In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rita Skeeter is mostly just a nuisance, but in the books, she was much more of an antagonist who gave the main characters several fits. Played by Miranda Richardson, Skeeter only appeared in the franchise’s fourth film, yet also shows up again in later books.

The Harry Potter movies left out a look from the books and Rita Skeeter’s presence is one of them. If anyone just watched the films, they’d likely not even really remember the minor character, yet those familiar with the novels certainly remember and the annoying way that she bothered Harry and his friends.

Antagonists for one movie were a trend in Harry Potter films and while Skeeter wasn’t as memorable as Gilderoy Lockhart or as evil as Professor Umbridge, she still played a pretty notable role. There’s a good chance she’ll be more prominent in the upcoming Harry Potter TV show.

Rita Skeeter Was Mostly Just An Annoying Nuisance In The Films

She Was Actually A Villain On The Page

Rita Skeeter was a writer for the Daily Prophet and she was tasked with interviewing the champions of the Triwizard Tournament. She immediately stood out as a pest because she used Quick-Quotes Quills, which recorded what someone said during an interview and turned them into lies for the sake of telling a more scandalous story.

This was mostly what she did when speaking with Harry Potter, telling untrue tales about him crying when discussing his mother. These lies caused many problems for Harry and his friends and Rita’s style was clearly not well-liked as she notably hid the quills when Dumbledore was around.

Rita being a writer for the Daily Prophet is actually telling of her villainous ways. The news outlet became a source of misinformation when Voldemort returned, so her being part of their staff kind of laid the foundation for readers not to trust them.

Of course, Rita Skeeter’s villainy went beyond that. Along with telling lies in the press, she also did something completely illegal that would’ve landed her in Azkaban if the truth were uncovered.

In The Books, Rita Skeeter Was An Unregistered Animagus

She Used This To Gather Gossip

The biggest law breaking that Rita Skeeter did was that she was an unregistered Animagus. The subject of Animagus isn’t covered a ton in the Harry Potter movies other than when Sirius Black is revealed as one in Prisoner of Azkaban. However, there’s a deeper understanding of them in the books.

It’s explained that Sirius, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew all became unregistered Animagi while at Hogwarts so they could keep their friend Remus Lupin company when he turned into a werewolf during full moons. It’s illegal to do so as all Animagi, like Professor McGonnagall, are supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Magic.

In the book, it’s revealed that Rita Skeeter was an unregistered Animagus who turned into a ladybug. Rita was privy to information that she had no obvious way of having and once Hermione realized that a ladybug was present at every one of those moments, she pieced it together and uncovered the truth.

Hermione Had A Creative Way Of Getting Rid Of Rita Skeeter

She Was Ruthless With Rita

Hermione didn’t just uncover the truth about Rita Skeeter. She actually took action and it honestly led to a somewhat villainous side of a character who was usually morally in the right. Rita and Hermione clashed several times throughout Goblet of Fire as Rita wrote stories about a love triangle between Harry, Hermione, and Viktor Krum.

An enraged Hermione captured Rita while in ladybug form and trapped her in a jar. She then blackmailed Rita into keeping quiet for an entire year under the threat of exposing her illegal actions. While it was good to keep Rita quiet, that’s not exactly the way a heroic character should go about it.

Hermione also used her upper hand to get Rita to write for The Quibbler free of charge, publishing the truth about what happened to Harry. Ultimately though, Rita was such an antagonist that it caused Hermione to go against what she would normally do.

Rita Skeeter Went On To Write Scathing Biographies About Harry, Snape & Dumbledore

She Returned As A Problem In The Final Book

The name Rita Skeeter wasn’t mentioned much in later Harry Potter stories but it did pop up in The Deathly Hallows. A biography written by her was published about Albus Dumbledore and it was clear that Rita was back to her old tricks. However, a lot of what she wrote actually ended up being truer than Harry had hoped.

Rita’s biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, didn’t paint the Hogwarts headmaster in the best of lights, which hurt Harry. Yet, as Harry powered on, he came to realize that things about Dumbledore weren’t as positive as he initially believed. Alas, Rita always wrote things designed to negatively impact the subject of her stories.

Dumbledore wasn’t even the first Hogwarts headmaster that she wrote about as she also penned Armando Dippet: Master or Moron? On top of that, following Voldemort’s death, Skeeter also wrote a hatchet job тιтled Snape: Scoundrel or Saint?. While she wasn’t hateful like Umbridge or murderous like Voldemort, Rita Skeeter was still a bigger villain than the movies showcased.