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Just as Barnabas Cuffe had hoped, Rita Skeeter did not return that day.
He therefore made the decisive choice to publish the story about "violent Ministry enforcement." The next morning, the Daily Prophet sold just as well as Barnabas had hoped. Copies flew off the shelves, and the profits were handsome.
It had to be said that the editor had chosen a sensational topic. The headline was direct, blunt, and aimed straight at the Ministry of Magic. It made people want to see what had happened.
Was that not exactly the sort of article ordinary wizards loved most?
Many of them had little affection for the Ministry to begin with, especially when they saw a phrase as inflammatory as "violent enforcement."
Public opinion tilted almost entirely in one direction. The Howlers sent to the Ministry of Magic nearly filled an entire room.
"You arrested one of my people. I will make you pay for it."
Barnabas Cuffe spoke through gritted teeth. He could almost see the ending already: the Ministry yielding under pressure and releasing Rita Skeeter, while the Daily Prophet's influence rose yet again.
But very soon, he could no longer smile.
The first to step forward was Xenophilius Lovegood, editor of The Quibbler. He publicly questioned the truth and validity of the Daily Prophet's report, then sharply criticized Rita Skeeter as a reporter.
That, by itself, was still manageable. After all, when had The Quibbler ever not taken the opposite position?
Besides, while The Quibbler sold well and had plenty of readers, most wizards did not treat its contents as fact. They read it as entertainment, something odd to pass the time with.
When it came to credibility, the Daily Prophet was still stronger.
After all, The Quibbler had once claimed that Fudge secretly commanded an army of goblins. Any wizard with common sense would know that Fudge did not have that sort of ability.
There were many other articles of that kind.
Adult wizards did not take The Quibbler seriously. Even young witches and wizards thought its contents were outrageous.
"Ignore it."
At that moment, Barnabas Cuffe was still calm. The Quibbler's behavior was nothing unusual. The bad blood between the two papers went back more than a century.
"The Daily Prophet is not some cheap rag. I would use the rubbish in those papers as garden compost."
That said, he was rather envious of The Quibbler's sales. Rumor had it that today's numbers were one hundred and thirty percent of the Daily Prophet's.
The Quibbler, however, was only the beginning. It fired the first shot against the Daily Prophet.
Immediately afterward, Professor Jerry, author of Dragonlance Chronicles, publicly denounced the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter in his new book. He accused them of spreading false information and distorting facts, saying they had caused him a great deal of trouble.
The news caused a huge reaction.
Perhaps The Quibbler's credibility could not match the Daily Prophet's, but this mysterious author, who had held the top spot on the bestseller lists again and again, had considerable influence. The moment he spoke, his devoted readers began sending Howlers to the Daily Prophet in a frenzy.
For once, the paper tasted the Ministry's treatment.
"Mr. Barnabas, what should we do now?"
"There are Howlers everywhere! Everywhere! They are about to explode!"
The Daily Prophet staff stared at the Howlers piled across the office, swelling and shuddering as though they might burst at any second. Their faces were full of despair.
"We cannot get out!"
The important point was that the letters had blocked the way out. Passing by might set off an exploding Howler.
"What are you panicking for? They are only Howlers. It is not as if we have never seen them before."
Barnabas Cuffe looked thunderous. When had the Daily Prophet ever suffered this kind of treatment?
"I will find someone."
The Daily Prophet was a Ministry-recognized newspaper. Naturally, it had acquaintances inside the Ministry.
As for the Daily Prophet attacking Fudge and certain Ministry officials...
The Ministry did not speak with only one voice.
Unfortunately, before Barnabas Cuffe could call in help, the situation changed again.
Witch and Poison Publishing, whose momentum had been growing rapidly, released a special magical character card about Rita Skeeter before launching the next generation of Wizard Cards. Its listed traits were false publicity and distorted facts.
Then it released a separate magical card for the Daily Prophet itself.
The mockery was merciless, and public opinion exploded again.
At this point, the Ministry of Magic, which should have stepped forward to stop the situation from worsening, maintained an eerie silence. It was as though the Ministry knew nothing about the matter at all.
Meanwhile, the readers who had blindly supported the Daily Prophet began splitting among themselves. Many of them were fans of Dragonlance Chronicles as well as Daily Prophet readers, and almost all of them shared another hobby: Wizard Cards.
After all this, wizarding public opinion was no longer leaning entirely to one side. It began to waver.
The Daily Prophet was, after all, an established paper with a history of more than a century. It had a solid reader base and still retained some credibility.
As a result, the matter grew larger and larger until nearly the entire European wizarding community was paying attention. More and more spectators joined the discussion.
Everyone wanted to know how it would end.
"I am sorry, Mr. Barnabas. There is truly nothing I can do about this. Perhaps you could try your luck elsewhere?"
Barnabas Cuffe walked out of a house in a foul mood. This was the seventh Ministry official he had visited.
He had run into closed doors all over the Ministry, and every response had been almost identical.
Back when the Daily Prophet was at its height, which official had not treated him politely? Even Minister Fudge had received them with courtesy.
Closed doors?
If someone dared ignore Barnabas Cuffe today, he could have them driven out of office tomorrow with one article after another.
What exactly had changed?
Barnabas Cuffe did not know what had happened, but the Ministry officials' identical answers made him feel as though he had been drawn into some enormous whirlpool.
Yet now that things had reached this point, the Daily Prophet could no longer easily retreat. His choices were simple: admit fault, or fight to the end.
Admitting fault would mean admitting that the Daily Prophet had been wrong and had spread false reports. Once they did that, the public would no longer trust the paper's contents. Sales would collapse, and support would collapse with them.
For the Daily Prophet's future, admitting fault was impossible.
Not only could they not apologize, they had to grit their teeth and win this battle over public opinion.
What the facts were did not matter.
Which side was just did not matter either.
The important thing was winning. Once a side won, it could write itself as the righteous one.
And at that crucial moment, the situation changed again.
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