Order Only: Private message to Charlie Weasley and Fred Weasley

[alt_bill]

I picked a fine day to ignore my journal.

When I arrived home, I found broken shards from about fifty cups and saucers, scattered all over the hearth. Guess Mum replicated a slew of them and then chucked them all at the mantlepiece, one after another. Made a hell of a mess, but I suppose it worked. She was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a pot of tea. With red eyes but as calm as you please.

Then I opened my journal and I discovered why.

Merlin.

Comments

[alt_fred]

D'ye want us to come home?

[alt_bill]

I think she's had the worst of it out of her system.

Just...just be considerate of her when you see her tomorrow? Probably knock off the usual teasing for a few days, at the very least.

[alt_charlie]

I have to say, I'm proud of her that she took it out on the cups and saucers rather than in the journals. 'Course, we don't know what she's said to Ron directly, but, yeah.

I don't know what to think. On the one hand, let's face it, we have been hampered by not having reliable intelligence from the Council Death Eater side of things. Minerva hasn't been able to do it for a long time. On the other hand -- that's my brother we're talking about.

I wonder if there's anything we can do to help.

[alt_bill]

I don't think, from what little she told me, that she used the journals to harangue him in any way. As you say, she took it out on the crockery instead. I'm sure that's vastly preferable to Ron.

Yeah. I can see all sorts of horrible scenarios. This is one of those times when I wish I was blessed with a less active imagination. On the other hand the competitive Weasley-proud Gryffindor in me is bloody proud of him. Whatever their reasons, they think he's good enough to put up against their very best.

I wish one of us was still at school with him. To watch his back, at the very least.

Of course, the four of them have an advantage, that they can watch out for each other through the journals and with the Galleons, in a way that many of the others can't. That's something, at least.

[alt_bill]

Paging through all the journal entries today, I found the comments on Hydra Lestrange's where Ron copied out the text of the letter he received. Saw this bit:

'I have chosen you as a potential Councilwizard because, of all the Weasleys currently at large, you alone have, I believe, the right combination of wizarding pride and tactical skill required to excel among our number.'

Well, that's put you and me in our place, hasn't it?

It's also one in the eye for Percy.

Merlin. Speaking of Percy, I wonder what he knows about this.

[alt_charlie]

And yeah, that made me double-take a bit. More for your sake than mine, since nobody thinks twice about me, really, which is the way I like it. But I guess it's better that people underestimate us?

I saw Ginny wrote to Percy, so I'm guessing she told him if he didn't already know. I can't imagine what would happen if Ron was invited to take the Mark before Percy was, though. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the thought of Ron taking the Mark at all, though. Makes my skin crawl.

[alt_bill]

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it, too. I've privately thought a bit about what I might do if I were offered the Mark. I never wanted it, Merlin knows, but I thought there was at least a chance it could be offered, given the way I was moving up in the Ministry. I also thought about Percy taking it.

I never thought of it being offered to Ron. Honestly, it never occurred to me. Which was bloody short-sighted of me, now that I think about it. After all, what else is that CCF programme for, but to train their future elites?

[alt_charlie]

And on the one hand, good on Ron, for fooling them so well, and for showing loyal so thoroughly that someone picked him as one of the best and brightest coming out of Hogwarts.

On the other hand, that's my baby brother we're talking about, and I've heard Mac and Snape talk about what's involved and it turns my stomach. And even if it's not Ron who 'wins' this thing, all the kids who are involved are, well, kids. Even though nobody gets a childhood anymore, it makes me cringe to think of any of them doing what they'd have to do. Even Malfoy, when it all comes down to it. He's a snot and a terror, and his father's a monster, but he's still a kid when it all comes down to it and he deserves better.

Maybe something else will come up. Maybe Voldemort will get bored and forget about all this.

(Yeah, I didn't think so either.)

[alt_charlie]

Yeah.

I keep thinking about my first few years at Hogwarts, and how terrified I was about the war, and how everything seemed so bleak and hopeless, and how you were trying so hard to look out for me while keeping your head down too, and how I never really knew what was going on but I knew something bad was happening and Mum and Dad were terrified. I think I figured out they were in the Order a long time before I figured out what the Order even was, but I knew from the start that I couldn't talk to anyone about it. Not even you, really, any more than we already talked about things. It taught me a lot about how to keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way, but -- it was after my first year, remember, when half the Slytherin seventh-years finished up their NEWTs and walked out of Hogwarts and into the battles at Leicester and the Midlands, and at school everyone was full of all the stories Desai was filling our heads with and half my year was dreaming of the days when we could be grownups and go into glorious battle like the older kids did, and --

Do you remember the time that summer -- maybe it was the next -- when Mum caught us playing Lord Protector and the Blood-Traitors? The look on her face then? Merlin. All I remembered at the time was how she sat us down and talked about how turning it into a game disrespected the people who were fighting and dying. Looking back at it now, all I can think of is, she never said which people.

Anyway. What I mean is -- we could tell something was wrong, but we didn't have any clue what was really going on, or any sense that what we were being taught was thestral shite, for far too long. And I listened to far more of the propaganda than I should have for far too long, because you're supposed to be able to trust your teachers and what they're teaching you. I always wanted to get to know Tonks better during school, for instance, and I never did, because she was a fostered halfblood and everything they were telling us said I should stay far away. That kind of thing.

That's something Ron and his friends don't have to worry about. Not that they don't get hefty doses of the propaganda, I mean -- but they somehow managed to see through it early on. Way earlier than we did. And they have each other, and they worked it all out together, and I can't imagine what it would have been like going through all that with somebody next to you that you could turn to and say "this is all a boat of nonsense, isn't it?"

So, yeah. You're right that they have an advantage. A big one. I think that makes me feel loads better about it than I did when I first heard. Thanks.

[alt_bill]

I remember that, yeah. And you're right, the full implications of what she was saying to us didn't really sink in until years later.

You're right, it's been different for you and me than it has been for Ron and his friends. And yeah, some of it's the lock--both locks--and being able to talk with friends safely. That's the good part.

But another difference is the increasing sophistication of our enemy. They're grooming the cream of the kids to step into their roles as the oppressors of the next generation. You and I missed that, as they only started the CCF curriculum after we'd left school.

I wonder what our paths would have been, if we had been faced with that.

[alt_charlie]

I don't know. I really don't. I'd like to think I'd've seen through it all like Ron and the rest did, but I'm honest enough with myself that I can't say.

I try not to think too hard about what-ifs, though. They just depress me.