I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_justin]

Hello, friends,

How was the New London trip, what?

I say, CCF is coming up rather quickly, isn't it? Remy and I have gone swimming twice this week but I think overall I'm still well unprepared for whatever they're going to throw at us. Have you lot had any hints at all, as you've been counselling?

The Jugsons took me out to another party this afternoon. This one was at the Derwent home and Ron, your sister was there as well. Did you know she would be going?

The Derwents are rather nice although they seem to be the sort with loads of well boring acquaintances. There were a number of people our age, though, which made the time pass more quickly.

I've been terribly occupied all summer long and yet, I suppose it sounds a bit rich to say, but, I do miss home. Dijon, I should say. Only in little things, what? Like the fresh bread our cook made every other day or the chimes on the clock in my mother's salon. My old bed and the books I left behind. The view from my window onto the Rue de Talant. I miss television commercials and believe me, I never thought I should miss those in the slightest!

You've every right to tell me it serves me right, what? Still. I'm sure I shall snap out of it once we're all together again at the CCF exercises. Something about the party this afternoon made me think of home, I think.

Well, enough of that. Sally-Anne, you'd said you were going to write more to us, about visiting your mother? Do you think she's going to join forces with Mrs Weasley and Madam Pomfrey and become a three-witch crime-fighting squadron, what?

How is everyone else enjoying their holidays?

-Justin

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

That would be rather brilliant, wouldn't it.

I told her I'd talked to someone who might be able to help her leave. That it's possible to get in and out of the wards, because Sirius Black did it. And that he's alive, not dead like MLE still insists he is, and if someone helps her leave they'll help her fake her death, so that I won't be in any trouble.

If she goes to the continent I don't suppose she'll be joining any crime-fighting squadrons which is a shame because I think she'd really get on with Mrs Weasley. And Madam Pomfrey. And I won't ever see her again. But she'll be a great deal safer than she is here.

[alt_hydra]

Do you really think you'll never see her again? I mean to say, do you think things will always be this way here, with the wards? Even when we're old?

[alt_sally_anne]

Well -- maybe, come to think of it.

I'd thought before that maybe when I finished at Hogwarts, as long as I was very discreet I could visit with her more regularly. And that's only three years away, you know?

But if she leaves the Protectorate -- there won't be any way, unless until things change a LOT. Which surely will be more than three years.

[alt_hydra]

I don't know much about how the Protectorate took over. Not much from the perspective of the old Ministry, I mean, but I've been trying to read and find out more. It seems, though, that when they took over the Protectorate changed things a LOT in a fairly short amount of time. They changed everything else before they changed most peoples minds. So, I wonder if it would be as hard to change things back as people think.

In twenty or thirty years it will be a lot harder. There will be less people who remember what muggles were like before they were in camps. The kids at Hogwarts, there might not even be any halfbloods. There's fewer in the younger years already. I wonder if the people in the wand-smugglers ever think about that. About how time might be running out.

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a really unnerving thought, Hydra.

You're right, though. I mean, I don't remember anything else, ever, but it was changing when I was a baby and I'm not THAT old. And I've heard older people (like Mrs Weasley, but she's not the only one) slip up and call the Cardinal Curses the Unforgivables. And my mum went to Hogwarts just like any other Witch, she was even a Prefect. And she had some of the same professors we have, when she was there, like Professor Slughorn and Professor Sprout (and the Headmistress, for Transfiguration).

I don't know what it would take to change it back. I mean there are people who'd like to, and I don't think it's just the Wand Smugglers. But they're all frightened. It's hard to know if there are enough people who want to change things to ever make it happen.

Although it wasn't that many people, when it was the Council and the Lord Protector against the rest of the Wizarding World. And they managed.

[alt_hydra]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be unnerving.

I'm only thinking of people like me, who were raised similarly. I've looked through what was written under the lock and I see how everyone felt sorry for me, and what they thought of Mummy. But when I was younger I just thought that was how all Mothers were. Aunt Narcissa was kind, but Mummy would always say that she was really just weak, and also secretly cruel because her kindness was just a trick to make me feel sorry for myself. She showed me the Black family tree and where all the traitors had their names burned off, and made it sound as if people who were traitors were horrible monsters from fairy books who were fated to face justice in the end. And she was so strong and sure of herself, and hardly anyone ever contradicted her, so I believed everything she said.

