HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN was an article regarding an interview granted to Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter on February 14, 1996 during a Hogsmeade weekend. The main topic of the interview was the story that Harry had to tell the world about the return of Lord Voldemort.

Background
After the return of Lord Voldemort in 1995, both Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore were victims of a campaign from the Ministry of Magic to discredit them.. The then Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, installed a series of Educational Decrees for its influence at Hogwarts as he believed that Dumbledore was forming an army with students to overthrow the Ministry. For that reason, he named Dolores Umbridge as a Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts, to have a spy in the school, and soon gave her more freedom, naming her Hogwarts High Inquisitor. Umbridge did the impossible to deny the release of Harry over to Lord Voldemort had returned and claimed that Cedric Diggory's death was a terrible accident. She punished Harry several times because he wanted everyone in the school and in the wizarding world knew the truth.

"Lately you have heard that a dark wizard is lurking again, you should know that's a lie."

- Dolores Umbridge in her first Defence Against the Dark Arts's lesson in fifth year.

Knowing that the Ministry would not stop its campaign, Hermione Granger decided remove out of her forced retirement to Rita Skeeter on Valentine's Day to make her a interview to Harry, who came to The Three Broomsticks after a disastrous date with Cho Chang in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop. In the interview Harry told everything to Rita, even gave the name of the Death Eaters who appeared in Little Hangleton graveyard before his duel with Lord Voldemort. Rita said that the Daily Prophet would not publish the interview as it was influenced by the Ministry, that's why Hermione has carried Luna Lovegood with them, and the interview would be published in the journal of her father, The Quibbler. When the interview was posted on March 23, 1996, Harry received a free copy of Xenophilius Lovegood and began to receive mail from different wizards and witches, some of whom told him that believed him, others said he was mad, and other said they did not believe he was crazy but they would not believe in the return of Lord Voldemort. Seeing a commotion in the part of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall where Harry was, Dolores Umbridge was over there and found out the interview, and thus established the Educational Decree Number 27, which said that whoever in possession of The Quibbler would be expelled, and banned tabi outputs to Harry to Hogsmeade.

"If she could have done one thing to make absolutely sure that every single person in this school will read your interview, it was banning it!"

- Hermione Granger

As Hermione had predicted, the whole school read the interview, and some, like Seamus Finnigan, mailed it to relatives so they could read it. Due to the large value of Harry to give the interview, some teachers as Minerva McGonagall and Pomona Sprout gave him several house points for petty things.

The interview was republished in The Quibbler due to its success, and then when the Ministry had to accept that Voldemort had returned due to the duel between Albus Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort in the Ministry after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, where Voldemort was seen by Fudge and a pair of Aurors, Xenophilius Lovegood sold the interview to the Daily Prophet to pay a holiday to Sweden alongside Luna to find the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, which published it as an unpublished interview saying that Harry was "the only innocent voice that never changed its position on the issue when everyone's back was turned."

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix