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I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

This is the longest day ever. Runes went on forever, and now it's Double Potions. Oi! I'm dying over here.

If my head falls into my cauldron, duck!

Only I was up almost all night because of Gareth Archer. Heard him shouting in the middle of the night. Ours is the closest room to theirs, so I was the one who got there first. Well, except for his mates, but they're a useless lot. Ed Bones and Jimmy Peakes were both sitting up, staring at him, but they seemed like they were still sound asleep, really. I swear Peakes was snoring. And soon as I got there, they both flopped over and were out again.

But Archer wasn't going back to sleep. No way. He didn't want to go see Madam Pomfrey, and I don't blame him, so we went downstairs and played chess. All the way til breakfast.

I didn't mind. I mean, McLaggen came in right after I did, but he's got OWLs this week and looked a wreck. And really, even on a good day, no one wants to spend time with McLaggen. And Archer was a bit of a mess, too.

Said he'd had a dream about his father coming back--you know about his dad, right?

Anywiz, last night he had this dream his father came back and was going to kill him. He figures it's because he read what those Dogstar people wrote in the journals yesterday. Thing is, I guess Archer really hated his dad. For leaving him and his mum and for being a traitor. Did you know MLE questioned him and his cousin--watshername, the Slytherin one--only Archer couldn't tell them anything because he hadn't talked to his father in years. Well, I guess he did tell them something--last night he told me he told MLE he was glad his father was dead.

I mean, yeah. That's dead awful, innit?

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Aurelia's the Slytherin who's his cousin. She's a year ahead of me and if she ever talks about it, it's not to me.

But I do know she was close to him, because they shared a House -- neither of her parents are Slytherins, you see (and obviously his children didn't grow up to be Slytherins, so.) They'd exchanged a lot of owls. When he died she gave all of his letters to MLE and I don't know if she ever got them back.

He wasn't exactly a traitor, you know. He died under suspicious circumstances while MLE was interviewing him but they didn't know anything for sure because he died so suddenly. People talked -- when Aurelia wasn't around -- and what everyone thought was that he WAS a traitor and killed himself somehow, you know? So that he wouldn't tell them anything no matter what. Because the other possibility was MLE killing him by accident and that didn't seem likely.

Anyway -- why did Gareth think his father would be angry at him? Because he's loyal? Or because he told MLE that he was glad his father was dead?

If he thinks his father's angry because he told MLE that he hated him, tell him his father would have been cheering him on. His father was a SLYTHERIN. He'd have been saying 'right on, son, defame my name and spit on my grave, whatever it takes.' I mean, unless his father was just a miserable git, which he might have been. Does Gareth think he was in DogStar?

Archer thinks he was a traitor, for sure.

Course, he also thinks he was a prick for leaving his mum. He wasn't too happy about her having to take him back to her family's place outside some tiny country town on a farm. I guess they'd lived someplace else first and he'd had friends and all, and then they moved.

Didn't have much to say about it, really. And I didn't ask too much because, I mean, we live on a farm outside a village, don't we. Guess we won't invite Archer to the Burrow ever. Like we would, anywiz. Don't think he'd like my parents much, y'know?

Well, he probably was, honestly. A traitor, I mean.

As far as being a prick -- well.

If he was a traitor, maybe he left to try to keep the rest of them safe. Neville's parents left him and Evelyn with their Gran, you know? Even if they are exactly as awful in real life as they were in the play last year, I'm sure they left Neville and Evelyn behind to keep them safe, not because they hate children.

I don't think Nev'll like us talking about his parents.

But I bet you're right that they did leave Neville and Evelyn to keep them safe. Only that's not what Archer thinks his dad did. He said he figures his dad was giving secrets to Dogstar to help them kill the Lord Protector.

Bugger.

I'm putting my foot in it all over today, aren't I?

Where did Archer's father work, anyway? I know he was at the Ministry but was he in a department that would even HAVE any secrets that would help Dogstar kill the Lord Protector?

