Harry and his friends had afternoon classes waiting for them and left Hagrid's warm hut with reluctant rush, their footsteps were crunching through the snow-covered grass as they made their way back toward the Hogwarts castle.
The December air hit at their exposed faces, and small puffs of vapor left their mouths with each breath as they hurried along the stone pathway.
However, barely thirty seconds after their departure, a sudden commotion erupted from somewhere just beyond the hut's area. Raised voices carried across the winter scenery, creating an atmosphere of tension.
"What on earth is happening out there?" Hagrid asked with concern, sticking his massive head out through the small window of his hut and peering into the distance with squinted eyes.
The glass fogged immediately from his warm breath meeting the cold air.
"Oh, wait a moment... it looks like Harry and the others have been stopped by someone. They appear to be having some sort of confrontation."
"Who would dare intercept students on school grounds?" Adrian inquired, setting down his teacup with a sharp clink.
"It's a woman," Hagrid determined after several moments of careful observation, shading his eyes with one hand to better focus on the distant figures. "She's wearing something very bright and... well, rather flashy, if I'm being honest."
Adrian felt his brow furrow with instinctive concern. Any unauthorized person approaching students on Hogwarts grounds was a potential security threat.
"I'll go take a look and evaluate the situation," He said rising quickly from his chair and walking out of the cozy hut.
The sudden transition from warmth to cold made him pull his robes more tightly around his shoulders. As he approached the scene of the disturbance, the details became increasingly clear and annoying.
From a distance of perhaps fifty yards, he could see a woman whose appearance could only be described as aggressively ostentatious.
She was literally covered in glittering jewelry that caught the winter sunlight and threw it back in uncomfortable, almost blinding flashes. Her exaggerated green robes seemed to have been designed specifically to draw attention, shimmering with an artificial glow that was frankly painful to see directly.
With such distinctive and tasteless styling, there could be no doubt about the intruder's identity—this was unmistakably Rita Skeeter, the Daily Prophet's most notorious gossip columnist and professional scandalmonger of sensationalized journalism.
As Adrian moved closer to the confrontation within clear hearing range, Rita's sickeningly sweet voice reached his ears like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard.
"—As the youngest champion in Triwizard Tournament history, Mr. Potter," She was saying with sugary enthusiasm, "what are your personal thoughts about achieving first place in the opening task? Particularly considering that all your fellow competitors possessed several years of additional magical education and life experience—"
"Ahem!"
Adrian's audible clearing of his throat interrupted the unwelcome interview, immediately drawing everyone's attention and creating a blessed moment of silence.
Harry turned around as if he had been granted divine salvation, his eyes lighting up with visible relief when he recognized his professor approaching the scene.
The tension in his shoulders decreased as he realized help had arrived.
"Professor Westeros," He immediately reported, "there's an unauthorized outsider who has somehow managed to break into the school grounds without permission."
"Hogwarts maintains strict policies prohibiting any outsiders from entering the school without explicit authorization," Adrian said with cold formality while focusing his sharp gaze directly on Rita.
His eyes had an expression of undisguised disgust that made his opinion of her presence richly clear. "You are trespassing, madam."
Rita Skeeter's artificially bright smile froze on her heavily make-up face. Even her infamous Quick-Quotes Quill, which had been scribbling frantically in the air beside her, abruptly stopped its movement and was suspended in apparent confusion.
However, after only a few seconds of this uncomfortable paralysis, she managed to quickly readjust her expression and demeanor—a demonstration of the basic professional resilience that any experienced reporter needed to survive in the cutthroat world of wizarding journalism.
"This is hardly any sort of criminal trespass, dear Professor," She replied in a tone so exaggeratedly sweet it was genuinely nauseating to listen to. "I'm simply conducting an ordinary interview for the public interest, and our delightful young champion here hasn't explicitly refused to participate—"
"I absolutely and clearly refused!" Harry retorted with obvious disgust.
