Hermione cleared her throat. "Ms. Skeeter, that's all I have to say. Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
"There is indeed one last question..." Rita Skeeter let out a long sigh, as if in relief. "Miss Granger, what house are you in?"
"Gryffindor!" Hermione answered proudly, her chin lifting slightly.
Rita Skeeter looked at Hermione with a complicated expression, and only one thought remained in her mind:
Lion!
A beast after all!
"We're Gryffindor too!" Fred and George said in unison, grinning as they crowded forward. "Ms. Skeeter, interview us?"
"Our inner struggles were intense! Brilliant and thrilling, just like Magical Fireworks. You definitely wouldn't want to miss that, would you?"
Looking at Fred and George, and at the eager young faces around them, Rita Skeeter began pressing at her throbbing temple.
"You people..." Her tone was filled with deep helplessness. "Just how many Gryffindors are there?"
"Oh, loads!" Fred and George pointed all around. "Like Harry, Ron, Ginny, Percy..."
"Of course! There are some who aren't Gryffindor too. We've got Hufflepuffs! Like... and Ravenclaws..."
Hearing that string of names, even though it included The Boy Who Lived, Rita Skeeter still felt waves of headache coming on.
Surrounded by so many lions, she, as a beetle, was not actually afraid. At worst, she could fly up; she could always think of a way to toy with this pack of reckless "lions."
What truly pinned her firmly to the ground, stripping her of all her "extraordinary methods," was Vizet, that "eagle" circling in the sky, his sharp gaze fixed on her at every moment.
Rita Skeeter was now more clearly aware than ever of one thing—she absolutely could not play any petty tricks in front of Vizet!
She, the "beetle" locked in the "eagle's" gaze, could only put