Chapter 521: The Reluctant Beetle
Chapter 521: The Reluctant Beetle
The pile of gossip in the newspaper still caused some trouble for Albert.
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan also took the opportunity to send teasing letters to Albert, congratulating him on his victory in the International Wizard Chess Competition.
To put an end to the nuisance, Albert agreed to an exclusive interview with Rita Skeeter.
The venue for the interview was at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop in Hogsmeade, a place that was open all day but rarely had any customers.
Inside the tea shop, Albert was flipping through the latest issue of the Prophet when he heard a chair scrape. He slowly lifted his head to regard the witch who had appeared before him and asked, "Miss Rita Skeeter?"
This witch had her blond hair styled in elaborate curls, a pair of jewel-encrusted glasses perched on her nose bridge, and a crocodile leather handbag clutched in her hands, her fingernails painted a bright red.
If this had been the young Rita Skeeter, she would have been a fashionable and beautiful woman. But she was old now.
"Yes, it wasn't easy to get an interview with you, Mr. Anderson."
Rita Skeeter sat down across from Albert, also appraising the young genius wizard before her. To be honest, she felt very uncomfortable under his gaze, as if he could see right through her.
"Actually, I don't like interviews, nor do I like too much fanfare."
Albert took a sip of his milk tea, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth as he said, "But you and your colleagues like to fabricate facts, and it has caused me some trouble, so here I am."
"People always like to read something..." Rita Skeeter narrowed her eyes, for she had never met such a difficult young man.
"I know," Albert interrupted. "To attract readers' attention, of course. I encountered the same trouble in France and the United States. Your colleagues there also like to do this."
After he finished speaking, Albert's gaze fell on the quill that was scribbling on a notepad.
"Never mind that quill, Mr. Anderson, let's talk about..."
"I suggest you don't use it to record our conversation, it might not be very friendly to you." Albert withdrew his gaze from the quick-quotes quill and rudely interrupted Rita Skeeter, saying on his own, "I know very well what kind of journalist you are, and I also know the purpose of newspapers is to sell themselves, regardless of whether the content is true or false."
As he spoke, Albert drained his cup of milk tea, his fingers interlaced as he looked at Rita Skeeter, suddenly revealing a strange smile, "Everyone has their own secrets, and you're no exception. You're an...illegal Animagus, right!"
The last sentence was spoken so softly that only he and Rita Skeeter could hear it.
"What..."
Rita Skeeter's eyes widened, her tone incredulous, and she almost knocked over the 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's your Animagus form?"
"What have you done to me?" Rita Skeeter had a very bad feeling, and quickly averted her gaze, no longer daring to look directly into Albert's eyes.
"Oh, so it's a beetle?"
Albert murmured softly, "So you often use your Animagus form to spy on people?"
In the female reporter's terrified and disbelieving gaze, Albert nodded to himself, "That's right, the Animagus form is indeed very suitable for spy work."
"You..."
Rita Skeeter's whole body was trembling, she felt that the person in front of her was a terrible devil who had seen through her with ease.
Albert hooked the corners of his mouth up slightly and said softly, "Don't doubt it, I'm a Legilimens."
"It's useless, no one will believe you." Rita Skeeter trembled her lips, as if it took a lot of effort to say this sentence.
"If you've investigated me, you should know that I know a lot of famous wizards and maintain good correspondence with them. Just one letter from me, believe me, Azkaban will definitely welcome you as a guest." Albert laughed maliciously, "I think there must be a lot of wizards who hate you, they will definitely take the opportunity to kick you when you're down!"
"Okay, what do you want?" Rita Skeeter clenched her fists, she actually wanted to cast the Obliviate spell on him, write a vicious article, and ruin his reputation, but she soon abandoned the idea and slumped powerless in her chair.
"I don't want anything, you can order another cup of tea, and we can chat about the next thing."
As he spoke, Albert took out a purse from his pocket and pushed it in front of Rita Skeeter, saying calmly, "I hope you can help me wash away those damn gossip, I can answer some of your questions, and I will also give you a fee."
"Is that all?"
"Of course not, I hope that in the future, any news involving me, you will simply ignore or omit it. If it's really necessary, write me a letter instead of making up stories to cause me trouble."
In fact, this last point was the real reason Albert had invited Rita Skeeter out.
He needed to control public opinion, or at least stop those bizarre reports from appearing.
Rita Skeeter opened her mouth, her gaze falling on the purse, which contained about twenty Galleons.
This amount of money was not a lot to Rita Skeeter, but there was no doubt that she could keep her secret, avoid prison, complete the Prophet's work, and make a small profit.
Most importantly, she had no choice.
