I do not own Harry Potter.
A/N: This is for Season IV of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round 06.
Team & Position: Caerphilly Catapults, Chaser 1.
Base Prompt: Write about a light character committing the sin of GREED or a dark character demonstrating the virtue of CHARITY.
Optional Prompt: #01 - (object) swear jar.
Optional Prompt: #09 - (word) pose.
Optional Prompt: #14 - (quote) 'The creation of a thousand forests is one acorn.' - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Rita Skeeter sat alone in the reserved room at the Leaky Cauldron. She drummed her long red nails on the table in front of her. Glancing at her watch confirmed her suspicion; the people she was here to meet were late. This meeting had been arranged and confirmed by owl multiple times, but of course they wouldn't care about wasting her precious time.
After the war had ended, the Daily Prophet had come crawling on their hands and knees to get Rita back at the paper. After all, during her absence she had managed to publish articles in the Quibbler that garnered a lot of attention, as well as the tell-all on Dumbledore that she published less than a year ago. She had been planning to work next on a book about Severus Snape—a man that, after the war, some people called a hero, and others called a villain—when the Prophet's editor had come knocking.
The Prophet needed to regain readership after the failure that was Voldemort's Ministry, and they were willing to do—and pay—just about anything to get that readership back. After some much-needed soul-searching, Rita settled on writing freelance; she enjoyed writing books and didn't want to devote all of her time to, once again, be a full-time reporter for the paper. The editor welcomed this with open arms and asked Rita for an article on the Battle of Hogwarts for its one-month anniversary.
The first part of the article was already written. Rita had gone to Hogwarts to survey the damage to the old, beloved castle. What she saw there almost broke her steely facade. The school that she loved so much looked far more like a decrepit castle than the majestic beauty that had existed when she went to school. This was a wrong that needed to be righted.
This was what brought her to the Leaky Cauldron, sitting in a room, bored. The meeting was to help her get more insight into the actual battle so that it could be recapped in her article. People love seeing heroes rise and also seeing those same heroes fall. If only her sources would—
A knock on the door echoed loudly in the room before the door opened and her sources appeared: Luna Lovegood and Harry Potter. She had gotten the Lovegood girl to agree to the meeting quite quickly, and through her, Potter also had agreed to show—likely not wanting to leave Lovegood alone with Rita for the meeting.
Rita smiled at them as they entered, attempting to cover her annoyance that they were twenty minutes late to the meeting where they chose the time and place. Still, getting Potter in for an interview was impossible, according to the paper. So, twenty minutes late instead of never could be considered a win.
Once the pair had entered and closed the door, Rita said, "Thank you both for agreeing to meet with me. I know Mr. Potter has a thing about reporters, so I really do appreciate it."
Luna looked around the room, searching for something, before she said, "I only came because I was told there was going to be cake."
"And I'm only here because she's here. Right now, no one from the battle goes anywhere alone," Harry said, sitting down at the table across from Rita. "Now, Miss Skeeter, can you please tell me why we're here?"
"And where the cake is?" Luna asked in the pause before Harry continued.
"I have somewhere I need to be tomorrow and still need to pack."
Rita struggled to maintain her smile through the hostility she felt coming from Potter. "Miss Lovegood, now that you've arrived, I'll send word down to send up some cake. Would either of you like tea?"
"That would be lovely," Luna chirped happily.
A short time later, Luna was pouring honey over the top of a double-chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and embedded raspberries. Rita felt that she would need another gold crown for the tooth that was aching just from watching the girl eat. Rita and Potter's cakes sat in front of them, untouched.
Harry's voice snapped Rita's attention away from the toothache-inducing sight and onto the young man that won the war. "So, Rita, who's life are you attempting to destroy today?"
She gritted her teeth. Why the light-minded idiots always assumed she was attempting to destroy lives boggled her mind. "Reputations," she muttered.
"What?" Harry asked.
Pushing her cake to the side, she rested her hands on the table in front of her. "Reputations. I don't destroy people's lives, but rather their reputations."
Harry was clearly confused by this, "What's the difference? Your articles destroy the lives of the people that you target! During the Triwizard Tournament three years ago—Merlin, was it really only three years ago—your articles turned my life into a living hell."
"Exactly! People were treating you differently because of a change to your reputation, but you were alive and well," Rita said.
"What about Hermione, then?" Harry asked.
"The Granger girl?" Rita asked and Harry nodded in confirmation. "What is her reputation?"
"She's the brightest witch of our age," Harry said.
"And how is that not an overinflated reputation?"
"She managed to figure out your secret, didn't she?"
"I don't disagree that she is smart," Rita said, "but I think calling her the smartest witch of your age is highly exaggerated. The statement doesn't take into consideration other countries, or even everyone in this one. What is an 'age?' Are you referring to fourth-years, your generation, this century? No, she most certainly has an overinflated reputation."
"Because of your article, she was attacked with Bubotuber Pus and was not 'alive and well,' as you put it." Harry stood up from the table, getting ready to leave.
