Order Only ATTN Pomona, Albus, Severus

[alt_poppy]

I've only a moment.

It's done. Sacked. Am packing up my personals.

Was ready, of course, for the worst, but-

Pomona. When you get to your rooms, would you see if Tilda's near her Floo? If she has room, I'll go there.

Comments

[alt_severus]

I am sorry to say that the pink baggage got to your quarters — or rather, ordered the house-elves to your quarters, as I cannot imagine her actually doing work herself — before I could. Your remaining things have been packed and placed in storage; the elves assure me that they took care with them, but have been forbidden to disclose where they are. I will do my best to locate them for you and pass them on.

If you can think of any potions it would be wise for the children to have at hand, I will brew what I might and pass them along. Likewise, if there is anything I might do to assist you, say the word.

For those who are reading along: anything that might cause question has been safely stowed away thanks to Poppy's foresight in keeping those questionable items available for quick retrieval. Pomona, I will call upon you tomorrow morning so that we might review your own preparations for a quick exit in the event our dear pretender should target you next. Though I do not think I am in her sights — or Mr Milland is — I will be doing the same with my makeshift laboratory in the event the distraction and aversion spells are not sufficient.

The question of how to evacuate the children, should it become necessary, is becoming more urgent.

[alt_pomona]

Severus, please. In particular, the fluxweed beds are a worry: we cannot readily move them, nor risk their loss, and the aversion charms will hold only in some circumstances.

Would 7 be too early for an initial consult? I'm teaching until 4, and I don't think we dare delay finding solutions.

My personal effects are no great bother, though another pair of eyes in this case is quite welcome.

[alt_severus]

7 would be fine; I am not sleeping much these days.

There are several techniques I might use to divert attention from the fluxweed more strongly. Given the danger, I take it I will hear no quibbling about the moral implications of methods to be used to protect our resources.

[alt_pomona]

I would like to hear details before saying aye or nay, Severus. (Among other factors, such things do affect the plants near them, and other plants in that back greenhouse can be finicky indeed.)

But you're right about the both the importance and the danger.

[alt_severus]

There are several strong compulsion wards that can be applied. I will of course be guided by your experience in which the surrounding botanicals might bear.

[alt_poppy]

Thank you, Severus.

I suppose I must be grateful that she was so precipitous in ordering the elves to clear my belongings. I've realised belatedly that in my concern that no sensitive items be left lying about, I hadn't time to recollect all the items of a more sentimental nature I will wish I'd saved. I shall have to depend on the elves' having taken more care of those possessions than I did.

For the rest of you, yes, I suppose I'd seen this coming for some time. Well back into last year, in fact, I'd begun keeping everything sensitive in a single, well-concealed and easily-collected place.

The truth, however, is that I've been taken by surprise today. I really believed... well, I suppose I believed that Madam Umbridge and I had settled in for a long battle of the wills. I regret that I was mistaken.

In any case, I think you know--but if you don't I can reassure you--that I have been very careful with my accounting and record-keeping. I've had to be for years, but over the past two, I've had to be particularly cunning about what I log and what I keep aside for extraordinary needs--and, of course, there have always been items I've masked in my inventory in order to set them aside for the Order.

In retrospect it seems especially fortunate that I recently bent a number of firm principles and deputised my student, Miss Perks, to perform the duties of a trainee Healer in cases where students were forbidden or afraid to come to me. This is not a sign that I've been in any way prescient, mind you: I was merely responding to necessity as Madam Umbridge has used ever more damaging physical punishments whilst also forbidding her victims to seek treatment.

On that impetus, I gave over all of my set-aside stores to Miss Perks this week. All save those items too ticklish for any but a fully trained Healer to administer. And those medicinals not officially licensed for use. Those items I brought away with me.


I'm so very sorry, Alice, to have failed in my duties to our young people.

[alt_severus]

While I am well acquainted with the accusations one's own conscience hurls against one in the aftermath of any particular confrontation, no rational actor would take the position that you have failed in the least.

To set your mind at ease regarding at least one item, Miss Perks has been to see me for reassurance that the children are not in any appreciably greater danger today than they were yesterday — which I have provided to the extent I am able — and to discuss revised plans for how they might safeguard themselves in the event of disaster if the infirmary is no longer to be considered the first port of call. I have provided her with several suggestions to pass on to the remainder of her company.

As to the matter of your personal items, I will do what I may.

[alt_terry]

Oh, Madam Pomfrey, I'm so sorry.

But don't don't think you've failed the students. They know how lucky they've been to have you, and you were ever so clever to give the potions to Sally-Anne Perks.

She's taking the responsibility utterly seriously, I assure you.

[alt_poppy]

Thank you, Mr Boot.

I appreciate your sayings so. And your reassurance about Miss Perks. I have every confidence in her instincts and abilities.