"Hello Rita," Colleen said. The tell-tale clicking of the stiletto heels she insisted on wearing made it even easier for Colleen to recognize Rita's footsteps, regardless of her exceptional hearing.

"I've been looking for you everywhere! I was beginning to think you were avoiding me!" Rita exclaimed. Her voice was shrill and lilted with an overly posh accent, just like always. She threw her bag down on the table between them, sending a jolt through Colleen's body. Colleen pulled her fingers off her book and folded them in her lap where they were safe from being crushed.

"That's because I was."

Rita roared with laughter; a high pitched, snorting hyena giggle that made anyone within earshot cringe. Colleen, however, found it somewhat amusing and smiled with the shake of her head.

As her laughter died down, Rita sighed and put her hand on Colleen's shoulder, saying, "Oh, Leenie, you little tease."

The warmth of her hand disappeared from Colleen's shoulder as Rita adjusted the glasses perched on the tip of her slender nose. "Alright, enough of the jokes, we've got business to attend to, my dear!"

Colleen slipped a ribbon into her braille book to mark her place. When it came to Rita Skeeter... there was no telling how long it'd take.

Rita tapped her notebook on the table as if straightening out the papers. "Right. Rumor has it an entire class of fourth years were rushed to the hospital wing this morning. What've you got?"

"Oh, I was there!" Colleen exclaimed. Rita let out a squeak of excitement. "I guess one of the Marauder's pranks went out of hand and the whole class went... well blind? I'm not sure how they managed that, but it sounds like Black is responsible."

"Blind? Merlin..." Her quill scratched away at record speeds as she mumbled whatever she was writing. "The infamous Marauders... strike again. No, no, that won't do. Marauders... is their name... havoc... is their game."

Satisfied, she crossed her t's with a dramatic swoosh and returned her attention to her informant. "It was Black, did you say? What happened to his posse? Has he been dished out a punishment yet?"

Colleen recounted whatever she remembered for Rita's benefit and had to admit the older girl was a captive audience, gasping at just the right times and tutting disapproval whenever the Marauders were mentioned. The routine was natural at this point. From the moment Rita had discovered Hogwarts had its very own oracle, she'd jumped on the chance to get gossip before it'd even happened. At first, Colleen had made everything up just to appease her, but it turned out Colleen was a masterful eavesdropper and her intuition was good enough that her predictions ended up being correct most of the time, whether she'd actually Seen the events or not.

"Black, Black, Black, Black," Rita muttered. "I should just rename the column after him from all the time I spend writing about him. I can almost see it now; Secret Affairs of the Black Heir! Scandals of Sirius Black! Blackening the Name of Black! Oh, by the time I'm done with him, he'll have to change his name!"

"You've said Black so many times, I'm not sure it's a real word anymore," Colleen quipped.

"What do y'know? Say it enough times and voila! He appears!"

Colleen startled at the new voice right beside her ear and jumped so hard she nearly fell out of her seat when his hands settled on her shoulders.

Sirius laughed, a rich melodic sound that was much more pleasant than Rita's hyena cackle. "Jumpy, are we?"

Colleen felt the air shift as he took the seat next to her.

"Don't touch me. Go away," she said. Her voice had dropped so quiet that it was barely audible.

Rita cleared her throat and stage whispered, "This is my chance at an exclusive! Behave!" She repositioned herself in her seat, straightening her papers, and put on her sugary, so-sweet-it'll-rot-your-teeth voice saying, "Don't mind her. We're delighted to have you with us!"

"No, that seat is saved," Colleen retorted, clenching her jaw. "You need to leave."

"Colleen!" Rita hissed.

Sirius wet his lips, entirely unphased by Colleen's harsh rejection. "Oh, is it? For who?"

"Alice. She's meeting me here any minute," Colleen said, completely ignoring Rita who was now stuttering in horror. Colleen put on what she hoped was an authoritative expression and glared in the direction of Sirius' arrogant grin. He put his hand on top of Colleen's to calm her down. She immediately drew it back and hardened her glare.

Sirius let out a grunt of surprise--no one ever rejected his advances--but he brushed it aside and continued with mock sympathy, "Haven't you heard, sweetheart? Alice bailed. McGonagall's got you a new scribe. Me."

Colleen shook her head. Her eyebrows furrowed as the words sunk in. He was bluffing. He had to be bluffing. Minerva wouldn't do that to her.

"You're lying. Now go away. You're not wanted."

Rita started to protest this, but both Sirius and Colleen were ignoring her completely.

"Gotta hand it to ya, you're feisty for a blind girl. Wouldn't have expected that from someone so outspoken," Sirius commented. He shook his mane of hair over his shoulder.

"My being blind has nothing to do with it!" She shot back. "And I'm not outspoken. Just because you need attention at all times, doesn't mean we all do!"

Sirius scoffed. His breath was hot on Colleen's face as he leaned in closer. "That supposed to be an insult? Sounds like jealousy to me!"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" She retorted. Colleen felt around for her walking stick, turning away from Sirius. Her hands were shaky from frustration and knocked it off the table it'd been leaning against. She let out a disgruntled huff, cheeks turning pink, and knelt down to find it. Colleen snatched it off the floor and shot Sirius one last withering look before storming off.

"Waddling away from your problems doesn't fix anything!" He shouted after her, cupping his hands around his mouth.

Colleen spun around, pointed the tip of her cane in his direction, and shouted the incantation to an instant scalping hex. From the shriek of distress that followed, she was sure she'd hit her target.