After being rejected by Scott and Milton, Eddie was not discouraged.
On the contrary, he completely exploded.
In order to successfully appear in the newspaper, he did not hesitate to use magic potions to force himself to stay awake for two nights.
Two days later, he said to Scott and others with dark circles under his eyes: “While people’s attention is still there, I must write an article as soon as possible that the Evening Prophet cannot refuse.”
His efforts were not in vain. The Evening Prophet published his painstaking masterpiece in the evening of the same day-
“Rita Skeeter’s 99 Lies”
After seeing the article in the newspaper, Eddie, who had exhausted his energy, “died with a smile”.
Oh, he fell asleep directly on the dinner table with half a beef patty in his mouth.
Scott and others were shocked at first, then smiled helplessly and began to read the article.
They sighed as they read.
Milton was very surprised, “He actually found 99 loopholes in Skeeter’s past articles.”
Scott took a breath, “And each one of them is meaningful, at least it doesn’t read like a casual slander.”
Roger couldn’t help but praise, “Ha! He also claimed that he was just a colleague who kindly reminded the other party of his mistakes, so that Skeeter would face up to his mistakes and not make them again. This is really interesting…”
After dinner, they carried Eddie, who was sleeping like a dead pig, back to the dormitory, threw a few cleaning spells on him and threw him on the bed.
In a short period of time, Eddie’s article has aroused many discussions in Hogwarts.
In the past, although Rita Skeeter was a famous reporter with unlimited glory, she offended many people because of her nonsense and fearless nature.
Even in Hogwarts, there are many students who enjoy watching her jokes.
Not to mention, even those who had no ill feelings towards her before would like to watch this excitement.
And Eddie slept until the afternoon of the next day.
Fortunately, it was the weekend and they didn’t have to go to class.
In the evening, Scott came out of the Request Room and returned to the dormitory. His roommates were discussing Rita Skeeter’s counterattack again.
“Hide your real name? A qualified reporter should be braver!”
“Oh, she wrote it very well.” Scott sighed as he read.
This short article contains intentions such as selling misery, seeking sympathy, avoiding the main issue, sincerely apologizing, pretending to be generous, and implying enemies.
Obviously, the Queen of News almost took out all her strength to fight this time-
[Hello everyone, I’m sorry to bother you again.
I think I encountered an organized and premeditated bullying incident by my peers.
I must stand up and speak for myself, some sincere words from the heart.
I have been in a bad mood these two days.
I have to say that after seeing the article criticizing me, I was once very terrified.
I thought at the first time, is there really something wrong with me, but I didn’t notice it?
Although I think I have always been serious and responsible for my work, I dare not be too arrogant to say that I have never made mistakes.
I was afraid that my readers who supported me would be disappointed in me.
But I soon realized that I should not belittle myself because of the unwarranted attacks from others. That would be a shame for the efforts I made in my past career.
Moreover, I believe that all rational people can see the reason for this drama–someone wants to step on my reputation and make “Hollingworth” famous.
Yes, I emphasize again that it was an organized and premeditated action.
The reason is simple. A reporter who just wants to kindly remind my colleagues will sort out “99 loopholes” in two days?
I mean, that’s too much, isn’t it?
I’m sorry, my reputation is accumulated through years of hard work, and these lies mixed with a little truth cannot discredit me.
But I still want to say thank you.
Thank you to the people behind the name “Hollingworth”, thank you, at least you reminded me of several mistakes in my past work.
I also ask readers to forgive me.
But I still hope that Mr. Hollingworth can understand that a reporter who hides his real name and dares not face people with his true identity will definitely not be trusted by readers!
Finally, I wish you or yours to become a successful journalist. ］
“It’s amazing.”
Eddie laughed.
“She easily reduced the 99 loopholes I worked so hard to find to just a few, and took the initiative to apologize to the readers. In this way, I can’t refute her one by one.”
“Just like that?” Milton said with some regret, “You spent two nights writing it!”
