Minister Fudge's Counterattack

Rita Skeeter, besides being a special correspondent for the Daily Prophet, was also an unregistered Animagus, and her Animagus form was a rare little beetle that flew around everywhere, providing her with great convenience in finding news material! After all, who would ever pay attention to a bug at any given moment?

Because she loved to criticize everything in the wizarding world! No matter who it was, no matter how much power that person had, even someone like Dumbledore, the universally acknowledged big shot of the wizarding world, often found himself the subject of her negative reports. So, naturally, the reports she wrote were especially popular with a certain segment of the wizarding population.

I remember last year, the Daily Prophet published a news story about Gringotts being invaded, an event that Rita Skeeter had dug up in time. After it was published, it sparked a wave of public opinion and caused that issue of the newspaper to sell like hotcakes! And now, just a year later, another huge, extraordinary event had occurred at Gringotts, and this huge event had, luckily again, come to Rita Skeeter's attention.

This time, the event was promptly reported to her by a wizard friend of hers. At the time, her friend happened to be at Gringotts Wizarding Bank preparing to conduct some business, and he witnessed the first half of the incident—the moment when that little girl instantly subdued all the guards! So, after he followed the crowd running out of Gringotts, he immediately sent her an emergency message, which allowed Rita Skeeter to Apparate to Diagon Alley in time to witness and photograph the entire subsequent battle process.

Thus, the next day, the most influential newspaper in the wizarding world, the Daily Prophet, moved with lightning speed, before the Ministry of Magic could react, and published the entire front-page headline covering the major Gringotts incident! This event was like a bombshell, crashing into the wizarding society that had been peaceful for years since the disappearance of You-Know-Who.

In fact, the Daily Prophet didn't just use the front page; even the other pages were all filled with news related to this incident!

This immediately ignited public opinion across the entire wizarding world. Wizards rushed to tell each other, and even those who almost never read newspapers generously shelled out money to buy copies, all wanting to know if the story was true. Even though the Daily Prophet had specially printed several times the usual number of copies, they were all sold out in a short time. The wizards' enthusiasm for buying newspapers had suddenly become unprecedented.

"You bastards! Just look! Look at what they've written! Didn't I tell you to strictly seal off the news? How did you do your job? Is this how you conduct public opinion oversight?" In the Minister of Magic's office, Minister Fudge roared, slamming a copy of that day's Daily Prophet hard into his secretary's face.

The secretary just smiled awkwardly, then carefully picked up the newspaper from the floor. When he opened it, he saw the front-page headline in huge letters: BREAKING NEWS: Gringotts Invaded Again a Year Later! Ministry Aurors Completely Wiped Out?

Then, below the title, smaller text briefly described the battle process. Beside the short text was a large, dynamic magical photograph. The photo showed a group of Aurors tied to stone pillars, looking dejected. Of course, it also prominently featured Minister of Magic Fudge! In the photo, he was deliberately placed in the most conspicuous spot, highlighting his trembling, fearful demeanor on the sidelines, making anyone unaware of the truth immediately think, "How incompetent is this Minister of Magic?" rather than "How powerful was the enemy?"

"How dare they? How dare they do this? Don't they know how terrifying that little girl was? How can this be blamed on us? These bastards! These damned scumbags!" Minister Fudge continued to shout hysterically.

The terror he had felt facing that little girl yesterday was still fresh in Fudge's mind. How could the Ministry of Magic possibly match an existence like that? Remember, even Dumbledore, who arrived in time, was scared into submission on the spot! So, it wasn't that our forces were incompetent! It was that the enemy was too powerful!

There were plenty of witnesses to these things! Why didn't the Daily Prophet write about them? Why did they have to write about him, Fudge? This was targeted, wasn't it? It had to be! Was his position as Minister really that enviable? Did they want to find ways to force him out of office that badly?

"Uh..." Seeing the furious Minister, the secretary shrank his head and wisely didn't dare to respond.

When the boss was throwing a tantrum, if he dared to speak up and argue now, he would almost certainly be in for trouble.

The best course of action now was to stay silent, take the scolding obediently, and serve as the Minister's punching bag. Only when the Minister had finished yelling, gotten tired, and his anger was about to subside would it be the right time for the secretary to speak up.

So, the secretary kept his head down, taking the scolding while secretly flipping to the second page of the newspaper. This issue had come out so hastily that he hadn't had time to read the rest! While the Minister was venting, he needed to quickly check the content so he could figure out how to handle things later.

When the secretary turned to the second page, he saw the headline: SHOCKING NEWS: Mysterious Powerful Little Girl Suddenly Appears in the Wizarding World!

Below the title, a detailed account described the mysterious little girl's battle process and achievements from that day: including wiping out the Gringotts Wizarding Bank guards, instantly disarming and subduing dozens of Ministry Aurors, and killing an ancient white dragon. At the end of the article, of course, there was a photo of the white dragon's burned skeleton, along with the Flame Giant Bear sitting arrogantly and ferociously on the dragon's skull!

On the third page, the headline read: Dumbledore Possibly Outmatched? Groveling and Pleasing the Mysterious Little Girl?

Then, in a short section, there were all sorts of malicious speculations: What connection did this mysterious little girl have with Hogwarts? It was claimed that Hogwarts students were involved? And then, using out-of-context photos, paired with a picture of Dumbledore trying to appease the little girl at the time, they engaged in all kinds of baseless arguments! In short, they wrote whatever was most unreliable.

