Chapter 939: Evil Men Need Evil Men to Sharpen Them
Chapter 939: Evil Men Need Evil Men to Sharpen Them
Hermione had just reseated herself when Ron, who had been flipping through the Defense Guide, lowered the magazine and asked, "Hermione, what did you go to see Anderson for?"
"To submit this month's manuscript for his review," Hermione replied softly.
"What manuscript?" Harry asked curiously.
"The story at the back of the Defense Guide," Hermione said, her expression becoming a little unnatural after she finished speaking.
"You wrote that story?"
Ron was astonished, flipping through the Defense Guide in his hand to the last page, about to point to the story and ask Hermione about it.
"Don't go blabbing about it," Hermione glared at Harry and Ron, wanting them to keep quiet.
"I remember the byline on that article wasn't yours."
Harry had, of course, read the article. He carefully read through the Defense Guide every month, and Sirius Black's magazine was indeed impressive. The knowledge about Dark Magic defense featured in it always benefited him greatly.
"Right, you two can help me look through these letters from readers first." Hermione took out a stack of letters from her robe pocket and handed them to Harry and Ron.
"Why don't you read them yourself?" Harry picked up a letter and asked in confusion.
"If the content is unpleasant, I won't read it. It's pointless to get upset over it," Hermione indicated that they should read the content of the letters first, "If the letters from readers are decent, then bring them to me to see."
Ron and Harry looked at each other and smiled as they opened the envelopes in their hands, pulling out the letters and beginning to read.
"I think you're being very wise. Many readers are not friendly."
After a moment, Ron put the letter back into its envelope, shrugged to Hermione, and said, "This guy isn't very friendly either. I wonder why he bothered to send you a letter. Is he purposely trying to annoy you?"
"Maybe," Harry put down the envelope he was holding and opened another letter, "This one here is asking if you can get them a house-elf."
A few minutes later, the letters from readers that Hermione had received were all read by Harry and Ron. As Albert had expected, the content varied, but none of it was satisfying.
Hermione couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She had thought that the novel would gain her a group of supporters, but as Albert had said, reality was often cruel, and those who took the time to reply were mostly just bored.
"I think it's wise that you didn't use your real name. At least they can't send the letters directly to you," Ron said to Hermione after reading the letters from the readers.
Just then, an owl flew over and dropped a red envelope in front of Hermione.
"Oh, damn it!"
Hermione's gaze fell on the red envelope on the table, and her expression turned ugly. This was the third Howler she had received this month.
"What should we do?"
Ron looked at the Howler, which was already starting to smoke, and anxiously turned to Hermione, "Should we open it? If we don't, the situation might get worse."
"I must make that woman pay!" Hermione's eyes turned cold, making Harry and Ron dare not look directly at her.
"Why don't we ask Albert and see if he has any ideas," Harry suggested, equally disgusted by these Howlers. Once they exploded in the Great Hall, even those who didn't read the Witch Weekly would know about the so-called love triangle between Harry, Krum, and Hermione.
Thanks to the first two Howlers, most of the students at Hogwarts probably already knew about it.
Harry felt that the wizards who sent Howlers to Hermione were a bunch of malicious jerks.
Those guys were doing it on purpose. Otherwise, who would send a Howler to the school? It was like deliberately rubbing salt in the wound.
Although the matter was false, it still made Harry quite angry, and he had been explaining it to others lately.
Without waiting for Hermione's reply, Harry took the smoking letter and went to find Albert.
Fortunately, Albert was having lunch in the Great Hall, otherwise, the Howler might not have lasted that long.
Sometimes, Harry felt that Hermione's insistence was meaningless. He thought Albert should be able to keep Hermione from being harassed by these letters.
"Who sent you a Howler?"
Lee Jordan looked at the smoking envelope with interest.
"This was sent to Hermione," Harry explained helplessly.
"Has Hermione been getting these a lot lately?" Fred asked curiously, "Why did you bring it here?"
Harry looked at Albert, who was eating, and asked, "Is there a way to deal with the malicious letters Hermione has been receiving?"
"Oh, you can use a blocking charm on yourself," Albert glanced at Hermione and Ron, who were walking towards them, and slowly wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, "If the blocking charm is strong enough, you can easily block owl post."
