Rita lit up a cigarette and took a long drag, combing the crowd at the Three Broomsticks. Hogwarts students were everywhere, talking animatedly. If she had known today was a Hogsmeade trip she doubted she would have come. She swirled her drink and turned her head as she heard the bells chime from the doorframe and the laughter of teenagers sound.
Shit.
It was that Hermione, accompanied by Harry and Arthur Weasley's youngest son, what was his name again? Hermione caught her eye and scowled, and Rita was quick to return a glare before the prissy girl sat down.
Rita studied the back of her head as she gulped at her third drink. She wasn't as dreadful looking as Rita remembered her; she at least had done something with that mane of hair since Rita had last seen her. Her face was sweet, lit up by her wide grin, not as plain as Rita remembered. She took a sip at what was now her fourth drink and glanced again, unable to control her thoughts. She still hated the girl; she always would; yet Rita strangely found herself attracted to the young woman.
Rita ordered a fifth drink and sat back, fully immersed in a plot to seduce the teen, that it was almost too late when she realized the trio was leaving the pub for Honeydukes across the street. As soon as it came she chugged it down and stumbled out of the bar, wrapping her cloak around her shoulders and scrunching up her curls as she sauntered across the lane.
Checking her reflection in the Honeydukes window she applied a fresh coat of blood-red lipstick and focused on the room inside. Yes the know-it-all and her best friends were inside, Harry and what's-his-name buying chocoballs and Hermione on the other side of the room examining the sugar quills. Rita smacked her lips a last time and strolled in.
"Hello little girl."
Hermione stared at her enemy for a second, repulsed, and then burst out laughing as she smelled firewhisky hovering around the older woman. "You're drunk."
Rita ignored her and continued on. "What do you say we…set the record straight between us?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow but followed her out the door anyway, quickly motioning to a bewildered Harry and Ron to go back to the castle without her. Rita turned up the path towards the shrieking shack and Hermione instantly moved her hand to her wand, not knowing what she had gotten herself into.
"Well, what did you want to talk about Rita, I felt I made it perfectly clear as to our terms, but if you need me to repeat them again—"
Rita smirked then seized Hermione and began kissing her intensely, and to her surprise, the girl didn't resist. She pulled back, "Do others know that's the easiest way of shutting Miss Prissy up?"