Hogwarts Advanced Guide

Chapter 374 The Ministry of Magic in Chaos

Hermione frowned, then turned to Rita and said, "It seems we have reached an agreement."

"Believe me, if Mr. Lestrange's guarantee is there, the effect will be better." Rita said with a smile, her eyes couldn't stop glancing at Hera.

To be honest, this gave Hera a chill down her back.This look, when he was looking for a job in Diagon Alley the year he graduated, many middle-aged witches with big opal or ruby ​​rings looked at him with this look.

"Take care of your eyes." Hera said coldly, while wrapping herself tightly in the cloak.

Rita covered her mouth and smiled coquettishly, "Don't be so shy, Hera~"

This made everyone's goosebumps tremble subconsciously.

"Let's get back to the point." Hermione patted the table to get the topic back on track, "Continue to talk about the reported matter."

Luna dreamily hummed "Weasley is Our King" - the song the Slytherins used to mock Ron's poor flying skills - and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.

"You want me to report on him about the man who can't even be named?" Once back at her job, Rita was much more sane, at least she wasn't staring at Hera for a while, but she wasn't doing much better, and she was getting a little too excited.

"Yes," said Hermione, "true report. All the facts, just like Harry said. He'll give all the details, he'll name all the Death Eaters he's seen somewhere, he'll tell you what Voldemort looks like now—well, play it safe." She said contemptuously, flinging a napkin, because at the sound of Voldemort's name Rita shuddered and poured half a glass of Firewhiskey on herself.

In fact, the others were not much better, such as Hera, whose hands were frozen.

"Should I remind Hermione?" Hera thought to herself.

Rita wiped her dirty raincoat, still waiting for Hermione, and then she said bluntly, "The Daily Prophet won't print it. As you know, no one believes his ridiculous story, everyone thinks he's delusional, and if you'll let me write it differently—"

"I'm afraid this is not what we need." Hera said with a frown.

"Yeah, we don't need another article saying Harry's crazy," said Hermione angrily. "That's enough, thank you! I want him to have a chance to tell the truth!"

"There's no market for articles like that," Rita said dryly. "People need something to blow up."

"You're saying the Daily Prophet won't be in it because Fudge won't let them in," said Hermione angrily.

Rita glared at Hermione for a moment, then leaned forward and said without emotion, "Well, Fudge relies on the Daily Prophet, but that's a different story. They won't publish articles that speak well of Harry, no one wants to read it, and it goes against public psychology. This Azkaban escape has created panic, and people don't want to believe that You-Know-Who is back."

"This is the reality." Hera said in a low voice. He had to admit that what Rita said was indeed right. Even though it was not in line with justice, an adult society cannot survive by relying on justice. Only profit is the basis of survival.

This was obviously something that Hermione, who was still studying, couldn't understand. After all, she was still a student, but idealism was good after all, but Hermione was already in the fifth grade, and would graduate in two years. Hera needed to puncture her fantasy, at least stop saying such ridiculous things.

But Hermione didn't seem to hear what Hera said, and continued to ask: "Well, the purpose of the "Daily Prophet" is to say what people want to hear, right?"

Rita sat up straight, raising her eyebrows. Like Hera, she thought Hermione was too childish, but she was more direct.She drank down her Firewhiskey in one gulp.

"The purpose of the Daily Prophet is to sell itself, little fool," she said coldly.

"My dad said it was a bad newspaper." Luna suddenly interjected that Hera had always been impressed by her, whether it was the previous encounter on the train or the chance encounter on the Quidditch pitch.But in the discussion just now, she was clearly out of the situation.She sucked on cocktail onions and stared at Rita with her big, bulging, slightly crazy eyes—excuse Hera for saying that, it was the best adjective he could come up with.

"My dad always published important news that he thought people needed to know, and he didn't care if he made money or not."

This made Rita very dissatisfied, and she looked at Luna contemptuously.

"I guess your dad runs some ridiculous country tabloid? 25 Ways to Befriend Muggles, and the date of the next flea market?"

"No," retorted Hera. "Her father was the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler, a gentleman I respect very much, although we have never met."

Rita sneered, and everyone at the neighboring table turned their heads in shock.

"Well, that's very respectable, and I'd rather fertilize my garden with the stuff in that old newspaper."

"Maybe you need it to improve your taste." Hera responded with a cold face. He could see Mr. Lovegood's three views through the words. He believed that he was a person worthy of respect and should not be insulted.

"Oh, that would be great," said Hermione cheerfully, and she came out to break the ice. "Luna said her dad would love to publish the interview with Harry, so let's post it there."

Hera looked at Hermione suspiciously. Why was she able to persuade Rita Skeeter, and even where she wanted her to post it?

It was as if Hermione had grasped Rita's lifeblood. Is there anything he didn't know about it?
Hera narrowed his eyes, he smelled the secret.There is no doubt that it is very valuable, otherwise Rita, a special writer for the "Daily Prophet", would not be led by the nose by Hermione.

"The Quibbler?" Rita stared at the two of them for a while, then burst out laughing. "Do you think people will take him seriously when he's on The Quibbler?"

"I'm afraid quite a few people will." Hera nodded, and said calmly, "The Daily Prophet's report on the Azkaban incident has a lot of loopholes, and many people will want to have a better explanation. If there is another statement, even if it is published in another newspaper." He glanced at Luna, "A very interesting newspaper, I think they will be willing to accept it."

"Maybe it'll improve sales of The Quibbler by the way, and I'd love for it to be seen by more people," Hera added.

Rita didn't answer, but tilted her head and looked shrewdly at Hermione.

