We Will Shine {Book 6 in the Star of Gryffindor Series}

Chapter 51 - Punishment

Russey had sent out an urgent message earlier that day to all the aurors that Edward Remus Lupin needed to be to be their top priority, apparently. However, he was safely in hiding, and Astra couldn't even tell us where. James and Albus got frustrated enough to go ask Mr. Potter if they could see him, but he told them the same thing. Apparently, the fewer people who knew, the better, and Mr. Potter wasn't able to tell us where he was, anyway. Obviously, there was a fidelius charm, but Astra wouldn't even tell us who the secret keeper was (James asked three times).

The next few days were kind of wild. If Poppy's family being murdered had caught the school's attention for a while, this was a thousand times more effective. The Quibbler started printing articles about the detention centers nonstop, and Russey started public damage control almost as fast.

The detention centers are rampant with medieval torture methods, said the Quibbler.

While occasionally some interrogation tactics are used, the detention centers are solely for detaining suspects until a fair trial is possible, replied Russey.

Teddy Lupin claims he watched innocent civilians be deprived of food and sleep for days on end, said the Quibbler.

Edward Remus Lupin is a terrorist, and we can't trust what he says, said Russey.

Inmates are interrogated harshly to see if they know of anyone who might be in the DA, and tortured if they don't come up with anyone, read the Quibbler.

The only people in detention centers are those who are strongly suspected of being connected to terrorist organizations. We would never look someone up simply to get information out of them, replied Russey.

Ferdinand Welling, known associate of Henry Caymus Stillens and former headmaster of Hogwarts (where he is known to have used the dark arts punish students), runs the most heavily populated detention center, said the Quibbler.

Ferdinand Welling is a criminal, much like Edward Lupin, who is supplying this false information, said Russey.

Despite Russey's best attempts at damage control, nearly everyone was talking about the Quibbler's articles. Most people seemed at least wary of the government, if not outright against it. River and Colette staged a protest during dinner one night, which prompted Kimmel to start giving nightly speeches about how we need to make sure to get our news from reliable sources, and not trust every wild rumor that has a flashy headline, and also that these matters were best left to adults. After a week, she announced that she was banning the Quibbler. The very next morning, fifteen owls brought a copy of the Quibbler directly to her (I asked Colette if she'd had anything to do with it, and she simply winked at me). From then on, every time Kimmel tried to make a speech at dinner, she was quickly drowned out by booing that almost always started near where I was sitting at the Gryffindor table.

~~~~

"Did you hear about Edward Lupin?"

"Teddy?" Nico gave me a weird look, and I explained, "He's Astra's cousin, Nico. She calls him that. Of course, I heard about him."

"Bloody bastard," Nico said, shaking his head. "I can't believe they let that happen."

I pursed my lips, trying to imagine what kind of hell my uncle had rained down on whichever detention center Teddy had been able to infiltrate. "Yeah. It's crazy."

"Do you think what he said is true?"

I glanced at him, trying to gauge what he was thinking. I couldn't tell. "I'm not sure. But... I honestly wouldn't be surprised."