So in the end the matter was settled, and Lockhart was given full authority to operate the matter.

Of course, Lockhart will not miss such a great opportunity to expand his team. He has left a few of the most politically concerned people in the four academies, and is ready to start this "Ministry of Magic Inaugural Preschool" justifiably.

He opened with a shock bomb:

"Mr Weasley, the Principal appreciates your outstanding performance this year,

For being extremely responsible during your time at Hogwarts, I hope you can take on more work next year, if nothing else. "

Percy was stunned at first, then overjoyed.

Dumbledore's implication was that his student president for next year didn't run away.

He immediately looked at his girlfriend beside him, and found that Penello was also beaming. She is probably the only one who can truly be happy for Percy's "promotion".

Although it is said that both the prefect and the student chairperson should represent the interests of the students, the prefects of each college are selected by the dean of the college, and they are handed over to the principal after they are selected, and the student chairperson must finally come from the principal. Decide.

Under this mechanism, the prefect and the student president say that they represent the interests of the students, but in fact they can only obey the principal and the dean. Whether they have the support of the students is only one of the factors that the dean uses to measure the value of his use. The most important factor.

They want you because you can "manage" the students for them.

This is similar to the "independent directors" who are paid by major shareholders and company executives. They say that they represent the interests of small and medium shareholders, but in fact they are just people who work for the real power of the company.

But Lockhart used this cunningly - it was him, not Dumbledore, who told Percy the news, which also meant that he himself played a role in this matter, and Percy was grateful man becomes him.

Dumbledore should have seen through his thoughts, but people don't care about this little thing anymore.

"Starting from next year, the authority of the Student Union will be expanded. I hope you can help me so that people don't take the tea..."

The four who were left exchanged glances, and all found the excitement in each other's eyes.

Of all the students, they are the most politically active and

desire. Seeing an opportunity for higher status, they won't give up

After getting first-hand information, the "truth" of the monster in the secret room spread at the speed of light, and Dumbledore and Lockhart's counterattack plan officially kicked off.

The first one to come was, of course, Witch Weekly, and because of their "persistence in difficult times", they became the only magazine with Lockhart interview rights after the Chamber of Secrets incident.

Different from Harry's straightforward description, when Lockhart was interviewed by "Witches Weekly", he specially tailored a more perfect and sensational story for their audience, that is, the female prince.

After all, witches are also women, and their way of thinking is still emotionally oriented. Therefore, Lockhart adopts a method of narrating from a subjective point of view, and pays great attention to describing personal feelings in order to guide readers' emotions.

In his narrative, the first object of his suspicion was Rubeus Hagrid, but after careful investigation, Lockhart discovered that he was actually a good-natured and kind-hearted man. Except for being a little clumsy, he was very kind-hearted. A little white rabbit won't hurt.

Not to mention the headmaster, the atmosphere between colleagues is also very harmonious. If there is a Garden of Eden in this world, it must be Hogwarts, and the guy who destroys this peace is absolutely unforgivable.

As for the monster in the secret room and the mysterious black magic item, Lockhart described their ferocity in great detail, especially when he was attacked at Christmas. Surviving the monster attack in the secret room" is highlighted.

Finally, he also "unintentionally" mentioned the attacks on him by the newspapers, and the impact of those attacks on him.

"When there is no way to enter the secret room, I can only choose to lead the snake out of the hole and use

The fact that I found the clue lured the insidious assailant to attack me.

After hearing what those people said about me, I was so exhausted that I didn't sleep for almost the whole night—this is something that Wan Lun's ghosts never did. I really can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, or who's getting in the way...

It can only be said that I am not strong enough. I can defeat a thousand or ten thousand dark creatures, but I cannot deal with the unpredictable human heart.

Fortunately, with your support, those warm words and equally warm people saved me. When I look up at the endless dark night, I can tell myself that I am not alone, and I don't need to be sad. What I have is not only the cold darkness, but also a thousand twinkling stars. "

It can only be said that Lockhart is indeed born to eat this bowl of rice. Whether or not these words can move readers aside, the female reporter who came to interview him burst into tears on the spot, hugged him emotionally, and vowed to say, " Make those people pay the price."

Lockhart knew that even without her words, "Witch Weekly" would not miss this opportunity to fight back, because the number of wizard readers is too small.

Chapter 114: The secret fight between the media

The Witch Weekly shareholders weren't really keen on helping Lockhart restore his reputation, but they wanted to take the opportunity to steal the title of "the most circulated weekly" from the Sunday Prophet.

This is important to them, because the wizarding media market is really too small, even the Daily Prophet, which has the largest circulation, is actually the same thing.

There are about 10,000 wizards in Britain, which is a family unit of several thousand. Even if each unit subscribes to a copy of the Daily Prophet, at the subscription price of 1 nat 1 copy, the newspaper's sales revenue per day less than 20 Galleons

This amount of money is obviously not enough for a newspaper to survive, because not to mention the cost of printing and sales, even the reporters and editors cannot survive. So it's a tough job for the wizarding media to survive.

Because there are fewer people, the content they can report is far less rich than the Muggle world, and the content is highly homogenized. In this case, a wizarding family only needs to subscribe to one or two publications.

