I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good: Safety Planning

[alt_sally_anne]

Right, then.

I was thinking about trying to get everyone together in the secret room to talk about this but between quidditch and the revue and everything else, trying to work out a time when everyone can be there is just ridiculous. And this probably shouldn't wait until March.

We need to talk about ways to get away, if we have to. Hermione had a portkey, but apparently all portkeys now go to an MLE dungeon. If you go there by accident they'll (probably) let you go but if you're trying to get away from them it won't do.

Things Hermione suggested when we talked about it last night:

* We can go to Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout, or Headmistress McGonagall if we need help (can I just note that the Headmistress is rather difficult to get to? unless someone knows the password to her office, and that's only good as long as she doesn't change it). Mr Milland is 'sort of a friend,' I don't know if that means 'go to him as a last resort' or 'he's friendly but not terribly helpful' or what.

* Maybe we could turn part of Pansy's house in London into a safehouse? I'm not sure what would be involved but there's an attic that her mum NEVER goes into and she'd never notice if she stopped being able to get into it. If we could cast the Fidelius Charm -- but you know, the Fidelius Charm is really, really hard. I don't know if we could cast it or not. And it takes a long time, I think, it's not like casting 'lumos' or something. There's also the whole matter of getting there without a portkey. (Though we could floo to Pansy's house and then run up to the attic as fast as we could.)

* Hermione also thought maybe she could work out how to adjust the calculations to make a portkey that works. I don't know the first thing about making portkeys, actually! ... but if Hermione does, that's brilliant.

* And, she suggested we all make bolt bags like we made for Terry. Fred and George are making everyone beads for container bracelets, like the ones Terry and Hermione have. I have one already and I'm thinking about things to add to it. I can't remember what all was in Terry's bag, but everyone could at least nick a blanket and put that in, and some food with preservation charms, and some water. A spare set of robes, but better if they're not Hogwarts school robes (because those are awfully distinctive and they'll attract attention if it's, you know, term time.)

Other ideas? Someone should talk to Fred and George (and Lee) -- that was a good reason to try to meet in the secret room, but I just didn't want to risk wait.

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, there's also 'try to talk your way out' -- is that a form of hiding, would you say?

I'm not even sure what would happen to food if you left it in the secret room -- the room itself changes every time you go in. It's never made food, though.

Anywhere off the grounds could serve at least for a little while, because it would take them time to find us. The Forbidden Forest would be a good place if we could find the amiable Giant before the giant spiders ate us...okay, so never mind, it's not a very good place.

[alt_justin]

Oh, yes. I thought we were talking about what would happen once it's clear that talking is useless. Clearly one would try that, before concluding that there's no escaping discovery.

No, I think the caves or the Forest ought only to be a very temporary sort of shelter. One shouldn't like to live out of doors indefinitely, even with all the survival charms and skills we've been learning.

I think, if one could get to New London, there are plenty of homes and buildings that have been abandoned, what? We could make one of those a safehouse. I don't know what the Fidelius involves, either, but perhaps one could find out.

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

Oh, New London doesn't have a lot of abandoned properties -- they're either occupied or they've been removed, at this point.

Outlying areas, on the other hand -- there was a whole abandoned muggle village, near where I grew up. But those wouldn't have the floo. We could floo straight to Pansy's house and wouldn't need anyone to apparate us.

About the Fidelius -- Professor Dolohov has books on absolutely everything and given that he spent today talking about cooperative magic and ritual magic and all that, I could ask him about the Fidelius Charm without it being the least bit suspicious.

[alt_pansy]

My place would have Hitty, who could get us food fairly easily, and yes, it's easily accessible through floo so we could get there quickly.

[alt_pansy]

We could read up on it, see how tricky it is. If we prepare enough, we can try to do the attic over Easter hols.

[alt_sally_anne]

Could Hitty serve as a secret-keeper, if we were able to cast the Fidelius?

Something to look into, maybe.

[alt_justin]

Sorry, you mean New London proper. Yes. I was thinking further into the old city.

The thing about Pansy's house is that it's known to be hers, what. So it would do well if she's not the one who's compromised but very poorly if it were her or anyone known to be a close associate of hers.

But how does the Fidelius Charm work? I mean to say, the attic might become impenetrable but would the entire house do? And there could still be a watch on the square where the house is, couldn't there be?

Not meaning to be difficult, what, just--playing the devil's advocate. I'm sure it's lovely and convenient and comfortable. But if the point is to make sure that it's safe, we'd need to ensure that it can't be linked back to anyone who would use it as a haven.

-J

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, it's true people would come look in the house, if (say) it was me who'd disappeared.

But -- as I understand it, the Fidelius charm makes whatever's under it kind of disappear. And it's not like it's a big empty space; anyone looking won't notice it's not there.

If we put the whole house under the Fidelius charm, people would come looking and find the house missing and say 'oh! it must be under the Fidelius charm!' and that wouldn't do at all. But if we put just the east attic under the Fidelius charm, people wouldn't even notice that part of the house was missing. If that's even possible, which it might not be, I'm not sure.

[alt_ron]

Um. There was a whole thing about the Fidelius Charm in one of the Phineas Phelps books, and they couldn't do it at all because it takes a really powerful master of Charms to cast it.

It's just a book, though, so I guess they could have made that up to make the story more suspenseful.

[alt_susan]

Do you think the twins could do it?

They're pretty snitch at Charms.

Maybe they could practise at least?

[alt_ron]

You know, Fred and George are really clever and they can do loads of advanced stuff, but they actually can't do everything. We can't always count on them being able to just whip stuff up that no one else can.

Actually. You should have seen this summer, there was this time they were helping with supper, and they were using sending charms to get everything on the table, only they flung the knives across the room so fast, they nearly killed us! Me and Ginny, I mean. Luckily we've got good reflexes.

So, I don't know. Maybe they could learn it, but I don't think we should plan our whole escape strategy around them doing that.

I'll ask them, though.

[alt_susan]

Yikes! I see your point--especially since they're not on the lock anymore and might not be able to get word to us, or us to them. Short of the r er, things.

But I figure we might as well toss up as many ideas as we can, even if we decide they won't work. I mean, you can never be sure what play is going to get the Quaffle past the Keeper, yeah?

[alt_ron]

Yeah, there are loads of little abandoned villages in Devon, too. And the twins and Lee and I have done loads of exploring there.