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Post by grace elizabeth davies on Jan 24, 2011 17:22:29 GMT -5
Everyone who knew anything knew that the only place to conduct secret mischief was a broom closet. While the vast majority of Hogwarts would certainly disagree, Gracie considered herself someone who knew things. That’s why, when Rita had said that they really needed to get started on this term’s first issue of the Hogwarts Press, Gracie had suggested that they meet on the first floor broom closet.
“It will be perfect,” the dim Hufflepuff had insisted eagerly. “It’s where the Hufflepuffs sell their weed, and where Brian Brooks took me when he said his girlfriend wouldn’t mind if we snogged. It’s how I should have known she wouldn’t be okay with it!” Perhaps it had been Gracie’s, good, er, no, great and cheerfully listed reasons for using the broom closet, or perhaps Rita had merely been distracted by Gracie revealing that she had once snogged Brian Brooks, but the Ravenclaw had agreed to the spot. And that’s the story on how Gracie ended up sitting in the broom closet with an old school broom sticking in her back, and several more leaning against her as she sat in the corner.
It was terribly cramped, as a broom closet wasn’t meant to hold more than brooms. Amorous couples and high Hufflepuffs and their clients never seemed to mind the tight squeeze, no doubt because their minds were on other things. Or, perhaps because they had the foresight to magical extend the closet. Gracie would never think to do such a thing, but then, nor would she think to complain about the tight spaces. Instead, she drew her knees to her chest, wrapped her arms around them, and stared at the door of the broom closet patiently, waiting for Rita’s appearance. There was just enough room for the Ravenclaw, so perhaps it was for the best that the third writer of the Hogwarts Press, and their photographer, would be absent today. Well, as far as Gracie knew anyway.
Word count: 326 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: (: |
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Post by rita colline skeeter on Jan 27, 2011 23:46:34 GMT -5
 Rita was practically jogging down to the broom closet, all the way from the Ravenclaw tower. Things had needed put in order and she realized that she was most likely late to her first meeting of the term with her writing crew. Gracie Davies and herself were collaborating on the Hogwarts Press' first issue that day, and Rita carried with her loads of parchment full news, gossip, truth, and fiction. The ink had been scrolled across hastily at parts and with great care at others. She had her satchel stuffed full of new sheets of parchment, ink, and multiple quills. Her best quill, jinxed to take notes while she spoke, was stuck firmly behind her left ear. As she whizzed down the corridors, through secret passageways, and jumped from multiple moving staircases, Rita was grinning broadly, fantasizing about the success of her first issue. It was certain.
When she reached the broom closet, Rita had to admit, she was a little surprised that Gracie would simply sit there in the crowded space, practically tackled by the brooms. She quickly closed the door behind her and pulled her wand out in a flash. "Oh, get your wand out!" She shot off the command with irritation, and then stopped briefly to smile at her Hufflepuff friend. "Please Gracie dear?" Rita turned her back and shot off muffilato and colloportus instantaneously. They'd need their privacy, especially here on first floor. Rita then turned back to face the shallow compartment they were in. She gave a flip of her hair and raised her wand, balancing the parchment and satchel with just small amounts of stress. She certainly wasn't going to sit on a mop bucket or have prickly twigs cutting up her skin.
She pushed back the walls and conjured up a desk made of dark cherry wood. She flicked her wand at three old brooms and transfigured herself a chair, charming the seat with some padding. She set the notes down and they instantly sorted into little piles according to subject matter. She pulled out her ink and levitated the quills into their wells. The clean sheets of parchment stacked up next to the desk while Rita vanished the layers of dust piling up everywhere. Finished now with her part, Rita turned to look at Gracie. "Feel free to conjure whatever you need dear." She nodded curtly and took her seat, her smirk growing ever brighter. "Now, this is exciting."
four hundred and seven words |
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Post by grace elizabeth davies on Feb 26, 2011 11:18:13 GMT -5
For about two seconds, Gracie frowned. She wasn't completely dense, she could hear the irritation in Rita's voice. Why was her friend upset? Was someone mean to her? Did the kitchen run out of pumpkin pastries again? Gracie hated it when they stopped serving pumpkin pastries. They were so good, and gooey, and tasted like pumpkin! Which the name implied, but it still surprised Gracie every time she ate one. It's just like eating a jack-o-lantren! But, as the dim Hufflepuff had the emotional memory of a gnat, the frown was quickly replaced with a broad grin as Rita said the magic word, 'please'. She wasn't upset at all! Gracie was just reading her wrong! Obeying, Gracie pulled out her wand, then sat there holding it cheerily in her hand. She could be a bit like dealing with Amelia Bedelia at times. Rita hadn't told her to perform any charms! Thank Merlin. That could only be a disaster of epic proportions.
