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[alt_lupin]

Bloody hell, Sirius, you WERE NOT WRONG about that Perks girl. 'Mr Ponds, I swear I know you from somewhere,' she says, over tea. 'You look so familiar! Are you from Bromsgrove,' or whatever godforsaken town it was she went to village school in, 'because I might have seen you there when I was attending village school?'

I should've just said YES but of course I said no so THEN she started trying to work out where she might have known me from as I assured her that she was a complete stranger to me and I must merely have a passing resemblance to whomever it was in Bromsgrove or Bromsfield or Bromleigh that she was trying to remember.

I could have sworn she never gave me more than a passing glance when she was a first year at Hogwarts. I certainly never looked twice at her.

As for the rest of it, we just about had a heart attack when MLE walked in to sweep the shop, but apparently they were only interested in things that might be a threat to Harry, and stayed respectfully out of the way the rest of the time.

I suppose I should acknowledge they were all perfectly polite, except for Jeremy Jugson, who was a bit obnoxious. Justin seemed well. Perhaps a little irritated by his foster-brother. Understandably.

(I suppose the rest of you are wondering what we're talking about -- Hydra Lestrange invited a large group of her friends over to Laszlo's today for 'tea appreciation club' or some such. So we played host to Hydra, Harry, the aforementioned Jeremy, and several members of the Jr. Auxiliary, including Sally-Anne Perks but not Pansy, whose absence was noted several times, I guess she was originally planning to come.)

Comments

[alt_lupin]

Speaking of the rest of them, I should mention that Neville was there. He's been to Laszlo's before, of course -- he saw his mother in the back room, some years back. He did a good job of pretending I was a complete stranger, and that he'd never been to Laszlo's before.

[alt_alice]

I'd expect no less of him.

Did he look well, Remus?

[alt_sirius]

I told you she's a clever thing. About as clever as our Hermione, in fact.

But now I'm twice as disappointed that I couldn't see Harry or Justin.

Had you at least got rid of that lad who works for the Parritts before MLE arrived? The one who likes to chat so much (probably because he fancies Ellie)?

[alt_lupin]

Yeah, we warned the lot of them off. Said there'd be a bunch of loud teenagers nosing around and they made themselves scarce.

[alt_lupin]

If they come for another round, you could use polyjuice. See them both.

Private Message to Moony

[alt_sirius]

You know, I might do just that - if for no better reason than to hear Snivellus twist himself into agony over what a 'waste' of Polyjuice it is.

[alt_molly]

Oh, dear.

Yes, Sally-Anne Perks IS a clever girl. Very observant, too, which is probably a personal characteristic that isn't particularly helpful in this case.

She does certainly know how to keep her counsel, though.

[alt_gredforge]

We know Perks pretty well, from her friendship with Ron.

One thing we can tell you for sure is, no matter what she figures out, she's never a blabbermouth. If that helps.

[alt_lupin]

We already know she's in the Jr. Auxiliary, lads. Your discretion is admirable but that one, at least, is not a secret. (She wrote to Sirius, to ask him to help her mother. Which confirmed what Poppy had suspected for quite a while.)

I'm going to do my best to refrain from thinking about which of our other visitors today might be in the Jr. Auxiliary, lest I NEVER SLEEP AGAIN.

[alt_gredforge]

Um.

We can tell you that not all the Junior Auxiliary were there. And not all the people who were there are Junior Auxiliary, either.

Does that help?

[alt_gredforge]

And you know, when we made our move to join the Order and wised you up about the Junior Auxiliary, it really wasn't our intention to turn all your hair grey.

[alt_bill]

No. That was just a perk.

[alt_lupin]

I have to say, it IS something of a relief to know she's on our side. And that even if she weren't, MLE doesn't tend to hire half-bloods.

[alt_nymphadora]

Well, yes. There's that.

[alt_nymphadora]

I liked her. She was very polite--the first to write us, even--and she was sweet to Bea.

It's not her fault you're crap at keeping your cover.

[alt_sirius]

Says the one who can simply change her face at will.

He's fine at keeping his cover. He's stood up to Ministry scrutiny how often?

I told you, Perks is just dead clever.

Apart from trusting Hydra, that is. But then she's got Justin good and fooled, as well, so I can't fault her, either, I guess.

Private message to Dora and Padfoot

[alt_lupin]

I've been thinking about this -- why she recognised me. Padfoot's right, I've fooled endless Ministry officials over the years, and plenty of people who had at least a passing acquaintance with Remus Lupin have looked at Junius Ponds without turning a hair.

Apparently what she recognised was my stance -- the way I walk, the way I slouch. It strikes me that as a fostered half-blood in Slytherin, she's probably learnt to be extremely observant of body language. I should have thought about this; it's nearly always the people at the bottom who are most closely observant of the people around them.

Re: Private message to Dora and Padfoot

[alt_sirius]

Case in point: Ellie.

Have you noticed that lately she's kept a close watch on how much old Meeps has had to drink? He was about to get into it over Falmouth's last match when Ellie went and got Dora, calm as you like.

And she keeps track of your ledger for you, have you noticed? She always knows exactly where you left it.