Title: All in a Day's Work
Author: dem bones
Genres: Action/Adventure
Summary: What happened on August 31, 1997 through the eyes of Rita Skeeter.
Warnings: Minor violence.
A/N: Response to 'The Year Without a Savior Challenge' by Ryah Ignis
Disclaimer: I do not own HP.
Today was a vibrant day for one Rita Skeeter as she waltzed in Hogwarts Castle.
She walked up to the Gargoyle at the end of the hall leading to the headmaster's quarters.
The ease in which Severus Snape had taken over the school was phenomenal. Rita could say she was rather impressed the ugly old fellow.
Rita curtly knocked on the door.
"Come in."
With a little skip in her step, Rita stepped inside.
Severus Snape was sitting at his desk seeming to write in a journal of some sort.
"Is there something I can help you with?" He inquired in a deep voice.
Rita sensed his impatience.
"Yes, yes of course. I'm here to conduct an interview. I'm sure it must exciting being the new headmaster of this school after Dumbledore died."
Something twitched in Snape's eyes.
"That geezer was an old fool. What do you intend to do your first day as headmaster?
Snape glared at her.
"The answer to your question is simple. I'll do what my master intends for me to do."
Rita set out her quick spell quill and her piece of parchment.
"Say that again?"
He glared at her.
"No?"
His glare spoke for him.
"Alright then." Rita said, not in the least bit deterred by Snape's silence.
"Say I didn't see that Potter boy around. Is he attending this year?" Rita asked.
She felt astounded by how quickly Snape's indifference mask began to slip away. His expression conveyed nothing but deep loathing.
"It seems he didn't want to stick around for the action." He muttered with distaste.
"I see." She said. "That will be all."
"Good."
The chilling tone in his voice gave her the creeps. Quickly she took her quill and parchment after it had written a decent amount of things and left his office.
On the way out she looked over the things she wrote straight from the interview which wasn't much all things she would have to work overtime to get her story in before the deadline.
Outside the gates of Hogwarts she apparated back to the Daily Prophet.
"So did you get your story?" The editor asked.
"Yes." She said bitterly causing the corners of his mouth to upturn.
She mustered a guess that he must have thought just the opposite and that he heartily approved of her misery.
As she began to write her story she began to think of formulating some revenge on her editor. Did he have any muggleborn relatives? Was he half-blood?
Heat boiled her veins filling her with excitement. The idea of discovering this just filled her with joy. She could imagine the torture he would go through, the agony his family would endure as she wrote her story.
Later she dropped by the editor's office to drop off her story before leaving the office.
Rita headed into Knockturn Alley into the local pub. It was a place notable for the questionable people who walked in there.
Inside there were wizards with golden teeth, some with eyepatches and some that were just plain ugly.
She took a seat near what looked like trouble.
'This looks like a troublesome bunch.' She thought looking at the gang of men sitting at a table nearby. There was a certain satisfaction she felt with attracting trouble.
Grinning to herself while she nursed a mug of beer she waited.
One of the men walked up to her.
"How are you doing, babe?" One of the goons asked after having walked up to her.
"I'm fine and how are you?" She asked in her sultry voice.
The men all seemed to make a big commotion over it.
"How about you come sit with my mates and me? I'm sure you'll enjoy it."
Rita inwardly chuckled and hugged the man close to her. Her nails raked seductively down his back.
"Ooh." The other men began to cheer for him.
She joined him at the table sitting next to him, stroking his thighs.
"So you want to go to my place tonight."
"Would I? You flatter me."
"Hey don't keep her all to yourself." All the other man began to whine.
"Alright, we could take turns. Donny, you could take her out tomorrow night."
Then just then Rita took out a dagger from her robes and stabbed him in the abdomen.
The men began to gasp.
"I would join you but I'm a little busy at the moment." She said releasing him as he collapsed to the floor, blood soaking around his robes.
"What? You killed the boss. How dare you?"
One of the other men came up to her, grabbing her by the collar of her robes.
"How dare you? You have some nerve to kill our friend right under our noses."
Then just as quickly Rita stomped on his foot and kicked him in the abdomen. Grabbing the dagger from the other man's chest she kicked and stabbed until every member of that gang was dead on the floor buried with the blood and the beer they had drunk.
Quickly she left the pub.
'All in a day's work.' She thought.