In other words, for every additional reader at this newspaper, another newspaper loses one, which is almost a zero-sum market.

"The Daily Prophet" is not bad, because they have the largest circulation, so the advertising revenue is not bad, plus the funding from the Ministry of Magic, the newspaper can live very well.

But like "Witch Weekly", it takes more effort to sell yourself. Its biggest rival is not the Daily Prophet, but the Sunday Prophet, which is also a weekly magazine.

Weekly and daily magazines in general are quite different, daily magazines require tracking of recent events

News, you can only report the event itself, without digging too deeply into the reason behind an event, the core competitiveness is the timeliness and accuracy of news.

But the weekly magazine is more like a summary of the major events that happened in the week, because the published things are not news, so the opinions and analysis of reporters and editors must be included in the publication.

If the views of a weekly magazine are not novel enough, the style is not unique, the analysis is not deep enough, and the events are difficult to explore, then the weekly magazine is destined to have no future.

As long as the publicity is in place, the Hogwarts secret room monster attack will definitely become a hot spot among the public, and at the same time, the Daily Prophet newspaper has not dared to report on the matter in depth. What better chance?

Sure enough, when Witch Weekly was released in early March, there was an uproar in the wizarding world.

There are not many wizards who want to know the whole story of the decryption room because they are worried about their children, or because they miss their school years, or because they are simply curious.

But the three cookie-sized pages of the Daily Prophet were obviously unable to meet their needs. In this case, the Weekly Witch became their only source of information about the matter.

The interview about Lockhart is naturally published in full, because it not only introduces in detail the cause and effect of the monster attack in the Chamber of Secrets, but also uses a variety of sensational means to accuse some "irresponsible rumormongers" and "" ill-conceived villain

Although no one has said it explicitly, anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is an attack on the Daily Prophet and the Ministry of Magic behind the Daily.

The editor-in-chief of "Weekly" is very accurate. Although the article refers to Sang and scolded Huai from the beginning to the end, there is no real word that can be used as evidence for their "slandering the Ministry of Magic". At least on the surface, it attacks Just the Daily Prophet

...that's the arrogance of the big newspapers, how the readers' opinion they have always been ignorant

visual. No matter how they talked nonsense and cheated, they didn't even apologise afterward. The people who have been insulted by their emotions and IQs have no way to take them, and whoever makes their source of income does not depend on the publication itself. "

If the dirty water of "Witch Weekly" is poured into reality, then regardless of whether the "Daily Prophet" is ignoring its readers, people who have been "insulted in their emotions and IQ" will definitely not just boycott the "Daily".

Like banks, credibility is the basic premise for the survival of the media, and entertainment capabilities are an important addition. If it is serious to be labeled as "looking down on readers", then "fraudulent" directly endangers the fundamentals of this media. Jia Daily will of course fight back.

In addition to satirizing "Witches Weekly" that "a publication with 90% of the content is gossip and lace news, dare to talk to people about its credibility", they also talk about "the boss of the media"

\"The original intention of our newspaper is to let the people care about the things that they should really care about.

However, their response to this matter has ended here. It is really harder than going to heaven to ask the Daily Prophet to apologize. Although the "Daily" editorial office received a snowflake of protest letters and shouting letters.

Next they went a bit more conventional—they reported a stream of even more explosive news in an attempt to drown out the Chamber of Secrets.

In many cases, such things as public opinion are led by the media. After all \"\"people say it is terrifying", the media only needs to keep reporting the best news to effectively guide public opinion.

-A piece of news can be replaced by another updated news, a scandal can be covered up by another bigger scandal.

A lot of people are at the center of verbal criticism because of this, but no one cares what the **** is going on, and no one cares about the real victims. Hot news a week ago, people forget about it the next week.

It may be true to say that the Daily Prophet looks down on readers, but which media has ever looked down on readers?

It is precisely because of this that the Daily Prophet did not try to quell public opinion at all, but tried to discuss with the initiators so that they would stop making trouble.

They knew very well that as long as Dumbledore and Lockhart stopped fighting, the matter would soon settle down.

Basbana Gufey is a little annoyed now, because he was instructed by the Ministry of Magic to publish the Rita Skeeter article, but now it is him who is under the pressure, but the Ministry of Magic has not expressed it at all, This is really too cool.

He was so anxious to quell the matter that he had to compromise with Dumbledore on certain matters.

"It's almost there," Lockhart said to Dumbledore. "We can't be deadlocked with the Daily Prophet forever. They're smart people, and they can see the attitude of the Ministry of Magic."

Dumbledore nodded.

Fudge is now in the stage of reasoning. He knows that this is just one of Dumbledore's revenge methods, so he chose to be deaf to this wave of public opinion offensive.

He knew that if Dumbledore went too far, or took his revenge too long, he would have nothing to gain. So he had to write to Dumbledore, signify resignation, and then offer to make peace.

So a week later, the Daily Prophet ran an ad -- Hogg

Watts' secret room has been repaired, and Dumbledore is going to invite the Skull Orchestra to hold a grand concert in the secret room. If Hogwarts graduates want to participate, please make a reservation in advance.

