Chapter 46: Minister Fugit's Counterattack

Besides being a special correspondent for the Daily Prophet, Rita Skeeter was also an unregistered Animagus. Her Animagus form was a rare little beetle that flew about everywhere, providing her with immense convenience in searching for news material! After all, who would pay attention to a bug at all times?

This was because she loved criticizing everything in the wizarding world! No matter who it was, no matter how much power they held—even a recognized heavyweight of the wizarding world like Dumbledore—she would frequently publish negative reports about them. Consequently, it was only natural that the kind of reporting she wrote became particularly popular among a certain segment of wizards.

She remembered that last year, the Daily Prophet had published news regarding an intrusion at Gringotts; that report had been timely unearthed by Rita Skeeter. Once published, it had stirred up a massive wave of public opinion and caused the newspapers to sell like wildfire! And now, only one year later, another monumental event had occurred at Gringotts, and by sheer luck, Rita Skeeter had obtained the news.

This time, she had been promptly notified by a wizard friend of hers. At the time, her friend happened to be at Gringotts Wizarding Bank to conduct business and had witnessed the first half of the event—the moment that little girl instantly subdued all the guards! Therefore, after following the crowd out of Gringotts, he immediately sent her an urgent message, which allowed Rita Skeeter to Apparate to Diagon Alley in time to witness and photograph the entire subsequent battle process with her own eyes.

Thus, the following day, the Daily Prophet—the most influential newspaper in the wizarding world—moved with lightning speed. Before the Ministry of Magic could even respond, they published the massive Gringotts incident across the entire front page! This event was like a heavy bomb dropped into a wizarding society that had been peaceful for many years due to the disappearance of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

In fact, it wasn't just the front page; even the other sections were filled with all the news related to this incident!

This immediately succeeded in igniting public opinion throughout the entire wizarding world. Wizards rushed to spread the word; even those who almost never read the newspaper began to generously shell out money to buy it, wanting to know if the reports were true. Even though the Daily Prophet had specially printed several times its usual quantity, they were sold out in a very short time. The wizards' enthusiasm for buying the paper suddenly reached an unprecedented high.

"These bastards! Look at this! Look at what they've written! Didn't I tell you to strictly lock down the news? How are you doing your jobs? Is this how you conduct public supervision?" Inside the Minister of Magic's office, Minister Fudge roared as he slammed a copy of that day's Daily Prophet into his secretary's face.

The secretary only offered an awkward, smiling apology before carefully picking up the newspaper from the floor. Upon opening it, he saw massive letters on the front-page headline: *EXTRAORDINARY NEWS: A Year Later, Gringotts Under Attack Again! Have the Ministry's Aurors Been Completely Wiped Out?*

Below the headline, smaller text briefly described the battle process, and beside the short text was a massive, moving magical photograph. The photo showed a group of dejected Aurors tied to stone pillars; and, of course, the Minister of Magic, Fudge, was not to be missed! In the photo, he had been specifically placed in the most prominent position, vividly highlighting his trembling, terrified expression as he stood to the side. To anyone unaware of the truth, their first thought would be how incompetent this Minister of Magic was, rather than how powerful the enemy was.

"How dare they? How dare they do this? Don't they know how terrifying that little girl is? How can they blame us for this? These bastards! These damned scoundrels!" Minister Fudge continued to howl hysterically.

Fudge was still feeling the lingering terror from facing that little girl yesterday; how could such an existence be matched by his Ministry? One had to realize that even Dumbledore, who arrived in time, had been intimidated on the spot! Therefore, it wasn't that the Ministry's forces were incompetent—it was that the enemy was too powerful!

There were plenty of witnesses to these events; why didn't the Daily Prophet write about them? Instead, they chose to write about him, Fudge? This was a targeted attack! It had to be! Was his position as Minister really that much of an object of envy? Were they trying to find every possible way to force him out of office?

"Uh..." Looking at the raging Minister, the secretary shrank his head and tactfully did not dare to speak.

The boss was in a temper; if he dared to make excuses now, he would most likely meet with misfortune.

The best course of action right now was to remain silent, take the scolding obediently, and act as a punching bag for the Minister. Only when the Minister had finished scolding, grew tired, and his anger began to subside would it be the secretary's time to step forward and speak.

Thus, with his head bowed, the secretary endured the verbal abuse while secretly flipping to the second page of the newspaper. Today's paper had arrived too hastily, and he hadn't had time to read the subsequent content! Taking advantage of the Minister's outburst, he had to quickly scan the contents so he could figure out how to respond later.

After flipping to the second page, he saw the headline: *SHOCKING NEWS: A Powerful, Mysterious Little Girl Emerges in the Wizarding World!*

Below the headline, a detailed account truthfully described the mysterious girl's combat process and her achievements that day: including the total annihilation of the Gringotts guards, the instant disarming and subduing of dozens of Ministry Aurors, and the slaying of an ancient white dragon. At the end of the article, there was, of course, a photo of the dragon burned to a skeleton, and a massive, flaming bear sitting arrogantly and ferociously atop the dragon's skull!

On the third page, the headline read: *Could Dumbledore Be No Match? Is He Groveling to Please the Mysterious Little Girl?*

Then, in the smaller text, there were various malicious speculations: What exactly is the connection between this mysterious girl and Hogwarts? It was claimed that Hogwarts students were also involved? Using out-of-context photos paired with images of Dumbledore acting placatingly toward the girl, the article engaged in all sorts of baseless inferences and arguments! In short, they wrote it as irrationally as possible.

