Rita Skeeter was distressed by Fish's persistent efforts to reveal her methods of infiltration at Hogwarts.
In her years as a journalist, Skeeter had gathered much top secret information through her unregistered Animagus form, and had written many articles against the Ministry of Magic, many of whom would have loved to kill her.
If the Ministry of Magic finds out that she is an illegal Animagus, she will spend a few years in that terrible place of Azkaban.... They will definitely give her the harshest trial!
Skeeter had some idea of what she had done, so as much as Fish likes her, she was determined not to talk about the matter.
So when Skeeter finally spoke up again and began interviewing Fish, Fish replied with a grimace, "You don't answer Fish's questions, so why should Fish answer your questions?!"
(?ω?)
Rita Skeeter: "..."
Fortunately, Fish's mouth has always been very "tight". Under Skeeter's special praise, Fish, who was delighted, quickly put his displeasure behind him and proudly boasted of his great accomplishments.
"The first-year Quirrell was a bad man, not only a stinker, but he set fire to the forbidden forest.... Second year Lockhart, who liked Fish, turned out to be a big liar and dared to insult Minerva in front of Fish.... Last year's Lupin, who Fish mistook at first for a bad guy, only to find out that he was actually a good guy after beating him up, but Fish still doesn't like him very much.... This year's Moody is awesome, and Fish would love to fight him nya!"
Somehow, the conversation was steered by Skeeter to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professors, but Fish had a very "strict" mouth, and didn't tell Skeeter anything that Professor McGonagall had stressed shouldn't be said.
But still, it was enough to get Skeeter excited, the green quill next to her gliding quickly and smoothly across the parchment, leaving strings of beautiful cursive characters on it.
Hermione glanced at the text and quirked a strange smile....
If it weren't for the nasty compliments directed at Fish, she'd at least get goosebumps if she didn't leave the table immediately.
But now...
If you compliment my cat, we're good friends!
Besides, Hermione herself is also very interested in what Fish said about Rita Skeeter's sudden appearance near them.
Because she knows that at Hogwarts, Apparition cannot be used, and even the Dark Lord cannot break this restriction, and the reporter in front of her is obviously impossible to do so, and seeing Skeeter's secret, it seems that most of them are not using formal methods.
Unfortunately, there were too few clues for Hermione to be sure which way Rita Skeeter was using, and she didn't seem to have any ill will towards Fish, so Hermione was only suspicious for a while, and then didn't pay much attention to her.
After chatting for a while, Hermione reminded Fish to say goodbye to Skeeter and head to her afternoon Divination class, before Fish reminded her, "Don't forget the quill you promised Fish nya! Fish will send you a present for Christmas, too!"
(??ˇ?ˇ??)
Fish was very excited about the pen that would write his homework automatically and, after receiving Skeeter's assurances, he ran happily towards the North Tower.
The cat was very interested in the automatic pen, and only after receiving Skeeter's assurances did he head for the North Tower.
?(?)?
The interview, which was published shortly thereafter, was not only full of praise for Fish, as usual, but also, naturally, about the Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers that Fish had beaten up, and naturally linked this to the Voldemort curse.
In her article, of course, she doesn't link Fish to the Dark Lord, but rather sees it as a sign that Voldemort's curse is weakening: From the unknown death of Quirinus Quirrell at the beginning, to the imprisonment of Gilderoy Lohart the following year, to the boycott of Remus Lupin by parents last year, we can find that although these Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers only stayed for a year, their finals are slowly getting better and better.
According to Fish himself, the Hogwarts champion who subdued the Fire Dragon has so far not developed any grudge towards Mad-Eye Moody, and although he has mentioned that he would like to fight him, it is only on a sparring level.
If Mad-Eye Moody manages to escape alive this year, will that prove that the curse of You-Know-Who will soon disappear? You know, not many of Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers have ended up with good deaths.
Rita Skeeter is easy to change, and her nature is hard to change, completely ignoring that before Fish and Harry entered the school, although the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers only taught for one year for various reasons, most of them left intact.
In addition, she also secretly criticized Dumbledore's selection of teachers when he was recruiting teachers.
Of course, she did not omit the subject of Fish and Hermione's romance, and mentioned Hermione's academic achievements, which were second to none to Fish's, and her help in Fish's adjustment to human life....
It was something Rita Skeeter had promised Fish to do to change Hermione's reputation, but apparently she wasn't going to waste much time on it, so she just mentioned it.
But even so, Hermione was once again the object of envy and jealousy among the girls at school, much to Hermione's amusement and annoyance.
As for Barty Crouch Jr. he was upset these days.
Those who had read the papers, fearing that Mad-Eye Moody might hurt Fish when Fish approached him for a sparring session, had written to him to advise and warn him.
He had to act out the character of Crazy Eye Moody by acting out each letter with a sense of alarm and caution, and for days he was exhausted and bored.
But though the letters gave him a headache, Barty Crouch Jr. was willing, not to say eager, to work on his master's plans.
The real problem for him was that the trip to Snape's office to steal the ingredients for the Multijuice Potion wasn't going well either.
Getting into Snape's office wasn't a problem, he could even force himself to search Snape's office directly, but....
Who could tell him where Snape's dried shredded Skin of an African tree snake had gone?
Barty Crouch Jr. looked at the empty box in front of him depressed.
Obviously, when he found an excuse to search Snape's office, he saw most of the boxes!
Not to be discouraged, Barty Crouch Jr. rummaged through Snape's medicine cabinet again and discovered that not only the shredded dried Skin of an African tree snake, but also the chrysopos, leeches, sixteen scruples of Descurainia sophia collected under a full moon, two pulverized leaves of centinodia, and the pulverized horn of a Bicorn looked very consumed.
Naturally, Barty Crouch Jr. was no stranger to these ingredients, as he used them in his own multijuice potion.
So.
Snape has been making multijuice potions recently?
Barty Crouch Jr. suddenly felt suddenly confused.
Could it be that this Hogwarts Snape was not the real Snape, like him, an imposter?
Or was it even possible that Snape, like him, would be part of his master's plan?