Bending the Rules

People had never noticed Rita until she started at the Daily Prophet. She had always been just average. The more unkind distant relatives said that she was as plain as a pikestaff and as dull as dishwater. Where did average take you? It took you nowhere fast and if you were lucky - middle management mediocrity at the Ministry. At the age of 15, Rita swore to herself that she would never be average again.

Rita had been born in the dead of winter and the middle child of five. She was always too young to share in her older sisters' whisperings about the merits of this boy or that one and too old to play with the little ones without being bored to tears. There was only so long you could play 'Mummies and Daddies' or be an experiment for make up and new hairstyles. She was never the clever one or the pretty one or even the trouble maker, it was always just a distracted pat on the head and being told to be good. And where did good get you? It got you nowhere fast and having to put up with being petted or feted or cajoled in turn. No-one ever noticed the good one and being good got you nowhere. It was always the pretty ones or the clever ones or just the ones with enough gumption to grab what they want that rose to the top.

At Hogwarts, Rita thought she might get noticed. But who would notice a quiet Slytherin in the corner of the common room when the lights of the Black sisters outshone everyone else in the room? They knew what they wanted and took it. Even when they left, rumour had it that Severus Snape got a grudging respect and no-one mentioned that it was partly a leftover from when he was a pet mascot of those who ran with Bellatrix Black. And of course, no-one could fail to miss those jumped up Gryffindor upstarts - James Potter, Sirius Black and their pack. By all accounts, they always managed to keep the spotlight firmly focused on them at any given opportunity.

Rita supposed she had her epiphany at 15 after her careers advice talk. She was sick of Slughorn fawning over his favourites and those that he considered had 'potential' and she realised that no-one was going to hand her a job on a silver platter. She would just have to grab what she wanted with both hands. She started to use the skills that been honed over the years as part of the Slytherin legacy - who's got the power and how can they be convinced into giving you more than your fair share?

Idle gossip has never been a crime, has it? All it takes is embroidering things slightly but keeping a kernel of the truth at the centre. After all, it makes life a little more interesting. Your life is always so dull compared to other people's. Just 'accidentally' mentioning that the editor of the Prophet was seen looking quite cosy with a witch who was definitely not his wife and who looked quite like that bint who sat on the front desk doing her nails was enough to get her foot in the door. It wasn't strictly blackmail as such. She just made an idle suggestion that perhaps if she got offered a job as a junior reporter, she might forget what she had seen. Rita snorted at the memory. For someone who was meant to be clever, he certainly wasn't very worldly.

Stupid pillock. He clearly hadn't learnt that in order to get where you want you might have to fight for it and not everyone played by the rules. Rita had tried playing by the rules and that road would only lead her to wanting to slit her wrists. Bending the rules a little never hurt anyone. Did it?