It wasn't until the final page of the newspaper that the true cause of the incident was written: *Is Gringotts Still Safe and Trustworthy? Where Should We Deposit Our Money in the Future? Do Goblins Still Have the Ability to Manage Gringotts Wizarding Bank?*

According to leaks from on-site informants, the incident was triggered by a certain greedy goblin who had unauthorizedly embezzled gold coins belonging to the mysterious little girl. In order to recover her legal property, the mysterious girl had taken drastic action and resorted to force.

In response, relevant sources also revealed that Gringotts had paid a hundredfold in compensation!

It was rumored that this compensation might amount to a massive sum of nearly several million Galleons! At the end of the paper, there was, as expected, a photo of the goblin leader, Bogrod, slumped on the ground, bowing his head in surrender and begging for mercy.

"Didn't I specifically instruct you all to do your utmost to keep this secret? Why has it all been published in the newspaper now? Is this how you handle secrecy? What use are you people for?" After venting his rage, Minister Fudge was still somewhat dissatisfied, so he continued to glare indignantly at his secretary.

"I am truly sorry, Minister. Although we did our best to arrange personnel yesterday,...as you know, there were simply too many eyewitnesses who knew what happened. We don't even know exactly how many wizards left Gringotts at that time! There was truly nothing we could do." Seeing that the Minister seemed to have finished his outburst, the secretary tactfully put away the newspaper; it was now about time for him to report.

"Couldn't you have acted sooner and gone to them one by one? Or just used the Memory Charm!" Fudge immediately suggested a half-baked idea.

"Ah! The Memory Charm? Minister! You must be joking! We absolutely cannot do that. Those are wizards, not Muggles from the outside world! If we were to use the Memory Charm on wizards on a large scale, the angry public would immediately overturn you from your position as Minister!" The secretary was truly startled by Fudge's whimsical idea. How could *Obliviate* be used casually on wizards? That was illegal! If it were used on ordinary Muggles, it might be one thing, but if they dared to use it on wizards, they could expect to be ousted at any moment!

"Tsk! Forget it, forget it, it's too late to talk about this now! Then tell me, how should we remedy this now? Go and discuss it quickly; you must come up with a plan in the shortest time possible." Since things had already reached this point, Fudge knew that a reversal was unlikely, so he would try to find a way to mitigate the damage.

The priority now should be to figure out remedial measures. These reports in the Daily Prophet were far too negative for the Ministry of Magic and for Fudge himself as Minister; he had to find a way to turn his image around from these negative reports as quickly as possible. This was the primary task, the most urgent matter! If it weren't for the fact that a Minister's power could not be abused, Fudge really wanted to simply order the Daily Prophet to be shut down! That damned newspaper had caused him no small amount of trouble!

"Minister, if you look at it from a different perspective, I think these reports aren't entirely bad for the Ministry, or for you, actually." The secretary thought about the reports he had just seen, and suddenly a spark of inspiration flashed in his mind. He seemed to have grasped certain key points and thought of the key to breaking the deadlock.

For many years, the Ministry of Magic had harbored a long-standing desire to intervene in the affairs of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. This was because the interests involved were simply too staggering! Gringotts could almost be said to monopolize the entire wizarding world's finance and economy; all deposits, withdrawals, and large-scale transactions were handled by Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Just how much profit must be contained within that? Even in recent years, the Ministry of Magic's financial income and expenditures had been handled by the goblins of Gringotts!

Successive Ministers of Magic had all thought about taking over Gringotts, the only bank in the wizarding world; this was by no means the first time such a thought had occurred! However, due to the goblins' consistent assertiveness and the lack of a suitable excuse, such ideas had always been shelved.

But now, the situation was completely different!

Now, a massive opportunity lay before them! He believed that as long as they operated well, while taking over Gringotts entirely might be difficult, having a hand in it and occupying a seat was absolutely within their grasp. This was truly a godsend; the Ministry of Magic must take this opportunity to make an issue of it and teach those damned goblins a lesson. They absolutely could not miss this chance.

"Not entirely bad? Then there might be something good in it? Why don't you tell me." Hearing his secretary say it wasn't entirely bad, the cooled-down Fudge suddenly felt a bit of interest in listening. He had heard enough bad news today; now, he wanted to see what kind of good news his secretary could bring him.

"Minister, it's like this. As long as we take this opportunity to shift all the blame onto the goblins, and then, like this, and like this..." The secretary leaned toward the Minister's ear, whispering how to proceed.

"Haha! Very good! Then it's settled. I want to see everything you just said on tomorrow's Daily Prophet headline! Now, I am entrusting this entire matter to you; go find some people and get it done immediately. What are you standing there for? Go now!"

After learning the secretary's plan, the expression on Minister Fudge's face finally turned from cloudy to sunny, and he laughed happily. To him, the secretary's idea was truly good news—excellent news!

If this matter were successful, he would certainly not have to worry about anyone shaking his throne as Minister.

As long as he could truly intervene in Gringotts and secure enough profit, he believed the great wizarding families would have plenty of ways to protect him. Perhaps he could even become the first Minister of Magic to seize the management rights of Gringotts Wizarding Bank from the goblins? He might even get the Order of Merlin! Ha! This was truly wonderful!

Thinking about the honors he would gain through this opportunity, Fudge immediately cast his recent displeasure to the back of his mind. Reputation and such were not that important. Anyway, reputation couldn't be eaten; if it was lost, it was lost. As long as he seized the opportunity and gained enough profit and political capital, what did it matter if he, Fudge, lost face once or twice? Those bugs still jumping around in the newspapers to spy on him were destined to be disappointed this time. Ha! Just a bunch of bugs, and they thought they could spy on his position as Minister? They were still a bit green!