Chapter 126 - Rita Skeeter

Rita knew that she did not have a great reputation in the magical community.

In fact, most of the people, even those who liked her work, called her a gossip queen at best and a slandering whore at worst.

And it was all true.

There was a time when she was younger when she spent all her time trying to get the best possible news to her readers in a true and honorable way.

But such thoughts quickly went down the road when few people read her articles and even those who read them told her that her writing was immensely boring and lack the flare of other writers who wrote more gossip in their articles than the truth.

She tried to fight against it. Kept trying to bring write better articles regarding the truth but people only liked the articles written by those gossip mongers.

It wasn't until the Daily Prophet almost stopped publishing all her articles and gave her the ultimatum that she either write a 'quality' article or find herself some another job that she realized that truth of the situation.

The public didn't want to hear the truth from her.

That was why her colleagues who wrote articles filled with gossip were so much more successful than her and she realized that if she didn't change her ways then she would be left behind by everyone.

That was the day that the 'Rita Skeeter' that everyone now knew her as was born.

After making the decision to defeat her colleagues in their own game, she started making full use of her animagus ability to find the most scandalous thing that she could and wrote it in an even worse light before giving it to her editor.

It wasn't until the Daily Prophet started selling like hot cakes and she started gaining compliments for her 'great literary work' that she finally accepted the truth.

And from that day onward, she started writing gossiping and slandering articles for a living.

There was of course a little bit of truth in her articles but she always twisted it in the worst possible way so that it would become more entertaining for her readers.

That was how she became the Journalist with the largest following in the Daily Prophet.

Of course, it was not all sunshine and rainbows for her as the people she slandered and gossiped about usually tried to get her back in one way or another but she was a survivor and adapted according to the situation as required of her in order to keep moving forward.

But Magical Britain was a small world with a population of less than 20,000 witches and wizards in total. And there was only so much dirt she could find before she started scraping from the bottom.

And those advertisement posters showing Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived was exactly what she needed for a great article.

From what she'd heard, Harry Potter, a boy said to be a once in a century genius in charms had created some kind of hand-held device that works like Floo and allows the user to contact anyone that he wanted.

The moment she heard this tidbit of information, she knew that this was going to be big.

And she would not be 'Rita Skeeter' if she could not find some dirt under this whole situation and find some way to slander this new device or write some gossip about Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.

And in order to find that dirt, she would first have to dig into this whole situation and familiarize herself with the ongoings of this new shop.

That was why she turned into a beetle (her animagus form) and climbed at the back of head of a man who seemed to be an employee in the new Shop where those hand-held devices called Magical Phones would be sold.

As the man was about to enter the shop, she saw a few guards placed near the entrance.

And wasn't that an interesting tidbit of information right there.

This shop was probably the only one in the whole Diagon Alley which had guards near it's entrance.

Was there something dangerous inside the shop?

Were the shop owners afraid of something?

Was Harry Potter selling something illegal in there?

Oh… the article that she could write from just that little bit of information would be an instant sell out. And she hadn't even entered the shop.

She hoped that she had her Quick Quotes quill and her notepad with her so that she could make instant notes on the whole situation.

But she couldn't do so in her animagus form and the people would not allow her entrance to the shop willingly so she didn't have a choice at the moment.

She would just have to rely on her excellent memory and the pensieve back in her home this time.

As she lamented over the lack of her quill and notepad, the man climbed the stairs (and why were there stairs in a shop in the first place) and entered the shop whose front was entirely made up of glass.

As she was taking it in, the man entered the shop and she was floored when a very beautiful witch came in her sight.

What was a Veela doing in Magical Britain?

Not that Veelas were not allowed to come here but their treatment as third class citizens made sure that they stayed away from this wizarding community.

Oh… now she felt more alive than ever. Guards at the entrance. Front wall made up of nothing but glass. A Veela as a receptionist. And…

8 Fireplaces???

What?

Rita looked around the shop in order to find the Magical Phones that all the advertisement posters indicated toward but found that the whole shop was empty except for those eight Fireplaces.

The eight fireplaces were divided into two parts. One being the exit and another being the entry.

She was so surprised by this whole turn of events that she didn't even realize that she was sitting on top of had already gone inside one of the fireplace with a pinch of Floo Powder in his hands.

Then she heard him say "Magical Mall" and then the green flames enveloped the both of them.

She wanted to check that shop for a bit longer but this was just as well.

The green flames receded and the man she was riding came out of the Floo and walked forward into a…

She didn't have the time to think anymore as she felt the sensation of crossing a ward line and red lights suddenly started flaring all over the place and she realized that they knew about her presence.

Shit…

She cursed her luck for being caught like this.

But perhaps if she stayed hidden in his hair, then no one would notice her?

That was as far as her thoughts went before a heavy pressure from the wards descended on her and she lost her consciousness.

Author's Note:- Thoughts from the point of one Rita Skeeter.

Despite how Rita is shown as a gossip monger in the movie and is described as someone who would fall to any lengths to write delicious story for her reads, I believe that she must have once at least tried to write good and honest articles before being hit by the heavy hammer or reality which forced her to change and adapt in order to become the writer who had the biggest following at this point.

And if you like my work and have a bit of change to spare then please consider supporting me at- pat.reon.com/ankit1