Hogwarts: I am Harry's eldest cousin

"My story-telling skills are barely good enough to be considered a third-rate novelist."

"How can you still sit still, Dudley?"

Hermione interrupted Dudley loudly, pouting and looking very angry. That woman not only framed her, but also said a lot of bad things about Dudley, many of which were inexplicable.

"If you're going to get angry, won't that woman succeed?"

He gently pinched Hermione's puffy little face, and the other party's defense broke down instantly. She slapped Dudley hard with a red face.

It doesn't hurt or itch, and it's even a little comfortable.

The young wizards around were amazed. Only Mr. Dursley dared to treat the "angry lioness of Gryffindor" like this. If it were anyone else, their legs would be broken.

"Are you just going to tolerate it like this?"

"When have you ever seen me tolerate it? I warned her and the Daily Prophet."

If this woman wasn't courting death, then what was the reason to clean up the Daily Prophet?

"I, Dudley Dursley, always pay my debts."

Dudley smiled a 'hearty' smile, revealing two rows of white teeth like those of a hydraulic press, which made the young wizards around him feel timid, especially the Slytherins who had suffered a great loss, and they all shuddered.

The sharp-eyed Slytherin students even noticed that Harry, who was sitting next to them, silently raised his glasses.

It's over, the Daily Prophet. It's dead!

This newspaper containing false information about Dudley and Harry was, as expected, a bestseller. Even wizards were not immune to gossip, as gossip is a common trait of human beings. Everyone was curious about what kind of person the 'Boy Who Lived' was. As for Dudley, people only remembered him as the inventor of wizard cards. Only a very small number of wizards knew that he was not only the famous teacher Jerry, but also the recipient of the Order of Merlin, First Class, and the youngest member of the Wizengamot.

I was shocked after watching it. Is it true that the student circle is so chaotic?

Daily Prophet

As the main culprit, Rita Skeeter, whose newspapers were selling well, was in a good mood at the moment, dressing up her face, trying to smooth out the wrinkles on her face with foundation, as she had an important date tonight.

"Aren't you worried about getting yourself into trouble, Ms. Skeeter? I heard that Dursley is a very popular author, even more popular than the great liar Lockhart."

The pot-bellied man came over and said, he is Barnabas Guffey, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet.

"I told you to call me Miss. I'm not married yet."

Rita Skeeter screamed, nearly bursting the fat editor's eardrums.

"Yes, yes, Miss Skeeter." Barnabas Guffey dug his ears hard.

After hearing what Barnabas Guffey said, Rita Skeeter gave up and said in her unique tone, "Well, so what if he's more popular than Lockhart? He's just a lousy writer. I don't think he can compare with us when it comes to writing. I don't know what's so great about him. He will know the consequences of offending the Daily Prophet. And Mr. Guffey, I think this question should not be asked to me, but to you. You are the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, hehe."

"Me? I have nothing to worry about." Barnabas Guffey shrugged. "My manuscript is all the real information you gave me. We are just speaking with facts."

In their opinion, even if the other party gets angry, what can it matter? Just like Rita Skeeter said, he is just a lousy writer, and he dares to be disrespectful to the Daily Prophet. He deserves it now. As for Dudley's threat, the Daily Prophet has seen all kinds of storms, so why not be fine?

Suddenly, there was a bang, and the door of the News Department was pushed open, and two male wizards in uniforms walked in.

"Is Rita Skeeter here?"

Rita Skeeter looked at the two of them in confusion: "I am, you guys."

"Magic Law Enforcement Team, someone has accused you of maliciously fabricating facts, infringing on the rights of portrait and reputation, and several other crimes. Many wizards have suffered because of your rumors, and it has caused extremely bad effects in the wizarding world. This is a subpoena from the Wizengamot, and you need to go to the Ministry of Magic now to cooperate with the investigation." The two men showed Rita Skeeter their identity as the Ministry of Magic and produced the subpoena with the official seal.

In addition to the Auror Office, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement also has a Magical Law Enforcement Team, and the two are strikers from the Magical Law Enforcement Team.

Aurors are responsible for catching dark wizards, while strikers are responsible for catching wizard criminals. The relationship between the two is similar to that between SWAT and police.

"Wait, you can't arrest me, I'm a reporter for the Daily Prophet!"

Rita Skeeter shouted loudly and didn't want to leave with the two men.

"You want to resist?" The two strikers immediately took out their wands and pointed them at Rita Skeeter.

Striker are generally not as good as Aurors, but in terms of experience in fighting criminals, Aurors are far inferior to them. Rita Skeeter was treated as an enemy who intended to resist because she did not cooperate immediately.

"Stand stiff and stop dead!"

