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Private Message to Aurora Sinistra
Auri, dear, I'm sorry to write at the last moment, but I seem to have had something off at lunch and am feeling quite poorly now. Well, I suspect the worst has passed, but I don't think I ought to try Apparating.
How were your other visits this week? The young ladies were charming, I'm sure. And how did you manage with the flying?
How were your other visits this week? The young ladies were charming, I'm sure. And how did you manage with the flying?
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I wouldn't hazard a guess about what sort of apprenticeship our new Councilwizards will be offered, apart from feeling certain that Antosha, at least, is a careful mentor. I do rather wish they'd waited until the children had left school; I'd hoped that it would only be those who'd finished NEWTs that were chosen. And I expect this isn't the last time I'll say so, but that's nothing I would not say to Antosha himself.
But about flying and swimming. I think both are excellent pursuits for you. Coincidentally, I've enjoyed a week with a perfectly wonderful lido to swim in up in Gourock. It's a salt-water pool, cordoned off from the Firth and purified. I've no idea how sophisticated that magic might be, but if you've a pond nearby, I should think you could do something roughly similar, at least insofar as defining the area and banishing the weeds and muck. I'm rather hoping that this next week I'll find a reasonable place for swimming while I'm at Weymouth.
Afraid you're right to expect difficult losses as you come to the end of the book, but then I don't imagine that's spoiling anything to say so.
(I'm inclined not to take anything for granted. Not that I ever have much to say that would interest anyone else who might read it.)
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I keep trying to reassure myself that of anyone, Hydra must know what she's getting into, both her parents being as they are, but then I realise Julius Avery was in the same situation, and, well, logic is clearly not the guiding star in enough places.
Not a pleasant line of thought at all.
Swimming, it's more finding a place that's private. There's a lake here, but I don't want people to see me, because then I'd have to talk to them. (And conversation's bad enough without being in swimming things at the time. Entirely too vulnerable.) But I'm sure there's something near enough.
The book. Yes. I got just past one of those bits before you wrote back - where Cucullain dies. And I - I don't know. Thinking hard about it.
I was with Raz long enough to have a complicated view of what people call heroism, really.
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And, yes, Cucullain. He was maddening and charming in equal measures, I suppose. I admit I fell under his charm by the end. His end, I mean. But he was abrasive and frankly selfish--immature through most of the action. But he redeemed himself, I'd say, with what he did in saving Amaranth.
I suppose the genius of the writer is in making us think they're safe. Just before he's not. The suddenness of it, too. I suppose that's the part that's hardest to digest. I'm sorry.
Heroism. I agree it's not what it's usually made out to be. It's more... well, do you remember the news reports about the Ministry holiday party where the IMA exploded a device and Arthur Weasley--Ronald and Ginevra's father--was killed as he shielded Director Selwyn? That was described as heroic in the papers and I remember Selwyn's making a point to talk about it in that vein. I thought at the time that the talk was self-serving on the Director's part and the paper's--sold a lot of copy, didn't it? Meanwhile, I'm certain that Weasley acted on impulse, and if he'd had time to think about it, well. Who knows what he'd have chosen to do. He was a decent man, it seems. I'm not questioning that in any way, but what is heroism? I doubt he meant to be heroic.
I'm sorry, my thoughts are decidedly mixed on that topic.
And, please, gods, don't let us have anything like this conversation with respect to the young people who've just been promoted to the Council. Miss Lestrange, yes, I expect she will have as much chance of keeping her bearings, but the other two? Especially Miss Patil.
No, not a pleasant line of thought.
Allow me to propose a change of topic, then. You said something about having someone take you to visit your parents and not feeling ready to Apparate. At least, I think that's what you meant. I quite agree. You'd be wise to wait. Certainly for attempting it yourself.
As for the swimming... perhaps a glamour? or a Notice Me Not on your bathing costume and umbrella?
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I had an idea what I was in for before I ever opened it. Narrative conventions being what they are. (And this book certainly does manage a number of them. Above and beyond the more political parts, I mean. The love triangle bits, and the so-symbolic gestures, and the building of tension like it does. All things the other version got quite wrong, now I think about it.)
Anyway, today, at least, I don't much want to be coddled. It's not like it'd change anything.
I don't know that most people who get called heroic meant it. I know Raz - well. He didn't think he'd earned it, one bit. And I never used the word about him, once I realised. The thing about being heroic, like that (or whatever else you call it) is that there's nothing else after. So you're making one choice, but cutting off all the other things you might do, later. I think about that a lot.
Other topics, yes. (Though I agree on Miss Patil.)
