Study Days at Hogwarts

  Chapter 521 Helpless Beetle

  The pile of scandals in the newspapers still caused Albert some troubles.

  Fred, George and Lee Jordan did not forget to send ridicule letters to Albert, by the way congratulating him on winning the International Wizard Chess Championship.

   To fix the trouble, Albert accepts an exclusive interview with Rita Skeeter.

  The interview location is in Mrs. Puddiffe's teahouse in Hogsmeade, which is open all day long, but there are basically no customers.

In the teahouse, Albert was flipping 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 Skye?" Miss Te?"

  The witch's blond hair was twisted into delicate big curls, she wore a pair of jeweled glasses on the bridge of her nose, she held a crocodile leather handbag on her fingers, and her nails were painted red.

  If Rita Skeeter was dressed like this when she was young, she should be a fashionable and beautiful girl, but she is already old.

   "Yes, it's not easy to interview you once, Mr. Anderson."

   Rita Skeeter sat across from Albert, and also looked at the young genius wizard in front of her. To be honest, the other party's gaze made her very uncomfortable, and she had the 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 indiscriminately, which still caused me some trouble, so I came to see you."

   "People always like to watch some..." Rita Skeeter couldn't help squinting her eyes, she had never seen such a difficult teenager.

   "I know," Albert interrupted, "to attract readers' attention, and of course I also know that I have the same troubles in France and the United States, and those of your colleagues like to do it."

   After finishing speaking, Albert's eyes fell on the quill pen that was writing and drawing in the notebook.

   "Leave that pen alone, Mr. Anderson, tell me..."

"I suggest that you don't use it to record the words between us, it may not be friendly to you." Albert looked away from the shorthand quill, and interrupted Rita Skeeter very rudely Then he said to himself: "I know exactly what kind of reporter you are, and I also know the purpose of the newspaper's existence, which is to sell yourself, regardless of whether the content in it is true or not."

As he said that, 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 are A... illegal Animagus, right!"

   Albert said the last sentence very softly, only he and Rita Skeeter could hear it.

"What…"

   Rita Skeeter's eyes widened, her tone was filled with disbelief, 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, so it's a beetle?"

  Albert murmured softly, "So, you often use Animagus to find information?"

  Under the terrified and unbelievable eyes of the female reporter, Albert nodded himself and said, "That's right, Animagus is indeed very suitable for spy work."

"you…"

   Rita Skeeter was trembling all over. She felt that the person in front of her was simply a terrifying devil, and she could see through herself so easily.

  The corners of Albert's mouth curled up slightly, and he said softly, "Don't doubt it, I'm a memory engineer."

   "It's useless, no one will believe it." Rita Skeeter twitched her lips, as if it took a lot of effort to say this.

"If you have investigated me, you should know that I know a lot of famous wizards, and I have maintained good correspondence with them. As long as I write to them, believe me, Azkaban Prison will definitely welcome you. " Albert laughed maliciously: "I think there should be many wizards who hate you, and they will definitely take the opportunity to make trouble!"

"Well, what exactly do you want?" Rita Skeeter clenched her fists. She really wanted to cast an oblivion spell on the other party and write a vicious article to discredit the other party, but she soon Abandoning this idea, he slumped weakly on the chair.

   "If you don't want to do anything, you can order a cup of tea again, and we are talking about the next thing."

After speaking, Albert took out the money bag from his pocket and pushed it in front of Rita Skeeter, and said calmly: "I hope you can help me wash away those **** scandals, and I can answer some of your questions , and will give you a fee."

"that's it?"

  "Of course not. I hope that in the future, you will simply ignore or simply ignore any news that involves me. If you really need it, write to me instead of making things up and causing me trouble."

  Actually, the last point is the reason why Albert invited Rita Skeet out.

  He needs to control public opinion, at least stop that kind of inexplicable report.

   Rita Skeeter opened her mouth, and her eyes fell on the money bag, which contained about twenty Galleons.

   It wasn't a lot of money for Rita Skeeter, but she would undoubtedly be able to keep her secret, avoid jail time, and complete the work of the Daily Prophet for a small profit.

  Most importantly, she has no choice.

  Although it made Rita Skeeter feel absurd to compromise with an underage wizard, she knew that compromising would not do her much harm. At least the other party paid the hush money, which was not a shame.

