𝐏𝐘𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀 | Remus Lupin (2)

(𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟗) skeeter

"Do you know where I can find Rita?" Athena asked looking up curiously.

"She's residing in the three broomsticks last time I checked" Aurora mused, "why?"

"I need to talk to her" Athena replied simply as she gathered herself to her feet.

"That's not a good idea" her sister shook her head, "I don't want you doing or saying anything stupid or she'll write an article about you next"

"Yeah?" Athena scoffed, "what's she going to say about me?"

"She'll make something up Rena, twist your words like she does with everyone else" Aurora reasoned.

"I'm not scared of her" Athena replied as she walked out of the office with her next destination in mind.

☽☽☽

Athena walked into the three broomsticks already with a temper. The words from Rita's article had been revolving in her mind which meant she was angered with the woman. She didn't understand her malicious intent towards children. In her opinion, Rita was one of the worst that there was.

She was sat in the corner with a skinny man who was writing down everything that she said. Rita kept referring to him as Bozo and by the way that he stared at her, he could be in love.

"Rita?"  Athena asked coldly as she made her way over, "do you have a minute?"

The woman looked up in surprise and her eyes lit up once she saw Athena standing in front of her. Her eyes moved over as though looking for a story, not that she'd find one. Athena was sure that she couldn't make up anything bad enough to cause Athena to hide away. Rita was a bully, end of story.

"I'm quite busy at the moment actually" Rita replied, gripping her hands over her crocodile bag.

"Make time" Athena replied shortly, "give us a minute" she added to the man sitting opposite Rita. He looked to his boss for conformation and Rita nodded her head stiffly telling him to listen.

The man named Bozo moved out of his seat and walked away towards the door leaving the vacant spot open for Athena to sit down.

"I suppose this is about the article I wrote about that Granger girl and the precious chosen one?" She asked lightly.

"I did want to talk about that yes" Athena replied shortly, "frankly I think you're quite disgusting, making up stories and writing crude words about two fourteen year old kids. Do you ever read back over your work and realise how vile you are?"

"Watch your tongue, I am taking time out of my day—"

"Harry and Hermione deserve nothing that you've written and I think you knew that Hermione would get a negative response when you wrote that article, in fact I think that's exactly why you did it. To get revenge for her pointing out your wrongs with Hagrid's article. Does it ever get tiring for you, going to war with teenagers? You're supposed to be an adult so for gods sake grow up"

"Is that all?" Rita asked in a bored tone.

"No it's not" Athena shook her head, "I'm not sure how you're getting into the castle even after Dumbledore personally told you to stay away but however you're doing it, we'll figure it out"

"Will you now?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Yes and when I do, I will personally report you to the ministry for breaking the terms of your visit here and make sure you never write for that silly little paper again"

"Good luck with that" Rita rolled her eyes, "the prophet would be so very dry without me there, now if that's all you wanted to say I have places to be—"

"That's not all" Athena muttered as she sat back in her seat, "I wanted to talk to you about your sister, Carol"

Rita looked up in surprise and for the first time Athena saw an emotion in her which wasn't calculated to make her look certain way. She'd been completely caught off guard and obviously not expecting Athena to bring up her sister.

"You want to talk about... Carol?" Rita asked in a shaky voice, "what do you know about her?"

"Not a lot" Athena frowned, "I want her to stay away from me and stay away from the castle, she shouldn't be there even less than you should be there and I don't appreciate her approaching me after what she did. If she's your source of information, I will find out"

"I'm sorry but you've made some kind of mistake" Rita interrupted looking very flustered, "my sister hasn't been near the castle since she was fifteen years old, magic wasn't for her"

"I saw her at the Yule ball the other day" Athena replied.

"You're mistaken" Rita continued, now definitely looking upset, "whoever you saw wasn't Carol"

"What do you mean?"

"My sister has been missing for years" Rita looked up, "she went missing walking home from her job as a publicist in the muggle world... I haven't seen her since... we looked for her for years but last year the ministry said it was no good... they said she probably..."

Rita's voice faded out into nothing as she stared out of the window.

"That doesn't make sense, when did she go missing?"

"1991" Rita replied, "I remember it like it was yesterday"

"1991?" Athena frowned, "but that's when I met her... or maybe it was 92... she started working for my ex boyfriend... Ben... she was publishing his book, in fact she did publish his book, I got a copy of it"

"That can't be right" Rita jumped up suddenly, "whoever that was, wasn't Carol"

"She introduced herself as Carol Skeeter... she looked like you"

"You're mistaken" Rita snapped, "if this is some big ruse to get me to feel bad for the stories I wrote them you've stooped very low Athena Sinistra, very low indeed"

"No that's not what I—"

But before Athena could say another word, Rita had turned on her heel and walked straight out of the three broomsticks leaving Athena feeling more confused than ever.

Had this been going on for longer than she'd thought? Did this mean that she'd never known the real Carol? Whoever had been impersonating her had been doing so for years. For so long that her identity was solid. So how come no one had figured this out before? She'd been living as a muggle but had no one realised her secret?

If people were out looking for her she would have been caught. Nothing made sense and Athena left the three broomsticks with the answers opposite to what she had expected. She was nowhere nearer to figuring out what was going on and she began to get the distinct impression that she was never going to get to the bottom of this.

☽☽☽

A/n
Words - 2195
Published - 19th June 2021