A Professor of Magic at Hogwarts Chapter 639: Rita Skeeter in action

Christmas is approaching, whether it is the wizarding society or the Muggle society, there is a strong festive atmosphere everywhere, and the joy on people's faces is about to overflow. And just when the people were preparing to welcome the festival, reporters from the "Sun" were sitting together in a meeting to discuss New Year's issues.

"Rita," a stocky man asked, "how is your manuscript going?"

"It's done," Rita Skeeter exclaimed, pulling out a stack of printer paper from her alligator bag. Said triumphantly:

"There is evidence that the government is systematically covering up the harm caused by mad cow disease to the public!"

"Really." The short and fat supervisor said dryly, took out a handkerchief and wiped his sweaty forehead, and took Rita's press release. He casually flipped through a few pages, and after reading it, he raised his head and said in a deep voice, "I'm sorry, Rita, but your manuscript will not be published."

"Why?" Skeeter raised his voice, and the pen in his hand stopped in the summer.

"There is no reason. I admit that you are very good, and you have been winning all the time, but..." The man moved his body uneasily, and the chair creaked heavily.

Rita Skeeter watched him closely for a while.

"Oh—" she drawled, "I see. All right, I quit."

The chunky man looked at her in surprise, and was very surprised. In his impression, this woman has always had a good sense of smell,

Like a tireless hound chasing prey, cruel and vicious. This is a compliment.

"I thought one by one"

"What do you think? I will hold on to it?" Rita Skeeter curled her lips, "I have confidence in my business ability, even if my efforts in the series of reports on mad cow disease were in vain, but I feel confident finding new material. Unlike other people." She glanced around the corner.

On the long desk, several reporters glared at her, but Rita Skeeter just returned a look of contempt. She has figured out the rules, and now she is at home.

Sure enough, the chunky man praised her greatly.

"That's great, Rita! I dare say that bringing you in is the best decision I've ever made. Let me think about what's hot in the news lately." He struck while the iron was hot, ready to assign her a new assignment , "How are you going to spend Christmas?"

Rita Skeeter thought for a while, and said, "I should take a few days off." She planned to go to the Ministry of Magic to find Amelia Burns, and she was exhausted these past few months. To be busy with the work of the "Sun" and to participate in the affairs of the "Daily Prophet", she obviously has no intention of giving up on either side-it's all made up anyway.

There is a small window on the second floor of the apartment she rents in the Muggle society, which is always open, so that the owls can come and go in and out at night.

The short and fat man blinked, "Since this is the case"

"How about giving me the news about the princess's divorce?" Rita Skeeter offered herself, "I'm sure I can investigate more eye-catching inside stories." After several months of working together, let men know when she When we say investigation, we actually mean 'fabrication'.

The man was quite moved.

"No!" A blond girl with exquisite makeup said angrily, "I have been in charge of this matter, and I can't give up halfway."

"Oh, Melissa." Skeeter looked at her contemptuously, "It's been so long since you haven't got a grade, maybe it means you're not suitable for this job." Grinding her teeth, it seemed as if she was going to swallow her whole and tear her up.

The short and fat supervisor thought about it. Although Melissa was not as efficient as Rita Skeeter, she was also a capable person under his command, so she couldn't be completely sidelined. He neither wanted the relationship between the two to be too good, nor did he want the conflict to become irreconcilable and affect his work.

"Well, Rita," he finally said, "you follow up on the gun bill."

Rita Skeeter's eyes lit up.

However, she did not rush to agree, but asked calmly: "How far can I report?"

"Whatever you want." The short and fat man said, "There is basically no risk in this matter now. The introduction of the new gun control law has become a foregone conclusion. After a while, I got information, and the results may come out in the last year or two."

"Wait, we can have a piece of the action." Rita Skeeter said immediately, sucking the pen in her hand like a quill, and the inspiration burst out, "We can do a continuous report around this incident. "

A sneer came from the office.

"Excuse me?" Skeeter asked coldly.

Melissa showed a mocking smile, first stroked her hair, until she felt that everyone's eyes were on her, and then said calmly: "Need I remind everyone? The school shooting Nine months have passed, and the news media have already discussed it from various angles. It is not worth wasting precious Christmas space.

The middle-aged supervisor showed hesitation, and he turned to look at Skeeter.

