Intern Jenna and the Scoop of a Lifetime
AN: Takes place during chapter 5 of my fic Pharaoh's Magi.
She was late. Absolutely, terribly late.
Jenna had woken that morning to find that pixies had snuck in overnight. They had broken her alarm, and we're making a right mess of her kitchen when she found them. A quick "immobulus" froze the creatures in their tracks before she banished them from her apartment. Kitchen still a mess, she went to inform her landlord of the intrusion before hurrying off.
Not that it mattered really. Jenna was so late.
Interns weren't allowed to apparate into the Daily Prophet building, though the reason for that was never been explained to Jenna. Whatever the reason, it means to she had to navigate the full length of Diagon Alley to even reach the building. Running as fast as she could in the hopes of being no later than she already was, Jenna passed by the early-morning visitors to the Alley, and saw many of them with copies of the Daily Prophet already in hand.
Many of the readers seemed agitated by the contents of their paper, but the lowly intern was not aware of a "big scoop" that had come through yesterday. It was probably something Rita had cooked up. She certainly had a talent for turning an otherwise mundane report into a sensational article.
The Prophet building finally came into sight. Jenna's steps faltered. A crowd was growing at its steps full of agitated witches and wizards. They were shouting at the building, and talking between themselves, which only made them angrier.
As she watched, a barrier shimmered into place over the Prophet building, a translucent sphere in opalescent white with gold geometric patterns dancing across its surface. The siege wards of the Daily Prophet were up for the first time since the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Jenna looked at the ward with a mixture of awe and despair churning in her stomach. It was glorious to behold, but she was so late.
There was no way through that ward. Many a grand wizard had tried since its construction, all had failed. Jenna did not think herself to be a grand witch. She had decent magic power, but nothing capable of even attempting to breach that.
With no other option available to her, Jenna trudged back to the Leakey Cauldron. She had missed breakfast in her dash to be less-late and was hungry, so the least she could do was grab a bite to eat now. Thinking of her breakfast caused Jenna to quicken her steps.
Exiting the Alley, the young intern could hear raised voices coming from inside the pub. Heading into the main room, she could see the man making the rukkus. It was a middle aged wizard, his neat robes contrasting with his disheveled hair and wild gestures. He must have rushed here after reading the paper halfway through his morning routine.
"See! See!" He was shouting. "I said didn't I, I said!"
"Now calm down Thompson." Another man said, rolling his eyes.
Still keeping half an eye on the Thompson fellow, Jenna looked around for a seat. The pub was full, packed, and hard to navigate by the crowed the excited man had gathered, but there was a stool at the far end of the bar with a vacancy. Jenna squeezed through and managed to grab the seat.
"Can I get you something, miss?" Tom asked almost instantly before her.
"Fried eggs on toast, please." She requested.
"Right away."
As Tom moved off, Jenna was drawn back into the commotion in the center of the tavern. The man's flailing nearly hit another wizard, who dove toward the bar to stay out of arm's length. A copy of the Daily Prophet dropped to the ground. Jenna picked it up, intending to hand it to the wizard, but the wizard already had left. With no one to return it to, Jenna opened the paper.
And promptly dropped it.
Harry Potter Missing! screamed the headline. Jenna snatched the paper back up and began to read. So engrossed in the article, she missed Tom returning with her order. Harry Potter was not at Hogwarts, and no one had seen him since the end of last school year. So soon after the whole Sirius Black thing, no wonder the commotion throughout Diagon Alley.
"Oh what a day to be waylaid by pixies!" Jenna lamented to herself.
Noticing the plate before her, the despondent woman took her first bite. Cold eggs. That was her day. She pushed her plate aside making a face. Her hunger was gone anyway.
"I'm telling you he was there!" The man was still shouting, much to Jenna's surprise. "Harry Potter right there next to him."
That got Jenna's attention. Thinking furiously, the intern considered her options. The man could be talking big. It was the first option any good reporter had to consider. But what if he was telling the truth? What if he had seen Harry Potter? In the end, it was a chance she was willing to take.
"Did you really?" She asked, giving the man her best wide eyed look. "Did you really see Harry Potter?"
He seemed taken aback to see the pretty girl show interest, but he replied "I sure did, miss…"
"Jenna. Jenna Roche." She introduced herself with a smile.
"Miss Roche. What a lovely name." the man said.
"Please come sit. I want to hear your story." She said gesturing to the stool next to her.
The man (Thomas?) did as requested. Some of his crowd slipped away with looks of relief on their faces. Another group looked on with undisguised glee, as if sharing a joke. Their looks worried her a bit, even if the man (what was his name?) looked completely honest.
But then he was speaking.
"Now, I worked in Egypt until recently, you see." He started.
Jenna nodded, but it seemed to be more of a turn of phrase for him as he continued without pausing. "Independant appraisal, that's me job. Gringotts hires me out to look at artifacts, second opinion like. And then I got a message saying I was being called back early.
"Now I don't get the paper in Egypt, so I hadn't even heard about Black's escape yet you see. That's important for what comes next.
"I was getting me portkey home, and I saw a man. And I said to meself, I said 'That man looks a lot like Sirius Black!' Now standing next to him was this boy. A little boy with messy black hair and green eyes, and I thought it was funny, because a boy that looked like Harry Potter was standing next to a man that looked like Sirius Black."
"No!" Jenna gasped with surprise.
"Yes!" The man exclaimed, delighted with her reaction. "It was so bizarre, that when I portkeyed home I came straight here to tell my story, didn't I Tom?"
"Aye, you did" Tom agreed.
"I said to 'em, I said 'I think I saw Sirius Black in Egypt. Stranger yet, I think Harry Potter was with him.'"
"What did they say?" Jenna asked.
"They laughed of course. Sirius Black might o' been in Egypt, but Harry Potter was safe and sound. Well bully that. I saw them." He finished with a decisive nod.
"I believe you." Jenna said.
"You're sweet miss. Very sweet but I'm just taking your time now."
"Oh, it's no problem." She denied, but his mind was made up.
The man stood, inclining his head in a polite nod before moving away. Jenna watched his go a moment longer, then stood herself. She calmly exited the Leakey Cauldron and apparated back to her apartment. There she shrieked with joy, startling her landlord, and the warder who were fixing her pixie problem.
She grabbed a roll of parchment and a quill, upending a pot of ink in her hurry. She had a scoop! Now what the time to write an article that would probably define her career. Harry Potter Spotted in Egypt! Sirius Black to Blame?