Chapter 23 - 24

The punishment for the fight was decided quickly, and everyone involved in the fight was sent to detention.

 Harry, Evan, and Hermione helped Lockhart respond to his admirers because Lockhart wanted help, while Ron, Colin, and Neville helped Filch clean the trophies in the trophy room.

 Malfoy had to clean up Snape's office, while Slytherin and Gryffindor's Quidditch team had to clean up the Quidditch field since Fred and George threw too much dung.

 At dinner, Harry looked frustrated, he told the others that it was the worst punishment, he preferred to help clean the trophies or clean the Quidditch field.

 Hermione was even more frustrated than Harry, she said with a sullen face, "Look at everything you've done, there's only a day left before the official release of the newspaper and everyone is in detention. Evan, you shouldn't be so impulsive and Ron you're still spitting up slugs for Malfoy's sake."

 Hearing Hermione's complaints, Ron didn't know what to say.

 Ron whispered to Harry with his head down, "When we were fighting, Hermione looked more excited than anyone else. Of course, his voice was shallow, so except for Evan who was seated beside Harry, no else heard him.

 "Don't get angry, Hermione!" said Fred comforting her, "After all, we won, didn't we?"

 "This was the first time we used Dungbombs to attack others, the effect was amazing!" said George while looking at Slytherin's long table with satisfaction, there was stench everywhere, so no one wanted to go near them.

 "To celebrate this victory, we should have a party." said the two in unison.

 "I should write and tell your mother about this," said Hermione while looking at them angrily.

 "Let them be, Hermione!" said Evan quickly, "They helped us after all, it was Malfoy who called us Mud Bloods."

 "What does that mean?" asked Harry, of course, he could tell it was something vulgar.

 "It is an offensive remark. The word Mud Blood is a pejorative term for people who are muggle-born with no recent magic ancestry." Explained Ron, "Some wizards, like the Malfoy family always feel superior to others because they are so-called purebloods."

 "Discrimination based on ancestry." Evan added, "Voldemort used this reason to slaughter Muggles."

 After hearing the name of he who must not be named, everybody at the table shuddered, especially Ginny, she looked terrified.

 "Let us change the subject, what are we going to do now?" asked Hermione.

 "I have a way to persuade Professor Lockhart to let us leave early."

 "Really, Evan!" said Harry excitedly

 "Of course, Harry, but you need to be the sacrifice and stay with him."

 When Harry heard what Evan said Harry went back to being depressed.

 When they arrived at Lockhart's office after dinner, Evan asked Lockhart to let him and Hermione go back and finish the manuscripts because there was only a single day left until the official release of the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper, and they still had a lot of work to do.

 Lockhart very readily agreed to Evan's request, after all, in Lockhart's eyes he was the centre of attention of the newspaper.

 Ignoring Harry's pitiful look Evan and Hermione rushed to the library with a pile of paper.

 "This will be a lot of work!" said Evan while smiling, "We can find Ginny to help us since she shouldn't be in detention."

 "She went to help Fred and George clean up the Quidditch field, there is still traces of Dungbombs left, with two brothers like that I feel bad for her," said Hermione.

 "Well, Hermione!" sighed Evan, "Fred and George are good people, and we all like them."

 "I'm not saying they are bad people, but they are just too mischievous, perhaps...."

 "Well, Hermione, I just wanted to ask, what are you going to write?" Seeing that Hermione was going to go on forever, he changes the subject of the conversation.

 "An article that calls attention to school violence." answered Hermione with a slight pause, "But after hearing you talk about Mud Bloods, I am going to change it to The legitimate rights and interests of Muggle-born wizards, that is my task, so the rest is up to you!"

 Afterword's Hermione got up and searched for books related to her article.

 Evan rearranged the front page and put the fighting incident as the headline.

 Time passed, and the Gryffindor's were still in a festive mood.

 A lot of people heard about the fight Saturday, though the end result was close, at the sight of the smelly Slytherin students, people knew that Gryffindor came out on top with a few cheap tricks.

