Umm... Livvy wondered if she should wait any longer for some other students to pair up with her or just work on it by herself. It didn't seem like any other students were coming. There were hardly any attending the class right NOW. Just as the girl was about to to start on the little project thingie, in walked Adrienne. Heyyyy..... She was a sixth year right? Livvy could work with her!

"Hey there! Yeaahhh... sure," Livvy said, grinning and pulled out her quill. Adrienne's psychic skills sure could come in handy, right? RIGHT. "Alright... so we're researching the connection between the Wizarding media and Dark Wizards..." OHBOY.

Adrienne returned the grin as Livvy replied animatedly to her suggestion they team up. At least she didn't seem freaked out around her or something, which was always good. And maybe between them they could figure out what exactly Professor Truebridge was after with his suggestion of what to talk about. "It seems like that's what we're supposed to be discussing," she agreed, absently doodling on the edge of her parchment. "Any ideas what that connection might be? I mean, to start off, at least?" Why couldn't the professor have given them more than just that line. A prompt, anything. Because all she remembered discussing in class was what made dark wizards and power versus fear. Unless that was what he was after, but she really didn't think it was.

Ohgeeezz. Livvy really hoped that they'd be able to interpret Professor Truebridge's rather vague instructions and come up with an answer that will be able to earn them the full credit. She wanted those points. BADLY. The girl racked her brain thoughtfully and then looked back at Adrienne with a small smile. "To be honest, I'm not quite so sure what exactly Professor Truebridge wants us to find and discuss... but I think I sort of get it. What I know of media, is that both the Muggle media and the Wizarding Media work a lot alike. They sell off of fear and they feed off of it.

"The media tends to make situations over-dramatic or over the top. Say if there was a battle somewhere, they don't focus on the happier part... they focus on the sadder part because it sells. They don't say that 100 out of the 110 people survived, they say that 10 people died because it sells. So I guess the connection is that both the media and dark wizards work off of fear. Dark wizards feel more powerful and become more powerful when more people fear them and the media uses this fear to create more fear and because it sells... It's sort of like a never-ending fear cycle... If... that makes at all sense. I'm sort of rambling," Livvy said, scratching her head still thinking. She turned to look back over at Adrienne, wondering what the girl had to say.

Celandine kept an ear out and heard nobody make the connections that she herself had come up with. She scooted over a bit, smiling at her housemates in particular.

"So I was thinking and there are actually a bunch of ways that Dark Wizards and Wizarding Media overlap."

Cela opened her textbook and scrambled through until she found the right pages.

"Here!" She pointed at the page.

"The Wireless Wizarding Network was controlled by Voldemort in 1997, thats a good example. Also, the Daily Prophet, was heavily influenced by the Ministry at this time too it was taken over along with the Ministry itself by the Deatheaters, one of them imperiused Thicknesse who had previously been the head of Law Enforcement but was put in place as a puppet leader after Scrimgeour was murdered. When Harry Potter was labeled Undesirable No. 1, it was all through the Prophet and false research papers were created which stated that Mu... Muggleborns stole their magic from real witches and wizards."

... to name just a couple little examples.

Keeping one ear open for anything he could pick up on, Jake kept his head bent low over his parchment. His idea was that should he hear a slight casual mention or something then he might be able to drag up great blocks of information from memory. As it was, right now he wasn't actually paying a great deal of attention until Celandine spoke. The boy glanced up and bit on his lip for a second, before staring straight back down again. The boy had just had one of those funny thoughts he tended to get these days... about how... nice looking Cela was.

Noooooo... he wasn't getting into that. Nope.

Reverting back to his History of Magic brain, Jake scowled and scribbled scruffily on his notes. He was focusing on the media a couple of years earlier than the total downfall, but at the bottom of his notes the boy put the letters 'WWN' and circled them as a reminder, because he wasn't going to stay fixated. Jake had no idea about more recent events to be perfectly honest... he just picked up on the outregeously famous parts of history and planned to look up the rest later.

Though he never got round to it.



Deciding to just GO for it and figuring it was now or never, Jake gathered up his various old notes and a his History of Magic book, tucking the notes inside and slinging his bag's strap over his head so it crossed his body. Stepping over to the Ravenclaws who were, of course, older, and included Celandine, Jake took a breath and cleared his throat.

"Cuhhh-cuh-can I juhhh-join you guys?" he asked, trying not to sound scared. What the heck? How old was he, FOUR?! "S'just... I c-can on only fffffocus on real vuhh-vague connections... And the... the sssstuff staring right at me suhhh-seems too obvious. I dunno what tuuuh-ter put. Ssssso... can I?"