It's probably an extreme example, I suppose. I think most people just like to carry on and forget about the way England used to be, because if they remembered, they would feel a lot of guilt. So they don't say anything to their children that would go against what the Protectorate says, because that would be like remembering.

And no, it didn't take that many people to topple the old Ministry, but they were all people who were ready to die, and were ready to kill. Well, all except the Lord Protector, he wasn't ready to die. So he found a lot of people who would do it for him.

[alt_hydra]

Well, I would think it peculiar if you never once missed home at all (though I still don't understand that thing, television - how do they make pictures move in a box without magic?). I don't think this will be the last time you miss it, either.

Justin already knows this, but I don't really like being at St. James any more than I have to, so I've been going to every single club meeting that I can, and even trying to come up with new clubs. Tea Appreciation, for example. Even if I'm the only one who shows up. I could go to Le'Strange to be with Daddy and Rigel but then it's not as convenient to New London.

Mummy comes home at strange hours of the night, usually with two or three other Aurors. There's one, Foxe - he looks at me strangely. I think Mummy told him that I'm an occlumens.

[alt_justin]

I suppose it's natural, yes, but it does strike one as selfish to complain when I've no one to blame for my homesickness but myself.

Perhaps it's just that it's been too long since I saw you, what?

It's just like the wireless, television, only with images as well as sound. I can't think why wizards haven't figured out how to do it. They did something like it for the second task in the Tournament, what? But I suppose perhaps it takes a great deal of magic to do it all the time.

Remy's been trying to get us to as many of the clubs as we can manage, as well, only some of them meet when I've got tutoring and such. In fact, Mr Jugson's decided that the tutor could also work with Remy and Alfie while he's at it and Alfie's none too happy about it, what!

Which clubs are meeting this week? We've got until Friday to occupy ourselves.

-Justin

[alt_hydra]

I can imagine what television looks like, just not how it could work without magic. But I suppose if I couldn't do magic, I'd figure out some other way, too, with that science thing.

Well, Alfie probably needs more tutoring than you or Remy. I've heard what he says about Professor Acton and Professor Sprout and some of the others, and he acts as if he thinks he's more clever than they are, and he's only just turned twelve.

I do wish Remy didn't insist on coming along to every club gathering with you, though.

Well, the Tea Appreciation Club could have their first official meeting. I was also thinking... I wonder if there's a way to have my cousin, Mrs Ponds, invite me over to her shop again. Oh, or since it's a shop and cafe, I suppose anyone can come over, any time they're open?

Maybe we should go there.

Did you see she has a mudblood working for them? I was surprised to see that. Disappointed, too.

[alt_justin]

The Jugsons have one, too, you know. A Muggleborn. She's quite kind, however, even when Alfie's rather beastly to her.

Why do you suppose your cousin decided to get one, though? I suppose with a baby, they need a little help now and then and it's less than paying a nanny. From everything you've said, though, I can't imagine that she or Mr Ponds would be cruel to anyone in their household, what?

Remy's all right. I think if we arranged for him to be elsewhere he'd give us room, what? I was concerned at first that he'd not like his parents taking me to all the parties and things but it turns out he's well aware that they're showing me off and he's just as content to stay home, if you follow me.

Why don't you ask your cousin if we could have a Tea Appreciation meeting there in her cafe, what? Then everyone could come and we could meet and I'm sure if we slipped off somewhere no one would notice, they'd be too interested in your cousin and her daughter and all.

-Justin

[alt_hydra]

Yes, I remember. Maggie, right? I never seem to get a glimpse of her when I come over.

I wouldn't like to think that they're cruel, but Mr Ponds is a pureblood and I don't know much about him, or what he believes in. He seems kind, but sometimes I can't tell if people are being themselves around me. Most of them are so careful, because of Mummy.

But yes, I'll ask her if we can have a club meeting at the cafe. I've told her about you so I think she'd like to meet you. And I don't think she'd stop us if we slipped o

[alt_sally_anne]

I once tried to persuade the Twins to persuade their mum to take a muggleborn servant. Because I know she'd be kind, and it's better than the camps, or having someone like Amycus Carrow as your master, you know?

