I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Pans, we're all right. Sally Anne, too, I mean. Only, she's still got MLE there at the Strettons, so she probably won't be able to write for a while.

She's not going to be in trouble, though.

The Strettons are a whole other story. It's not going to go well for them, I don't think. At all.

They were growing some secret crops in the middle of their fields. From what the enforcers said, I think it's something that you need to brew Veritaserum or potions like that. Truth serums, y'know. They called it Diviner's Mint, and I guess those plants are worth a load of galleons.

That's what they were after, anywiz. They had special kit--silk sacks and special gloves and silver blades to harvest the stuff. Guess you have to cut it on the night after new moon. Or maybe they just picked tonight because it's going to be so dark. I'm not sure. Pans, do you know?

Anywiz. We're fine.


Though it was kind of dicey for a while there.

Comments

[alt_hermione]

But if the Strettons were harvesting something illegal like that, why did they tell Sally-Anne to patrol?

I mean, I'm glad you're both all right but.... Well.

[alt_ron]

I don't think they thought we'd be anywhere close to those fields. And we wouldn't have been if we hadn't surprised the people who were breaking in through their fences.

And the Strettons wouldn't be in trouble if we hadn't called MLE.

But we sort of had to.

Once they'd got hold of us and were trying to get us under binding spells. It was sort of chaotic. But Sally Anne had hidden her wand in her bracelet and got it out again while I raised Hecate to distract them, and anywiz, she broke the bottle with the Patronus that calls MLE.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, they told me to patrol because SOMEONE had to and they didn't want to do it? Anyway from up high you can't tell. Even on the ground you need to be looking sharp to see there's Diviner's Mint planted in that field because it's mixed in with something more ordinary.

If Neville had ever come for a visit, and had gone flying, and hadn't been put off by the smell (it's right by the Tannery), HE might have noticed. I'm passable at Herbology but it helps a lot that in Herbology class they show you ONE plant to identify. You don't have to notice that there's something mixed in with the tomato plants that's not just weeds.

[alt_sally_anne]

You make it sound like the Enforcers were after the Diviner's Mint.

Though they were, once they realised what it was the robbers were after.

(I told them I was really, really tired and they said I could go to bed. I don't think Mr or Mrs Stretton are going to be going to bed for a while, though.)

[alt_ron]

Phew.

I wasn't really happy about having to leave with them still asking you questions.

And can I just say? Side-along Apparition is still rotten. Ugh. It's worse than I remembered.

And he smelled, too. Enforcer Serle.

[alt_sally_anne]

Cry me a river about the side-along apparation!

Sorry about the stinky Enforcer, though.

And it was fine, actually, it's really not too bad being questioned by MLE when they don't think YOU did anything wrong. At least if it's Enforcers not Aurors.

[alt_ron]

Yeah. I expect they thought you'd be willing to tattle on the Strettons.

Did you?

[alt_sally_anne]

Well it's not as if they'd taken me on a tour of all the shady bits of their estate?

Mostly they wanted to know if there were spots they'd never taken me, spots where I was forbidden to go, things like that. And, well. There are some spots I've never been, and I didn't mind telling, especially as I really do not want to get in trouble (especially for something THIS STUPID).

I did try to put in a good word for Jeremy, it's not fair him getting in trouble with his parents. I doubt he knew either, but with that potions scheme from his OWL year, it doesn't look good.

[alt_pansy]

Who were they going to sell it to, I wonder?

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a good question. I'm not actually sure what you use it for. I imagine Madam Pomfrey knows, or Mr Snape.

[alt_sally_anne]

I guess Ron knew. If I'd read more closely I'd have seen it.

I'm going to blame my highly stressful evening for the fact that I didn't exactly read the message I was replying to.

Yeah, Veritaserum! I wonder who wants that? I'm sure MLE has their own sources.

[alt_ron]

I hadn't thought about what might happen to Jeremy. Were they questioning him, too?

[alt_sally_anne]

Yeah, they were.

[alt_ron]

Have they taken them away? Can you tell? Can you still hear them at all?

[alt_sally_anne]

Everyone's still here. All the Enforcers are still here and they're still questioning people. I haven't heard Jeremy come up. I haven't heard anyone leave.

They've actually got one of them at the top of the stairs, to make sure no one goes down there (at least without permission, I mean if I went over and said I just realised I'd left my teddy in the parlour it's possible he'd let me get it. But I'm not inclined to test it out.)

[alt_pansy]

Good.

[alt_pansy]

She'd better not get in ANY trouble from the Strettons.

Idiots.

[alt_sally_anne]

The Enforcers haven't left yet. They had Mr Stretton in the kitchen and Mrs Stretton in the office and Jeremy in the parlour.

