A Taste of Magic

Chapter 65: 65th Course - A Festive Festival

"You made a deal with Rita Skeeter?!" Neville exclaimed; eyes wide.

"You know you did something when Neville acts like that and it's not about plant stuff," Parvati remarked.

They were making the finishing touches on the clothing that Lavender was sewing as well as a few small things she wanted to sell: handkerchiefs, bandannas, scarves, and other small things. Harry had finished his recipes and did all the preparations he could do before the Festival itself, and had thrown himself fully into helping Lavender along with the others. Harry, Lavender, Parvati, Hermione, and Neville were working together in the clubroom and Harry had mentioned the name to the others, wondering if they knew of her.

Hermione and Lavender did not while Parvati was somewhat familiar with Neville being very familiar.

"Is she really that bad?" Lavender asked worriedly.

"She's terrible!" Neville said. "She's ruined people with her writing and half of the time, it's not completely true!"

"How does she get away with it?" Hermione asked. "Aren't libel laws a thing in the Wizarding World?"

"Oh I know the answer to that, it depends on the country," Parvati said. "It also depends on how powerful the publication is as well if they can ignore the complaints or not or how willing people are to settle outside of a court."

"She's popular too," Neville said, uneasily. "She's really dangerous. She was going to write something that involved my family a while back but she backed down when Grandmum hunted her down and publicly challenged her to a duel."

"Oh wow," Lavender breathed. "She did that? She seems so sweet."

"She does seem sweet," Neville said in a knowing tone. "But yeah, you don't mess with her at all."

"Your grandmum or Skeeter?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Neville replied.

The door opened and Sue, Padma, and Luna walked in. "Hey, do you remember someone named Skeeter?" Parvati asked her sister.

"The journalist? Mum always said to never talk to her if we could help it. Grandmum said we could but only if it involved a Curse," Padma said.

"Oh that's who they were talking about? Why don't I remember that?"

"Probably because we were giggling over her name," Padma said. She flushed at the amused looks from the others. "We were kids, okay? Skeeter is a funny name."

"You have to be very careful with her," Luna said in a very firm voice.

"Oh wow, for you to say that, that's something," Sue said, shocked.

"She can be very nasty," Luna said. "She and Daddy have had words before and even Daddy won't always publish what she writes."

The Slytherins arrived then and Neville looked at Pansy. "I can't believe you made a deal with Rita Skeeter."

"It'll be fine," Pansy protested, ignoring the look from Daphne. "I'm sure it will." She looked away. "I think," she said under her breath and stifled a yelp when Millicent kicked her.

"That's rather brave of you to trust her," Luna said. "I was just saying Daddy doesn't publish everything from her."

"Look, I'm fairly sure it might work out in our favor," Pansy said, holding her hands up. She definitely ignored Daphne's accusing look. "At best, she writes about our teamwork and Harry's cooking and things will work out well. At worst, she writes her usual biased drivel that the masses will lap up and we might have some discomfort in public for a bit of time and then it all blows over when she sinks her claws into something new."