SKEETER, Rita Bell

Rita Bell Skeeter


________________________
"IT'S REAL FOR US. NOT FOR HER.
WE'LL GET THE LETTER, YOU AND ME."
• the basics • the basics • the basics •
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( FULL NAME ) : Rita Bell Skeeter
( NICKNAMES ) : "Queen of Quills" via her collection of quills
( SEX ) : Female
( BLOOD TYPE ) : Half-blood
( AGE & DOB ) : 16 years old / June 4
( YEAR ) : 6th year
( HOUSE ) : Hufflepuff
( CANON? ) : Yest
( OCCUPATION ) : Student
( AFFILIATION ) : Neutral
( SEXUAL ORIENTATION ) : Hetrosexual
( WAND ) : Rita was chosen by a flexible, 10 in., Leopard wood wand with a Serpent Scale core.

( LIKES ) :

• Gossip
  
• Warm weather
  
• the library (although some like to study, there are lots of whispering words in there and lots of bookcases for her to hide behind)
  
• Amanuensis Quills Shop
  
• Hogsmead’s trips
  

( DISLIKES ) :

• stoic personalities
  
• the color black
  
• seafood
  
• silence
  
• darkness
  

( STRENGTHS ) :

• potions (like father like daughter)
  
• writing
  
• getting people to talk (especially getting them to make Freudian slips)
  
• Transfiguration
  

( WEAKNESSES ) :

• Astronomy
  
• Fear of heights (flying classes were quite the challenge)
  
• Her want for money and popularity sometimes lead her down the wrong path
  

( AMORTENTIA ) :

• quill ink
  
• galleons
  
• rain
  

( RIDDIKULUS! ) : The edge of the Black Lake
( EXPECTO PATRONUM! ) : Rita's favorite memory was helping her parents with dinner when she was younger. Everyone's hands were busy and words were simple instructions. The process was easy and had such a great outcome.
( DEMENTOR'S KISS ) : Rita was tired and the memory came in flashes. It was dark and cold and her feet were wet. As her vision cleared she could see the Black Lake just in front of her. She could hardly remember how she got there. A group of . . . friends, a bottle of firewhiskey. Her head ached. Losing control was not a memory Rita liked to keep.
( MIRROR OF ERISED ) : To be editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet.
( PERSONALITY ) :
Rita gets up early every day to do her hair up for classes or de-frizz them for stake-outs. Her out-fits vary by mood and her moods sway by the day. Rita is a very high-energy, strong-willed female. She is determined to find her way to the top of the food chain via the Hogwarts Gossip Column, leading to a role at the Daily Prophet. There is hardly ever a moment when she is relaxed, perhaps only when she is on vacations at home, and even then the word might not fit.

Rita is very organized, perhaps to the point of obsession, though she would never admit it. She has a collection of quills that are sorted based upon their function, i.e. what type of writing they are appropriated to (class, diary, interviews.) One of her stocking stuffers for Christmas has, since she turned 11, traditionally been a new quill.

Don't be fooled, however, Rita is not an obsessive, shy, and slight little girl. Rather, she is cunning, and sly. She will go as far as necessary to get her story, even if it means stretching the truth a bit (okay more than a bit.) And because of her handy ways in the potion lab she has a few tricks up her sleeve to get the real stories out without her targets even realizing it. Her true golden ticket, however, has yet to come to fruition. She has been working for weeks on shifting into a beetle. Not yet managing to transform fully, she has come quite a ways and knows that once she has mastered the skill she will become a Hogwarts Gossip legend.

( HAIR ) : Rita's hair is shoulder length, blonde and curly. She usually wears it down when interviewing or planning on catching someone off guard because she loves to look her best. During classes she keeps it up in a ribbon with a single curl dropped down in front of her eyes as what she sees as a fashion statement.
( EYES ) :Her eyes are green and almond shaped with full, thick eyelashes enveloping them. She rather likes this part of herself; perhaps because that's the part of her that first spots a story. She can see a story from clear across the Black Lake.
( FACIAL STRUCTURE ) : Rita's broad forehead is balanced by high, broad cheekbones, with a thin, pointed nose centered appropriately. Her heart-shaped face tapers down to a slightly dimpled chin, above which sit thin, almost always pursed, pale pink lips
( BODY STRUCTURE ) :Rita stopped growing in her 4th year at around 5'5. Although she runs around a bit to chase some good gossip, it could hardly be called an "active lifestyle." Thus she is a bit on the frail side as far as muscle is concerned and believes herself to be "awkwardly arranged," in her own eloquent words.
( ATTIRE ) : Rita is known to wear some pretty eccentric outfits; bright colors and perplexing patterns are her forte. She finds that it pops against her pale skin, and whether or not people like it isn't her problem.
( PLAY-BY ) : Kristen Bell

( PARENTS ) : Rita's 39 year old mother, Shelly, is a Muggle and was a stay-at-home Mum for much of Rita's life. Before Rita was born Shelly had worked as a hairdresser, mostly to pass the time and catch up on the latest town gossip. When Rita was born William was of the opinion that her mother should be the one to stay at home and care for her. Thus, Shelly, the ever-obedient wife, followed suit.

