I hadn't seen her all week and she just strolled into the room like nothing was wrong.
"I'm going to do it, Gretchen." She said with a passion, taking me further by surprise.
"Do... what?" I raised an eyebrow, setting down the chocolate cake topped with hot fudge that I'd just made onto the kitchen counter. "Rita Skeeter, what are you up to this time?!"
"I'm going to become an Animagus!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"An ani- what? Are you serious, Rita?" I waved my wand, casting a protective charm over the cake and turned my full attention to her.
"We should go outside. Room for me, in case I become something big!" Rita seemed to not be paying much attention to my admonishments.
"Rita, I don't think you should be trying this..." I told her as we walked outside into the gardens of my home.
"Nonsense, Gretchen! I can do this! I got great grades in Transfiguration while I was at school and if anything goes wrong, you can fix it. You got an Outstanding grade in NEWT Transfiguration too!" She tried to reassure me, but it didn't work.
"You would be extremely lucky if something doesn't go horribly wrong! You do remember that something can go horribly wrong, right?" I asked.
"What's the use of living without taking a little risk?" She picked an apple off one of my trees and ate it.
"Maybe it'll work. Most likely it won't, Rita." I said.
Hesitantly, I reached out and touched her shoulder, the glitter on the edge of my sleeves shining slightly.
"You're an idiot!" I exclaimed. "But you're my idiot best friend, so I suppose I have to support you in this. I don't know why you're so determined to become an Animagus, but I guess it's just one of the many quirks of Miss Rita Skeeter..."
"You're too kind. Really, you are..." Rita rolled her eyes and I resisted the urge to try Stupefy-ing her. "I've been doing research and exercises for years, so I'm definitely ready for this."
"If you say so, Rita. I'll be sure to say something at your funeral. That fateful day, back on March 11, Rita had the half-brained idea to try becoming an Animagus. On her own. With no proper supervision. No notice given to the ministry whatsoever." I sunk into a garden chair.
Adjusting myself to get comfortable, I sighed and waited.
Rita closed her eyes and let the magic flow.
She began to shrink and shrink and for a moment, I thought something had gone wrong and she was going to shrink out of existence, but as I got up, I noticed a small beetle on the leaves of one of my plants.
When I reached out to examine it, it flew into my hand.
I looked at it and it looked at me.
I noticed that the eye markings looked just like Rita's horrid favourite pair of glasses and it was this of all things, that made me cackle.
"All that hard work and your Animagus form is a mere insect!"
Beetle Rita flew out my hand, landed on the ground and resumed her human form.
"I told you I could do it." She smirked at me.
"You're an insect." I said flatly. "I'm not impressed."
"I could make it work. I just got a job with the Daily Prophet, my dear Gretchen. With this form, I can go where no reporter has gone before. Get information people could only dream of." Her eyes gleamed.
I sighed. Rita was my friend, but she could really be... concerning at times...
Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Competition Year 3 Transfiguration class on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum. Prompts listed below:
Character: OFC
Word: Lucky, Maybe
Mood: Hesitant
Emotion: Kind
Colour: Glitter
Food: Apple, Cake, Fudge
Action: Fly
Dialogue: "You're an idiot!"
Spell: Stupefy
Upper Word Count: 600
Date: March 11
Sentence: Adjusting himself to get comfortable, he sighed and waited.
Setting: Garden
Opening Sentence: I hadn't seen him all week and he just strolled into the room like nothing was wrong.