Seeking: Several Ounces of Prevention

[alt_poppy]

I'm still awaiting the arrival of those supplies approved by the Ministry. Sadly, bureaucracy never flies when it can waddle along instead.

Yesterday afternoon was spent in a long fire chat with colleagues at St. Mungo's. I was hopeful that they might have reserves they could share with us or that we could rely on them were anything to befall a student that I can no longer treat here. I don't know whether to feel proud or distraught that we are as well or better stocked as they are in London. (In fact, they had hoped we might be able to send them some things they are lacking.) Of course, there have always been certain maladies that require specialist Healers, but, for most things, it seems we must, as ever, rely on our own resources -- and those are stretched perilously thin.

I've urged my colleagues here at the school to take more precautions and to be more vigilant in enforcing rules and in discouraging students from dangerous folly, but I fear that no amount of fussing on my part will convince the lot of them that injuries and ailments can no longer all be magicked away with nary a scar left behind. I've wasted my breath trying to convince them that doxies and vipers and wild mushrooms (let alone the rest of what lurks in our environs) can no longer be viewed as 'harmless' so long as there's antidote in the cupboard -- because there is no antidote in the cupboard these days.


Our magical world being what it is and children having, as they do, no more common sense than a sack of newts, accidents will happen and calamities will befall us. I do hope that it will not require a full-on catastrophe before we are allowed to resupply ourselves with ALL of what we need to run a safe and wholesome school.

Comments

Order Only

[alt_poppy]

There.

No mentions of dragons, Muggleborn children, or the Lord Protector's 'son'.


I swear, political manoeuvring is quite outside my competency.

Re: Order Only

[alt_sirius]

Well done, Poppy. You'll get the hang of it - sorry, that it's necessary.

Clarriker, as I said, is only going to order the chocolate and the pomegranates off your list.

But I did talk to two other clearing houses in Dover and one will be buying the Aphoresia's, the HotWou (HotWot! sorry. I told you I laugh every time I try to write it), the Pliny's and the toothache tonic. Though he got a bit shirty with me over that - it's a French variety, apparently generic.

I got in touch with that German chap this afternoon - he's sending along the Tincture and would you believe he has salamanders? I asked for verification that they're really Turkish. He assured me they are, but I'm not certain. I ordered just a half-dozen to see them for myself before calling up a storm of them.

So. Soon, Poppy. Soon.

Re: Order Only

[alt_poppy]

Quite agree about HotWot: I never say it, just use it. It's amazing what these corporations think up to sell product.

Yes, do be careful about the salamanders. After all, we've got plenty of bog standard ones here in the lake.


Now go reward yourself with a relaxing evening. I'd tell you to indulge, but I doubt you need my permission.

Re: Order Only

[alt_sirius]

Should I consider that Healer's orders?

Re: Order Only

[alt_poppy]

Absolutely.

[alt_lucius]

In all fairness to the Board of Governors and the Committee for Regulation of Magical Commerce, they have responded much more quickly than I anticipated. You might make future requests well in advance of the season, so that we can account for lead times in ordering the necessary stores. Having learned of the deficiencies only a matter of weeks ago, it is exceedingly difficult to meet your requests while the snow still flies.

There remains the responsibility to ensure that the school's endowment will not be depleted in order to resupply your stock. Your Headmistress has graciously agreed to intercede with additional benefactors - I am unfortunately simply too occupied of late to make time for any more meetings.

The Committee have your list and we have forwarded it to several approved wholesalers. Luckily, I am told that they anticipate little trouble filling the orders, and we merely await the funds. Indeed, I am given to understand that the availability of some of your requirements is nothing short of miraculous at this time of year.

Regarding the need for more than the usual amount of caution, I, for one, have never condoned any action on the part of Hogwarts' students that might bring them permanent harm. But if we were to prevent them from all possible injury, we ought just as well seal them in locked rooms and surround them with cotton wool all their days.

Better to provide them with a modicum of freedom to learn their lessons of safety and self-protection, and to be prepared with a modest complement of medical care for the incidents that they cannot avoid.

You are, sadly, correct that most students have no sense to avoid more conventional forms of mishap. Therefore rest assured I have prevailed upon the Governors to the extent possible to ensure you have what you are most likely to need.

[alt_poppy]

I'm sure I do not know what my monthly inventory reports and usage logs are for if not to inform the Board and the Ministry what is in need of resupply. This is how the matter has worked for years, though it has admittedly become more parchment-intensive and been submitted to further layers of oversight of late.

The trouble this term, of course, is that the system seems to have lapsed until you fortunately took note of my distress last month and graciously stepped in to spur those higher bodies into action. Or that is how it has seemed from my (admittedly limited) view. I certainly have appreciated your championing our cause as it was going nowhere at all until the Board took up our plight with the relevant Ministry committees.

I'm pleased, of course, to know that our order is now being processed, but will continue to feel most uneasy until all of the bare spaces on my shelves have been filled.

