I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

So the twins are back from the Dragon Reserve. They've got some hilarious stories to tell on Charlie, too, and how he's got all old on us and couldn't keep awake as long as they could, and told them it was 'half past dead o'clock' and they needed to knock off.

Anywiz. They wanted me to write some stuff here that they've been thinking--about the lock and all. They said I should just copy it out, and I think I will do, even though that's a complete pain because they have loads to say. You'd think some teacher'd said they had to write twelve inches or something.

We know we made this lock originally so we could talk to the Professor. But we're not dim enough to think that its first purpose should be its ONLY purpose.

We understand that people are worried about all the possible 'what ifs.' What if we tell her and it all goes plow-into-the-ground, like a Wronski Feint gone horribly wrong?

When we made the Lock, we did a lot of research and we tested it first before we started using it. It looks to us that you've done the same thing with this decision about adding Hydra Lestrange: you gathered information about her from the people in the group who know her best, namely Justin and Hermione and Sally-Anne and Pansy. Then you tested: Justin told her his secret about being Muggleborn, and when it was clear she was okay with that, he tested her again by telling her about Sirius Black. And she passed that test, too.

Look, the reason that things have gone for shite in the Protectorate is that the Ministry has slowly been tightening the screws on all of us. For years now. Used to be someone like Hermione and Terry could go into a shop and buy a wand, and no one would bat an eye. But once the Lord Protector took power, they started changing the rules and clamping down and people went along with it. You know why? Because the Ministry kept raising the stakes, making it less scary to go along than it was to take the risk of saying 'No.' And that made it easier the next time for the Ministry to do things more awful still. Until we're at this point, where people like Hermione and Terry risk death if they pick up a wand.

Nothing's going to change unless minds are changed. And maybe that means using the Lock by adding people to it who maybe are willing to have their minds opened a little. IF we take that risk and give them the chance to rethink things. A person like Hydra Lestrange, coming from the family she comes from, is going to be groomed to move into power. To help run things someday. Wouldn't it be a good idea to move people into running things who actually agree with us? Except we shouldn't think of it only like 'how can we use her?' It's more like 'doesn't she deserve the chance to show us what she can do, if we appeal to the best in her, instead of the worst?'

Don't all of us deserve that? Doesn't the Protectorate deserve that--or whatever this land will be when the Lord Protector is gone?

It IS a risk. And taking risks can be dead scary. But Sirius Black already said it: the Ministry is counting on keeping things the way they are because they're willing to MAKE it scary if we question and challenge the way things are.

So, yeah. That's their vote. That we should do it. I'm not sure why they thought they had to go on and on, since it's not like we don't all agree about what's going on in the Protectorate. But, yeah. Do we agree Hydra's in? Or does someone have something else to say about it? Hermione: are you all right with it, then?

So, I don't know about you lot, but I've been thinking about who else we should add. And I think Ken Towler and Bundy and Sue Bones. Oh, and Bell and Johnson, too. Who else?

Comments

[alt_neville]

I do think we should be in agreement before we add people. So let's take things one at a time. Add Hydra (if and only if what Fred and George say convinces you--and by 'you,' I mean all of you. And we all have to be honest about it. I don't want anyone saying 'okay' just to go along with the lot of us, against their better judgement, but really regretting it. Because if people do things against their will, the will is easier to crack. That's one good thing I've learned from studying occlumency.)

I also think we really do need to be aware it may get more dangerous and precarious, the more people we add.

I dunno. I wish...I really wish we had another alternative. A way to communicate that's pretty secure, more secure than the Ministry's 'private message' system, which we all suspect they can peek into whenever they want. But without all the burden of the really dangerous secrets we're protecting here on this Lock. An...an intermediate system.

It hardly seems fair to ask George and Fred to dream up another ace method of communicating. But I get nervous if I think of adding five or six more people, demanding they all tell us some real good dirt on themselves so we'll trust them. We've been real lucky so far with ten or so people on this lock. But if we add ten more, and just one person slips, or cracks, or panics and decides to tell all this dangerous stuff...well, then there will be a whole lot more people hurt.

Or is it just me?

[alt_lee]

It's not just you.

I do agree we should add Hydra to the lock. But you do bring up some good points.

