Padma Patil

Marvolo is completely mental.

You saw him pull me aside after supper? He wanted to yell at me about Thomas. He said that I should have come to him like Weasel so we could have 'worked something out.' He even had the gall to say that I was disrespecting his wishes about how these contests were to go by handling my challenge by myself, in my way. (And seriously, does he think for a moment Thomas would have gone for arranging a fix? Not in a thousand years.)

Honestly. He thinks he can control what everyone's doing and make us all behave like we're still in cradle school. And--listen to this--he said that we had a choice to work 'with him' or 'alongside him' or 'against him' in future, and that by 'letting' things turn deadly I'm signalling that I'm working 'against him.'

I asked him if he really thought that's the way Our Lord wants it--his own father, after all, is the one making us go through this initiation process. And that sort of stopped him for a moment. He said, the Protectorate should be a shining example, and it's easier to serve Our Lord's pure and noble vision if you're not constantly in fear of being stabbed in the back.

I wonder just what he thinks has been happening in the Council all this time? And just why Avery and Glendower and all those others have died over the past few years? Is he really that naïve?

Rama.

The worst part was when he said something about how I knew that Professor Dolohov wanted to be notified about things that might affect him and--he's right about that--and I had to say over again that I hadn't ever expected Thomas to actually break any of the wardings and--and between that and what happened with Draco and Blaise--I mean, does he think other people are going to sit back on their heels and not play to win? He's absolutely mad if he thinks that--and I just started crying. I hated myself even when it was happening, you know? But it just all sort of came crashing in and I suddenly couldn't stop for a while.

(Which I think worked. I mean, he stopped shouting, anyway. For a while.)

But honestly, he seems to think that some of us should be working around the challenges. That's what Lines was doing, I think, and Bobolis and Bell were doing. And where did it get them? Out. That's where.

Oh, I'm so-- I know he's the Lord Protector's son but honestly, I think even Malfoy would tell him he's being daft about this.

I'm sorry you weren't on the list.

Seamus, what did Professor Sinistra say? Lines, has she said anything to you at all?

Did you see the part about the 'anonymous donor' who made it possible to take 11? Who do you think bribed their way on, then? Maybe Parkinson paid so they'd take Perks, or Peakes bribed her to take Thomas. Or someone gave them money for Weasel--only I dunno who'd sponsor him!

Oh, also? Lines, you already know this but Clearwater's probably going to crack before the end of the week. She just grabbed up all her books and shut herself up in her dormitory and told Edgecombe and Anderson to just handle anything that came up and to leave her alone the rest of the night.


And--this is really important--what should we do about Daphne Greengrass? I mean, I know she broke up with Bole but did you notice how the Slytherins are all treating her like a porcelain doll? I don't want them thinking no one but them can keep her safe from him, you know? She should know that everyone thinks he's a lout. But I don't want her to think everyone knows everything, I mean, she was even too embarrassed to say anything to me and tried to make it sound like I couldn't possibly get it.

What gets me is that she thinks Porkinson does get it? Ugh.

It was snitch of you to have the bunch of us over yesterday. Thank Mr Rosier again, will you?

I do wish the Hogwarts crew had been able to come as well. You would have liked the game we played, Malfoy especially, I think. Hooper brought it. It's called Illusionary. Have you heard of it? Well, you divide into teams and there's a stack of cards with words on, like 'muggle camp' and 'transfiguration' and 'London' and 'snake' and all sorts of things. And there are some props you can use, but you don't have to use them if you don't want to do. Well, each person on your team takes it in turns being the one to get the others to guess what your word is. But you have to make an illusion that illustrates your word to get them to guess, and you can't talk, of course. It was great fun. Thomas was the best at sketching the illusions in the air, of course, but Page was really good at making the props into whatever he wanted.

Well, anyway, then Thomas wanted to go skating, so we did that before tea, which was really not tea at all, but chocolate! But the game had been so much fun that we kept casting spells out on Mr Rosier's duck pond. Oh, and Hooper taught us this completely nift charm he knew, to make illusions and shapes and such out of his breath when it fogged up in the air. He must have pracised forever to be able to do things like that unicorn he made for Parvati. We all tried, but it's difficult to make the shapes quickly enough. I think Lav was getting the hang of it, though!

I think Page really enjoyed getting to speak with Mr Rosier in the library while we were off touring the house again. I know I've been before but we've still not seen the whole place! It just keeps going. I can't believe you said it's smaller than your family's main castle in Ireland, though, Finnigan. I dunno what I'd do with so many rooms! But I knew we'd lose Page in the library. It's quite my favourite room of Mr Rosier's, too. I know it's not quite as large as Hogwarts' library but then, Mr Rosier doesn't need multiple copies of things or quite so many books that no one ever wants to read, does he? It was really kind of him to loan Page that copy of Command of Thought, as well. I'm sure it'll be really helpful for his Dark Arts unit on Curses.

Mr Rosier was right about getting to know some of the others better. I never knew Robins was so witty! Or that Cuthbert and Page would bore us all with broom care as Quidditch strategy, ha-ha! It was loads of fun and now it won't seem like so long before we're all on the train back to school.

Well, I went to that revising session last night. It was mostly firsties and a few second-years who either desperately needed help or simply didn't know Perks or Parkinson very well.

But it wasn't too bad. D'you think they realise that only one of them can be made prefect?

But that's why I'm writing to you two. It is the sort of thing that could get taken into consideration next year when they look for people to make prefect. I mean, not that I think you'll have any trouble, Malfoy, if you wanted to be made one. But if these revision groups become popular then it might look odd if you're not part of them. And Finnigan, I think it'd be good if you came. I mean, right now it's probably between you and Thomas, I mean if they had to decide today, and unfortunately Thomas mostly gets slightly better marks. And I certainly don't want the two of them to think they'll have a load of younger students who worship them because they're so kind as to help them out!

It's like with Ravenclaw Corner, right? We should make it a privilege to spend time with older students. So, I was thinking, maybe we go to their sessions for a while and figure out who the best ones are, and then in a few weeks we tell those students that we're interested in keeping them on but in a different, more exclusive, group. Then we still get credit for helping the younger students, they're super-grateful because they got singled out, and if Parkinson and Perks want to keep on with the others, well, maybe we keep going but mainly to figure out which ones to pull away?

What do you think?