bacchusnovels Chapter 502 Qiu Zhang's Memories
Chapter 502 Qiu Zhang's Memories
Chapter 502 Qiu Zhang's Memories (Bottom of the Lake)
Qiu Zhang stood in front of Rita's door and gently knocked.
Rita's soft voice came from inside the door.
"Come in."
Qiu Zhang pushed open the door and entered, seeing Rita sitting at the table, leisurely flipping through the newspaper in her hand. When Rita saw him come in, she slowly put down the newspaper and sat up straight.
"You've arrived?"
"I am coming."
"Where are the things?"
"here."
Qiu Zhang slowly reached into her skirt and took out a stack of photos.
The photo above is clearly a picture of Sean after he got drunk.
"Very good," Rita nodded in satisfaction upon seeing the photo, then asked, "Where's the interview transcript?"
Qiu Zhang silently took out a stack of neatly folded parchment from under her skirt and placed it on the table in front of Rita.
From the day she returned home until the Christmas ball, she stayed in her dorm room polishing her speech, trying to make it look more appropriate and finding no room for her to elaborate on the topic.
Rita raised an eyebrow, reached out and unfolded the paper, her gaze slowly sweeping over the words on it.
For a moment, the only sound in the room was the soft rubbing of parchment against the table.
After a moment, Rita's lips curled into a meaningful smile.
She could clearly see the effort Cho Chang had put into this speech—truly befitting a Ravenclaw prefect. It was just a pity that she had no intention of submitting the speech.
"Well written, precise wording, leaving me no room for expansion." She looked up. "It seems you have a real talent for this."
Qiu Zhang pretended not to hear the sarcasm in Rita's words, and his face remained expressionless.
"What about what you promised?" she asked bluntly.
Rita chuckled, casually pulled a roll of film from her bag, and handed it over nonchalantly.
Qiu Zhang took it, his fingertips tightening slightly as he carefully examined it—there were no problems. The negative was intact, with no signs of replacement or alteration.
Rita seemed to sense her suspicion, and leisurely took another parchment from the table and pushed it in front of Cho Chang.
"Don't worry, I, Rita Skeeter, keep my word."
Qiu Zhang looked down at the draft contract, its wording clear and flawless, ensuring that Rita would not use the photos for any further purposes. She frowned, picked up a quill, and checked every word over and over again.
In the end, she signed her name on the contract.
However, the moment the quill pen fell, she did not feel relieved, but rather somewhat dazed.
That's it? It's that simple—it's over?
Rita noticed Qiu Zhang's expression and gently tapped the table with her hand.
"What? You can't believe I'm being so easy to talk to?"
Qiu Zhang looked up at her, silently put away the negatives and the contract, and without answering, turned and walked towards the door.
Just as she was about to step out of the room, Rita lazily added a sentence.
"Oh, by the way, Miss Akiharu."
Qiu Zhang stopped and turned around.
Rita smiled slightly, her tone sounding just like casual conversation between friends.
"Are you interested in telling me what happened at the bottom of the lake? I can offer you a price you can't refuse."
She was met with the sound of a heavy door closing.
boom-
Standing at the door, Qiu Zhang vaguely recalled what had happened at the bottom of the lake that day.
(Some content has been omitted)
As time went on, the development of the second project intensified.
Even Sean was hit by some of his own boomerangs.
His reputation at Hogwarts has been poor lately, as evidenced by Tonks' behavior. She used to spend six nights a week in Sean's room—now it's only two or three days a week.
Even Tonks himself probably didn't expect that the one who would bring him a sense of crisis wasn't Hermione, but this Fleur who appeared out of nowhere.
However, it's not surprising to have a different perspective.
Fleur is born with Veela blood, which gives her a significant advantage over Hermione in certain aspects.
In order to dispel the opinions of Tonks and others, and to gain Fleur's trust.
A few days later, Sean began publishing statements in the newspapers.
After these actions, Yi Furong's favorability rating successfully broke through the ten-point mark.
But for some reason, her value seems to be showing a subtle upward trend.
Originally, Tonks had the highest value, with a full ten points, but Hibiscus has surprisingly surpassed it, even showing a trend of surpassing it.
