"What are these little orange radishes?"
In the garden of the Lovegood house, Harry, who hadn't been particularly curious at first, found his interest piqued by the eccentric girl before him.
Watching as Luna plucked two small radishes from the bushes, apparently intending to turn them into so sort of decoration, Harry couldn't help but ask.
"These are dirigible plums." Luna declared matter-of-factly, uttering a na so peculiar it hardly sounded like a plant at all.
"Dirigible plums?" Harry widened his eyes slightly, examining the radishes more closely. He assud they must be so kind of magical plant.
"Yes! They enhance one's ability to accept the unusual!" Luna emphasized.
This made Harry even more cautious.
From Severus, he had learned that so magical plants and creatures could be quite dangerous. There was even a kind of grass that would scream when pulled out, causing people to die on the spot!
Luna seed quite pleased with Harry's serious attitude and handed one of the dirigible plums to him.
"This is for you."
It was the first ti Harry had received a gift from soone his own age, and he was both stunned and touched.
He froze for a mont but quickly collected himself.
Back in Diagon Alley, Severus had taught him that the essence of friendship lay in sharing.
Now that Luna had given him a gift, he ought to reciprocate.
Harry patted his pockets but could only find a few silver Sickles left over from when Severus had told him to buy ice cream for the Weasley twins, as well as the blood-flavored lollipop that Sanguini had given him… which he had never dared to try.
Giving money as a gift was definitely inappropriate, so Harry could only offer the lollipop.
"This is for you too." Harry said softly, feeling a bit embarrassed about his less-than-impressive gift, "It's a lollipop made for vampires. Supposedly tastes like blood."
To Harry's surprise, Luna's eyes visibly lit up at his description.
"A lollipop vampires like?" She took the candy from Harry's hand and held it up, her eyes filled with curiosity and wonder, "It must contain the hair of fire crabs!"
Harry couldn't follow Luna's train of thought and looked at her blankly.
"Why?"
"Because the fire crabs' hairs are as red as blood, and vampires are fascinated by them." Luna explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Harry, who had no idea what fire crabs were or why sothing red as blood would captivate vampires, could only nod solemnly, pretending to understand completely.
But regardless, Luna clearly loved the gift, which made Harry feel both relieved and happy.
…
Upstairs in the reception room, the atmosphere was eerily quiet.
After hearing Severus's account and seeing Sanguini cradling Patty in his arms, Lovegood was stunned.
His eyes darted between Severus, Sanguini, and Worple, who were all staring at him expectantly.
"This... this is simply unbelievable..."
He muttered to himself, then stood up from his chair and began pacing back and forth across the room.
Sanguini thought Lovegood didn't believe it, and just as he was about to open his mouth and try to swear to prove the authenticity of the matter, he was stopped by Severus.
"Xenophilius isn't questioning whether we're lying."
"Why would I doubt it?" Lovegood turned around and said after hearing what Severus said, "This whole situation was never normal to begin with! In the so-called 'poisoning case', what was fed to the Muggles was not actually poison at all, but the Draught of Living Death! And you, Severus, even back in your school days, you have always too proud and aloof. How could you bother harming a Muggle for no reason?"
He snatched up a copy of The Quibbler from the cluttered pile of newspapers on his desk, and there happened to be an article discussing Severus's escape.
"See this? I raised this very question in yesterday's issue! I wanted to warn the Ministry that there must be more to this, but those politicians looked like they had troll snot stuffed on their brains. They just sneered at it and even published an article in the Daily Prophet to mock !"
"Only what you've described makes sense as the truth!"
Lovegood looked at Sanguini.
"Severus is right. If he hadn't run away with this girl and simply handed you both over to the Aurors, the Ministry would never have granted you clency! They wouldn't even give you a proper trial, but would have tossed you directly into Azkaban to wrap this up as quickly as possible!"
"Now that you've co to , what do you need? For to report the truth?"
His reaction and words left both Sanguini and Worple stunned. They could hardly believe there was soone in the world this... eccentric, or perhaps this wise?
anwhile, Severus was not surprised.
Because Lovegood had always been like this. Even back at Hogwarts, few could get along with him, aside from his wife, Pandora, and Severus himself, who had approached him with a vested interest in obscure spells.
"Aside from helping us expose the truth, there's actually one more thing."
Severus gestured to Worple, who promptly handed over his manuscript.
"Eldred has written a book. The first half details his experiences living among vampires, helping the wizarding public understand that they aren't the twisted monsters many imagine. The second half tells Sanguini and Patty's story… with so literary embellishnt, of course."
Lovegood took the manuscript and had already guessed what Severus wanted him to do.
"You want to help publish this book?"
"Publishing it outright would take too long, and Eldred hasn't finished writing it yet It would be ideal if The Quibbler could release it as a special supplentary magazine. Once it stirs up so discussion in the Wizarding World, you can then publish an article claiming that the real truth behind the case lies in the unpublished portions of this story..."
Before Severus could even finish, Lovegood's face showed an expression of surprise beyond imagination!
"And then the story will sell like wildfire! The public will finally learn what really happened! Everyone will be clamoring to know how it ends… Sanguini the vampire and Patty the Muggle will beco household nas!"
Severus patted Worple on the shoulder.
"Along with the next breakout bestselling author, Eldred Worple, who is destined to outshine Gilderoy Lockhart!"
"Yes! Exactly! Severus, you're a genius at manipulating public opinion! Why didn't you ever show this side of yourself before? Being a Professor at Hogwarts is a waste of your talents! You should be running The Daily Prophet… kick out all those fools and take over!"
Lovegood stared at Severus with fervent admiration.
"When do you want to publish it?"
"It's best to contact the printing house and make preparations now. The printing press at your ho will definitely not be enough. The faster we get this out, the better."
Lovegood said, waved his hands excitedly, "Tomorrow! Give one day… I'll have the printers lined up by this afternoon, and we'll have enough copies ready by tomorrow! We'll release it as a Quibbler special edition!"
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