article will be faithful to this interview. I really don't think I can... dress it up a bit."
"Then I look forward to reading it tomorrow," he said, standing up. "Good day, Miss Skeeter." Then he spun on his heel and walked out. Luna was waiting for him outside the doors.
As they headed for the Leaky Cauldron, Luna said, "I believe I'll be looking forward to reading tomorrow's Daily Prophet. I don't often say that."
He smiled back.
When they flooed back to Grimmauld, Sirius was already waiting for them and clearly worried. He quickly said, "Luna knows Longbottom is not the Chosen One!" "Sirius knows Harry Lives!"
Harry just snorted. "You know you can set the floo up to recognise magical signatures, right?"
"It already is," Sirius scowled. "The password phrases are just an added security. What kept you? I expected you back some time ago."
So Harry and Luna explained Harry's meeting with Dumbledore and members of the Order, then buying new robes from Malkin's and, finally, Harry's interview by Skeeter.
As they explained, Sirius calmed down again. At the end he said, "Skeeter's a dangerous woman, pup. That quill of hers..."
"The quill is mightier than the wand?" asked Harry, deliberately misquoting a famous muggle quote.
Sirius gave a slight snort of amusement and wryly replied, "That's one way of putting it." "I'm very aware of what Skeeter is like," Harry scowled. "She spent all of both my fourth and fifth years slandering the shit out of me, remember?"
"Ah," muttered Sirius. "I forgot about that."
"Trust me; I haven't," scowled Harry. "However, at the moment, I'm quite comfortable feeding her titbits of information. Tomorrow's Daily Prophet will see just how trustworthy she can be."
"It'll be fine," said Luna, with such a sense of finality they knew her Seer ability had come into play.
It was about an hour later both Remus and Tonks turned up, together.
As soon as Tonks saw Harry, she grabbed him by a double fistful of his lapels and dragged him close enough to softly growl, "If you ever call me Nymphie again... I'll―" Harry just leaned forward the two inches of separation and kissed her, right on the lips.
Startled, she released him and jumped back a pace.
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