Daily Life at Hogwarts Chapter 520: Helpless Beetle
The gossip in the newspaper still caused some trouble for Albert.
Fred, George and Lee Jordan also sent a teasing letter to Albert, congratulating him on winning the International Wizarding Chess Championship.
To sort things out, Albert does an exclusive interview with Rita Skeeter.
The interview took place at Madame Padrefer's Teahouse in Hogsmeade, which is open all day, but rarely has any customers.
In the teahouse, Albert flipped through the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. After hearing the chair being pulled, he slowly raised his head, looked at the witch who appeared in front of him, and asked, "Rita Miss Skeeter?"
The witch's blond hair is twisted into delicate curls, she wears a pair of bejeweled glasses on the bridge of her nose, she clutches a crocodile leather handbag on her fingers, and her nails are painted red.
A young Rita Skeeter would have been a stylish girl, but she's old.
"Yes, it's not easy to interview you once, Mr. Anderson."
Rita Skeeter sat across from Albert, also sizing up the young genius wizard in front of her. To be honest, the gaze of the other party made her very uncomfortable, and there was an illusion of being seen through.
"Actually, I don't like interviews, and I don't like being too ostentatious."
Albert took a sip of milk tea and said with a half-smile: "However, you and your colleagues always like to fabricate facts randomly, and it still brings me some trouble, so I came to see you."
"People always like to see some..." Rita Skeeter couldn't help squinting, she had never seen such a difficult teenager.
"I know," Albert interrupted, "to catch the eye of the reader, and of course I know that I have the same troubles in France and the United States, and those of your colleagues love it."
After speaking, Albert's eyes fell on the quill pen that was writing and drawing on the notebook.
"Never mind that pen, Mr. Anderson, tell me..."
"I suggest that you don't use it to record the words between us, it may not be very friendly to you." Albert looked away from the shorthand quill and interrupted Rita rudely. Skeeter said to himself: "I know very well what kind of reporter you are, and I also know very well that the purpose of the newspaper's existence is to sell yourself, regardless of whether the content in it is true or not."
Speaking, Albert drank the milk tea in the cup, looked at Rita Skeeter with his fingers intertwined, and suddenly showed a strange smile: "Everyone has their own secrets, and you are no exception. .You're an...illegal Animagus, right!"
Albert said the last sentence so softly that only he and Rita Skeeter could hear it.
"What..."
Rita Skeeter's eyes widened, her voice was incredulous, and she almost knocked over the black tea in front of her. "I don't know what you're talking about!" She took a deep breath and said coldly.
"Let me see, what is your Animagus?"
"What did you do to me?" Rita Skeeter had a very bad feeling and quickly looked away, not daring to look directly into Albert's eyes.
"Oh, it was a beetle?"
Albert murmured softly, "So, you use Animagus a lot to get information"
Under the terrified and unbelievable gaze of the female reporter, Albert nodded and said, "Yes, Animagus is indeed suitable for espionage work."
"You..."
Rita Skeeter was shaking all over. She felt that the person in front of her was a terrible devil who could easily see through herself.
Albert's mouth twitched slightly, and he said softly, "No doubt, I'm a photographer."
"It's useless, no one will believe it." Rita Skeeter twitched her lips and seemed to take a lot of effort to say this.
"If you've investigated me, you should know that I know a lot of famous wizards and have good correspondence with them, and if I write to them, trust me, Azkaban will be very welcome Your stay." Albert smiled maliciously: "I think there should be a lot of wizards who hate you, and they will definitely take the opportunity to get down!"
"Okay, what do you want?" Rita Skeeter clenched her fists. She really wanted to put an oblivion spell on the other side, write a vicious article, and make the other person's reputation discredited, but she He quickly gave up the idea and slumped in his chair limply.
"Don't think so, you can order the tea again, we are talking about the next thing."
Speaking, Albert took out the purse from his pocket, pushed it in front of Rita Skeeter, and said calmly: "I hope you can help me wash away those **** scandals, I can answer You have some questions, and you will be charged a fee."
"That's all?"
"Of course not. I hope everything will involve my news in the future. You just need to keep it simple or simply ignore it. If you really need it, write to me instead of making it up to get me into trouble."
Actually, this last point is why Albert invited Rita Skeeter out.
He needs to control public opinion, or at least stop the inexplicable reports.
Rita Skeeter opened her mouth and looked at the purse, which contained about twenty Galleons.
That's not a lot of money for Rita Skeeter, but she'll undoubtedly keep her secrets, avoid jail time, and finish her job at the Daily Prophet for a small profit Pen.
Most importantly, she has no choice.