 The gossip was spreading everywhere, and Evan was once again the focus of attention, there was gossip about him everywhere, there were a least ten versions of him taking Malfoy on.

 Ron was also the subject of discussion since he is spitting out slugs, so everybody is talking about what kind of spell can do this, so a lot of the library's books on charms have been borrowed.

 The four houses were regretting not seeing the group fight with their eyes.

 As a result, people were full of anticipation for the upcoming first issue of the Hogwarts' magic newspaper because the newspaper had details of the battle and the spell Ron used.

 On Monday morning, Evan woke up early and came to the Great Hall with a newly printed newspaper.

 Following his strategy, the first issue is free, it had all the staff, article author's name and order method on it. Fred and George made a song, but Professor McGonagall made people stop singing it. But this didn't stop everyone's enthusiasm, except for Slytherin's boycott of the newspaper, all the copies were soon taken by the other houses.

 Inside the great hall, everyone was looking through the newspaper or discussing the articles.

 The Slytherin long table was out of tune with the other three since they didn't speak but just ate breakfast with a gloomy face. It was like a funeral at Slytherin's long table, the atmosphere was scary and chilling.

 Evan set aside a bunch of newspapers after he printed them for the teachers. He took over ten thick newspapers and gave them to every professor.

 Dumbledore happily accepted it, while Professor McGonagall just nodded but looked a little proud of Evan, and Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout smiled and picked it up; as for Lockhart he took it and immediately turned it straight to his pictures and started giggling, and asked Evan to send him a few copies.

 The trouble was Snape, he glanced at Evan with a gloomy face, he seemed to have no intention of talking to him, like the Slytherin students.

 Evan pretended to be careless and dropped it where Snape could see the article about Lily, but Snape still showed a disgusted face while looking at it.

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"Unprecedented success, Evan!" this was Fred and George's evaluation of the newspaper.

 Now the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper is the most popular thing in the entire school all the student are talking about it.

 The front page introduced the fight at the Quidditch field which greatly satisfied everyone's curiosity. Colin even captured a few photos that showcased the handsome side of Evan.

 Handsome, intelligent, and the creator of a newspaper, Evan is now almost as famous as Harry, he is now one of the most popular students, most people have a positive evaluation of him, and even the girls were thinking of writing love letters to him.

 The advantage of the newspaper was that he could change public opinion, so in his article, he showed that Slytherin was the primary cause of the battle.

 Of course, it was the truth.

 Now that everyone knew what happened they decided to condemn Malfoy which made Malfoy angry. Malfoy glared at Evan and Harry from afar but didn't come up for trouble.

 Also, Hermione's articles were doing better than he expected, even though most young wizards will not care about this stuff. However, at lunch Evan noticed several professors reading the contents of the articles carefully.

 Introducing secret passages, Quidditch, and magical creature articles were popular with the young wizards, although most of the stuff was covered in books many young wizards won't read those books.

 Some of the articles can help new students integrate into school life quicker. The twins made word games and joke that the seniors like.

 As for Luna's article, "How to find a Horned Snorkack," it wasn't very popular.

 But Luna was still very Happy and gave a recent issue of the Quibbler to Evan and said her father would like to cooperate with them in depth for a joint publication of Horned Snorkack research results.

 The most popular articles were Lockhart's pictures and novel.

 It was mainly popular among girls and Hermione was not an exception. Even a lot of Slytherin girls secretly got a copy of the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper.

 But what was more surprising was that a few people got a new newspaper from Evan to mail back to their parents, most of them were fans of Lockhart. This would increase the number of buyers, but then Evan had to consider printing them.

 Someone finally noticed Evan story about Lily by dinner, the descriptive article brought everyone back to Godric's Hollow.

 As one of the most well knows modern wizarding events, the young wizards knew the basics of what happened, but no one knew the details that Evan wrote in his article.

 For a while, this story replaced Lockhart's novel as the primary focus.

 Today's dinner was destined to be much longer than usual, as everyone was immersed in this tragic story, no one care about their food.

