Subduing Rita

Rita's sharp writing style, her ability to spread rumors and fabricate stories, was no secret among the upper echelons of the wizarding world. Some even secretly supported her within the Ministry of Magic, tacitly approving her actions on the condition that she manipulate public opinion and eliminate political enemies for the Ministry of Magic.

But what many people don't know is that Rita's real strength lies in her ability to gather intelligence.

She is actually an unregistered Animagus, and an extremely rare insect-type Animagus at that, whose metamorphosis is that of a small beetle. This gives her the advantage of being able to infiltrate anywhere and eavesdrop on any confidential information.

She also has a secret that no one knows.

She is an extremely powerful master of memory magic, far more powerful than Gilderoy Lockhart.

She knows how to extract memories from others, blur their impressions, and modify their recollections, causing wizards who see through her disguise or catch her infiltrating and eavesdropping to lose their memories of her. This is the real reason why she has been able to commit these crimes against the wind for so long without any consequences. Of course, the magic she uses is not Legilimency. That requires years of practice and outstanding talent in Mental Magic.

She used orthodox memory magic, the kind that requires a wand and spells, such as the Memory Charm, the Memory Charm, and the Mind-Chaos Seed Spell.

Furthermore, to protect her various secrets that violated wizarding laws, she specifically practiced Occlumency to prevent her secrets from being easily leaked and discovered by Legilimens. She was well aware of how many people were eyeing her covetously, including her competitors, powerful figures she had offended through her writing, and those who coveted her intelligence database, such as...

Skylar Malfoy.

The moment Skylar grabbed her, she was somewhat flustered, but generally not very afraid. She knew that many people wanted to capture her, but very few wanted her dead. In particular, she didn't remember ever writing any articles to smear or slander Skylar. The two had never had any grudges against each other, and Rita had even reported many positive news stories about Skylar and said many good things about him.

Based on this reasoning, there's only one possible reason why Skylar arrested her: for personal gain.

That is, the intelligence database she possesses.

The moment she was captured, she had already mentally prepared various response plans and dialogue options.

Her intelligence database was her lifeline, her biggest trump card for survival in the media industry, and she would never hand it over.

At most, it would mean handing over a portion of the information she had already filtered—in her view, this was already the best outcome, and Skylar would most likely agree to the plan, after all, Skylar was just a young boy.

In Rita's view, he only wanted to know certain information relevant to him, such as secrets about the House of Malfoy or inside information about the Ministry of Magic. He certainly wouldn't be interested in gossip like where the Weird Sisters held another concert, who Celestina Warbeck was rumored to be having an affair with, or Cornelius Fudge's niece being photographed partying in a nightclub.

If that were all, she wouldn't find it unacceptable. After all, falling into someone else's hands and exposing herself as an illegal Animagus was no small matter—if Skylar reported her, it could send her to Azkaban for at least ten years.

If she could simply offer some intelligence to resolve the matter, she saw it as a win-win situation that would please everyone.

As for Skylar using violence against her? She didn't think that was possible. The two had no animosity towards each other, and there was even a lot of room for cooperation. For example, just a few hours ago, she reached a cooperation agreement with Skylar's brother, another Young Malfoy, whereby Draco would provide scandalous material about his nemesis Harry Potter, and she would be responsible for exaggerating and embellishing it to write an article to disgust Potter.

As for having her most precious memories extracted by Legilimency? Don't be ridiculous. How old is this boy? Even if he is a genius, it's impossible for him to have mastered Transfiguration, Charms, and Alchemy to this level at such a young age, let alone have the spare energy to master such an extremely profound technique Legilimency.

Even in the worst-case scenario—if Skylar actually had some Legilimency (in her view, mastery was absolutely impossible)—it wouldn't matter. Rita was confident in her Occlumency; there were definitely no more than five Legilimens in all of Great Britain who could break through her mental defenses, and that was even after she had factored in Dumbledore and the Mysterious Man.

Unexpectedly, she underestimated the appetite of the seemingly harmless, innocent-looking boy in front of her— Rita was completely stunned after Skylar made his request.

Yes, Skylar did agree that she wouldn't have to hand over her intelligence database, but he made a far more absurd and outrageous demand that she had never considered—

He demanded that Rita hand over the intelligence network she had painstakingly built over decades!

That's not all; he even demanded that she become his subordinate, part of a mysterious organization called the Sleeping Dragon Society, to oversee intelligence gathering for him!

She was wrong from the start— Skylar wanted and coveted was never the intelligence she possessed, but rather her as a person!

She was about to refuse when she suddenly felt her mind being attacked—that familiar, damned feeling—it was Legilimency!

Ah, Skylar really knew how to Legilimency!

She quickly activated her Occlumency to keep the invisible invasion out of her mind.

She succeeded.

She clearly felt that the other party's Legilimency was like a hard crash into the mental barrier she had set up. She could even feel the strong aftershocks of the mental barrier, but she managed to protect her mind in the end.

She felt nauseous and wanted to S.P.E.W., but she was certain that the impact would only make the other person feel worse than she did. After a while, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and she realized that the other person's mental attack was slowly receding.

Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, her vigilance and mental defenses dropped to their lowest point. Suddenly, she saw a dazzling red light, and then she lost consciousness.

She had no idea what had happened or what methods Skylar had used. The only thing she remembered was the pair of Snake Eyes that flashed crimson light and were aligned vertically in a straight line, which she saw as she lost consciousness.

The moment she came to her senses, she surrendered to Skylar, body and soul. Everything was perfectly natural, as if she were born to be Skylar's subordinate, that Skylar was her destiny, the sole meaning of her existence.

She will dedicate everything to her esteemed master!

And so came the scene in the previous image where Skylar sat on the True Dragon Throne.

Yes, Skylar altered her thoughts, memories, and even her entire personality through "Absolute Dominion."

Rita is not someone who can be easily defeated. Her mastery of Occlumency is quite formidable. However, Skylar first used Legilimency to deplete some of her mental energy, and then seized the brief moment when she relaxed her vigilance and lowered her mental defenses to forcefully break through her defenses with "Absolute Dominion" and take advantage of the situation.

From this day forward, Rita Skeeter, besides being the most well-known freelance reporter for the Daily Prophet, has gained a brand new secret identity—

Head of the Sleeping Dragon Society' overseas intelligence team, a loyal subordinate of Skylar Malfoy, codenamed "The Reverse Scale."