Oh, look! Cela was here! She was really, really, really....really, really, really smart, so LouAnn was happy to have her around. Cela had smiled at her own housemates, but that didn't get LouAnn down. She simply scooted her own chair over, as well, and joined in on the discussion. Only, LouAnn had no idea what in Merlin's name Cela had just said. She'd lost the Ravenclaw girl at 'So I was thinking...'

LouAnn glanced down at her notes, suddenly feeling as if they weren't worth much of anything compared to what the others probably had. She scooted down in her seat and tugged her parchment closer to her as she tried to remember more of what Cela had said. "The Wireless Wizarding Network...that's probably the best example of the media catering to Dark Wizards. "I mean, if it was the most popular radio station, people are bound to just automatically believe whatever is said on air. A lot of wizarding celebrities are on that channel, too. People usually always believe celebrities," she replied. "How do you think Voldemort got control anyway? You think the people working there were dark wizards?"

"Sure!" Celandine announced, though she wasn't part of a specific group herself exactly. She shifted to sit on her desk so that anyone who wanted to listen to her could hear her.

Of course everyone wanted to listen, right? Because it was her? Right?

"Well the WWN and the Prophet." Celandine answered. "Both were used to spread the word about Harry Potter being Undesirable number one. As for how he got control, well you know the Imperius curse?" Cela said it casually like it was an every day sort of thing. "Thats how Voldemort ultimately got control of the ministry, because Yaxley and a few others infiltrated the Ministry and Imperiused Thicknesse. At that time, the Law Enforcment part of the Ministry was completely controlled by Death Eaters."

Celandine tipped her head to one side and started playing with her hair, coiling it around her fingertips.

"We have heaps of old papers at home, pamphlets and stuff? Like there is one called 'Mudbloods and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society', that one was from around the same time too. There are also a bunch of copies of this magazine called Warlock at War and thats anti-muggle and has a history of being edited by Dark Wizards. Like Brutus Malfoy. He said 'Nothing is a surer sign of weak magic than a weakness for non-magical company', and that was one of the underlining messages of the periodical. I can't remember the year... late 1600s?"

LouAnn held on to every word Cela was saying, and she nodded after every key point the girl made. "Wow...you sure do know a lot about this kinda stuff, don't ya?" LouAnn replied, shaking her head at all the information she just learned. "You know what this makes me think of, though? That magazine called The Quibbler. It was pretty much looked down upon, simply because it's known to publish silly stories based mainly on theory alone. It was one of the few...if not the only...public paper to back Harry Potter back in the 1990's. I think that more or less persuaded people to turn against Potter's story. They knew that the only paper backing it was only known for complete rubbish."

"Thats a connection." Cela agreed, all grinfacey. "Because the Quibbler was against Death Eaters and they were definitely a representation of Dark Arts and stuff. The Quibbler printed articles about Harry Potter being undesirable number one too, because the editor's daughter was taken hostage by the Deatheaters."

Oooh.

"Oh and, in opposition to the WWN was Potterwatch, which was a secret station for those who supported the Order of the Phoenix. They kept people informed about what was really going on."

Huh?

Livvy glanced over at Cela and the other students that had begun to discuss the topic also. She smiled at Adrienne and nodded her heads towards the group, indicating that they should join. Since they were relatively close, Livvy just leaned over towards where they were. "I actually didn't know that Cela. And the Unforgivable curses definitely could've played in towards the process of Voldemort taking over such media sources. Mainly the Imperius Curse and the Cruciatus Curse or blackmailing, though the Imperius would probably be the most popular curse that they used," she said, thinking for a moment.

The Ravenclaw girl just smiled and shook her head as Cela talked on and on about all the history on the wizarding media. That girl... was brilliant. Made a better connection than she had come up with, that was for sure.

Chris listened to Cela and LouAnn discuss the ways The Quibbler and Potterwatch handled the media in the time of Voldemort's reign of terror and of Harry Potter's advances on him. Chris spoke up. "Yes I agree with both of you, and it's like these two media devices (in the beginning since the Quibbler switched to trashing Potter) were trying to keep up the hope fo those who wee still keeping faith. But when the Quibbler swithed its backing of Potter to trying to tear him down, it was an example of what we said before where people will twist fact to suit their own personal interests." he finished taking a big breath.