"Oh, you're so bright!" Gracie practically beamed sunshine as she praised her Ravenclaw friend. "That's why you're the Ravenclaw! I wonder if Tracy Wilson does this when she sells her weed? Do you think so? I'll tell her about it tonight when I see her in the common room! I bet it would make things so much comfortable. She's so tall you know!" Gracie continued to babble about Tracy as Rita settled herself comfortably in the broom closet. Though the future star reporter told Gracie she could conjure whatever she needed, Gracie had merely pulled some pieces of parchment and a partially chewed quill from her nearby rucksack as she chattered away.
"Did you know that Tracy is dating Stephen? Do you think their babies will be part giants?" Gracie let the question linger as she pulled a textbook from her rucksack, and placed it on her leg to use as a make shift writing surface. Though Rita had bustled around the room, making herself a newspaper office, Gracie still sat cross legged on the floor, where she felt most comfortable.
"I wouldn't want a giant baby. I think you'd be terribly discriminated against. Besides, you'd have to carry her everywhere because no one would sell a big enough pram." Gracie nodded sagely and began to doodle on her parchment. Rita it seemed, was finally prepared.
"Oh, isn't it?" Tracy, Stephen, and their giant babies immediately forgotten. "What are we going to write about first?" Gracie was already slipping easily into the role of Pinky to Rita's Brain.
Word count: 419 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: (: |
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Post by rita colline skeeter on Feb 26, 2011 20:32:27 GMT -5
Rita listened half-heartedly to Gracie as she pattered on about giants and babies. It was stuff fit for the National Inquirer for sure, but Rita was looking for something a little more real for the Hogwarts Press. She busied herself into organizing her desk, all of her notes, and ideas, and finally settled and looked up unamused at Gracie. "That's great dear." She nodded curtly, forgetting who Tracie actually was, and the fact that Gracie had even wondered if giant babies were possible. She scratched her head, and pulled on her glasses. Rita was never seen in public with glasses on, at least not during her school years would she be. The only people that ever saw her this way were Gracie and Ivan. Oh Ivan.. He didn't seem to care about her nerdish appearance.
Peering at Gracing through the slightly thick lenses, Rita flashed her a smile of approval. "I'm so glad you're as excited about this as me. I was thinking that we'd start with the party Kyndrick Laurent held a few days ago." She pulled out a new piece of parchment and dipped her quill in a fresh bottle of ink. This was it, the first issue of the year. Of course everyone expected the party to be of most importance, and so it would be the feature article. But Rita had loads of things to tell, she had plenty of little secrets bubbling up inside of her. She'd seen so much, she'd heard so many tongues wagging, it was going to be a good year for journalism.
"Of course, there is also that strange story about the Shrieking Shack." The feather on her quill danced along her temple as she thought. "Hmm, probably just another tall tale..nothing to concern ourselves with." Rita grinned at Gracie and leaned forward to hand her a long list of names present at the pre-sorting chamber party. It was probably best if they got straight to work, no use bothering their brains with useless information.
three hundred and thirty-five |
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Post by grace elizabeth davies on Mar 24, 2011 18:27:11 GMT -5
“That’s a good idea!” Gracie parroted like the good minion she was. Even though she had been late to that party, thanks to a remedial charms tutorial, Gracie still managed to catch an awful lot of action. “I think Kyndrick always throws the best parties. Did Ivan get a lot of photographs? Did he get any of Frank and Hunter’s fight? That was really scary.” Gracie was always silently thankful that she hadn’t ended up in Gryffindor or Slytherin. They were always fighting with each other, sometimes with wands, sometimes with their fists. Gracie wasn’t good at either form of fighting, though at least her flailing arms couldn’t blow up a building the way her shoddy wand work might.
“Why do you think they were fighting?” Gracie asked in a dreamy voice. She sighed, romantically, and answered her own question, “Do you think they were fighting over Alice Logan? I saw Cassandra Penderghast talking to Alice right before the fight. Maybe she was telling her about Hunter! Like a wing man!” Gracie was looking quite pleased with herself, sure she had gotten the story right.
