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(OC) Tammy Higgs

Rita was flying around in her animagus form trying to find some gossipers who could indirectly give the beetle some potential stories to publish in the Daily Prophet. Rita was out in the woods when she spotted a strange kind of tube-like device quite a ways from the walking path. When it was safe, the truth-despising journalist changed back into her normal form and approached the strange tube that was big enough for someone to walk inside of. As soon as the beetle stepped in, the door slid closed as some rumbling was felt to signal it's activation.

"What the...?!" Rita asked, darting her eyes around the inside of her capsule.

Then a trap door opened up underneath Rita and sent herself getting sucked in and riding the tubes. The ride through the tubes was very high, enough for Rita to feel as though she'd fall over. Rita could start feeling some pain in her spine because of the very-high intensity of the ride. After ten minutes or so, Rita was finally dropped out of the tube system and landed on her back with such force that it increased the pain in her spine. It was enough for her to squeeze her eyes shut tightly while seething in pain. As a matter of fact, it was hard for her to move because anytime she'd try, the pain would return. When she finally opened her eyes, Rita checked her surroundings and found herself in some kind of water-park-like environment. Then she spotted Harry walking up to her, accompanied by a girl with shouder-length light-brown hair hanging down and bright-green eyes. The girl's face looked familiar, but Rita couldn't put her finger on the girl's identity.

"Well, that was quite a ride you had, wasn't it!" Harry told Rita, sarcasm clearly in his voice.

"Are you crazy?" Rita replied incredulously, seething in pain again. "That hurt my back and it still hurts!"

"Well you wouldn't have found yourself in that painful situation if you were smarter, Skeeter!" the girl lectured in a fierce voice. "What kind of idiot slanders Harry in the Daily Prophet and doesn't even ask him for permission for his name to be used?"

"I'm not an idiot, I'm the smartest journalist in the world!" Rita replied, trying to sound emotionally hurt (but it wasn't fooling Harry nor the girl). "And who are you?"

"Tamara Higgs," the girl told Rita. "Or Tammy for short, a third-year in Slytherin. My brother, Terence, is in his sixth-year. My big sister, Tess, was in her seventh and final year when I was a firstie. My other brother, Trevor, was in his final year when Tess was a fourth year, when Terence was a firstie himself. We were all in Slytherin, but we refused to follow crybaby Malfoy's so-called example in obeying the whole pure-blood supremacy malarkey, especially with my family and I being half-bloods like Harry."

"Oh yes, Terence's little sister." Rita replied, with Tammy glaring at the journalist for referring to her as 'little.' "I'm sure he'd like to be interviewed on how he lost his position as seeker three years ago, since Draco told me that his father helped bribe his son's way onto the team. If I also say, I think you'd like to be Draco's girlfriend while your sister seems to like Marcus Flint."

"You're forgetting that my dad, Travis, works for the ministry in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Tammy reminded the journalist, rather fiercely. "You print any article with my name or the names of my parents and siblings. my dad will sue you so fast it'll make your head spin. Malfoy and Flint even blackmailed Terence to convince him to have Tess go out with Flint and me going out with ferret boy even though he's a pure-blood supremacist and a lecher. Naturally, Terence refused and was kicked off of the team and replaced by Malfoy as their new seeker."

"How'd you meet Harry?" asked Rita.

"It started when I was staying at the Leaky Cauldron before starting my third year," Harry began explaining, feeling he should be the one to do so. "After I left my relatives for the last time because a bout of using accidental magic inflating my uncle's sister. I had finished getting my school stuff purchased when I crossed Tammy's path, at Flourish and Blotts. She didn't care about my Boy-Who-Lived fame and even helped me out. Since it was around lunchtime, we met up with her parents and siblings, where we all made our introductions. I even read my parents' will and found out that Tammy's mum, Theresa, was friends with my mum. Theresa and Travis were even on the list of potential guardians for me if anything were to happen to my parents. We managed to get a copy of my parents' will over to Amelia to help get Sirius a trial, since he was given a kangaroo court kind of treatment. He was declared guilty by assumption and chucked into Azkaban without getting a trial."

"How's the time for you to get your just desserts," Tammy told Rita, rather adamantly. "Since you've been getting away with slandering for the longest time."

Rita reached into her jacket pocket to pull her wand out, but Harry and Tammy were quicker when they pulled their wands out. Rita aimed her wand at the teens to obliviate them, but she made the error of mouthing the spell quietly. To make it worse for the journalist, Harry and Tammy were both extremely skilled in reading lips. So the teens cast several stinging hexes at the truth-hating journalist. It was enough for Rita to drop her wand and amidst the ordeal, she unwittingly stepped on her wand and snapped it in two. Now she was really at wand-point, so the journalist reluctantly walked into the next room and found out that it was some kind of obstacle course. The first one involved a water slide and when she started sliding on it, Rita saw that it was a long one. It was resulted in her getting sprayed with different colours of water. The red water gave her pain that made it feel like she was on fire. The blue water gave her pain as if she was experiencing frostbite. Green water gave the journalist the feeling of bugs crawling all over her, making her brush herself with her hands like crazy.

'Why won't those invisible bugs go away?!' thought Rita, as she desperately continued brushing her herself.

Then Rita started sliding through yellow water, which gave her the shock of her life... literally. She was electrocuted for fifteen seconds straight before it stopped, leaving her hair standing up in all directions. Sliding through orange water gave the crazy journalist the feeling of getting heatstroke. Then finally she slid through purple water, which made her feel as though she was in a freezer or somewhere near the Arctic Ocean. Shivering like crazy, Rita spotted a hot tub steaming, made a mad dash towards it and jumped in to warm up. Unfortunately, the hot water started scalding her because the temperature for it was very high. It didn't take long Rita to expire and all that was left of her was a skeleton in her outfit. Rita didn't pay attention to the thermometer charm showing the temperature to be at one-hundred-and-sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Then Dobby and Winky got rid of the skeleton that was Rita before returning the hot tub temperature to one-hundred degrees. Then Harry and Tammy changed into swimwear, with Tammy in a green bikini and Harry in a pair of red swim shorts.

"I'll meet you at the bottom of the slide, Tammy," Harry told her. "Ladies first, I've always been adamant on that."

"Okay, see ya in a minute, Harry." said Tammy.

Then she and Harry approached the water slide Rita went on, which returned to normal. Then Tammy got on and slid down, with Harry waiting a couple minutes to be safe before getting on and sliding down. Once they were both at the bottom of the slide, the teens swam towards solid ground, got out and headed for the hot tub. With Rita gone for good, Harry was free to be at ease and the Daily Prophet was free to repair it's reputation by hiring more competent employees. Things were finally looking up.

The End!