Apparition, yes. I really would rather deal with our rooms at Hogwarts myself (well, Cedric has offered to help, and Harry, and Tosha has already said I should make use of Cedric's work time for it when I'm ready). So there's a certain incentive to manage apparation sooner than later, but no. Not quite yet. And I do plan to start with short distances, to well-known places near here, before anything else.
Perhaps, on the swimming. Though astronomers, we do notice the oddest things, visually, sometimes. There's a few places up by Tintagel, maybe, and getting someone to apparate me that direction is a bit easier now the Guild's got a foothold there as well. St Nectan's Kieve is lovely this time of year, or there's other places on the river near there.
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Hm. I like what you say about choices. Yes.
I do hope you find a way to swim. St Nectan's Kieve is, indeed, a wonderful place!
Before I forget. I was hoping to see your mother this weekend, but instead found myself with her colleague, Gilbert Morrison. We were meeting with Scottish primary teachers and regional administrators, discussing the challenges for village schools, particularly those in the Highlands where so many families face real financial challenges and where staffing is difficult to secure, supplies are difficult to procure, and proper nutrition is dear. I was there to speak to the deficits I see when children reach us at Hogwarts.
In any case, I've been thinking that I might tempt you with a project some of the teachers proposed. It would involve a fair amount of baking, if that's something you'd feel up to. I know you're fond of it in general terms. Not sure whether it would sound good at the present moment, though.
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Oh, yes. Mum mentioned wanting to go, but the dynamics in Education are complicated, and Mum wasn't up to pointing out that nutrition's really more her thing than anyone else's. (And I gather it wasn't just the nutrition, from what Dad said on Friday.)
I did manage baking this week. Took me to the fourth round to manage something edible, but various visitors seemed to enjoy the final results. I do find baking soothing when it goes right. Suggest, if you like, and it sounds like too much, I'll say no.
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As for the conference, that's true, it wasn't just about nutrition, but that was a significant theme. Mostly because it seems so many of the other challenges they face circle back to the problem of children not having enough properly healthful food. It's very difficult for them to concentrate and behave well, let alone learn anything, if they've not had anything but transfigured turnips and the odd apple or pumpkin mash. It was suggested we ought to reverse the calendar, so they've their long vacation in January and February, but then it was rightly pointed out that the families depend on their children having the noon meal on the Protectorate's budget during winter when private stores run thin. And besides, the families that are really living close to the margin need their children helping in the gardens and animal pens during the growing season.
The teachers, though, told us how little of their funding can really be spared for those dinners and how meagre the food is that they do provide. They asked us if anyone could think of a creative way to stretch their budgets (since the Minister is hardly likely to find a sizeable pot of gold and decide to shuttle it in the direction of Education).
We put our heads together and decided we might find a willing group of volunteers (I think they envisioned a platoon of grannies, so you know!) who could bake nutritionally-enhanced biscuits for the children's lunches. One of the Healers suggested that we appeal to St Mungo's for a grant that would allow purchase of a particular supplement that St Mungo's nutrition staff endorse. That's in progress already (imagine something happening expeditiously!), so here I am, recruiting volunteers to bake. I believe they've already settled on a recipe and have agreed that if people will bake and stasis charm and pack the biscuits, the committee (naturally it's involving a committee) will collect and store and distribute them to the schools in most need.
It's quite a hands-on sort of project that makes a clear, direct contribution to a good cause.
If you think you might be interested, let me know, and as soon as we've got the supplement in-hand, I'll get it to you along with the recipe and other information.
I expect you've finished reading?
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You're quite right, that kind of thing being helpful. (See, I have been an attentive daughter and listened to my mother over the years.) If the recipe's not too complicated, I think I can manage well enough now.
And it would feel good to feel useful, really.
(Also, during the school year, I have two exceedingly bored house elves at Spence, and while baking is not their best skill, they're quite competent. More satisfying to have my hands doing the work, of course, but if your committee winds up short on quantity come autumn, they're an option.)
I mean. I assume I'll be busy with other things then. (I am still nervous about teaching, but we've talked about that. And today was all right, but I rather wish I had a sort of mental sheepdog to keep me in line. I keep losing the ends of my sentences part way through.)
On the book, yes. Your talkative host meant I got through the very tail of the epilogue. Which was better than the other epilogue, by a long shot, but it does rather gloss over how one gets from the end of the book to happily ever after.
I'm still thinking about way it ends. Before that. Finding the hoard of magic and opening it up to everyone. About generosity of spirit rather than scarcity. Hope rather than fear. (Not just this one, but I've been thinking about that other one I was reading, the Tey, and a couple of others.)
Right. Stars for me for a bit, I think. And more thinking, maybe.