I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

So, about the owl, the one Sirius Black gave to Pansy -- does he have a name yet? he seems a little irritated when I call him Owl -- Pansy and I have been testing him out.

First Pansy sent him to me, and told him to deliver my message when I was alone. That worked fine, it meant it took him quite a bit longer to get to me because he had to figure out how to get to my window. But he managed it.

Then I sent him back to Pansy and said to deliver the message when she was alone and outside. He found her while she was out riding.

Then she sent him to me and said to deliver my message when I was alone, it was night, and I was asleep. And to leave the message under my hand without waking me, if possible. He messed THAT up. Well, it was night and I was asleep but he bounced all over my head making the delivery.

Then I sent him to my mum and said to deliver the message when mum was alone, and to wait discreetly in case she wanted to write back. I don't know quite how that worked. He did come back with a letter, though.

Anyway.

I think we could PROBABLY use him to send a message to Terry but I've sent him back to Pansy with the 'deliver to her while she's sleeping, put the message under her hand without waking her!' instruction to see if he can get it right this time. Then he's supposed to wait discreetly where she'll be able to see him, but avoid being seen by anyone else, take anything she gives him, and fly back to me. I expect he'll wake her up like he woke me, and then cram himself into some little crevice and pretend he's being all discreet until she gives him something. We'll see. What exactly would be the instructions, if he went to Terry, other than, 'for Merlin's sake don't be seen by Carrow'?

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Oh, THAT'S a good idea. Maybe Fred could send him to you and see how fast he could figure out he needs to go somewhere in the same house, which is sort of a weird mission but something we might want him to do sometime, and you could send him on to Lee?

[alt_ron]

What did you mean about sending him on a task he couldn't do? Like asking him to take a letter to Merlin or Albus Dumbledore or something? Or trying to send him to France?

Or just asking him to carry something that's too big for him? Is that what you meant? We could do that with Lee, if that's what you mean.

[alt_sally_anne]

No, I meant more something like 'find some person alone' when he's NEVER alone. We could try that with Fred and George, too, I've never seen just one of them. I suppose they go to the loo by themselves but how would the owl get in there?

[alt_ron]

Oh. That kind of impossible.

Well. How about we send him to Lee and say only deliver this if Lee's hair is green. Which, y'know, it never is, so.

And then come back in two days if you can't deliver it.

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a good one.

Mostly I'm thinking that if we give the owl really specific instructions with Terry we don't want him cutting corners because he's getting tired of waiting. We want him to either succeed in getting Terry the message without being seen at all by anyone, OR we want him to just come back. Because getting him the message but being seen by Carrow is worse than just failing altogether.

[alt_ron]

Well, yeah. That's right, innit.

We could try telling him that, too. Owls are smart like that.

But, um. Could be a problem if he gets the idea that he'll get rewarded if he comes back without having delivered stuff, though. They get sort of lazy if they think they can get away with it.

[alt_pansy]

Well, maybe we test it so that Lee turns his hair green twice -- once for half an hour when he's alone and it's safe, and once for half an hour when it isn't safe, and then we'll know if it was paying attention, or just flitting around, and if it's able to follow things that complicated.

If Lee can turn his hair green, that is.

I bet it would look sorcerous.

[alt_lee]

I could do that.

Bonus points: it would undoubtedly horrify my mum.

[alt_lee]

How do you know that I'm not sporting green hair already? Maybe I'm trying out a new summer style?

[alt_ron]

Ha!

You would do.

[alt_gredforge]

We're sure it must look very fetching.