She had never considered herself to be a nosy person. She'd always been quite private, a bit of a loner, and so she understood completely that a person's business was their own and nobody else's.
That was until today, however.
Rita Skeeter, short and scrawny, with poor vision and an over-bite, walked alone through the seemingly empty corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her plain white trainers made a faint squeaking noise on the tile with each small step she took. Meandering pointlessly through the halls was perhaps her favorite pastime. The knowledge that no one was around to scrutinize her ineffectual self gave her the freedom to be just her, just Rita, without worry or care or consequence.
She turned the corner.
Thirteen years of trying to make herself invisible, and it only took one moment of timed perfection for all of that to change.
There were tongues everywhere.
Markus Ross and Evangeline Strickland were snogging against Gunhilda's Statue.
She turned and ran away as quickly as was possible until she reached her dormitory, pausing only for a moment to answer the newest riddle and catch her breath.
While Rita had never been a part of the in crowd, she still heard the rumors from time to time, still understood the basics of the Hogwarts students, including (and perhaps most importantly) who was dating who. She knew well enough that Markus Ross had been dating a Hufflepuff in his year for almost four months now, while Evangeline Strickland had been dating an older boy in her House for just under a year.
She had never considered herself to be a nosy person. And yet suddenly, with the knowledge that she was the only one who knew of Markus and Evangeline's secret affair, she felt something she'd never felt before: power.
Little Rita Skeeter, the girl with nothing to say, now equipped with the ability to destroy with words. She could pass around the information if she wanted to. She could tell everyone what she saw. She could ruin their lives.
And so she did.
Rita was surprised by how quickly things changed after announcing the affair. The attention she'd received for the information had been more addicting than she ever could have anticipated. She began to use the time ordinarily reserved for aimless walks through the halls to spy instead, to listen; to watch.
No longer was she the geeky girl in the over-sized robes, no. Now she was the girl with the information, the scandal, the gossip.
Her range of secrets grew so wide that she began carrying parchment and quills everywhere she went. Observing everyone and everything became an unbreakable habit, an impossible addiction.
As the time went by, she began to realize that her ability to acquire information from unsuspecting victims was turning on her. The friends she'd made after her first round of gossip had quickly understood that even they could not escape the penetrating stare of the once blind Rita Skeeter.
By seventh year, Rita had a choice to make. With Hogwarts ending, she would soon have the option to start over; to reinvent herself and no longer be labeled as the sneak, as the spy, as the girl not to be trusted. She could graduate and leave behind the life of stealing others secrets and sharing them with the world. Or she could continue to watch, continue to listen, and continue to write.
Rita sucked the tip of her quill and made the easiest decision of her life.
Author's Note:I wrote this a few years ago in about 30 minutes for a House Cup Challenge in which points were given for each one-shot submitted, so it's not my best work, but I did clean up a few things before deciding to post it. I hope it isn't too terrible! haha If you have a moment, please leave a review. :)