He was genuinely fed up with this persistently annoying reporter who appeared to harass him once or twice every year, then continued to embellish and distort his words before publishing them in sensationalized newspaper articles that bore little resemblance to reality.
This pattern of behavior had led to readers still believing he had some sort of unclear, romantically complicated relationship with both Ron and Hermione.
"Alright, little troublemaker," Rita conceded with a smile that remained perfectly unchanged despite the rejection, "it seems you win this particular round. Perhaps now isn't the ideal time for an interview session. We'll simply have to schedule our conversation for another, more convenient time. I'll be seeing you later, I'm sure."
With that, she began to put away her quill and leather notebook, making gestures as if preparing to gracefully withdraw from the scene.
"Wait just one moment."
Adrian's voice wasn't particularly loud, but it carried such authority that it seemed to create an invisible barrier blocking her intended departure.
"Miss Skeeter," He continued unhurriedly, "I believe you've forgotten something rather important. Hogwarts is not some public park where you can simply come and go whenever you have the mood to do so."
For the first time, Rita's smile showed cracks of concern rather than simple social awkwardness.
"Professor, what exactly do you mean by that?" She asked with obviously forced casualness. "I was just conducting a brief—"
Adrian's low chuckle cut through her attempted explanation with chilling effectiveness.
"Illegally trespassing on restricted school grounds, deliberately harassing underage wizards without parental consent or school authorization. And most importantly of all—"
His voice suddenly turned cold.
"Bringing someone who appears to be a dark wizard onto these protected grounds! I don't know exactly how you managed to circumvent our security measures, but you should understand that this represents an absolutely serious crime. It might very well result in you spending considerable time as a guest of Azkaban prison."
Despite maintaining a conversational tone, Adrian's words seemed to explode like thunder in everyone's ears.
In an instant, Rita's eyes showed unprecedented alarm.
"I... I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," She stammered, her voice trembling with fear despite her attempt to maintain innocence.
Without warning, Adrian's wand appeared in his hand and pointed with deadly accuracy toward what appeared to be empty ground several feet behind Rita's position.
"Homenum Revelio!"
The revealing spell erupted in a blinding flash of dazzling blue light that briefly lit the entire area. When the magical glow faded, a blurry but unmistakably human silhouette became visible in the air.
It showed the outline of a man wearing a black cloak and dark sunglasses, who had apparently been attempting to sneak away undetected using some form of concealment magic.
When the mysterious figure realized his cover had been completely blown, his form began to waver and distort like heat mirages. Within seconds, he had somehow himself into a wisp of black smoke that began dissipating rapidly into the air.
Adrian's wand moved with lightning speed, attempting to capture or contain whatever remained of the escaping intruder, but his magic closed only on empty air and a few vines of dark vapor that slipped through his fingers like liquid shadow.
"Apparition? No, that's not quite right," Adrian muttered as he analyzed the magical residue, his eyes narrowing with concentration. "That was definitely dark magic of some sort, and the magical signature shows the destination wasn't very far from here."
"Who was that person?!" Harry said nervously, his hand instinctively moving toward his own wand as he scanned the surrounding area for other threats.
"That's an excellent question that you should direct toward Miss Skeeter," Adrian replied grimly, his gaze shifting back to the now panicking Rita. "Harry, I need you and your friends to keep a very close eye on her while I pursue that person. Don't let her out of your sight for even a moment."
Harry nodded with solemn understanding, recognizing the serious nature of the situation.
"I don't know anything about this!" Rita protested in a voice that had climbed to near-shrieking levels. "I have never seen that man before in my entire life! This situation has absolutely nothing to do with me!"
"You can save those denials for the Aurors when they arrive," Adrian replied mercilessly, already preparing for leaving.
A piercing cry suddenly rang out from the sky above them.
Under everyone's amazed gaze, Ray swooped down from the clouds like a bolt of living lightning.
Without hesitation, Adrian leaped up and landed steadily on Ray's back.
"Take Skeeter to Dumbledore's office!" He shouted back toward the students, his voice sounding clearly despite the increasing distance. "Don't let her escape, and don't believe anything she tells you!"