Nah, it's okay. Maybe Nev'll tell us something about them, since you did say it.

No worries.

I don't know what department he was in. Archer didn't say, and I wasn't really asking him a lot of questions. Just letting him talk when he wanted to. I mean, maybe I should've asked more, but I was thinking his dad was sort of like mine, maybe, only if that's so, then Archer's not like me. And I didn't want him to realise.

Only, see. Here's the thing. I wouldn't want my dad to be working for Dogstar, either. I mean, they want things to change, but they've killed loads of people--regular people--and they haven't changed anything. And then they write stuff like they did yesterday that's just horrible. And, what's that even about?

No.

I know.

But he might not have been working for Dogstar. He might have been working for the wand smugglers. Or some other group. Not that you could tell that to Archer, 'oi, there are actually LOADS of traitors out there who AREN'T in Dogstar!'

Um.

Did you see Nev leave Potions?

He definitely read this. Right at the end of the lesson. I tried to say something, but he wouldn't look at me.

And he's not back here in the room.

If you see him at supper, maybe try talking to him? I know you didn't mean to upset him, and he'll know it, too. Soon as he sees you.

Bugger bugger bugger.

I tried to catch him at supper but he avoided me. Or didn't see me. I'm not sure.

I kept thinking yesterday about Woods, and whether he turned on his family. I don't think he turned them in. I mean, I don't think he went to MLE and said, 'hey, you should know this thing about my awful traitor parents.' But I think when everyone got arrested he might have figured the only way to save himself was to say, 'I always suspected they were rotten blood-traitors but I never knew for sure! I'm so disgusted by all of them, the horrible things they got up to while I was at school!'

I kept thinking

ugh

I kept thinking about your family. If someone in your family got caught doing something illegal, what the others would have to do, and whether ~~you'd~~ they'd be able to do it.

The Vale felt a lot like the Burrow, you know? Crowded and friendly with chickens running around and gardens and pick-up quidditch and homemade cider. The Woods were a lot like your family.

Uh-

I wish you hadn't said this.

I mean, I don't have nightmares, but if I did, it'd be this. It'd be Percy telling Mr Malfoy something about my parents, and maybe not because he really even had to, like to save his neck if something happened, but just because he thinks he's so much better than the rest of us and thinks they're not trying hard enough to be good whatever-

I don't even know.

But I wish-

You really think the Woods were like us?

I'm sorry, I should have kept my mouth shut.

Only I was already thinking about it yesterday and now with Archer

I'm sorry, Ron.

But yeah.

The Woods were a lot like you lot.

Remember when they took me to see the ocean, since I'd never been? They didn't tell me where we were going, they just woke me up before dawn and we flew in the dark and then the sun rose and I could see it all spread out in front of me. And we had a picnic.

I suppose that's not exactly the sort of thing your parents would do. Your Mum's a lot more practical than Mrs Woods was. She'd have sent me off to see the ocean with you and the Twins and a picnic basket but I doubt she'd have woken me up while it was still dark so I'd see it at sunrise.

Heh. Well, she'd've known she wouldn't get us all out the door and on our brooms while it was still dark, that's for sure!

But if we'd known it was nift to see the sunrise, we might've done. The twins and me, I mean. We like to go off exploring.

Listen. I've been thinking about you getting to see your parents this summer. And I really meant it, I want to help you do that. I mean, I know it's not close, but we're sort of on the way there, right? And, well, anywiz, you should go, and I'll help. Just say how.

It's a bit over a hundred miles from the Burrow to Bagwyllydiart, assuming I read the map right.

What's the furthest you've flown in a day?

Uh. Well. Maybe thirty or forty miles? I'm not sure. We've flown all over to the little villages around Devon. But not in a straight line from one place to another place that you could look up how far it is from home, say.

We're pretty tired after one of those days, but we do lots of stuff while we're out and about, y'know.

If we leave really early, and the Strettons think I'm spending the night with Pansy, it might work.

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I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

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