But that was before what happened to the Woods, and the rest of the people in the Vale. They had muggleborns they were pretending were servants but really treated like ordinary people, and word got out and ... well, Oliver is okay. But I think both his parents are either dead or in Azkaban.

[alt_justin]

Yes, I remember reading about the Woods. But they had loads of muggleborns, didn't they, and not just one or two, what? I should think it's a bit harder to conceal that sort of thing when one does it on a larger scale.

The Jugsons aren't cruel to Maggie, at least not that I've seen. Our tutor treats her like something he's scraped off his shoe but Mrs Jugson simply acts as if it's normal to have a servant.

I simply behave as I would have done to our maids or butler, or mother's chauffeur. Except that I do make sure she gets enough to eat, what, because I think otherwise the Jugsons' cook might try to make her eat table scraps or something equally barbaric. I pointed out that servants work harder when they're healthy and pleased and Mrs Jugson seemed to think that was sensible.

Also, Maggie's more her ladies' maid than anything else and I suspect Mrs Jugson doesn't care to have a personal servant who isn't about to collapse from starvation.

Now I'm quite curious about the Pondses and their muggleborn, what?

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

I would love to meet your cousin -- we've corresponded a little but I've never actually met her in person. Do they have tea at her shop? Or something else we could all meet to Appreciate?

[alt_hydra]

There's a cafe in the garden and I can't think of any cafe in England that wouldn't have tea, even if it isn't what they specialise in.

We could always learn about metamorphmagi while we're there.

[alt_pansy]

That would be utterly brilliant! I've never seen a metamorphmagus before. At least not that I know of. And I know that Mrs Ponds has always been rather nice to Sally-Anne.

[alt_ron]

You're right. That'd be brilliant!

[alt_luna]

We had another meeting of the Magical Creatures Club, but I think we won't have the next for two more weeks.

My summer has been rather dull. Mrs Brown has insisted on me accompanying her quite a bit when she goes on her errands and meetings. I think she expects me to learn from all her socialising, you know, how a proper witch is supposed to behave. Only I would think that she should have given up expecting me to be a proper witch because I keep doing things that she thinks are rather odd. Not that I'm trying embarrass her or anything. But she just doesn't really understand that I'd be much happier sketching in my room, or out taking field notes about magical creatures.

[alt_neville]

Er...what sorts of odd things?

Or maybe I shouldn't ask.

[alt_luna]

Oh, nothing too scandalous. Just things like taking a hedgehog out of my pocket when I'm reaching in for a handkerchief. That sort of thing.

It caused such a bunch of screeches at the tea at Mrs Pendleton's garden party last week; you've no idea! Although I'm sure it wasn't the hedgehog's fault at all that he ended up in the sugar bowl. That was simply because I sort of fumbled him when I took him out of my pocket and that's where he happened to land. I couldn't help it...those spines were quite uncomfortable. But it didn't bother him. He didn't even wake up from his nap before I snatched him up and stowed him back away.

[alt_neville]

I'm sure none of my Gran's garden party teas were ever that exciting.

[alt_justin]

I say, that's brilliant! Where did you get a hedgehog in the first place?

-Justin

[alt_luna]

I found him in one of the adjoining gardens, and I wanted to sketch him, but Mrs Brown called to tell me to come because she was taking me to tea. And so I stuck him in my pocket and then forgot all about him, until I wanted my handkerchief.

[alt_sally_anne]

Hedgehogs are so CUTE. I love their little faces. I wouldn't want one in my pocket, though, it seems a bit dodgy for both you and the hedgehog!

[alt_justin]

Hallo, Luna,

I should love to go along on a creatures ramble but I think the last one you had was while I had my tutor in, what? Or if not then there was something Mrs Jugson had arranged at that time.

After CCF, I hope these social engagements shall quiet down. Do you think Mrs Brown would let you come to something Hydra hosted? Especially if it's tea, what? Aren't all good witches supposed to be able to host a tea properly? You could convince her you're coming to learn the difference between assam and ceylon and she could hardly object, what!

-Justin

[alt_luna]

I think Mrs Brown would quite like that. She's getting rather wary of having me accompany her to all her social events. It would be lovely to see Hydra again.

[alt_neville]

My summer's been a bit of a bore, really. Now Evelyn's leaving to go to London. She's a bit nervous about it, and it'll be even more lonely without her around.