“The food was very good. Should we mention that? Are you going to write about how much fun you had with Holden Avery? Isn’t he supposed to be dating Molly Penderghast? Are they in an open relationship? Is that scandalous?” Gracie always forgot if open relationships were supposed to be bad or not. She did know that a significant number of boys she snogged claimed to be in one, and of course she believed them. In Gracie’s world, open relationships were quite common!
“I heard,” Gracie switched topics with ease, lowing her voice to a dramatic whisper. She looked conspiratorially to her left, then to her right, where she was briefly startled by the brooms. How silly, she had forgotten they were in the broom closet! “I heard that someone is raising banshees in the Shrieking Shack. They’re going to sell them as pets in Knockturn Alley, and the student they found dead? Killed by her business partner because he decided he wanted 100 percent of the profits instead of 50 percent. It’s all over Hufflepuff!”
Word count: 361 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: Oh, Gracie... |
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Post by rita colline skeeter on Mar 30, 2011 14:40:38 GMT -5
Rita glanced up at Grace as she talked. It was great to have her on the team as she was usually filled to the brim with information and gossip. Gracie saw everything that happened around the school. Rita prided herself on her own spying skills, but she usually only implemented them when a particularly great story was on the tip of her quill. Rita had standards, or so she thought she did, and it was up to Gracie to fill in the rest of the Hogwarts Press. Still, sometimes it was hard to decide whether Grace's good qualities were capable of out weighing the strange ones. Rita's eyes tended to glaze over when Grace was speaking, especially about things that were all over Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff was an area that Rita couldn't control, a place that Gracie was let loose without Rita's sharp, guiding touch.
"I think we could mention the food, perhaps in a sentence or so, but we should really focus on....NO! I mean, uhm no we won't write anything about me and Avery. That was, personal." She spoke, shaking off the slight embarrassment at being watched when she was the watcher. Holden was a foot hold in a step up to the top, but that wasn't news worthy, and Rita wouldn't let it be. She smiled at Gracie sweetly and she dipped her quill into the blue ink pot she had bought specially for this purpose. "So we have the party we're going to make our feature article. And all about Longbottom and Logan, Rein and the Penderghast one. Oh and there was some interesting tension between Willis and the new girl. She's so strange...I think we should do a piece on her." Rita jotted down the names and basic concepts, her grin growing larger every moment.
There was so much that Rita wanted to write. She wanted to get all out in the open, to show that she was skilled in something important too. No one wanted to admit that they needed Rita or Grace to do their spying for them, but everyone would read the Hogwarts Press. Everyone would pick it up for the news of the day, for the stories that they had missed while they were studying away or out on their own for the night. Rita wanted to show that she was necessary, and this was the way to do it. She gracefully dipped her quill from the ink to the parchment, and let it dance across the parchment telling the story of Hogwarts. That's what this was, this was the story of Hogwarts and when the times went down into Professor Binns' history book, they'd have all of the emotion and detail as the day it happened...all because they were lucky enough to have Rita Skeeter.
four hundred and sixty-seven |
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Post by grace elizabeth davies on Apr 3, 2011 19:24:12 GMT -5
That was actually a highly accurate assessment of Gracie. The girl truly had little to no standards. Not when it came to her friends, nor to her romantic liaisons, and certainly not when it came to gossip. She also lacked any sort of filter. As long as it was interesting to Gracie, and let’s be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot going on at Hogwarts that wasn’t interesting to Gracie, it was worth discussing. Everything that was passed around Hufflepuff in the evenings, most of it idle gossip, or stories embellished to scare the first years, was highly interesting to Gracie. She believed it! Anyone with half a brain knew one couldn’t breed banshees, but Gracie’s neurons spent a lot of time misfiring, so...
“We should focus on No?” Gracie asked, curiosity practically dripping off her words. A person Gracie didn’t know! Who was this mysterious No, and what did he or she have to do with Rita and Holden Avery? “What house is No in? Does he have any siblings? I would rather read about Molly and Holden, but if you say No is more interesting, then he must be amazing!” Gracie really didn’t comprehend the whole climbing the social ladder thing, which was why she needed Rita. Just like Rita needed Gracie to fill the pages of the Hogwarts press, Gracie needed Rita to be her filter, to keep her alive. The newspaper was Rita’s brainchild, her brilliant endeavour, and her shrewd attitude towards it was what made it a success. If left to her own devices, Gracie would write about everything indiscriminately, and then both Rita and Gracie would be in a ton of hot water. Though it wouldn’t comfort Rita, to Gracie, the Ravenclaw was already necessary.
