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[alt_lupin]

Poppy - I have news on Mr Jones for you. I haven't managed to speak to him myself, but Tonks tracked him down on one of the other wards last night and they had a bit of a chat. He's doing as well as can be expected. He was one of the earlier patients brought in apparently, so the sickness seems to have had a greater effect on him than it has on Tonks, but he's in good spirits and should make a reasonable recovery. He's worried for his job, as most of the patients are, but he seems to have made friends with everyone on his ward and all the staff. I believe he's due to be released some time next week, but that could change depending on his condition.

I don't know how much of that you can pass on, and Tonks didn't mention Professor Sinistra to him, of course, but hopefully she'll feel a little better knowing he's all right.

Tonks herself is doing very well, as her expedition to wards unknown demonstrates. She's on course to be released at the end of the week, all being well, and is pretty much counting down the hours, minutes and seconds.

I was flicking through an old Prophet while she was with the Healer today, I think it might have been yesterday's Sunday Prophet, and spotted an article buried well into the middle, page 13 or 14, about the bodies of two ten-year-old girls being found out at Bushey Heath on Saturday. It caught my eye only because there was some nonsense about it being werewolves, although thankfully the reporter retained enough sense to point out that it's in the middle of the lunar cycle so rather unlikely.

After all that business with the little Patil boy, it seems rather suspicious that two more young children have been killed in what sounds like a rather violent way, and that it's been buried so quietly in the Prophet, although I suppose the Ministry may simply be trying to avoid more public panic.

Has anyone else heard anything about that?

Comments

[alt_poppy]

Thank you, Remus, for this report on Mr Jones. And give my thanks to Miss Tonks, as well. Aurora will be relieved to hear this news; I'm certain she feared the worst, and expected that there might never be any sure reports of what had become of her friend. She doesn't say, but I believe Mr Jones is especially dear to her.

I missed that report in the Prophet. I'll have to see if I can track down a copy. Yesterday was taken up with other business here, between Ministry departments fighting one another with me in the middle and students wilting under the pressure of impending exams. Today's been much worse, of course: I've been reviving fallen NEWTs-takers and sending them back into the fray. Tomorrow will be worse, but things should get better from there.

I'm so pleased that Miss Tonks is well enough to be sent home. I'm sure it can't come soon enough from her perspective. Will she be needing follow-on therapy or any special accommodations in order to manage at home?

[alt_lupin]

Those Ministry pamphlets were a delight. I don't know quite how you manage to stay straight-faced while distributing them to the students.

I believe the plan is that she'll go in to St Mungo's once or twice a week for follow-up and so they can monitor her progress and make sure everything's all right. As for special accommodations, I think we'll just cross that bridge as we come to it. The Healers haven't suggested anything specific, but should anything crop up once she's out of the hospital, we'll just have to adapt. I don't anticipate any problems, though. She seems as ambulatory as ever.

[alt_poppy]

The pamphlets were entertaining to say the least. Most of them, at any rate. I trust that no one took to heart the social mores conveyed in 'Good Girls Don't/Best Boys Won't'; I'm fairly certain the one that promised to enumerate the places no tongue should go attracted closer study.

I got the elves to bring yesterday's Prophet so I could take a look that article. I'm not sure what was more offensive, the fact that it was given so little space and buried so deeply or the smug way the reporter packaged it up with all the loopy theories of the countryfolk. 'It were Dick Turpin's ghost what did it. He's on the prowl every night, he is.' And if it wasn't the work of a highwayman's ghost, it was Sleepers prowling the heath after dark--unless it was werewolves. I'd say the reporter was under orders to obscure the story as much as possible, and a good job she made of it, too.

If you're reading this, Sirius, all we're really told is that the bodies were badly mangled and were found Saturday evening, lying alongside a footpath between Bushey and Elstree.

[alt_lupin]

From what I dimly recall of my own school days, I imagine any lists of conduct the Ministry feel should be avoided will be immediately seized upon as a checklist of how to have fun.

I think you're right, the intention was definitely to obscure the facts, or lack of them. There was next to no information on the children themselves, who they were or where they came from. Either they don't know, or they don't want to tell.

[alt_poppy]

Oh.

You're quite right about that. I hadn't even noticed: they don't name them. I suppose I simply assumed-

What if these aren't the same girls who were advertised missing last week? Surely they must be.

[alt_molly]

The titles on those things were truly ridiculous. Even if they apparently got across at least a few points of hygiene that some of my boys still need to absorb. Well, except for Percy. He's rather fussy about that sort of thing.

[alt_bill]

Oi! It's not as if I don't know how to wash behind my ears, Mum!

[alt_poppy]

Ah, but do you have a proper appreciation for 'The Mighty, Magnificent Pea'? And did you realise that really you ought to 'Always Say Sorry' when you've done something to offend a housemate--even, perhaps, when it is not quite a matter of your being responsible for the ill-feeling; it is the mature thing to make peace whenever it lies in your power to do so.

Such wisdom! After all, most of us need to be reminded now and then to 'Perk Up: A Smile Will Raise Your Spirits'!