Order Only: World Cup?

[alt_sirius]

Okay, so, all of Sherwood's been talking about it, but since we're all outlaws here no one has much in the way of details. I got elected to ask.

Have they really gone and secured the rights to play the World Cup Finals here? Where, then? (Last I'd heard it was going to be somewhere in Canada, but that was over a year ago. Things have been known to change with sufficient application of persistence. And gold.)

And is everyone in the whole realm supposed to go?

If all the camps are going down to skeleton crews, well, I mean to say, we could get dozens out, perhaps.

Of course, there are some who want to throw together some kind of plan to disrupt the match, or the celebrations around it. I have to assume MLE have thought about that, though. And possibly the camps, as well.

But surely the whole country can't simply shut down for the final, can it?

Comments

[alt_poppy]

I know little more than you do, Sirius. I was at the Sanctuary over the weekend--a very quick trip as it happened--so I missed the weekend papers. I understand they were packed with excited copy about the magnificent news, but I gather they were also quite short on details.

For starters, no one seems to know where they are going to have it. I heard some speculation about the Isle of Man, but I can tell you that unless the Ministry made the site unplottable, our friends on that small island have no knowledge of the business. And nor do they seem to have noticed the trip between any of the places they regularly visit having got suddenly shorter, which would be the case if a chunk of the island had suddenly gone uplottable. At any rate, they didn't mention anything so obviously suspicious having taken place.

My own tickets to the event caught up with me only this morning in Deptford. I seem to have set the owl a merry chase, and she was none too pleased about it when she found me. I'm hoping my brief disappearance will not have been otherwise noticed.

As for whether everyone is to go, apparently so. I have no idea how they plan to deal with the camps; I dread to think, in fact. For myself, it's a damned inconvenience. I'm due to begin a perfectly miserable official inventory and facilities evaluation under the watchful eyes of a joint team from St M's and the Ministry. That begins Thursday and continues right through Sunday, and then they expect me to be a good citizen and go along to the Quidditch? With students arriving at the school a mere three days after that?

[alt_sirius]

Well, I'm not too surprised they're being close-lipped about it, are you? Ours can't be the only insurgent groups viewing the World Cup as an opportunity for mayhem.

Makes me wonder if it's some kind of ruse. Tell everyone it's the Cup Final to get everyone together and then - I dunno. Run some sort of mandatory loyalty test. Probably that's too paranoid. Let's hope. As-is, I'd bet anything they're using it at the least to get a good look at who shows and who doesn't.

You've mentioned the inspection before and that you're worried the increased scrutiny speaks to someone raising suspicions. Do you truly think you or anyone else at Hogwarts is currently suspect? Ought we to lay some plans in case incriminating information has reached the wrong hands?

[alt_poppy]

Quite right. I feel sure that the Ministry have given careful thought to ways of preventing Dogstar from making a ruckus at the Cup. It's another way in which they've done us few favours by making themselves so obvious.

I understand where that thought comes from, but I think the regime want very much to have this event boost their popularity at home and abroad, so while I expect they will take stringent precautions to detect anyone with disruptive designs, I also expect they will avoid harassing or terrorising the crowd. Quite right, though: they will certainly take note of those who don't accept the invitation to attend.

Ah. The inspection. Well. It's not simply a matter of my being under scrutiny. We are, I am informed, to have our largest incoming cohort of first years in a great many years, accelerating the growth of our numbers, so there will be more demand on my stores and my time.

But it's more even than that: we are anticipating a visit to the school by a delegation from the wizarding institutions overseas. Apparently, this is all part of a larger initiative of which the Quidditch Cup is only the first piece. I don't know much more than this, but I was told to expand capacity on my wards, to stock twenty-five percent above the usual amounts of staples, and to err on the side of over-provision.

Now, if I should be found lacking in any aspect of this preparation, then I'm certain my detractors will not hesitate to take advantage of the process to penalise me.