“Which Willis?” Gracie asked, switching gears with ease. She had been nodding along, agreeing with all the party stories. This was going to be one very thick issue! Maybe people would use it for paperweights when they were done reading them. “We should mention that Amelia Bones was there! She’s so nice, and I’m glad she came to have fun! Even if she had to leave again when Frank Longbottom asked her to take Hunter away. He was completely frozen solid! I never would have thought of that.” No, because that would require thinking.
“Are you going to mention the circus? Have you been yet? Some of the Hufflepuffs went, but they said I couldn’t come because they were using a secret passageway.” Gracie was surprisingly nonchalant for someone excluded, but they had painted some fancy tale about how it was dangerous and poor Gracie wouldn’t be able to handle it, and Gracie had eaten the tale like it was a particularly delicious breakfast.
Word count: 455 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: PLEASE, WON'T SOMEONE TELL HER WHO NO IS? |
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Post by rita colline skeeter on Apr 12, 2011 21:01:24 GMT -5
There was no knowing what was going to come out of Gracie's mouth next. There was no knowing what was happening inside that skull of hers. Was she flipping through pages of ideas and notes she had compiled since yesterday? Was she watching and reliving life as if it was a television sitcom? Or was she simply just opening her mouth and letting the words fall out while her brain focused on the buzzing of a fly? Rita was concerned, generally, when she thought that she might actually have to explain the existence, or rather the nonexistence of "no", but thankfully, Gracie switched suddenly to new thoughts. That, at least, was the one predictable side of the girl...if only Rita could devise a way to figure out what new story she was going to have to actually research next.
"Well, Gracie dear, Kevin Willis wasn't present that evening, so it was Ryan." she spoke with a sweet mustard covering up her horseradish words, and a smile plastered across her face. She needed Gracie's help with the Hogwarts Press and couldn't handle having to look for a new friend. It was rare when people just liked you for no reason, and Rita kind of liked the attention. She flipped over a new piece of parchment for thoughts on the Circus that her dimwitted comrade had brought up. "The circus! Gracie that's a great idea." Rita hadn't made a trip yet, but she was planning on bring lots of parchment with her when she did. And she had been practicing in charms and transfiguration to make her latest head band into a sort of motion camera. She'd wear it like Marlene had done at the party, and get vital footage for later use...she just needed to figure out the charms end.
"A secret passage? There's a secret passage into Hogsmeade?" Rita perked up, realizing the true value of this new information. No she wouldn't publish it, that would be a dishonor to the whole of the student body, but she'd use it to make all kinds of extra trips into the thick of the wizarding world. "Gracie, I have a job for you. Find us that passage when you go back to your common room." Rita stopped it at that. She didn't exactly feel like she needed to tell Gracie why, it might paint a bad picture of her, and well...she was pretty sure that Gracie would it it anyway.
four hundred and eleven |
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Post by grace elizabeth davies on May 1, 2011 17:55:16 GMT -5
 “I really need to meet this No person,” Gracie mumbled to herself, making a note in her notebook. It could have easily been the end of No and his or her existence completely. But then, a miracle happened. Grace stared at the circled word on her page, furrowing her brow as if the word was a particularly difficult mathematical equation. “Oooooooh,” she drew out the word slowly, understanding dawning over her. This was not something that happened every day! The cogs were rather rusty. “Oh, how silly, that’s not a name at all,” Gracie giggled, having one of these very rare flashes of insight that proved she did, in fact, have some brain cells left over after all the minimal life function requirements were met. Breathing, digestion, etc.
Her brief wave of brilliance over, Gracie returned to beaming brightly at Rita, nodding her head in agreement to every word like she was a bobble head. “That’s so sad. Does Kevin Willis ever do anything for fun? He should date Amelia Bones! I love a good romance story. Head Boy meets Head Girl! They fall in love and have babies! Smart babies because they’re so smart, and Kevin is never, ever disappointed in them because they’re not broken wands!” Grace clasped her hands together, positively bursting with glee. Her eyes had taken on that vague look again, as she lost herself in yet another fairy tale. It was always a fairy tale with Grace. Her own father would never, ever approve of such nonsense.
If it was possible, Grace beamed even more brightly at Rita’s praise. She was brought back to earth by Rita’s words, and offered her best friend a sunny smile. “Thank you, Rita! You’re such a best, best friend!” You see, Gracie didn’t want Rita to be the only person handing out praise like candy.