“Hehehe…”
Eddie smiled strangely.
“It doesn’t matter. I expected it a long time ago. I know that the queen of news is not so easy to be defeated.”
“Hehehe…”
“This battle is fair, Hollingworth. Of course, my pen name’s reputation is not as good as Skeeter’s who has worked hard for many years, but at the same time, she can’t attack me personally.”
“Hehe, this battle has just begun.”
He seemed to be more and more interested.
In response, Scott said helplessly: “Eddie, although I am very happy that you can find real fun in this matter, can you not laugh like a mentally retarded villain in a children’s movie?”
“Which movie?” Eddie asked curiously.
Scott didn’t answer him.
Probably, it was a movie called “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.
At this moment, a clip of “Hey, Harry Potter is dead” played in Scott’s mind.
After that, Eddie, who was completely motivated, took action again.
This time, he targeted Rita Skeeter’s seemingly all-pervasive intelligence ability.
Many things that people did or said in private were known by her and then published in the newspaper.
According to Eddie, this is also the reason why many people are afraid of her.
For this reason, he deliberately contacted some “victims” and invited them to speak out in the form of interviews, accusing Skeeter of violating their privacy.
Scott certainly knew how Skeeter did it, but he didn’t tell Eddie.
Eddie was enjoying the process of defeating the news queen head-on, so he had better not reveal his cards directly, so as not to ruin Eddie’s fun.
Of course, this is also because Eddie’s behavior now is just a prelude, and what he wants to target in the end is actually the election of the Minister of Magic.
If Eddie still couldn’t defeat her at the critical moment, Scott would still share Rita Skeeter’s Animagus identity to deal a fatal blow.
Perhaps, the fighting spirit of Eddie will not disappoint people.
For a period of time, the “war” between “Hollingworth” and Rita Skeeter really became a hot news in the British wizarding world.
The two took turns to publish articles in the “Evening Prophet” at a rate of one person per day. As the verbal war gradually escalated, more and more people paid attention to it, and the pages they got were getting better and better.
Although it didn’t make the front page of the “Evening Prophet”, it was just below the front page.
As for the result of the “war”, it was eye-opening that Eddie actually had some advantages.
As expected of the gossip king of Hogwarts, after firing at full power, the experienced Rita Skeeter gradually couldn’t stand it.
Scott felt more and more that Eddie was a natural businessman. Just in Hogwarts, he quietly mastered many unknown connections through previous trading methods.
At least, Scott couldn’t call out the names of all the students in Hogwarts like Eddie.
Yes, not only the old students, but also Eddie can already call out the names of all the freshmen in the four major colleges and even talk to most of them after only two weeks of school.
The connections he has are usually inconspicuous, but they can always provide him with the information he wants at critical moments.
This requires not only full communication skills, but also strong information collection and processing capabilities.
In short, just as Eddie expected, the pen name “Hollingworth” really became famous overnight.
Eddie is of course very proud of this.
“She doesn’t know who I am! In order to hide my identity, I didn’t even ask the newspaper for royalties! Of course, the moment she responded to me, she was doomed to fail, and I will never suffer a loss.”
“Why do you say that?” Milton likes to flatter more and more.
Eddie smiled like a mentally retarded villain again, “Because, the best way to avoid being stepped on by me to climb up is not to respond to me! As long as she responds, she will share my fame. Even if I lose this war, I will only lose a pseudonym that can be changed at any time!”
Roger asked, “Can’t Skeeter think of this?”
“Of course she can think of it.” Eddie said disdainfully, “But she also wants the popularity.”
He shook his head pretentiously.
“The Queen of News is too greedy. She is reluctant to give up the popularity that is delivered to her door, and wants to attract people’s attention with me from a distance. She probably thinks everything is under her control. But obviously, she overestimates herself and underestimates me.”
Scott also praised, “I have to say, well done!”
Eddie put away his smug expression and said seriously: “So far, I have mastered the initial capital, and the pseudonym ‘Hollingworth’ also has some say.”
