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, I know a test we should do.

We should send a note to Fred, and tell the owl not to wake George, JUST FRED.

Because it's possible Terry's never really alone, and the owl's only chance will be delivering while Carrow's asleep.

We should also try something he just probably won't be able to do, and say, if you can't manage it in two days come back here.

[alt_ron]

Ha!

That's exactly what I was going to say!! Must be a brilliant idea, then!

And, yeah, if you send him to us, we could try giving him the next test. I mean, we want to know that he'll obey any of us, right? So we know he'd mind Terry, too.

[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]

I think if we practise the whole "being careful not to wake up the other person" bit, it could get better at that part.

[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_sally_anne]

That's a good idea. If we want late-night deliveries to one person in a two-person room, I think we're going to have to send Fred and George a lot of mail, though. Does anyone else here share a room? Gemma comes in sometimes at night and climbs into my bed but it's not predictable. Mostly if she gets scared at night she wants Maureen.

[alt_ron]

Ha. If you start sending Fred and George a lot of letters and Mum finds out, she'll totally think you're sweet on one of them.

Of course, if Mum finds out, then we'll know the bird is crap at delivering stuff secretly. And that's what we want to know.

[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_lee]

I could do that.

Bonus points: it would undoubtedly horrify my mum.

[alt_gredforge]

We're sure it must look very fetching.

[alt_gredforge]

It would sure help a lot if we knew how Terry was housed. Like, in the same room with Carrow or not. He wasn't here at Hogwarts, but who knows what it's like for him in the camps.

Bloody hell.

[alt_sally_anne]

Can your father find that out?

[alt_sally_anne]

Here's one of the good things about this owl: he is TINY.

If Pansy can send him to deliver to Fred while George is either asleep or gone, maybe you can both keep an eye out for him -- just to see if you spot him at all, when he's watching you for a chance to make his delivery. Because if he makes a delivery to Terry, his ability to hide and to solve problems is more important than knowing in advance exactly where Terry's sleeping.

[alt_sally_anne]

Would she say, if she'd noticed anything? Does she tease you?

Or would she NOT say anything, but you'd know anyway because of the way she'd spend all day looking like she WANTED to say something and was valiantly NOT doing so?

[alt_ron]

Yeah, okay.

What does he look like besides tiny?

[alt_sally_anne]

He's a scops owl, do you know what those look like? He's only about as big as my fist, and he has little tufts that look like ears. Mostly brown but in a sort of stripy way, with a big dark C and then a backward C on each side of his face.

[alt_gredforge]

We've asked him to find out, and he's looking into it. He says that he should be able to find out exactly where the git is when he gets the month end reports listing where personnel are stationed through the various camps.

[alt_sally_anne]

That'll be soon, then, right? June's almost over.

I don't think we have to know where Terry is to send the owl, anyway. It'll just be faster if we do.