This was written for The Anything You Wanna Write Competition – Round 2 over at HPFC. My character was Rita Skeeter and the prompt was 'struggle'. Enjoy! :)
Dirt
By silver-nightstorm
Summary: To get attention, to get Power, one needs… to get Dirt. Round 2 in The Anything You Wanna Write Competition.
XX
Rita's life had always been very difficult. From the moment she was born, she had to fight tooth and nail to get anywhere in her house. Growing up the youngest child in a house of thirteen, Rita quickly learned that to get attention and to get power, she needed to get Dirt.
Her first step to the Dirt Side was taken when she was merely four years of age. Her third oldest brother, Fredrick, was seventeen years old at the time and Rita had innocently walked into his room looking for her dolly. When she saw the undressed young witch in his bed, and the startled look on both his and the witch's face, she knew she had stumbled upon some sort of taboo. Fredrick spent the next ten years of his life making sure that every silly whim of his little sister was fulfilled. Merlin forbid his parents found out what happened that dreary winter night.
Rita took a further step to the Dirt side when she spied on her youngest sister at the age of seven. Miranda was only a year older than Rita, but she was also twenty times dumber. When Miranda broke Momma Skeeter's precious hummingbird mug, she swept up the pieces and hid them under the table. To this day, Miranda obeys Rita's every command and the remains of the mug are safely stored under the table.
But not every moment of Rita's quest for Dirt was a success. She found that most of the time she tried to spy, she would get caught. Especially in her younger, pre-magic years, Rita quickly discovered that when others' had magic at their disposal, she couldn't sneak around them and deviously figure their deep, dark, secrets. She needed another method.
Then, she finally went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She sat on the tiny stool in the great hall for almost five minutes while the hat debated back and forth between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. She was smart, thought the hat, and she was quick and intelligent and resourceful. But she was also cunning. She was devious and ambitious and willing to go the distance.
But Rita, even at that tender young age, knew how to listen, watch, and observe. She noticed that as every new child was sorted into Slytherin, the rest of the houses would softly hiss. She noticed that as every young First Year was sorted into any other house, even the Slytherin table would clap politely. She noticed the looks of barely concealed disgust that highlighted the faces of the Slytherins at their secluded table. She noticed the way that most people seemed to write off Ravenclaw as inattentive bookworms.
She smiled widely when the hat agreed with her and a cry of "RAVENCLAW!" rang across the Great Hall to thunderous applause.
In her first Transfiguration class, Rita observed Professor McGonagall quickly transform into a cat and back into a human. She was an Animagus, it was called. And that's when Rita had a brilliant idea.
No one watched animals. Animals made guards drop. Rita had spent countless hours combing her cat's fur and whispering secrets to the little mongrel. If she had the ability to become an animal… she could get the same treatment from others. And the same secrets. Wizards and witches never noticed animals because with animals, secrets were safe.
For the next seven years, Rita researched desperately. She practiced incessantly. She excelled at charms and transfiguration and secretly perfected the art of polyjuice. By the end of her career at Hogwarts, Rita could have had a bright future as an Auror or a Spy. But Rita had higher callings.
Things were never easy for Rita. People were never kind to Rita. But when Rita graduated Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she gradated with the experience necessary to get the good Dirt. And that was precisely what she did.
No one ever crossed Rita Skeeter again. That is, until a young Muggleborn witch appeared by the name of Hermione Granger. And Rita had to say, she had fallen to a worthy foe. But as Rita put the finishing touch to Harry Potter: Hero or Hoax? she smirked to herself as she thought about how, after a lifetime of struggling, she had finally won.
XX
Well, hope you enjoy! :)