A spell hit Rita Skeeter, her legs immediately became extremely stiff, and then she fell straight down.

"I'm going to sue you for violence! I'm going to sue you! Just wait and see, you're going to lose your job over this!"

Rita Skeeter, face down on the ground, cursed the two men like crazy, but they just looked at her and cast another curse.

"All petrified!"

Okay, there’s no need to shout now. Not only my legs but my whole body is frozen in place.

When the two men were carrying Rita Skeeter away, a human face made of milky white powdery substance appeared on the ground. Well, it was Rita Skeeter's face.

"This"

Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey took a while to react, and looked in the direction where the men left with a look of bewilderment on his face.

Are the people at the Ministry of Magic crazy? When did they become so bold? They actually dared to arrest the pen holder of the Daily Prophet. Aren't they afraid that the angry wizards will send a whole room full of Howlers tomorrow?

Soon Barnabas Guffey's face was full of excitement. Isn't this just right? Rita Skeeter had better not come back today, because tomorrow the newspaper office's newspapers will be hot sellers again.

He had even thought of the title - Ministry of Magic, Violent Enforcement!

Chapter 283: Use the other person's way to repay the other person's kindness

As editor-in-chief Barnabas Guffey had expected, Rita Skeeter did not return that day, so he decisively published the news of "Ministry of Magic, violent law enforcement". As expected, the next day the Daily Prophet sold like hot cakes and made a lot of money.

I have to say that the subject matter chosen by the editor is really explosive, especially the direct, simple and crude naming of the content, which makes people want to see what is going on.

Isn't this the kind of article that ordinary wizards like to read the most?

They naturally have a bad impression of the Ministry of Magic, especially when they see such a conflicting term as violent law enforcement.

Public opinion was completely one-sided, and the Howler letters sent to the Ministry of Magic almost filled up an entire room.

"If you catch my people, I will make you pay the price."

Barnabas Guffey said bitterly. He seemed to have seen the situation in which the Ministry of Magic would finally give in and release Rita Skeeter. The reputation of the Daily Prophet would be boosted again.

But soon he couldn't laugh anymore

First, the editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, Xenophilius Lovegood, stood up and publicly questioned the authenticity and validity of the content of the Daily Prophet, and then severely criticized reporter Rita Skeeter. Actually, this is not difficult to deal with. After all, when has The Contrarian not come out to sing the opposite tune?

Moreover, although their newspapers have good sales and enough wizards buy them, most wizards do not take the content seriously. They just regard them as novels to kill time in their spare time and read them for fun.

In terms of credibility, the Daily Prophet is stronger.

After all, The Quibbler once published a report that Fudge had an army of goblins in the dark, but any wizard with a normal IQ would not think that Fudge had this ability.

There are many more articles like this.

Not to mention that the adult wizards did not take the content of the singing of the devil's advocate seriously, even the young wizards thought that the content of the singing of the devil's advocate was extremely outrageous.

"do not worry about it."

Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey was still relatively calm at this time. It was normal for him to sing a different tune. The feud between the two newspapers could be traced back a hundred years.

"The Daily Prophet is not some third-rate newspaper. I can use the stuff in those tattered newspapers to fertilize my garden."

He was rather jealous of The Quibbler's sales; it was said that today's sales were 130% of their Daily Prophet's.

However, singing a different tune was only the beginning. It was the first shot fired against the Daily Prophet. Then, Mr. Jerry from the Dragonlance Chronicles publicly condemned the Daily Prophet and reporter Rita Skeeter in his new book, saying that they spread false information and distorted the facts, which caused him great trouble. Once the news came out, it caused a huge response.

Maybe the credibility of The Opponent is not as good as that of the Daily Prophet, but Jerry, the mysterious writer who has been holding the title of best-selling novel for consecutive years, has a great influence. As soon as he opened his mouth, those fanatical fans began to send crazy Howler letters to the Daily Prophet without thinking, which also made them taste the treatment of the Ministry of Magic.

"Mr. Barnabas, what should we do now?"

"There are Howlers everywhere! Everywhere! They're about to explode!"

The staff of the Daily Prophet looked at the Howling Letters that filled the entire office, kept expanding and might explode at any time, with despair on their faces.

"We can't get out!"

The important thing is to block the way out. Who knows if you will be affected by the roaring signal of the explosion when passing by.

"Why are you panicking? It's just a shouting letter. It's not like I haven't seen it before."

Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey's face was so gloomy at this moment that ink could drip out of it. When had the Daily Prophet ever been treated like this?

"I'm going to find someone."

The Daily Prophet is a newspaper approved by the Ministry of Magic, so naturally he knows people in the Ministry.

