Meeting with a recalcitrant employee

// THIS IS AN OLD CHAPTER. THE NEW CHAPTERS ARE IN VOLUME 2. YOU CAN READ THESE CHAPTERS IF YOU WANT SOME INSIGHT ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN LATER BUT SOME EVENTS CAN BE DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW CHAPTERS.

This Friday I have potions class, one of the few classes where I'm with Potter. I can't wait to be alone with him in this cemetery, I spend a good part of the class imagining the worst scenarios I could put him through. Maybe I should let this sadist of Tom play with him a bit before I finish him off. Okay, I guess I will have more inspiration when I will be there there.

Snape was about to force Harry, who looked crazy with his hysterical eyes, to gulp some poison when Colin Creevey poked his tiny head in the classroom.

"Excuse me sir, I have to take Harry and Sean upstairs."

"Well, you'll wait until the end of class, Potter has not finished drinking his poison yet." Colin seems shocked when he hears Snape's response.

"You want to kill Harry?"

"Not kill him, fool, I want to test his work on antidotes." Colin seems to breathe again. I should have modified his personality a little more. Every time I see him, I tell myself that I would rather see him crawling on the ground.

"Bones, Potter, get your things together. You're lucky enough to survive this class, ... for now." I know it's bullshit, the contract would never allow Snape to give me poison and he knows it.

We leave the room as the Slytherin students activate their 'Potter the loser' badges. We follow Colin through the halls of the castle, most of them covered with posters in the style of 'Potter the liar' or 'Potter, crazier you die'. You can say what you want about Pansy and Draco but when it comes to bullying the students, they have some talent. Maybe I should send them out to take a picture of Harry in the shower for them to display everywhere.

We arrive in front of a classroom, when Colin opens the door for me like a good servant, I can see Viktor in a corner of the room and Fleur sitting on a bench quietly waiting for the start of the ceremony. As soon as we walk through the door, Ludo Verpey, one of the judges and tournament organizer, calls out to us.

"Ah here are our last champions, come and take a seat, this is only the wands examination ceremony, as soon as the other judges are here, we can start. In the meantime, this is Rita Skeeter, she is going to cover the Triwizard Tournament for the Daily Prophet. "

Rita Skeeter is a truly disgusting woman with her questionable dress style, a crocodile skin bag and gemstone coated glasses, a completely ridiculous new rich look.

"By the way, I was wondering if I could ask Potter a few quick questions before the ceremony begins." The hyena has already sniffed out some good meat, Harry is in such a psychological state that I don't think the intimidation I had planned against Rita is necessary to get her to write a bad article about Potter.

"Why not? If Harry agrees I have no objection." Potter nods and Rita takes him to a small closet along the wall.

I remain seated on a bench awaiting the imminent arrival of Dumbledore, who ends up arriving with Ollivander, the wand maker. He looks at everyone in the room and seems to notice Harry's absence.

"Where's Harry Potter?"

"In the closet with Rita Skeeter, he's probably giving her something to make a great article." Dumbledore panics when he hears my answer and rushes to the closet.

He brings out Harry who comes to line up with us while Rita goes to position herself against the wall of the room with her photographer. All the champions seem uncomfortable next to Harry, he seems to be more psychologically stable, but I don't want to let my guard down anymore. I've already let myself be fooled once, there won't be a second time.

"Well now that you are all gathered, it is time to begin the wands examination ceremony. We are going to check that your wands, the essential tool for all wizards, are still in good condition. For this we have brought in an expert in the person of Mr. Ollivander. " Ludo Verpey stands in front of the directors to explain precisely what the ceremony consists of.

"Miss Delacour, we will start with you if you don't mind." Fleur walks towards Ollivander.

He examines Fleur and Viktor's wands without having anything to say about their general condition. They are impeccably well maintained. Now it's my turn to get my wand examined by Ollivander.

"Mister Bones, it's been a while since we last saw each other, but I remember your wand very well, one of my most original creations." I hand him my wand and he begin to examine it. However, after a while he begins to frown with incomprehension.

"This is very strange. The exterior of the wand is very well maintained. However, I see very little wear trace that a wand used for four years should have, it is as if it had hardly ever been used. On the other hand, the core of the wand is badly damaged as if it had been used to cast extremely powerful spells too often. It is very curious, but I cannot let Mr. Bones participate in the tournament with a wand in such state. He'll have to come to my workshop to fix it. "Everyone seems amazed by Ollivander's expertise on my wand. I didn't think anyone could have discovered so much just by looking at my wand.

"Good Mr. Potter's turn now." Harry takes out his wand and holds it out towards Ollivander, whose face is twisted with disgust. Harry's wand is in a mess, the wood is cracked in several places, and shards are leaking from the wand all over the place. "I don't think I need to examine it in more detail to say that this wand is clearly not usable in a tournament. You might have to buy yourself a new one, Mr. Potter."

Rita Skeeter does not miss a thing and her quill is having a blast on her little notebook.

"Good, thank you all. Class is going to be over soon so you might want to go to the Great Hall for dinner." While Fleur, Krum and Harry were already turning around, Ludo Verpey jump from his seat.

"The pictures, Dumbledore, the pictures!" The photoshoot that followed lasted an eternity, between Rita who absolutely wanted Harry in the front and the too imposing size of Madame Maxime which complicated everything.

"That will be all for today. Try to get some dinner while the meal is still served in the Great Hall." Dumbledore leaves the room accompanied by the other Headmasters and Champions. But I stay behind to have a discussion with Rita Skeeter who is putting away her equipment with her photographer.

"Mrs. Skeeter? Could we chat for a moment please? " I attract two chairs that fly across the room to land in front of us and sit on the one closest to me.

"Of course! I think I already have enough to write a good article, but I wouldn't say no to a few more confidences." She takes out her Quick-Quotes Quill from her bag and a piece of parchment. I grab the quill as it lands on the parchment and break it in half, letting the pieces fall to the floor.

"You won't need it during this conversation." Rita looks scandalized, I resume my sentence before she can get angry, and the conversation turns sour. "Miss Skeeter, do you know where the Daily Prophet money comes from?"

"Well from our sales of course!" I can't help but laugh at such a naive and ignorant response from one of the leading Journalists of the Daily Prophet. "And maybe some subsidies from the ministry as well." Ha that's slightly better.

"Yes, of course the ministry must give you a little something to keep you in line, but it cannot give you too much money under penalty of being said that you have a bias in each article even if it's true. " She looks at me but doesn't seem to understand where I'm going. "The money for the Daily Prophet comes from the investments of some very influential wizarding families. Now Miss Skeeter who is actually the main investor of the Wizard's Gazette?"

"I do not know." Rita is more and more restless on her chair and her photographer run off as soon as he saw the quill snap in two.

"Well, I'm happy to report that the primary investor of the Daily Prophet is the Bones family, which is me by the way. The second one is some really good friends of mine, the Malfoy family. So, I am more or less your boss's boss, and that makes you my employee. " Rita, who begins to understand the situation, leans slightly on her chair, clearly showing her cleavage. "Now, I don't think I need to specify that if your next articles do not please me there will be some consequences. Such as, for example, the hiring of a new young and talented journalist who will unfortunately have to take your place in the Daily Prophet. On the other hand, if I am satisfied with what I read, an increase in your salary could be possible. I will let you choose what you are going to write, but remember that in the end, I'm the one who will choose what will be published or not."

It doesn't take long for Rita to make up her mind and strike an even more seductive pose. "And what would you like to see written sir?"