The End of Rita Skeeter?
A woman paced through an office, dictating aloud while a quill moved on its own, writing down every single word she spoke.
"How about something like this? As the Ministry of Magic prepares to launch a formal investigation into the recent events that took place in the Muggle world, an uncomfortable question is beginning to spread through the halls of power.
The incident, involving Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, occurred in the middle of a Muggle neighborhood and forced the Ministry to intervene quickly to prevent dozens of witnesses from discovering the existence of magic..."
Rita Skeeter watched as the quill wrote down every word she dictated while she carefully considered her next move.
Her assignment, given both by her editor and by the Ministry of Magic itself, was to completely destroy those youngsters' reputations.
Especially that Muggle-born girl Rita despised so much.
Because of her, during the Triwizard Tournament, Rita had been forced to tread very carefully after coming dangerously close to having her secret exposed.
And now...
She finally had the chance to get her revenge.
She couldn't have been more pleased.
Rita looked at the quill as though it were alive.
"What if we also add something about that anonymous wizard who caused this entire mess?" she asked it.
The quill simply hovered there.
But Rita took that as an answer.
"Yes... red magic," she murmured with a nod as a small smile spread across her lips and her eyes lit up. "Why hadn't anyone noticed before?" she muttered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Add this:
Curiously, numerous witnesses described the magic used by the mysterious individual as a strange crimson energy.
A color that inevitably brings the Triwizard Tournament back to mind.
Because, as far as the public knows, only one wizard has ever demonstrated magic of that nature.
Harry Potter.
The Ministry has established no connection between the two incidents.
At least...
Not yet.
But it is difficult to ignore such a striking coincidence when Potter's two closest friends once again find themselves at the center of another magical incident...
Even more concerning is the extraordinary level of power displayed during the confrontation."
"And then...
It will now fall upon the Ministry to determine whether Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy acted within the limits of legitimate self-defense... or whether they crossed a line that no wizard, no matter how brilliant, has the right to cross.
Because surviving an attack is one thing.
Putting the secret that protects our entire society at risk...
Is something entirely different."
Rita finished dictating and slowly looked over the completed manuscript as a proud smile gradually spread across her face.
"Wonderful. I'd like to focus even more on Potter, but it's still too soon. Though I have so many ideas for him... Perhaps turning him into the next Dark Lord. Something like: Did the Boy Who Lived truly save the world... or did he simply realize, the moment he was born, that he had competition and decide to eliminate it? And then there's Malfoy's father, now in Azkaban. Losing his magic... that's going to be fascinating. It'll cause quite a panic among the wizarding public. Magnificent," she said as ideas continued pouring into her mind one after another.
She could feel herself reaching an entirely new level as a journalist.
Besides...
She had the Ministry's full permission to practice the sensationalist journalism she excelled at.
Her gaze then shifted toward a large board covered in photographs and notes about Harry and his group.
Every member had their own section.
But by far, Hermione was the one Rita had targeted the most.
Beneath her photograph were words like Mudblood, Muggle-born, Cinderella, along with countless other insults.
The only one with very few notes was Daphne.
"I should dig up some dirt on that little Greengrass girl too. Though that's strange... Why is there so little on her compared to the others?" she wondered aloud, thinking about what she could invent regarding Daphne.
"Perhaps the worst thing about her is that she's genuinely very lazy, and her friends end up cleaning up most of her messes," an amused voice suddenly said.
"Careful. You're talking about my daughter," another voice replied, far colder and sharper.
"Oh, come on. I'm not lying. Or maybe you could use the Viktor story. That one was hilarious. I've never seen her run that fast," the first voice answered with a teasing grin.
A faint growl came from the second speaker.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees, almost reaching freezing.
"You take this far too seriously. Sooner or later she'll have to grow up."
"No," came the completely serious reply.
"What do you mean, no? No matter what you do, you can't stop time... unless you ask Wanda," the other man replied with an amused smile.
"Fine," the cold-voiced man answered, sounding as though he would genuinely be willing to do exactly that.