Chapter 115 Role Change

Ten days later, the two student presidents handed over the counted appointment list to Lockhart.

.. 177 people, which means that most of the big and powerful people in the wizarding world have come, right? Miss Farley? ' said Lockhart, looking at the list.

He asked her because he found out that nearly half of the people on the list were Slytherin-graduated wizards, and the female student chair was also a Slytherin house.

The chairwoman of the female students, Gemma Farion, raised her head: "Yes, that includes my parents."

Hearing what she said, Lockhart glanced down and found the names of Fahe II and his wife on it.

"Very well, the work of hosting alumni this time will be very heavy, and the two of you will have to bear a lot of work... Don't blame me for delaying your preparation for the N.E.W.Ts exam?"

"Not at all." The two said in unison.

As those who are about to graduate, they are most concerned about their future prospects, and the test scores are just a stepping stone for their future careers.

They have already learned about the upcoming expansion of the authority of the student union. Of course, it is a good thing to be able to expand the authority at hand, but they regret that it is already the second half of the seventh grade. Even if the expansion is successful, they can only enjoy a few month benefit

Now have the opportunity to host so many wizarding dignitaries at once, which is far more important to them than exams. Even if all NEWTs subjects fail, they will choose to seize the corresponding contacts first.

Lockhart saw this - as long as this benefit was still hanging here, no matter what he asked for, the two student presidents would find a way to make it happen.

arrive.

For example, the expansion structure that Lockhart requested, these two people have already helped him out, saving him a lot of heart.

The expanded student union is still divided according to the college, the discipline committee was handed over to the principled Hufflepuff, independent education was lost to Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor took away the propaganda department. , while Slytherin took away the finance department.

As for the most important organization department and external liaison department, the four colleges compete for positions according to their abilities. Which college is more capable of tidying up and brings more benefits to the student union, who has the greater right to speak.

Although it seems fair, Slytherin is undoubtedly the biggest winner, and they want to infiltrate other departments with ease.

But this is also impossible, because before the plot year, Slytherin has dominated the Academy Cup for many years. Although Gryffindor won it back once last year, in general, Slytherin has the right to speak. a little more.

Lockhart decided to respect the autonomy of these students by expressing no objection to the expanded list handed in by the two chairmen, but simply gave permission

—On the one hand because he didn’t want to get into trouble with the students, on the other hand, except for the prefects in this list, the group of people who met on weekends in his office were basically included, such as Cedric, Hermione, Roger , Eddie, and the gang of Justin Fenrier, Samuel Mason.

Originally, he wanted to bring Harry in too, but the old bee didn't agree, because he said he didn't want the savior to be stained with worldly colors too early.

After hearing this, Lockhart wanted to show Mark Twain's "The Man Who Broke Hedleyburg" to him, but in the end he didn't.

Sure enough, the savior must be pure, so I'll leave the pickling to me

Do it.

After reviewing the expanded staff list and reception plan, Lockhart gave permission

To put it bluntly, this graduates' back-to-school event is actually a donation-soliciting meeting. A concert plus dinner reception doesn't actually cost a lot of money as a whole. Even if the tickets are collected, there is not much money, and the bulk of it is the donations from the guests.

Although this kind of behavior is essentially the same as begging, these days begging has to be done implicitly. Unreasonable forced donations will not only make people disgusted, but also give outsiders a petty impression of Hogwarts, which is very harmful to Hogwarts.

But invitations in the name of "visiting the secret room", "holding a concert" and "watching a duel match" will reduce the copper smell of this matter a lot, even if everyone still knows it.

Lockhart circled a few people on the list, and asked the two student presidents to take care of them

"\"Twenty-Eight Pure Bloods\' the richest Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Smith, the heir to Hufflepuff, Mr. Granger of the Extraordinary Apothecary Society, Mrs. Timms of Eel Farm... I hope these people There is someone to accompany you the whole time, okay? "

The two student chairmen both had expressions of understanding—these were rich and powerful people, and Professor Lockhart was clearly trying to get something out of them.

While schools should treat all graduates as equal, some should be more equal

Although there is some market compensation, it is also impossible. Who makes Hogwarts short of money?

Although the two student presidents saw it, they had no intention of objecting.

Just as Lockhart wanted to leave his "team" at Hogwarts, so did the student president.

Although the student president is the voice of the principal, he is also an "officer".

After they graduate, whether they go to the Ministry of Magic or other companies, they still have to work as grandchildren, just like other students. But if you can take this opportunity to cultivate your own team, it will be another concept.

They wouldn't say it to Dumbledore, nor would they openly support Professor Lockhart's move, but that's what they thought in their hearts.

Although Dumbledore is great, bright, and upright, some things are born based on human nature. Everyone has selfishness, and blindly paying attention to political correctness is anti-humanity.

For Gemma Farley, although she still adored Lockhart emotionally as she did at the beginning of the semester, the adoration at that time was more based on girlish romantic fantasy, an angel in a halo, light. It is far away, but it is almost at a distance, and it can be seen from a distance without the possibility of contact.