The Hogwarts Emerald

Chapter 413 His Way
After Christmas, it was New Year. After the students exchanged a few words of "Hi, Niu Niu", classes resumed at Hogwarts. February 24th suddenly seemed much closer.

The grounds were still covered with a thick layer of snow, and the windows of the castle were covered with fine beads of condensation. In such weather, everyone wanted to stay indoors in warmth.

In Twilight Cottage, Ada sat by the fireplace, holding today's Daily Prophet in her hand. There was an article on it, and a photo of Hagrid, who looked sneaky in the photo.

This is another exclusive report by Rita Skeeter. In this article, Rita Skeeter describes Dumbledore as an old confused and madman who hired the vicious Alastor Moody and the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid.

Exaggeration and lies are the characteristics of Rita Skeeter, although she always knows a lot of unknown secrets, such as Hagrid is a half-giant.

The crazy woman described Hagrid as a cruel and violent man who abused his power, causing injuries and disabilities to many students.

This is completely false!
Although there were often some "scary" animals in Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, since he became the professor of this course, only Draco Malfoy had been injured, and it was Malfoy's own fault.

No one with any sense should believe this. If it was true that several students were left disabled, as Rita Skeeter said, the matter would have become a huge uproar and would have been impossible to cover up.

If it is normal for Rita Skeeter to know that some students were injured, and she made it up through interviews with students, then the fact that she knew that Hagrid was a half-giant is somewhat terrifying when you think about it carefully.

Among the students at Hogwarts, only Ada, Fred and George knew that Hagrid was a half-giant, and the three of them also guessed based on Hagrid's body shape without any solid evidence.

But Rita Skeeter said that Hagrid admitted this himself, and even accurately stated the name of Hagrid's giant mother - Friedvafar.

Pay attention, how could Hagrid tell Rita Skeeter that he was a half-giant? He didn't even tell Harry. So, how did this woman Rita Skeeter know?
Also, Dumbledore banned Rita Skeeter from Hogwarts after the first report on the Triwizard Tournament, so where did these so-called interviews come from?

Seeing how Rita Skeeter had no professional ethics and even no moral bottom line, Ada felt that the revenge she was about to launch might be a little too mild.

At school, people were discussing the article in the Daily Prophet. Many people knew that the content was untrue, but few people stood up to speak out. It was understandable that they did not care about the matter.

Grubbly-Plank has returned to Hogwarts temporarily to teach Care of Magical Creatures in place of Hagrid, who needs to stay out of the spotlight and is in no mood to teach his students.

Outside the school, a group of fools actually took Rita Skeeter's report as true, clamoring for severe punishment of Hagrid, and some even shouted for Dumbledore to get out of Hogwarts.

I have to say that this brother is really courageous. Ada guessed that he might have been instructed by Fudge.

The incident dominated the first week of term, and Hagrid was not seen at all that week: he was not at the staff table at mealtimes, nor was he seen performing his gamekeeper duties in the grounds.

Hagrid locked himself in his own hut, silently enduring the injustice that the world brought to him.

The incident had almost fermented to the point where a group of fools regarded Rita Skeeter as a messenger of justice and a person who spoke up for justice.

At this time, a serialized article suddenly appeared in major magazines and newspapers, entitled "My Years as a Journalist."

As the name suggests, this article will talk about the career of a journalist. The story is told in the first person, and who "this journalist" is is never revealed from beginning to end.

The article begins with a young reporter who has just started working diligently. This young reporter was rejected for interviews, his reports were not taken seriously, and no one even wanted to read the real content he wrote.

The young reporter, who was unable to make ends meet, began to change his mentality. He no longer spoke for justice and reported the truth. As a result, the fake news made him famous and had loyal readers, which made him taste the sweetness.

The first article ended abruptly, leaving readers wanting more. Soon, the second article appeared in the public eye, still without revealing the reporter’s real name.

After the transformation, the reporter gained both fame and fortune. From being ignored and neglected at the beginning, he became very popular and became a special correspondent for the best-selling newspaper.