Only on the last page of the newspaper was the real cause of the incident written: Is Gringotts Still Safe and Trustworthy? Where Should We Deposit Our Money in the Future? Are the Goblins Still Capable of Managing Gringotts Wizarding Bank?

According to insiders at the scene, the incident started with a greedy goblin who embezzled the mysterious little girl's gold coins. To recover her rightful property, the mysterious little girl resorted to force and violence...

In this regard, relevant sources also revealed that Gringotts had paid a hundredfold compensation!

It was rumored that this compensation amounted to millions of Galleons! At the very end of the newspaper, there was, as usual, a photo of the goblin leader Bogrod sitting slumped on the ground, bowing his head and begging for mercy.

"Didn't I specifically instruct you at the time to do your utmost to keep this confidential? Why has it all ended up in the newspaper now? Is this how you keep secrets? What use are people like you?" After venting his anger, Minister Fudge was still somewhat dissatisfied, so he continued to glare resentfully at his secretary.

"I'm really sorry, Minister. Although we did our best to arrange people to handle it yesterday, as you must know, there were far too many witnesses in the know. We don't even know exactly how many wizards left Gringotts at the time! There was simply no way around it." Seeing that the Minister seemed to have mostly finished venting, the secretary wisely put away the newspaper. Now was about the time for him to report.

"Why didn't you act sooner and track them down one by one? Or just use the Memory Charm directly!" Fudge immediately suggested a terrible idea.

"Ah! The Memory Charm? Minister! You can't be serious? We absolutely cannot do that. Those are wizards, not Muggles from the outside world! If we use the Memory Charm on wizards on a large scale, the angry public will immediately throw you out of the Minister's seat!" The secretary was genuinely startled by Fudge's fanciful idea. Obliviate was not something you could just use on wizards! It was illegal! If it were used on ordinary Muggles, that might be one thing, but if they dared to use it on wizards, they could expect to be kicked out and gone at any moment!

"Tch! Forget it, forget it, it's too late to talk about that now! So, tell me, what do you think we should do to salvage this? Go discuss it quickly, and make sure you come up with a plan in the shortest time possible." Since things had already reached this point, Fudge knew it was unlikely to be reversed, so he had to think of ways to mitigate the damage.

The priority now was to think about remedial measures. The Daily Prophet's reports 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 soon as possible. That was the most important thing to do now, the top priority! If he could abuse his ministerial power, Fudge would have directly ordered the Daily Prophet shut down! That damned newspaper had caused him no end of trouble!

"Minister, if we look at it from another angle, I think these reports might not be entirely bad for the Ministry of Magic, or for you?" The secretary thought about the reports he had just read, and suddenly a flash of inspiration hit him. He seemed to have grasped some key points, the key to breaking the deadlock.

Think about it, for so many years, the Ministry of Magic had had a lingering concern, always wanting to get its hands on Gringotts Wizarding Bank's affairs. Because the interests involved were simply staggering! Gringotts almost monopolized the entire wizarding world's finance and economy. All deposits, withdrawals, and large transactions were handled by Gringotts Wizarding Bank. How much profit was in that? Even the Ministry of Magic's financial income and expenditures over the years were all managed by the Gringotts goblins!

Every previous Minister of Magic had thought about taking over Gringotts, the only bank in the wizarding world. This idea was by no means new! It was just that, constrained by the goblins' consistently assertive attitude, and lacking a suitable excuse, this idea had always been shelved.

But now, the situation was completely different!

Now, a huge opportunity was right in front of them! He believed that with good maneuvering, completely taking over Gringotts might be a bit difficult, but getting a foothold and securing a place was absolutely certain. This was truly a godsend. The Ministry of Magic had to seize this opportunity to make an issue of it and show those damned goblins what was what. They absolutely could not miss this chance.

"Not entirely bad? So there might be something good? Go on, tell me." Hearing his secretary say it wasn't entirely bad, the now-calmed Fudge suddenly had some interest in listening. He had heard enough bad news for the day. 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 do this, and this..." The secretary leaned close to the Minister's ear and whispered some plans.

"Haha! Excellent! Then it's settled. I want to see everything you just said on the front page of tomorrow's Daily Prophet! Now, I'm delegating this matter entirely to you. Find some people and get it done immediately. What are you standing there for? Go now!"

After hearing the secretary's plan, the expression on Minister Fudge's face finally cleared, and he laughed happily. For him, this idea from his secretary was really good news, excellent news!

If this matter succeeded, he would have no worries about anyone shaking his position as Minister.

As long as he could really get a foothold in Gringotts and secure enough benefits, he believed those old wizarding families would have plenty of ways to protect him. Maybe he could even become the first Minister of Magic to wrest control of Gringotts Wizarding Bank from the goblins? He might even get an Order of Merlin, right? Ha! This was really great!

Thinking about the honors he would gain from this opportunity, Fudge immediately put the earlier unpleasantness behind him. Face and such weren't that important. Anyway, you couldn't eat face, so losing it was no big deal. As long as he seized the opportunity and gained enough benefits and political capital from it, what did losing face once or twice matter to him, Fudge? Those bugs still crawling in the newspapers, eyeing his position, were destined to be disappointed this time. Ha! A bunch of bugs, trying to covet his Minister's seat? They were still a bit too green!

~~~Routine request for recommendation tickets~~~