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Chapter 571: A Terrible Report
🕑 Added 2019-08-19 18:32:29 +0000 UTCThe following week, Evan asked Professor Lupin to help him select a list of classic music songs.
He instilled them in beautiful shell products and prepared to take them underwater and give them to the Merpeople.
In the midst of her busy schedule, it was soon November, and Rita Skeeter finally published her piece on the Triwizard Tournament.
With the publication of this report, Evan’s quiet life was immediately shaken.
Rita Skeeter was a master of rumor-making. Her article was not so much a report on the tournament and more like highly colored life story of Evan and Harry.
Since Evan did not accept her interview at the time, Harry was still the main source of the report.
Much of the front page of the newspaper had been given over to a picture of Evan and Harry standing together, one which was taken secretly.
The whole article, continuing on pages two, three, four, six, seven, and twelve had been all about Evan and Harry, Ron’s name had been occasionally inserted in it, the names of Fleur and Krum, misspelled, had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric hadn’t been mentioned, as though there was no such a person at all.
In Harry's words, this article gave him a sick, burning feeling of shame in his stomach. Rita Skeeter had reported him saying an awful lot of things that he couldn’t remember ever saying in his life.
I suppose it was my parents who gave me strength and courage that kept me going until today.
I know they will be very proud of me if they could see me now.
Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I’m not ashamed to admit it.
But Rita Skeeter had gone even further than transforming his “er’s” into long, sickly sentences. She had interviewed other people about him too.
Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.
Then, Rita Skeeter followed and wrote: According to our reporter's in-depth investigation, Miss Granger seems to have an ambiguous relationship with another famous boy at Hogwarts, Evan Mason.
Evan was fascinated by Miss Granger; and the two of them often avoided Harry and the others to be alone.
Whether Miss Granger is playing with the feelings of the two boys or whether Evan is actively pursuing Miss Granger remains to be investigated, but as things stand, the kind Harry obviously knows nothing about it.
In a word, she depicted the relationship between Evan, Harry and Hermione as an entangled love triangle.
Moreover, from Rita Skeeter's words, she more or less implied that Evan was very fickle in this part of the article. Under the circumstance that Harry and Hermione had developed a love affair from the first year, he ignored the friendship and stole Hermione from his good friend Harry.
If this page was still just a shadowy speculation, then the next page was a full-blown explosion.
Rita Skeeter's purpose was very obvious. She wanted to tarnish Evan's reputation; it was the price Evan had to pay for offending her.
She chose a very good starting point. First, she played the emotional card and portrayed Harry's lonely and hard-working image of the savior.
This was also in line with what most people in the wizarding world knew about Harry and it was something aroused their sympathy. Under such circumstances, it was a wonderful and difficult thing for Harry with his miserable life experience to find his first love.
Then, at this point, the relationship between Evan and Hermione emerged.
The next page adds a touch of vinegar, depicting the ambiguous relationship between Evan and other girls, such as Fleur, Gabrielle, Luna, Cho, Ginny and so on.
She listed all the girls who were close to. In her description, Evan seemed to be pursuing several of them at the same time. His relationships were unusual; he was dating several girls at the same time. True and false, it was hard to tell, according to Rita Skeeter.
Reading her article, Evan looked beyond imagination. Not only did he take the initiative to pursue girls of his own age, but he also began to pursue sisters at the same time, and younger girls like Gabrielle.
Not to mention the wizards of the outside world, the students at Hogwarts felt a sudden awakening after reading it. After reading this article, they seemed to have just discovered that Evan’s private life was so chaotic.
At the end of this page, Rita Skeeter also speculated on why Evan was able to do that.
She suspected that he was secretly making Love potions and aphrodisiacs, which made the girls lose their senses and became obsessed with him.
She called on the school to investigate the matter and prohibit the abuse of drugs and magic by young wizards.
Of course, she still had a positive attitude towards Evan’s magic power.
After compiling Evan’s messy private life, the next page shifted to the theme of the Triwizard Tournament, targeting Ron.
Ron was also one of the champions she depicted the most. Rita Skeeter described Ron's bad performance in school, which was not too much to add to the story, because Ron's usual behavior was really bad enough. She didn't have to make it up; she could just use it as it was.
After a brief introduction, she began to question Ron's qualifications as a champion!
In Rita Skeeter's view, such talented young wizards as Evan and Harry did not become champions, while Ron was able to become one, obviously because someone was acting behind the scenes in this tournament.
Ron's father's role in the Ministry of Magic was also highlighted, and Rita Skeeter believed it was because of the good relationship between Mr. Weasley and Dumbledore, Mr. Fudge and Mr. Crouch.
At the end of the article, Rita Skeeter expected the Ministry of Magic to give everyone an explanation and said that she would continue to pay attention to the matter.
This report was really terrible, like throwing a huge stone on the calm lake, suddenly bursting into waves.
Now, no matter where Evan, Harry, Ron and Hermione went, there were people pointing fingers at them.
Here, the outcome was actually not too negative for Evan.
Evan’s reputation and strength were there, and the young wizards still admired him.
The boys had expressed their admiration and envy of Evan’s ability to date so many girls at the same time, and at most a few sour words. The girls expected to be able to communicate with him. There were many people who had a crush on Evan. If Evan was making love potions, they actually also hoped to receive some.
As for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the impact of the report was not so easy.