What Chris said made Livvy think. She didn't exactly think that what he had stated was directed at her in particular but it made her wonder about what he had said. "Chris. Didn't the Quibbler remain loyal to Harry Potter, especially during the time that Lord Voldemort controlled the Ministry? And if there was any time that the Quibbler had switched to 'trashing' Potter, it was due to the fact that Xenophilius Lovegood's daughter Luna Lovegood had been captured. So there are many things that factored towards the opinions of all papers, magazines, and radio stations. Though I believe that it was unclear whether or not the issue that the Death Eaters had forced Lovegood to write, had ever been printed," she replied.

Livvy didn't think that the Quibbler had ever gone against Harry Potter. After all, it was run by the Lovegood's. In Livvy's knowledge, she had known that Luna Lovegood had been a friend of Harry Potter's and Xenophilius Lovegood had been quite an admirer. So if there was any chance of them switching over, it'd be either by blackmail or threatening. At least she thought it was so.

"I agree with that. Like I had been saying earlier to Adrienne, the media may focus on the pessimistic and down part of the story or they may add false details to make the story juicier."

"I think its the opposite, actually. While the media's viewpoint does shift based on popular opinion, more often it works to shape popular opinion. In this case, the public shifted when the media did. That was why it was so important for Potter to get his story out in the Quibbler to provide a media voice to his story."


Copernicus swiveled in his seat when Cela entered, and he offered her an encouraging smile. She was sure to have something amazing to say, clever girl.

"The WWN is a good example, Cel. I would add to your hypothesis that the Imperius was Voldemort's major method of getting control of different media sources, and suggest that perhaps fear was also a powerful motivator. There were many who believed that Voldemort was everywhere and knew everything and they just wanted to tow the party line to keep themselves and their families safe."

He considered her words, before adding. "You know, I think that we ought to at least acknowledge that while the Potterwatch radio and Quibbler actively countered Voldemort-controlled media, they weren't fulfilling the purpose of 'media' in being unbiased. They still reported the truth as they saw it, heavy on the anti-Voldemort and pro-Potter stuff. It was good, but it was still opinion and not objective. I guess that's another way that the media and Dark Wizards interact."

Chris looked at Livvy and listened as she spoke. When she was finished speaking he realised he had left something out of his point and it was taken inclearly. "Oh thank you Livvy, I tried to get my point across of how the Death Eaters may have influenced Lovegood's writing because of the alegged capture of his daughter. I meant that but I guess it didn't come out right." he laughed.

LouAnn nodded in reply to what Cela said about The Quibbler. She remembered her mum telling all about how Luna had been kidnapped by Death Eaters. It sort of reminded LouAnn about parts of her own life. "So The Quibbler and Potterwatch were two that supported Potter and told the truth about the Death Eaters," she said, jotting down a few key points in her notes. "I remember hearing about how the people on Potterwatch took careful steps to ensure that Voldemort couldn't take over their program. They broadcast from different locations and required a password, one related to the Order of the Phoenix, just to listen in. Oh, and the broadcasters even used nicknames to protect themselves."

She grew quiet and thought about how tough times must have been for people to go through that big of an effort just to broadcast news. It got her to thinking about something else, too. "You know, I think their efforts prove just how much people rely on media and what's printed or spoken. The people involved in Potterwatch were willing to go to great lengths just to the truth out. I think that says a lot about how they viewed media and the power it has to control the public," she shared. "I think it also showed how much Voldemort and the Death Eaters thought of it, too. For them to want to take over each and every media out there, they had to believe it held a lot of power, you know."

While she added to her notes, she also turned to Chris, Cope, and Livvy to listen to what they had to say, as well. Merlin, this was a lot of information! LouAnn only hoped she could remember it all later on. At least she had taken good notes...or so, she thought. She nodded when Cope respectfully disagreed with what she said. "That makes sense. The media is used to persuade people to take on a common viewpoint," she summarized. "The popular opinion I was referring to was that of Voldemort and his followers. It seems to me that especially back then, you know with the Daily Prophet, the media tried to save face by taking on the popular opinion in regards to Potter. I think at times it refused to print the truth, even if perhaps some of the Prophet employees believed in Potter."

Livvy chuckled and winked at Chris, shrugging her shoulders slightly and in a nonchalant motion. "No problem Chris. We all know what you meant," she said, smiling. This was all such deep stuff and there was so much information that they had to deal with. "So overall, the Death Eaters took control of the media one by one either by blackmail, the Imperius, and much more factors and methods that they could've used." Livvy felt like that it was necessary of her to conclude. Plus she just wanted to.

