Order Only: Private message to Padfoot [Remus Lupin]

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So, have you worked out how you're going to answer your latest owl?

I'm telling you, this Agony Aunt business isn't for the fainthearted. I'm glad I've never hung out that particular shingle.

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There are 29 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

All in all, I think breaking in to Buckingham and challenging the bastard to a duel would be simpler.

Particularly when the only sensible answer is some waffle about deciding where one's personal lines are. Cardinals. We call them 'Unforgivable' for a reason.

Still. If what we've seen about their CCF training is any indication, the whole point is to force them to find those lines - and to show people like Umbridge where they stand on the issue.

Mm. Rumour has it he's rather good at duelling, unfortunately. Also heavily guarded.

She's asking the right questions. It's a shame there are really no easy answers. Or hard-but-good answers. Or even hard-but-not-utterly-terrible answers. The easiest option for the lot of them keeping their hands clean is to quit the CCF, but then, we JUST sent all of them a message that they need to keep their noses to the grindstone through NEWTs because that way they'll be more useful to us.

Part of me likes the idea of using the training they're giving these children against them, someday. Part of me thinks the price is going to be too high.

I mean, according to what we gleaned from that Preece kid's journal, they were forced to watch while muggles were abused, under the guise of it being a 'demonstration.' And then they were given an assignment where they had to control them. I think there's probably a third piece they've got wind of (Perks wrote to Sinistra, I saw; she's got a varied correspondence) where it'll be a step up from there. If you're trying to corrupt the innocent, you start by easing them in -- but the worse you can persuade them to do, the more control you'll have over them later. If that makes sense.

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Makes sense?

It only describes the first ten years of my life, Remus. 'Watch Mummy show you how it's done' turns into 'Give it a go yourself,' with a healthy (or unhealthy, as the case may be) dose of disappointment if you don't fall in line.

It's ten times worse when you actually want to impress the person judging you, or prove that you're worth notice. That's the thing about their Professor Sinistra, isn't it? They all seem to like her so much. It's a powerful motivation to do well in her eyes.

Miss Perks does mention 'having to kick Muggles' at a future point in the programme. Obviously that's just a metaphor but what she means is clear.

And yeah. Did you see the entry from Cuthbert? Bragging about how they used the Stinging Hex at triple strength to create an electric shock to 'herd' the Muggles into place? Disgusting.

But there has to be some sort of answer or apparently I am also a misogynist, male chauvinistic dog.

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I think she's rather bitter about your failure to promptly answer Pansy, in the past.

And I think she knows you DO answer Harry.

I don't know how she'd know he's your godson, so I suppose 'you only care about boys' is the next most obvious answer?

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Merlin help us when Bea's old enough to have a best girlfriend. The pair of them (Pansy and Sally-Anne, I mean to say) between them ask the thorniest questions in all creation.

It's not like I ever had a sister. (Well, apart from Reg.)

Then again, if they think I only care about boys perhaps they'll stop writing!

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Ha, you wish. They'll just abuse you instead of asking for your advice on things.

Which might be more relaxing, mind.

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Or give it to Dora to answer, next time.

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And that's a good point about Professor Sinistra. She seems like a lovely person. A lovely person with all the wrong friends.

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Well, Poppy and Pomona seem to be friendly enough with her. Probably on the theory that if she maintains some connection to reasonable people she might not fall off the precipice completely.

Easier said than done.

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And if what I heard Saturday night is to be believed, she's a lovely person with the entirely wrong fiancé, and all.

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Anyway, she asks a whole load of questions. You COULD just answer the ones you can come up with an answer to.

1. You don't like Dogstar's methods, but do you really think anything's going to change without violence?

2. The Unforgiveables: really all that bad (other than cruciatus)? Does it matter HOW you kill somebody?

3. Do you think killing is always wrong?

4. If you're killing someone who completely deserves it (Carrow, Voldemort, Bellatrix -- I like her examples, by the way) can you commit justifiable premeditated murder using the killing curse, striking from behind, and have that be okay?

5. Where do you draw the line for the thousands of everyday wrongs and indignities you're forced to participate in as a child (a fostered half-blood, in her case) growing up in the Protectorate?

6. What about those things you have to participate in as a member of the CCF?

7. What if choosing the right course of action will have truly grave consequences for you?

8. What if choosing the right course of action will have worse consequences for the person you're trying to protect?

Sadly, I'm not sure I know how to answer ANY of these.

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1. At this point, I'm not sure. I'd like to introduce her to the Americans and the Civil Rights movements of the '60's but that's hardly going to work against wizards. The question is one of degree. Widespread, wholesale violence with no discrimination between guilty and innocent helps no one. On the other hand, people like Bella or Malfoy aren't going to stop just because we ask nicely.

2. Yes. And yes, it does matter.

3. No.

4. No. It's too painless for someone like Carrow. Lets them off too easily. Albus would probably say that they should have a chance to show remorse but in all honesty I'd be surprised if they could even register what they'd done wrong. Still, the choice to kill in that case ought to be made by more than one person alone. Unfortunately, someone like Voldemort isn't going to go quietly. So there's always that duelling and self-defence option.

5. That's a personal question - no one else can possibly tell what another can live with doing and what would make that person lose self-respect. It's extremely hard and one can't do it alone. Alone, most people will eventually take the path of least resistance. And alone, eventually that path leads to more and more compromises for the sake of one's own safety.