William (or Willie), was the working, and wizardly, half of the couple. 43 years in Knockturn Alley allowed Willie to grow a thick skin quickly and he tried to raise Rita to be the same way. He inherited his position as shop-owner "Petulant Potions" from a great-uncle on his mother's side. He often rubbed shoulders with some increasingly notorious names, sometimes doing quite shady deals with them without a blink of an eye.

Shelly and William got married quite young, when Willie was fresh out of his Hogwarts home in the Ravenclaw tower. She had lived in a nearby town and they would bump into each other occasionally in the adjoining square. Their first conversation was by chance in that same park. Their relationship has been just as airy ever since; conversations are sparse, but not much need be said with the two of them. Their looks can pass a thousand words. It was funny how much Shelly spoke with her friends, like a buzzing bee, and how quickly her wings were silenced when her lover entered the room.
( SIBLINGS ) : Rita is an only child.
( OTHERS ) : Her father doesn't talk about his past much. Rita has met her grandmother, Evelyn Skeeter, who carries the magical bloodline. She, much like Willie, is a woman of few words. The few times Rita has been around her the two mostly sat studying one another. It was probably the one time Rita hasn't pestered another being with unbearable questions. Her mother's family was a different story. She knew almost all of them. Now, it wasn't as if she could tell anyone a single one of their names; they were glasses, uni-brow, snot-nosed, and model. She saw them often enough until she went off to Hogwarts, when she lost most of her interest in them. Of course, she was still forced to go to holiday parties.
( HISTORY ) : Rita grew up in a loving, if distant home. Her father was almost always at the shop, working endless hours putting potions together on special order. At a young age, Rita was resentful of her father's absence, but she grew to understand the need of income to support their small family. It didn't help that the Hogwarts requirements were not exactly inexpensive.

As a result she spent most of her time with her mother, not having any siblings to trot around with. Shelly, bless her heart, always had just as much enthusiasm as her daughter. Energy, however, was a different story. Rita often came home from grade school or a neighbor's to find her mother conked out on the couch. Unwilling to wake her petered out parent, Rita found amusement by writing in her diary.

Her diary became a daily refuge, which she then transferred into an external rather than internal activity. She proposed to her grade school that there be a weekly gossip column and when they said no, she did it anyways. Naturally she was given lunch duty and brought in for a proper parent-teacher conference, at which her mother was quite serious. When they returned home Shelly laughed while repeating it to Willie.

When she finally received her Hogwarts letter that she had been waiting for she was overjoyed. Her father had prepared her at age 10 when she had a mishap with the fountain in the town square. After dreaming about the castle for a year, the castle was even more magnificent in reality. After 6 years of being a mistaken as a part of the Hufflepuff pushover stereotype, she was now determined to gain her rightful place at the forefront of the Hogwarts Gossip Column. If she did that, there would be no way that the Daily Prophet could refuse her resume when she graduated next year.

( ALIAS ) : Jessie
( AGE ) : 21
( EXPERIENCE ) : Hmmm, well somewhere around the fifth book, so somewhere around 10 years . . . seems impossible, but I guess maybe I'm just getting old. I haven't been blogging in quite some time however, and have been looking for a great site to get back into it with.
( CONTACT INFO ) : jessica.kelly@nyu.edu
( HOW'D YOU FIND US? ) :Hannah is my best friend, we went to high school together and I have been looking for a good site to get back into role-playing with and so she lovingly sent me to Dark and Dangerous Times.
( ROLEPLAY EXAMPLE ) : can be of any quality or quantity, and from any site genre you wish.

--Introduction to my last site in 2010--

"I'll see you after break mate." Brent said, bidding his friend adieu with a cold, distance handshake, slightly uncustomary for Gryfindors. He looked around himself to the emptiness of the common room, contemplating what to do in the grandiose castle. It was midday, so sleep was certainly out of the question. Looking up at the gray, dank ceiling above him, he decided a nice flight around the grounds might clear his mind of all this…desolation.

As he made his way to his dormitory to grab his Nimbus 2001 from his armoire he thought about how this would be the first Christmas he spent away from his family. Lately they were growing farther and farther apart, although he wasn’t entirely sad about it. His father had decided that his gift to his mother would be a trip to the Caribbean's, by themselves, without their only son. Brent just rolled his eyes and shook his head as he made his way toward the grand staircase and out the front doors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Looking around him, he took in the white sheet of fresh snow blanketing the academy's fields. He mounted his broom and lifted off, not caring which direction he was headed in. All he was focused on was the air rushing through his hair and against his mahogany skin. He had always loved the smell of fresh snow. It left a certain briskness to the air that was thrilling to break through with the quickness of flight.

There was something even more interesting about fresh snow though. It was the way it didn't hide a thing. The slightest movement visible from miles away, footprint trails, animal excrement and spilled entrails. The honesty of nature made the corners of Brent's mouth curl up into a twisted smile. He wondered what it would be like if humans were more in tune with their inner animal beings.