The Magical Food God of Hogwarts

Chapter 49 Exclusive Interview

The Leaky Cauldron is usually quiet in the mornings, but now the tranquility is being broken by frequent blinding flashes and acrid smoke.

"Perfect! That melancholy gaze, that humble room! Bozo, take another shot from the left, make sure the peeling paint on the headboard is in!"

Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, speechless as he looked at the woman in front of him who resembled a flashy fly.

She had excessively stiff, long, golden curls, wore jeweled glasses, and her thick, bright red nail polished fingers were tightly gripping a crocodile-skin handbag. She jumped around in the small room, looking at me with the excited gaze of someone who had spotted prey.

This is Rita Skeeter, a reporter for The Daily Prophet.

This interview... seems a little different from what I imagined.

At first, Lucas was quite surprised by their visit. When Rita Skeeter told him that it was because she had learned of his heroic act of saving Tonks and that it was a mission of the Ministry of Magic, Lucas wanted to wake Tonks up. However, Skeeter smiled and said that they should conduct separate interviews.

Despite his doubts, Lucas still agreed to the interview.

"Alright, my dear little boy." Rita Skeeter plopped down next to Lucas, and the strong, cloying scent of her perfume made Lucas, with his keen sense of smell, sneeze a series of times.

So the woman with the heavy chin could only frown and sit back down at the table.

"Well, darling, before we officially begin, shall we chat a bit?" Her crocodile-skin handbag opened by itself, revealing a long roll of parchment. A long, sour-green quill pen stood upright on the parchment, trembling and eager to be used.

"Lucas, you're eleven years old, and you're Muggle-born, right? Your parents are dead, and you live with your grandfather on a country farm in Cairnes?"

Lucas raised an eyebrow: "How did you know?"

The quill pen had already begun writing, its speed astonishing.

"Could you give me a briefer introduction? Readers will be very interested in these stories," Skeeter said to himself.

Lucas said curtly, "There's nothing to say about it. My parents died shortly after I was born, and I was raised by my grandfather. We ran a farm. In fact, I don't think these things are relevant to today's interview."

But the excited gleam in Skeeter's eyes shone directly through her glasses, and with a murmur, she swung the quill pen even more forcefully.

"...A terrible disaster took away his parents, and the poor child lived in misfortune ever since. His elderly grandfather, hunched over, struggled to forage for food in the fields, while little Lucas cried helplessly in his swaddling clothes..."

Lucas's eyebrows twitched.

"Ms. Skeeter, I didn't say—"

"Don't mind it, kid," Skeeter chuckled, revealing three gold teeth. "It's just my personal habit, a little bit of artistic embellishment. I'll revise the first draft properly when I get back. So, let's get back to the main topic. How did you manage to fight the dark wizard and ultimately save Tonks during the Gringotts raid?"

Lucas gave her a suspicious look, but still said, "I was setting up a stall outside Gringotts at the time—"

"A street stall?" Skeeter exclaimed in surprise. "You're setting up a street stall?"

"Is there a problem? I want to set up a stall to sell snacks and drinks to earn some pocket money."

"Of course, no problem, this is a great source of material..."

The quill was gliding rapidly across the parchment, but since Skeeter was sitting opposite him, Lucas couldn't see what it was writing. Yet, in just that one sentence, the quill had already recorded at least a hundred words.

By the time Lucas had briefly recounted the entire story, the scroll of parchment was almost finished.

Skeeter's whispers and the scratching of quill pens filled the room. The photographer, Bozo, didn't dare to breathe too loudly, afraid of disturbing Skeeter's train of thought.

"The Minister of Magic's autobiography, 'Connery Fudge,' was Lucas's bedside book. He especially liked a line from it: 'Weakness is the soil of strength, and courage is the best fertilizer.' He drew endless strength from it."

"His impoverished background never broke him. His frail shoulders, raised on scraps, carried a small stall, supporting himself and his grandfather... When darkness fell and people scattered in panic, his small frame was so imposing... 'Save people! My first instinct is to save people!' he said. 'Even if it destroys the stall I depend on for survival, I can't just stand by and do nothing!'..."

"When the dark wizard raised his wand at him, 'I can't die!' Lucas cried out in his heart, 'If I fall, how will my frail grandfather get through this winter?'... Love, it was love that gave him boundless courage, enough to fight against the deepest evil..."

Lucas frowned, staring intently at Skeeter in deep thought, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

The deliberately downplayed Gringotts heist reports, the Ministry of Magic's abruptly arranged interview, the fabricated Skeeter... all these events connected, and he suddenly understood.

"Fantastic! Perfect!" Skeeter excitedly folded up the parchment. "Minister Fudge will absolutely adore this report!"

She looked up and met Lucas's smile.

"I think Minister Fouché will thank me too, right?"

Skeeter paused, his feigned friendly tone immediately dropping: "What do you mean by that?"

"Gringotts, supposedly the safest place in the world, has seen such a massive robbery with numerous deaths and injuries. This scandal must be giving the Minister a real headache. So they need to create something new to attract public attention, and I've been chosen, haven't I?"

Skeeter stared at Lucas as if she'd seen a ghost, involuntarily clutching her handbag so tightly that even the quill pen seemed to freeze in place.

"You...how could you—"

"You know my personal information, but I only told the Aurors this information, and you said it was a Ministry of Magic assignment." Lucas stared at Skeeter, causing her to instinctively look away. "Then, you disregarded the facts, fabricated stories, and prepared to write a sensational, attention-grabbing paparazzi report. It's clear why the Ministry of Magic arranged it this way, isn't it?"

Skeeter swallowed hard, then hurriedly stood up, avoiding Lucas's eyes.

This is unbelievable! Is this kid really only eleven years old?!

He was more perceptive than most of the adult wizards he had ever interviewed!

However, this momentary lapse in composure infuriated Skeeter, who sneered, "So what, kid? It's your honor. You can only accept it!"

"I don't think so," Lucas said with a smile. "Ms. Skeeter, you're so outstanding; surely many of your colleagues are jealous of you. What do you think if I present them with today's events as evidence of 'false reporting'?"

Rita Skeeter's expression changed.