Hogwarts becomes host

Although Hogwarts stipulates that students can only go to Hogsmeade for vacation on certain weekends, there are many students who ignore the school rules. At least when Elaine and Daphne slipped into the village through the secret passage, they saw several familiar faces there. Wandering around the village.

Fortunately, Elaine left the school hospital in a fair manner and had already taken the transformation water containing Astoria's hair, which did not attract the attention of other students. Everyone just exchanged tacit glances and went about their own business.

"Is your sister okay? She stayed in the school hospital all day without going out..."

"Astoria's body is not suitable for going out. She is used to it. Besides, you also helped her prepare entertainment products. I don't think she will be angry."

Daphne looked around with great interest, and at the same time, she took Elaine's hand, who was now Astoria's appearance, and asked.

"Where are we going now?"

"Uh...where do you want to go?"

"I agreed that the itinerary will be arranged by you."

"Uh... I'm not in the right state to go to Mrs. Puddifer's Teahouse right now." Elaine said helplessly, "First we walked around and visited, then we went to Honeydukes to buy some snacks, and finally we went to Three Broomsticks to try butterbeer. Can we go to the Pig Head Bar for a date?"

Even though it was a date, the two of them didn't dress up deliberately, both wearing Hogwarts student uniforms.

...You've already drank the transformation water, so what else do you need to dress up for?

"It's indeed strange to go to Mrs. Puddifu's Teahouse with my sister." Daphne cast a thoughtful glance into the distance, "That's okay, it sounds pretty good, that's it?"

"As long as you like it."

Seeing that Daphne didn't object, Elaine relaxed a little.

Not only did Daphne threaten to expose the matter today, but Astoria also threatened her just now. If she didn't let Daphne have a happy date, she would go to Professor McGonagall to report...

I really admire these sisters.

So, she is a powerful wizard who can step on Voldemort's face and pull Dumbledore's beard. Why is she afraid of the threat of two little witches?

But seeing Daphne looking so excited and expecting, Elaine didn't know what she was thinking.

This... is actually not bad?

There’s nothing wrong with taking the time to play with your children just to relax…

So they walked along the path in the village.

There are half and half shops and half houses in Hogsmode. The two of them can find a lot of interesting things, such as the display windows of each shop. Even if they don't look at the products, it is very interesting to just admire the fancy houses.

There is no Muggle in the village, and wizards can use magic to decorate as they like. As Mr. Weasley said in the novel, "As long as we get together, we can't help but want to show off." Unless it is an empty space where no one lives. house, otherwise most homes are very...unique.

At this time, Elaine hummed a piece of music casually (of course she used magic to limit the volume), and without having to do anything else, the atmosphere of a date came out.

Even though she knew that Elaine was humming because she couldn't think of a topic and wanted to avoid embarrassment, Daphne didn't tell her.

She liked this kind of time, spending time with Elaine and walking around, not thinking about anything, listening to good music, and feeling Elaine's body temperature coming from her palms, as if there were only two of them left in the whole world.

Seeing how happy she looked, Elaine finally breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter what, as long as Daphne is satisfied.

The two of them walked around the village first and went in to take a look when they saw interesting products. Then they went to Honeydukes to pick out a lot of snacks. In addition to the ones Elaine wanted to eat, there were also some to bribe Astoria; then They walked around the door of the Three Broomsticks again, but finally did not dare to go in because they saw Flitwick and Professor McGonagall chatting with the landlady at the bar.

They had no choice but to go to the Pig's Head Bar in advance to keep their appointment. To Elaine's surprise, Rita Skeeter had already been sitting in the Pig's Head Bar. She was tapping her glass in a daze. When she saw Daphne and Elaine coming in, her face changed. He immediately showed a bright smile and was more responsible than the store manager.

"Good afternoon, you two - two more butterbeers, please, and a snack by the way? Do you like paw biscuits or jumping beans? My treat."

There were no other customers in the bar. Compared to Rita's smiling face, the bartender who was supposed to greet the customers instead glared at the two of them fiercely, as if they had broken his leisurely mood.

"Everything is fine, I thought we made an appointment at two o'clock." Elaine looked at her watch, "It's only one o'clock now, right?"

