Chapter 502: Fish is still easy to fool (Edited)
Over the next few days, Harry and Ron would stay at Hagrid's house and, from time to time, bring Fish some of their rock cakes.
From the look on their faces over the next few days, it seemed that something was going well with Hagrid's return to school....
Indeed, by the second week, the Care of Magical Creatures class teacher had returned to Hagrid, and there was a lot of moaning in Slytherin, and even in Gryffindor, many people weren't looking too good either....
But, thankfully, Hagrid returned and, instead of having everyone join him in fiddling with the Blast-Ended Skrewt, he continued with Professor Grubbly-Plank's lesson on unicorns and, thanks to Fish, not only did Linda return with a unicorn, but also Fish's more familiar Lochlin.
It turned out that Hagrid knew no less about unicorns than he did about trolls, but his temperament of liking ferocious beasts remains unchanged and Hagrid, after giving his sermon, routinely expressed disappointment that unicorns had no fangs.
"The unicorn's horn is an incredible nya! Many animals with tusks can't beat them."
?(? `ω′?) ?
After hearing Hagrid's complaint, Fish retorted for the unicorns.
Then Fish leaned close to Lochlin and whispered to him.
Upon hearing that Hagrid had dared to underestimate the unicorns, Lochlin looked furious as he raised his front hooves and let out a long whinny at Hagrid before giving him a stern look.
Immediately after, Fish pulled out his wand and pointed to a large rock stuck in the ground in the distance.
"Engorgio!"
(?ΦωΦ?)つ━☆*.
The rock, which was the size of a house elf, instantly took on the size of a monolith over ten feet tall.
Fish put away his wand, jumped onto Lochlin's back and shouted, "Lochlin! Charge nya!"
?(?≧?≦?)?
"Whinny~!"
Lochlin let out another long whinny, then lowered his head and pointed his long horn at the rich one, then stomped hard with his four golden hooves and instantly turned into a silver bolt of lightning and crashed into the rock.
A loud bang was heard as the rock instantly turned into a pile of tiny grains of stone.
"It's a good thing I didn't set them off earlier..."
Ron swallowed saliva, shrugged his neck and said, earlier he had complained about unicorns only approaching girls and had even talked to Harry about secretly running over to pet one....
Unlike Ron, Harry had seen how the unicorn had knocked over Voldemort's diary.
Although the diary appeared to be intact, the unicorn's speed and strength were still fresh in Harry's mind.
After seeing the unicorn's power, the girls were even more attracted to the beautiful and powerful creature, while the boys could only watch in awe.
The question of Hagrid's career had largely been settled, and although some students still had a problem with him being a teacher, it was clear that Dumbledore had no intention of firing him, and Hagrid was in a good mood and had stopped talking about quitting.
The only thing that had changed was probably that Hagrid had stopped going to court Madame Maxime, who seemed to avoid Hagrid, both consciously and unconsciously.
The weekend was fast approaching, and that weekend Hogwarts students from third year upwards could go to Hogsmeade again, so Fish was dragged out of Hogwarts by Gabrielle and the other girls just after breakfast.
Then, while strolling through Hogsmeade, Fish ran into Rita Skeeter and the fat photographer named Bozo.
"Rita!"
? (? `ω′?) ?
The first time he saw Skeeter, Fish pushed the girls around him and ran towards her.
"Why did you write about Hagrid in the paper nya?! Didn't Fish tell you not to do that?!"
Fish accused with his round green eyes.
At first, Fish didn't think it was that big of a deal, but seeing Hagrid crying about it, Fish had to ask him.
Rita Skeeter looked casually at the group of schoolgirls behind Fish and said with a soft smile, "How about we find a place to sit down and talk about it?"
"Then go to The Three Broomsticks nya," Fish nodded without thinking too much.
So Fish, Hermione and Rita Skeeter went to The Three Broomsticks and found a quiet corner to sit in.
The other girls, though curious about what Skeeter wanted to tell Fish, stayed away, and even Gabrielle was nudged by Fleur to go do her business.
The pot-bellied cameraman, Bozo, who had been following Skeeter, didn't come either, but after taking a few pictures of Fish with his camera at first, he started chasing after Fleur.
"I had already delivered the press release when I saw your letter." After ordering drinks from Madam Rosmerta, Rita Skeeter smoothed back her blonde curls and said, "Although the paper was still running at Christmas, my post office is a private place, so no one else was around during the holidays, and I was out gathering newspaper material and putting the finishing touches on the article."
She took a sip of her butterbeer and continued, "I delivered it the day before the end of the vacations, and when I saw your letter in the mailbox the next day, the paper had already been printed and I couldn't get them off."
(???ˇ?ˇ???)
Fish said nothing, merely furrowed his eyebrows and stared at Rita Skeeter, who was so calm and composed that she didn't seem to be lying....
Although Fish had learned the art of lying from Tom Riddle, that didn't mean he could detect any lie, not to mention that Rita Skeeter was a master liar herself.
"Hermione?"
(??ω??)
Fish, who hadn't been able to make out anything, looked at the wise-cracking lady next to her.
Although Hermione thought there was a good chance that the bad reporter in front of her was lying, she had no evidence to prove it.
"It's possible, but it's also possible that he's lying."
Hermione still didn't want Fish to be fooled so easily.
Seeing Fish's critical gaze on her again, Skeeter said unhurriedly, "I don't have to lie about that, if you had read my essay carefully, you would know that I was mainly referring to the old issue of Dumbledore's choice of teachers."
He used the option he had considered as an excuse, "In my essay I put other examples besides Hagrid, and I only cited Hagrid as an example because I had mentioned the others before. If I had seen Fish's letter first, I could have written about someone else, like Mad-Eye Moody, or Lupin the Wolf."
"Only that would have made the article much less effective," Rita Skeeter omitted.
Hermione, being the know-it-all lady that she was, didn't know much about news analysis, so she didn't hear anything from Skeeter, and Fish didn't hear any flaws in her reasoning, besides, he didn't know what Skeeter was talking about.
"Hermione?"
(??ω??)
A confused Fish looked back at his girlfriend.
Hermione was silent for a moment, then nodded reluctantly.
"Well, it was Fish who offended you, sorry nya." Fish quickly apologized to Skeeter.
"I can only say that things didn't happen, I can't blame you, and besides I didn't consider Hagrid's friendship with you..." Rita Skeeter was still very good at talking, she asked again, "But if I write to Dumbledore like this, won't you have an opinion?"
"Why should Fish have a problem with it?" Fish cocked his head in confusion, "Rita, aren't you telling the truth?"
"Yes! My job is to reveal secrets that no one knows! That's why many of the people I expose are hostile to me." Rita Skeeter was immediately overjoyed to hear Fish say that about herself.
"Actually, if you hadn't made Hagrid cry, Fish wouldn't have bothered! Hagrid's so old that he still likes to cry.... Fish only cries when Minerva spanks him!".
(〃｀3′〃)
Fish muttered with his hands on his chest, rather proud of himself.
"Ahem..." Rita Skeeter cleared her throat after the excitement, and finally got to the heart of the matter, "How about you tell me what you think of Dumbledore?"
"Albus?" Fish thought for a moment and replied, "Fish thinks he's a bit crazy too, but he's good to Fish nya, he always gives Fish snacks and helps him take care of Uroboros, he just always likes him... nya..."
=????(??ω??)
Mid-sentence, Fish suddenly turned his head to look towards the other corner of the bar.
There, the twins were teasing Ludo Bagman about something.