Chapter 402: Scandal

After spending a bit of time exploiting the deceased in the opening, the second section describes the ambiguity between Snape and Bellatrix. Although, in reality, it would be good enough if they could just refrain from killing each other, the article still goes to great lengths to depict a clandestine office romance between two people who love and hate each other. It even fabricates a story about Umbridge reporting Snape and Bella for having an affair, leading the Dark Lord to secretly conduct a paternity test with Delphi.

The primary evidence is a paternity test report done by "Lucius Malfoy," because as everyone knows, Lucius is the Dark Lord's most trusted secret agent, and he has no children. So, when he wrote to the nurse saying, "I have a friend who suspects he is not the father of the child," it could basically be confirmed that this friend indeed exists, and there is a high probability that it is the Dark Lord.

Lucius did not want to say a word at this moment and directly shifted his gaze to the next section.

A witch named Aurora Field revealed that she had crazily pursued Snape, who was then the Potions professor, during her student days. She confessed her feelings a total of 117 times, but unfortunately, Snape always kept her at arm's length. She ultimately failed to warm the professor's heart and had to leave with regret.

Attached to the side is a photo of this Aurora. Harry admitted that her facial features were very beautiful, but that head of light-gold straight hair always inexplicably reminded him of Ma Erfu. In Snape's case, what he might be reminded of is Lu Xiusi—coincidentally, this person also has a head of light-gold straight hair. No wonder Snape rejected her 117 times.

At the end of this paragraph, Aurora made her 118th confession, asking if Snape would be willing to see her one more time... It could be said that this was also quite an explosive plot.

"My god, one hundred and eighteen times," Luo Nade said. "What for?"

"Probably for money," Harry tried hard to find an explanation for this crazy world. "It says here that Aurora is a commoner from Hufflepuff, and Snape, as a Potions professor, is still wealthy after all."

"Hehe, keep reading the next paragraph," Zhang Qiu said with a half-smile.

The next protagonist is Olivia Opington. Harry had previously paid special attention to their ancestor, Evangeline Opington, because a considerable amount of data showed that during her tenure as Minister for Magic, the Ministry of Magic had intervened in the Crimean War in the Muggle World. The Opington family, having been passed down from the Victorian era to the present, could be considered an old-fashioned noble family. However, even she accepted an interview saying that she admired Snape, only that she didn't dare to confess in person due to her upbringing, and often felt longing and regret afterward, and so on.

Harry swallowed a mouthful of saliva. He had no idea what Olivia was after. Could Snape really be such a charming person?

Temporarily shifting his gaze to the next paragraph, Harry suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, because the next paragraph described how Sibyll Trelawney had to hide her identity because of a prophecy about twins, and only dared to appear before the world after Deng Buliduo passed away. Because Snape was the only pen pal willing to correspond with her during those ten-plus years, she naturally fell in love with Snape...

Harry saw through Snape's scheme of replacing Sibyll himself, thereby creating momentum and demonstrating his methods among the teaching staff. Therefore, no matter what this paragraph was written about, Harry laughed it off. Incidentally, he also began to doubt the authenticity of the stories about Aurora and Olivia earlier. He would rather believe that these two were Bai Gong agents than believe that anyone could love Snape so desperately.

The sixth person rumored to be in a scandal is Donna Noble, a student who was quickly promoted to project supervisor upon joining the Department of Mysteries this year. People have seen her coming in and out of Snape's house in Spinner's End several times. Coupled with various groundless rumors from colleagues who were jealous of her promotion, it was easy for everyone to believe that she and Snape had something going on.

Yes, people with dark minds always like to spread such rumors, Harry thought with dissatisfaction. Then he saw one of the sentences: "Because her hair color and personality are extremely similar to Lily's back then..."

Now Harry also began to be half-believing.

"Eh? Have we met this last one?" Luo Nade said with some excitement. "Is it that student you said was in class with you?"

"Looks like it," Harry said, quickly browsing through the text of the last paragraph. "And Mia is not only beautiful, but her eye color is also the type that Snape would like... Eh? Didn't he mention this point?"

"He really didn't mention it," Harry reread it again. The title of the last section was "Lolita," which gave him a bad premonition. Indeed, Mia's figure was slightly petite, and she was serving as Snape's student in the latest project. Harry began to suspect that this was an attack on Snape, and once people started picking on Mia, this would become a very vicious killing blow.

Snape could not admit what he and Mia were actually doing—researching a certain spell against Kamen Riders. Would this matter itself offend the Tianchao people? And, if this was a project with a high success rate, then as Mia's identity and the things between them were gradually exposed, other forces could also find clues from it.

But if Snape did not admit it, this would be a devastating blow to his personal reputation, and might even cause him to fall into some kind of storm, forcing him to resign in disgrace...