The thunderbird released another sharp, commanding cry, then launched himself and Adrian racing toward the dark line of the Forbidden Forest at a speed that made the landscape below blur into unclear strips of color.
For a few moments after their departure, only four students and the now ash-pale Rita Skeeter remained at the scene, standing in stunned silence as they processed what had just occurred.
"What exactly should we do now?" Ron asked nervously, swallowing hard as he kept his wary gaze fixed on Rita. His hand remained near his wand, ready to react to any sudden movement.
"We follow Professor Westeros's instructions," Hermione replied with determination.
"Let me go this instant!"
Rita suddenly screamed, the sound was so unexpected and loud that it caught everyone completely off guard. Before anyone could react, she had turned and begun running across the ground.
Her high heels caused her to stumble frequently on the snow covered grass, yet she somehow managed to maintain her frantic pace through sheer desperation.
'A wizard running in this situation instead of using magic,' Harry thought with a mixture of amusement and determination as he drew his wand. 'How absolutely ridiculous.'
"Incarcerous!"
The binding spell flew from his wand tip with perfect accuracy, manifesting as thick magical ropes that wrapped around Rita's legs. The conjured ropes tightened automatically, causing her to lose her balance.
She screamed in frustration and fear as she fell heavily to the cold ground, her precious notebook and quill scattering across the grass like discarded toys. Her hairstyle had come completely undone, and her expensive robes were now stained with dirt and grass stains.
"Well done, Harry!" Ron cheered with enthusiasm, his earlier nervousness replaced by satisfaction at seeing the annoying reporter finally down.
Hermione also released a sigh of relief, clearly pleased that the situation had been brought under control without anyone getting hurt.
As for Neville, he looked nearly paralyzed with shock and confusion, his face was pale as he tried to process the rapid sequence of events he had just witnessed.
"Release me immediately!" Rita said with a twisted expression of rage and humiliation as she lay bound on the ground like a netted fish. "You have absolutely no evidence connecting me to anything illegal! This is unlawful detention! This represents a clear violation of my civil rights under wizarding law!"
Of course, none of the students paid the slightest attention to her desperate protests and legal threats.
Harry felt a deep sense of personal satisfaction spreading through his chest, this persistently annoying character had finally been caught and restrained by their combined efforts. Her years of harassment and aggressive journalism had finally caught up with her in a spectacular manner.
More importantly, it was becoming clear that whatever Rita had been involved in was far more than simple unauthorized reporting. The presence of the mysterious dark wizard showed something much more serious and potentially dangerous.
Although, as Rita had said, they currently had no evidence directly proving that the escaped man had been brought onto school grounds by her.
However, Harry felt completely confident that as long as Adrian managed to successfully track down and capture that mysterious person, the entire truth would inevitably come to light.
In his memory, Adrian had never failed at anything. This time would surely be no exception.
"Alright then, you three," He said as he turned to his friends, "I need everyone to lend a hand here. Take out your wands, and we'll use Levitation Charms to transport her to the headmaster's office."
The three friends dutifully followed Harry's instructions and drew their wands in preparation for the magical transport operation.
Harry hesitated for just a moment as he considered the practical requirements, then turned toward Neville with an apologetic expression.
"Neville, I think you should put your wand away for this task," He said as gently as possible. "I'm honestly afraid you might accidentally hurt her during the levitation process, and we need to deliver her to Dumbledore in reasonably good condition."
Rather than taking offense at this assessment of his magical abilities, Neville's tense face actually relaxed with relief. He understood his own limitations with spells and was grateful not to be responsible for potentially injuring their captive through magical accident.
However, he still wanted to contribute something meaningful to their mission, so he moved quietly across the scattered debris field and began silently collecting Rita's dropped quill and leather notebook from where they had fallen among the grass and frost.
The Quick-Quotes Quill immediately began struggling in his hands with surprising strength, wriggling and twisting as if it possessed its own will and was desperately unwilling to be held by someone other than its usual master.
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