"Then... do you have a way to deal with this letter?" Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that it wasn't good for Hermione to be receiving Howlers every other day, as it was giving them all a nervous breakdown.
"I can try. Actually, I've never dealt with one of these before," Albert took out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the Howler in Harry's hand, which was about to explode, and the letter floated in mid-air.
Using a Transfiguration spell was a good option, but he was afraid that the Howler would explode as soon as he tried to change it.
After all, Howlers were designed to prevent people from refusing to accept them, so they must have considered this possibility.
"What are you going to do?"
Fred and George were both curious about what Albert was planning to do with the Howler.
"It's probably not easy to force it to stop, but we can try physical isolation."
As he spoke, a water bubble instantly enveloped the entire Howler, but the letter continued to burn inside the water.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Lee Jordan felt that this approach was unreliable.
"It should be fine. Howlers basically amplify the sound, so if we can isolate the sound, we should be able to block it," Albert tapped the water bubble with his wand, causing a layer of foam to appear on its surface, which was then engulfed by a larger water bubble.
Finally, a sandwich-like water bubble formed in front of their eyes.
If he could create a vacuum environment, there probably wouldn't be a problem, but since Albert couldn't do that, he could only put the letter in water to see if it would block the sound.
After the letter inside the water bubble burned out, the water bubble suddenly exploded, and the sound escaped from the water, but it was no longer as loud as the Howler, and it became muffled and unclear, so much so that no one could make out what it was shouting.
"It's incredible. I never thought it could be done this way," George felt that he had gained new knowledge. Albert always brought them unexpected surprises.
"Howlers probably work by amplifying the sound, so as long as the sound is isolated, it should be fine. Hmm, maybe you can try using the principle of the Howler to develop a similar sound bomb," Albert found the Howler interesting. It could be used to create a "little toy" to attract people's attention and definitely give them a scare.
"Thank you, Albert. Can you teach me the blocking charm in your free time?" Hermione expressed her gratitude to Albert and also asked him about the blocking charm.
"Oh, of course. No problem," Albert waved his wand, causing the water bubble in mid-air to disappear, "If you don't want to receive certain letters, I can cast it on you now to prevent you from receiving similar letters in the future.
"Oh, of course not."
"That's good." Albert cast a shielding charm on Hermione and reminded her, "The effect of the shielding charm should last for about three days. As for this spell, I'll teach it to you when I have free time."
"That guy's really something." Ron murmured in awe.
After the group returned to their original seats, Hermione suddenly said viciously, "I'll make that woman pay, mark my words!"
"This will all blow over soon," Harry said to Hermione, "as long as we ignore it... people will get bored of it—"
"She was forbidden from entering the grounds, how could she possibly have overheard a private conversation!" Hermione fumed.
"Maybe Rita Skeeter used an Invisibility Cloak?" Harry himself had an Invisibility Cloak and knew how useful it could be. If that woman had used an Invisibility Cloak to sneak into Hogwarts, he wouldn't be surprised.
"It's not an Invisibility Cloak. I asked Professor Moody, and he didn't see Rita Skeeter anywhere near the judges' table or the lake during the second task," Hermione said through gritted teeth.
"Maybe she secretly put a listening device on you." Harry suggested tentatively.
"Definitely not a listening device." Hermione explained impatiently, "I've said it before, the magical field at Hogwarts is too strong for Muggle devices to work. I'm certain that woman used magic to eavesdrop on others' conversations."
"Maybe Anderson knows something? He's always developing weird magical gadgets with Fred and George, maybe they really can make the listening devices you mentioned." Ron suggested.
"I think you can ask Albert when you have the chance, aren't you supposed to be learning the shielding charm from him anyway?" Harry suggested.
"You know, he's all-knowing."
"Perhaps you can ask Anderson to do a divination for you, your relationship is good, I don't think he'd ask for money." Ron felt that instead of letting Hermione guess blindly, it would be better to just ask Albert directly.
Although they were reluctant to admit it, they had started to view Albert as omniscient, just like Dumbledore. Albert was equally reliable.
"I suspect Albert has some sort of deal with Rita Skeeter, he probably won't help me deal with that woman." Hermione didn't want to put Albert in a difficult position.
"A deal?"
"What kind of deal?"