"Okay, assuming I agree," she said suddenly, seeming to be interested in the matter, "how much will I be paid?"

"I think Dad doesn't spend money to write articles," Luna said dreamily. "They feel honored to write, of course, to see their names in the newspapers."

Rita seemed to swallow another mouthful of stinky juice, she turned to Hermione, "You want me to write for nothing?"

"Yes," Hermione said calmly, taking a sip of her drink, "Otherwise, you know it, I will report you as an unregistered Animagus. Of course, the "Daily Prophet" may pay you a lot of money to ask you to write about life in Azkaban from the inside..."

Rita seemed eager to grab the little paper umbrella from Hermione's cup and stuff it up her nose.

"Looks like I don't have much choice, does it?" Rita's voice trembled a little.She reopened the crocodile bag, pulled out a piece of parchment, and held up the shorthand quill.

"Daddy will be very happy," said Luna happily.The muscles in Rita's mouth twitched.

"Well, Harry," said Hermione, turning to him, "are you ready to tell the truth to the public?"

"Yeah," said Harry, watching Rita spread out the parchment and set the shorthand quill up on top of it.

"Ask, Rita," said Hermione quietly, picking a cherry from the bottom of the glass.

Looking at all this, Hera secretly made up her mind that she must ask Hermione what kind of handle she has on Rita afterwards. This may help him—if he uses Rita properly, he can use Rita's hand to portray himself as the savior of the wizarding world—she has this ability, and her name alone is a big sign.

In the following time, Hera seldom listened to Harry's statement. Instead, she glanced back and forth between Rita and Hermione with great interest, as if they were pretty good-looking, but both of them could only be called average, and even Rita was a little ugly.

Luna mumbled that she didn't know when Rita's article would be published, and that her dad was waiting to post a great long article about the recent sighting of the snarky snorkel. "Of course, that's a very important article, so Harry's may have to wait for the next issue."

"Of course, the Horned Snork is too important. Please tell your father that I can't wait to see the latest issue of "The Quibbler." When it came to the newspaper, Hera suddenly became interested again. He was very much looking forward to seeing some interesting cartoons or articles in the next issue.

But that night was not easy for Harry, because he had to tell the story of Voldemort's return without listening.Rita pressed for every detail, and he told her all he could remember, knowing this was his big chance to tell the truth.Hera also added something besides, because Harry turned to stare at him whenever he encountered something he couldn't remember clearly, and even Rita turned to look at Hera intoxicated.

To be honest, it made Hera sick.

But thinking that he might spend a lot of time dealing with Rita in the future, Hera endured it and tried to ignore Rita's eyes.

"Don't write my name in the newspaper." Hera explained again at the last moment.

Rita patted her chest and assured, "Of course not, please believe me."

"I trust you, but I don't trust your quill." Hera stared at her for a long time, took out her wand and waved it in front of her eyes, until finally, Rita nodded hesitantly.

"Very good." Hera smiled and left the Three Broomsticks. Valentine's Day is a good harvest. It seems that you only need to ask Hermione to find out what's going on with Rita. What's more important than controlling public opinion?

"I can't believe you've done such a thing!" said Flitwick, astonished at supper.Umbridge was munching on a chicken and ham pie nearby, but everyone knew she was listening with one ear pricked up.

"That's right, Hera." Flitwick said softly. He glanced at Umbridge with a look of disgust on his face, but then whispered, "It must be... difficult, for Harry, to talk about this...?"

"It's okay, but I think it may take a while for Harry to calm down. You know, he's been emotionally unstable lately, you know about that." Hera lowered her voice to make sure that Umbridge wouldn't overhear their conversation. In fact, they were worrying too much, because Professor McGonagall suddenly pulled Snape to talk about today's weather, which made Umbridge unable to hear what they were saying at all.

"Well," Professor Flitwick nodded, "but one has to know what You-Know-Who's up to, isn't it?"

"Yes." Hera muttered, "And his Death Eaters, people should know."

Professor Flitwick stopped talking now, as Umbridge approached, and they resumed eating their baked potatoes.Umbridge came over and stared at them for a long time, Hera looked down at the plate, completely ignoring Umbridge.After a while, Umbridge had been standing here, but no one had any intention of continuing to chat. Most of them were silently eating the baked potatoes in front of them.

Umbridge left, left angry, she was angry with herself, she should have known that, no one would talk about anything sensitive in front of her anymore - in fact, it was pretty much the consensus of everyone.

Umbridge successfully used half the school year to make everyone hate her and the Ministry of Magic. Many young wizards who want to work in the Ministry of Magic after graduation have shaken their faith. Such an unreliable Umbridge can become a special assistant to the Minister of Magic and a senior investigator at Hogwarts.
Is this really who they want to be?

The Ministry of Magic doesn't look as good as Hera's original DA Defense Association. At least Hera is teaching them the means of self-defense seriously, not to mention the recent Azkaban escape incident has caused panic, which has shaken everyone's trust in the Ministry of Magic.

Even the little wizards at Hogwarts felt it. Compared with them, there were different voices in the Ministry of Magic on the front line. Among them, the faction headed by Minister of Magic Fudge insisted that Voldemort's comeback was a complete hoax.

And the other faction, the Aurors headed by Rufus Scrimgeour, they have seen more, they know that Dumbledore and Harry are not crazy, and what they say is correct.

A series of factional disputes have unfolded within the Ministry of Magic, but at the moment, Fudge still has the upper hand, because behind him are the high-level officials of the major families and the Ministry of Magic.

(End of this chapter)