As expected, the Daily Prophet did indeed give extensive coverage to the wand testing ceremony the following morning.
All news is time-sensitive, but since the Daily Prophet officially became the official newspaper of the British Ministry of Magic, it has been slow to report some major news.
If Chief Editor Gufei and Rita were still at the newspaper office, the moment they finished interviewing the Champion, the newspaper would already be updating the news in real time.
As for the most crucial content, just take a look and have some fun; don't take it seriously.
"What?!" Ron, who was eating breakfast and reading the newspaper, suddenly shouted, startling many students around him who choked.
Harry was closest to the porridge, was the most severely affected. If the spoon he was using to drink the oatmeal hadn't been so big that it got stuck in his throat, he might have swallowed it whole.
"I'm sorry, Harry." Ron apologized and hurriedly unfolded the newspaper, pointing to the second section in the middle.
"Look, this lousy newspaper is practically praising Malfoy to the skies."
Harry first glanced at a slumped figure curled up on a chair at the Slytherin table before looking at the article Ron was pointing to.
"A noble and elegant gentleman: Draco Malfoy"
Below the title is a GIF of Draco giving Viktor Krum a friendly smile, presumably extracted from a video recording device.
The article is extremely exaggerated, praising Draco's politeness and kindness even towards his rivals, as well as his own excellence.
Harry's expression grew increasingly tense.
No wonder Ron reacted so strongly; the Ministry of Magic's official newspaper is blatantly lying, even more shameless and unscrupulous than Rita.
He angrily picked up the milk in front of him and gulped it down in one go.
Ron glared fiercely at the mess on the Slytherin table. "Old Malfoy must have bribed the Ministry of Magic. I should have filmed last night's training session so everyone could hear his screams."
Speaking of last night's training, Harry glanced nervously at Vincent was calmly reading the newspaper.
He beat Draco so badly—the way he trained Draco to withstand blows was downright brutal. Harry had no idea the human body was so resilient; after thousands of blows, Draco could still let out a pig-like scream.
Judging from the mess on the Slytherin table, which is Draco's condition, he won't be able to fully recover in the next day or two.
Harry smiled and looked back at the newspaper; there was a small section about him in the bottom right corner.
"Harry Potter —is he really capable of being Champion?"
Harry's smile vanished instantly.
"What's wrong?" Ron followed his gaze and clenched his fists tightly in anger.
A large portion of the article is about yesterday's interview, in which Harry appeared particularly nervous because Snape was standing at the classroom door, and he had to repeat Bagman and Barty Crouch's questions several times before he could hear them.
Such a poor performance will inevitably be compared to other Champion, but the Daily Prophet, as an official print media outlet, used particularly sharp language in this article, with hardly any positive connotations.
Ron crumpled the newspaper into a ball. "Harry, I'm sure this was Old Malfoy's doing too!"
Hogwarts has two Champion, and people from different schools will compare them, let alone those from the same school.
Given the previous unrestrained and exaggerated praise, people will naturally be more likely to develop a liking for Draco due to preconceived notions.
Although Harry's performance was poor, he had the aura of the Chosen One.
However, if more similar news stories emerge, voices questioning him will surely rise.
Vincent put down his newspaper and looked at the furious Ron and the bewildered Harry.
Lucius is a shrewd opportunist; he would spend money to buy his son a good reputation, but he wouldn't dare to deliberately tarnish Harry's naturally charismatic image.
If the truth comes out, the Malfoy Family will face immense pressure.
And what benefits can he gain from this?
The returns and risks are disproportionate, so this report is most likely not his work.
That leaves only two possibilities.
First, the Ministry of Magic has acted erratically again, failing to carefully review the content of the article.
Second, someone is deliberately smearing Harry in an attempt to achieve some ulterior motive.
"Beep beep beep—" Vincent's Magical Communicator suddenly rang.
He squinted, looking at the contact's name with a thoughtful expression.
He got up and walked out of the Great Hall into a spacious, empty storage room.
When the video call connected, Sirius Black's extremely angry face appeared before him.
"Vincent, how is Harry now?"
"Feeling wronged and at a loss."
Sirius Black was silent for a moment, then said, "Isn't it just a matter of who has more money? The Malfoy Family can buy newspapers, so can I!"
Vincent looked out the window meaningfully.
The sky was blue, the clouds were white, but dark, heavy clouds were about to arrive.
"Sirius Black, could someone be deliberately trying to sow discord between you?"
Sirius Black on the projection screen fell silent.
They're both smart people, so he could obviously figure out that the article smearing Harry was most likely not written by Lucius.
He took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Was it done by the person who tampered with the Goblet of Fire?"
Vincent turned his gaze away from the blue sky and white clouds outside the window. "I don't know, but if anything happens targeting Harry recently, I think there's a high chance it's that person."
"I understand." Sirius Black hurriedly ended the communication.
Vincent could guess what he was going to do.
If someone tries to harm his godson, he'd probably tear that person's cloak off the ground.
At the same time, at the Ministry of Magic.
Sirius Black pressed the elevator button aggressively and arrived at the new department, the Magical News Department, located on the 7th basement level.
Since this department has only been established for less than a month, the position of director is temporarily vacant, and the operation of the department is temporarily being handled by three young people from the original the Daily Prophet.
When Sirius Black came in, a young man was frantically picking up manuscripts scattered on the floor, another was laying out tomorrow's news, and the last one was sitting at his desk editing yesterday's interview video.
"Ahem—" He cleared his throat.
The young man at the desk quickly stood up. "You've arrived, Mr. Black."
Sirius Black remembered this young man; when Sirius had cleared his name and was being used by the Ministry of Magic to divert public attention, this young man was the one responsible for writing articles for him.
"Good morning, Gerry. Did I disturb your work?"
The young man named Gerry shook his head vigorously. "How could that be, Mr. Black? This way, please."
Sirius Black was led to a sofa with stacks of file folders on it.
Gerry waved his wand and gathered up all the file folders. "Sorry, we've had a lot of work lately. Please forgive us."
The newly established Magical News Department cannot be described as a hastily assembled makeshift team; rather, it is a small group with a lot of room for improvement.