"I don't know, probably something about not letting Rita Skeeter report any news related to him. Haven't you noticed that there's almost no news about Albert in the Daily Prophet?" Hermione reminded them.
"So there's a behind-the-scenes deal between them, no wonder Rita Skeeter hasn't reported any news about Anderson." In Harry's opinion, Albert should be more famous than he is, yet there's not a single piece of gossip about him, which is strange. Now they finally understood why.
"I'm more curious about how he managed to shut that woman up." Ron whispered, "That's not an easy thing to do."
"I don't know." Hermione shook her head.
"That guy really has some skills!" Harry said sourly.
He was annoyed by Rita Skeeter's articles, but what frustrated him even more was the group of readers who believed every word of it.
"This will all pass, I think you really don't need to make things so hostile with Rita Skeeter, that woman is not easy to deal with." Ron said cautiously to Hermione, he had been hoping from the start that she wouldn't provoke that woman.
"I'll handle this myself!" Hermione glanced at Ron and said coldly, "I'm certain that her actions are illegal, and if I can catch her red-handed, she won't be able to get away with it."
After Hermione finished her food, she got up and left directly.
"Vengeful women are scary!" Ron watched Hermione's departing back and whispered to Harry, "I warned her not to mess with Rita Skeeter, but Hermione didn't listen, and now it's become like this."
The fact that Hermione didn't ask Harry and Ron to help her take revenge on Rita Skeeter relieved them both.
As Ron said, that woman had made a lot of enemies, enough to make people gnash their teeth in anger. However, the fact that she was still unscathed spoke volumes. It wouldn't be easy to catch her red-handed.
In their opinion, without Albert's help, Hermione's chances of success were almost zero.
"Why don't we just go ask Anderson directly."
Harry and Ron couldn't find Albert, and they had already left the Great Hall after finishing their meal.
When they returned to the common room, they saw Hermione learning the shielding charm from Albert.
The two boys looked at each other and didn't disturb them. Instead, they turned their attention to Fred and George, who were up to something.
"What are you two up to?"
Harry's expression froze as he saw a red envelope.
After George opened the envelope, a loud roar filled the entire common room, causing dust to fall from the ceiling, "Don't do that here, do you want to scare everyone to death?"
When the roar stopped, everyone in the common room turned to stare at them.
"What are you two up to?"
"Cough, cough." Fred said awkwardly, "It's just an accident."
The Weasley brothers ran off amidst the angry glares of the students.
Albert looked at the fleeing twins, then reached out to soothe Tom, who was bristling, and asked Hermione, "Are you planning to send a Howler to Rita Skeeter?"
"No, I plan to teach that woman a lesson." Hermione lowered her voice and said, "I suspect she's an illegal Animagus."
Without waiting for Albert to speak, Hermione continued, "Just as you said, it's not easy to eavesdrop. Fred and George's Extendable Ears aren't very effective either, and Hogwarts has magical protection, so even if Rita Skeeter knows some magic, it would be difficult for her to eavesdrop outside the school grounds."
"Last year, Sirius Black's situation gave me an idea. Why can't Rita Skeeter be an illegal Animagus? If her Animagus form is inconspicuous, it would be perfect for eavesdropping, whether it was during Hagrid's incident or this time."
"That makes sense." Albert praised, "Your thinking is sharp, you shouldn't have any trouble catching that person."
"Are you going to threaten her with this?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Not exactly, I'll tell that woman that if she continues to report news about me, I'll find those wizards who hate her and convince them to pool their money together to put a bounty on her in the black market." Albert said calmly.
"You know, a thousand galleons would be enough to make those outlaws move." Albert said nonchalantly.
"Are you planning to have someone kill her?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Of course not, I can have her sent to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries." Albert said calmly, "If she doesn't compromise, a few more times and she'll have no choice but to back down."
Hermione was speechless.
"When dealing with bad guys, there's no need to hold back." Albert stroked Tom's fur and said, "You need to be tough enough to make her listen to you. Being too soft will only make people think you're easy to bully, which is why she dared to report gossip about Harry Potter without restraint. Undoubtedly, it worked very well, and that person never touched any news related to me again."
"It's indeed very effective." Hermione didn't think Albert's approach was excessive. However, she would use her own methods to shut that woman up.
(End of Chapter)
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