As soon as Christmas ended, the New Year arrived. After exchanging a few cheerful "Happy New Year!" greetings, the students returned to classes, and February 24 suddenly felt much closer.
The grounds were still blanketed in thick snow, and fine droplets of condensation covered the castle windows. In weather like this, everyone wanted to stay indoors where it was warm.
Inside Twilight Cottage, Eda sat beside the fireplace with today's Daily Prophet in her hands. One article, accompanied by a photograph of Hagrid looking unusually furtive, immediately caught her eye.
It was another exclusive by Rita Skeeter. In the article, she painted Dumbledore as a senile old fool, criticizing him for hiring the terrifying Alastor Moody and the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid.
Exaggeration and outright lies were Rita Skeeter's trademark, though she somehow always managed to uncover secrets no one else knew, such as Hagrid being a half-giant.
The madwoman described Hagrid as a savage, violent man who abused his authority and had injured multiple students, leaving some permanently disabled.
Utter nonsense!
Although Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes often featured rather "terrifying" creatures, since he had become the professor, only Draco Malfoy had ever been injured, and Malfoy had brought it upon himself.
Anyone with a functioning brain should have known better. If what Rita claimed were actually true and several students had been permanently disabled, the matter would have exploded long ago. There was no way it could have been covered up.
If Rita Skeeter had merely learned that a student had been injured, that would have been understandable. She could have interviewed students and fabricated the rest herself. But the fact that she knew Hagrid was a half-giant was genuinely unsettling.
Among the Hogwarts students, only Eda, Fred, and George knew Hagrid was a half-giant, and even they had only guessed based on his enormous size. They had no actual proof.
Yet Rita Skeeter claimed Hagrid had admitted it himself, even accurately naming his giant mother, Fridwulfa.
Pay attention, this was the important part. There was no way Hagrid would have told Rita Skeeter he was a half-giant. He hadn't even told Harry. So how had that woman found out?
Besides, after her first report on the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore had already banned Rita Skeeter from entering Hogwarts. So where had all these so-called interviews come from?
Watching Rita Skeeter sink so low that she had abandoned not only journalistic ethics but even basic human decency, Eda began to think the revenge she had been planning might actually be too lenient.
Inside the school, students discussed the Daily Prophet article endlessly. Most of them knew it was full of lies, but very few spoke up. Since it did not concern them personally, they preferred to stay out of it, which was understandable.
Professor Grubbly-Plank temporarily returned to Hogwarts to teach Care of Magical Creatures in Hagrid's place. Hagrid needed to stay out of the spotlight, and in his current state, he truly had no desire to teach.
Outside the school, a crowd of fools actually believed Rita Skeeter's article. They demanded that Hagrid be severely punished, and some even shouted that Dumbledore should be thrown out of Hogwarts.
Eda had to admit, whoever had started that nonsense was remarkably brave. She suspected the man was probably acting under Fudge's orders.
The controversy remained the hottest topic during the first week after classes resumed. For an entire week, no one saw Hagrid. He never appeared at the staff table during meals, nor did anyone see him carrying out his duties as gamekeeper.
Hagrid simply shut himself away inside his cabin, silently bearing all the unfairness the world had thrown at him.
Once the incident had gained enough momentum and countless fools had begun treating Rita Skeeter as a champion of justice and a fearless truth-teller, a serialized article suddenly appeared across major newspapers and magazines.
Its title was The Years I Spent as a Reporter.
As the name suggested, it recounted the career of a journalist. The story was written in the first person, yet from beginning to end it never revealed who this "reporter" actually was.
The story began with a rookie reporter who worked diligently after entering the profession. Interviews were refused, his reports attracted no attention, and no one cared to read the truthful stories he wrote.
Unable to make ends meet, the young reporter gradually changed. He stopped speaking for justice and stopped reporting the truth.
Instead, fake news brought him fame. It earned him loyal readers. For the first time, he had tasted success.
The first installment ended there, leaving readers wanting more.
Soon, the second installment appeared, still without revealing the reporter's identity.
After his transformation, the reporter enjoyed both fame and fortune. He went from being ignored by everyone to becoming one of the most sought-after journalists, eventually becoming a featured reporter for the best-selling newspaper.
Using his own unique methods of conducting interviews, the reporter also obtained countless exclusive pieces of information that no one else knew. Since no one had ever seen these stories before, there was naturally no way to verify whether they were true or false.