"Hey, I was only joking. Anyway, let's leave that aside for now. Miss Skeeter, I think it would be best if you put your wand down. It won't do you much good.
At least not while we're here."
Rita, who had quietly drawn her wand while the two men chatted behind her, couldn't stop herself from trembling violently as sweat rolled down her face before she slowly turned around.
"W-what... w-what brings Headmaster Sirius Black and Mr. Edward Greengrass to my home?" Rita asked, trying to sound calm.
But the gazes of the two dark-eyed men remained fixed on her.
One wore an amused expression, like a dog that had just found its favorite toy.
The other was cold and utterly emotionless, like an ice sculpture.
Yet at the same time...
One that could freeze your very soul.
"And how did you get past the Fidelius?" she asked, struggling through her stutter, because she could already tell that the presence of those two men here meant nothing good.
Not after everything she had written about them over the past few months.
"Well, there aren't many ways to break the Fidelius. But there's a rather interesting spell that can be used to track people who say your name. Voldemort used it in the past. That's why even speaking his name inspired terror," Sirius said. "Modifying it so it detects whenever someone says another person's name with malicious intent is very easy for one rather crazy witch in our little group. Though someone has to keep an eye on her so her experiments don't blow up in her face. But we're not here to discuss new spells and things like that, are we?" Sirius said, his smile never reaching his eyes as he looked at Rita.
Edward, meanwhile, simply made a small gesture with his hand.
The manuscripts waiting to be sent to the Prophet floated into his hands, and he began reading them carefully and unhurriedly.
Meanwhile, Sirius's gaze wandered around the office until it landed on the board behind Rita.
Eventually it stopped on a photograph of Draco and Harry during the Triwizard Tournament.
"Wow, this one's pretty good. Mind if I keep it?" Sirius asked.
Though he asked the question, he had already walked over, taken the photograph to examine it more closely, and slipped it into his jacket.
"Y-yes... of course," Rita answered, swallowing hard.
It wasn't Sirius who frightened her the most.
Compared to the man calmly reading through her manuscripts as though nothing were happening, Sirius almost seemed like the less dangerous of the two.
That didn't mean he wasn't dangerous in his own right.
Sirius continued browsing through the notes one by one.
"Though Dark Lord might not be such a bad title. Harry prefers being called the Great Villain," Sirius said with amusement as he read the notes beneath his godson's photograph.
Then he looked at Draco's.
"Cursed Heir," and things like that.
Then Hermione's.
Which were filled with far more malice than the others.
Sirius shot Rita a look filled with contempt.
"Honestly, if we hadn't come here ourselves, I'm sure those brats would've shown up sooner or later," Sirius added mockingly.
Rita had gone completely pale.
"T-the... the Ministry asked me to. I... I was only doing what they told me. If I hadn't..." Rita said, desperately trying to defend herself as she looked between Sirius and Edward.
"Interesting," Edward said without looking up from the manuscript. "I've never met an innocent person whose first defense was, 'I was only following orders.'"
"Yeah. Plenty of Death Eaters used that excuse to stay out of Azkaban. In the end, they wound up blowing up my school. Maybe it would've been better to simply refuse... and, I don't know, use your beetle form to escape whatever threats they made against you, don't you think?" Sirius interrupted.
Rita went even paler and immediately looked at Sirius, unable to understand how they knew her secret.
"Y-you... h-how...?" she stammered as she stared at Sirius.
His smile only widened.
Now it resembled a demon's grin.
"Maybe an Animagus resonance between Animagi," Sirius said with a shrug, though he clearly seemed to be enjoying himself by teasing her. "So then, Edward... what's the plan?"
Edward, who had already finished reading the manuscripts, casually flicked his hand.
The papers burst into white flames, turning to ash almost instantly.
"She can still be useful. Though... I'm sure our ladies will want to have a conversation with her. Susan and Narcissa, especially," Edward said with perfect calm.
Now both men's eyes were fixed on her.
Rita trembled.
Because she understood perfectly...
That from this moment onward...
Her future no longer belonged to her.