Private message to Harry Marvolo

[alt_sally_anne]

Did you see that rot that got written in Greg's journal today? Obviously it's not him. I mean, anyone who's ever exchanged two words with him knows he wouldn't know what most of those words meant, never mind how to spell them.

You don't suppose they'll blame Granger, do you? Because she lives in Slytherin House, so she could have gone through Greg's trunk, and stolen his journal and given it to someone. Of course Greg could just as easily have lost it over the summer or over Christmas hols or ten minutes after he got it, he NEVER writes in it. Or reads it either, as far as I know.

And I don't think Granger would have stolen it! I mean, first of all she's so loyal to you. And second she's so BUSY, I've hardly seen her (or you) all year except in classes. And it's not like she has long hours sitting around in Slytherin when the boys' dorm is empty and she could do something like root through someone's things and then put them back exactly where they were (Greg is a pig, from what I've heard, but he's like Milli -- the sort of pig who'd notice if his pants weren't right on the floor where he left them.) So it would be ridiculous to blame her.

Only I thought of her, right away, when I was thinking about people who COULD have gotten into the Slytherin boys' dorm. And so it might occur to other people, and I would hate for someone like Auror Lestrange to be the one asking her about it, you know? Because I don't know if she'd take into account what a loyal and conscientious servant Granger is. You know? But you always take good care of Granger so I'm sure things will be alright.

How are your spring hols going? Are they letting you do anything but revise? I hope you've had the chance to go flying at least.

Comments

[alt_harry]

I just saw, Hermione told me to look. Obviously it isnt him. Obviously it isnt Hermione either. I won't let the Lestranges get her. They hurt everything they get their greasy hands on. And I won't have them do that to her. It wouldn't be fair. And you're right Greg would have noticed.

Thanks for telling me. I didn't think about it.

Spring hols are fine. I have to revise now but at least I got to go to the Malfoy's. That was pretty fun. I'm sleeping alot. How about you?

[alt_sally_anne]

Are you not still at the Malfoy's? Are you at Buckingham or did you have to go back to school?

I've been up every day practically at dawn because of Gemma! Which isn't too bad, honestly, Gemma's a lot of fun. I fixed her Sing-Ami and now Mrs Stretton wants me to go fix a bunch of charmed machinery over at one of her factories. I told her I would try but she really ought to call a magical mechanic, I'm hardly an expert at this. My father used to fix things (actually he probably still does) and I learned from watching him, but mostly if something's already COMPLETELY broken I can tinker with it and sometimes I can make it go again. Gemma's Sing-Ami accidentally got dropped in her bath and then they cast something a little too strong trying to dry it out before bedtime that burned it a little and ... there was something else, too, I forget what, but anyway, it didn't sing anymore. It sings again now! but not on key with any OTHER Sing-Amis.

Mrs Stretton says I won't make this thing worse, whatever it is. I'm supposed to go this afternoon but she's having a row with someone who'd ordered a whole lot of jam and now says they wanted black currant NOT strawberry and anyway, I can't really go anywhere till she takes me.

[alt_harry]

I had to go back to school almost right away. But that's all right it was nice just getting out.

I didn't know you could fix machinery. Machinery's kind of Muggle isn't it? Do you worry that people will think you're kind of Muggle too? I mean I wouldn't say that. Or think it. I think it's wizard you can fix machinery. And plenty of respecable people use machinery and fix it and things. But Father wouldn't let me try. I mean he would say that it's all well and good for people who have to use it.

Maybe you could show me how? Sometime.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well it's MAGICAL machinery. You know, the Sing-Ami is charmed to make it sing but if you take away the magic it's still a stuffed animal you could make without magic if you wanted to. The Strettons have a factory that makes fabric. There are machines that do the weaving. There are charms on them to make them work but if you take away the magic there are parts, you know, that move.

You're probably right some people would say it was kind of Muggle. That's probably why the Strettons are respectable enough but won't ever be in Society, you know? Because they do use quite a lot of things that are kind of Muggle, even though there's magic involved, too. The jams, you know, they don't take a big vat of strawberries and wave a wand to turn it into jam in jars, they take the strawberries and put them in a big pot and cook it down (actually, they have muggles who do most of this) and put it in jars which have been heated up to be sure the jam doesn't go off. And the strawberries grow in fields and get picked by people (well, by muggles).

The thing that's broken is a loom, which is a machine that's used to make fabric out of thread. (There's another machine that makes thread out of wool. And they have flocks and flocks of sheep which the muggles care for and shear, to get the wool.) There are looms that are JUST machines and the muggles use them to do the weaving. But, that's not terribly efficient and the magical loom works much better WHEN it's working which it isn't because it broke the week before last, apparently, and Mrs Stretton's magical mechanic can't come for another two weeks because he's busy and so she's sending me. She says if I make it worse it's alright because the magical mechanic will come round eventually.

I'm going to have to think about trying to show you how. I mean if you ever have something that's supposed to be charmed but the charm's gone off, it's not working anymore, like the Sing-Ami, I could try to fix it for you. And you could watch me while I worked on it. I couldn't teach you to do it like I could teach you to make one of those bracelets, because there aren't steps, exactly. Or, maybe there are, let me think.

Step one is always to try to reproduce the problem. Like, if you're trying to fix a broom, what exactly is going wrong? One of the odd things is that sometimes just being touched by the person who can fix it, will fix something that's gone wrong.

Step two is what some people call TLC, for Tender Loving Care which is sort of a funny thing to call it. You look at the parts that aren't magic and see if they need something. Like when you take a broomstick care kit and trim the twigs so they're all nice and even, and polish the handle so it looks good but has a good grip -- that's the sort of thing I mean. That's most of what I did for the poor Sing-Ami, it looked all bedraggled and worn and BURNED even and I cleaned it up so it looked fresh and new. If a magical mechanic can't reproduce the problem, they can still try the gentle touch and a lot of the time it will keep on working.

And then step three is fixing the charm. The thing about charmed OBJECTS is that when people make them, there are things they do with words but there are also things they do with the making itself. THAT is the hard part, especially if you didn't make it, but sometimes you can see how it was made and -- well, it's really hard to explain this part but I could show you, maybe, with something simple. Except I might not be able to get it working again and THAT wouldn't be impressive at ALL, you know?

And step four is you get rid of the charm and re-cast it entirely and I really can't do that at all, if that's what needs to be done. The magical mechanic who's coming in two weeks, HE can do that.

Anyway, I'm very good at step two, and sometimes that's all things really need.