it's not proper journalism unless someone's trying to kill you for it

[dogbitesman]

There were, as yet, no angry letters.

William had been sick for the last week - he'd caught the tail-end of Maladicta's flu, and apparently living in whatever remained of her vampire immune-system had turned it into something to be reckoned with, or at least that's how it had felt at the time - and upon his arrival back at the office both the box

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[honestlyclever]

"Hello?" Hermione peeked around the door of the Times office, looking for Mr DeWorde. She had been looking for him since the last issue came out, but so far had not managed to locate him. "Mr DeWorde?"

[dogbitesman]

"That's me," William confirmed, looking up from his work. "Can I help you with something, miss?"

[honestlyclever]

"Oh, good, I was hoping you'd be here," said Hermione. "My name is Hermione Granger. I wondered if you might be accepting any more editors for your paper?" Hermione had never written for an actual newspaper before, but she technically had experience working with newspaper reporters (cf. Rita Skeeter).

[dogbitesman]

"You want to work for the paper?" William said, taken aback. This was not the sort of conversation he'd been expecting to have today. "Er... aren't you a litte-"

Young had been the next word, but William had just that moment considered what he thought of as the Sacharissa Factor.

"-do you have any experience?" he said, smoothly1 changing tack.

1For a given value of smooth, involving sandpaper.

[honestlyclever]

"I'm nineteen," said Hermione, recognising the 'aren't-you-a-bit-young-for-this' look on his face. "And I'm a very good writer. I was also involved in some newspaper work back home in England, with two different wizarding newspapers." It was stretching the truth, but technically getting Rita from the Daily Prophet to work with Luna from the Quibbler had been working with two different wizarding newspapers. "I can submit a writing sample if you like."

[dogbitesman]

William nodded thoughtfully. "That would be good, although really it's the other aspects that concern me. I can always edit for grammar and spelling. Involved how?"

William recognized that sort of trick, if only because he had a tendency to use it himself.

[honestlyclever]

He wasn't easy to fool, which Hermione quite liked. "Well, my major journalistic contribution was an expose on Voldemort --" she gestured in the direction of the holding cell where he was kept, "-- back at home. No one believed he was back, you see, and I felt it needed to be in print for everyone to see." She frowned and added, "I didn't get the byline, because no one would have believed it coming from me, Harry Potter's best friend. But I erm... persuaded... a very popular reporter at the time to put her name on it. And I persuaded another newspaper to publish it, because that reporter's newspaper wouldn't."

[dogbitesman]

William looked at her steadily for a very long time.

Then he grinned.

"Welcome to the Times, Miss Granger. I see you've already got the hang of the more ... shall we say, complicated parts of journalism."

[honestlyclever]

"Excellent!" said Hermione. She was doing rather poorly at hiding her glee. "I can start as soon as possible, I hope?"

[dogbitesman]

"The press never sleeps, Miss Granger," William said. "And it is always hungry. Did you have any ideas as to what you'll write about?"

It didn't matter if she didn't, really; being able to scrounge up a story was a big part of the learning curve.

[honestlyclever]

"Not yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something straight away," Hermione said seriously. "There's always something that needs to be said, especially if no one wants you to say it."

[dogbitesman]

Oh, he liked this one.

"Exactly my philosophy," William said. "I've always felt if no one is furious at me, I'm probably not doing my job properly."