Nicolas Flamel's Story

The media in the Wizarding World is roughly divided into two camps.

The first is the official media, including newspapers such as "Ministry of Magic News" and "The Wizard Daily," which are entirely the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Magic.

These official media outlets are also the least popular newspapers among readers, especially the Wizard Daily.

A powerful wizard once commented. "Their analysis doesn't delve into the core essence of the problem; most of the time they're just stirring up or expressing emotions. They're second-rate newspapers!"

The second is mainstream media, including newspapers and magazines such as The Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, and the Quibbler.

The Daily Prophet is the most popular newspaper in the United Kingdom.

It is not an official media outlet, but because this newspaper can generate a great deal of public opinion within the United Kingdom wizarding community, it tends to favor the Ministry of Magic.

Of course, according to The Witch Weekly, the Ministry of Magic funded The Daily Prophet with a large Galleon.

In general, The Daily Prophet is more concerned with newspaper sales; otherwise, it wouldn't allow troublemakers like Rita Skeeter to publish articles in it.

Rita is undoubtedly a leader in the media industry; her articles are frequent features in major newspapers, and her topics are extremely broad, covering everything from terrorist attacks and major sporting events to Ministry of Ministry of Magic activities.

Occasionally, Rita also publishes biographies of Feng Yun, which are quite popular with casual readers.

Compared to Rita, Lovegood, despite being the editor-in-chief and having her own magazine, undoubtedly had much lower sales.

"The Quibbler" translated into Muggle magazine would be something like "Storytelling," "Unsolved Mysteries," or "Discovering Aliens."

It's only popular with a small group of readers, like... silly elementary school students like Cedric.

The children don't have much money, but it's particularly easy to earn from them.

For example, this year's "The Quibbler: Christmas Special" magazine had the same content but only different covers, yet Cedric bought all seven covers to collect.

Rita Skeeter disdained earning such small sums of money.

Her success has many causes, but the most crucial one is that, as a mature journalist, she has a deep understanding of the readers' innermost expectations.

What are the readers' expectations?

Readers are most looking forward to stories of goddesses falling from grace, prodigal sons returning home, idols' personas collapsing, celebrity wizards getting divorced, and entertainment gossip...

Rita understood this, and her reporting often focused on prominent figures in the Wizarding World. The higher their fame and prominence, the more it met Rita's expectations, as well as the expectations of her readers.

For example, her biography of the previous Hogwarts Headmaster Armando Dippet "Armando Dippet: Master or Fool?"

In Dumbledore's words, only a quarter of the content was true, while the remaining three-quarters was pure fabrication.

But it is precisely this blend of truth and fiction that makes this book a bestseller.

Similarly, this time Rita has her sights set on Newt.

In the newspaper, she wrote that Newt was a scumbag who dumped Seraphina Picquery, the former president of the Magical Congress of United States, and subtly hinted that Picquery's child might be related to Newt.

To create a rich backstory, it would be best to involve the feud between two generations... Rita is a master of the Down syndrome acting method!

Although Rita is annoying, it must be said that she is well-informed and always manages to get a lot of first-hand top-secret information, giving her control over the lives of most wizards.

Just like how Rita knew that Newt was planning to secretly go to Romania to release the fire dragon!

Many people want to know her source of information, but no one knows for sure.

In Rita's words, she has a flock of well-trained little birds, which adds to her mystique.

After dinner, Newt took his treasure chest to his room.

The elderly man prepared to reinforce the box and check if any of the little creatures had managed to escape in the chaos.

He also wanted to write a letter condemning Rita and demanding an immediate apology in the newspaper, or he would take legal action and send her a lawyer's letter.

William didn't approve of this approach; Newt was too upright, and in that respect, he was indeed a typical Hufflepuff.

But the consequences of being upright are also obvious. Rita is an unscrupulous journalist who, after receiving the letter of condemnation, only picks out words and quotes out of context.

For example, in the next issue of the newspaper, William might see something like... a righteous journalist being threatened by Newt Scamander.

Newt is indeed an expert on magical creatures, but he should have been more ruthless in dealing with this kind of reporter.

For example: behead Rita's favorite animal and put its head in her bedroom; I bet she'd shut up then...

Classic scenes from "The Godfather" have always been William's favorites.

Of course, William was just talking; he didn't actually want to go to Azkaban.

After Newt left, Perenelle, the kind old woman, took Hermione to her room.

Bobocha swaggered in behind the two of them.

Nicolas then took William for a walk on the estate.

Nicolas Flamel's birthday party was called a banquet, but only a few people attended.

For over six hundred years, the old man never held any banquets, and outsiders rarely set foot on the estate.

Regardless of whether it was Nicolas's birthday or not, he would always invite William over, so William and Hermione would spend the Christmas holidays at the manor.

"You guys caused a lot of trouble when you left," Nicolas chuckled as they walked along the flat path.

"No young wizards have flooded the Slytherin Common Room yet."

"I'm sorry too..." William scratched his head; he'd probably be killed by Snape if he went back.

"What's the situation there now?"

"Don't worry, son." Nicolas patted William on the shoulder.

"Albus's power is immense; with his wand, he can easily restore everything to its original state."

There was a certain meaning behind Nicolas Flamel's words, but William failed to grasp it.

"William, I invited you here because I want to talk to you... privately. I'm afraid I can't explain it clearly in a letter."

William sighed. He felt things were in chaos lately, and he had many questions to ask.

"Let's talk about the daytime first," Nicolas said, pacing slowly. "You've already heard Newt talk about the Siren, haven't you?"

"That's right, he also mentioned Death, Mercury even gave a different version."

"Yeah, I know, it's all so complicated, it's really hard to figure out." Nicolas laughed.

"When I first encountered these things, I wasn't much better off than you."

"Would you like to hear my story tonight, child?" Nicolas winked.

William nodded, and the old man led him into a magnificent building.

The two sat down on dark, handcrafted, chiseled Dragon Hide made of black Walnut Wood.

Nicolas Flamel clasped his hands together, stared at the ceiling, and after a moment said:

"To know my story, you have to start with Death and the Three Brothers."

Yes, this is a story unlike any you know.

Nicolas snapped his fingers, and Schubert's String Quartet "Death and the Maiden" slowly filled the room.