The Beetle and Rita Skeeter

To withstand the cold, roll around in the snow?

As Harry listened to Kyle's description, Harry felt a strange sense of familiarity, but couldn't quite place who it was.

Just as he was about to ask something, there was another knock on the door.

This time, it wasn't Dumbledore came.

"Hagrid, how are you? Everyone in the castle is talking about you... Oh, I noticed you boiled some water, could I have a cup of hot tea?"

Upon seeing the person who had arrived, Harry exclaimed happily, "Professor Black, what brings you here?"

"I've said it many times, you don't need to call me that outside the castle, Harry."

Sirius walked into the room. "Of course, it's because I read the newspaper. I wanted to ask Professor Dumbledore first, but I don't know where he is. I couldn't find him."

Hagrid's house wasn't big to begin with, and now with five more people squeezed in, it felt even smaller.

Harry and Ron squeezed to the left, making a small space for Sirius.

However, ten minutes later... Kanna appeared at the cabin door, along with Cedric and Cho, and the Weasley brothers.

This time, the small house was completely overcrowded, and they had to stand outside.

Kanna spotted Kyle in the house immediately and waved, "No wonder we couldn't find you; you arrived ahead of time."

"No, I just arrived too," Kyle explained. "Professor Black and I went to Diagon Alley before you guys were even up."

Diagon Alley?

"Yeah, I'm going to Gringotts to pick something up. We arranged it during the holidays, and I happen to have time today."

Kanna nodded and didn't ask any more questions, since her main purpose in coming was to visit Hagrid.

Seeing this large group of people gathered at the door of his hut, Hagrid began to choke up again, but this time it wasn't because of sadness.

Hagrid had thought that everyone would avoid him after they learned his identity, but he never expected so many people to come and visit him.

"Thank you, thank you for still daring to come to my..." Two round tears streamed from Hagrid's eyes, slowly seeping into his beard.

"Hagrid, what are you talking about?" Fred said with a grin. "Our Care of Magical Creatures is a Half-blood- Giant, what could be cooler than that?"

"Is it a Pure-blood Giant?" George raised an eyebrow.

"There's no way I can disagree."

The two gave each other a high five in unison.

"See, Hagrid? Nobody here cares who you are," Kyle said.

"But Dumbledore..."

"I'm sure the principal won't fire you," Kyle patted his arm.

The group didn't stay there for long.

The main reason was that it was too cold outside, and so many people couldn't all go inside, so after a short while, Hagrid said he wanted to be alone and sent them all back to the castle.

Harry and the others didn't want to leave, but Hagrid was adamant and pushed them out of the house without saying a word.

However, as he was leaving, Kyle suddenly saw a beetle crawl out from the open doorway.

"Yes, let's go back."

After leaving the cabin, Kyle walked over to Kanna and said, seemingly casually, "Luckily, the newspapers only reported on the Half-blood- Giant incident and didn't mention the other thing, otherwise things would have been even more complicated."

"What is it?" Kanna asked, puzzled.

"Have you forgotten?" Kyle looked around. "It's not safe here. Let's go back to the castle."

Although Kanna was somewhat confused, she still followed Kyle toward the castle.

Only when the two reached the Entrance Hall did she tentatively say, "You're not talking about Fluffy, are you? But that happened so long ago, there shouldn't be any way he could have been discovered."

"Yes, you're right, no one can possibly spot Fluffy."

Kyle said he took out a round-mouthed bottle made from Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and slammed it onto his shoulder.

"Knock knock knock..."

A series of clinking and clanging sounds suddenly came from inside the bottle.

"This is... a beetle?"

"It's a beetle, but not an ordinary beetle."

Kyle plugged the bottle, shook it in his hand, and another clinking sound came from inside the bottle.

"Am I right, Ms. Rita Skeeter?"

"Rita ..." Kanna was startled. "You mean, this beetle is Rita Skeeter?"

"It's just suspicion right now, but we just need to do a test, a very simple one... Come with me."

Kyle walked into an empty classroom, put the bottle aside, opened his Mokeskin Pouch, and took out a portable camera and a small creature that looked like a plant sprout.

Kanna stood to the side, watching curiously as Kyle opened the bottle, took out the beetle, and handed it to the Bowtruckle.

The Bowtruckle thought it was going to get an extra treat and was overjoyed. Although it preferred the ground beetle, it wouldn't refuse an extra little snack and opened its mouth to put the beetle in.

However, the beetle suddenly began to writhe, and its entire body grew larger and larger.

This scene was all too familiar to Kanna; it was the process of transforming back into a wizard from the Animagus.

Soon, a woman with curly hair and horn-rimmed glasses appeared in the empty classroom.

The Bowtruckle was terrified. It looked at its own hands, then at the person who had suddenly appeared, and howled as it tried to burrow into Kyle's pocket.

at the same time...

"Snap!"

Kyle also pressed the shutter button on his camera.

"That's brilliant. The famous Rita Skeeter is actually an illegal Animagus." Kyle looked up and said with a smile, "Looks like tomorrow's front page of the Daily Prophet is already set."

"Damn it, give it to me!" Rita Skeeter went berserk and lunged at Kyle to snatch the camera from his hand.

But the next second, she flew back at an even faster speed, crashing into several tables.

"It's wrong to steal, Ms. Skeeter." Kyle waved his wand.

Before Rita Skeeter could even stand up, the surrounding tables and chairs had already transformed into ropes, binding her tightly from her feet to her neck, making her look like a pupa.

Her wand was also kicked aside by a table leg.

"Another illegal Animagus," Kanna said with disgust. "No wonder you know so many wizarding secrets; after all, no one will be wary of a beetle."

"It's alright, she always has to pay for her mistakes," Kyle said with a laugh. "An illegal Animagus, that alone is enough to send her to join the Dementor."

"Give it to me!" Rita Skeeter shouted again.

She never expected that her method, which had always worked every time, would fail her so mishandled by a student.

It's easy to imagine that when the photo documenting her entire Animagus process was released to the public, her life was completely over.

If those people... the officials of the Ministry of Magic, knew that her Animagus was a beetle and had used that to gather information, she would be completely finished, and might even be killed Silencio.

So no matter what, she was determined to get the camera back, but she knew in her heart that she couldn't beat Kyle and that force would definitely not work.

"I know a lot of secrets, Fudge and Dolores Umbridge's, and Ludo Bagman's," Rita Skeeter said in a hoarse voice. "I can trade those for you, as long as you give me the camera."

"Why should I know all this? Do I need to be so idle, just creating trouble for myself?" Kyle shrugged. "So I'll just..."

"Then tell me!" Rita Skeeter became anxious. "What do I have to do to get it for me? I can write reports, lots of reports praising you!"

"I think you must have misunderstood. I didn't mean that, and I don't need you to speak well of me in the newspapers." Kyle frowned slightly. "Besides, we Hogwarts students never threaten others to do things for us; that's against school rules."

Kanna pursed her lips and turned her head to the side.

To be honest, this isn't actually in the school rules; it falls under the category of wizarding law.

"But..."

Kyle continued, "I'm in a good mood right now, so I've decided to wait until the next issue of the Daily Prophet comes out before deciding whether to release the photos."

"If I'm in a good mood at the time, I might not post it... that's all possible."

"Then I..."

Rita Skeeter wanted to say something more, but Kyle interrupted her.

"It has nothing to do with you, it's just a matter of my mood. Well then, good luck..."

Kyle waved his wand, untied the ropes binding Rita Skeeter, and then pulled Kanna away from the empty classroom.