Ron and me can talk with the twins to see if they have any ideas about other ways we can exchange messages safely, with more people.

[alt_ron]

Well.

I see what you're saying, but I think if the twins say we should use this lock to include new people, and the lock itself is safe, which we know it is--I mean, think about the birthday greetings they always wrote the LP, right?--then we should use it. I mean. If we're going to be in a group with people and say and do stuff that would get us in trouble, then if one of us turns on all the rest, we're all getting it in the neck whether we were using these books to talk or using something else.

See what I'm saying?

I mean, if the twins are right that what we need to do is give people a chance to show the best in them, like Hydra, and if they're right that the way to fight back in the Protectorate is to bring in more and more people, then. Well. We should get on with it, yeah?

Or. Well, okay. I guess if we could figure out another way to communicate, then we could keep this lock just for ourselves, because we've all been here longest and it's nice to be able to talk just us without having a whole big group see everything we're thinking. But, then, well. We might've wanted to stop adding people a while back. I don't know. And I mean, is there stuff I'd want to say where Hydra can read it that I wouldn't want Sue Bones to see? Or Towler? Or Angelina or Katie? I can't think of anything.

[alt_pansy]

If it matters, it made a difference for me. Being on here, I mean.

I mean, what they're saying, it makes sense, because I don't think it would've nearly been the same for me without seeing Terry and Hermione like this. And it's sort of hard to explain, but when we're told what is right and what is wrong and not to question it or talk about it, well, then everyone keeps quiet. And because no-one talks about it, it's just so easy to think that you're alone and no-one else thinks differently. I think that's one of the reasons I loved the Grim Truth. Even before the lock. Because it was so different.

And it's hard to think differently anyways, when there's only so much that you know to begin with. Like if we're only told one way of doing things, how would we know there's another way to go about it? I'm just saying it can be hard sometimes.

And it's been hard. For me. It's like hearing things that are in a different language almost, sometimes. Someone will say something on here where they just assume that's the way the world ought to be, and always have, only it's the first I've heard of it so it takes a bit of thinking to really figure out how I feel about it.

I didn't always feel like I could say this out loud. But. It just never occurred to me that Terry and Hermione ought to have wands and be Sorted until I got into the lock, and now it seems like they ought to, of course, but it just took me ages to sort that out and be okay with it because it was something I never would have thought of on my own and it was so very different from what I'd been told for pretty much my whole life. It's one thing to not want you treated badly, but just another altogether to think that you were witches and wizards like me. And I'm not saying Hydra's like I was. I'm just saying I wouldn't have gotten there without this. Not really.

So there's that.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, I know.


And I'm really glad you're here.

[alt_pansy]

I am too, tunabrain.

[alt_luna]

As far as other ways to send messages: don't forget that I know where Daddy hid the plates and everything to his smaller portable printing press. We'd have to figure out a way to get paper and everything, and a place to set it up. And how would we distribute it? But if we can figure that stuff out, maybe it's another option.

[alt_ron]

Thanks, Lunes.

But, um. It seems like it's safer to write stuff here that no grown up can see no matter what they do to it, than print stuff and spread copies of it around that everyone can read.

Or, what I mean is, we might want to print stuff and spread it around that we really mean for everyone in the world to see, but for stuff we want to keep secret, a printing press wouldn't be a good idea.

[alt_luna]

Oh, yes, you're right, I wasn't thinking. I was thinking in terms of changing minds, but if we used the press I suppose we would have to make it anonymous. Sort of like a student Grim Truth, I suppose. And you're right, there may be a role for that at some point. But not yet. And we'll have to think of something else for secret messages.

[alt_hermione]

Well.

I talked to someone about being an Occlumens.

He said that natural Occlumenses (Occlumensi?) don't ever break. I mean, they can't, unless they're dead. There just isn't a way to break them, not really. So people who are scared about it are scared about something that's never happened, and then he said some things about how some people can't let go of control and how I had to learn to do it and it was kind of insulting honestly.

But my point is, I guess I can't object to Hydra on those grounds, so maybe I can't object to her at all.

So.

I guess I'm okay with it.

I don't know who else we should add, but.

Maybe Harry. Someday.