As for the Daily Prophet's criticism of Fudge and certain officials of the Ministry of Magic

It's not like the Ministry of Magic has just one voice.

Unfortunately, before editor-in-chief Barnabas Guffey could get someone, the situation changed again. The recently popular Witch and Poison Publishing House released a magic character card about Rita Skeeter before the launch of the new generation of wizard card series. The skill characteristics of the card are false propaganda and distortion of facts. They also released a magic card for the Daily Prophet. The taunt value was directly maxed out, which once again ignited public opinion.

The Ministry of Magic, which should have stepped in to stop the situation from getting worse, remained strangely silent, as if it had no idea about it. The readers of the Daily Prophet, who stood by without thinking, began to split. Many of them were fans of Dragonlance Chronicles and readers of the Daily Prophet, but they all had a common hobby, which was wizard cards.

After this incident, public opinion in the wizarding world was no longer one-sided and began to waver. After all, the Daily Prophet was a century-old newspaper with a certain fan base and credibility.

The result was that the matter became more and more serious, and eventually attracted the attention of almost all wizards in Europe, and more and more spectators began to join the discussion.

Everyone is curious about how this will turn out.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barnabas, I really can't do anything about this matter. How about you try your luck somewhere else?"

Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey walked out of a house in a depressed mood. This was the seventh Ministry of Magic official he had appointed. He had been rejected several times in a row by the Ministry of Magic, and all the replies were the same, as if copied and pasted.

When the Daily Prophet was at its peak, every official who saw him was polite, even Minister Fudge had to receive them politely.

Rejection?

If you dare to ignore Barnabas Guffey today, he will make you lose your position tomorrow and even scold you out of office.

What is going on now?

Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey didn't know what had happened, but the uniform answers from the officials of the Ministry of Magic made him feel like he was in a huge whirlpool.

However, as the situation developed to this point, the Daily Prophet was already in a difficult situation. The only choices left to him were to admit his mistake or to fight to the end.

Admitting the mistake means that the Daily Prophet is wrong and has engaged in false propaganda. Once this is done, the public will no longer believe the content of the Daily Prophet, and not only will sales plummet, but support rates will also plummet.

For the future of the Daily Prophet, they must not admit their mistakes. Not only can they not admit their mistakes, they must also bite the bullet and win this war of public opinion.

It doesn’t matter what the facts are, and it doesn’t matter which side is just. What matters is winning, and victory is justice.

At this critical moment, the situation changed again.

Chapter 284 Who Reads the Daily Prophet?

An obscure newspaper, the Daily Poison and Antidote, came into being.

This newspaper claims to have first-hand information about the Triwizard Tournament and is officially authorized.

Then, Witch and Poison Publishing House, Teacher Jerry, and many writers and masters recommended this newspaper to their book friends and fans. Not only that, many directors and senior officials of the Ministry of Magic also said that the content of this newspaper is true and reliable.

A blatant public platform.

After such a propaganda campaign, many wizards who wanted to know the truth bought the daily poison and antidote, and thus learned what happened.

This made the Daily Prophet smell danger, but unfortunately they were already overwhelmed. A notice of accusation from the Wizengamot shattered the last glimmer of hope of Editor-in-Chief Barnabas Guffey.

The Ministry of Magic accused the Daily Prophet of fabricating and reporting false information about the Triwizard Contest without authorization, which caused a very bad impact. At the same time, the Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter repeatedly fabricated false information, which seriously damaged the rights and interests of many wizards. Now these wizards have jointly sued Rita Skeeter and the Daily Prophet to the Wizengamot. The two cases will be tried next Monday.

If Rita Skeeter is convicted of multiple crimes, she will not only face the charge of spreading rumors, but will also face imprisonment in Azkaban. Maybe she will meet another former celebrity, Lockhart, in prison.

As for the Daily Prophet, although it will not be closed, it will definitely need to bear the corresponding joint liability due to improper supervision and pay a large number of Galleons in order to seek forgiveness, which is a loss of money to avoid disaster.

"I am innocent. I did not fabricate false information! You have no evidence!"

In the Wizengamot court on Monday, Rita Skeeter protested loudly that this was her only chance and she must not be convicted.

In response to Rita Skeeter's protest, the plaintiff representative from the Ministry of Magic simply took out a quill pen and said, "Ms. Rita Skeeter, do you remember this shorthand quill pen? It's the one you often use. You should have used it to record a lot of things."

"By the way, do you need to see this?"

The Ministry of Magic's representative produced another piece of evidence, which not only had pictures but also sound. It was the scene where Rita Skeeter made up the content.

How can it be? !

How could they even come up with something like this?

Rita Skeeter's eyes widened like a toad in heat.

"These are just some of the pieces of evidence we have."