6. See above.

7. Define truly grave. Define the consequences to one's dignity and self-respect for not taking the right course. What other options are there besides do as you're told and refuse to participate altogether? How can you mitigate the action that keeps you in a position of relative safety with actions that are more humane?

8. What does that person want? To be protected or to be treated well? Again, can you think options that lie between the black and white ones the Protectorate wants you to see?

It's all bollocks, of course. But it's a start.

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I mean, offhand

1. No. But we have to target that violence carefully -- not haphazardly, like Dogstar. Mind you, I'm not sure we have 100% consensus in the Order on that. (In either direction!)

2. Yes. And yes. Which is not to say I wouldn't use Avada Kedavra if I were facing off with Bellatrix. (What? Are you telling me you wouldn't?)

3. No. It's not wrong when it's in self-defence, for instance.

4. Merlin. I don't even know what to say here. I think perhaps the best answer is, 'you are not old enough or experienced enough to EVEN THINK about taking on any of the people you list as examples. Therefore, we don't need to answer this one.'

5. You know what, Miss Perks, we are going to defer to your judgement here. Would you really appreciate it if we said, 'you must toe the line this far, but no further,' when we aren't living your life? We are not the ones who will be sent to the camps if expelled from Hogwarts (not that our lives are risk-free, but we're making a completely different set of choices and running a completely different set of risks.) You're a good and decent person in a situation where it's sometimes possible to behave decently, and sometimes incredibly risky. You have close friends who are living these risks with you. Talk to them, and make your own choices here.

6. See #5. Although it's tempting to just tell you to quit now; they're only going to get more intent on corrupting you.

7. If your choice is between kicking Hermione and being sent to the camps, I think Hermione would tell you to go ahead and kick her if you have to, just try not to leave too much of a bruise. On the other hand, if it's between kicking Hermione and being mocked by Padma Patil, I think Hermione would rapidly lose respect for you if you chose to kick her.

Really, the answer here is the same as #5.

8. This is the sort of horrifying moral quandry that the people who run CCF rejoice over, because there is simply no right answer.

I would encourage you to protect people when you can, even when it means getting your hands dirty. But it's important to realise that of all the no-win situations in the universe, this is one of the ugliest to be confronted with, and to be clear in your own mind about the source of the ugliness here. Don't let it consume you.

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Regarding using the Killing Curse on Bella, well ... perhaps if I had no alternative. But I do think it's a bit lazy, don't you? When there are so many other spells that would subdue her and hurt much more, particularly.

I like your answers for 5-7; I'll just borrow that, shall I?

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You'll probably want to change 'we' to 'I,' lest she imagine her letter being discussed by a committee.

Though I suppose if you tell her that you shared her questions with a close friend (who is not Hermione or Terry) this might show her that adults, too, seek out advice from trustworthy friends, just as we're advising her to do.

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On due consideration, I think I'll modify both our answers somewhat but make it clear that I've shared her note with someone far cleverer than I and we've got slightly different opinions on some of her questions, so here's a range of possible answers. With heavy emphasis, as we both said, on 'You have to draw your own lines in the situations that face you on a daily basis.'

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That's not a bad idea.

It's what we're telling her to do, after all. Won't hurt to show that we do the same.

You might want to make it clear you DIDN'T share her letter with Hermione or Terry.

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Yes, yes, I read that the first time you wrote it, Moony.

If calling you cleverer than me is going to give you licence to boss me about then -

I'll have to do it more often.

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Oh for Merlin's sake.

I guess I can write off my failure to think of asking Dora for her thoughts on this as just another symptom of the fact that my brain was not working this afternoon.

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And frankly I'm not sure the best message to send about the killing curse is, 'it's too quick a death for the likes of Bella; you'd want a spot of torture to go with it.'

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Oh, go ahead, take the fun out of my life, you.

Bella's a special case. Tell me you wouldn't hurt her first if you had the chance.

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I wouldn't.

Because I want her dead more than I want her hurting. If she's at my mercy, I'm taking absolutely no chances that someone else will walk in, or she'll seize on my distractions and get away, or any of it. If I can kill Bella, I'm just going to KILL HER, with no messing around.

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You haven't sent it off yet, have you?

Because it occurred to me that there IS someone in this house who's been

a. a girl
b. a half-blood in fostering
c. a student at Hogwarts under the Protectorate

and we could get her opinion on that list of questions.

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Didn't I say we should have Dora answer them?

Good thought.

And no, I've not sent it. Ellie came back to wash up the tea things before I finished; I had to duck into the cellar.

(You know, telling her about your furry problem has, if anything, made her want to fuss over you even more.)

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No, you said we should have Dora answer the NEXT letter.

She doesn't fuss over me half as much as she fusses over you, but then, who doesn't love Sinbad? (Somehow I doubt the revelation about your true nature is going to go over as well as mine. Ironic, that.)

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This one, the next one; they're all pretty much the same.

Fine. You're probably in a better position to show the original letter to Dora than I am at present.

(You can call it ironic. I call it just my bleeding luck. Then again, I doubt she's prattled on to you about her personal habits quite as much, either.)

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Clearly you are FATED to hear endlessly about the personal problems of young women.

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Obviously I am being punished for some horrible crime of which I am completely unaware.

Funny I never minded when there was sex in the offering but without that lure (or the desire for it, ta), it's bloody well tiresome.

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And if you think you can start telling me all your boyfriend problems you've got another thing coming, you.

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September