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 final question..." Rita Skeeter let out a long sigh, as though relieved. "Miss Granger, which House are you in?"
"Gryffindor!" Hermione answered proudly, lifting her chin slightly.
Rita Skeeter looked at Hermione with a complicated expression, left with only one thought in her mind:
A lion!
A beast indeed!
"We're Gryffindors too!" Fred and George said in unison, grinning as they stepped forward. "Ms. Skeeter, why not interview us?"
"Our inner struggles were intense! As dazzling and thrilling as Magic Fireworks—you wouldn't want to miss them, would you?"
Looking at Fred and George, as well as the eager young faces surrounding them, Rita Skeeter began pressing at her throbbing temples.
"How many Gryffindors..." Her tone was full of profound helplessness. "...are there here, exactly?"
"Oh, there are loads!" Fred and George pointed around at random. "Harry, Ron, Ginny, Percy..."
"Of course! There are some who aren't Gryffindors too. We've got Hufflepuffs, like... and Ravenclaws..."
Listening to the 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, a beetle, was not actually afraid. At worst, she could simply fly away. She could always find a way to toy with those reckless "lions."
What truly pinned her to the ground and stripped her of all her "special methods" was Wizet—the "eagle" circling overhead, its sharp gaze fixed on her at every moment.
At this moment, Rita Skeeter understood more clearly than ever—she absolutely could not try any little tricks in front of Wizet!
This "beetle," locked onto by an "eagle's" gaze, could only cast aside all hopes of luck and