Rita Skeeter threw the pen on the table, crossed her arms, her long and dazzling green nails were very conspicuous, "So some people are only worthy of investigating low-level news such as extramarital affairs, but until now they have not gained anything. Move Mind, right now is an opportunity! The government is preparing a new bill, and the people are busy celebrating the New Year. Although I haven’t investigated it yet, I dare say that the movement to ban handguns will not attract much attention in the next month or two... "

"If at this time, if we can launch a series of exclusive reports during the Christmas period, bringing peace and massacre,

Associate the New Year with shootings, exaggerate it...re-ignite the heat, and it is best to maintain it until the new law is introduced. At that time, we can say that the implementation of the new law is inseparable from our efforts. "

She sneered at Melissa twice, then looked at the man.

"Why choose Christmas? Because only when other newspapers are busy reporting Christmas and New Year's events, can we highlight our differences. This is the difference. It allows readers to find us at a glance!" She leaned over and stared at Looking at the chunky middle-aged man, "What do you think, Mr. Editor-in-Chief?"

The editor-in-chief swallowed his saliva and said with a straight face: "We are just an entertainment newspaper. If the subject matter is too serious

"You can rest assured that I will adopt a new narrative technique." Rita Skeeter retracted her body and said confidently: "And I have my own opinions on entertainment"

She said sweetly: "The most important thing for a newspaper is sales. Besides, the subject matter, form, and content are not important, and even the truth is not important." She raised her eyebrows, revealing There was a burst of applause at the door with a tacit smile. A woman with a serious face walks in, and no one realizes how much she's heard before.

"Are you Rita Skeeter? This name is so hot right now, my ears are almost hearing cocoons.

"Are you?" Skeeter asked calmly, she smelled a faint smell of mint smoke, which she only smelled at the door of that office, which was always closed and never opened Pass.

The chunky supervisor desperately winked and mouthed at her. The woman didn't answer, but looked Skeeter up and down, "I've been away from the company for a few months, but I've never finished an issue of your article, which mocked the government to the point of embarrassment - but whoever makes readers love to read it What about this."

In a flattering tone, Rita Skeeter said, "So you're going to give me a promotion?"

The dumpy executive stares from behind, shamefully betrayed. But Skeeter was ready to climb high branches, she stared intently at the woman who suddenly appeared, and the woman laughed heartily, "Why not?"

She looked at Rita Skeeter indifferently. "My time is limited, so there is only one interview question. If I want to increase the sales of the newspaper by another 20,000 copies, what suggestions do you have?"

Skeeter clenched his fist, "Increase the distinction of newspapers."

"Differentiation? Tell me specifically."

"Actually, we are already ahead, like the **** page three...but not enough, we have to distinguish ourselves from other newspapers in every way - even if it is wrong, we must be the only one. We have Sometimes you can even intentionally contradict the readers, of course... only real experts can control the subtle differences in the middle.”

The woman narrowed her eyes and asked with interest: "Do you think you are the expert?"

"Without a doubt," Skeeter said cheekily.

A moment of silence. The woman nodded at her, "You will be one of the deputy editors from now on."

Rita Skeeter, who had just been promoted, rushed back to her office and ordered two assistants:

"Find all the news about the Dunblane school shooting this year, now! Including the list of victims, the ideas and appeals of anti-gun movement organizations, the voices of government departments on this matter, and the list of government drafters of the gun bill , pretentious rumors...I want them all! And buy me a local ticket to Scotland."

Two days later, Rita Skeeter rushed to the town where the shooting occurred and personally persuaded several family members of the victims to be interviewed.

Her offer was good—the Sun had enough sales to make waves, and she promised to publish a running story to help them put pressure on the government—and the families agreed with little thought.

They also used their connections to get Rita Skeeter to swagger on campus where the shooting took place.

Rita Skeeter interviewed a few teachers at random, and conceived a spicy report with no less than 10,000 words in her mind, but she was still not satisfied. She wanted to find a tricky angle that would shock People's hearts will not appear too disobedient in the New Year.

As she walked, her scattered eyes fixed on those students. She thought of a good idea.

"Hey, little guy." She greeted a boy pretending to be friendly, "What's your name?"

"Andy, Andy Murray." said the little boy she was following, who looked only eight or nine years old.

"Oh, Andy, Andy," she repeated twice, took out her press card, waved it in front of him, and asked domineeringly, "Can I interview you alone?"

"I still want to play tennis." Andy Murray said.

"Exactly, that's what I'm here for." Rita Skeeter lied, quickly glanced at the tennis bag on the boy's shoulder, and smiled: "I talked to your teacher, she Tell me you're talented."

"It's 'he'," the boy corrected. "What?"

"My physical education teacher is 'he'." The boy emphasized, and then looked at her suspiciously.