Although compromising with a minor wizard made Rita Skeeter feel absurd, she knew that compromising would not hurt her much, and at least the other party had given her hush money, so she didn't lose face.
"Okay, okay."
Rita Skeeter reached out, stuffed the purse into her crocodile leather handbag, and took out a quill to start asking questions.
"I heard it was Mr. Bode Brood who recommended you to participate in the International Wizard Chess Competition. Was your wizard chess skill also taught by this former champion?"
"Mr. Brood used to be the professor of Dark Magic Defense at Hogwarts, and our friendship started from that time..."
Albert began to recall that bit of history, but it sounded rather complicated to Rita Skeeter. She felt as if she had witnessed the birth of a genius, and there was no doubt that Mr. Brood was aware of Albert's talent, so he gave him a push, and the two thus formed a deep friendship.
After that, Albert rattled off a string of wizard names, all of whom were very famous in their respective fields.
Obviously, he hadn't been lying earlier.
"What about that pretty French lady?" Rita Skeeter asked a few more questions before bringing up another topic that piqued her interest.
"Louise Delacour?"
"So that young lady's name is Louise Delacour?"
"Actually, I'm more familiar with her father. He's a famous potion master, and we correspond." Albert recalled, "At that time, I met Mr. Hector Dagworth in France, and during our chat, he found out that I also knew Mr. Delacour, Louise's father, so he invited me to visit him together. We happened to meet halfway there."
"As for that photo, it was just a French kiss greeting." Albert reminisced, "At that time, the journalist was probably taking a picture of Mr. Dagworth shaking hands with Mr. Delacour. They must have accidentally captured that shot. Later, as you know, I became the youngest International Wizard Chess Champion, and your colleagues probably thought they needed to create some hype to grab everyone's attention, so they made up stories. After all, everyone loves gossip."
"I see, what about that pretty American girl?"
In fact, Rita Skeeter was very shocked by Albert's social circle. She, of course, knew who Mr. Dagworth was, and being friends with a master of potions, his skill in that area was probably not lacking either.
"That's the granddaughter of American alchemist Mr. Nicholas. She also likes alchemy. I met Miss Sierra when I went to visit Mr. Nicholas."
Albert thought for a moment and continued, "Just before I returned to Britain, I asked Miss Katherine to take me to the American wizarding street so I could buy some American magical specialties as gifts for my friends. That photo was taken at that time. Because I had refused an interview with an American journalist, he, like his French colleague, made up a scandal out of thin air. After all, they don't need to take responsibility, and everyone loves to read that kind of thing."
Rita Skeeter was a little disappointed. Things were pretty much as she had expected, and wanting to find some explosive news, she continued, "I heard that you had some unpleasant conflict with an employee of the American Ministry of Magic during your trip."
"Unpleasant conflict?" Albert recalled for a moment and said helplessly, "It can't be considered an unpleasant conflict. It was just an unfortunate misunderstanding."
"Misunderstanding?"
"Miss Katherine also gave me a kiss as a greeting." Albert sighed, "The young employee who received me was probably a suitor of Miss Katherine's, and you can guess what happened next. The jealous young man deliberately caused me some trouble within the scope of his job. In the end, he even searched my body and messed up my luggage."
"I think a reasonable apology is very necessary." Albert said calmly, "After all, I cooperated with all the checks, and his suspicions caused us unnecessary trouble."
"Jealousy, abuse of power, twisting the truth, and spreading lies."
"As for why the newspaper reported it that way." Albert shrugged, "I think it's probably because I defeated the American player who had a good chance of winning the championship!"
"Twisting the truth and deliberately provoking conflict." Rita Skeeter's writing excitement grew, and she continued, "Do you have anything special you'd like to say about this trip to America?"
"America's magical society is very different from Europe and most other magical societies in the world. They have a lot of strict laws. For example, when you go to America, you need to go to the Magical Congress right away to apply for a temporary wand permit, or you'll be breaking the law."
Albert thought for a moment and added, "I suggest that the Magical Congress of the United States prints an immigration guide for the American magical society, detailing the laws that must be strictly followed when entering the American magical society. I believe this would greatly reduce the workload of the Magical Congress and ease the pressure on the prisons."
"After all, not all wizards will be as well-informed as I was about the American magical society before traveling there." Albert put down his now-empty cup of milk tea and spoke calmly.
"I will write an article that satisfies you." Rita Skeeter rolled up the parchment, her face full of excitement.
"After you finish writing, remember to send me a draft first. Don't forget, Miss Rita Skeeter." After saying this, Albert stood up to pay the bill at the counter and then used the fireplace at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop to floo directly to Diagon Alley.
(End of Chapter)
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