(no subject)

[alt_ron]

I meant what I said.

Just in case you thought I wasn't serious.

Comments

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Git.

[alt_luna]

Well, that's good. It's always good to say what you mean.

[alt_neville]

Do you really think so?

[alt_luna]

Why, don't you?

[alt_neville]

Not always, exactly. No.

[alt_percy]

Sometimes one should be careful what one says, Luna. In order to be careful, or perhaps diplomatic.

[alt_luna]

Well, perhaps in that case you can at least mean what you say.

I read a book once where one person tells another, 'I told no lies, and of the truth all that I could.'

[alt_padma]

Did someone think you hadn't?

[alt_luna]

Does being diplomatic mean telling lies?

[alt_percy]

Well, being diplomatic means--well, I suppose it mean--my, it is difficult to explain, isn't it? I suppose it means, er, choosing your words so that they'll be accepted. Because they adhere most closely to what people want to hear. While keeping as close to the truth as possible, of course.

[alt_neville]

But what if people don't want to hear the truth?

[alt_percy]

Well, then I suppose it takes a particularly skillful diplomat.

[alt_luna]

Oh.

[alt_percy]

I meant, one should be cautious, I suppose.

[alt_percy]

Anything you'd care to talk over privately, Ron? You can just stop by my room, you know. Anytime.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

What happened between you and Marvolo, anyway? You looked ever so hacked off at whatever-it-was all about at dinner.

[alt_sally_anne]

No, of course not. Being diplomatic means telling the truth in the nicest way possible.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Except when there's no good way to do it, in which case being diplomatic means telling lies!

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Do you just grow up thinking like that? Or do you learn it from the Prefects in Slytherin?

'Welcome Firsties! Hope you enjoyed the Welcome Feast. Don't be fooled: the food's not usually that good. You'll see tomorrow morning. Now. There're a few things you need to get straight if you're to be in Slytherin House. First off: look sharp around the people who have power and never hesitate to kiss up to them. Second: don't waste your time on people you don't need; if they haven't got gobs of galleons or powerful parents or brilliant marks--or if they do, but they won't let you use them--tell them to go hex themselves. Third: never let the truth stand in the way of getting what you want. Fourth: the password's Parseltongue.'

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I learned to lie in village school, actually.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Also if they let you in Slytherin House generally you already KNOW that it's a good idea to stay on the good side of someone powerful.

And the password's not Parseltongue! We'd never pick such an obvious password, that would be like having the password for Gryffindor be 'chivalry!' or 'lion's heart!' or 'more guts than sense!'

Are you coming to Padma's party? We'd already be there but Pansy decided she wanted to fix her hair.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah, Neville and I are coming. Maybe Dean, too. See you there?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Oh, yeah. I wasn't thinking about that.

Sorry.

I mean, I still can't believe your teacher did that.

You really think that's what got you in Slytherin?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I told the Sorting Hat I wanted to be in Slytherin actually.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Well that was pretty fun despite the fact that Padma organised it.

I even got Katrina to talk to me!

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah, she's all right. She wasn't going to come, but we talked her into it.

Glad we did, too, since some people were being utter skrewts.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

D'you think it really just does what you ask it? I mean, I was thinking 'Gryffindor' as hard as I could when I had it on, but I expect it just put me here because it's where I'm meant to be, yeah?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Well it talked to me, didn't it talk to you? I had to tell it why Slytherin and not Ravenclaw. Or Gryffindor or Hufflepuff for that matter.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah, it said something like, 'Right then, Gryffindor.' It said something else first, about my family, but I can't remember what exactly. Just that it didn't have any questions about where to put me.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Probably 'my goodness, ANOTHER Weasley? Just how many are there of you lot anyway? Alright then, into Gryffindor with the rest of them.'

The Hat had a longer conversation with me because I didn't want to go into Ravenclaw where my parents had been. I said I wasn't brave so I didn't belong in Gryffindor. It said that actually not all Gryffindors are as brave as I seemed to think but that was alright, it could find a place for me in another house if I wanted. I said I wanted to be in Slytherin and it asked me if I was sure, because that can be a hard house for a half-blood and Hufflepuff might be easier and I said I didn't believe in fair play, which isn't really true but I didn't want to be in Hufflepuff.

And that's when it put me in Slytherin.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

So come to think of it I probably DID get placed in Slytherin for being a good liar. Or a bad liar. I mean the Hat talks to your right in your head, it probably knew I was lying about not believing in fair play.

I wanted to be in Slytherin because

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

You lied to the Hat!

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

No wonder, then. That's definitely the way to get put into Slytherin!

But hang on. Why would you want to be there so badly? I mean. You really didn't want to be in Ravenclaw because it was your parents' House? I mean, I thought

you think your parents are good people, don't you?

Did you think you'd get a better foster family by being in Slytherin? I mean, it might've worked. You probably should have got Mr Rosier, not Finnigan. That's a dead Slytherin family, the Rosiers.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Well bear in mind at Sorting it goes alphabetically. So before me there was Parkinson, Patil, and Patil. Don't you think I made a good choice, considering the girls I could be sharing with?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

True enough.

But that's why you wanted Slytherin? Really? I thought you didn't know any of them before you came to school. Had you met Patil, then? I suppose it'd just take the once to put you off wanting to know her better.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I'd never met anyone I was sorted with actually. I was the only one in my year at my village school, everyone else was older or younger than me.

If you want to know the honest truth (ha! like you'll even believe me after all this talk about lying!) I asked to be in Slytherin because I thought all my friends there (if I made any) would be above suspicion. So I'd never be asked to spy on them.

Seems dead ironic now doesn't it? If I ever DO get asked to spy on my friends I'd better hope I'm a VERY convincing liar.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

And I suppose 'spy on them' is a little overdramatic.

Sometimes people from the Ministry would come to the village school and would talk to students one at a time, and ask us about our families and our friends and so on and so forth and when they'd talk to me, they'd hint that if I DID ever have anything really USEFUL to tell them it might be good for my family's situation, you know. Not that they'd give us a lovely new flat in New Wizarding London or anything but things were pretty terrible sometimes, it wouldn't have taken much for them to be better.

They asked us questions about our foster families during YPL, too, when they took the halfbloods off by ourselves.

Anyway.

I thought if I were in Slytherin this wouldn't happen. Because no one would dare suggest that DRACO MALFOY was secretly in league with Sirius Black! or Teddy or Hydra or any of them, really, although I suppose Daphne isn't really above suspicion and neither is Milli. Probably not Blaise either. But back when I didn't know anyone, it seemed like Slytherin should be really SAFE from that.

Like I said it's dead ironic now.

By the way I think something like this might be why Katrina hardly ever talks. She went to village school too, not the one I went to but one like it, and I think she said something once -- you know how Gryffindors tend to be too honest for their own good -- and got someone into really terrible trouble. I don't know that for sure, mind you. It's just what I suspect.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Not that I think she was a rat on purpose, I mean they started in on asking us about people when we were too little to really understand why they wanted to know. I think they asked her a question when she was really young, and she answered honestly, and something terrible happened.