AN: So I've had this plot in my head for a while. So I'm gonna try this out. If it flops it, flops if not… well we will see. But I hope that you all enjoy this story. I have a feeling that they going to be fun to write.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Krum Elopes in France.
Her icy blue eyes scanned over the words on the paper in front of her. As they did, a soft smirk crossed her lips. As she finished reading, she allowed her eyes to be drawn back up to the moving image just under the title. A taller and well-aged Viktor Krum ushers his new French wife through the front door of what one would suspect to be his French vacation home. Big stars like Krum had vacation homes everywhere. She crossed her legs at the ankle and relax into the chair as she flipped to another page of the morning paper.
"Ms. Vane?"
Her icy eyes moved from the sports section of the paper to the mousy woman standing in her doorway. Slowly, she brought the paper down and folded it in her lap. As she did, her eyebrow arched, signaling for the woman in her doorway to continue.
"The editor would like to see you."
The woman exhaled roughly as she stood and dropped the paper on the dark wooden desk in front of her. She ran her fingers through her dark, curly hair and then started towards the door. The woman, an intern that had started the day before, moved out of the way swiftly and then continued to follow the woman she had been sent to get.
"Why are you following me?"
"He, uh, told me to see that you came to his office," the intern stuttered, her face turning red.
"I see."
The dark hair woman rounded the corner in the corridor and make her way towards an office door at the end of the hall, all with the new intern in tow.
"Mr. Keegan," the woman said as she pushed open the door without knocking. "You wanted to see me?
The older man behind the desk looked up at her from behind his horn-rimmed glasses. His brown eyes met her icy blue ones through the lenses. She noted that they were a little smugged. His darker eyes held a sort of amusement at the sight before him. A mousy brunette intern standing just outside the door and the confident raven-haired journalist leaning against the doorframe. Mr. Keegan was a chubby man, of about forty-five or so. His face bore the wrinkle lines of someone that had been in writing business for years. His eyes looked as though they had experienced many things.
"Romilda," he said as she leaned back in his plush leather chair and gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Take a seat. Alexandra, you may go. Thank you for fetching, Ms. Vane, I know that she can be a handful." The intern looked torn, as if she wanted to say something. "Alexandra?" She opened her mouth to speak. "Would you like to stay and observe?" Mr. Keegan questioned.
To that Romilda Vane looked over her shoulder, her icy gaze intense as she waited for the interns reply. The intern opened her mouth to speak, however under the gaze of the raven haired woman in front of her, she closed her mouth and shook her head as she backed out of the door, closing it on her way out.
"You shouldn't do that, Romilda," the older man scolded.
"What?" Romilda asked as she turned to face the editor, feigning innocence.
"You should learn to play nice," he told her.
To that Romilda snorted. "Not likely, Mr. Keegan."
"Of course," he said as he stood form his desk. "Well, I summoned you here for a reason, Ms. Vane. Firstly, the Krum article, people love it. Very well written." Romilda accepted the praise from her editor with a close lipped smile and a tilt of her head. She knew that it was not going to last long. "However, I need something more. When you started here what did you say?"
Romilda remembered what she said very well. She'd been saying it for years. "That I was going to be bigger that Rita Skeeter, just you wait."
Yes, Rita Skeeter. That woman. While many people couldn't stand her. Romilda admired her. The way that she just slipped in and go the story. The way that she wrote. Just everything about her, Romilda admired. When she had come to Hogwarts during her fourth year to talk to the participants of the Triwizard Tournament, Romilda made sure to never let her woman to from her line of sight. She'd even gone as far as to speak with the journalist about her techniques. And Rita being the self-centered woman she was loved every second of it, and even always Romilda to sit in on her interviews and take notes.
"Bigger than Rita Skeeter," Mr. Keegan echoed. "You don't know how many times I've heard someone say that they were going to be bigger than a writer that they admired. They never make it. But you, Ms. Vane, you can."
She could and she was damn proud of that.
"I have the story that I think could get you there." He turned and made his way back to his desk. He settled down into the leather chair and reached into the drawer, producing a manila colored folder. He placed the folder on the desk between them. On her lap, Romilda's fingers twitched. However, she held her hands in place. "It'll be something different for you. Not a onetime interview, it'll be a longitudinal study. I'm giving you this because I feel that you have the skills needed for this assignment." He pushed the folder across the desk and Romilda picked it up.
"Who is it on?" she questioned as flipped it open.
"Theodore Nott," Mr. Keegan replied as she read his name on the first page in the envelope. "I know that you aren't too fond of sports stories, but he and his fiancé just called it off, the reason is a mystery. Theodor Nott," Mr. Keegan reached over and tapped the picture on the page, "is a very eligible bachelor." Romilda nodded as she continued to flip through the pages in the envelope. He was indeed very handsome with his strong jaw line and hazel eyes. "I have set up an interview with him tomorrow at four. The Appleby Arrows are," Mr. Keegan allowed his voice to trail off as he tried to find the right way to phrase what he wanted to say.
"They have gotten good since the instillation of Theodore Nott as their captain and chaser," Romilda supplied as she pulled out a sheet showing how many points each person scored on the team in the last two games, seeing as the season had just started. She then looked back at the sheet before it listing the scores from the previous season. "By himself, Nott scored more points in one game than the team did in their highest scoring game last season."
"He's put them on the map as a competitive team. No one was really concerned with them until this season," Mr. Keegan replied. Romilda crossed her legs and continued to look through the papers. "So you accept?"
"Yeah," she replied absentmindedly.
"You are understanding what I'm asking you to do?" he questioned.
It was the tone of his voice that made her close the folder after slipping the papers back into it and look up at him. She couldn't quite place what the tone was or why it concerned her. So she nodded, "Of course I do."
This was it. This was her big break.