Rita Skeeter lowered her head down deeply, not daring to speak aloud. She felt like she couldn’t breathe, but this time she is pretty sure she isn’t under the influence of magic, but just the fact that it is nothing to do with magic made her more terrified.
She knew she had to make her decision soon. Likewise, she is very well aware that this man in front of her didn’t care whether she lived or died, the last time he had visited her house with the sole purpose of making her learn to shut up, and when she had done so, there had been no further disturbances from him in that regard. But equally, if she wanted to ask for help, she had to pay some price.
And she had the confidence that the name Rita Skeeter carried value itself.
“Dear Mr. Hap,” she said sincerely, “I would like some advice regarding a case where I made a fatal mistake.” At the same time, she couldn’t help but grumble about the other man who lived high up in the castle, Dumbledore.
In her new book, although she avoided mentioning names, but she alluded a lot about the traditional gallant, good camp thingy, and under the gimmick of ” Dark Lord and his loyal Death Eaters entanglement “, she added a lot of such details.
On the Regulus part of the information, she has not found much insider information – her reputation among wizards is notorious, and turning into a beetle is not very helpful, ordinary people will not talk about a dead person anytime and anywhere. She only found some public information and stitched together the characteristics of a few dozen famous Black family ancestors.
So in the book, the “pure and noble bloodline” pure-blood family heir is sometimes elegant and tolerant, and other times cautious and sharp-tongued, a bit like the man in front of her …
However, it is different when it comes to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, this is her elaborate drama, in order to challenge the honour of “the best-selling book of the twentieth century”, the wording used to promote this book abroad is “the secret past of the second Dark Lord”, which she personally implied to the foreign publisher to subtly mention The Dark Lord and the powerful figures who are now imprisoned together, and she has always been well versed in these little tricks.
Her long experience of voyeurism had taught her one thing: despite what people say, there is a noisy little devil living within everyone, which wants to see the unattainable famous figures to be normal or be kicked off their throne.
And she – Rita Skeeter – always helped them fulfil those wants and wishes.
With this in mind, she filled the book with real truthful details, for which she had traced the dark lord’s past, especially his childhood experiences; she had worked like a hard-working beetle. It was a dangerous endeavour, in which she had carefully selected her breakthroughs, and after learning about several famous families, she decided to focus on the dark lord’s childhood – his life in an orphanage.
And coincidentally, she ran into Dumbledore, who was also interested in the dark lord’s childhood, and they met at the house of an orphanage director, when Dumbledore did not say a word about the deadly danger she would encounter, but still, he politely advised her that “it is not advisable to do so … ”
This bumblebee! Rita Skeeter used the Dumbledore name’s archaic word sarcastically in her mind.
How old is he again?
Rita Skeeter thought with hidden mean thoughts, to think that he would be able to live longer than her with his high magic power, but quickly she ended that train of thought. She might have criticized his school management style in the newspaper or described him as a crazy old loony, but she would never risk digging up the real hidden secrets while he remained alive.
A scrutinizing gaze swept over her, causing her to draw a cold breath as her body jolted. The blazing fireplace didn’t bring her much warmth, and all those complicated thoughts she had were doused at once.
“You seek advice from me?”
“Frankly, I don’t see any remorse in you … Perhaps you are enjoying the experience?” Felix said softly, “That would make sense, you made a choice and accepted all the consequences that choice brought you.”
“No, not like that.” Rita Skeeter hurriedly said, “I know you have some influence over some people, like the last Black … just need to say hello-”
“Say hello?” Felix interrupted her, “If I understand you correctly, you’re asking me to sacrifice a friendship to help a person – with all due respect – who doesn’t have much to offer?”
Skeeter’s breath suddenly choked.
“Kiki (that’s exactly right)!” Valen shouted indignantly in his embrace.
Rita Skeeter’s posture lowered even more as she told the whole story of her experiences over the past few days, and as she played it out, she seemed to have slipped into that state of mind, the usual pair of eyes that lacked empathy welled up with tears.
“I’m sorry for what happened to you.” Felix listened and responded simply, “But don’t say you’re innocent, everything was a decision you made in your sober state.”
“I know …,” Rita Skeeter said slyly, “I brought some ‘sincerity’.” She held up her hands and showed him her long, bright red nails, which then clicked and detached from her hands.
