"My Lord," Rita said in greeting, flashing him a smile as she stepped forward out of the shadows, letting her outer robe fall open, revealing that she was wearing a style of outfit similar to ones he had chosen for her during the summer in preparation for Sirius' court case.
Returning the smile, he privately suspected that her motivation for wearing such an outfit was solely for his approval and hoping to get in his good books, but the question was why? He could simply ask her and get a straight answer due to the magical bindings forcing her honesty, but where was the challenge in that? "You have the items that I requested?" he asked, getting straight down to business since he had a limited amount of time before other students and professors noticed that he was missing from the castle.
"Of course, just as you requested," she answered, while handing him a brown leather shoulder bag that looked a bit like a handbag, but at the same time, didn't.
Letting his smile grow, he quickly went through the bag, checking that it had the necessary materials he needed to craft a ward. "Good job," he complimented, looking up at the reporter. "I'll have Bloodmoon transfer the gold you paid for this." He patted the bag. "Along with something a little extra for your troubles," he finished generously, since Rita had come through for him awfully quickly, and it only made sense to encourage such actions by rewarding such efforts.
"Thank you, you're most generous," she said demurely, clearly trying to keep him pleased with her.
"I reward people who do well," he replied simply, looking over his shoulder as he heard noise, just to see some distracted wizard walk by the alleyway entrance, paying the pair no notice at all. "I think I may have to get you a Christmas present this year."
Grinning proudly, she added, "My Lord, I didn't have to pay for it," stepping forward more.
"You didn't steal it, did you?" he asked carefully. He didn't want to steal someone's livelihood. Plus, he didn't want the Ministry to get involved, since Rita's value to him was her ability and discretion. Without that, he had little need of her. After all, there were other reporters.
"Oh no, not as such," she replied, but before she could say any more they heard voices growing louder, causing them both to slip into the shadows as more shoppers passed on by, as they waited in silence.
"Maybe a privacy charm or ward?" he suggested, causing Rita to start flicking her wand for 30 seconds, muttering a string of enchantments under her breath.
She put her wand away before carrying on with her explanation, "I just happened to have some dirt on a Ministry warder and he proved more than willing to provide me with the items to meet your requirements."
"Well, that saves a bit of gold," he admitted, before examining her. "You took the necessary precautions?"
"Of course, it's not my first time trying my hand at a bit of blackmail over the years."
"It seems I underestimated you, Rita," he said, deciding to keep a closer eye on his reporter.
"Thank you."
"Is there anything else I should know?"
Reaching into her handbag and pulling out a file filled with aged parchment, she answered, "Just this," handing him the file.
"What am I looking at?" he said, taking the offered file before he started flipping through the documents.
"Madam Umbridge has just been appointed Undersecretary by the new Minister of Magic. She's very anti-creature in her beliefs, she's a career politician for the most part, and she's followed Minister Fudge from position to position as he advanced up the ladder. However, early on in her career some thirty years ago she was caught up in a bit of a scandal."
"Which was?" he inquired, looking over the documents, interested in learning as much as possible about the new Ministry power players. Looking at the provided photo, he decided that she looked rather like a toad, less than average height and... why pink? Looking at her choice of outfit, he surprisingly found a more horrible outfit than Rita's green... thing. He read her Hogwarts exam result scores, finding she was an average witch at best, nothing special really, before moving on to the teacher notes on her extreme anti-creature views.
"Her boss and father were caught illegally hunting werewolves. Evidence shows that they would pick werewolves up off the street and dump them in warded reserves and hunted them as sport," Rita explained, turning her nose up in disgust. "Turns out, they ran a business of providing 'game' for hunters as far as reports show. Their lands and title were forfeited, but whispers remain that our dear Undersecretary was involved in the whole business."
He closed the file, disgusted at what he was being told. Killing a werewolf was fine as far as he was concerned, as long as you were in real danger, but for sport? That was just wrong.
"Interesting. I would like you to keep an eye on her if possible, and discreetly discredit her without appearing to be openly hostile," he ordered, since Remus was living with Sirius, and as much as he disliked the guy, he was Sirius' best friend. He would send a copy of the file to Sirius later so he could keep an eye on her as well. After all, he was only a second-year; it wasn't his job to do all this work. He was just gaining intel on government players. "Any dirt you find on her, put in a file. It might be useful for later."
"Of course, I just thought I would make you aware. You did task me with protecting your interests as well as your allies," she said, referring back to the bank.
"Yes, thank you," he answered back, shrinking the file and placing it in his robes.
"Is there anything else you need of me?" she said, her voice turning sultry as she moved into his personal space, "Anything at all I can help you with?"
"Not right now. However, I may require you in the next couple of weeks." He planned on testing the Animagus Wards on the annoying reporter. "Now I think we're both done for today, and I need to return to school before I'm missed." He then called things to a close before walking down the alleyway to slip back into the pub to use the hidden passageway to get back into the school.
Before he left the alley, he looked over his shoulder, "Rita, I approve of the outfit," he complimented, finding her far more bearable when dressing in sensible colors. Now he just had to slip back into school before DADA began. He half considered skipping the lesson, before deciding it would draw too much attention to him.
---
Defence Against the Dark Arts Classroom
"Mr. Potter, would you care to assist me with a demonstration? I need someone to play the part of a vampire," the DADA professor instructed under the guise of a question.
Mentally groaning at the request, before answering as nicely as possible, "No, thank you, sir," he answered, hating the professor's sudden new interest in him, as the rest of the male population sniggered.
"Come on, don't be shy," the professor said, not taking a polite 'no' for an answer as the sniggers became less discreet.
Quickly coming up with an excuse, he rattled off, "I'm afraid I can't, sir. Matron's orders, you understand," faking regret in his voice.
"Oh?" was all the professor managed to say, clearly not expecting that excuse, as the rest of the class watched the unfolding display.
"I injured my ankle and shoulder in the Quidditch game. The school nurse ordered me to stay off of it as much as possible and not undertake anything too physically demanding," he answered quickly, giving the teacher a plausible excuse.
"Oh..." the ponce replied, clearly disappointed at the news.
"However, if you're looking for volunteers, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy were quite eager to try a bit of acting themselves. They even practised while they were waiting for you to arrive for class," he said, with a barely hidden smirk, causing the professor to beam at the news and turn his attention towards the mentioned students, who seemed to pale, since they had been openly mocking the professor rather than acting.
"Ron happens to do a very good impression of a troll, and Draco was quite insistent that he could do a better vampire impersonation than anyone in the castle," Harry added fuel to the fire, smirking openly as the professor's attention was directed elsewhere.
"Excellent! I didn't know we had two such talented performers in our class!" Lockhart said loudly, smiling brightly, flashing his sparkling smile, the same smile that had won Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile contest over five times. "Come on, boys, let's put on a show for the class!"
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