The scandals in the newspapers still caused some trouble for Albert.
Fred, George and Lee Jordan also sent Albert teasing letters and congratulated him on winning the International Wizards Chess Championship.
To clear up his troubles, Albert gave an exclusive interview to Rita Skeeter.
The interview took place in Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop in Hogsmeade, which was open all day, but there were basically no customers.
In the teahouse, Albert was flipping through the latest issue of the Daily Prophet. When he heard his chair being pulled, he slowly raised his head, looked at the witch in front of him, and asked, "Miss Rita Skeeter?"
The witch had her blonde hair styled into big, delicate curls, a pair of jeweled glasses on her nose, a crocodile-skin handbag in her fingers, and her nails painted red.
If Rita Skeeter was dressed like this when she was young, she would be a fashionable and beautiful girl, but she is old now.
"Yes, it's not easy to interview you, Mr. Anderson."
Rita Skeeter sat across from Albert and also looked at the young genius wizard in front of her. To be honest, the other party's gaze made her very uncomfortable, and she felt like she was being seen through.
"Actually, I don't like interviews, and I don't like being too ostentatious."
Albert took a sip of milk tea and said with a half-smile: “However, you and your colleagues always like to fabricate facts at random, which still brings me some trouble, so I came to see you.”
"People always like to watch some..." Rita Skeeter couldn't help but narrow her eyes. She had never seen such a difficult teenager.
"I know," Albert interrupted, "to attract readers' attention. Of course I know that. I have encountered the same trouble in France and the United States. Your colleagues like to do this very much."
After saying this, Albert's eyes fell on the quill that was writing and drawing on the notebook.
"Never mind the pen, Mr. Anderson, tell me..."
"I suggest that you don't use it to record our conversations. That might not be very friendly to you." Albert took his eyes off the shorthand quill and interrupted Rita Skeeter rudely, saying to himself, "I know very well what kind of reporter you are, and I also know very well that the purpose of a newspaper is to sell itself, regardless of whether the content inside is true or false."
Albert drank the milk tea in the cup, intertwined his fingers and looked at Rita Skeeter, and suddenly showed a strange smile: "Everyone has their own secrets, and you are no exception. You are an... illegal Animagus, right!"
Albert said the last sentence very quietly, so that only he and Rita Skeeter could hear it.
"What… "
Rita Skeeter's eyes widened, her tone full of disbelief, and she almost knocked over the tea in front of her. "I don't know what you're talking about!" She took a deep breath and said coldly.
"Let me see, what is your Animagus?"
"What did you do to me?" Rita Skeeter had a very bad feeling and quickly looked away, not daring to look Albert in the eye again.
"Oh, it's a beetle?"
Albert murmured softly, "So, you often use Animagus to get information everywhere?"
Under the horrified and unbelievable gaze of the female reporter, Albert nodded to himself and said, "That's right, Animagus is indeed very suitable for spy work."
"you… "
Rita Skeeter was trembling all over. She felt that the man in front of her was simply a terrible devil who could see through her so easily.
Albert raised the corner of his mouth slightly, and said softly: "Don't doubt it, I am a mind capture master."
"It's no use, no one will believe it." Rita Skeeter trembled her lips, and it seemed that she took a lot of effort to say this.
"If you have investigated me, you should know that I know a lot of famous wizards and maintain good correspondence with them. As long as I write a letter to them, believe me, Azkaban Prison will definitely welcome you to stay." Albert laughed maliciously: "I think there must be a lot of wizards who hate you, and they will definitely take the opportunity to add insult to injury!"
"Well, what do you want?" Rita Skeeter clenched her fists. She actually wanted to cast a forgetfulness spell on the other party and then write a vicious article to ruin his reputation, but she quickly gave up the idea and slumped down in the chair weakly.
"If you don't want to do anything, you can order some tea again and we can talk about what to do next."
Albert took out a purse from his pocket and pushed it in front of Rita Skeeter, saying calmly, "I hope you can help me clear those damn rumors. I can answer some questions for you and give you a fee."
"That's all?"
"Of course not. I hope that in the future, whenever there is news about me, you will just simply ignore it or just ignore it directly. If you really need to, just write to me instead of making up stories to cause me trouble."
In fact, this last point is the reason why Albert asked Rita Skeeter out.
He needs to control public opinion, or at least prevent such inexplicable reports from appearing again.
Rita Skeeter opened her mouth and her eyes fell on the purse, which contained about twenty Galleons.
This wasn't a lot of money for Rita Skeeter, but she could undoubtedly keep her secret, avoid jail time, and still do her job at the Daily Prophet and make a small profit.
Most importantly, she had no choice.