Livvy leaned over back towards LouAnn, Cela, and Perni as she listened to the Gryffindor girl talk. There had been so many things that the media had tried to do to get it across to the Wizarding community of all the evil deeds that the Death Eaters had been up to. "They were the only two. All other types of popular media had already been taken over by the Dark side. Of course the broadcasters on Potterwatch had to do everything to insure their safety and the safety of the truth that they would be broadcasting. The things that the Death Eaters would do to them if they were able to find out the broadcasters' identities and the broadcasting locations..." at the end, Livvy couldn't help but shudder slightly at the thought.

The Dark Wizards had been known for the immoral ways and all the horrible things that they had done. Even if they had found out even ONE person's identity that was involved with the radio station, they could do so many things to make that ONE person tell more information of Potterwatch which would give them the opportunity to take down one of the most reliable radio stations of the Wizarding World.

Nodding her head in agreement at what LouAnn said, Livvy spoke up once more. "Well of course the media had a lot of power and affect on the people of the Wizarding community. It was one of the only ways of communication and one of the only ways to tell people the absolute truth. People rely on the media to find out what's going on and obviously, the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort didn't want the people to know what they were up to. They wanted them to be scared, but they didn't want the people to believe that Harry Potter would have any way in defeating them. They wanted to squash all hopes that lingered in the people's hearts that Lord Voldemort would be able to be defeated," Livvy paused momentarily for a quick breath.

"They wanted the public to believe that Voldemort was invincible and that fighting against him would be futile. While the broadcasters of Potterwatch and the writers and editor of the Quibbler, had a different goal, it was the exact opposite. So of course they tried to take each other out and get their own points through to the public," she said, nodding her head. OHEEP. So much information going through her head. So much to process. Livvy took herself out of the conversation briefly to jot down a few notes here and there.

Livvy got out a fresh piece of parchment to rephrase her notes.

Sigh.

Copernicus had a pretty smile. Cela was momentarily distracted by this but she tuned in again when he spoke.

"Uh huh. you are right about the Quibbler and Potterwatch still containing bias, but overall their message was clearer just because the methods of propaganda they used didn't really shove ideas down people's throats. I think the media is very rarely subjective, there's always a slant on what is presented, even if the slant is one that comes from an intent to be unbiased."

Celandine twisted her hair about her finger. "If you think about it, when a dark wizard comes into power in any form, it is very rare for unbiased information to become available. Even if we look back historically, because so many of the surviving accounts are biased in one way or another, it can be hard to see where the media relating to Dark Wizards is at all subjective."

"You know thats true? The media thing? But the first thing they did was take over the government. Politics and Media go together hand in hand, each relies on the other to either get their message out or to bring in the numbers. Its like a parasitical relationship if you think about it."

Celandine shook her head at LouAnn's next statement.

"It was out of fear that they did not print the truth. Maybe for some of them it could have even been greed and those that did not step in line were imperiused. Shall we make a list of the different examples and figure out what kind of propaganda they are?" That way, she'd be revising for her OWLs and participating in preparation for the final.

Big words swirled through Kiri's mind and. Trying to make sense of what some of the other students was saying occupied most of her attention, and she contented herself with jotting down as quickly and accurately as she could what they were talking about. The students preparing for their exams were particularly impressive. She had no doubt that they'd be able to do well in their exams. Probably. Professor Truebridge was a tricky one.

Now, what was it about propaganda... The years of the second rise of Lord Voldemort were a big topic in History of Magic, but Kiri always felt a little less knowledgeable than most of her classmates. She tried to scratch together what she remembered of that period. She turned to Celandine and LouAnn. "Maybe we can take a look at, you know, both sides? For example... Er, in the months" (Or was it weeks? Kiri couldn't recall) "before Voldemort was out in the open again, the Ministry worked closely with the Daily Prophet to paint anyone who was disagreeing with them crazy. Does that count as propaganda? It certainly influenced the public opinion. So... misinformation, maybe? As one type of propaganda.
"And later, when the Ministry was under Voldemort's control, they released statements that made it look as if Harry Potter might have had something to do with the murder of, of..." What was his name? Kiri settled for, "of the Headmaster. They were spreading doubt among his supporters."

She scratched her head. "And talking about Potterwatch, maybe what they were doing in regards to Harry Potter would be for, er, stamina? To give the listeners hope as they fought. I mean," she continued, "they wouldn't have known what Harry Potter was doing at the time, but by telling the listeners that he was fighting against Voldemort, they were providing support for those in the resistance movement."

