CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 25, The Beetle At Bay

[garybec]

No: HPFGUIDX 111805

> 1.  In GoF, Hermione discovers Rita Skeeter's secret about being
> an unregistered animagus.  To ensure Rita never lies about anyone 
in 
> her articles, Hermione tells her she can't do any writing for a
> year or Hermione will turn her in.  But in Chapter 25 of OoP we 
see 
> Hermione has added terms to their agreement.  Rather than just 
keep 
> silent, Rita Skeeter must now do what Hermione asks of her.  It 
> seems Hermione might have crossed a line or at least entered a 
gray 
> area.  At first, Hermione was teaching Rita a lesson-not to write 
> nasty lies.  But now she's * using* her knowledge to blackmail
> Rita into doing her bidding.  Granted, it's for a good cause but
> do 
> Hermione's means justify the end?    
> 
> At the Edinburgh Book Festival, JKR said we would be seeing more 
of 
> Rita Skeeter.  Will Hermione continue to blackmail her?  Does Rita 
> Skeeter deserve everything she gets?

Becki thinks;

That Rita would have come around anyway if Hermione didn't jump in 
and play the "animagus card".  She was ready to go until she found 
out that it would be in the Quibbler, and still is considering it 
until she found out she was going to have to do it for free. Perhaps 
she would have writen it just to write something.  I do think that 
since it was published in the Prophet anyway, she will get her 
notoriety for it, perhaps even a WW version of the Pulitzer.  


> 
> 4.  Rita Skeeter confirms the Daily Prophet is being pressured by 
> Fudge but also that since no one would want to hear of
> Voldemort's return, they wouldn't print what Harry says
> happened, 
> anyway, because it wouldn't sell.  Do we want to take a guess on
> how 
> actively the Prophet is participating in discrediting Harry and 
> Dumbledore?  How much is actually Ministry coercion?

Becki wonders too that if Fudge has so much power over what the 
Prophet prints, why did they make the MoM appear like baffoons in 
the GoF?  Where was the control then?  Or could perhaps with the 
absence of Rita Skeeter, there wasn't anyone viscious enough to 
carry on anymore?  Or- could there be DE's working at the Prophet, 
therefore changing the direction of the articles now that you-know-
who is back?

Becki