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Mar. 25th, 2011 11:05 amFrank, you weren't wrong when you said we'd need to wait a bit.
I got an owl from Terrie in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, telling me she wasn't sure how late she'd be and I'd best come up with supper on my own.
Well, at first I thought it was Birchmore making her life difficult in the 'usual' way. (Which I try not to think about because it makes me want to pay him a visit like we did Carrow - and I know, that's strictly off the table.) But I don't mind saying I was frustrated on her behalf, not least because there's no plausible way for her to tell him off or even tell him she's seeing someone (as that would become far too complicated too quickly - for a number of reasons!). But she had quite a different story to tell when she finally made it home.
Crotch and two of his Auror ducklings paid the camp a visit yesterday. And today, I suppose, as they hadn't finished last night. Birchmore assigned her to see to their administrative needs, play tour guide, etc. Guess he figured Barty might like having a pretty face about. Or maybe that she'd be able to distract him from investigating any 'irregularities' in Birchmore's accounting, as I'm sure the bastard's skimming off the top along with everything else. But their investigation seems to really be about the Dogstar company, from what little Terrie could overhear - it seems the chap they arrested after that last entry in Smythe's journal worked at Stevenage for a time. Or maybe his contact did. Something like that - she wasn't sure.
Of course, she didn't know that's what they wanted right away. In fact, Terrie was certain at first that they were looking for me and near panicked. But then she says she remembered that I'm dead (ha!), so she collected herself pretty quickly. The worst part was that when they first arrived, she'd just seized the opportunity to pull blank copies of all the parchment forms we've been discussing. I guess there were five minutes where no one was about and she figured she could smuggle them into her bag with no one the wiser. But then she turned round to go back to her desk and almost ran smack into Farty and his two little trainees - startled her so bad that she dropped all the forms!
The bloke who was with Crotch - Montjoy or something? - he whipped out his wand, quick as you like, and restacked the forms for her. I suppose she should be grateful he was so helpful, as it saved anyone really looking closely at all those different sheets of parchment. She says she stammered some sort of explanation having to do with checking them all to make sure they're the current, up-to-date forms from the Ministry. But she says, lucky for her, Barty only looked at her a bit like something he'd scrape off his shoe and told her they were there to see Birchmore. But then, I suppose he's used to people cowering in fear from that ugly face of his.
Anyway. Close call, and Terrie was understandably pretty relieved to put her pilfered stack in a drawer, leave them for some other time and count herself fortunate that was all there was to it. But then, of course, Birchmore tells her she's the one who'll be helping the team out for as long as it takes. Naturally, she tells me, she suddenly had a horrible feeling that Grouch hadn't been fooled at all, and that he wanted her about so he could follow her, ask other questions, &c.
Poor thing spent the whole day jumping at shadows, telling herself she had to relax or they'd be sure something was up. I guess about an hour into the proceedings, after she'd brought back a stack of personnel files, the young bloke asked her to take him to the wood shop, as there's a supervisor there he wanted to interview. And along the way, he tried to Legilimize her - according to Terrie, quite clumsily! That's what finally eased her off about the whole thing, she says, knowing that his attempt to probe her thoughts was so half-arsed. Well, after that, she found the wherewithal to treat the ordeal with a bit less anxiety.
Still, she's back at work today and they weren't done yet. I suppose it's too much to hope they'll uncover (or she can help them uncover) Birchmore's improprieties and sack him for it. But until they go, I'm effectively stuck inside. She said the girl trainee was definitely Sandoval, and I know she's seen Padfoot, even if the bloke hasn't. And I whatever else one might say about that one, she's far too intelligent to ignore seeing the same large black dog in two completely different areas of the country - while investigating the DogStar Company, no less!
I got an owl from Terrie in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, telling me she wasn't sure how late she'd be and I'd best come up with supper on my own.
Well, at first I thought it was Birchmore making her life difficult in the 'usual' way. (Which I try not to think about because it makes me want to pay him a visit like we did Carrow - and I know, that's strictly off the table.) But I don't mind saying I was frustrated on her behalf, not least because there's no plausible way for her to tell him off or even tell him she's seeing someone (as that would become far too complicated too quickly - for a number of reasons!). But she had quite a different story to tell when she finally made it home.
Crotch and two of his Auror ducklings paid the camp a visit yesterday. And today, I suppose, as they hadn't finished last night. Birchmore assigned her to see to their administrative needs, play tour guide, etc. Guess he figured Barty might like having a pretty face about. Or maybe that she'd be able to distract him from investigating any 'irregularities' in Birchmore's accounting, as I'm sure the bastard's skimming off the top along with everything else. But their investigation seems to really be about the Dogstar company, from what little Terrie could overhear - it seems the chap they arrested after that last entry in Smythe's journal worked at Stevenage for a time. Or maybe his contact did. Something like that - she wasn't sure.
Of course, she didn't know that's what they wanted right away. In fact, Terrie was certain at first that they were looking for me and near panicked. But then she says she remembered that I'm dead (ha!), so she collected herself pretty quickly. The worst part was that when they first arrived, she'd just seized the opportunity to pull blank copies of all the parchment forms we've been discussing. I guess there were five minutes where no one was about and she figured she could smuggle them into her bag with no one the wiser. But then she turned round to go back to her desk and almost ran smack into Farty and his two little trainees - startled her so bad that she dropped all the forms!
The bloke who was with Crotch - Montjoy or something? - he whipped out his wand, quick as you like, and restacked the forms for her. I suppose she should be grateful he was so helpful, as it saved anyone really looking closely at all those different sheets of parchment. She says she stammered some sort of explanation having to do with checking them all to make sure they're the current, up-to-date forms from the Ministry. But she says, lucky for her, Barty only looked at her a bit like something he'd scrape off his shoe and told her they were there to see Birchmore. But then, I suppose he's used to people cowering in fear from that ugly face of his.
Anyway. Close call, and Terrie was understandably pretty relieved to put her pilfered stack in a drawer, leave them for some other time and count herself fortunate that was all there was to it. But then, of course, Birchmore tells her she's the one who'll be helping the team out for as long as it takes. Naturally, she tells me, she suddenly had a horrible feeling that Grouch hadn't been fooled at all, and that he wanted her about so he could follow her, ask other questions, &c.
Poor thing spent the whole day jumping at shadows, telling herself she had to relax or they'd be sure something was up. I guess about an hour into the proceedings, after she'd brought back a stack of personnel files, the young bloke asked her to take him to the wood shop, as there's a supervisor there he wanted to interview. And along the way, he tried to Legilimize her - according to Terrie, quite clumsily! That's what finally eased her off about the whole thing, she says, knowing that his attempt to probe her thoughts was so half-arsed. Well, after that, she found the wherewithal to treat the ordeal with a bit less anxiety.
Still, she's back at work today and they weren't done yet. I suppose it's too much to hope they'll uncover (or she can help them uncover) Birchmore's improprieties and sack him for it. But until they go, I'm effectively stuck inside. She said the girl trainee was definitely Sandoval, and I know she's seen Padfoot, even if the bloke hasn't. And I whatever else one might say about that one, she's far too intelligent to ignore seeing the same large black dog in two completely different areas of the country - while investigating the DogStar Company, no less!
