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alt_mollyArthur's finally fallen into an uneasy sleep, but I can't join him yet. I'm too heartsick.
I've spent the last couple days with Xenophilius, trying to calm him as he ranted and wept over what happened to Luna. It was all that I could do to keep him from Flooing the Ministry, the Hogwarts Board of Governors, every last one of them, the Prophet, even the office of the Lord Protector himself. He was deaf to all my arguments that he'd be doing nothing but cutting his own throat by raising a protest. But what did he care for himself, he said, as long he could have justice for his little girl? Justice! How could he dare hope for such a thing, when there's no semblance of it to be found in any corner of the realm? Finally, in desperation, I slipped a potion into his tea late last night that put him to sleep. I found myself crying as I flooed back home.
And now today's news: the epidemic has grown so enormous that Ministry can't pretend anymore that there's nothing amiss. How many more people will sicken because the powerful lied to cover up the truth? How many will die? Is it truly unstoppable now?
I actually found myself wondering whether I would ever see Ron and Ginny and Percy and the twins again.
Perhaps all this misery and death is nothing more than what we deserve. With all the evil that this government has sown, what can we expect but a bitter harvest of ruin and destruction?
An owl came this morning from that young girl from Slytherin, Sally-Anne Perks, the one the Head Girl cursed with Crucio earlier this week. I gathered from what she said that she'd gone to talk to Luna. Understandable, I think, for her to wonder, after what she'd gone through, why Luna would have willingly invited such pain. I can't quite tell, but it sounds to me as if Luna gave her quite a different reason than all that nonsense she said in the journals about wanting to learn about pain threshholds. I don't quite understand it, Minerva, but perhaps Luna's real reasoning isn't quite as daft as we all thought at first? At any rate, something she said seems to have impressed Sally-Anne, for the girl asked me to send her a story Luna had read last year and written an essay about. I dug through my parchments to find it again and sent it off to her. As long as I was sending Errol, I sent letters to the boys and Ginny, too.
It's very late. My candle is guttering and the tea has grown cold. Perhaps I'll be able to sleep now. Anyway, I'll put down my quill and try.
Postscript: upon reading this over, I realise how maudlin it all sounds. I'm sorry. It's just that Arthur and Bill have both been so grim and disheartened between the news about the epidemic and the turmoil at the Ministry. Besides, spending the past two days listening to Xeno has been such a strain.
I've spent the last couple days with Xenophilius, trying to calm him as he ranted and wept over what happened to Luna. It was all that I could do to keep him from Flooing the Ministry, the Hogwarts Board of Governors, every last one of them, the Prophet, even the office of the Lord Protector himself. He was deaf to all my arguments that he'd be doing nothing but cutting his own throat by raising a protest. But what did he care for himself, he said, as long he could have justice for his little girl? Justice! How could he dare hope for such a thing, when there's no semblance of it to be found in any corner of the realm? Finally, in desperation, I slipped a potion into his tea late last night that put him to sleep. I found myself crying as I flooed back home.
And now today's news: the epidemic has grown so enormous that Ministry can't pretend anymore that there's nothing amiss. How many more people will sicken because the powerful lied to cover up the truth? How many will die? Is it truly unstoppable now?
I actually found myself wondering whether I would ever see Ron and Ginny and Percy and the twins again.
Perhaps all this misery and death is nothing more than what we deserve. With all the evil that this government has sown, what can we expect but a bitter harvest of ruin and destruction?
An owl came this morning from that young girl from Slytherin, Sally-Anne Perks, the one the Head Girl cursed with Crucio earlier this week. I gathered from what she said that she'd gone to talk to Luna. Understandable, I think, for her to wonder, after what she'd gone through, why Luna would have willingly invited such pain. I can't quite tell, but it sounds to me as if Luna gave her quite a different reason than all that nonsense she said in the journals about wanting to learn about pain threshholds. I don't quite understand it, Minerva, but perhaps Luna's real reasoning isn't quite as daft as we all thought at first? At any rate, something she said seems to have impressed Sally-Anne, for the girl asked me to send her a story Luna had read last year and written an essay about. I dug through my parchments to find it again and sent it off to her. As long as I was sending Errol, I sent letters to the boys and Ginny, too.
It's very late. My candle is guttering and the tea has grown cold. Perhaps I'll be able to sleep now. Anyway, I'll put down my quill and try.
Postscript: upon reading this over, I realise how maudlin it all sounds. I'm sorry. It's just that Arthur and Bill have both been so grim and disheartened between the news about the epidemic and the turmoil at the Ministry. Besides, spending the past two days listening to Xeno has been such a strain.