Rita Skeeter

Rita Skeeter is the Daily Prophet journalist who attaches herself to the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, arriving with rigid blonde curls, jewelled spectacles, a crocodile-skin handbag, and an acid-green Quick-Quotes Quill that takes down a version of whatever its subject says. Her specialty is the poison-pen feature: interviews reshaped for maximum drama, quotes with improved wording, and private details plucked from thin air. Readers love her; the people she writes about generally do not. In her first appearances she manoeuvres her way into broom cupboards and private conversations alike, treating access as a right and accuracy as an obstacle to a better story.