I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Well. It's the usual here. Good food, but loads of things Mum needs done before she'll let us eat!

Half-seven this morning, I think, she comes tromping in my room, carrying a pair of wellies she'd got by bartering stuff and says she hopes I enjoyed the lie-in, but the chickens need feeding. And then she says while I'm out there, maybe I could just pop up on the roof of the chicken coop and patch it where the shingles blew off. Says she'd meant to get that done before we came home, but she'd been so busy cooking and baking...

Yeah. And this afternoon we're fixing the fence at the bottom of the garden that's meant to keep the goats out of Mum's vegetable patch.

Anywiz, breakfast and lunch were well fantastic, and she's making roast for supper. And Bill's coming, so there'll be at least two kinds of pie or maybe pie and a cake. But it's going to be good whatever it is, because she's being all secret about it.

Oh, and Nev. I asked Mum about getting new shoes on her barter network--actually, I told her that instead of wellies it would've been better to get me shoes, but she didn't get cross about me being smart 'cause she got grumbling about Professor Carrow, instead. She's really, really cross they've let him stay at the school. And, y'know, she doesn't usually say things about teachers like that because she doesn't want us to think it's all right to talk rubbish about adults and teachers or whatnot, but she was just fuming about him. And she said it was okay, she'd work out how to get new shoes for me before we go back, and I don't have to keep wearing these awful ancient things Madam Pomfrey found for me. Well. They won't be new shoes, but y'know. So that's good. I was worried she'd be cross with me for getting mine melted.

So.

What are you lot up to? (Since none of you wrote back to me the other night. Or rode home with us.)

If you're not too good to be talking to us now.

What about you, Terry? Castle's dead quiet now, I guess. What do you get up to when we're not there?

Comments

[alt_terry]

The Headmistress has some meetings with the staff who are here, and sometimes she leaves the grounds to see other folk, so I don't see her much. She pretty much leaves me to my own devices. I'm going to spend some time helping Professor Sprout in the greenhouses and Professor Brutka with the animals. At least that's what it's supposed to be, but I think both of them are really teaching me stuff, sort of in the guise of helping them. I wonder if it's because of something the Headmistress said to them, or if everyone's just sort of pretending. I like both of them, because neither of them ever treats me like a mudblood. They're just real matter of fact about everything.

I also spend some of the rest of my time in the secret classroom Hermione and I have, working through the old essays and textbooks that Fred and George and Lee have given me, and some time reading books in the Headmistress's library. So I'm learning a lot.

Still no progress on the animagus stuff, though.

I haven't seen Master or his sister at all. I wonder if they've left the grounds for the holiday. I dunno, and I don't have any intention of asking.

[alt_ron]

Well, be careful, yeah?

I mean, it'd be loads safer if you at least knew whether they're there or not. What would you do if you came around a turn in the corridor and ran into one of them?

Shame nobody's figured out a way to put a sensor spell on them so you'd get some warning. We talked about it one time--the twins and Lee, y'know, and me--and we figured a sneakoscope wouldn't do you any good because the castle's full of sneaks. But it would work better during holidays like this when all the students are gone. And it could be pretty hilarious to find out which of the teachers a sneakoscope would warn you about! Besides the Carrows, I mean.

The trouble is, most sneakoscopes are rubbish. And the good ones cost a tonne.

[alt_sally_anne]

If anyone finds a broken one in a drawer somewhere I might be able to fix it.

It would be better if it had started OUT as a good one, mind you! If you fix rubbish it's still rubbish.

[alt_sally_anne]

That's odd Brutka's one of the ones who teaches you. He immigrated here -- I mean, from the continent. They try pretty hard to only let people in who think the Protectorate is the greatest thing EVER and the Lord Protector is the WIZARDING HERO OF THE AGE or whatever.

[alt_terry]

I don't think anyone could find fault with anything he says to me. It's quite clever, really, the way he makes it all part of the instructions: he's simply explaining that I have to add chopped grasses to this animal's feed because it needs extra chlorophyll in its diet, or I mustn't wake that one up because it does best if its sleep schedule follows the moon.

I don't know what he said to convince them to let him in, but he never talks about politics.

[alt_gredforge]

Well, you'd know for certain about Carrow and his fellow troglodyte if you'd remember to check that certain useful artifact we gave you.

[alt_terry]

Oh, of course! I simply forgot about it, but I do still have it.

Just checked. They're holed up in their offices. Guess they're taking their meals there, too. That's fine with me. The less all of us here see them the better.

[alt_ron]

Hang on!

So you found something to give him after all? You never said! What is it?

[alt_gredforge]

Just a little magical artifact we found in the old caretaker's file cabinet. It's up to the Professor if he wants to tell you about it.