Order only: owls and other news

[alt_sirius]

Alice, that owl you sent with Kevin's birth announcement finally found me. Poor chap must have been confused as to my whereabouts; from the disgruntled way it demanded food, water and a perch for the day, I gather it went to the homestead in Monaco first and has been backtracking for some time.

In any case, Frank, you watch your back, too, mate. Especially if you're as lacking in sleep as I suspect from the sprog's feeding timetable. And Moony - let me know if you need suggestions for how best to corrupt Kevin. Never too early for a godfather to make his friends regret their decision! Have you given him his first lesson in breaking out of his cradle yet?

I also wanted to let you lot know how Justin Finch-Fletchley has been doing. We're making great progress, I'm proud to say. He's a fair hand at changing matchsticks to needles already, though he has some trouble with charms pronunciations due to a tendency to stammer. I think that's more self-confidence than any inherent speech defect, though. I don't know if he'll be ready to enter Beauxbatons as a second-year student or not, but he's certainly catching them up as fast as ever he can.

His mother has been asking all sorts of questions, as well, mostly about the efforts to bring about the current regime's downfall. I think her curiosity can be attributed to the new celebrity of Mr Emilius Highslip, who it turns out is the young man who stopped me in the street that day. It seems he did defect, after all. I've no time to detail what happened at the moment, but it was rather daring and it put quite the damper on Malfoy's return, I can promise you!

All the excitement has had the effect of increasing Mrs F-F's sympathy to our cause. I've very nearly got her to the point where I think we can expect a sizable donation to the Order. It should be enough to replenish our supplies for next autumn. Once Justin has been safely placed at Beauxbatons I shall be off again on my own little collecting mission for us.

Hermione? How are you doing, kiddo? And how is Harry - I've not seen him write recently. Not that he writes often. But his birthday is coming up and I'm sure he must be at least a little excited about that.

Comments

[alt_alice]

It's good to hear from you, Sirius darling. And I'm glad you got our announcement.

That is excellent news about the donation -- that certainly puts me at greater peace of mind. We always seem to be running short of something or another around here, and Merlin knows every little bit helps. And how interesting about that Highslip person! I must admit, I'm glad he took your advice. Daring indeed. Perhaps after all the attention dies down, you can have a talk. I know Frank is very keen to hear about what he'd have to say.

And perhaps you should hold off plotting my son's corruption until he's out of nappies! Bad enough he's got two outlaws for parents.

[alt_sirius]

True: Strictly speaking, if we were to plot for maximum irritation in his parents, then we'd have to push Kevin in the direction of a law-abiding toady. And we none of us want that!

Though I'd wager with Remus for a godfather he'll be reading The Young Wizard's Guide to Manners and Etiquette within the week.

[alt_alice]

That old thing!

Mum used to swear by it. When we were little, she'd cast that charm that makes elbows all slippery at mealtimes. Roger would forget and set them on the table almost once a week, and they'd just slide out from under him. The look on his face was just priceless. He nearly broke his nose on a plate of biscuits once.

[alt_sirius]

Tell me about it. I still remember being made to copy out sections to practise penmanship.

I was less fond of the spell that improved one's posture. Mum used to cast that at bedtimes when we'd misbehaved. To this day I can sleep standing up.

[alt_lupin]

Until he's old enough to read it, I think we'll have to make do with practical lessons and leading by example.

[alt_sirius]

See, and here I was giving you credit for being able to teach him to read within the fortnight.

[alt_hermione]

Everything is fine here. I keep intending to write, only things are rather samey samey. It should be different on Harry's birthday, though, I'm getting ever so bored and I'll get to get out!!

[alt_sirius]

I'd like to send him something, but I don't dare. Even forging Malfoy's handwriting, I imagine it would be impossible to smuggle an owl into Buckingham!

I hope Bill can get you the ring Arthur mentioned.

[alt_arthur]

Well, well, well. So the defection was successful. That is exceedingly interesting news.

He may very well turn you down flat since you refused to help him before, but it might bear some interesting fruit if you try approaching the man again--if you can find him, of course (I wager if he's wise, he'll be hiding from Bella's European agents). He might have some exceedingly useful information about the process of border crossing, not to mention any tidbits he might see fit to share about Lucius Malfoy.

Good news about your cultivation of Mrs F-F. I will be very happy to help spend any Galleons she sees fit to send our way. We have a number of projects which desperately need funding.

[alt_kingsley]

About Mrs F-F: I see you haven't lost your touch, Sirius my friend, but I must say I'm not surprised. According to Benjy, you could charm a Hungarian Horntail to give up its horde.

[alt_sirius]

Oi, all I did was let our case speak for itself. Despite Didier's insinuations, I haven't had a single cause to complain of ... harassment. I think it's more to do with Justin's progress now that he's getting proper training. (I can hardly call it 'proper' as it's cobbled together from what I remember!)

And Benjy's only got himself to blame, mate, if he was mad enough to stand up for all those tests of ours back in school. He and Davey Gudgeon were about as reckless a pair as me and James - only not quite so skilled, if I do say so myself. We used to set the dares and generally speaking we'd accomplish them; seemed like Benjy and Davey were always getting caught or injured or worse.