Untouchable: a Fred Weasley fanfiction

A Curious Little Thing

Rita Skeeter... is quite the look.

The first thing I notice is her piercing red lipstick. After that, her eyes are staring me down like I'm a specimen under a microscope, a shining, buzzing new discovery that's got her long, pointed nails already drumming along her hip.

Her blonde hair is all wrapped up on top of her head in this sort of tight beehive and she's clearly into style– if that's what she's calling it– by the looks of her orange, satin dress that's hugging her curves and her neck that's sporting a thick, blue boa, draping down to her collarbones.

"Ah..." she sighs, extending the word as far as it can go, "yes, aren't you a curious little thing?"

I blink. I know one thing for sure– no one has ever called me "little" before.

"Come, come!" She chirps enthusiastically, motioning to McGonagall's desk. "Your dear headmistress has given me permission to make myself comfortable. so it's only proper that you do the same, hm?"

She flashes a toothy smile. I awkwardly offer one back, but it's strained.

I slowly follow her up to the desk and watch as she tugs out McGonagall's chair, lowering into the seat and crossing one leg over the other. I sit down opposite of her, both hands on my knees. I feel as though there should be a spotlight.

She clears her throat incredibly dramatically and whips out a notepad. I expect her to hold one dainty, red-polished-fingernail-hand up after pulling out a quill as well, but instead, a quill pops out on its own, floating above the notepad.

"So, tell me, Jolie..."

"Uh, Jo," I correct. "It's just... Jo."

There's that smile again. "Of course it is."

She leans forward, placing a long nail on her chin and eyeing me.

"Jo Carter," she says, "a girl on the precipice of the grand world around her, graduation at her fingertips... launched into a new habitat before her very last year of schooling. Surely, there must have been a reason for such a change of scenery."

My brow furrows.

"You were expelled, yes?" She taps her notebook, as if ordering the quill.

"No," I quickly respond, "no, I wasn't expelled, I was... I was transferred. That's all."

"At the last minute," she says. "How peculiar, how incredibly..."

She purses her lips–

"Rousing." She taps the parchment again. The quill scribbles.

I try to sit up a bit to see what it's writing, but the notebook quickly tilts up, shielding itself from my field of view. Damnit.

"Tell me," Rita snaps excitedly, "was it the discovery of your unimaginable powers that frightened those at Beauxbatons into sending you hurling into the unfamiliar halls of the Hogwarts castle?"

"What?" I try to backpedal. "No, I– no one knew back there. I mean, hell, I didn't even know."

"Mm," is all she says before continuing: "Well, I'm sure the unknown twists and turns of a new environment were enough to trigger a young girl like you, still ripe with development and... raw, vulnerable emotion."

"What, like... like a new school sent me into a spiral?" I scoff. "No, that's... well, I mean, it was hard at first, but..."

"Hard?" She cuts in. The quill picks up speed. "Do elaborate. And try to use buzz words, dear. Disarming? Foreign? An ocean of unfamiliarity brimming with the potential for chaos?"