Private Message to Draco Malfoy and Seamus Finnigan

[alt_padma]

Malfoy, you know how you were saying a while ago that there's more to Longbum than meets the eye?

Did you read this morning's Prophet?

Finnigan, better watch your back. 'Auror Longbottom' might just decide to use the Cardinal Curses on you if you don't treat him with respect!

Have you ever had any clue he might actually know which way to point a wand? I mean, when you were practising defence, before?

The papers seem to think it's remarkable, anyway.

Comments

[alt_draco]

Finnigan knows what people with the Longbottom name can do, because I told him. So does my Uncle Stephen, and Professor Raz.

Be honest, didn't you start to wonder back when he wrote to Scrimgeour?

[alt_padma]

Oh, I was wondering before then, but yeah, I can't believe he had the gall to write to Scrimgeour! I guess that's Gryffindors for you. Probably why he's even here in the first place and not already home.

I dunno, though. If I were Scrimgeour I'd have to worry about giving someone like Longbottom the skills to really do any damage. I suppose you Slytherins would say he'd be keeping his enemies close, where he can observe them, but still.

[alt_draco]

Scrimgeour probably doesn't have any personal experience with what his mad parents can do, though. And now that we know his traitor parents are alive, maybe Scrimgeour thinks it'll be a nice way to rub their face in the fact that their son is being considered for the cadet programme, which is of course only for the most loyal and talented among those our age.

I dunno, though. It's more like Longbottom to try to shrink away and hope no one notices him. It'll be interesting to see what he does now that this article has come out about him.

[alt_padma]

What did you make of that last puzzle game? The one where everyone's whole team had to reach the top of that column without brooms?

I saw that some of the Hufflepuffs were trying to levitate each other up there.

Did yours have a loose brick, too, though? Ours did. We cast a banishing spell on it and the whole tower collapsed, so we could all touch the top. And the examiners said that was good enough.

How did your lot solve it?

[alt_draco]

Ha, trust the Hufflepuffs to think it's easier and more sensible to move a whole group of people up in the air than it is to just knock some mortar down. They never said the column had to stay upright, did they!

We used blasting spells on the mortar until the top of the tower was crumbled at our feet. Wasn't much more than dust and chunks by then, but the examiners said it was a fine job.

[alt_seamus]

I reckon you're right about the article being a way to rub their faces in it.

[alt_seamus]

Mr Rosier says you should never take what newspapers say too seriously.

I've never seen Longbottom look like anything but a prat. When we were practising together I suppose he looked like less of an idiot than he usually does, but its not as if he was especially good.

[alt_padma]

True, but papers love a good redemption story, don't they? They make it sound like he wants nothing more than to become a loyal hero of the Protectorate - and whatever he may or may not think about his traitor parents, we know he's not hero potential!