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[alt_molly]

Poppy, I need your advice. Arthur sent me off to stay with Bill as soon as he got home from Surrey--I'm there now. Have you managed to find out anything from St Mungo's about how long Frank and the baby would need to be quarantined? What about Arthur? I can't imagine any excuse that he can give to avoid going into work. I don't think he's so worried for himself or his coworkers, but he says he doesn't want to endanger me.

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[alt_arthur]

Molly and I have talked it over exhaustively through the Floo. She doesn't like it at all, but I'm continuing to have her stay with Bill for now. I'm tending to the chickens and goats this weekend, and she'll apparate home to do that during the week while I'm at work.

Technically, this isn't my department, if you'll remember. Officially, I'm with the Department of Purity Control, with the Committee of Muggle-Born Labour Services. I'm only a liaison to the Department of Muggle Domestication. Since I'm in a different department from the people primarily concerned with this epidemic, I wouldn't even have any of this information yet, except that Norma Brownmiller defied Griderson's order to keep word of what was going on strictly within that department. Since no one with magical ability seems to be affected--yet--his instinct seems to be to keep it all very hush-hush. I gather he doesn't care how many people dies; he just doesn't want to admit how many work requisitions he isn't able to fill.

Norma's very worried. She actually Floo-called me at home this morning to discuss the issue, which is quite unusual for a weekend. Although Griderson scoffs at her, she's not convinced that the disease will remain confined to Muggles only. And it is beginning to affect my department, because the growing shortage of Muggle labour means that there is more of a demand for Muggleborn workers.

It seems hypocritical for me to plan to go into work next week while quarantining myself from Molly at home, but as best as I can tell, no one with the Department of Muggle Domestication is concerned with the issue of quarantine, even the ones that have been visiting the camps. Norma seems to be alone in her concerns.

[alt_arthur]

And yes, I am very well today, myself. I had a goat try to take a bite out of the seat of my trousers this morning while I was attending to the morning milking--they aren't as familiar with me as with Molly--but otherwise all is well here at the Burrow.

[alt_bill]

They must not like your fashion sense, Dad.

[alt_arthur]

I wouldn't have thought that goats would be that critical.

[alt_poppy]

I confess that I have difficulty distinguishing one Ministry department from another sometimes, Arthur. From the outside it all seems rather Byzantine.

Does Griderson have a reason for expecting the disease to affect no one beyond the Muggles who are current ill with it? The flea theory in no way ensures this. And does your colleague Brownmiller have a special reason for expecting it will spread beyond the camps?

I myself would expect that any disease afflicting Muggles could equally infect any person, magical or otherwise. From a medical point of view, that ought to be a baseline assumption. Unless there is some special reason to believe that magic makes a difference in the specific way that the disease attacks the body. There are, of course, magical ailments that seem not to affect Muggles, and there are infections we are able to protect against with magic, but in almost all respects the human body is the same whether a person possesses magic or does not.

And so I wonder: does someone know something beyond what we've heard?

[alt_arthur]

Tom Griderson's 'reasoning' is nothing more than anti-Muggle prejudice, pure and simple. Anti-Muggle spite. He thinks they're nothing but animals, and so he's classified this in his mind as nothing-to-do-with-us-real-people. It's criminal that he's a supervisor in that department, although given this regime, not surprising.

Norma Brownmiller, on the other hand, deals more with facts and figures. She has a background in statistics--quite the whiz in Arithmancy--with a strong interest in public health. She actually studied at St Mungo's for awhile, but ended up not getting her Healer's certificate, and ended up in the Ministry instead. I'd listen to her instead.