Order Only: Tea

[alt_sirius]

Fred, George: Have you heard any more from Terry?

Well, meanwhile, it's past time that we told you all about having Hydra over for tea.

So, to set the stage, of course, we've spent some time keeping Doughty Conduit look occupied. For one thing, we don't know how soon the Ministry might wish to inspect us, but for another, on the assumption that Bellatrix wanted to spy through Hydra, we figured she ought to be presented with the picture of domesticity. We even put Bea down for her nap in the pram in the kitchen.

Hydra and the nanny arrived promptly at two and I think at first Remus feared Mrs Baylock meant to stay and observe the whole visit but she made one or two disparaging remarks about the shop and then told Hydra she'd some errands of her own and would return for her at half-past-three.

Hydra looked around the shop while Dora went to see if Bea'd woken up yet, which she had, so they proceeded to the kitchen. At first she seemed quite shy but she kept sneaking me looks when she thought Dora couldn't see and finally she asked if I'd bite. Dora said no, of course not, so she tried giving me a scratch. Before I knew it she was sneaking me bits of her sandwich (she only ate the cress and the dill, no meat). Remus came in once the shop was between customers and almost called me Padfoot (we'd agreed on Sinbad for Hydra's benefit, since I've no idea whether she'd tell Justin about meeting a dog named Padfoot!) but he caught himself just in time. I don't think she noticed.

Moony kept pushing sweets on her. She'd make a remark about how 'Mummy' wouldn't like her to have too many sweets but then she'd take another biscuit as if defying Bellatrix were more delicious than the treat itself. And I'll admit, she spoke glowingly about Justin.

But there's one thing that happened - well, I'm sure if we've not heard about it by now, it probably isn't an issue. Still. Bea was showing off for our guest, with Dora's help, doing her parlour tricks of changing her hair colour and such. And she did something ... I've never seen her do it before, nor had Remus, I think, but she changed her face to look more like a dog's, then back to human. And she kept switching back and forth, three or four times running, and then said 'Da!' and then started all over again. Remus thinks she was just jealous that Hydra seemed to be paying more attention to the dog than to Bea. But if Bellatrix forces her to put her memories in a Pensieve or tries to Legilimise her, it might come out.

Fred and George, you're more likely to know what she's like when she's not with her mother. I'll grant that she seems remarkably adjusted for growing up that viper's daughter but - is it likely she's able to keep her mother from rifling through her thoughts?

Comments

[alt_lupin]

She was a really nice kid, honestly. Polite as anything, but delightful once she'd relaxed a bit.

I'm thinking perhaps we'll send her a little hamper next term with sweets. Does her father keep her well-supplied, or is he too much under Bellatrix's thumb?

[alt_lupin]

Also, that trick of Bea's with the dog face was something else. Bea didn't put on nearly as much of a show for Hydra as she had for Rigel and Bellatrix. I think she decided to try for a dog look because Hydra was so taken with Padfoot (uh, Sinbad -- sorry about that, although I don't think Hydra noticed) she was feeling a bit jealous of the attention he was getting.

She really did chatter on about Justin.

[alt_gredforge]

About Hydra Lestrange: we don't really know her at all. But we do know some people who know her better. That'll have to wait until we get back to school, though. (We'll be careful about what we ask, don't worry.)

Really though, maybe Hermione would know more? After all, she's around the Slytherin Common Room, and might see her there.

We have more information about Terry. Some reassurance, but some other stuff that's worried us a lot more. This is what we've pulled together from the notes we got:

He's really not acting normal. He's still reverting to 'boot,' particularly if something upsets him. There's a kind of confusion, or indirectness in his thinking. And maybe a touch of paranoia. He reports he's been sick for a couple days, but he doesn't think he's been poisoned. (Since this is a conversation that's contantly being conducted second and third hand, we didn't pass along the explanation that we wondered if the purpose of the blood spell was to remove poison from Alecto Carrow).

He says he's been sick for the past couple days: nausea, weakness, chills, vomiting. Oh, and he had a nosebleed. It feels worse if Carrow's farther away. Here's what he said about the ritual: they mixed his blood with a potion, cut his forearms and poured the mess over it, and it burned like 'cold fire.' There were some words said at this point, and he caught some reference to 'binding,' and there was more said, too, but he was in too much pain, maybe, to catch it. Then the other half of the blood/potion mixture got burned up in a silver cauldron.

He did think the bezoar was a good idea. But--this is weird: he willingly sent that sample of his blood to us before, the last time they did the binding spell; in fact, it was his idea. And this time, he mentioned they broke the vial afterwards so he couldn't save it. But when the suggestion was passed along that he send us a sample of his blood, suddenly he sounded afraid, maybe, or disgusted. Maybe both. Bugger, we didn't even think of that, but we can maybe see why. For years, Carrow's treated Terry like his blood's sort of his own personal ink well, to use for whatever purpose he likes. Guess for us to ask for the blood was somehow more threatening than him offering it.

So he was asked some more questions, and he wouldn't quite answer them, not directly. But then he said something strange, a real non sequitur about another kid there at the castle, a muggle about his own age. We think they were starting to be friends. He said: 'Dudley's still alive.' Like there was some doubt in his mind for awhile that it was true.

So one of us came up with what we think was a pretty shrewd guess: that the Carrows somehow forced Terry into hurting this other kid. Somehow, that hit him too close to the bone. He got really upset, turned into 'boot the mudblood,' said we shouldn't talk to him, and then disappeared.

Does that information about the ritual give you lot any better idea of what's going on?