Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 498: Rita Skeeter’s Rumors

“Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness!” Mrs. Weasley, who had evidently been waiting for them in the front yard, came running toward them, still wearing her bedroom slippers, her face pale and strained, a rolled-up copy of the Daily Prophet clutched in her hand.

“Arthur! I’ve been so worried, so worried…”

She flung her arms around Mr. Weasley’s neck, and the Daily Prophet fell out of her limp hand onto the ground.

Looking down, Evan saw the headline: SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP, 

Below, there was also a twinkling black-and-white photograph of the Dark Mark hanging in the sky.

Evan’s stone giant stood directly below the Dark Mark, echoing the giant snake in the skull’s mouth.

Not far behind them were the huge the images ruins of the stadium, telling the tragic and terror in silence.

“You’re all right!” Mrs. Weasley muttered distractedly, releasing Mr. Weasley and staring around at them all with red eyes, “Charlie, Bill, Percy, Ron, Ginny, Evan, Harry, Hermione, you are all alive! Oh, boys….”

To everybody’s surprise, she seized Fred and George and pulled them both into such a tight hug that their heads banged together.

“Ouch! Mum… you’re strangling us!”

“I shouted at you before you left!” Mrs. Weasley said, starting to sob, her face full of tears. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had got you, and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn’t get enough O.W.L.s? Oh Fred … George …”

“Come on, now, Molly, we’re all perfectly okay,” said Mr. Weasley soothingly, prying her off the twins and leading her back toward the house.

“Ron!” he added in an undertone, “pick up that newspaper. I want to see what it says…”

Following Mr. Weasley, Evan, Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered to read the newspaper…

Unexpectedly for them, in addition to the photo on the front page, there were descriptions and photos of the battle between Evan and Caresius.

In a photo, he was controlling the huge fire dragon raging in the box, and it looked so cool!

The box was filled with horrible flames, and the fire dragon inside kept fiercely roaring towards the people outside the photo.

“This is a good photo…” Hermione said softly.

“Evan, look at what they say about you!” Harry said, pointing to a series of guided headlines, “The young wizard who saved 100,000 people! The successor to the greatest wizard in the world! The future star of hope in the wizarding world! The young wizard who defeated You-Know-Who! The Order of Merlin will break the tradition and award a student a medal First-Class…”

Judging from these headlines, this issue of the Daily Prophet had become a special edition of Evan.

Indeed, behind the front page, “The Daily Prophet” introduced the attack and the Dark Mark’s appearance in two pages, as well as the ins and outs of the incident.

Then, it was all about Caresius and the vampires, using a photo of Evan and Caresius dueling. The Ministry of Magic had obviously chosen it carefully.

It seemed that the paper had found the right target, but had not yet looked into the results of the investigation with the captured vampires…

Apart from that, all subsequent news content was about Evan.

They even put a photo of Evan fighting the Basilisk in the Common Room.

That was the photo taken by Colin. Evan was much younger back then, but that showed his charm and courage even more.

It was hard to imagine that, besides Evan, any other young wizard would dare to confront the Basilisk head-on. Even adult wizards would not have the guts.

“These people are crazy!” Ron sighed, looking at the whole pages full of photos of Evan.

“Evan is a celebrity now, even more famous than Harry!” Fred leaned over and said.

“Yeah, the world’s most powerful and gifted young wizard; this title is very attractive don’t you think?” said George.

They went through the newspaper over and over, excitedly checking out the articles on it.

Everyone felt that the Daily Prophet was a bit exaggerating. Even if Evan had a great deal of merit, there was no need to publicize it so vigorously.

But soon after, when they saw the Hogwarts Magic newspaper, they found that it was more direct.

Besides Evan’s story, there was nothing else in the issue!

Because everyone wanted to see content related to Evan, he was now the wizard having the most attention in the world.

Apart from last night’s vampire attack, the Dark Mark, and Evan, no one cared about any other news.

The news about the previously popular Quidditch World Cup were squeezed into a corner, not even getting a single photo.

That was the case now. No matter how good or bad one could perceive this, the fact remained: the newspapers related to Evan were all sold out on the spot.

In the following few days, even The Quibbler sales were to encrease, as it was to report on Evan’s experience in Hogwarts over the past two years.

Hogwarts Magic newspaper worked with The Quibbler during the difficult times of its founding, and Evan published Luna’s articles about the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and her father helped Evan promote the newspaper and publish the articles he wrote, which also benefited him this time.

Obviously, Hogwarts Magic had their big break with Sirius’s story later on. For a few days, it even once surpassed the Daily Prophet to become the largest newspaper in the Wizarding world.

Because it was a newspaper created by Evan, with an exclusive interview with him, that was enough.

………

A few minutes later, they took the newspaper in and they were all crammed into the tiny kitchen.

Hermione and Ginny made Mrs. Weasley a cup of very strong tea, into which she insisted on pouring a shot of Ogden’s Old Firewhiskey.

Then, Ron handed his father the newspaper.

Mr. Weasley scanned the front page, frowning tightly, while Percy looked over his shoulder.

“I knew it would be so!” He said heavily, “Ministry blunders … culprits not apprehended … lax security … Dark wizards running unchecked … national disgrace … They always describe the Ministry of Magic this way. Who wrote this? Ah … of course, it’s her … Rita Skeeter.”

“That woman’s got it in for the Ministry of Magic!” said Percy furiously. “She said that the Ministry of Magic was wasting all its energy and time quibbling about cauldron thickness, accusing us of being fastidious, rather than stamping out vampires and Dark wizards … can cauldrons”

“Do us a favor, Percy!” said Bill, yawning, “and shut up.”

“Hey, I’m mentioned here!” said Mr. Weasley, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he reached the bottom of the Daily Prophet article on the front page.

“Where?” spluttered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. “I only saw reports on Evan. If I’d seen that, I would have known you were alive!”

“Not by name!” said Mr. Weasley. “Listen to this: ‘100,000 wizards who came to watch the Quidditch World Cup panicked and waited breathlessly for news outside the ruins of the stadium, expecting reassurance from the Ministry of Magic. They were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the horrific vampire attacks and the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that hundreds of bodies were removed from the ruins an hour later, remains to be seen.’

“Oh my God,” said Mr. Weasley in exasperation, handing the newspaper to Percy. “Nobody was hurt. What was I supposed to say? Everyone was just frightened, and the Ministry has already taken care of everything! That woman really dared to say that hundreds of corpses were removed from the ruins! Well, there certainly are rumors now that she’s printed that.”