“Well, that’s what everyone says! Do you think Mycah knows? He knows an awful lot you know. Maybe he knows where it is! I’ll ask him if you want,” Gracie was so eager to be of any help to Rita. She certainly wasn’t going to ask why Rita might want to know the whereabouts of a secret passage. “Do you want to use it to get Honeydukes chocolate, too? You have to leave money for the shop keeper though. Otherwise it would be stealing, and that’s bad.” Why thank you, Gracie, for that lovely lesson straight out of the Beedle and the Bard.
Word count: 410 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: Haha, omg. She is my favourite character to write, hands down. |
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Post by rita colline skeeter on May 11, 2011 16:27:38 GMT -5
Gracie obviously had an obsession with babies, and Rita couldn't help but crack a smile. The Hogwarts Press was quite important to her, it meant that she succeeded in something, but it wasn't ever going to replace the simple joys in life. And what was it that Rita found so enjoyable? Gracie and all of her different views on the world. There was something remarkable to find within those little tid bits of madness. No matter how ridiculous her stories seemed, there was no denying that Gracie saw people for who they were. She saw a little bit of truth behind all of her concocted lies. And Rita couldn't say she had ever taken any lesson out of Beetle the Bard, though she most likely read it a million times over, because Rita wasn't quite as good as Gracie. And that's why they evened out.
"Chocolate Gracie, and information." Rita glanced over at her friend over the thick rims of her glasses. "I mean think about it! We could get behind the scenes stories on the circus! And we could interview people outside of Hogwarts. And we could watch for anyone who is prone to sneaking out! Wouldn't that just be the greatest?" Rita nearly lost control over herself. She was so busy thinking up all of the many cases they could crack and all the new stories they could print. It was like Rita Skeeter, Grace Davies, and Ivan Kendall were Hogwart's own mystery team. They sniffed out all of the secrets, and like the honest reporters that they were, they shared them with the world. Hogwarts was never going to be without someone to be there at every glorious moment and catch it for all the world to experience later.
"Now, let's get writing! What stories did you want to cover?" Rita shuffled through her many pieces of parchment and glanced over all of the ideas they had been going through. There was the party, the circus, the shrieking shack. The multitude of love stories that were unfolding were like printing gold. Rita grinned manically up at Gracie, her hands filing through what was going to one day be her mark on the world. "This is so exciting! Our first printing. Let's make it unforgettable." Her voice welled up in laughter and excitement, and her eyes sparkled -- that is, if you could see them through the wall of lenses over her eyes.
four hundred and four |
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Post by grace elizabeth davies on Jul 5, 2011 20:12:43 GMT -5
Gracie’s writing and ideas seemed more of a natural fit for such fine publications as The Quibbler than it did for a newspaper attempting to be Hogwart’s answer to the Daily Prophet. Sure, the Hogwarts Press would be full of juicy gossip, perhaps with a grain of truth, or perhaps not. But Rita seemed to be aiming in the Prophet’s general direction by writing about real people instead of fake animals or conspiracy theories. It was by sheer, dumb luck that Grace was sitting in the presence of a real journalist, a real journalist asking her what she wanted to write, and not stuck off with that strange Lovegood fellow, listening intently as he babbled on about invisible things with exploding horns and other nonsense.
“I quite like chocolate. I hope someone who went to Hogsmeade shares some with me. The bars with almonds are the best!” Gracie was lost to a chocolate flavoured daydream as Rita gushed about something equally delicious – catching students breaking the rules! Gracie didn’t catch any sort of sinister subtext, she didn’t realize that sharing this information with the world would result in an awful lot of detentions, and even more vitriol in the Hogwarts Press staff’s direction. Besides, she already knew who snuck out of the school! Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. At least, those were the houses were the individuals somewhat flaunted their knowledge of the secret passageways. Hufflepuff by accidentally telling Gracie, Gryffindor with all their parties.
“I bet the Gryffindors know the secret passageways, too. They’re always having parties, with firewhiskey. You can’t just have it delivered you know... Even if people tell you that you can... You really can’t. Filch confiscates it and you end up in detention. I had to go into the forest with Hagrid and everything! Did you know there are rabbits in there? With giant fangs! I should write about that.”
But Rita wanted unforgivable, and even dim Gracie knew that fanged rabbits were not quite up to the standard. She bit her lip, deep in thought, brow furrowed over her notes. “I’ll write about the circus! That’s unforgettable, right? It hasn’t been here before!” But one article did not make a newspaper! “I’ll write about the quidditch try outs! Hufflepuff’s is tomorrow you know.”
Word count: 377 Tagged: Rita Skeeter Notes: LACK OF MUSE! Consider yourself beaten. |
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