Rita had been afraid that this would happen. They hadn't even gotten into why she had asked them here and already Potter was ready to walk out the door. For the best results, she needed the young man's help, which meant she would need to do something drastic. She let out a small sigh as she realized what she needed to do to get his support—she needed to attack her own reputation.
"Mr. Potter, please wait," Rita said. Harry looked down at her, anger still fresh in his eyes. Rita swallowed heavily before she said, "This is not why I asked you both here today, I would like your help."
"And why should Luna and I help you?" Harry spat. At hearing her name, Luna looked up from her now mostly empty plate.
"At home, I have a swear jar," Rita said. Harry made to say something, but Rita cut him off. "I fully admit that I enjoy destroying reputations, especially those that are overinflated. One of my favorite effects is when supporters of that person, or the person themselves, sends me nasty letters after an article. If that person curses in their letter—literally or with spells—I add a Sickle to my swear jar.
"Sometimes, I will admit, that people go overboard about the target of an article and attack the person physically, as with Miss Granger and the pus. When this happens, I anonymously donate the contents of the swear jar to something related to the attack. This usually ends up being St. Mungo's, but not always. In the case of Miss Granger, it was donated to the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts.
"This is something that I have never told anyone before, as it could hurt my reputation as much as my other secret. And I told you this as I have come asking for a favor: I would like your support in my debut article for the new Daily Prophet, in which I will be asking people to donate money to Hogwarts, to help with its rebuilding."
Through her speech, Rita had been watching Harry's reactions. His anger had generally abated and made way for confusion.
"Harry, Hogwarts was a second home to many people, myself included. I want people to know how bad things got there and to bring it back to its former glory for future generations. With your support, I believe that we can get a much better result than just my article alone. Ideally, we would have you and the other heroes of the battle pose for a photo in front of Hogwarts. However, even just being able to mention that I have your support would be beneficial."
The room was quiet for a minute before Luna broke the silence. "If you wanted Harry's help, then why am I here?"
"A few reasons," Rita replied. "First of all, your father ran the Quibbler. If you and he are planning to start it back up again, I would like to get my article published there, too. I want to reach the largest audience I can. Second, you are one of the heroes of the battle. And finally, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to reach Harry directly, so I hoped that I could get his support through you."
"How do we know you're telling the truth about this article?" Harry asked.
Rita reached into her handbag and pulled out two copies of her current draft. "Here is a copy of what I've written so far. I want to add in some details about what actually happened during the battle to cause the visible destruction. I am hoping that you and the other heroes can fill in those details for me."
She handed the drafts to the other two, who both read through it. She was proud of the article: the description of the damage, the brief history of Hogwarts, and finally, the call to arms.
"The creation of a thousand forests is one acorn; similarly, the rebuilding of our historic school begins with a single donation. This is why my proceeds from this article will be given directly to the fund to rebuild Hogwarts. I ask you, my humble readers, to gather together and show your support for the rebuilding effort by getting directly involved or by sending your charitable contributions to Hogwarts."
It took a few minutes before the two young adults finally finished reading through the draft. Harry leaned back in his chair, studying Rita for a moment.
"Before I agree to anything, I want some assurances from you, Rita. First, there will be no major changes to the article before it is published. If there are, I want Luna to be allowed to review it again."
"I can agree to that, Mr. Potter," Rita said.
"Second, if anyone is to have their reputations attacked after you gather information on the battle, it will only be the known Death Eaters, none of my friends."
Rita drummed her fingers on the tabletop to make it look like she was considering the request. She would not attack the winning side of the battle, but she didn't want to look like a pushover. Once the pause had started to become a bit awkward, Rita finally said, "Fine. I can agree to that."
"And finally, since I am doing you a favor here, I expect one in return. You will never write a hatchet job about me like you did about Dumbledore."
Rita momentarily froze. She hadn't even considered writing a book about Harry Potter. She could practically see the mountains of gold sitting in front of her from such a book. "Mr. Potter, I wasn't even considering writing a book about you. In fact, I was beginning to look into Severus Snape. Would you be free at some point in the future to discuss your interactions with him?"
"Maybe. I make no guarantees. As for the article, you can use my name, but I don't think we can do a picture. I'm heading out of the country tomorrow and don't know when I'll be back."
"How about a picture of you and me here, in this room, right now?" Rita asked as she pulled a camera out of her bag. Harry just stared at it. "Come now, Mr. Potter, it's for a good cause."
Harry muttered something under his breath before he stood up and moved over to the wall, gesturing for Rita to join him. Rita handed the camera to Luna.
"Miss Lovegood, if you would be so kind as to take the picture?" Rita asked before joining Harry. As Luna moved into position, Rita whispered to Harry, "Smile, we want the readers to feel good about their donations."
"Say 'Nargle!'" Luna exclaimed. The bright light of flash temporarily blinded the pair. The two spent several seconds blinking away the spots.
"Thank you, Miss Lovegood," Rita said as she took the camera and sat back down at the table. "And now, what can the two of you tell me about the Battle of Hogwarts?"
An hour later, Luna had finished eating all of the cake, and Rita had made great progress on getting the details she wanted. A few more interviews and the article would be fit to print. Then she could get back to her work on the Snape exposé and start her plans for a book on one Harry Potter.