American comics: From Hogwarts to God on Earth

The Ministry of Magic's entrance was hidden inside an inconspicuous telephone booth. Dumbledore gently pressed five numbers, and the booth suddenly sank. Then, flashing blue streaks of light swept past.

A few seconds later, the phone booth stopped. Dumbledore led Rune out of the phone booth and was immediately greeted warmly by the staff. Dumbledore was not only the most powerful wizard in existence, but his reputation was also unparalleled. Everyone knew that he had defeated Grindelwald, and the later Void was even more wary of his prestige, daring not to make any rash moves against Hogwarts.

After Dumbledore patiently dealt with their enthusiasm, he turned to look at Rune. At that moment, Rune was practicing Transfiguration with a stone in his hand.

"Quite exquisite Transfiguration." Dumbledore took Rune's hand. Rune felt something moving around in his palm and immediately looked at the white-haired old man. The old man was playfully winking at him, seemingly hoping to see fear on his face.

Rune tilted his head and said softly, "It's a pile of cockroaches, isn't it?"

"Why not take a bite and try it?" Dumbledore didn't answer directly, but instead released his grip on Rune's hand, looking at him with a smile. Rune opened his hand, and sure enough, there was a cockroach inside. No wonder so many people couldn't accept this dessert; its appearance was just too lifelike, even the antennae on top were moving.

"Crunch..." The cockroach was chewed up, and a thick, white sauce burst out. It seems this was just creamy.

"Headmaster, you can't fool me with something like this," Rune said.

Dumbledore sighed. "Yes, yes, there aren't many people who can make me taste defeat. You really have no sense of humor."

Rune shrugged and said, "I just don't believe the headmaster would harm me."

"What a heavy burden of trust." Dumbledore popped a swarm of cockroaches into his mouth, chewed it contentedly, and then began to secretly badmouth Professor Snape: "You know, your Headmaster said back then that swarms of cockroaches might contain real cockroaches, which made me afraid to eat for months. Later I realized that swarms of cockroaches were magically created, so I could tell the difference perfectly well. But guess what your Headmaster said after I told him about it?"

Rune looked at Dumbledore curiously, while Dumbledore curled his lip and said, "He said he'd turn a stink bug into a cockroach one day and put it in my cockroach horde."

Rune couldn't hold back this time and burst out laughing: "Did my beloved dean do that?"

"No, not at all, but I actually wish he had. Now I have to carefully check every time I eat a pile of cockroaches," Dumbledore said.

The Merlin Medal was awarded in a large hall. When Dumbledore arrived with Rune, another group of people came to catch up. Rune, however, continued to fiddling with the stone in his hand. This time, the people were dressed in significantly more luxurious clothing, but Rune didn't have the chance to continue fiddling with his stone.

A well-maintained woman looked thoughtfully at Dumbledore and the little boy beside him, then, with a quick glance, she walked up to Rune.

"Hello, if I'm not mistaken, you must be the boy who is about to receive the highest honor in the wizarding world—Rune, right?" She adjusted her jeweled glasses with her thick, fleshy fingers, revealing a smile that she thought was very charming.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" Rune asked in return. The woman in front of him seemed to know how to be disliked and make him feel disgusted.

"Hello, I'm Rita Skeeter, a reporter for the Daily Prophet. I'd like to ask how you came up with the idea of ​​drawing inspiration from the Far East and gaining insights into a new direction for potion research?" Rita's eyes lit up when she heard that the boy in front of her was Rune, and she immediately pulled out a small notebook and a shorthand quill from her bag.

Upon hearing it was Rita, Rune became wary, then began to speak of the draft he had already prepared: "I have to thank my teacher, Professor Snape. When I asked about the principles of potions, he taught me the symbolic and practical principles of selecting potion ingredients. And I learned about the concept of traditional Chinese medicine by chance..."

Watching the dark green quill pen rapidly jotting something down, Rune narrowed his eyes, pretending he hadn't seen anything, and continued, "...At the time, I was thinking that a traditional formula believed by hundreds of millions of people should have more symbolic significance than a formula believed by tens of millions of people..."

Before she could finish speaking, the notebook was snatched away. Rita, caught off guard, was truly taken aback by Rune's actions. But she understood the situation and quickly whispered, "Give it back to me..."

Even so, she still attracted the attention of one or two Wizengamo members dressed in red.

Rune, of course, wouldn't listen to her. Instead, he browsed through the notes taken with the quill pen. Sure enough, Rita hadn't written anything useful. Her words were full of misleading information: first, she said that Rune had only been studying potions for two or three years, while Professor Snape had been immersed in potions for decades; then she suggested that Rune's new direction in potion research was somewhat unreasonable; finally, she concluded that Rune's relationship with the Headmaster was evil.

Most importantly, she didn't use words like "certainly" or "absolutely," but rather ambiguous phrases like "boldly speculate" and "perhaps," leaving the question to the reader. While this appears objective and impartial, her stance is actually completely skewed.

"I'd be happy to grant you a private interview," Rune said to Rita in a slightly raised voice, a pleased expression on his face, like a triumphant young man displaying his high spirits. The Visengamo members who were almost beside Rune immediately understood and stopped bothering him.

But Rita, standing to the side, looked at Rune in horror, realizing she couldn't move. Rune gently helped the renowned reporter out of the hall.

Before leaving, Rune glanced at Dumbledore. The old man was struggling to deal with the pure-blood family members. Compared to the relatively simple Ministry of Magic staff, these pure-bloods were much more difficult to handle.

Rune led the reporter to a secluded corner, handed her the notebook, and said, feigning difficulty, "Ms. Rita, you're putting me in a difficult position..."

"Let me go, Rune!" Rita said, her voice trembling. She had just seen the silencing spell Rune had cast, so she wasn't foolish enough to scream. But she knew one thing—she was doomed today, and by a little boy.