Elaine didn't introduce herself, and Rita didn't seem to need to. She didn't care about Elaine's appearance at all.

Since they have been working together for many years, the two of them chatted for a while and then went straight to the topic.

"Because it was Miss Shafiq's reservation." Rita said softly, looking at her as if Daphne and Elaine were the most beautiful gems in the world. "I've heard a lot of interesting rumors. So, the relationship between Shafiq and the Greengrass family has been confirmed? This must be─"

"Stop." Elaine said angrily, "You can write gossip about me, but I promise you, this manuscript will not be published before the contract ends."

Thinking of the unbreakable oath that Elaine kidnapped and signed five years ago, Rita felt as if she had picked up Nat and thrown the galleons away. Before Elaine turned twenty, all news related to Shafiq had to be published with her consent. , thank you for that.

At that time, I thought that the Shafiq family was just a run-down family. How could a little guy get news every day? Moreover, the galleons and writing techniques provided by Elaine were too tempting. This was really... a loss.

"What a pity." Rita sighed artificially, "Then what do you want me to write... Isn't it just like what the letter said, is it a crazy accusation about a mysterious person?"

"Isn't this bad?"

"Of course it's not good. You have to know, readers don't like to hear about the mysterious man. It reminds them of the horror. I think most people even want to pretend that he never came out."

"Like a glass beast." Daphne sarcastically said, while glaring at the butterbeer the bartender had just brought... there were obvious stains on the glass. "Would you rather drill a hole than face the sun?"

"You who have never experienced that kind of fear will not understand." Rita said calmly and giggled again. "However, as long as you have enough galleons, the front page will still be yours─you always have to make some compensation, right?"

"Greed will bring destruction." Elaine said indifferently, "I thought many people would be curious about the mysterious man's past? Especially the news that he has unclear ties to the Muggle government?"

"We talked about impressions before. In your words, the impression of the mysterious man has been fixed." Rita shook her index finger, and the red nail polish on her long pointed nails was very conspicuous. "Since readers have already preconceived the idea that he hates Muggles, even if the guilt is confirmed, some people will question it. This is what you taught me - you must spend a lot of effort and elaboration to reverse the image so that the evidence can play its original role. .”

"Besides, the reputation of the mysterious man is already bad enough, so what's the use of adding this one?"

"...Focus on your work, this is not something you have to consider." Elaine's eyes flashed and she said, "I will give you all the information about him, from his origin, schooling, and first murder. I hope you will treat him as Write a series."

Dumbledore and Voldemort were about the same strength, and Elaine dared to say that she was evenly matched with Voldemort, but these wizards were still afraid of the mysterious man. Why? In addition to the fact that Voldemort has no bottom line in his actions, there is also the fear caused by not understanding, spreading rumors, and not understanding.

To put it simply, Elaine plans to bring Voldemort down from the altar.

If everything is told in the light and the dark history is made public, there will be nothing to be afraid of.

"It's interesting." Rita pushed her glasses down and muttered to herself while touching the buckle of her crocodile leather bag. "But why write it in a newspaper? Wouldn't it be better to write it directly into a book? The title of the book is──"The Rise of Black Magic: The Bloody Path of the Mysterious Man"? No, no, it needs to be more shocking..."Blood and Sin, Black "The Life of a Devil"?"

"Use newspapers. Publish them in the Daily Prophet one issue after another." Elaine shook her head. "After they are all published, you can compile and publish them in a book, so that the discussion will continue."

"How can anyone buy this?" Rita frowned, complaining, "I've read the content──"

"Some people will buy it, and not every wizard is used to reading newspapers. Even if it doesn't sell well in the UK, with the wisdom of the mysterious man, you can still sell it overseas."

"Sounds reasonable, let me think about it, a catchy headline: The truth hidden in blood... Subtitle: He was once the best student at Hogwarts, and then, an old photo of the mysterious man revealed The terror of the mysterious man, everything in his past..."

"That's great." Rita sighed, but instead of taking out the stenographic pen and parchment, she put her purse on the table. "It's a pity that I can't earn so many galleons. Alas... I can't take this job. I'm sorry."

