The Return to Hogwarts

“You’re very interesting, Ms. Skeeter—”

Amosta's eyes were half-closed, and he chuckled softly. He didn't try to shoo him away again, but instead closed the door behind him and walked towards the balcony.

By the time Amosta sat down, Rita Skeeter had already taken out the shorthand quill she had used at the press conference and a brand new piece of parchment from her bag.

"Amosta, you won't object to me using a quill pen to take notes, will you? That way, I can have my hands free to have a normal conversation with you."

Amosta gestured to indicate that she didn't mind, maintaining a cheerful smile, but there was no smile in her eyes.

"I won't concern myself with where you found out my address, Ms. Skeeter. As a professional and well-known journalist, you must have your own connections. But why waste your time on me when I'm curious? I mean, I'm 'outdated,' aren't I? The hot topic now is Sirius Black, and your colleagues are racking their brains trying to find out the inside story of Black's arrest from the Ministry of Magic—"

Rita Skeeter raised a heavily drawn eyebrow.

“Don’t underestimate yourself, Amosta. People are still very interested in you, but Sirius Black is the one who is truly outdated.”

Amosta pursed his lips and remained silent, because he had noticed the green quill pen scribbling furiously on the parchment spread out on the glass coffee table:

At the start of this difficult conversation, Amosta Blaine attempted to steer the conversation toward the hotly debated arrest of Sirius Black. His young, handsome face appeared nonchalant, but the glint in his peculiar purple eyes betrayed his fear. Perhaps he was afraid I would bring up the report that should have been published long ago, revealing some chilling truths, but which ultimately vanished in the face of power.

"Wow, this is really interesting—"

Amosta made this remark for the second time after meeting Rita Skeeter.

"You went to all this trouble to come before me just to stand up for yourself, Ms. Skeeter, and to expose the truth in your report?"

Amosta interlaced his fingers, his smile indifferent.

"I did that not to solve my own problems, Ms. Skeeter, but to prevent you from making a mistake, not to mention that dark wizard who committed crimes in Grimmauld Place, outside London, for which there is absolutely no factual basis to suggest any connection with me."

Regarding what you mentioned in your report about what happened that night when I was at Hogwarts, Ms. Skeeter, not a single word in your report is factual. If that article was indeed published, I was taking action to protect my reputation.”

Rita Skeeter is a seasoned journalist with a tough speaking style. Throughout her career, she has interviewed dignitaries from various countries' Ministries of Magic and prominent figures in the wizarding world. She always manages to take control of the conversation, gradually overwhelming these "big shots" with her sharp questions and eventually breaking down their defenses.

However, Amosta Blaine seemed completely unconcerned about her 'illustrious reputation'. A heavy, abyssal aura emanated from the young wizard, suppressing her and preventing her from 'playing freely'.

“Prian and Philoia—you surely remember their names, don’t you, Amosta? Two innocent little wizards were seriously injured by you, isn’t that the truth?”

Rita stared intently into Amosta's eyes, a stiff smile on her large-chinned face.

"the truth?"

Amosta was amused.

“Ms. Skeeter, someone like you should understand that truth is always a relative term, and what you or the people of the magical world are pursuing has never been ‘truth’.”

Chapter 349 The handle brought to the door

2023-06-25

Rita finally realized something: the young Amostella Blaine sitting across from her—a man who, at that age, would probably be stuck in an obscure department or running errands in the Ministry of Magic—was not the kind of brainless 'idiot' she usually saw.

He was very intelligent and vigilant, and most importantly, Amosta Blaine had an amazing network of connections.

It's important to understand that even the Minister of Magic wouldn't find it easy to remove her article from the Daily Prophet, but according to what she'd heard, Amostra Blaine had the power to order the newspaper to remove her article even though the next issue was already in print.

“I don’t understand what you mean, Amosta—”

Rita raised her heavily drawn eyebrows, and the smile vanished from her face, which was covered in a thick layer of powder, making her expression somewhat stiff. Her eyes also turned cold.

“Our readers have the right to know the truth, Amosta, and my job is to uncover the truth.”

