I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I'm worried about Pansy. She's not been herself since Regulus Black took it into his head to cut off his good arm and even seeing him posting again hasn't made things alright. Milli said she was pouting and it's NOT TRUE, she's not pouting at all. She's sad and worried. I wish she didn't like him so much. Sometimes I think he likes his brother and AGREES with his brother more than he lets on but that doesn't stop him from playing house-elf to the Lord Protector, apparently.

The worst of it is, I think if she let herself think about it she would think he DID have something to do with Sanji's death -- and those little girls who looked like her -- but she doesn't dare think about it because it's too awful by half.

I went to find Luna today because I wanted to give her advice about being a halfblood. Since she didn't grow up that way -- there are things you two didn't know, so I thought maybe Luna wouldn't, either, especially as she didn't go to the village school. I don't imagine Mrs Weasley was much for teaching her and Ginny all about pureblood superiority.

She listened to all my advice (the most important thing was that she needed to know that if she's expelled, she'll be classified as a muggleborn and sent to the camps -- not that this means she has to obey all the rules but if she's thinking of doing anything REALLY serious she should know first what could happen) and when I was done she asked me why I think the Ministry is saying she's a halfblood when she isn't. I said I don't know. I mean, I think she's right that they're lying; they said it at first because they were pretending only halfbloods could get the sickness, but they admitted in the end purebloods could get it too. So why keep pretending? Luna's family had all the usual family records, not a tapestry like the Blacks or the Malfoys but there's no more reason to think Luna's a halfblood than that Ron or Neville is.

I said it didn't really matter anyway, the Ministry decides what you are and they make the rules, and arguing only gets you in trouble. All you can really do is be what they say you are on the outside, and be the person you know you are on the inside.

She didn't argue but she still wanted to know why, so we tried to work it out. My first thought was that they were trying to discredit her, or her father. But Mr Lovegood is dead, and Luna's a first year, that didn't make much sense. But he DID own a paper and maybe they were trying to discredit something he said in his paper? Only I've never heard people mention the Quibbler except to make fun of it (except for Luna).

Luna's worried about what will become of the Quibbler because the Ministry took the press, and THAT made me think that perhaps they declared Luna a halfblood because that way they could say her parents were blood-traitors (even though CERTAINLY her father wasn't a muggleborn -- at most, Luna's a quarter-blood like Susan Bones) and take the things Luna would have inherited otherwise. They're an old family so perhaps they owned some valuable ancient relic or special magical thing that the Ministry knew about and wanted. Something goblin-made, for instance. Luna couldn't think of anything, but maybe she just didn't know about it.

Comments

[alt_ron]

Ugh. It's just all really awful about Luna. I don't know why they're doing what they are. The Ministry. So you don't think it's to do with my family, but something to do with Luna's father or mother?

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, it's to do with your family that they're sending her to the Browns. Even if she's a halfblood they could let your parents foster her, and the fostering office must be a mess right now. They were working from home because of the illness, I imagine there were plenty of families with younger children that tried to send them back when families of halfbloods had extra restrictions, there are probably children who needed new homes because their foster parents died...

It's mad they wouldn't just send Luna to live with your family. Utterly mad.

[alt_ron]

And Pansy.

I don't know what to think about Mr Black. Why do you think he would do terrible things for the Lord Protector if it makes him so sick to do it? I mean, that's even supposing it's the Protector who's responsible for those things, cause I can't even figure that out. What would he want to be killing a little kid like Sanji for? Or those girls? I mean, I know why you'd think Mr Black had done awful things, because he writes about it sometimes--about how upset he is about things he's had to do because the Protector ordered it. But those things? Killing little kids? He just doesn't seem the sort, y'know? I mean, he likes kids. And so I don't understand why he wouldn't just say he wouldn't do it if the Protector told him he had to. I mean, if someone told me I'd have to do something like that, I'd tell them they'd have to kill me first. Wouldn't you? I mean, well, really. Yeah. I would do that. Or anyway, I can't think of anything that would make me decide to go along with it and do something that terrible. Even if I were really afraid of, y'know, the things he might do to me before he'd kill me. D'you suppose he's used Imperius on Mr Black? Because then he couldn't have said no. Or maybe told him he'd do something terrible to his mum. I guess that's what you'd have to tell me, and then, yeah. I guess I don't know what I'd do. Except. I kinda do. I'd have to try to kill him and if that didn't work, I'd still say no.

I think, anyway.

[alt_sally_anne]

I can think of loads of ways to make someone do something they don't want to do. There's Imperius, just to start. You can threaten them with cruciatus if they're not afraid of death. Or the Dementors. You can threaten their family. Or if they don't like their family you can threaten their friends. You can trick them by having them do just a piece that doesn't seem so terrible. You can blackmail them later if that little piece turns out to be part of something really horrifying.

I don't think Regulus Black would mind them doing something horrible to his mum, actually, I don't think they get on at all (and anyway she's HORRIBLE).

[alt_neville]

Well, if Parkinson's fond of Regulus Black and he tried to cut his own arm off--aside from whether he has anything to do with all those kids deaths--then no wonder if she's not herself.

Mr Lovegood wrote the editorials in the Quibbler, right? I never read it, and I don't know anyone else who does. Well, maybe my Great-Aunt picked it up once in awhile, but I think that was just to laugh at it. So I don't know what's being said in the paper.

Maybe he wrote about Sirius Black or something? And they didn't like what he said? If he did, I never heard about it. Everyone talks about the Grim Truth postings (well, in Gryffindor, anyway) but I dunno what the papers print about them. Other than the Prophet, which always says that the Grim Truths are rubbish.

I would think if there was anyone they were trying to discredit, it would be Mr Lovegood, yeah. Because Mrs Lovegood's been dead awhile, and yeah, Luna's a first year.

Maybe your idea about them owning something the Ministry wants could be right.

[alt_ron]

But couldn't they just have taken whatever it was they want without having to say Luna's a halfblood? I mean they could say it was something Dark or something stolen from Goblins or something dangerous to your health or whatever. Or they could just have gone in and taken it. I mean Luna's away at school and when she did go home and look at what's there, she couldn't really say anything if there were things the Ministry took. I mean, heck, they could have just said that whatever it was--a gillylivered snorzlehump pelt or a mandibular tealjobber beak--was the sort of thing that grows that disease and spreads it somehow, and then she couldn't have said anything at all about them taking it.

[alt_neville]

Yeah, well, if they say their family's halfbloods, not purebloods, they can take everything, right? Maybe they can't find it right away. But if they have control over all their stuff, they can look for it as long as they like.

Ugh, poor Lovegood. It sounds like she was taking everything calmly when she talked with you today, Sally-Anne, but still, it has to be awful.

[alt_sally_anne]

They could've declared the whole house a potential Dangerous Magic zone and spent as much time looking as they wanted. It sounded to me like the only thing Luna REALLY wanted from the house was her father's printing press.

[alt_neville]

What, does SHE want to run the paper? Huh. Except...maybe she always figured she'd work at it someday when she grows up. I suppose that's how it is with some family businesses, isn't it?

[alt_sally_anne]

Well the Strettons want Jeremy working on their estate. He doesn't seem to want to, but I expect he'll be stuck with it given what he did last year.

Luna seems a lot fonder of the Quibbler than Jeremy is of the jam factory.