Rita Skeeter sat in her home, a quill held between her fingers.
On the parchment spread out before her, only a few sparse lines had been written.
“Harry Potter…”
She murmured the name softly, the corners of her mouth curling into a meaningful smile.
As a journalist who had spent more than twenty years clawing her way through the wizarding world, Rita knew very well what kind of news sold for a good price.
Scandals, secrets, the unsightly pasts of important figures… those were her golden calling cards.
And now, an enormous pie had fallen straight from the sky and landed right in front of her.
A mysterious author had written a book about Harry Potter, and it was selling like wildfire in the Muggle world.
Not only did the book describe all sorts of details about the wizarding world, it also exposed the tragic childhood of the Savior himself.
Even better, the Ministry of Magic had yet to make any move.
What did that mean?
Rita licked her lips, excitement flashing in her eyes.
It meant she could write whatever she liked.
No one would step forward to deny it, and no one would stop her.
As for the truth?
She had never cared about that.
What she cared about was sales, fame, and the dumbfounded expressions on wizards’ faces when they read her articles.
She had spent a full two days gathering information through every channel she could find, even paying a high price to buy a second-hand copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Part One from a wizard who had been to the Muggle world.
Looking at the bespectacled boy on the cover, a greedy gleam appeared in Rita’s eyes.
“Dear Headmaster Dumbledore…” she murmured sweetly to herself, the quill drawing a smooth curve across the parchment.
“Just what are you hiding, you old man?”
She paused, then thought of Cornelius Fudge.
The Minister for Magic was a terribly petty man.
Offending him would bring her no benefit.
But…
Rita narrowed her eyes, weighing the advantages and disadvantages.
The focus of this article was Harry Potter and Dumbledore.
As long as she didn’t point the spearhead directly at Fudge himself, that esteemed Minister probably wouldn’t bother interfering.
After all, Dumbledore’s reputation in the wizarding world was growing higher and higher.
Fudge might not be entirely comfortable with that.
Thinking of this, Rita’s smile deepened.
She bent over the desk, and her quill began to dance rapidly across the parchment.
…
When the newest issue of The Daily Prophet reached its subscribers, it was still early morning.
Owls flapped their wings through the misty streets, dropping rolled-up newspapers onto porches and windowsills.
Many wizards unfolded the paper while drinking their morning tea as usual—only to choke on the very first mouthful.
The headline on the front page was so large it almost seemed ready to leap off the paper.
[The Savior Harry Potter: Eleven Years Under Watch]
The subtitle read:
Byline: Rita Skeeter.
The article began like this:
[An exclusive investigation by this paper has discovered that a book titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is currently selling at a frenzied pace in the Muggle world.]
[This book records, in remarkable detail, nearly every aspect of the life of the famous Harry Potter—the boy who defeated You-Know-Who, from infancy to the present day.]
[The question is this: who exactly is this author named Allen Wayne?
And how did he obtain such information?]
[If he is a wizard, why did he choose to publish this book in the Muggle world?
If he is a Muggle, how did he learn of the wizarding world’s existence?]
[According to the book’s description, the eleven years Harry Potter spent with the Dursleys were by no means the peaceful life everyone imagined.]
[In fact, our Savior was shut inside a cupboard under the stairs, made to wear his cousin’s old clothes, and subjected for years to verbal humiliation and neglect.]
[A boy who defeated the Dark Lord was actually living like a house-elf in the Muggle world.]
[This reporter cannot help but ask: who was recording all of this?]
[According to the book, on that night eleven years ago, Hagrid delivered the infant Harry Potter to Number Four, Privet Drive.]
[Professor Dumbledore personally arranged everything.
From that moment onward, the entire wizarding world believed that Harry was growing up safely in a happy, warm family.]
[But the facts prove that throughout these eleven years, someone has been watching Harry Potter from the shadows—every meal, every scolding, every lonely night.]
[The existence of this book proves one thing: from that night onward, a pair of eyes never once left Harry Potter.
A watcher even Dumbledore failed to notice.
Who is he?
What is his purpose?]
[Even more unsettling is the fact that this book was not published in the wizarding world.]
[It has sold tens of thousands of copies in the Muggle world.
Muggles now know of Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Quidditch… almost everything about us.
And the Ministry of Magic, it seems, remains unmoved.]
[Muggles are reading a book about the deepest secrets of our world, and the Ministry’s response is silence?]
[Is this tacit permission, or dereliction of duty?]
[This reporter has no answer.
But this reporter has learned that Harry Potter himself entered school this year and is currently studying at Hogwarts.]
[If the contents of the book are true, then this boy has only just walked out of that cupboard less than two months ago.]
[A boy who ended a war.
A boy called the Savior.
And yet he was watched for eleven years, while even Dumbledore, hailed as the greatest wizard of our age, failed to protect him.]
[This reporter is deeply heartbroken.]
At the end of the article, Rita Skeeter added one last line, clearly not yet satisfied.
[This reporter will continue to follow the matter.
Generous compensation will be offered.]
This article almost directly detonated the entire wizarding world.
In Diagon Alley, a wizard on his way to Gringotts caught sight of The Daily Prophet at a street newsstand.
He merely glanced at it casually, then found himself unable to keep walking.
“Give me a copy,” he said urgently.
After receiving the newspaper, he read the contents carefully, then sucked in a sharp breath.
“Merlin’s beard…” the wizard whispered.
“Someone’s been watching the Potter boy from the shadows for eleven years?”
“That’s right!” The owner of the newsstand had clearly read the latest issue of The Daily Prophet as well.
“And they wrote everything down… turned the whole thing into a book.
It’s bloody chilling.”
“The question is, who is this Allen Wayne?”
“You’re asking me?
Who am I supposed to ask?”
At the Leaky Cauldron, Tom had spread a copy of the newspaper across the bar.
Seven or eight wizards were crowded around it.
Everyone was murmuring in low voices.
The pub buzzed like a hive of startled bees.
“Rita Skeeter really dropped a bombshell this time,” said an old wizard in dark red robes, shocked.
“When has she ever not stirred up a disaster?” another wizard said, taking a sip of Firewhisky.
“Still, this time, she has a point.”
“The details in that book are far too specific.
If someone hadn’t been watching Harry Potter all along, how could it have been written?”
“Could the author himself be the watcher?”
“That Allen Wayne fellow?
Who’s ever heard of that name?”
“Wait, have any of you actually read the book?” a short wizard asked curiously.
The others exchanged glances, then all shook their heads.
“No.
We’ve only heard that the book is incredibly detailed.
We haven’t actually read it.”
“That book is far too popular in the Muggle world.
I still haven’t managed to buy a copy,” complained the wizard drinking Firewhisky.
“But I’m definitely going to find a way to get one!
I really want to see what exactly is written in it.”
He set down his glass and added with complete conviction.
~
Push the book forward by Adding to library and sending powerstones~!