Order Only: The Ministry and Owls, plus Rookwood

[alt_bill]

Two things: first I want to report that the Minister of Magic is being flooded with owls from parents demanding that the MLE take over the investigation of the latest incident at Hogwarts. Apparently, Fudge is not particularly appreciating the complaints. The order came down from Senior Undersecretary Umbridge that any owl used to deliver one of these complaints should be promptly confiscated from its owner by the Ministry, with the excuse that the Ministry needs the owl's services 'for the duration of the crisis.' Dolores Umbridge failed to consider, however, that her title does not impress most owls. They'll only work for someone other than their owners if the owners expressly gives permission for them to be lent out to somebody else. The Ministry owl handlers suffered some bad pecking and talon scratch attacks while the owls made this clear to them.

Secondly, and this is big. Two members of my analysis team, Aloysius Archer and Tabitha Dames, have been cross-indexing Lucius Malfoy's journal posts (especially any mention of the movements of Augustus Rookwood) with the camp security log-book entries and the reports of epidemic outbreaks. The evidence can't be ignored. The pattern of outbreaks following Rookwood's visits to the camps is more than a statistical probability, it's a dead certainty.

On October 5, Malfoy told Regulus in a comment that Shroton and Ampfield were selected as 'test sites.' The LP inspected the camps on October 14, and that's rare. There's a whole lot of other corroberating evidence that they presented to me, and I can go over it with you, Dad, if you like.

I've gone and pulled what budgetary parchment work that I can. Of course, Rookwood works with the Department of Mysteries, and so those budget spreadsheets never see the light of day. BUT I did find a few mentions of mysterious requisitions in the budget for the Department of Squib Affairs, with Rookwood's initials.

I don't know what Rookwood's up to, but if Archer and Dames are right, I'm very much afraid that the evidence is damning.

Somehow, the Ministry of Magic, specifically the Department of Mysteries, is behind the cause of the epidemic.

Comments

[alt_sirius]

Thanks, Bill. I had a feeling; something about Malfoy's posts was not adding up. Or rather, it was adding to too much, if you follow me.

Do you trust Dames and Archer? I mean, do they know what they're looking at - and is there any possibility they'll say something to the wrong person?

I'm still not sure how Squib Affairs connects, though. But I remembered that when Malfoy wanted to redirect Carrow over the summer, he brought him to Rookwood. Is it possible that Rookwood was trying to understand how Muggleborns develop magic, and Squibs don't?

If that's so, then how does that relate to the epidemic? What trials was he conducting back in the autumn? I'm still a bit stumped.

[alt_bill]

Oh, I trust Archer and Dames all right. Their work has always been impeccable, they keep their mouths tightly shut, and they have as much reason to hate the Ministry as anyone: they've each had relatives that ended up in the camps, although they're counted as Purebloods themselves. (Tabitha has a son who got taken away from her as a squib, and Aloysius a muggleborn sister-in-law and her children.)

I'll get them to look at the Carrow angle. I don't think that anything having to do with that monster can be good news.

Poppy, have you heard any of your sources at St Mungo's breathe anything at all along these lines?

[alt_poppy]

I'm afraid not.

It's been weeks since I've had any contact with St Mungo's: with all the concerns about exposure--and especially since the restrictions on firecalls--I've been instructed not to call unless there's a pressing need.