In order to make the reports sell better, this reporter resorted to every trick imaginable. Fabricating stories out of thin air, exaggerating facts, spreading rumors, nothing was beneath them.
Everything the reporter had experienced in the past had taught them one thing: readers did not care whether a report was true or false. As long as it was sensational enough, it was a good report, and they were a good journalist.
In the second installment of the series, the reporter recounted some of the stories they had covered in the past, analyzing the methods they had used to make their reports bestsellers.
It was practically a handbook for becoming a shameless journalist.
After reading the first two installments, readers became increasingly curious about the identity of the reporter. At the same time, they wanted to know what kind of interview methods this reporter had used to uncover so many hidden "truths."
Sadly, none of those readers realized the problem lay with themselves as well. The reason such an unethical, unprofessional reporter had become so successful was precisely because of readers like them.
The reporter dug into the darkest corners of people's hearts and showed readers exactly what they wanted to see. Truth did not matter. As long as it was sensational enough, it did not matter whether it was fake or completely fabricated.
That was one of humanity's ugliest traits: I hope you're not doing better than I am. The reporter's tremendous success exposed the darker side of human nature perfectly.
The third and final installment also withheld the reporter's name, but it finally revealed the reporter's method of gathering information: Animagus.
The reporter was an Animagus. An unregistered, illegal Animagus. They could transform into a tiny flying insect that would never attract attention, even if someone saw it.
By secretly eavesdropping this way, the reporter collected truths that no one else knew and turned them into stories. But the problem was that very few people actually wanted to hear those truths, and they would never attract much attention. So what should be done?
Exaggerate the facts. If a student had merely suffered a minor accidental injury, claim that a teacher had deliberately harmed them. If only one student had been injured, make it several. Turn a minor injury into permanent disability.
Now there was conflict. Now there was a headline. Naturally, the readers would come.
With that, the three-part series came to an abrupt end, much like life itself, always ending in haste.
But by now, everyone knew exactly who the "reporter" in the story was.
Wasn't it Rita Skeeter?
She had only recently published an article about Hogwarts' half-giant professor, claiming he was savage and violent and had left multiple students permanently disabled.
However, as the saying went, when God scattered wisdom across the world, some people chose to hold up umbrellas. Some people condemned Rita Skeeter and demanded that she come forward and explain herself, while others defended her and continued supporting her without the slightest doubt.
So what was Rita Skeeter doing now?
She was drowning in lawsuits.
Frazzled and overwhelmed, Rita Skeeter found herself sitting in the defendant's seat as many of the people she had once "interviewed" joined forces to sue her at the Ministry of Magic.
She faced charges including being an unregistered Animagus, defamation, malicious slander, false reporting, and more.
At the same time, she was facing enormous compensation claims for emotional distress, damage to reputation, and other losses.
At this point, Rita Skeeter no longer had the luxury of caring what the wizarding public thought of her. Her first priority was avoiding a one-way trip to Azkaban.
Using the very methods Rita Skeeter knew best, someone exposed all of her dirty secrets, then joined forces with her victims to sue her at the Ministry of Magic.
An eye for an eye.
Even now, Rita Skeeter felt no remorse whatsoever. She genuinely did not believe she had done anything wrong.
She had only wanted to make money while exposing the "truth." What was wrong with that? Nothing. She had done nothing wrong!
Rather than confessing or repenting, Rita Skeeter wanted to know one thing above all else.
Who had she offended to deserve being targeted like this?
That person was, of course, Eda.
Eda never let a grudge go unreturned.
As soon as Rita Skeeter's article about the Triwizard Tournament had been published, Eda contacted Daniel and Sergei, sending the two of them to dig up every piece of dirt they could find on Rita Skeeter.
Universe rewarded persistence. After months of investigation and interviews, Daniel and Sergei gathered a mountain of incriminating evidence and tracked down numerous victims.
Professionals should handle professional work. Daniel and Sergei excelled at gathering intelligence, but writing articles was another matter entirely.
Fortunately, journalists were often each other's worst enemies. Finding someone willing to expose Rita Skeeter was surprisingly easy.
Once the price had been agreed upon, the three articles were written.
At the same time, Daniel gathered the victims together and filed lawsuits, attacking from both fronts at once.
Back at Hogwarts, the students' attention naturally shifted away from Hagrid, the half-giant, and onto the unscrupulous reporter Rita Skeeter, condemning all of her disgraceful actions.
And yet, not long ago, quite a few of those very same students had been unable to put Rita Skeeter's articles down.
...
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