Private message to Charlie Weasley

[alt_bill]

Mum was practically in tears this morning at breakfast, and when she told me why, I felt like a total prat. Forgive me, but the auspicious occasion of your natal day as Per completely slipped my mind. Slipped both our minds, actually. George mentioned it in passing during a Floo call this morning. Mum's been so busy getting ready for the Grand Opening, and I've...well. I've been distracted, too. But I do feel rather badly, not the least since you've been such a support to me this year.

Anyway, owl's on its way to you and should reach you tomorrow morning. Despite the fecklessness of your family, I hope you had a good time celebrating it with Dree and Em.

Comments

Re: ORDER ONLY

[alt_bill]

That's a wonderful idea, to offer her some memories of her father. I'd like to convince her that her death isn't inevitable. Bloody hell, I wish the Order had found her first.

It's been almost dizzying, actually, seeing her this week through a whole new perspective. Surreal, almost, like--like psychological whiplash. I mean, I was interested in her, and we sort of fell into things. I realised what I was doing and how stupid it was to do this with an apparently loyal auor, and 'fessed to Alice, who read me the riot act, and I tried to put her out of my mind, I honestly did.

And now this. It's almost maddening: now that I know, a good number of the reasons that I told myself why it was impossible suddenly evaporated. I find I'm attracted to her even more now. I can't lie to myself, dismissing it as just lust. Well, that's there still, believe me, maybe even more than ever, but it's mixed with admiration and pity and fascination and sympathetic fellow feeling and the sheer enjoyment of spending time in her company.

What makes it worse is that she's given me some clear signals this week that she's still interested, too.

Well, except not all the obstacles have evaporated.

There's still Lucius Malfoy. Much may also depend on how the negotiations with Dogstar go, too. If it all ends up in a big fireball, that would definitely put a crimp on things.

I don't know. I need to think about it some more, but maybe..maybe I'd like to see if we can make something work. I do feel I would need to be upfront with Alice, though.

Ugh, won't that be an embarrassing conversation. The first one was bad enough.

Re: ORDER ONLY

[alt_charlie]

Poor Alice. We put her through so much grief, don't we?

Giving it some time is probably the best option. I can imagine Alice is probably a bit fed up with trying to wrangle all of us, especially with Frank's magic still being out of commission. It's probably better to give her a few weeks without bringing it up again, and also give you and Rachel a few weeks to figure out how you're going to interact with each other now that you both know what you know. Jumping into things is never a good idea if you have the time to consider them more carefully, and all.

Especially since it would be a bad thing to risk the negotiations with Dogstar. I mean, that'll probably all end badly anyway, because I can't imagine Ridley being any more reasonable this time than she was the last, but you don't want too many brewers spoiling the potion and all. And, yeah, Malfoy. Ugh. Malfoy.

(Which reminds me -- I'm this close to dropping in on Percy and suggesting to him that if he says one word to Mum about the anniversary of Dad's death, or if he so much as shows the tip of his nose near her grand opening, or if he even thinks about coming round for Christmas, I'll introduce his face to my knuckles at high velocity. Talk me out of it?)

Anyway. Time. Time is good, and taking things slowly, and maybe letting somebody else take point on the negotiations for a bit -- I think bringing Sirius in was probably a good plan. That way you can separate negotiations on behalf of Dogstar and the Order a bit from how much you two want to get into each others' knickers.

We should try to figure out some way for you to introduce her to me, maybe. (Officially, I mean.) I'd like a chance to get to know her a bit.

Re: ORDER ONLY

[alt_bill]

You're certainly right about not wanting to add to Alice's burdens right now. I did tell her that the Order will always come first for me, and I meant it, which means, yeah, I have to allow some time for the negotiations with Dogstar to play out. Plus, if I show her that I'm willing to wait and reflect a bit before jumping back in, it might give her more reason to trust my judgement.

I honestly don't know what to think about the Malfoy issue. Maybe all this has made me figure out I'm naturally monogamous...or at least there's an atavistic caveman deep down inside me somewhere who doesn't want to share. Especially with Malfoy. Not to mention the danger it poses for her.

Except there's also a part of me (the more wicked part) that likes the idea of him unwittingly giving away intelligence to someone who's working to bring down the Protectorate. She made her move to save those girls because of information he gave her. So how could I ask her to give up that conduit?

I'd like to introduce you to her, yeah, although I'm not quite sure when or how. Maybe I can convince her to come to the grand opening. You're going to get some time off that day, aren't you? I'm not planning on going to the Ministry party this year, and if Mulciber doesn't like it, he can go stuff himself. That's just too close to the bone.

I've been worried about Percy and the opening, too. If he did show up and make a scene, that would be a nightmare. I'm sure Fred and George would be perfectly happy to chuck some fireworks at him and blow him up, but that might very well frighten away all the customers. Probably best to avoid that!

Maybe we could warn him off using the journals? Less danger of fisticuffs or explosions if neither of us is in the same room with him. Not a threat, exactly, but, mm, call it a dignified, firm request. We can maybe use his loathing of making a scene to convince him. I will say that he hasn't made any attempt to come home or visit the Gringotts vault--and yes, I checked.

Re: ORDER ONLY

[alt_charlie]

I was thinking about that, too. Giving Percy a warning via journal, I mean. I'm not sure if it would be satisfying enough for me, though. Maybe it's my caveman, but I am just so blindingly, blazingly furious with him that I want him to realise how much he's burned his bridges. I know you all think I'm the easygoing one, and, I mean, I damn well try to be, but he crossed the line a long way back and I want him to realise he used up the last of his rope with me a long time back.

I'm glad he hasn't tried anything with the vaults, and I don't know if he'd even think of showing up for Christmas or saying anything to Mum about it, and I'm sure that if he did Mum would come out with something about how Christmas is a time for family. And if he tries to reach out around the anniversary of Dad's death, I'm sure she wouldn't want a scene or anything. But I want him to know just how seriously I mean this: his actions show he's decided he doesn't want to be a Weasley anymore, and I'm damn well going to enforce that, because you don't get to take that decision back. Not without a hell of a lot of groveling.

I guess I will write to him. I'll write it out on separate paper first and sit on it for a bit, just to make sure I'm not saying something I shouldn't.

I'll be at the opening, yeah. Wouldn't miss it for the world.

Re: ORDER ONLY

[alt_bill]

No, I agree with you, and I'm sure the rest also want to do everything we can to protect Mum. It's probably just as well they didn't let me into the Committee Room at that licensing hearing, because if they had, once I realised what he was doing, I probably would have hexed his lights out.

If you want to take on the task of writing to him, fine. I trust you, but of course you can feel free to run it by me first if you want another opinion.

Great, I'll see you on the 21st then. It'll be best for us all to be together on that day...and if Percy's alone out in the cold, it's his own bloody fault.