I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

That is NOT GREGORY.

There is no way. Gregory wouldn't know what half those words meant, let alone how to spell them.

I hope he doesn't get in horrible trouble. Not that I especially like him, but -- do you suppose he dropped his journal as he was getting off the train?

Private message to Harry Marvolo

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.

Repairs

Gemma got a Sing-Ami for Christmas but when I got here for spring hols it had quit singing. She'd dropped it in her bath, and then Mrs Stretton dried it but used a bit too strong a charm and scorched the fuzzy bits off. And it got dropped in the mud three or four times and she'd used scourgify, but I think it was being scorched that really mucked things up. Gemma showed it to me and I asked her if she wanted me to try to fix it and she got all excited, so I gave it a go.

First I cleaned up all the burned bits. I trimmed off all the bits that were black and crispy, first. There are repair charms you can use on clothing that worked to sort of re-grow the fuzzy things that had been scorched off. I threaded some whiskers through with a needle and then transfigured them to be the proper texture. (This was a Sing-Ami kitty cat. One of the ginger ones.) When it was done it LOOKED all proper but still didn't sing.

So, I took a closer look and if you look closely at the seams on the bottom there are black and white threads alternating in a particular way. You have to look REALLY closely. I'm pretty sure that's important to the charm somehow because once I fixed THAT it started up again BUT now it sings in a different key from the other Sing-Amis (it's particularly noticeable with Philip's) so you want to keep it off by itself. Because it sounds nice by itself but really terrible with its friends.

Gemma showed Mrs Stretton the Sing-Ami. And today Mrs Stretton sent me to one of her factories, where there's a big loom that's charmed to weave a particular sort of cloth. It had quit working. I told her I didn't know how to fix something like that and she said, that's okay, she just wanted me to try; if I couldn't get it to work she wouldn't be angry and I couldn't break it worse because it already wasn't working at all.

I don't think she realises that you CAN break things worse by tinkering, but I said I would go look.

I shouldn't have worried, the problem wasn't with the charm at all. Back in the mechanical moving bits, there was a SHOE jammed into the works! I pulled it out and pushed the moving bits back into place and it works perfectly now. Mrs Stretton was very impressed and now tomorrow she wants me to go look at a broken water-work thing over on one of the other estates. AND Gemma wants to come with and watch. She promises she'll stay out of my way.