As silence descended, Rita's shorthand quill began spreading rumors again:

When I inquired about the horrific attack on a classmate that occurred at Hogwarts (details will be attached to the report), Amosta Blaine, who had become famous for defeating Greyback, vehemently denied it and reacted strongly, which made us doubt the true face of this hero shrouded in the aura of heroism.

Amosta shook his head in disappointment.

He let the female reporter in with the intention of having a good chat with her and building a certain degree of friendship, but he really didn't expect Rita Skeeter to be so stubborn in wanting to spread rumors about him.

“I think it was a mistake to start this conversation, Ms. Rita Skeeter—”

boom!

Under the bright sunlight, the glass coffee table reflecting the sun's rays suddenly burst into flames. Rita Skeeter sprang up, trying to save her alligator leather bracelet and quill pen from the flames, but the flames were so intense that in the blink of an eye, all her belongings had turned to ashes.

A few breaths later, the flames died down, and the glass coffee table and the potted plant on it were completely undamaged. A gentle breeze swept by, and the remaining ashes swirled and flew out of the glass railing, disappearing without a trace.

"How dare you do this, Amosta!"

Rita Skeeter, who had interviewed countless renowned wizards throughout her career, had never encountered anyone so brazen. She glared at Amosta with malice.

"Amosta Blaine, you will pay for your actions. I swear, you will be utterly disgraced!"

"Go now, Rita Skeeter. I have other matters to attend to, so I won't see you off personally."

With a wave of his hand, the room door opened automatically, and Amosta spoke calmly.

If Rita Skeeter understood the rules governing the seemingly peaceful and harmonious world of magic, both above and below ground, she wouldn't have acted impulsively and done anything foolish. If she wasn't clear-headed enough, at best, she would ruin her career; at worst, she would face the same or even worse fate as that fellow bestselling author.

Rita Skeeter stormed off, slamming the door shut behind her.

Amosta simply shook his head slightly, got up and went to his desk to continue processing the reply that had been interrupted.

Rita Skeeter, standing in front of the door, was pale and panting.

"Damn Amosta Blaine. Nobody's ever dared to do this before, ugh. Intercepting my reporting, destroying my stuff!"

Rita stared fiercely at the door, plotting something in her mind.

"There must be something shady going on, right? Oh, of course, all these big shots are like that. It's not easy to find out. Blaine is very mysterious; nobody knows what he did in the two or three years after he left Hogwarts. Something's fishy."

Before coming to her door today, Rita Skeeter had investigated Amosta Blaine, who had suddenly appeared in the public eye, but the results of the investigation were not satisfactory.

All the information she could find concerned Amosta before her graduation from Hogwarts. After graduation, until last year when she was hired by the Hogwarts Board of Governors to enter the school in search of the successor to the Chamber of Secrets of Slytherin, Amosta seemed to have completely disappeared from the wizarding world, and no information could be found about her.

Amosta Blaine neither chose to work for the Ministry of Magic nor for any of the prestigious companies in the wizarding world, and he also lost contact with all his former classmates.

There is only one possible explanation: Amosta Blaine has returned to the Muggle world and no longer has any interaction with the wizarding world.

But is this possible?

The idea of ​​a powerful wizard choosing to ditch the wizarding world and mingle with Muggles is as unbelievable as a centaur leaving the forest to make a living in Diagon Alley.

Moreover, how did he build up his network of connections with those powerful and influential people?

There is only one possibility: he has concealed his identity and has been secretly working for those corrupt pure-blood wizard families and those incompetent politicians.

A smug glint flashed in Rita's eyes; she believed she had discovered the truth.

However, she currently lacks crucial evidence.

Rita wasn't one of those clueless, inexperienced reporters. She knew what kind of reporting could attract public attention. Simply spreading rumors wouldn't work; a lie had to contain some truth to make it difficult for people to distinguish between fact and fiction!

Rita's eyes gleamed with ill intent as she thought of the pile of letters on the desk in her room.

You will soon pay the price.

After making up her mind, Rita's expression brightened. She glared contemptuously at the door, turned around, and strode arrogantly into the corridor.