When Livvy leaned over to talk to her and a few others, LouAnn glanced up and listened to what she had to say. She nodded a few times, indicating she was following along. She, too, shuddered when Livvy sort of mentioned what the Death Eaters would have done to the Potterwatchers had they caught up with them. She didn't even want to think about that in too much detail. Besides, she still needed to jot down a few more notes before time was called. Discussing amongst her classmates was a fun way to go about obtaining notes.

Livvy went on to discuss her thoughts on what LouAnn had previously said, so LouAnn tried to focus on that rather than what might have happened to the Potterwatchers. "Squash all hopes that lingered in people's hearts...wow," she said. LouAnn lightly tapped her fingernails on the top of her desk while she thought that one over. "It was amazing, really, how much the public relied on the media to keep them going during that time. It was sort of like...the media was what held everyone together when they could have easily fallen apart," she said.

She nodded her head at what Cela said to her. "Oh, I agree with that...most definitely. I think people had a very strong idea of what would happen if they didn't side with Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Not only that, they probably witnessed some of what could happen," she said, again not really wanting to think about that part too much. "Like the Potterwatchers...and how they had to hide behind fake names...they knew." She nodded again and got her quill good and ready. "Mmkay, making a list it is!" She turned her head towards Kiri, who was adding her input to what was being discussed.

Dominic actually had like no clue what was going on about him. All he knew was that they were supposed to be self-studying, because Truebridge was away. Yet for some strange reason the head boy couldn't bring himself to focusing at all. Sighing, he tried hard as he may to be listening to the others talk on the subjects, as he scribbled a little here or there of snippets he heard on his parchment.

SPOILER!!: Dom's parchment

* Death eaters. Control Media. Blackmail. Imperius.
* Potterwatch & Quibbler supported[/countered Voldemort's media control
* Potterwatch. Fake names.

Okay, so he hadn't very much information AT ALL and really that would probably be worth like HALF A POINT on his History of Magic NEWT exam. This was not good at all; sighing, the seventh year glanced towards Copernicus. Sure his Ravenclaw colleague was smart... he'd help, right? And judging from his scribbling, he had enough written down...

"Uh... Kettleburn?" Dom sighed, biting his lower lip. "Mind if I copy your study notes?" Cue embarrassment; he usually wasn't THIS unfocused about History of Magic.

Ethan decided to slip into his classroom under a strong disillusionment spell, much in the way that he and Marcus had once done in order to sneak into lessons they'd been late for as students. They'd been pretty good at it then, Truebridge was better at it now.

He slipped inside and looked around, taking in who was working hard and what ideas his students were coming up with. He was pleased they were discussing things, though he'd not mind if anyone wanted to work alone.

He decided to watch for a while before announcing his presence.

So, quite frankly... Jake was getting distracted. Since sitting with Celandine and the other olderrrrr kids, his mind had kind of shut down, and without a teacher, his attention span tended to wander that much more. He sat doodling on his notes, visibly not doing anything more to what he'd done earlier, as he sighed and wondered whyyyyyy in his first class here, it had to be a more DIY kind of thing.

Resting his chin on the desk, Jake waited for something to spark up another memory, whilst he adorned his parchment notes with hundreds of little inked stars.

Celandine started adding to her notes and nodded in agreement to things LouAnn and Kiri were saying. She decided to just go with the standard methods they'd learned in her third year and assigned them to her notes.

"Working hard I see." Ethan released the disillusionment spell and appeared in the middle of the observatory.

"You have about twenty minutes to finish up and then I'll let you know what you will be doing for your final so that you may use the time between now and then to prepare."

He walked to his desk and sat down at it, appearing more relaxed than he had in a long time.

"If anyone has any questions about the task or wish to discuss the topic or share what connections you have already found, you may feel free to speak."

"GAHH!" Jake exclaimed. It wasn't necessarily the voice that spooked him, it was the fact that he looked around at the exact moment that Truebridge appeared. That was not RIGHT. Professors should NOT be so sneaky, especially when he wasn't paying too much attention.

The boy had slipped off his chair in fright, so he hurriedly climbed back up and buried his head in the crook of his arm that sheilded his parchment, crossing out little messages he'd written to himself on his parchment and such like.

Finals?

They were... important... right?

Sitting still and bent over his notes, Jake began trying to re-read them, but found he could barely read his own writing.

Well THAT wasn't good.