"Must mention it, can't not mention it. Must add Mia's pupil color, and emphasize it," Harry said, his hand holding the magazine beginning to exert force unconsciously. "The tone of the whole article is mainly teasing. After writing about Lily in the first section, it actually emphasizes implicitly or explicitly that Snape has always loved Lily. He rejected Aurora and Olivia because he couldn't forget Lily, and he took care of Donna because she had similarities to Lily."

"But only Mia, if her emerald pupils are not emphasized—if this point is deliberately omitted, it makes it seem like he has changed his heart. Coupled with the teacher-student relationship and Mia's somewhat vague age, interested parties can easily find an angle to start attacking him," Harry said, standing up somewhat anxiously. "Where is Lu Na? I must go and talk to her immediately."

"She is in the tower, but this matter must be discussed with Xie Nuofeiliusi. Why don't you go directly to her house?" Zhang Qiu said, as if she had just realized the seriousness of the situation. "This magazine should already be in print. Going now is still in time, it should be in time."

"How to go?" Luo Nade stood up as well. "Use Floo powder to return to my house, and then fly over?"

"I can Apparate, just not very proficiently, and can't take people," Zhang Qiu said, scratching her head somewhat awkwardly. "I'll go first, and then bring you a Portkey."

"That works too," Harry nodded. "We'll wait for you at the Damenkou."

Harry and Luo Nade walked hurriedly toward the school gate. While walking, Luo Nade asked, "Is it really that serious? Why would only Mia's matter cause people to attack? Other absurd things were mentioned no less, right?"

"Because the others, even you know they are absurd things," Harry explained quickly. "Aurora and Olivia were both rejected by Snape, Bella's story has a loophole in the time difference between the Dark Lord's life and death, and Donna is an adult French woman. These are all non-aggressive scandals, or even if they are attacked, they can be countered."

"Only Mia, we are conducting a secret project, so only regarding Mia is Snape unable to defend himself. If we eventually have to expose the project, then the enemy's goal will be achieved!"

"But, you can testify for him?" Luo Nade asked. "Isn't your reputation enough to guarantee him?"

"No, no, a large part of my reputation is blown up by the Ministry of Magic, and you know, the Ministry of Magic is losing its credibility," Harry shook his head. "Me coming forward to speak out is just making things bigger. The worst case is that the public will start to hate me, Snape, and the Ministry of Magic at the same time, which will instead cause greater losses."

"Of course, there is another point," Harry's voice suddenly began to lower. "I'm not sure if Snape and Mia are really innocent, because she is really beautiful."

"Is that so?" Luo Nade said half-believingly. "Are you also suspecting whether Snape has had a second spring?"

"After all, Voldemort is gone, and the Death Eaters are obedient. He is probably more relaxed," Harry said, rubbing his chin. "Although Snape said it was researching spells together, but honestly, I really didn't see any outstanding qualities in Mia worth researching..."

"Yes, the head is as plain as the chest," a female voice interrupted their chat.

"Wow, Lu Na?" Harry was surprised when he turned his head. "When did you come?"

"Zhang Qiu asked me to come to the school gate to find you. She said you had some supplementary opinions on the new issue of the magazine," Lu Na said, waving the paper airplane in her hand, her tone light.

"Then according to what you said, the tricky point now is actually that the others are all absurd things, but only Mia's is very likely to be true?" Luo Nade said somewhat hesitantly. "And the probability is quite high?"

"If you change the way of writing, maybe it's not that serious," Harry scratched his head. "Because if you think about it from another angle, Snape has made considerable contributions over the years. Now that there is finally peace, he wants to improve his life, date someone, etc. As long as it's consensual, it's nothing to be blamed for."

"Is that so? Then I seem to have caused some trouble," Lu Na said lightly. "Actually, the initial submission only had the first six stories, but I think seven is a magical number, so I suggested to Dad to make up seven people—coincidentally, he had seen the old bat and Mia together in Diagon Alley..."

With a crisp sound of "pa," Zhang Qiu reappeared at the school gate, holding a hat in her hand.

"Let's go to Lu Na's house. Grab this hat, and we'll set off in three minutes."

Harry didn't think about more for the time being. He knew he had to help Mr. Lovegood whitewash the article first, and then find a way to learn more information from him to investigate the identity and purpose of the original submitter.

However, when Xie Nuofeiliusi heard Harry's opinion, he refused Harry with a very professional demeanor.

"I said I could write reasonable speculations, but I can't deliberately write false facts," Xie Nuofeiliusi said, raising his neck. "I clearly saw that girl's eyes were wine-red last time. You can't insist on saying they are emerald green." ===== CHAPTER 403 =====