Although Rita Skeeter felt it was ridiculous to compromise with an underage wizard, she knew that compromise would not do her much harm. At least the other party paid her hush money, so it was not embarrassing.
"Okay, okay."
Rita Skeeter reached for the purse and stuffed it into her alligator handbag, from which she pulled out a quill and began asking questions.
"I heard that it was Mr. Bud Brod who recommended you to participate in the International Wizard Chess Competition. Was your wizard chess also taught by this former champion?"
"Mr. Brod used to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, and our friendship started from that time..."
Albert began to recall that period of history, but it sounded very complicated to Rita Skeeter. She felt as if she had witnessed the birth of a genius, and Mr. Broad undoubtedly knew of Albert's talent, so he pushed him from behind, and the two of them formed a deep friendship.
Later, Albert blurted out a bunch of wizards' names, all of whom were very famous wizards in many fields.
Apparently, he hadn't lied before.
"What about that beautiful French lady?" Rita Skeeter asked a few more questions and then brought up another topic that interested her.
"Louise Delacour?"
"So that lady's name is Louise Delacour?"
"In fact, I am more familiar with his father, who is a famous potion master, and we have correspondence." Albert recalled, "At that time, I met Mr. Hertog Dagworth in France. During the chat, he learned that I also knew Mr. Delacour, um, the father of Miss Louise, so he invited me to visit him together, and we happened to meet halfway."
"As for that photo, it was just a French kiss on the cheek," Albert recalled. "At the time, the reporter was probably taking a picture of Mr. Dagworth and Mr. Delacour shaking hands, and probably took the photo by accident. Later, as you know, I became the youngest champion of International Wizard Chess. Your colleagues may have thought that they needed to create some gimmicks to attract everyone's attention, so they made up a story. After all, everyone likes gossip."
"I see. Where's that pretty American girl?"
In fact, Rita Skeeter was very shocked by Albert's circle of friends. She certainly knew who Mr. Dagworth was. To be a friend of the potion master, his level of potion skills must be high. "
"She is the granddaughter of Mr. Nicholas, an American alchemist. She also likes alchemy. Mr. Sera and I met each other by chance when we visited Mr. Nicholas."
Albert thought for a moment and said, "When I was about to return to England, I asked Miss Catherine to take me to the American Wizard Street to buy some specialties from the American wizarding world for my friends. That photo was taken at that time. Because I refused an interview with an American reporter at the time, he, like his French counterpart, casually fabricated a scandal. Anyway, they don't need to be responsible, and everyone likes to see this kind of thing."
Rita Skeeter was a little disappointed. Things were not much different from what she expected. She wanted to find some explosive news, so she continued to ask, "I heard that you had some unpleasant conflicts with an employee of the Ministry of Magic at that time in the United States."
"An unpleasant conflict?" Albert recalled for a moment and said helplessly, "It wasn't an unpleasant conflict. It was just a helpless misunderstanding."
"Misunderstand?"
"Miss Catherine also gave me a kiss on the cheek." Albert said helplessly, "The young employee who received me seemed to be Miss Catherine's admirer. You should have no difficulty guessing that the jealous young man deliberately made trouble for me within his job authority. In the end, he even searched me and messed up my luggage."
"I think a reasonable apology is necessary." Albert said calmly: "After all, I was very cooperative in accepting all the inspections, and his suspicion caused us unnecessary trouble."
"Jealousy, abuse of power, distortion of facts, nonsense."
"As for why the newspaper said that," Albert shrugged, "I think it might be because I defeated the American player who had a good chance of winning the championship!"
"Twisting the facts and deliberately provoking contradictions." Rita Skeeter became more and more excited as she wrote, and continued to ask, "Do you have anything special to say about this trip to the United States?"
"The magic society in the United States is quite different from that in Europe, or even in most other countries. They have many strict laws. For example, when you go to the United States, you need to apply for a temporary wand permit from the Magic Congress as soon as possible, otherwise you will be breaking the law."
Albert thought for a moment and said, “I suggest that the Magical Congress of the United States print a guide to entry into the American magical society, detailing some of the legal rules that need to be strictly followed after entering the American magical society. I believe that doing so will greatly reduce the workload of the Magical Congress and greatly ease the pressure on prisons.
"After all, not all wizards are like me. They will carefully learn about the situation of the American magical society before going to the United States." Albert put down the milk tea he had finished and said calmly.
"I will write an article that will satisfy you." Rita Skeeter put away the parchment, her face full of excitement.
"When you finish writing, remember to send me a first draft. Don't forget, Miss Rita Skeeter." After saying that, Albert stood up and went to the counter to pay, then borrowed the fireplace in Madam Puddifoot's tea shop and flew directly to Diagon Alley.