Hogwarts: From Little Wizard to White Lord

If these were not all part of his plan, if he did not know that Dumbledore also contributed, anyone else might have been fooled by Fudge's appearance.

It must be said that Fudge was a very mature politician. He was patient and did not push people too hard or offend them. After making a request, he immediately provided a "reward" -

Isn't someone who won the Order of Merlin, Second Class, trustworthy?

But Vaughan knew that he was able to obtain the Order of Merlin mainly because of Dumbledore's efforts. The old man had a very high prestige in the Wizengamot and the Order of Merlin.

He was not only the Chief Wizard of the Wizengamot but also a recipient of the Order of Merlin, First Class. The reason why the group of old men and women in the Order of Merlin were able to reach a conclusion so quickly was all thanks to Dumbledore's connections and had nothing to do with Fudge.

However, Fudge clearly knows how to take credit for himself and has no shame at all.

He had thrown away his dignity the day he became Minister of Magic.

Next, the group returned to Hogwarts. Although the investigation team was just going through the motions, they still had to go through the motions.

In Snape's office, they witnessed Vaughn brew a bottle of "wolfsbane potion" and successfully passed the tests for magic and werewolf blood.

All of this was recorded by the accompanying photographer and will be published in Extraordinary Potions and the Daily Prophet later.

After the formalities were completed and the investigation team had finished their work, they happily agreed to visit their alma mater. After they all left, Rita Skeeter, who also graduated from Hogwarts but had no attachment to the place and deliberately fell behind, came up to Vaughn again.

She leaned close to Vaughn's ear and said in a hoarse and lazy voice, "Handsome boy, you haven't answered my question yet!"

The gorgeous quill flew out again and wrote and drew on the parchment.

Vaughan looked at it with interest. "What do you want me to answer?"

"a lot of--"

She had barely uttered a word when Vaughn drew his wand and cast a silent spell that sent the quill flying and brought the parchment before him.

Rita was furious: "You..."

Before she could finish her words, the wand was already against her throat. Vaughn didn't even look at her. He just smiled and glanced at the parchment in his hand, and read softly: "...When I asked Mr. Weasley how he, as a 12-year-old boy, accumulated such profound knowledge in Potions and how he developed the Wolfsbane Potion, the shy boy hesitated..."

"Ah..." Vaughn sighed and laughed, looking at the sullen-faced Rita Skeeter. "I've heard you love to distort facts, spread rumors and exaggerate, and you're good at being ambiguous so that people can't find any evidence against you. I didn't expect it to be true."

Rita's scarlet lips twitched as she barely controlled her anger. "Mr. Weasley, is this how you treat reporters? In the sacred Hogwarts, you cast a spell on a poor, innocent reporter?"

Vaughn looked around and shrugged, "Anyway, no one saw it!"

"..."

Looking at the boy in front of her, Rita suddenly felt a little scared.

Because she couldn't see any smile at all in the child's smiling eyes.

Rita's thoughts raced, and she decisively gave in.

She took only one second to transform from anger to pleading, then plopped down on the ground, quickly squeezing out tears.

"Mr. Weasley, I was wrong. I shouldn't have framed you..."

What did it matter if she was arrogant at first and then humble? For Rita, as long as she could move the wand against her throat away and give her a chance to fight back or escape, she could always take revenge later.

But she had barely finished begging for mercy when she saw Vaughn imitate her previous behavior, gently leaning close to her ear and whispering to her, "Ms. Skeeter, I know your secret too... You always find out other people's private secrets!"

Rita froze. She stammered, "W-what?"

Vaughn didn't answer. He retracted his wand and winked at her: "Do you think I was lying to you, or do you really know?"

After that, he hummed a little tune and left leisurely, leaving Rita Skeeter in anxiety and fear.

What did he know?

No, he must be cheating!

But what if he really knew?

In the days that followed, it was as if two villains lived in Rita Skeeter's heart, arguing and debating with each other, because she was indeed hiding a secret, a secret that made her successful in the journalistic industry. Once this secret was revealed, Azkaban would be her only destination!

She's an illegal animagus!

Rita was in a daze until night, and she was arranged to rest in Ravenclaw. She finally decided to take the risk and confirm it.

"He couldn't possibly know that. No one has ever known that. Even a big shot like Fudge, I've eavesdropped on his secrets without getting caught. How could a first-year student know that... How could it be possible..."

Rita, who was deeply worried and fearful, turned into her Animagus form - a fat beetle.

She flew out of the window of the Ravenclaw common room and flew all the way to Slytherin. She waited for a while, and when a student shouted the command to open the door, she immediately got in.

She wasn't worried at all about not being able to find Vaughn. When she was studying at Hogwarts, she had used Animagus to figure out the ventilation ducts of several colleges.

Hogwarts, which had not been renovated for many years, was her greatest confidence on this trip.