If Amosta were to become terrified and live in constant fear simply because of a few harsh words, he probably wouldn't have had a good night's sleep in all these years. Rita Skeeter's visit was just a minor incident for him, and he quickly forgot about it.

Perhaps because all the letters had been cleared away, the desk in the room looked much tidier. Amusta glanced at the hour and minute hands of the wall clock, stretched, yawned, and closed the magic book in front of him.

In late February, late at night, the gentle breeze wandering among the tall buildings already carried a rich scent of spring.

Standing on the balcony and gazing out, the city, though quiet, was still brightly lit, and even the clear moonlight cast upon the earth seemed to melt into this murky halo.

Perhaps due to a lot of worries lately, his head has been intermittently swollen recently. Once the swelling subsides, he is followed by a deep-seated fatigue.

A wizard with extraordinary magical power possesses boundless energy that is beyond the reach of ordinary people. This phenomenon is unusual and may indicate that there is some problem with his body, and the problem has already begun to show signs of seriousness.

"I'm getting old."

Amosta chuckled self-deprecatingly, then turned and went into the room, closed the glass door, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes to rest. However, from the slight twitching of his eyebrows, it was clear that he was probably enduring something.

The lights in the last room of the hotel building finally went out. At the top of a pine tree in the courtyard downstairs, a large, plump beetle, which is not common in this season, flapped its wings and soared into the air, heading directly towards the room that had just been turned off.

The beetle perched on top of the glass railing. After peeking through the gap in the curtains and discovering that the room's occupant was already lying down, the beetle's wings vibrated and buzzed with delight.

It was very patient and did not try to rush into the room immediately. Instead, it pretended to be a normal beetle, crawling up and down the glass plate and pretending to be interested in the dead mosquitoes stuck to the glass railing.

There was no unusual movement in the room for a while. Twenty minutes later, the beetle finally couldn't hold back any longer. It landed on the balcony floor, spotted the gap between the sliding door and the floor, and charged in, trying to squeeze into the room through the gap!

boom!

The flash of light was as dazzling as Christmas fireworks. The roar of the explosion made the dozen or so rooms nearby tremble. One by one, the lights in the dark rooms came on. People ran around in panic, screams filled the air, and people on three or four floors were shouting that a gas explosion had occurred!

Looking at the completely shattered glass door and reinforced glass railings, and Rita Skeeter, half her body dangling hundreds of feet in the air, her golden hair and cheeks charred black, unconscious and belching black smoke, Amosta raised an eyebrow and gave a strange smile.

Chapter 350 Reappearance of the Skeletons

2023-06-26

Since the Ministry of Magic announced to the wizarding world that Sirius Black had been successfully captured, reporters from all over Europe and even the Americas have flocked to the Ministry of Magic's reception hall in an attempt to find out more details about the capture process and how the heinous Sirius managed to escape from Azkaban. They have been trying to interview every British Ministry of Magic employee who comes and goes.

However, this matter was top secret within the Ministry. Apart from a few Aurors who looked after Sirius Black and the directors of the departments involved, the rest of the Ministry of Magic employees knew absolutely nothing about it.

Even Mr. Weasley, who had friends in every department, couldn't figure out why the usually overstaffed British Ministry of Magic was suddenly so efficient.

Yesterday, after Mr. Barty Crouch, the Director of the International Department of Magical Cooperation, dropped a shocking and unexpected announcement amidst the presence of wizards at Wizengamo, the already overcrowded Ministry of Magic was thrown into an uproar. Reporters from major newspapers renowned throughout Europe and America abandoned all their news and rushed to London.

Unable to squeeze into the Ministry, the reporters blocked the street leading to the entrance of the British Ministry of Magic. The commotion even attracted the attention of Muggles, and reporters from several Muggle newspapers rushed over to try to figure out why so many foreigners dressed in strange clothes were crowding into an obscure little street.

Norrus de Man's chilling gaze deterred the group of reporters who wanted to inquire about the foolish and laughable Sirius Black, as well as Peter Pettigrew, who had been awarded the Order of Merlin First Class by the International Wizarding Federation but lost that honor three hours after Barty Crouch's announcement.