“Congratulations.” Scott gave a thumbs up.
“Is it much easier next time?” Milton asked.
Eddie nodded, then shook his head, “But this is not enough. In order to meet the public opinion offensive of the entire witch association, I will slowly change my style in the next period of time.”
Facing Milton’s puzzled eyes, he explained: “I am afraid that this will not work now. I not only need to improve my reputation through the war with the Queen of News, but also need to publish some other articles to shape a professional image.”
Obviously, he has a clear plan for this.
“Of course, thank you for your help, Scott.”
Eddie can gain the upper hand in the “war” because he is not fighting alone.
Scott’s secret escort is also indispensable.
If Eddie relies on himself alone, with Rita Skeeter’s many years of connections in the Prophet Newspaper, it is easy to occupy an absolute advantage.
It is even possible to find the true identity behind the pseudonym “Hollingworth”.
“I didn’t do anything.” Scott smiled, “Just some small help, mainly relying on you.”
He really didn’t do anything.
He just sent the crow to find out some information that Eddie couldn’t get through his connections.
There was also remote monitoring of the Prophet’s staff who were close to Rita Skeeter, using some harmless little secrets to ask them to promise not to side with Skeeter in attitude.
This really didn’t matter.
All of these are just paving the way for the subsequent war of public opinion.
In the following time, in addition to continuing to maintain the heat with Rita Skeeter, Eddie also tried to submit some more serious manuscripts.
For example, he tried to objectively analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two candidates for the Minister of Magic.
Since the election of the Minister of Magic is a topic that all wizards in the UK are paying attention to, this kind of articles have been frequently published in newspapers for a period of time.
In order to shape his professionalism, Eddie had to rack his brains and find another way to make his analysis articles appear in newspapers smoothly.
After two consecutive failed submissions, he finally found the right direction and successfully published the article, which received a lot of attention.
Of course, Scott also played a little insignificant role in it.
For the sake of caution, Eddie did not show obvious tendencies in the article.
The attitude he expressed was just a little more optimistic about Ms. Burns, and he also had expectations for Mr. Graves.
In theory, there are many articles with the same attitude, and it is not “Hollingworth”‘s turn.
But Eddie made full use of his unique talent, the talent of making a boring thing interesting.
After finding the right direction, his articles became more and more popular.
Newspapers never have trouble with sales, and soon, even Scott’s insignificant help was no longer needed.
When September was halfway through, “Hollingworth” had become a famous reporter, and his articles were successfully published in the Daily Prophet, which was more important and authoritative than the Evening Prophet.
Rita Skeeter’s reputation was damaged by the attack of “Hollingworth” and she temporarily lay dormant.
After stopping the war with the Queen of News, Eddie also ended his busy days.
Now he only needs to publish an article every few days to brush up his presence.
Tuesday, September 20.
At breakfast time, a group of owls flew over the students’ heads, dropping letters and newspapers.
Eddie immediately opened the Daily Prophet and flipped through it.
“Sure enough, it has begun.” He said, “The public opinion offensive of the entire witch association.”
Scott put down his knife and fork and picked up his newspaper.
The front page headline was normal news, but the second page had an article attacking Dumbledore –
“Burns, or Dumbledore?”
Scott read the comment from a familiar reporter as quickly as possible.
“This reporter wants to say that Dumbledore’s behavior of recommending Ms. Burns is to secretly control the Ministry of Magic.” Milton said after reading the comment as well.
“Oh, it also involves the former Minister Fudge.” Roger said, “The comment said that Fudge also came to power with the support of Dumbledore, and after he became the Minister, he often asked Dumbledore for advice.”
Scott smiled, “Oh, this is probably just a lead. With Dumbledore’s current reputation, even if he directly runs for the Minister, he will get the support of most wizards.”
“Yes, this is just a foreshadowing, planting a shadow in people’s hearts.” Eddie also laughed, “I think they will gradually discredit Dumbledore’s reputation next.”