"......Reason?" Elaine looked at Rita in surprise, "Have you changed your gender?"

"Gallon is very good, but I cherish my little life." Rita shook her head and said with a serious face, "I really don't dare to take this job, although I don't believe what your father said, mysterious People will come back to that, but he still has some crazy admirers, you know?"

"How many people have you offended?" Daphne chuckled, "Almost all the officials of the Ministry of Magic have been attacked by you. Even Dumbledore can be written as a crazy old man. It turns out that the famous Rita Skeeter can also Fear?"

"Silly girl." Rita glanced at Daphne contemptuously, "You are still young, so naturally you don't understand. Those guys with upright faces will not settle accounts with a young reporter even if they suffer losses, but the Dark Lord ? That will kill people. Those people do all kinds of evil and don't care about killing another poor and weak witch."

"But they don't know that you are an Animagus." Elaine chuckled, "There are many people going to take revenge, but you just avoided them because they wouldn't just trample to death the beetles on the roadside."

Rita's face trembled, but fortunately the carefully painted heavy makeup did not fall off.

"Okay, it's not that I can't understand what you're worried about." Elaine continued, "In fact, it's easy to solve. Just don't name yourself, just write my name──"

"No!" "Impossible."

Daphne and Rita both said at the same time.

Moreover, Elaine felt that someone was stepping hard on her feet under the table.

...Forget it, don’t argue with children.

"Okay, then don't use my name, use Dumbledore's name."

There was nothing she could do about Daphne, so Elaine could only drag Dumbledore out as a shield.

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard the sound of breaking from the bar. The bar stared at her with a red face. The glass she was wiping had fallen to the ground and turned into broken glass.

By the way, the bartender at the Pig's Head Bar seems to be Dumbledore's brother...

"Stop making trouble." Rita said dumbfounded, "Then how could the old man do such a thing? Others will know it's me as soon as they see it──"

"You just heard it wrong, I mean, using the name Dumbledore." Elaine continued talking without a care, it's okay, the mountains don't turn around. "Of course you also need to change your writing style. Is it not a problem for you to imitate the old principal's writing style?"

"Using a tone of love and hate, write out all the past of the mysterious man, starting from his childhood. Every page must mention that he is an excellent child, but he took the wrong path and succumbed to the temptation of power. Come on, start learning black magic."

"While writing, I also lament my lack of ability and my failure to discover the depravity of my students early. Every word and every sentence must be full of regret. Anyway, I want to give people the feeling of 'this is what Dumbledore wrote'..." Elaine kept talking, completely ignoring the increasingly weird looks from the other three people in the bar, "After you finish writing, give me the manuscript, and I will revise it myself. You don't have to worry about publishing it. How about five thousand galleons for a job?”

"...You don't know that some magic can track the creator of the work." Rita said in a dumbfounded voice, "After the things are released, the other party will also trace me."

"I will show it to Dumbledore. After he takes action, no one will be able to find out about you."

"Hmm...that newspaper serialization?"

"Everything is necessary. Even if it's not the front page, it doesn't matter. Before starting the serialization, it's best to have another interview with the author. I know your writing speed. I'll get it done before Christmas this year."

Rita was silent and Elaine took a sip of butterbeer without urging...

...The rich buttery flavor almost made her spit it out. It was so greasy, and it didn't smell like beer. It was like a sweet and salty milk soda. Although it could indeed warm up the body, Elaine didn't want to take a second sip.

Europeans and Americans have really different tastes... I really don’t understand why they like butter so much.

"...Twenty thousand." After thinking for a while, Rita tilted her head and looked at Elaine shrewdly before spitting out a number. "And also the protection of the Shafiq family."

"Protection is no problem." Elaine replied with a smile, "But the remuneration is unreasonable, six thousand."

"Fifteen thousand."

"Seven thousand."

"Ten thousand."

"Eight thousand, any more and you will have to pay for your room and board during the period of protection."

"...Just eight thousand, deal." Rita's voice was a little trembling. She reopened her crocodile bag and pulled out a roll of parchment and her signature shorthand pen. "So, start now?"