Chapter 498: Rita Skeeter's Rumors

"Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness!" Mrs. Weasley, who was evidently waiting for them in the garden, came running towards them, still wearing her bedroom slippers, her face pale and tense, a rolled-up copy of 'The Daily Prophet' in her hand.

"Artur! I've been so worried, so worried! "

He threw his arms around Mr. Weasley's neck and the Diary the Prophet fell to the floor in his limp hand.

Looking down, Ivan saw the headline: SCENES OF TERROR AT THE QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP,

Below, there was also a black and white photograph of the Dark Mark hanging in the sky.

Ivan's stone giant stood just below the Dark Mark, echoing the giant snake in the skull's mouth.

Not far behind them were the massive ruins of the stadium images, telling of tragedy and terror in silence.

"They're fine!" Mrs. Weasley muttered absently, releasing Mr. Weasley and looking at them all with red eyes, "Charlie, Bill, Percy, Ron, Ginny, Ivan, Harry, Hermione, they're all alive! Oh, boys... "

To everyone's surprise, she grabbed Fred and George and pulled them both into a hug so tight that their heads collided together.

"Ow! Mom... You're strangling us!"

"I yelled at you before you left!" Mrs. Weasley said, starting to sob, tears streaming down her face. "That's all I've been thinking about! What if You-Know-Who had caught you and the last thing he said to you was that you don't have enough performance...? Oh Fred... George..."

"Come on, Molly, we're all perfectly fine," Mr. Weasley said calmly, taking the cufflinks from her and leading her back into the house. "Ron!" she added quietly, "pick up that paper.... I want to see what it says..."

Following Mr. Weasley, Ivan, Harry, Ron and Hermione gathered to read the paper....

Unexpectedly for them, in addition to the picture on the front page, there were descriptions and pictures of the battle between Ivan and Caresius.

In one photo, he was controlling the huge fire dragon that was moving on the tier, and it looked so cool!

The box was full of horrible flames, and the fire dragon inside was still roaring fiercely at the people outside the photo.

"This is a good picture..." Hermione said quietly....

"Ivan, look what they're saying about you!" Harry said, pointing to a series of guided headlines, "The young wizard who saved 100,000 people! The successor to the greatest wizard in the world! The future star of hope in the wizarding world! The young wizard who defeated You-Know-Who! The Order of Merlin will break tradition and award a student a first-class medal..."

Judging by these headlines, this issue of the newspaper the Prophet had become a special edition of Ivan.

In fact, behind the front cover, "The Prophet" featured the attack and the appearance of the Dark Mark on two pages, as well as details of the incident.

Then, it was all about Caresius and the vampires, using a picture of Ivan and Caresius dueling. The Ministry of Magic had obviously chosen it carefully.

It seemed that the paper had found the right target, but had not yet investigated the results of the investigation with the captured vampires....

Other than that, all the subsequent news content was about Ivan.

They even put up a picture of Ivan fighting the Basilisk in the common room.

That was the picture taken by Colin. Ivan was much younger then, but that showed his charm and courage even more.

It was hard to imagine that, besides Ivan, any other young wizard would dare to take on a Basilisk. Even adult wizards wouldn't have the guts.

"These people are crazy!" Ron sighed, looking at all the pages full of Ivan's pictures.

"Ivan is a celebrity now, even more famous than Harry!" Fred leaned over and said.

"Yes, the most powerful and gifted young wizard in the world; this title is very appealing, don't you think?" said George.

They flipped through the paper again and again, eagerly checking the articles about it.

They all thought the paper the prophet was exaggerating a bit. Even if Ivan had a lot of merit, there was no need to advertise it so vigorously.

But soon after, when they saw the Hogwarts magic paper, they realized that it was more straightforward.

Besides Ivan's story, there was nothing else in the issue!

Because everyone wanted to see Ivan-related content, he was now the wizard who had the most attention in the world.

Other than last night's vampire attack, the Dark Mark, and Ivan, no one cared about any other news.

News about the previously popular Quidditch World Cup was cornered, not getting a single picture.

That was the case now. No matter how good or bad it might be perceived to be, the fact remained that Ivan-related newspapers sold out on the spot.

In the days that followed, even The Quibbler's sales were to increase, as it did to report on Ivan's experience at Hogwarts over the past two years.

The newspaper the magic of Hogwarts worked with The Quibbler during the hard times of its founding, and Ivan published Luna's articles about the Crumple Horned Snorkels, and his father helped Ivan promote the newspaper and publish the articles he wrote, which also benefited him this time.

Obviously, Hogwarts magic got its big break with the Sirius story later on.

For a few days, it even once surpassed the 'daily the prophet' to become the biggest newspaper in the wizarding world.

Because it was a newspaper created by Ivan, with an exclusive interview with him, that was enough.

...

A few minutes later, they grabbed the paper and went into the small kitchen.

Hermione and Ginny made Mrs. Weasley drink a cup of very strong tea, into which she insisted on pouring a shot of Ogden's Old Firewhisky.

Then Ron handed his father the newspaper.

Mr. Weasley flipped through the front page, frowning, while Percy looked over his shoulder. "I knew it would be like this!" He said forcefully, "Ministry mistakes...culprits not apprehended...lax security...dark wizards running amok.... national disgrace... They always describe the Ministry of Magic this way. Who wrote this? Ah... of course, it's her.... Rita Skeeter."

"That woman has messed with the Ministry of Magic!" said Percy angrily. "She said the Ministry of Magic was wasting all its energy and time arguing about the thickness of cauldrons, accusing us of being annoying, instead of stamping out vampires and dark wizards...can you believe it, cauldrons!"

"Do us a favor, Percy!" said Bill, yawning, "and shut up. "

"Hey, I'm mentioned here!" said Mr. Weasley, widening his eyes behind his glasses as he reached the end of the article in the Daily Prophet on the front page.

"Where?" stammered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. "I only saw reports about Ivan.... If I had seen him, I would have known you were alive."

"Not by name!" said Mr. Weasley. "Listen to this: 100,000 wizards who came to watch the Quidditch World Cup panicked and waited breathlessly for the news outside the ruins of the stadium, hoping for reassurance from the Ministry of Magic. They were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official appeared some time after the horrific vampire attacks and the appearance of the Dark Mark claiming that no one had been hurt, but refusing to give any further information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash rumors that hundreds of bodies were pulled from the ruins an hour later remains to be seen.

"My God," Mr. Weasley said in exasperation, handing the paper to Percy. "No one was hurt, what was I supposed to say? everyone was scared and the Ministry has already taken care of everything! That woman had the nerve to say that hundreds of corpses were pulled out of the ruins! Well, there are certainly rumors now that she has printed that."