This puzzled Sean greatly.
He clearly didn't do anything.
Aside from the gains in Hibiscus's favorability and Tonks' understanding, these statements have had a worse impact, even showing a tendency to continue to deteriorate.
From an outsider's perspective, Sean seemed to be trying to cover something up.
In certain situations, people only want to hear the stories they want to hear, rather than the truth.
The public will only pay for things that provide them with emotional value, not reality.
The third project is about to begin, and this semester is coming to an end.
However, there has been no breakthrough in the matter of Furong, which makes Sean very anxious.
Once Fleur returned to Beauxbatons, the two had very few opportunities to interact again.
Under these circumstances, influenced by public opinion, Furong deliberately avoided him, and even her tearful complaints came before she issued her statement.
then-
"Ms. Maxim, Headmaster Dumbledore, Headmaster Karkaroff, Director Bagman—"
One evening, Sean stood in the center of the Great Hall at Hogwarts and solemnly made a statement.
"I want to publicly declare that my relationship with Miss Fleur Delacour has never crossed the boundaries of profession and teacher-student relationship."
"All rumors and gossip are the result of fabrication and malicious slander."
"The claims that she wore my clothes simply because of an accident, along with those unsavory speculations, are completely unfair to her."
"As a professor, I have a responsibility to protect my students and help them overcome challenges, not to have any inappropriate relationships with them. You shouldn't impose your own desires for pleasure on an innocent young girl."
As the speech progressed, Sean's gaze became increasingly resolute, and his tone increasingly serious.
"I understand that the media always flocks to stories that can grab attention, rather than pursuing the truth. You only care about how to make the story more sensational, instead of digging out the facts themselves."
"However, the consequence of doing so was the destruction of a person's reputation and the unbearable pressure she faced."
"Everyone here today, I hope you understand that the public's acceptance of these false accusations will only further harm Furong and her future. If we cannot speak out for the facts, if we cannot defend justice, then what is left of this world?"
This resounding speech gradually reversed the course of events.
At the time, Furong was also in the audience, listening to Sean defend her word by word, and she was deeply moved.
No one has ever stood by her side so firmly.
Over the past few days, she has endured too much injustice and too many rumors that have left her breathless.
Those strange looks and those whispers were like invisible shackles, dragging her step by step into the abyss.
She never imagined that she would become someone's object of such desperate protection.
At that moment, her heart felt as if it had been struck hard by something; her nose stung, and her eyes quietly reddened.
As a result, Furong's favorability rating quietly broke through to fifteen.
This was somewhat unprecedented for Sean, even bordering on unbelievable—after all, in his understanding, reaching this level required some close contact.
Meanwhile, good things keep happening one after another – Tonks has been getting increasingly wild these past few nights.
The reason for this was that she mistakenly believed Sean's speech in the auditorium that day was for her.
Therefore, repaying with one's body becomes a matter of course.
And in recent days, due to Tonks's consistently bold and straightforward advances, the relationship between Sean and her has long been an open secret.
At first, it was just a rumor circulating in a small circle, but with Tonks' undisguised attitude and the subtle interactions between the two, the unspoken truth was finally revealed.
For most people, this means an obvious fact—Sean Phillips is already taken.
Therefore, in this storm of rumors about Furong, the direction of public opinion has also quietly changed.
"How could Professor Phillips, who already has a partner, possibly have anything going on with Hibiscus underwater?"
"Even if Fleur deliberately tempted him, Professor Phillips, with his character, would absolutely remain unmoved."
This viewpoint gradually gained the upper hand, causing those who initially criticized Furong to retract their malicious speculations. Furong's reputation began to improve imperceptibly; people stopped spreading those embarrassing remarks and gradually turned their attention to other more eye-catching topics.
Although the storm has not completely subsided, at least the pressure surrounding Furong has finally begun to ease.
Admittedly, this was not Sean's intention.
It could even be said that this form runs counter to his intended purpose.
However, this was part of Sean's plan.
Rita's first report was a minor setback for Furong, but this incident has been a major one. As the saying goes, things don't happen more than three times.
