Did anyone else

[alt_padma]

read in today's Prophet that Abbott's little sister and brother are being reclassified as purebloods?

I think that's about as good a way to honour Abbott's memory as any, really. Maybe they think it'll help protect them some. Although it might not, either. Not entirely.

Here in Ravenclaw, loads of people are having trouble sleeping. I guess on Sunday the Sisters in Witchcraft made sachets for under their pillows. Lavender and chamomile and other herbs that help soothe and calm people when they're going to sleep. I'm not sure how well they're helping. Fawcett's been having a terrible time of it, and Su Li too, for that matter. We've asked Professor Sprout if we can go down to the greenhouses after today's last exam, to make some more, and she said yes, we could do. I think we'll put runes on to help make them more powerful, too. MacDougal got a bottle of some vile potion from her mum but it smells so bad no one wants to test it. I think the runes are safer - especially after reading that paper Linus Moon wrote for class.

We were talking about things in the Corner this afternoon, about how it seems like Our Lord's peace keeps getting disrupted in really horrible ways. Like last year. And now this. We're supposed to be safe at Hogwarts - and we are, mostly - but if stuff like this can keep happening even with the best kind of protection available, well, we reckon it's just true what they tell the Young Protectors, that it's everybody's business to keep themselves all prepared for domestic enemies, all the time, because you never know.

Still. Even with knowing that we're practising and we're prepared, it feels sort of helpless. Doesn't it? Like you can't ever really keep the bad out, not altogether. And I mean, being fourteen doesn't make us any more able to stop bad things happening than being thirteen did. Do grown-ups feel that way too, do you think?

Comments

[alt_daphne]

I asked my Mother to send more of her special snowdrop flowers, but I guess she didn't have any to spare because she sent me a load of calming draughts, instead. I have a few left if anyone wants.

I really think Hogwarts will be a lot safer now, don't you?

[alt_padma]

Well, I certainly hope it will! But there's still Macnair and Snape to worry about! And the Dementors.

I think Fawcett could use one of those snowdrops, thanks. We could all do with a little less sniffling through the night.

Private message to Padma

[alt_daphne]

Doesn't Professor Sinistra look so sad? I wonder how she's coping? I've seen her ducking into the hospital wing quite a lot lately.

Re: Private message to Padma

[alt_padma]

It's too tragic, isn't it?

I mean, he got hurt once already, famously. And then to be paralysed again? I can't blame Professor S for being worried for him.

(Oh, and Chambers heard from Bobolis and Dames because they were up the hospital wing getting calming draughts for the first-years in Ravenclaw, that he's in stasis so the curse can run its course. Can you imagine? Poor Professor S. Do you think she'll be by his bedside when he wakes up?)

Re: Private message to Padma

[alt_daphne]

Isn't this actually the third time he's been famously hurt? Back during the war he had the injury that gave him his limp, and then when the Protectorate was still young he was shot by someone (with a gun!) who was trying to kill the Lord Protector, and now this!

Gosh, I just had to run off and check the annuals to make sure he was Slytherin, because after I wrote all that he suddenly sounded quite like a Gryffindor.

Maybe she will be, unless of course his brother gets there first...

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

[alt_lee]

That bit about the Abbotts is sick. They let her murderer walk free and they say, hey, we'll make it up to you by changing a meaningless legal designation.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

Yeah.

It's not as if they're going to let them into the Daughters of the Protectorate. And now her sister and brother won't be able to do the Sisterhood or Brotherhood either.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

[alt_gredforge]

Exactly. There'll be people who will still hold up their noses at them.

[alt_seamus]

I saw that, about Abbot's brother and sister. It's a nice gesture, I think.

People in Gryffindor aren't sleeping well, either. And Percy -- he looks like he went through a war. I suppose in a way he did.

Private message to Padma

[alt_seamus]

How are you doing? I keep thinking about how you lost someone just a year ago.

Is there anything I can do?

Everyone in Gryffindor is broken up. Percy, well, I already said, I guess, but -- I keep thinking about how two weeks ago he was barking at everyone and telling us what to do and now he sits there and stares into space and startles when the wind blows. It's horrid, it's like he's Percy's ghost.

For once his horrid brothers are leaving him alone. I don't know what's wrong with Ginny, going after him like that as if there's NO OTHER PERSON IN THE WHOLE SCHOOL who could possibly give her advice on her class choices.

Re: Private message to Padma

[alt_padma]

I know! And did you see what she told Clearwater? I mean, Clearwater's a bit of a dishrag, you know, not like she's pretty or well nice or anything, but honestly, if Haruman had a girlfriend and Parvati or I talked to her like that? Hex city. And too right. That may well have been the most selfish thing Ginevra Weasley has ever said, and that's saying quite a lot!

I'm doing okay, I guess. Focusing on exams. Friday was really difficult. As soon as lessons were done I went up to one of the astronomy towers - the one with the nift little library nook just below the trap door level - and sat there for a while without my journal. And when I came back to the common room Dunstan and MacDougal and Su Li and I just stayed in the dormitories with every possible candle lit that we could find and drank cocoa.

Thanks for asking, though. Everyone thinks you're supposed to be done being sad after a year, you know? But it doesn't really work that way. You know who really understands? And it's weird that she does? Parkinson. I mean, you wouldn't think we'd be closer - or really at all well close - after everything that happened. But she does know, really really know, how it feels.

Percy - Well. Clearwater's been waiting on him practically like a house elf since it happened. It stands to reason, though. He's a hero and she can well hold it over everyone that she saw his potential when everyone else just thought him a right git. But I can't blame her wanting to keep everyone away from him. Nor I can't blame him for being terribly skittish. Imagine duelling Professor Carrow and living to tell the tale!

Re: Private message to Padma

[alt_seamus]

That's funny Parkinson understands. I suppose it makes sense, but it's odd you wound up close at all, considering.

I think there are things you never get over. Mr Rosier's son died -- well, back around the time we were born, I guess, or even earlier. And he's not done being sad. He doesn't go around crying all day, I mean at some point you have to get on with it, but he says a part of him broke that day, and that part will always be broken.

[alt_lavender]

Helpless.

That's exactly the word for it.

[alt_susan]

It is a nice gesture, I suppose, but I can't help thinking there are other things that might have protected them more.

[alt_pansy]

I know what you mean about feeling helpless.

And that just because we're still sort of kids doesn't mean we'll be safe.

It's funny, it's like sometimes, people still treat us like we're babies, but then at the same time, we're expected to handle things that would be hard for full-grown witches and wizards. You know? I think the programme this summer will help a little, at least when it comes to feeling a bit more prepared for everything.

Who are you writing to for the YPL by the way?

[alt_pansy]

Never mind. You wrote yours an age and a half ago! Have you heard back?

I've only just sent mine. I was going to do it over the weekend, but you know.