Although Rita Skeeter feels absurd to compromise with an underage wizard, she knows that compromise doesn't do her much harm, at least the other party has given her a hush money, which is not ashamed.
"Okay, okay."
Rita Skeeter reached for the purse, stuffed it into the alligator leather handbag, took out a quill, and began to ask questions.
"I heard that it was Mr. Bud Broad who recommended you to participate in an international wizarding chess tournament. Was your wizard chess also taught by the former champion?"
"Mr. Broad was a professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and our friendship began at that time..."
Albert began to recall that history, but it sounded complicated to Rita Skeeter, who felt as if she had witnessed the birth of a genius, and Mr. Broad knew no doubt that Albert Because of his special talent, he pushed him behind his back, and the two also forged a deep friendship.
Afterwards, Albert burst out the names of a bunch of wizards, all of them very famous wizards in many fields.
Apparently, he didn't lie before.
"Where's the pretty French lady?" Rita Skeeter asked a few more questions before bringing up another topic of interest to her.
"Louise Delacour"
"It turned out that the lady was named Louise Delacour"
"Actually, I was more familiar with his father, who was a famous potionist, and we wrote letters," recalls Albert, "I met Hertok Dag in France at the time. Mr. Voss, during the chat, he learned that I also knew Mr. Delacour, well, the father of that Miss Louise, and invited me to visit each other, and we happened to meet halfway."
“As for that photo, it was just a French kiss.” Albert recalled, “At that time, the reporter should have been photographing the handshake between Mr. Daggerworth and Mr. Delacour, probably by accident. That photo was taken. Later, you know, I became the youngest International Wizarding Chess champion, and your peers probably thought it was necessary to create a gimmick to attract everyone's attention, so they made it up, after all, everyone likes gossip news. "
"So, what about that pretty American girl?"
Actually, Rita Skeeter was very shocked by Albert's circle of friends. Of course she knew who Mr. Dagworth was, and if she could become a friend of the potion master, her level in potions would certainly not be low. "
"She is the granddaughter of Mr. Nicholas, an American alchemist who also likes alchemy very much. Mr. Serra and I only met each other by chance when we visited Mr. Nicholas."
Albert thought for a while and then said: "When I am about to return to the UK, please ask Miss Catherine to take me to Wizard Street in the United States, and I am going to buy some special products of the American magic world for my friends. That photo is in It was filmed at that time, because I rejected an interview with an American reporter at the time, so he, like his French counterpart, fabricated a scandal at will, and they didn’t need to be responsible anyway, and everyone likes to watch this kind of stuff.”
Rita Skeeter was a little disappointed, things were not much different from what she expected, looking for some breaking news, she continued to ask, "I heard that you were in the United States with a member of the Ministry of Magic at the time. Staff had some unpleasant conflicts."
"An unpleasant conflict?" Albert recalled a little and said helplessly, "It's not an unpleasant conflict, it's just a helpless misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding"
"The Miss Catherine also gave me a kiss on the face." Albert said helplessly, ""The young employee who received me seemed to be Miss Catherine's admirer. , you should not be hard-pressed to guess that the jealous young man deliberately caused me some trouble within his work authority. In the end they even searched me~IndoMTL.com~ and made a mess of my luggage. "
"I think a reasonable apology is necessary." Albert said calmly: "After all, I should have cooperated with all inspections, and his suspicions caused us unnecessary trouble. ."
"Jealous, abuse of power, twisted facts, nonsense."
"As for why the newspaper said that." Albert shrugged, "I think it may be because I defeated the American player who had a good chance of winning the championship!"
"Twist the facts and deliberately provoke contradictions." Rita Skeeter wrote more and more excitedly, and continued to ask, "Do you have anything special to say about this trip to the United States?"
"The magical society in the United States is different from that of Europe and even most countries. They have many strict laws. For example, after you go to the United States, you need to apply for a temporary wand license at the Magic Congress as soon as possible. , or you're breaking the law."
Albert thought for a while and then said: "I suggest that the Magical Congress of the United States print an entry guide to the American Magical Society, detailing some legal rules that need to be strictly followed after entering the American Magical Society, I believe this will be very good. to reduce the work of the Magical Congress and greatly ease the pressure on prisons.
"After all, not all wizards are like me. Before going to the United States, they carefully learned about the situation of the American magical society." Albert put down the milk tea he had drunk and said calmly.
"I'll write an article that will please you." Rita Skeeter put away the parchment, her face full of excitement.
"When you're done, remember to send me a first draft first. Don't forget, Miss Rita Skeeter." With that, Albert got up and went to the counter to pay, then borrowed Mrs. Padiff Fireplace in the tea house, direct flight to Diagon Alley.