Or it could be described as "one effort, then a decline, and finally exhaustion."
When the third, even more explosive event struck, how could Furong's barely stitched-up heart possibly withstand it?
The focus shifted from Hibiscus, and the second person to enjoy Hibiscus's "the center of attention" buff was Ron.
Weird, right?
But it makes perfect sense.
This is the first time in Ron's life that he has become the focus of attention, just like Harry.
Since the warriors remained silent about what happened underwater, we had to find a breakthrough by talking to the others to find out what it was like underwater and what they had experienced.
Ron, who was being held hostage, was one of them.
At first, his story was relatively realistic: the referee used magic to hypnotize the hostages and assured them that they would be in no danger and would wake up as soon as they came out of the water.
However, his story quietly changed a few days later.
He began to describe a thrilling kidnapping story, how he fought bare-handed against fifty fully armed mermen who wanted to force him into submission before binding him.
The change in the story also brought him tangible benefits.
His dance partner at the ball, a girl named Padma, was extremely enthusiastic towards him.
Every time they met in the hallway, he would hear her initiate conversation. "It's alright, I keep my wand hidden in my sleeve," Ron said confidently to Padma Petit. "I can subdue those mermaid fools if I want to."
"What are you planning to do? Make them snore?" Hermione interjected sharply.
Ron's ears turned bright red instantly. He quickly lowered his head and said awkwardly, "Okay, I was just kidding."
From then on, his story returned to the version involving magical hypnosis.
The third person to benefit from the buff was Hermione.
With Sean's help, her reporting on "house-elves' rights" appeared repeatedly in the Daily Prophet.
It was published online. Although it was initially just some inconspicuous space, it unexpectedly attracted a lot of attention.
Not everyone in the wizarding world is indifferent to the plight of house-elves—
Just like the existence of organizations such as "animal protection" and "veganism," there will always be some extraordinary people among the vast population.
It's hard to say whether their ideas are good or bad; it's just that they're different from most people's.
The topic of house-elves has been largely ignored until Hermione, in a rational, objective, and gradual manner, brought it into the public eye and sparked reflection among some wizards.
"Perhaps we really should re-examine our relationship with house-elves?"
"Not all elves willingly submit to enslavement, are they?"
Although these voices were faint, they were enough for Hermione to realize that her efforts were not in vain and that she could gain a great sense of accomplishment from this activity.
Conversely, for every person who supports it, there is someone who opposes it.
Moreover, there are many people who oppose this topic.
At Hogwarts, many students from wizarding families firmly believed that house-elves were born to serve wizards, and that their obedience was an innate instinct. Hermione's advocacy of equality was seen by them not only as absurd but also as a provocation against traditional magical society.
"House-elves work voluntarily, why doesn't Hermione Granger understand that?"
"She's always trying to change everything, but she has no idea what house-elves are really thinking!"
"If the elves really don't like their work, why don't they just leave on their own?"
These dissenting voices echoed throughout the campus, and some even began to deliberately distance themselves from Hermione. As she walked down the corridors, she would occasionally hear whispers, and some students would even deliberately exaggerate their commands to their house-elves in front of her as a form of provocation.
"Hey, clean this up, hurry up! — Oh no, sorry Hermione, are you trying to fight for their freedom?"
Slytherin students were particularly dismissive of this, with some even directly mocking her to her face: "Granger, do you really think you can change anything? The house-elves are more eager to serve wizards than you are."
However, not all Gryffindor students supported Hermione.
Many students from wizarding families felt that Hermione's actions were stirring up controversy for no reason, and some even thought she was deliberately creating trouble for the wizarding world.
However, Hermione had already prepared for these challenges.
She's Granger, isn't she?
Granger is going to be the Minister of Magic's wife, isn't she?
These difficulties did not discourage Hermione; instead, they gave her even more confidence.
The more the enemy opposes her, the more it proves that she is right.
even-
Hermione plans to draft relevant legal provisions regarding house-elves before graduation and, in her capacity as the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, formally propose these legal provisions.
Apart from Furong, everyone else's life seemed to be back on track.
On this day, Harry received a letter—
(1997 words have been deleted)