Diagon Alley, the Daily Prophet newspaper office.
Being the most well-known journalist in the British magic world, Rita Skeeter has a separate office here.
Her work was relaxed, but sometimes very busy.
In addition to being responsible for interviews at some major events, she would occasionally pry into the privacy of some big shots and make huge profits from them.
Those big shots would always give her a generous amount of gold galleons as hush money.
No one knew that her Animagus was an unassuming little beetle - she could fly to any place that lacked magic defences.
This made her unhindered.
Sitting on the leather single couch, Rita Skeeter sipped her coffee leisurely while looking at the bustling streets outside the window.
She was in a good mood today.
Last night, she received another hush money.
Although that person had threatened her verbally, he ended up leaving a large sum of gold Galleons, only asking her not to talk nonsense in the newspaper.
Rita Skeeter was savouring this success.
But she was also smart enough to know what moderation meant. In this world, some people would reason with her, but others would just simply be much more unreasonable.
"Hmm?"
Rita Skeeter pushed up her jewel-encrusted glasses, her eyes looking quizzically out the window - an owl was flying towards her office.
"A fan? Or a Howler?"
Rita Skeeter got up and opened the window, letting the owl fly in - she would get a ton of letters like this every day.
Taking some small cookies for the owl, Rita Skeeter glanced at the signature on the envelope.
--Andy Collins?
"Who's this? My new fan?"
Rita Skeeter smiled smugly and casually opened the envelope.
"Ashia Collins' nephew? My fan?"
Rita Skeeter continued to read.
There was a lot of content in the letter, but the vast majority of it consisted of blackening Lockhart. It intrigued Rita Skeeter, who also hated that fancy man.
Some time ago, Rita Skeeter had published a book, and her rival for the number one sales spot was Lockhart.
But so what?
She used the influence of the Daily Prophet to hit Lockhart's reputation hard and won in the end.
A watered-down professor?
The spell-casting level is just a little better than a Squib?
And was easily defeated by a young wizard in class?
All those books labelled as 'autobiographies' were actually not Lockhart's personal experiences, but rather, he had copied them from someone else?
Rita Skeeter's eyes burst with sparkle.
Explosive points!
Especially the picture that came with the letter ...
Three young wizards carrying an unconscious Lockhart, a large group of young wizards surrounding them laughing at him unrestrainedly, and as for Lockhart - he looked wretched.
"Heh heh heh heh--"
Rita Skeeter let out a strange laugh, her whole being turned on.
"Gilderoy Lockhart turns out to be just a crook who's a little better than a Squib!"
After a bit of exhilaration, Rita Skeeter retook her seat, and she began to think about how she should use this incident to expose Lockhart's true colours.
Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League; Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award five times winner; Famous Great Author Known for His Autobiographical Books - Is actually a fraud who is only a little bit better than a Squib!
She was sure that this matter could ignite the public opinion of the entire British magic community.
The most important thing, she could become even more famous.
The attack on Azkaban was indeed a big deal, but this matter had nothing to do with Rita Skeeter.
Interviewing ordinary wizards about this matter?
Or interviewing Ministry of Magic officials?
That was the job of the junior reporters.
Fudge had already used the power of the Ministry of Magic to put pressure on all the newspapers, and no one dared to talk nonsense about this matter.
But the matter of Lockhart was different.
"Well ..."
Rita Skeeter re-read Andy's letter again.
The photo could indeed be used as evidence, but Rita Skeeter still felt that it wasn't 'ironclad' enough and that she would have to go to Hogwarts to investigate it herself.
With this thought, Rita Skeeter hurriedly left her office.
Soon, she wrestled for permission from the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Barnabas Cuffe - she was going to interview the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore.
***
Around six o'clock that evening, Andy saw a woman in the hallway on the seventh floor.
Her hair was styled in an elaborate, stiff, weirdly wavy fashion, her face was adorned with jewel-encrusted glasses, she was wearing a green leather jacket, her thick, fat fingers were gripping a crocodile-skin handbag, and her fingernails were about two inches long and were painted red.
"This...!"
Andy and Hermione were stunned in place at that moment.
Although wizards usually dressed eccentrically, to be eccentric like her would still require a lot of courage.
Seeing that woman walk into the Headmaster's office, Hermione opened her mouth and exclaimed, "Andy, I think the aesthetics of the wizarding world needs to be saved."
"Yes, yes!" Andy nodded stiffly.
"What did you think that woman's relationship with Professor Dumbledore might be?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Maybe the Headmaster's mistress. After all, it's so late, what do you think they would be doing in their office?" Andy mocked.
Hermione glared hard at Andy at that.
"Fine!"
Andy surrendered, "She's Rita Skeeter, the famous reporter. I guess her visit to the Headmaster was bogus, her real purpose would be to investigate Lockhart."
"Looks like your plan worked," Hermione said.
Andy sighed, "I just hope the next professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts isn't that Rita Skeeter woman."
"Hehe! Where did you get that from." Hermione laughed.
After dinner in the Great Hall, Andy and Hermione parted ways.
Hermione was going to go and read in the Ravenclaw library for a while, ever since the discovery of the Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, Hermione was passionate about investigating the Ravenclaw library.
She was sure that there were important secrets hidden in the library.
Andy, on the other hand, was going to the Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets to continue translating those books and manuscripts, all of those materials were valuable treasures to Andy.
Including those books in the Headmaster's office.
Andy planned to bring those copied books back home during the Christmas holiday and turn them into the heritage of the Collins family.
Just as Andy and Hermione were each busy with their own things, Rita Skeeter walked out of the Headmaster's office with a stiff face.
The interview hadn't gone quite so well, that old man was just too slippery.
She was going to write a book blackening Dumbledore when he died. She already had thought of the title of the book, it would be called "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore".
But none of that mattered.
Walking around a corner, seeing that no one was around, Rita Skeeter took out her wand and pointed it at herself, her entire body shrinking rapidly, soon becoming a beetle the size of a button.
Hogwarts, infiltration is successful!
----
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