 Besides the Slytherin's the other houses were all quiet while reading the article. This made Slytherin's curious, but because of the boycott, they couldn't look.

 After a while, the Slytherins went back to their houses common room, but the Slytherin students were still looking at them curiously.

 Evan had a smirk since he had to stay up late that night and work.

 Slytherins boycott was soon almost non-existent. Evan also noticed that Snape was absent at dinner that night, it seems that the article had a significant impact on him.

 In fact, in the following week, Professor Snape's mood was bizarre, Snape was the first to leave the class, he didn't eat in the great hall either, apart from Evan no one else knew what was wrong with Snape, Snape wasn't even making it hard on Gryffindor students which was inconceivable to some students.

 Everyone now knew how Voldemort failed, people were unaffected by the duel between James and Voldemort but were touched by the love that Lily showed.

 As the article said, she had a chance to live, but for Harry's sake she gave it up. Ultimately the power of love caused Voldemort's magic to rebound and usher in a new era.

 An hour later when Evan and Harry left the Great Hall, all the students applauded Harry.

 They were paying tribute to Harry and his parting, as heroes who saved the wizarding world.

 That evening Gryffindor held a party where all the staff of the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper became the primary focus, it made Colin excited, which made him slightly concerned about him.

 "Hogwarts Magic newspaper" achieved unprecedented success, they originally printed 700 copies but had to print another 300 copies afterward since the demand was so high.

 Even the businesses that advertised in the newspaper benefited, as well as Fred and George's modified magical fireworks, all of which were sold in under a day, so they are creating new ones.

 After the businesses advertised in the paper, their sales increased around 30%, for example, a lot of ordered lemonade by owl from The Three Broomsticks which made Madam Rosmerta wish she let Evan drink Butterbeer. Another example is after Evan recommended the Cockroach Clusters; they instantly became the most popular candy at Honeydukes.

 This allowed the Flume couple to sell a lot more than they usually would which made them delighted.

 Of course, when the student bought them people instantly became nauseated and lost their appetite, Evan also got the terrible title 'Cockroach killer.'

 A few days later the businesses sent a letter to Evan and invited him to come again that weekend to discuss future cooperation.

 While the price they were willing to pay was lower than the Daily prophet but a least it was a step forward after he got them to sign a long-term contract.

 As a result, the necessary cost of printing the newspaper was solved.

 It made him feel relieved that he could afford to pay for the next issue of the Hogwarts' Magic newspaper.

 Three days later, while Evan was eating his breakfast and whispering to Hermione about the next issue of the newspaper, he received an unexpected letter.

 "Look guys!" said Evan excitedly, "The editor in chief of the Daily Prophet wants to buy the rights to reprint Professor Lockhart's pictures and novels, my story about Harry's mother, and ...."

 Evan paused, and everyone stared at him nervously.

 "And Hermione's two articles, 'Calling for the Ministry of Magic to focus on the safety of underage witches' and 'The legitimate rights and interests of Muggle-born wizards.'", said Evan dryly

 "My goodness!" said Ron in a surprised tone with mouth wide open.

 "Is it true, Evan?" asked Hermione

 "Yes," said Evan as he wrinkled his nose and added, "In fact, Barnabas Cuffe thinks your articles are brilliant, and if you want you can sign the contract that came with the letter and they will mail the reprint costs and royalties tomorrow."

 "Of course, I am willing!" said Hermione as she grabbed the contract.

 "The editor of the Daily Prophet is insane, why would he want to buy Hermione's articles." said Ron, "Is it because she wanted the ministry of magic to ban the Quidditch game."

 "Who knows maybe he has acrophobia like me." said Evan as he stood up, "I'm going to go talk to Professor Lockhart and take Colin with me to take some new pictures."

 Harry looked at Evan's back and blinked innocently, he couldn't understand why someone would want to publish the article in the Daily Prophet.

 Harry agreed to let Evan put the article in the Daily Prophet, he felt it was necessary to let more people know what she did.