The topic of the 'Top 100 Tournament,' along with all sorts of mysterious rumors about the meeting at the British Ministry of Magic, spread across the world at breakneck speed.
Along with the news, the names Albus Dumbledore and Anthony Weasley became the undisputed hottest topics.
And so, all sorts of rumors were passed around, growing more and more outrageous with each retelling.
Some people with an agenda even began branding Dumbledore a schemer, trotting out the same old accusations: that he had set Gellert Grindelwald on the Action Plan of 'For the Greater Good,' that he had taken Tom Riddle (Voldemort) from an orphanage and raised him at Hogwarts, that he had personally tutored Anthony Weasley, and so on...
People seemed especially fond of smearing figures with shining reputations, covering them in stain after stain marked by black fingerprints.
As if, by covering them in filth, they could stand at the pinnacle of morality and look down on those they had once needed to admire.
They pointed fingers from on high, making all sorts of harsh accusations.
And so, an astonishing rumor emerged—Anthony Weasley was Dumbledore's third-generation Dark Lord, raised to make Dumbledore look like a hero.
The reporter and small newspaper that first put forward this theory quickly gained notoriety.
But they paid a heavy price.
The Ministry of Magic swiftly shut down the newspaper, and the Aurors threw the reporter into the British Ministry of Magic's newly built prison, making him one of its first prisoners.
Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge angrily denounced the unscrupulous reports, saying they deliberately stirred up trouble and sought to bring harm to the world.
But this seemed to make the name Dark Lord Anthony spread even further.
"Whoa, we can't afford to anger Anthony Weasley. He's terrifying."
Under the surface, currents