Poison?

POISON?

Look into Hydra's eyes and say you're poison because of who your parents were. Or Draco's. Or Pansy's.

We fought a goddamn war to say finally that magical blood is magical blood regardless of who your parents were. Good people are also good people regardless of what their last name is, whether they got added to some dusty moth-eaten tapestry when they were born, whether their parents fought to create this clusterfuck or fought to eliminate it. You don't carry some taint because you're a Black, any more than Hydra does, or Draco. We are the people our choices make us. You've chosen to be the person I LOVE, Sirius Black, you've chosen to be the person who holds me at night and stays with me when I transform, the person I waited most of my life to find. You've chosen to fight people like Bellatrix, to risk everything you have to make a better world. DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU ARE POISON.

There aren't any guarantees. None of us were promised a happy ending. Not Minerva or Severus, not Kingsley or Benjy, not Harry, not Justin, that doesn't make it all somehow your fault when things go wrong, you egotistical jackass. WHERE ARE YOU?




yes, I found your FUCKING note. just like obviously you found mine.

For those who have not heard, I am grieved to report that Justin Finch-Fletchley died last night.

His funeral will be held today at 3 p.m. at the Hogwarts Memorial Grounds, where he'll be laid to rest with the fallen from the May Battle.

All who wish to remember Justin and say goodbye may attend. I've told Headmistress Vector so that she can let Justin's classmates who are here but not Order members know.

Ran into Ron Weasley on his way out of the hospital wing. He was in good spirits, after being ID'd by some DE Enforcer who hit him with the transformation spell and barely getting away with his life.

I'm

I don't

I'm so tired of this. They're children. Why are they the ones

Is there any way for us to kill Bellatrix Lestrange? Take her down, and the center won't hold.

Are you a dog at the moment?

Just got word from someone monitoring the button network -- Brighton's under attack.

Alice?

Keep Neville's wand.

My sleep schedule's all thrown off. I don't know if I'll be tired enough for bed earlier than four. There was all that frantic running around for what seemed like approximately three days and then once we were done and I was home in bed -- well, back at HQ, in bed -- I was too wound up to sleep.

And then of course everyone very considerately didn't wake me. So now I'm very well rested and it's almost midnight and I'll probably be tired enough to sleep at around sunrise. Maybe I should make myself stay up through the day again. Or possibly there will be another 4 a.m. crisis and my odd schedule will come in useful.

I'm through. I mean, I'm in. Where are you? Where am I needed?

I've spent the morning at Malfoy Manor. Narcissa was pleased to see Draco -- weepy, joyful, furious, but overall pleased.

As I told Sirius, she'd clearly trying to avoid asking us for anything she assumes will be refused, presumably to deny us the pleasure of telling her 'no.' So she hasn't asked to see Lucius, though I imagine she asked Draco if he's seen him and how he is.

I'm wondering what you think of the idea of me offering to take her to see him this afternoon. I could side-along her to the Saltash tunnel and walk her in.

The possible risks to this -- we'd be revealing the secret of the null field to someone who's not a member or fully under our control. It's possible that both of the Malfoys would interpret this not as kindness but as a threat -- it makes it clear to each that the other is rather at our mercy. Narcissa might be entirely horrified by Saltash, though surely she'll accept that it's an improvement over Azkaban; finally, either might think we're implying to Narcissa that this is where we'd lock her up, if she seemed a risk to us. (And, well. It is, in fact, where we'd lock her up if she seemed a risk to us. In the meantime, however, I think it makes more sense to keep her at the Manor so that she can write responses in the journals and continue to emphasise that she's just trying to protect herself from her psychopathic sister.)

The leap of trust we've made here is that Narcissa is sufficiently invested in Hydra's safety that she'll keep quiet any secrets she learns; I think that's a reasonable leap. The question I've been pondering this morning is whether a measure of extra kindness (like taking her to see Lucius) has any chance of gaining active collaboration rather than tacit cooperation, and if so, what she might have to offer. (Other than Malfoy Manor, which is ... have you ever seen it? It's positively enormous. We could just about relocate Moddey here, aside from the detail of eventually running out of food. I spent part of the morning looking at this extensive collection of dark objects that I think were assembled by Lucius. He has them on display in glass cases. I recognized about a quarter of them, just enough to realise what the overall theme was.)

She may also be able to persuade Lucius to more enthusiastic cooperation. Again, I'm not sure.

Anyway. Any thoughts?

Think he's still rising that brioche dough? I mean, I don't want to disturb it if he's got some plan for it. How long does brioche dough rise for, anyway?