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Chapter 812: Foolish Fudge
🕑 Added 2023-07-09 00:53:00 +0000 UTCThe original intention of Evan to set up a newspaper was mainly to solve the expenses of buying magic books and materials. However, he also considered using the newspaper to voice his own opinions and resist the Ministry of Magic in public opinion when such situations occurred, so as not to appear too passive.
Admittedly, he had thought too simplistically at first, or rather, he hadn't anticipated that Fudge and the Ministry of Magic would have no bottom line.
It was illegal to control a newspaper and restrict its content under normal circumstances.
However, the Minister of Magic did have this authority, as it was covered by regulations in the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and the Law of War.
This kind of thing hadn’t happened for a long time. Obviously, it would leave a strong impression of a dictator, but Fudge did it. He obviously mistook it for a war, a war between him and Dumbledore.
"This is not the only trouble, Evan. You really should have seen what the Daily Prophet says about you during this period," said Lupin. "They portray you as a young wizard who, under Dumbledore's protection, does not know the height of the sky and does various kinds of dangerous magical research. They even say that you’re studying Dark magic and they’ve found many Slytherin students to prove it..."
"Oh, this is really interesting!" said Evan, who was indeed studying Dark magic.
Lupin gave several examples of Evan’s study of Dark magic mentioned in the newspaper. In fact, most of them were relatively basic research. Evan didn’t need to study many of them, but directly had the answers in Tom Riddle’s Diary or books on Dark magic.
These chaotically fabricated reports were really far from the truth. In Evan’s opinion, it was a little contemptuous.
Although they might have made every effort to make Evan look evil enough, they directly categorized him as a beginner in Dark magic...
Evan wondered if publishing some of his recent research results would turn the wizarding world upside down and let them realize what true research on Dark magic was and what it truly meant to be ignorant and audacious.
If there was no basis for facts, one shouldn't talk nonsense, should he?!
"What else do they say?" Evan asked.
"Mainly, they depict you as very dangerous, making your words naturally untrustworthy," Lupin continued. "Besides you, Harry is also the object of their key reports. Unlike you, they just slip him in, like he’s a standing joke. They seem to think that Harry is this deluded, attention-seeking person, always yelling about scar pain, beating the Dark Devil as a baby, and thinking he’s a great tragic hero or something. They keep slipping in snide comments about him."
"This sounds really bad. Rita Skeeter wrote them?!"
"No, for some reason, she rarely posted any articles, but others have done well enough, and they seem to have found a draft of the reports of both of you with Rita Skeeter as a basis. It was originally what she wanted to write ..." said Lupin. “For this matter, Harry has been terribly angry recently, but the angrier he gets, the more disadvantageous it is for him. There are many spies in the school. Those Slytherin students are closely watching Harry, Ron and Hermione."
"Damn Slytherins," said Sirius in disgust. "They are Death Eaters themselves."
"So, no one in the wizarding world knows the truth now?"
"Dumbledore told the truth, which is the main reason why we are in such a troubled situation now," said Lupin. "Despite Fudge's warning, Dumbledore announced the matter at a special meeting held by the Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards. He made a speech announcing Voldemort’s return. After that, the newspaper was full of reports about you, all rumors, because he talked about you two in the speech."
There was a brief silence; the current situation was indeed very bad. Evan was thinking about what to do, so that public opinion could not continue to spread.
"They are now desperately trying to discredit Dumbledore!" Lupin continued. "He’d been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of wizards because he’s getting old and losing his grip, but it’s not true, he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made his speech. They’ve demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot, and they’re talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too.”
"Foolish Fudge, it's all his tricks. Everyone knows he’s frightened of Dumbledore and of what he’s up to," said Sirius. "He’s doing his best to maintain his position and rule, and Voldemort and the Death Eaters are taking advantage of this."
"Indeed, Fudge thinks Dumbledore is plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic," said Lupin. “Driven by this insane idea, he’s done so many crazy things."
"But everyone knows that Dumbledore doesn't want to ..."
"Of course he doesn't, normal people all know," said Sirius. "He’s never wanted the Minister’s job. When Millicent Bagnold retired, a lot of people wanted him to take it. But Dumbledore refused, and supported Fudge to compete with Barty Crouch. Fudge came to power later, but he’s never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."
"Deep down, Fudge knows that Dumbledore is much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," said Lupin. "But it seems that he’s become fond of power now, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic, and he has managed to convince himself that he’s the clever one and Dumbledore’s simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."
"That’s dumb. Power blinded him!" said Evan, sighing.
In a sense, Fudge was actually quite good, but when it came to power, he became a completely different person.
Their biggest threat at the moment was Voldemort, but the biggest trouble was Fudge and the Ministry of Magic, which was really ironic.
"Then again, that's the main reason why Dumbledore warned us not to report it. Fudge has been watching us. There will be no worse things with Dumbledore for the time being, but it's different with us," said Lupin with a sigh. "If he finds evidence that we are against the Ministry of Magic, he may just lock us all up in Azkaban. That would be too bad, that's exactly what You-Know-Who wants to happen, and we have to be careful..."