So they're really not going to be in a good position to give me trouble for a while. Tomorrow or the next day, anyway.

[alt_pansy]

Ugh.

I suppose they'd rather that nasty werewolf stole all their plants and did whatever he wanted with you and Ron instead.

[alt_sally_anne]

If they could throw me to MLE in trade for them not being in trouble, they'd do it so fast I'd never know what hit me.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, well. That's not going to happen.

[alt_sally_anne]

Fortunately for me I can't think of ANY way that they can plausibly turn this into my fault.

Did you see what Ms Tonks asked over on my entry, about what we'd do differently? I don't even know what to tell her. But I don't want to admit I can't come up with a better idea.

[alt_sally_anne]

I mean it really shouldn't be harder to come up with a better idea than, 'go down and snoop, get taken prisoner, have to call MLE Enforcers to safe you' but I keep going through the other options and while they'd have all been better IN THIS INSTANCE that's because we know who those people were, now.

We could have pretended not to see anything and kept going. But it might have been a really dreadful group like Dogstar up to something awful.
We could have called MLE right off. But it might have been a group like Beth's network.

I mean we went down for a closer look which is the only sensible option, you know? It would have been better if they hadn't caught us but we WERE being careful.

[alt_pansy]

Well, and if you hadn't done anything and the mint had ended up missing, you might've got in serious trouble with the Strettons.

[alt_ron]

That's a very good point.

[alt_sally_anne]

Probably not, though, because they couldn't very well tell me, 'because you were careless someone broke in and stole a rare plant we weren't supposed to be growing!'

Besides, if the robbers had been a little more careful I wouldn't have seen them, for real, you know?

[alt_pansy]

True.

Well, they could just say that someone stole their tomatoes or something.

[alt_ron]

Wow.

Thanks for giving us time to think it all over and know what we did even!

Tell her you don't think you'll know how to answer that until tomorrow at least. Or just don't tell her anything.

I mean.

Well, I've been reading what they all said to us after you asked if it was them. And they all said we shouldn't go too close and shouldn't let them see us.

So that's what she wants you to say. That we should've sat around and waited til they told us what to do, and then we should've done that.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well I can keep talking over here and they won't see.

For all they know I've gone to bed.

So I definitely don't have to answer at least until tomorrow.

[alt_sally_anne]

But LET ME JUST ADD that if they want us to sit around waiting for them to tell us what to do before we do anything they need to use the bloody Notificio spell like all of us do so they can ANSWER US when we ask them questions.

[alt_ron]

Too right.

I mean, It's not like we didn't wait for them! We did wait to see what they'd say, but then we had to go.

[alt_pansy]

You do have to use special cauldrons to brew Verisatum in, because it doesn't work well with some metals. And you can only brew it certain times of the month. So that makes sense.

[alt_ron]

I knew you'd know.

Private message to Ron

[alt_sally_anne]

Was your mum cross? She didn't fall apart when she saw you with an Enforcer, did she?

Re: Private message to Ron

[alt_ron]

Not just then.

I think first off, she was winding up to be really furious at me for whatever I'd done to get brought home by MLE. And then he was all nice about how I'd helped them catch a group of lawless criminals while we were following proper civil protocols for ... I don't know, he said a load of stuff and it all added up to 'You should be very proud of your son, Mrs Weasley. Thank you for raising such a model citizen.'

Caught Mum completely by surprise. Bill, too. He just looked really confused that I wasn't in trouble. Because if I had been, you know he'd have been first in line to give me a dressing down. Mum would just have had to wait.

I left them talking to Mr Serle. He's left, though, because Mum was just in here, sniffling and telling me how glad she is I'm home safely. So, yeah. I think she waited and fell apart as soon as the Enforcer cleared out.

Re: Private message to Ron

[alt_sally_anne]

Model citizen? I'm surprised you didn't need smelling salts to bring Bill around, after that.

[alt_sally_anne]

OH did you notice someone else wrote on the galleon?

Do you think we should send another message for the galleon people like Daphne and Michael, so they won't worry? What should we say happened?

[alt_pansy]

Hm.

we were going to go flying but the strettons got robbed we're okay though?

[alt_sally_anne]

Like, you'd made plans with me and Ron to come meet us, and we wanted to warn you not to come in the middle of the robbery?

I suppose that's plausible.

[alt_ron]

Um.

You were playing a game with Gemma and pretending to draw new designs on a galleon because she was the Queen of Faerieland and wanted her face on the money? Or- that doesn't explain what you wrote, so you were playing a game and pretending that a galleon was like a portkey that you could write secret messages on and the game was a prisoner game, so you wrote that and it was just in fun.

Does that work?

[alt_sally_anne]

I think I like Pansy's better. Because then I'm not the sort of berk who'd write something on my galleon that would make everyone worry!