Chapter 521 The helpless beetle

 The pile of scandals in the newspapers still caused Albert some trouble.

Fred, George and Lee Jordan also sent joking letters to Albert, congratulating him on winning the International Wizard Chess Competition.

To resolve the issue, Albert gave an exclusive interview to Rita Skeeter.

The interview took place in Mrs. Puddieff's Teahouse in Hogsmeade. It is open all day long, but there are basically no customers.

In the teahouse, Albert flipped through the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. After hearing someone pull his chair, he slowly raised his head, looked at the witch who appeared in front of him, and asked: "Rita Ski Miss special?"

The witch's blond hair was styled into delicate curls, she wore a pair of jeweled glasses on her nose, she held a crocodile leather handbag on her fingers, and her nails were painted bright red.

If Rita Skeeter was dressed like this when she was young, she should be a fashionable and beautiful girl, but she is already old.

“Yes, it’s not easy to interview you once, Mr. Anderson.”

  Rita Skeeter sat opposite Albert, also looking at the young genius wizard in front of her. To be honest, the other person's gaze made her very uncomfortable, giving her the illusion of being seen through.

“Actually, I don’t like interviews, and I don’t like being too ostentatious.”

Albert took a sip of milk tea and said with a half-smile: "However, you and your colleagues always like to fabricate facts randomly, which still brings me some trouble, so I came to see you."

"People always like to see some..." Rita Skeeter couldn't help but squint her eyes. She had never seen such a difficult boy.

“I know,” interrupted Albert, “to attract the reader’s attention, and I know, of course, that I have the same troubles in France and the United States, and that is what your colleagues like to do.”

 After speaking, Albert's eyes fell on the quill pen that was writing and drawing on the notebook.

“Leave the pen alone, Mr. Anderson, tell me...”

"I suggest that you don't use it to record what we said. It might not be very friendly to you." Albert looked away from the shorthand quill and interrupted Rita Skeeter rudely. Then he said to himself: "I know very well what kind of reporter you are, and I also know very well that the purpose of the newspaper's existence is to sell itself, regardless of whether the content in it is true or false."

With that said, Albert drank up the milk tea in the cup, looked at Rita Skeeter with his fingers intertwined, and suddenly showed a weird smile: "Everyone has their own secrets, and you are no exception. You are An… illegal animagus, right!”

 The last words were spoken very softly by Albert, so only he and Rita Skeeter could hear them.

"What…"

Rita Skeeter's eyes widened, her tone was filled with disbelief, and she almost spilled the black tea in front of her, "I don't know what you are talking about!" She took a deep breath and said coldly.

 “Let me see, what is your animagus?”

"What did you do to me?" Rita Skeeter had a very bad feeling and quickly looked away, not daring to look directly into Albert's eyes.

 “Oh, it turned out to be a beetle?”

Albert murmured softly, "So, you often use Animagus to find out information?"

 Under the horrified and disbelieving gaze of the female reporter, Albert nodded to himself and said, "That's right, Animagus is indeed very suitable for espionage work."

"you…"

 Rita Skeeter was trembling all over. She felt that the person in front of her was a terrible devil, and he could see through her easily.

Albert raised the corners of his mouth slightly and said softly: "There is no doubt that I am a telepathizer."

"It's useless, no one will believe it." Rita Skeeter trembled her lips and seemed to have spent a lot of effort to say this.

"If you have investigated me, you should know that I know many famous wizards and maintain good correspondence with them. As long as I write them a letter, believe me, Azkaban Prison will definitely welcome you to stay. ." Albert laughed maliciously: "I think there should be many wizards who hate you, and they will definitely take the opportunity to add insult to injury!"

"Okay, what do you want?" Rita Skeeter clenched her fists. She actually wanted to cast a forgetting spell on the other party and write a vicious article to discredit the other party, but she soon He gave up the idea and slumped down on the chair.

 “If you don’t want to do anything else, you can order another cup of tea and we’ll talk about the next thing.”

With that said, Albert took out his wallet from his pocket and pushed it in front of Rita Skeeter, and said calmly: "I hope you can help me wash away those **** scandals, and I can answer some questions for you. , and you will also be given a fee.”

"that's it?"

"Of course not. I hope that in the future, you will simply or directly ignore any news that involves me. If you really need to, write to me instead of making up random things to get me into trouble."

 Actually, this last point was the reason why Albert invited Rita Skeeter out.

 He needs to control public opinion, at least stop making such inexplicable reports.

　　Rita Skeeter opened her mouth and her eyes fell on the money bag, which contained about twenty galleons.

The money was not a lot for Rita Skeeter, but she could undoubtedly keep her secret, avoid jail time, and make a small fortune completing her work for the Daily Prophet.

 The most important thing is that she has no choice.

