Written in Ink| Rita & Charlie
If one ever finds themselves in a position where they need to keep quiet, everything has a way of suddenly becoming even louder. Breathing, the thumping of one’s heart. Even the silence seems louder. But miss Rita Skeeter kept her resolve up as she tracked the whispering and giggling first years ahead of her. They didn’t seem to be talking about anything that should ever catch her interest, and honestly listening to them was incredibly dull, but she was smarter than to tune them out. If she did, she wouldn’t have caught the password. Not that she would need it, but really the password to the Slytherin commons could come in handy. Carefully, she sped up to slip into the common room with the pair of first years as her keys. Her disillusion charm was sticking quite nicely.
Now, however, was no time to applaud her admirable charm work. Now was a time to finally answer the question that had itched an angry red stripe of curiosity onto her mind. Rita needed answers, and only Charlotte Nott’s letter could provide them. So, naturally she made her way towards the obvious direction of the girls dormitories, electing to ignore the other snakes slithering about.
Rita located the sixth years rooms with little difficulty and after staking the area out, and pressing her ear to the door to find any signs of would-be hosts, she carefully pushed the door open. Thank Merlin for Hogwarts keeping their doors sufficiently oiled. And for Andromeda, Lucinda, Rose, and Charlie all being out. Today really was Rita’s day, wasn’t it? The blonde did know better than to drop her disillusion charm at the sign of coast clear, though, but she really thinks that’s just commonsense when one’s running a covert operation.
Upon first sight, the room didn’t look much different from other girls rooms, which Rita frowned at. This meant more sleuthing. First step; find out which area was Charlies, then she pounces. Metaphorically of course. Shooting glances back towards the door with every noise she made, Rita opened and closed trunk after trunk, shifted through some belongings, and finally deduced which area of the room had been claimed by victim of her curiosity. Rita allowed herself a smile as she began her search. Under the bed didn’t prove fruitful, neither did under the pillow. The trunk was a dud. As was the space under the mattress. After thoroughly exhausting every other option, did Rita go for the bedside drawer. Of course, it was locked, only a minor inconvenience for a witch honestly. With a slight eye roll, Rita drew her wand and waved it to persuade the lock to open, having only to think the spell she’d used so many times. Alohomora held a special place in her heart. Small smile in place, the smile of one finally getting something that they’ve longed for, Rita pulled the drawer open.
Shifting and shuffling of papers aside, finding the letter was cake. As was opening it and unashamedly skimming over its contents. Her heart beat a little faster, a shot of adrenaline rushing up her spine, as she froze in her skimming and began the letter again to suck in every detail. And then again. What was this. What had she found this time. After examinging the contents of the letter with a keen eye and held breath, Rita came to one conclusion: this was unexpected, it was shocking, but more importantly, it was perfect. Oh how her readers would react! Oh how Evan would react! Oh how she was reacting, look at her! The surprise and scandal of it all absorbed her concentration and her disillusion charm fell. It didn’t bother the ‘journalist’ too greatly, though. For she had hit pay dirt.
Charlotte Nott was a half-blood. Aka, Hogwarts biggest blow up aside from Rose going off Merlin knows where. And Rita would be the one to expose it. The uproar the pureblood community would bring! Not to mention it would distract from Emma’s little wedding, which would only be a bonus.