Speaking of bare spaces, I remain very concerned about our inability to get hold of Cinnabaris. I appreciate that this is difficult, but it is the one truly indispensable medical supply in those emergencies when need arises. It is true that those medicines made from it are rarely needed, but just this past week we might so easily have faced that moment -- it makes me shudder to think what the outcome might have been.

I don't suppose the trouble is that someone in a crucial decision-making position lacks understanding of this substance's properties? If that is the case, would it help at all if I were to offer some examples from our records of those times when it was the decisive agent that saved young lives? But surely St Mungo's has already provided this sort of documentation in their own quest for resupply?

One last bit of special pleading. I understand that bezoars are amongst those items that remain restricted and, thus, unapproved. I'm sure I don't have any idea of the grounds for this, but I suppose that they have to do with something beyond medicinal considerations. I don't need to tell you that no school can afford to be without a general antidote for poisoning, but Hogwarts is now quite out of any such agents. If we are not to receive any bezoars, would you please see if there is not some less universal antidote that could be permitted?

You realise, of course, that I ask for none of this on my own behalf. It is the children's welfare that hangs in the balance, and for that I am willing to make the case as long and as loudly as proves necessary. As the saying goes, 'It's the exploding cauldron that receives notice.'

[alt_lucius]

Lapse? None that I am aware of, but then as you know, Samuels used to clerk for the Board on behalf of old Peakes, and he retired last year; perhaps his replacement neglected to pick up on the implicit requests in the inventory reports. Have you been receiving the proper requisition scrolls?

Whatever the impediment, I recommend you take the matter up with my clerk. He can certainly assist you to find the party or department responsible for logging the usage reports and determine whether there are measures either no longer in place or if this is simply a case of a change in procedure to which neither you nor I were alerted.

Regarding Cinnabaris - and bezoars, for that matter - I fully understand and sympathise with your predicament, but for the time being, at any rate, they are simply unavailable. Their use within the country is strictly controlled, beyond even my small power to grant exception. I must insist that this point is, sadly, non-negotiable at present.

Like you, I appreciate that we assume a certain risk by not providing these curatives in the event of catastrophe. As you so eloquently put it yourself, Poppy, we shall simply have to do all in our power to prevent circumstances in which such extreme measures become necessary.

[alt_poppy]

I shall certainly take up the mystery of the requisition scrolls with Crispin, is it?

Thank you, again, for your efforts on our behalf. If we come through the term with everyone whole and in health, there will be no doubt in my mind to whom credit is owed.

Order Only

[alt_sirius]

Too right, Poppy - and who's to blame, as well.

Re: Order Only

[alt_poppy]

Oh, dear. That wasn't blatantly cheeky, was it? It does no good if I set him against us at this juncture.

Not that it's not tempting, mind. Come to find out (from Malfoy's Crispin) that there have been new requisition protocols for the past eight months, though no one bothered to inform us. From here out, I shall need to file a dedicated application (triple parchments) and attach a further copy of the monthly inventories (which, if one were keeping count, means I must now produce those in octuplicate).


I'm afraid I frightened the house elf who brought me my luncheon. Fortunately, I've only three students on the ward this afternoon, all of them soundly sleeping off their fevers.

Re: Order Only

[alt_sirius]

Are you joking? Malfoy will never notice. He wouldn't expect you to twit him; after all, he thinks he's quite going out of his way to help you, the great prat.

I really am curious, now, as to where those other seven copies go. Can you do a copying spell or must they all be originals?

Sounds as if his secretary is either amazingly efficient, to find that out for you so quickly, or horrifically lackadaisical. Eight months? Who was supposed to tell you it had changed?

Tell you one thing: it makes you wonder who'd work for a blighter like Malfoy, but I guess we all have to eat.

By the way, Carrow's latest post - I've just seen it. I think, ghastly as it is, we can take it to mean Terry is still alive, at least.

Re: Order Only

[alt_poppy]

The seven include one to Minerva for the school's files, three to the Minister's office for whatever committees they do or don't get distributed to, two to the Board of Governors (one for the chair's files, and one to serve as application for requisitions, which in past years they insisted on controlling themselves), and finally one for myself because I'm hardly so silly as to suppose that all the others will find their intended recipients without being demanded again.

(And no, I daren't rely on a duplication spell -- the magic on those can be jiggered after the fact, you know. If I'm to be called on the carpet for an error in my accounts, I intend it to be an error I've actually made -- not one someone's manufactured to catch me out.)

I think this Crispin fellow is efficient rather than officious. He seems to have a firm grasp of Ministry arcana and good channels for seeking information about procedures. I suppose it is in his interests to deal promptly with inquiries from patronage seekers like me. He needn't give me another thought now that he's sent along the forms. I've no idea how he works for Malfoy, but I'd guess that his sharpness has been honed by experience.


I share your hope regarding Carrow's entry, though I dread to think what shape the boy's in.