Rita quickly found Vaughn's room through the ventilation duct. She carefully stuck to the vent's grille and looked down.

The damned Vaughan Weasley was the only one in the huge dormitory, with a huge cat lying in his arms, its pointed ears twitching.

He was humming the same song he had sung when he left in the afternoon.

Damn boy!

Thinking about how she was humiliated by this guy and how she had been worried for the whole afternoon, Rita became furious. She planned to stay here and keep a close eye on this guy's every move. She wanted to record his privacy and secrets, and then expose them all!

Just as she was thinking happily, she heard Vaughn sigh:

"Guo Guo Cha, do you know? When a person's emotions fluctuate violently, her memory and thoughts become as conspicuous as a torch in the dark night in front of someone who knows memory magic—"

not good!

Rita suddenly became alert and hurriedly tried to return through the ventilation duct.

But as soon as she flapped her wings, the air around her suddenly became sticky.

Only then did she hear Vaughn's distorted voice in the heavy air:

"There are many obstacles!"

"Beetles are flying!"

Rita fell out of the vent involuntarily. She tried to struggle and wanted to remove the Animagus, but the spell interfered with her.

She watched herself fall helplessly to Vaughn's feet, and he picked her up with a smile and put her into a glass jar that had been prepared long ago.

"Ms. Skeeter, hello, we meet again. Like I said, I know your secret!"

Rita knew she was finished...

Chapter 70 My Pen, My Knife

The Black Lake at night is dark and deep.

Looking out of the dormitory window, all she could see was endless darkness, just like Rita Skeeter's heart at the moment.

The strange magic consumed her body, preventing her from transforming back into human form. She could only watch as a slender white hand grabbed the glass jar containing her and placed it on the table.

"How on earth did he know my secret? He was deliberately ambiguous, hoping that I would transform into an Animagus and find him later so that he could arrest me. Damn it, damn it, why was I so careless and so optimistic? What was I thinking at the time?"

Beetle Rita paddled her legs helplessly and angrily, but the smooth glass made all her actions in vain.

Then, a pair of eyes came close to her.

"Ms. Skeeter, please look me in the eyes."

Rita subconsciously looked over and stared at them through the glass. She saw the huge eyeballs from the beetle's perspective, with a faint light blooming in them.

Suddenly, she felt dizzy. When she regained consciousness, she was surprised to find...

I actually regained my human form!

leave here!

I need to find my wand and cast a Memory Charm on him!

The secret must never be revealed!

Screaming inwardly, Rita quickly rushed to the door.

It was only two or three steps away, but she was destined not to be able to run away. A voice behind her asked softly: "Madam, do you need me to open the door for you?"

"certainly--"

Rita suddenly stopped, both because of the voice behind her and because of what she saw before her eyes——

Starting from the door engraved with the snake shield emblem, the world suddenly began to collapse, like rotten wood that had been weathered and corroded for thousands of years, or a sand sculpture blown by a strong wind.

Handles, door frames, stone walls, murals... everything turned into fine powder and fell into darkness. Soon, the collapse spread to Rita's feet.

But she couldn't move at all. Some force restrained her, forcing her to watch helplessly as the world around her disappeared into nothingness, swallowing her into the dead darkness.

"This is not the real world..."

She thought, and soon, her thoughts echoed all around.

Someone chuckled, "Very perceptive, Ms. Skeeter. Yes, this is your spiritual world!"

As the words fell, the dark space was lit up again. Rita looked down and saw that she was floating in the air. There was a sofa floating beside her, and Vaughn was sitting on it.

He is flipping through a book.

Armando Dippet: Master or Idiot?

That was a name Rita was very familiar with, and it was her first work that made her mark in the magical world.

Vaughn flipped through the pages and said affectionately, "Rita, this book must be your most proud work, right? You must have read it many times, and every word is imprinted in your memory, so that when I broke into your mind, this was the first thing I saw... Well, the writing style is really sharp--"

He threw the book away and said, "What a shame it's a piece of rubbish. There's not a single true word in it!"

Rita, still in a running posture but unable to move, tried to open her eyes wide. Although she could not speak, her inner voice was like a noisy alarm clock, echoing throughout the space.

"He dared to throw away my book, my favorite book!"

"I want revenge for ruining his reputation!"

"Why can I hear my thoughts everywhere? Stop thinking, don't-"

"Someone come and save me—will begging for mercy be of any use?"

Snapped!

Vaughn snapped his fingers, and the noisy sounds around him stopped abruptly. He looked at Rita, whose eyes gradually changed from fierce anger to fear, and smiled slightly: "Beg for mercy worked... Is this good news for you?"

Rita found that she could move and nodded quickly: "Of course, Mr. Weasley, please let me go!"

"Give me a reason." Vaughn leaned back on the sofa, his posture lazy.