This reporter used his unique interview method to obtain a lot of first-hand information that no one knew about. No one had seen this information before, so it was impossible to tell whether it was true or false.

In order to make his report more popular, this reporter used every possible means, including fabricating stories, exaggerating, and spreading rumors.

Past experiences have taught this reporter that readers don’t care whether a report is true or not. As long as the content is explosive, it is a good report and he is a good reporter. In the second article in the series, this reporter talked about some of the content he had reported and analyzed what methods he used to make his reports popular.

It can be regarded as a teaching manual for unscrupulous journalists.

After reading these two reports, readers began to wonder who this reporter was. At the same time, readers also wanted to know what kind of interview method this reporter used to obtain so many unknown "truths".

But the sad thing is that these readers are not aware of their own problems. The reason why this journalist with no professional qualities and no professional ethics became popular is precisely because of these readers.

Dig into the dark side of readers and show them what they like. It doesn't matter if it's true, as long as it's explosive enough, even if it's fake or fictional.

This is the hateful side of human beings. I hope you have a worse life than me. The fire of this reporter shows the ugliness of human nature vividly.

The third and final article in the series also did not mention the name of the reporter, but it did reveal the reporter's interview method - Animagus.

The reporter was an Animagus, an illegal Animagus who had not been registered with the Ministry of Magic. He could transform into a very small flying insect, which would not attract attention even if seen by others.

By eavesdropping, we can record the unknown truths and report them. However, few people want to know these truths, and they will not attract much attention. So what should we do?
Exaggerating the facts, when it is obvious that only one student was slightly injured in an accident, they say that the teacher deliberately hurt the student; when the injury to only one student is not serious enough, they replace it with several students and say that the minor injury is a disability.

When the conflict comes and the explosive point comes, readers will naturally come.

Having written this far, these three serial articles have hastily come to an end, just like life, which always ends hastily.

But readers all know who the "reporter" in the article is. Isn't it Rita Skeeter!
She had just reported on the half-giant professor at Hogwarts, saying that the professor was ferocious and cruel, leaving several students disabled.

However, we must know that when God spreads wisdom to the world, some people hold up umbrellas. Some people denounce Rita Skeeter and hope that she will show up and give an explanation, while others defend Rita Skeeter and support her unquestioningly.

What was Rita Skeeter doing at this time?
Rita Skeeter was entangled in lawsuits and was overwhelmed. She sat in the dock. Many people she had "interviewed" united to sue her at the Ministry of Magic.

Illegal Animagus, defamation, malicious slander, false reporting, etc. At the same time, she will also face huge claims, mental damages, reputation damages, etc.

Now Rita Skeeter doesn't care about what people in the wizarding world say. Her first priority is to avoid being sent to Azkaban.

Use Rita Skeeter's most familiar method to release her dirty laundry, then unite with Rita Skeeter's victims to sue her at the Ministry of Magic, and give her a taste of her own medicine.

At this time, Rita Skeeter had no regrets, and she didn't even think she had done anything wrong. She just wanted to make money and expose the "truth" by the way. She was right!

Rather than repenting or confessing her sins, Rita Skeeter wanted to know who she had offended to be treated like this!

This person is of course Ada, the vengeful Ada. As soon as the report about the Triwizard Tournament came out, Ada contacted Daniel and Sergei and asked them to take people to dig up dirt on Rita Skeeter.

God helps those who work hard. After months of visits and investigations, Daniel and Sergei collected a lot of dirty tricks and found many victims.

Professional matters should be left to professionals. Daniel and Sergei are professionals in collecting intelligence, but they are not good at writing. Fortunately, colleagues are enemies, so it is easy to find someone who is willing to write and expose information.

The price was agreed upon, and the three articles were published. At the same time, Daniel took the victims to file a lawsuit, taking a two-pronged approach.

At this time in Hogwarts, the students' focus naturally shifted from the half-blood giant Hagrid to the unscrupulous reporter Rita Skeeter, denouncing his various misdeeds.

But just a while ago, many students were still fascinated by Rita Skeeter's articles!

(End of this chapter)