Order Only: Private message to Charlie Weasley

[alt_bill]

I'm missing fifteen minutes. Somone, somewhere obliviated me sometime today.

Shite. This is deeply unnerving. I'd better let Alice know.

I wish we still had the fucking portkeys for the kids.

Comments

[alt_charlie]

Bloody buggering baby bunnies.

How did you figure it out? Do you know when it was? What were you doing before and after?

[alt_bill]

I was in my office. About 11:00 am. I had just glanced at my clock, because I had a quick meeting planned with Nick Towler.

And then...there I was in my office. I was working on reports. It was instantaneously a quarter past, and Nick was standing in the doorway saying, 'hey, weren't we going to go get some tea?'

I felt...a little strange. Sort of as if I hadn't had any sleep the night before or something, except I had.

And there was the clock. Fifteen minutes gone in an instant.

Bugger.

[alt_bill]

Merlin.

What do I do?!

[alt_bill]

Maybe...maybe I should let Fred and George know?

Just in case. Do you think I should?

[alt_charlie]

Merlin. At least before Dumbledore told me he's been obliviating me, he set it up so I wouldn't notice. But -- Merlin, the thought of someone messing with my memory like that makes my skin crawl and he asked first. To just figure it out like this --

All right. Let's think about this carefully. Was anyone near you other than Nick when you realised? Was anything different on your desk? Are you missing anything that should be there, or is there anything there that shouldn't be? Was there anything else odd about how you were feeling, other than too tired?

Can you get Nick to Priori your wand and see if you cast any spells you don't remember? That might tell you something.

I don't know about telling the twins or not. I saw you wrote Alice, I'm assuming to tell her -- maybe see what she thinks? I don't want to worry everyone, but if someone suspects something, we'll all need to be on our guard.

[alt_bill]

A bit of a delay, because I went to get Nick at the end of the work day when I saw your response. You had some good, practical suggestions, and we took your advice.

Nick's checked my wand, and there are no unfamiliar spells at all.

Nothing seems out of place in my office, and nothing's been taken away, as best as we can tell. Of course, it's not clear whether I was in my office the entire fifteen minutes.

But I'm incredibly careful about parchment work I keep at the Ministry, both for Order security and because of that bloody DIRRT campaign. For the same reason, I keep my files in a very orderly manner, so that I can see right away if anything's been disturbed, and I can grab anything I need in a hurry. If I ever have anything Order-related with me, it stays in the moke pouch around my neck. If there are Ministry files related to Order matters on my desk, the only signal I use are red paperclips. Very innocuous.

I didn't have any appointments today. Other than Nick, as I said. Of course, I deal with lots of people, all day, every day, and there are always dozens of people traipsing through the hallway outside my office.

Merlin. It could have been anyone one of thirty people or more.

No one's looking at me squinty-eyed, so I have no reason to think that, say, Barty Crouch, Jr stopped by for a fishing expedition through my brain pan.

But still...

This has me really spooked. Nick, too. Oh, and we checked HIS office, too, just for good measure. Nothing looked amiss.

Haven't heard back from Alice yet. She might want me to talk to Frank, or Kingsley, for security purposes.

[alt_charlie]

Sorry -- the temperature warning went off just after I wrote that last to you, and in the chaos of us all running off to keep the eggs from freezing overnight, I left my journal on my bed.

If nothing in your office's been disturbed, and none of your folders is out of order, and you don't seem to be missing anything, and your wand didn't cast anything you don't remember ... I don't know. I really don't. Did Alice have any suggestions when she got back to you? (She's got back to you by now, right?)

But who did it and why is one thing, but how spooked it makes you feel is another. It's probably right to be spooked by this -- maybe spend a few weeks being as impeccably above reproach as you can be.

And if you're in a conversation with someone, and something happens that makes you think you might be about to be Obliviated, pinch yourself really hard on somewhere really tender, or bite down on your lip or on the inside of your cheek as hard as you can. That way, if you suddenly have a bruise somewhere you don't remember, you'll know something's up. And, hrm. Is there some kind of unobtrusive security spell that will write down the names of everyone who walks into your office? You could set it every morning and leave the list it writes in your desk or something, and if anyone figures it out and asks you why you're doing it, you can say that you've been having so many people dropping in that you're losing entire hours of work time and you want to keep track of how much time you spend with people so you can be more efficient.

Let's hope it's just that that someone dropped in to chat, said something horribly embarrassing, and obliviated you to keep you from remembering. That would be the ideal reason.

I'm sorry.

[alt_bill]

Alice wants me to consult with Severus, as he's quite knowledgeable about mind magics and memory theory, which is a good idea. I'm meeting with him tonight. Well, it might not be pleasant--I told the twins, so they could help with evacuation, if it comes to that, and they warned me that the occlumency lessons they're doing with Severus aren't too pleasant. I don't mind, though, if it helps relieve my mind.

I have no idea what this could be about, which makes it even more unnerving, really. I can't think of anything I've done that might have been a slip I was hoping that nobody would notice. Selwyn is quite pleased with my work, and my relationships with my coworkers are going along well enough (especially since I'm not working directly with Massopust anymore).

That's an excellent idea, about keeping a magical record of who comes into my office. I'll put it into effect.

Except, of course, it won't be much use if whoever-it-was decides to approach me again outside my office.

Gah.

Re: your last--that's the best idea yet.

[alt_bill]

Oh, god

Unless it was Tonks, dropping by for a visit, and I lost my head and said something--

Surely I wouldn't be that stupid again?!

[alt_bill]

Now I'm even more ashamed of what I tried to do to Ron. Aiming an obliviation spell at him, I mean.

Bugger.

[alt_charlie]

She wouldn't have done that. And if you'd done it to yourself, to try to make yourself forget, you would've been smart enough to leave yourself a note, so that if you noticed you wouldn't freak out like this.

And, well. I wasn't going to say it, but -- Now you know, at least, and you won't do it again. When he's home for Easter hols you can apologise again, yeah?

I'm glad Snape's going to take a look. If there's anything to find, he'll find it.