ORDER ONLY: Quidditch

[alt_mcgonagall]

The Lord Protector is coming to every single Quidditch match?!

Why did I allow Harry Marvolo on the team? What in Merlin's name was I thinking? How -

I am mostly angry at myself. I ought to have seen this coming.

Perhaps I ought to reinforce the Disillusionment charms on that certain place. I suppose we'll have to hope that he doesn't get lost in the corridors.

But the Boot boy has finally shown some spirit, which I suppose is one bright spot. More subtle than I'd have expected, as well.

Comments

[alt_mcgonagall]

I see. Not every match after all.

Small comfort.

[alt_molly]

Minerva, take a deep breath. You know you didn't have any choice but to put the lad on the team, once Professor Slughorn came to you. How could you have turned him down?

I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it will be, but you've had the monster there before, and you've managed it each time. Think of it in terms of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer, if that helps.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Thank you, Molly.

I just get the collywobbles every time he comes too near. He might look like little Tommy Riddle all grown up, but he isn't. There's something not right in there.

[alt_molly]

I know. And the thought of poor James' and Lily's boy being raised by him. It's dreadful. Simply dreadful.

I meant to tell you--Ron mentioned Harry in a letter home we got yesterday. Seems quite taken with him, that there's nothing standoffish about him, even if they did end up in different houses. Do you think there might be some hope there, that he hasn't been ruined entirely?

(By the by, what do you mean about the Boot boy? That's the child who's been forced to regurgitate all that Ministry propaganda, isn't it? Why, what's he done?)

[alt_mcgonagall]

That is good news about Ron and the Marvolo boy. I've been observing them: I see nothing particularly rotten about Marvolo - Harry I mean. (I find it terribly hard to keep James and Lily's son and the Lord Protector's son separate, so I must always call him 'Marvolo' in my mind, or I'll get maudlin.) Of course he regurgitates the same stock bigotry that all other children do nowadays, but nothing out of the usual way.

As for Boot - read his final sentence quite carefully. I would assume that it was merely a misspelling if I hadn't known that Hermione Granger was personally teaching him to read and write: she would have taught him better skills as a copyist than that.

[alt_molly]

Oh . . . oh my goodness! I'd have missed that if you hadn't pointed it out, but it does change the meaning entirely, doesn't it? And you think it was deliberate? Then maybe there is a spark down there somewhere that you can fan into a flame, if you are quite careful about it.

Arthur just came in from the kitchen to see why I was laughing so hard. Carrow hasn't noticed, has he?

[alt_mcgonagall]

Not as yet, and I don't think he will notice. He's too sure that Boot is not merely mentally defective, but also utterly cowed. Which give me no end of pleasure, of course!

[alt_sirius]

Yes, I saw that, though it meant wading through that cesspit of twaddle to get to it.

Cheer up, Minerva. Perhaps if the Lord Pretender comes to Hogwarts, something in the forest will eat him.

Sounds like Hermione's causing a bit of a stir in the Great Hall at mealtimes.

No chance to get to Nice today, but Sylvie thinks she can make contact tomorrow at a club she knows there. It shouldn't be out of place; she's a Chaser for the Mercures, so it's only natural that she'd take the Quidditch scout for a bit of a lark after a hard day's flying.