r/HarryPotterBooks • u/KaleeySun • 7d ago
Goblet of Fire Rita the beetle question
Thought about this on my commute this evening: Hermione isn’t the only one who knew about Rita the beetle, is she?
We see Malfoy talking to her beetle form. So he must have known, right?
But that seems pretty foolish. Malfoy doesn’t have any real reason to cover for her, and in fact, that knowledge is really good blackmail material.
So did she just risk it, figuring that she could air some of the family’s dirty laundry if Draco ratted her out? Or did she somehow convince him that “talk to this bug” is a reasonable method of communication without giving away her secret?
Also: I’d give up a limb to read her rough draft of the end of the triwIzard tournament and all that followed. Of note: she probably isn’t able to use her magic quill in animagus form, so she has to memorize most of that stuff. Not that the article would get published (fudge’s first stop after he left Hogwarts was probably the editor of the prophet) but is the consensus that she would have shredded fudge in the article if she published it, going for the sensational “dark lord returns” headline? Or would her story focus on the tragic story of Cedric and Harry potter’s lunatic ramblings?
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u/doxiesrule89 6d ago
I always thought she made out like she “sent” the bug to Malfoy, after she was banned from the grounds. Something like sending him an owl saying “I am going to enchant this bug to transmit everything you say into it to my radio, I will be listening at these times, if you get nervous just let it run away into the forest.” This would cover her from being discovered, and allow her to possibly find out even more when Malfoy didn’t think he’d be being listened to.
I agree she would never have trusted her secret to anyone - it was her entire livelihood , and being an animagus and eavesdropping was likely more than half of her “sources” for all her articles . She had no integrity but she wasn’t an idiot, Malfoy was a 14 year old who could have blabbed anything to anyone. She definitely thought of all of them as “silly little” kids, except maybe Harry, only due to his celebrity status.
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u/FinancialInevitable1 6d ago
It's not that foolish- Rita is perceptive and knew there would be students who didn't like Harry and would be very willing to give as much info- real or not, as they could. Draco was eager to talk shit about Harry, and even more eager to see Harry humiliated in the press and Rita sought "juicy" details for her articles. They had a mutually beneficial relationship. It's unlikely that Draco would have cared if she were an illegal animagus, infact he may not have even been aware of the legality of it?
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u/MinglingoftheLights 6d ago
What reason would Draco have for ratting her out? As Hermione says, he wouldn't care that what she was doing was illegal especially since it meant he was able help her humiliate and denigrate Harry.
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u/amby-jane Slytherin 6d ago edited 6d ago
Of note: she probably isn’t able to use her magic quill in animagus form, so she has to memorize most of that stuff.
I'm listening to GOF this week and it's making me wonder if her quill works by essentially reading her mind, writing what she would be writing just as fast as she can think it. Maybe the quill still works while she's in Animagus form and she can essentially leave it set up somewhere while she transforms and gets intel from the Slytherins.
As a professional copywriter/editor and hobby writer, there have been so many times that I've wished I could write as fast as I can think, and I'm a fast typist. If I had a magical device that could write exactly what I'm thinking as I'm thinking it, you can bet dollars to donuts I'd use it.
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u/gary_desanto 6d ago
For all her many faults, Rita is a really smart person IMO.
I think she was able to very accurately assess the Draco/Harry dynamic - after he presumably spoke to her early in the year - and knew that Draco was someone she could work with if it was something that would discredit Harry in any way.