"I may have misremembered," said Rita Skeeter apologetically, though she could find no trace of shame in her face, "so—let's talk about cricket, tennis, My God, this word is so mouth-twisting."

The little boy glared at her, dissatisfied with the sudden appearance of a woman who profaned tennis again.

"Oh, come on, I just said a wrong word, do you know how many materials I read before I came here?"

She pointed to her thick glasses, "When did you start playing tennis?"

"...Three years old." After a long stalemate, the little boy said.

Rita Skeeter was a little surprised. "So I just caught a little genius?" She laughed, "I should put you on my watch list and interview you again in a few years. What title should I choose? The Birth of a Genius... ...or the fall of a genius? It's exciting."

The little boy left angrily, but Skeeter grabbed his wrist tightly. During the dispute, the teacher from the school appeared.

"What are you doing! Who are you? Oh, Ms. Skeeter—" The female teacher was quite surprised.

"It's me," Skeeter let go, and said in an understatement tone: "I met little Andy when I was wandering around the campus, but there was a little misunderstanding that he was in a hurry to go to the gymnasium to play."

The female teacher looked at her, then at the little boy rubbing his wrist, and her attitude became cold, "I don't think this is the reason, Andy... Andy probably wouldn't want to go to the gym."

"Why do you say that?" Skeeter froze for a moment, she didn't know what went wrong, but quickly thought of the crux of the problem, "Because that shooting happened in the gymnasium?" She widened her eyes Looking at Andy, he couldn't believe it and said, "Is he one of the witnesses?"

"That's right," the female teacher said coldly: "From then on, Andy usually only goes to the playground to play ball, and the school is planning to build a new fitness center."

Rita Skeeter blundered secretly.

"I—" She opened her mouth, trying to make amends.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Skeeter, please leave here, or I will call security." The female teacher said forcefully.

Rita Skeeter's face turned blue and white, and she reached into the crocodile bag a few times, but she gave up taking out her wand. Because she was employed by the Ministry of Magic, her wand had been re-traceable, and any magic used during the year would be known to the woman sitting in the minister's office.

Damn it.

"Well, I'm sorry," she said with a shrug, and turned to leave.

On the way out of school, Skeeter was thinking about various ideas. The information he got so far is almost the same, and today is just an extra gain. But she always felt that there was something missing, what exactly was it? She looked back and saw that the female teacher was kneeling down to comfort the little boy softly, but the little boy looked stubborn.

Tennis, little boy... she thought.

"You are lucky." Rita Skeeter said coldly in her heart. She took a train for more than ten hours and returned to the "Sun" station. It didn't take long before she wrote a press release in one go.

". After nine months, my new friend Andy still couldn't get out of the shadow of fear. He cried bitterly in front of me and confessed that he was heartbroken over the loss of his playmate. He also revealed that they had agreed to be together Playing tennis games, becoming friends and rivals forever, but it all came to naught. His parents couldn't even lie to him with a white lie, because little Andy was a witness to the tragedy, witnessed it with his own eyes and made a lifetime promise to himself The promised partner fell before my eyes”

"I know someone will bring up the Hungerford shooting in 1987, yes, that was a quick government response,

The ban on semi-automatic rifles was announced the following year, and restrictions on handgun ownership were announced, but it was not enough! "

”In just nine years, the tragedy has returned, this time with a worse nature, as 16 of the 17 victims were killed.

They are all children, do we really have to turn a blind eye? The murderer was armed with four pistols that were 'licensed and issued' by the government, which means there is a huge hole in the way we regulate guns, and my prayers to all government officials who are busy planning their vacations or preparing for the New Year's Parade , let them dedicate their energies to the victims and their families, who should have celebrated the new year with joy ~IndoMTL.com~ like you. But their lives stopped forever in March 1996. "

”…We can only make the right choice if we show greater determination, courage, and sense of responsibility…

With the encouragement of the reporter, little Andy has regained his strength. He said that he will never give up tennis. Gentlemen and ladies, a great star is rising. His future is bright and he has unlimited potential. possible. But please don't forget, if we continue to do nothing, little Andy will be threatened by guns day and night in the future."

In the office, it has been quiet for a while, and a lady's cigarette is quietly burning.

"How is it?" Rita Skeeter asked with narrowed eyes.

The stern-faced woman from before tore off a piece of paper, wrote quickly, and a moment later, she pushed the note and press release in front of Skeeter. Then she took a deep breath on the cigarette and exhaled a peppermint smoke ring.

"Your new office is ready."**

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