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~ 5pm

Classes had finished for the week and Anna had found herself with a few tasks to do before going to London for an evening visit with her extended family.  The staff party would be held the following evening in Hogsmeade at the Signature and she had gone over to meet with the staff and sign off on a few final details.    Now, scurrying up the path back to the school, she pulled her coat around her tightly as the sun dipped lower on the horizon.

She wanted to be inside in her office by the fire.  In just a few days she had managed to make it quite cozy and there were a few more files she needed to go through before locking up for the evening.  Things had gotten off to a relatively smooth start and it gave her a sense of purpose she had lacked in London.

Completely focused on getting back to the castle as quickly as possible she wasn’t paying attention to the path and her boot suddenly slipped on a patch of ice.  In a moment that seemed to last an eternity, her feet flew out from under her sending her tumbling to the ground below.  She landed on her bum with a loud thud that brought a few tears to her eyes as her cheeks reddened.  The pain wasn’t sharp though, and aside from some bruising on her hip the only thing really injured would be her pride if anyone saw her less then graceful maneuver.

Sitting there for a moment she blinked away the moisture from her eyes as she started to laugh feeling completely ridiculous.  She was sure any passer by would think the new counselor had certainly gone mad, but she didn’t care as she laughed at her own ridiculousness.

Buzzzzzz. Hummmm.

A metallic green beetle landed on the sharp bark of a tree in the Hogwarts grounds. The antennae on the beetle twitched very slightly, and if one looked closely it would look strangely as though the beetle was wearing a pair of glasses with small gems around the rim.

The beetle gave a small hum of its wings once more as it flew down towards the ground, barely brushing the grass before it turned into a woman. Not just any woman.

Rita Skeeter let her large and questioning eyes flicker from one side to the other, looking for potential prey. She had recently opened up the can of worms on the social travesty that was Nathaniel Grosvenor's dirty secret. Finding out that one had a teenage son through the paper was probably not the nicest way to find out, but Rita was an unconventional sort of gal, and nice wasn't her way of doing things.

She was hoping to catch either the illegitimate little imp himself, or that snot-rag of a half-sister of his. She hadn't had an interview with her yet, and that would probably prove to be interesting.

Some movement across the grounds caught her beady eye and she watched as a young woman fell over. Jackpot. She rushed across the grass and simpered at the woman's side as though she actually cared a dot. "Oh, you poor dear!" Rita offered a bejewelled hand that would envy even the Queen of England, and smiled that thin-lipped, red-smattered smile that she was famous for. Hiding the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes was no longer an option, as no matter how many spells she cast on her skin, it was beginning to look older and older by the day.

"Here, let me help you pumpkin."

Arianna was still laughing when she heard a female voice and her eyes fell upon a blonde woman moving towards her.  She hadn’t noticed anyone else on her walk back from Hogsmeade, but she had been completely lost in her thoughts so she could have missed the woman.  Her giggles faded a bit as she offered the stranger a smile, accepting the hand and the help up.  The spot she had landed on was slick and she was careful not to end up tumbling a second time which would result in taking this woman down with her.  The woman’s face seemed familiar but she couldn’t place her.  She wasn’t a member of the staff, Arianna was certain of that, perhaps a parent or member of the school board?

“Thank you,” she said when she was standing on her feet again.  “I suppose that is what I get for being in a rush and allowing my head to be up in the clouds instead of focusing on what’s right in front of me.”

She tried not to think about just how well that statement seemed to fit her life.  From the moment she and Wilton had decided moving back to London meant starting a family she had been daydreaming about the day they would bring home a son or daughter.  If they both hadn’t been so focused on that they might have been able to appreciate each other in the present moment and their arguments wouldn’t have been so bad that she felt the need to snatch up a position at Hogwarts to escape.  It seemed slipping on the ice was simply a metaphor for her life at the moment.

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said.  “I’m Arianna Wickwood…I’m the new counselor at the school.”

Perhaps a name would trigger something that would place where she knew this woman from.  It was growing late and it was true she had things to do, but the last thing she wanted was to be rude to someone who was kind enough to stop and help her up.

Rita managed to humm a sort of chuckle, feigning interest as the young woman proceeded to explain her head being in the clouds, blah blah blah. Inside, the mature woman was rolling her eyes and desperate to get her story and get away from the stench of god-awful children, Merlin-forbid she should actually run into one during her errands!

The lady introduced herself, and Rita forced a smile. It was one of those days where she really didn't have the energy to act as amazingly endearing as she normally did - being the picture of perfection certainly took its toll on her.

"You can call me Aunty Rita." The corner of her rouged lips twitched - no use in explaining who she was in any detail. Her reputation preceded her, and not always in a positive way. Though in Rita's opinion, anyone who didn't think she was the greatest thing since sliced pumpkins needed to have themselves checked over by a healer. Her own vain thoughts caused her right hand to lift absent-mindedly up to head and fluff up her curly blond hair. "So, school counselor, eh?" She raised her eyebrows as though empathising that it was an extremely demanding position to have within the school.

"That must be hard." The slight tinge of sarcasm in her voice was barely detectible. What a load of old tosh! The little gremlins don't need a counselor! They need discipline! Snark should bring in the cane - that'll teach them a thing or two!

The thought of someone introducing themselves as ‘Aunty Rita’ was a bit strange to Anna but she didn’t comment.  Instead she went about brushing the mud and grass from her clothing for a moment.  She could clean it up with a few spells back at the castle so at least she could finish out the day without too many questions.  Sitting was probably going to be interesting without a healing balm as she was sure she was going to be a bruise on her rear from the impact.

“It can be,” she said focusing back on the woman.  “Not everyone comes from a picture perfect family or has the ideal situation.  If I can help at least a couple of them I’ll be able to be content in the fact that I’ve done my job.”

It wasn’t the most difficult job she had taken on, but working with children tended to be the most difficult for her sometimes.  They were supposed to able to experience the innocence of youth and not deal with very adult issues.  However, from personal experience she knew that wasn’t always the case.  There was no such thing as ideal or normal for anyone really.

“I’m still settling in so I don’t know any of them particularly well, but I’m hoping I can actually be a positive influence,” she added.  “There’s certainly some reason they thought I was needed here.”

Rita nodded with a feigned sympathy as the woman prattled on about helping one child or another. Disgusting. Who would want to help the little brats? Nobody helped Rita when she was a child, and she turned out just fine!

This, however, was a perfect opportunity.

"Well," Rita started as she examined some of her long, red-painted nails, "I know of one poor little boy who could really do with your help." Rita's eyes slowly left her nails, attempting to gauge just how interested the 'counselor' would be at this new information.