Although compromising to an underage wizard made Rita Skeeter feel ridiculous, she knew that the compromise would not do much harm to her. At least the other party paid hush money, so it was not a shame.

"Alright alright."

  Rita Skeeter reached for the money bag and stuffed it into her crocodile leather handbag, then took out a quill and started asking questions.

“I heard that Mr. Bud Brod recommended you to participate in the international wizard chess competition. Was your wizard chess also taught by this former champion?”

“Mr. Broad once served as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, and our friendship began at that time...”

Albert began to recall that period of history, but it was very complicated in Rita Skeeter's ears. She felt as if she had witnessed the birth of a genius, and Mr. Broad undoubtedly knew of Albert's talent. , so he pushed him from behind, and the two formed a deep friendship.

 Later, Albert burst out a bunch of wizard names from his mouth, all of which were very famous wizards in many fields.

 Obviously, he didn't lie before.

 “Where is the pretty French lady?” After Rita Skeeter asked a few more questions, she brought up another topic that interested her.

 “Louise Delacour?”

“So the lady’s name is Louise Delacour?”

"In fact, I was more familiar with his father, who was a famous potion master, and we exchanged letters." Albert recalled, "At that time, I met Mr. Hertock Dagworth in France. , during the chat, he learned that I also knew Mr. Delacour, um, the father of Miss Louise, so he invited me to visit him together, and we happened to meet halfway."

"As for that photo, it was just a French kiss." Albert recalled, "At that time, the reporter was probably taking a picture of the handshake between Mr. Dagworth and Mr. Delacour. He probably took the photo by accident. Photo. Later, you also know that I became the youngest international wizard chess champion. Your colleagues may have thought that they needed to create some gimmick to attract everyone’s attention, so they made it up. After all, everyone likes gossip news.”

“I see, where is that beautiful American girl?”

 In fact, Rita Skeeter was very shocked by Albert's circle of friends. She certainly knew who Mr. Dagworth was, and a friend who could become a potion master would definitely have a high standard in potions. "

“She is the granddaughter of the American alchemist Mr. Nicholas. She also likes alchemy. Mr. Serra and I met each other by chance when we went to visit Mr. Nicholas.”

Albert thought for a moment and then said: "When I was about to return to the UK, I asked Miss Catherine to take me to Wizarding Street in the United States to buy some specialties from the American wizarding world for my friends. That photo was taken at that time. Yes, because I refused an interview with an American reporter at that time, so he, like his French counterpart, fabricated a scandal at will. They are not responsible for it anyway, and everyone likes to see this kind of thing."

Rita Skeeter was a little disappointed. Things were not much different from what she expected. Wanting to find some breaking news, she continued to ask, "I heard that you had an affair with an employee of the Ministry of Magic in the United States. Some unpleasant conflicts.”

"Unpleasant conflict?" Albert recalled a little and said helplessly, "It's not an unpleasant conflict, it was just a very helpless misunderstanding."

"Misunderstand?"

"Miss Catherine also gave me a kiss on the face." Albert said helplessly, ""The young employee who received me seems to be an admirer of Miss Catherine. You should It is not difficult to guess that the jealous young man deliberately caused me some trouble within his job authority. In the end, they even searched me and made a mess of my luggage. "

"I think a reasonable apology is necessary." Albert said calmly: "After all, I cooperated with all the inspections at the time, and his suspicion caused us unnecessary trouble."

 “Jealous, abusing power, distorting facts, and talking nonsense.”

"As for why the newspaper said that." Albert shrugged, "I think it may be because I defeated the American player who had a good chance of winning the championship!"

“Twisting the facts and deliberately provoking contradictions.” Rita Skeeter became more and more excited as she wrote, and continued to ask, “Do you have anything special to say about this trip to the United States?”

"The magical society in the United States is different from the magical society in Europe, or even from most countries. They have many strict laws. For example, after you go to the United States, you need to go to the Magic Congress to apply for a temporary wand license as soon as possible, otherwise you will It’s illegal.”

Albert thought for a while and then said: "I suggest that the Magical Society of the United States of America print a guide to the American Magical Society Entry Guide, detailing some of the legal rules that need to be strictly followed after going to the American Magical Society. I believe that this can reduce the number of magicians very well. Congress's work, and greatly easing pressure on prisons.

“After all, not all wizards will, like me, carefully understand the situation of American magical society before going to the United States.” Albert put down the milk tea he had finished drinking and said calmly.

"I will write an article that will satisfy you." Rita Skeeter put away the parchment, her face full of excitement.

"After you finish writing, remember to send me a first draft for review. Don't forget it, Miss Rita Skeeter." After saying that, Albert got up and went to the counter to pay, and then borrowed the fireplace in Mrs. Puddy's Tea House. , fly directly to Diagon Alley.

 (End of this chapter)