Ten nails that looked like small daggers floated in front of Felix, Niffler tried to reach out for them, but he stopped her, he watched for a moment as it moved through the air and then turned his head.
“I have three suggestions, and it’s your choice whether you want to heed them, or not, and you can even choose to heed more than one suggestion. You’re smart, Rita, so you can judge them by yourself.”
“First, downplay the impact of that book, and how far you do that depends on how determined you are. I need to remind you, though, that Dumbledore won’t have any interest in a dead man’s childhood …”
“Second, I will contact Sirius and will claim that you agreed to write a biography for Regulus, he doesn’t care about his reputation, but he can’t tolerate his brother being tarnished by bystanders. So, Rita, bring out your most brilliant writing skills.”
“Finally …”
Felix’s slender fingers flicked slightly, and a Ring of the ouroboros Snake suddenly appeared, transforming into a small inky snake, which rushed in front of her with a “whoosh” and swam onto her bare finger before she could react.
Rita Skeeter was lost in thought, staring at the ring, and the small, dark green eyes of the small, moving snake.
“If there ever something threatens your life, just rub this ring. Believe me, you will be able to send a distress message in a perfect time – if those people ever strike because of your ‘offensive actions’, they won’t let you die easily.”
Rita Skeeter let out a deep breath and looked a lot more solemn as she took two steps back with her head bowed and said respectfully, “I can do all three of these things, Mr. Hap.” Then she turned back into a chubby beetle again as she flew out of the castle.
Felix looked down with contemplation, then he pulled out a piece of parchment, and wrote a short letter.
“Sirius, knowing that you’re bothered by that annoying book, I just wanted to tell you this.
I was just approached by Rita Skeeter, and the book will not be reprinted again, but the thousands of copies that already have been distributed most probably won’t be recovered, so I arranged for Remus to acquire those stocks on the market two days ago in an effort to minimize the impact.
In addition, she also agreed to write a biography for Regulus, every word on the biography will need to be approved by you, you can use your strictest standards to demand her. I believe that you and Kreacher can provide enough details to flesh out the characters in the book beautifully, but I would advise you to either omit the name of the Horcrux or delay the publication of that part …
So, you better stop hanging around Rita Skeeter’s doorstep, she’s become a scaredy-cat and I don’t want to hear about you being sent to Azkaban in the paper while I am having breakfast.
Also, if you want to enter Hogwarts next year as a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, you better do some preparation in advance, I have a friend in the Muggle world who can arrange for you to be a teaching assistant for a while.
If interested, please contact Mr. Zacharyas Clifford at …”
After writing the letter, the flame in the fireplace suddenly turned a bright turquoise, and Felix tossed the parchment into the flame as it swirled and disappeared.
When he looked back, Valen still stared at the bright red nails in midair and ogled at it, “Oh, you can’t have that one.” Felix said, putting away the nails that kept track of countless hidden secrets.
He positioned the thing in such a way that it might never be used, or maybe he would use it tomorrow.
Then he twirled his wand, and a silvery glowing thing flew out from the tip of the wand, these glows looked like silvery silk, which wrapped around Valen’s body and gradually became solid, and Valen wiggled her body constantly, watching this in amazement, it seemed as if there are countless invisible flower fairies weaving clothes behind her, and finally, they created a silvery cloak.
“Kiki?”
“One of the results of recent research, reshaping the Patronus into a new entity.” Felix smiled, “You can try it.”
Valen blinked at the glowing cloak behind her and put the hood over her head, which only revealed half of her pink beak.
“Kiki! Kiki?”
She found herself floating up, and Valen looked in surprise at Felix, who neither drew his wand nor extended his finger, but simply smiled at her.
Valen twisted her body, and the silver cloak behind her fluttered with it, and then she flew off to the side of the office–
“Whaaaaaaaaaa!”
It didn’t take long for Valen to master the cloak behind her – with a slight turn, the cloak could quickly alter its position.
Niffler was having fun, flying all over the room, squealing in surprise.
Felix kept mulling it over in his mind, this magic is probably something only he can do for now, nevertheless, he has actually mastered a new type of flight magic, there are some side effects though, and generally, he won’t need it very often.
As for the principle of ‘flying wings’ and prototypes, he had already given them both to Lupin.
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