"Alright alright."

   Rita Skeeter reached for the purse and stuffed it into the crocodile leather handbag, took out a quill from it, and started asking questions.

   "I heard that Mr. Bud Brod recommended you to participate in the International Wizard Chess Competition. Was your Wizard Chess also taught by this former champion?"

   "Mr. Brod once served as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, and our friendship began at that time..."

Albert began to recall that period of history, but it was complicated to Rita Skeeter's ears. She felt as if she had witnessed the birth of a genius, and Mr. Brod undoubtedly knew Albert's talent , so he pushed him behind the back, and the two formed a deep friendship because of this.

   Later, Albert burst out the names of a bunch of wizards from his mouth, all of whom are very famous wizards in many fields.

   Obviously, he didn't lie earlier.

   "Where's that beautiful French lady?" Rita Skeeter asked a few more questions before bringing up another topic that interested her.

   "Louise Delacour?"

   "So that lady's name is Louise Delacour?"

"In fact, I was more familiar with his father, who was a famous potion master, and we had correspondence." Albert recalled, "At that time, I met Mr. Hetok Dagworth in France. , During the chat, he learned that I also knew Mr. Delacour, um, that Miss Louise’s father, so he invited me to visit him together, and we happened to meet on the way.”

"As for that photo, it's just a French kiss." Albert recalled, "At that time, the reporter should have been photographing the handshake between Mr. Dagworth and Mr. Delacour, probably by accident. A photo. Later, you also know that I became the youngest international wizard chess champion, and your peers may think that they need to create some gimmicks to attract everyone’s attention, so they made it up, after all, everyone likes gossip news.”

   "I see, where is that beautiful American girl?"

  Actually, Rita Skeeter was very shocked by Albert's circle of friends. Of course, she knew who Mr. Dagworth was. If she could become a friend of a potion master, her level of potion would definitely not be low. "

   "That's the granddaughter of Mr. Nicholas, an American alchemist, who also likes alchemy. Mr. Serra and I met each other by chance when we were visiting 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 plan to buy some special products from the American magic world for friends. That photo was taken at that time Yes, because I refused an interview with an American reporter at the time, so like his counterpart in France, he fabricated a scandal at will, and they don’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. She wanted to find some breaking news, and continued to ask, "I heard that you had an incident with an employee of the Ministry of Magic in the United States. Some unpleasant conflicts."

   "An unpleasant conflict?" Albert recalled a little, and said rather helplessly, "It's not an unpleasant conflict, it's just a helpless misunderstanding."

"Misunderstand?"

"That Miss Catherine also gave me a face kiss." Albert said rather helplessly, ""The young employee who received me seems to be Miss Catherine's admirer, you should It's not difficult to guess that the jealous young man deliberately caused me some trouble within his job authority. In the end they actually searched me and messed up my luggage. "

   "I think a reasonable apology is very necessary." Albert said calmly: "After all, I accepted all the inspections very cooperatively at the time, and his suspicion caused us unnecessary trouble."

   "Jealous, abusing power, distorting facts, talking nonsense."

   "As for why the newspapers said that." Albert shrugged, "I think it may be because I defeated the American player who has a good chance of winning the championship!"

   "Twisting the facts and deliberately provoking contradictions." Rita Skeeter became more and more excited as she wrote, 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 in Europe, or even in 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, otherwise you will It would be illegal."

Albert thought for a while and said: "I suggest that the Magical Congress of the United States print a guide to the entry into the American magical society, detailing some laws and regulations that need to be strictly followed after going to the American magical society. I believe that doing so can reduce the number of magical The work of Congress, and greatly relieve the pressure on prisons.

   "After all, not all wizards are like me. Before going to the United States, they have carefully understood the situation of the American magical society." Albert put down the milk tea he had already drunk and said calmly.

   "I will write an article that satisfies you." Rita Skeeter put away the parchment, her face full of excitement.

"After you finish writing, remember to send me a first draft. Don't forget, Miss Rita Skeeter." After speaking, Albert got up and went to the counter to pay, and then borrowed the fireplace from Madame Puddiffe's teahouse , fly directly to Diagon Alley.

  (end of this chapter)