Chapter 670: Explosion (Edited)

The hustle and bustle made time fly by quickly. In the blink of an eye, the weekend had arrived. The eagerly anticipated school newspaper, "Bedtime Tidings," would be presented to the public for the first time.

The newspaper was printed by the editorial team of "Bedtime Tidings" and then delivered to the common rooms of each house and the professors' offices by house-elves. Because house-elves went unnoticed, the appearance of the newspapers had a mysterious touch.

Harry, as the editor-in-chief of "Bedtime Tidings," didn't notice when the house-elves appeared. As usual, he got up and found a stack of "Bedtime Tidings" on the common room table.

"Merlin's beard! Did they really manage to do it?" Ron knew that Harry had been working on the newspaper with Luna Lovegood lately, and he had been helping with some matters, even submitting an article! However, when the newspaper appeared in front of him, he still felt a strong sense of disbelief.

The newspaper looked too real, too serious!

Ron had imagined that the newspaper would be like a simple questionnaire, but the "Bedtime Tidings" that Harry had created closely resembled "The Prophet." It was impressive.

"Let me see where my article is..." After the brief surprise, Ron began to search the newspaper that Harry had founded. After a short while, he found his article "The Glorious and Eternal Arsenal of the Chudley Cannons! A Spotlight!" occupying a whole page, which made him very happy.

Following his article was Harry's political commentary.

"The need to oversee the media? Well, this goes straight to Rita Skeeter!" Ron immediately noticed the hidden meaning in Harry's article.

"We believe this behavior is unacceptable; I won't name the person who made these statements, although she is a special correspondent for The Prophet." Ron pointed out one of the sentences and said, "This is really interesting! This could become your famous quote."

After reading it, Ron also became a bit worried, "Aren't you afraid Rita will cause you trouble?"

"I have nothing to fear," Harry shook his head, "Debate creates enthusiasm, and most importantly, the people who matter to me won't change their opinion of me because of a few words in The Prophet."

Ron shrugged without giving a response. He thought that in a few days, there would probably be a confrontation between The Prophet and "Bedtime Tidings" over Rita Skeeter and Harry Potter.

But what did it matter?

Ron thought Harry was right. Rita's influence, however great, was limited to the newspaper. Those people Harry valued the most, like himself, wouldn't be influenced by what was written in the newspaper.

Furthermore, in recent years, Rita Skeeter had made irresponsible comments and offended many people. Did she really think she had no enemies? People simply didn't have a way to voice their discontent.

The content of the first edition of "Bedtime Tidings" wasn't too extensive, and Ron soon reached the end of the newspaper. He looked at Filch's article and muttered, "Harry, you're very considerate, as if you were afraid we wouldn't have enough toilet paper."

Harry laughed, and Ron flipped to the advertisements at the back, enjoying looking at all the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products.

"Oh, right," Harry slapped his forehead. Seeing the ads, he remembered that he forgot to pay the authors of the articles. He took out two sickles from his wallet and gave them to Ron.

"This is your fee for the article," Harry said somewhat embarrassed.

Ron: ???

He looked at the two coins in his hand, unable to believe it.

"What's this?"

"You published an article in 'Bedtime Tidings,' so you'll receive a share of the advertising revenue. Of course, at the moment, it's a bit low, but I think..."

"I didn't mean that!" Ron noticed that Harry seemed to misunderstand something and hurried to clarify, "Just that I never imagined writing could make money!"

"It's motivation for creativity!" Harry extended his hands. "Without enough motivation, how do we expect people to submit their contributions?"

Ron held the two sickles he had earned, with a happy smile.

"In that case, I'll write more."

...

The newspaper "Bedtime Tidings" gradually spread throughout Hogwarts. Young wizards started flipping through this new publication, and many showed genuine interest in its content.

However, despite their interest, "Bedtime Tidings" remained simply a newspaper with limited influence within Hogwarts.

But an unexpected event changed everything, making it known throughout the wizarding world.

That event was Rita Skeeter.

The wizarding world was a small circle, and sooner or later, Rita found Harry's article and erupted in fury.

In her life, she had attacked many people, but almost no one dared to respond to her, let alone counter her in a newspaper. The Prophet reporter felt that she needed to give Harry a little lesson to make him understand that after being criticized by Rita Skeeter, the only appropriate action was reflection.

So the day after seeing the article, a scathing response appeared in The Prophet. In that article, Rita Skeeter exposed the fact that Harry was editing a newspaper at Hogwarts and considered it the most ridiculous and absurd publication she had ever seen, apart from "The Quibbler." Dumbledore had made a great mistake by entrusting such a solemn and sacred task to a young child. She then argued that supervising the media was sacrilege against freedom, something not even dark wizards had dared to do, and so on.

It couldn't be denied that Rita was a master of the pen. In the last line of the article, she wrote a stunning statement: "When a stone is thrown among a pack of dogs, if one of them barks, it must surely be the one that was hit."

Rita's counterattack was sharp and piercing, but it also had an objective effect: it made more people aware of the newspaper "Bedtime Tidings" at Hogwarts.

Many adult wizards sent letters to their children and nieces and nephews at Hogwarts, asking them to send the school newspaper so they could take a look. They were very curious about who the "dog" that "barked" after being hit by the stone was.

Suddenly, the first edition of "Bedtime Tidings" that Harry had created became a highly sought-after item. At the same time, many people who had been slandered by Rita Skeeter also wrote to the editorial team of "Bedtime Tidings," expressing their support.

For a moment, the world of media seemed to be stirred up and boiling over.