alt_mcgonagall

Well, after the goings-on of the holiday I am quite equally elated and deflated at returning to the everyday humdrum of school. I come in, I come out; I review disciplinary reports, I review budgets; I occasionally go a-mousing, although Mr Lupin does an excellent job of maintaining a vermin-free castle.

Discipline reports: I am anxious to see what will be crossing my desk with the institution of the Cruciatus curse as a method of punishment accessible to the Head Boy and GIrl.

Budgetary concerns: Students will be displeased to note that we shall be entering another term of Transfigured delicacies. Fortunately, we have plenty of basic foodstuffs to serve as bases for Transfiguration. Personally, I am quite content with what we have - good solid food for good, solid people. As long as there is Muggle whisky remaining, and as long as the stills still function, I am content. (I must admit that some of the Muggle bottles are quite as good as anything old Ogden ever made.)

 Miss Parkinson has been disciplined for her infractions, not so much against Hogwarts' rules, but against pure good taste.

I realise that she has been raised in a haphazard fashion, and I am very grateful to Lucius for stepping in. She requires a strong guiding hand, and I fear that with an entire school to oversee (not to mention a birthday feast to plan) I am not the person who can provide it for her.

Nevertheless, she has been given an assignment that will hopefully help her mend her ways. She ought very well to know that the proper recourse for having one's questions answered is research and thereby understanding the great work that one's forbears have done. Even at the age of eleven! If she had addressed her queries to an encyclopaedia, or even to the Daily Prophet, they would have been answered immediately.

In future, I imagine that she will avoid all such public doubting and inciting of negative energies and pursue any questions she may have in a more constructive manner. If she does not, of course, as she grows older, she will suffer much greater consequences than merely penning a few lines.

Lucius, I do believe you have your work cut out for you; she seemed almost sullen in my office, not as if she had fully understood the lesson I was attempting to teach. Nevertheless, I have hope that the essay she is writing will do some small amount to mend the situation. A sharp young girl like Miss Parkinson must have her inquiring mind honed and pointed towards the right influences; my punishment for her is, naturally, intended to do so without crudely preventing all inquiry.