Order Only: Status Report

[alt_sirius]

Weasleys: How are you all? Poppy said she brought your potion yesterday, Bill. Courage, mate. We'll be a little busy tonight but come by the garden if you're in the mood for company, you and Charlie. Molly, you'd be welcome, too. Dora'd love to show you all she's done with the place.


Next: As far as that meeting Remus asked us all about, it's going to be a couple of days, at least. Well, more than a couple. Bill's busy tonight, of course, and so are Moony and I, and the weekend's a terrible time to leave Ellie alone at Laszlo's Unlimited.

But it's also going to be a while before Minerva's up to it.

We've been at her New London house since last night - Poppy and Severus and I, that is. They tried to intervene in her drinking for good and all and ... it didn't go as they'd hoped.

So, they've spent the last night using slower methods to purge her system, but in the meantime, they plan to brew what amounts to a highly complex potion, which I gather they've not tried before because it could have disastrous results. I guess we've reached the point where the risk is worth it.

Dora, when you can free Ellie or yourself, we need someone to go round the apothecary's on Camden Road. The one near Holloway? I'm reasonably certain they'll have the ingredients our shop hasn't got. I've got a list I can give you. (If buying them doesn't work, then Poppy might have to try to sweet-talk Horace into fetching the items from the Potioneers' Guild and we'd really rather not have to go that route.)

Anyway. With all that in mind, I propose postponing our gathering until after the 1^st. Other than that I'm not fussed about the date, so if anyone else has a preference, let's hear it. (Hermione, that includes you, kiddo.)

Oh, and if anyone else would care to come take a shift, particularly this evening, I'd be grateful.

Comments

Private Message to Alice

[alt_sirius]

Allie,

I know it's hard, love, but you might want Frank to see this. What she's done to herself. And what we're all having to do to help her survive it.

For what it's worth, I think we're about to be able to force the rest of the Order's hand and include almost all the Jrs, or at least tell them what they already suspect. I'd like to put it on the table, at any rate. So you'll have your Neville in the Order properly. But if that's the case - Circe, I don't want the boy to see his dad going the same way Minerva's been. Remus is blaming it on her double-life and I'm sure that's part of it; Frank's got other pressures but I know one thing plaguing him is what your children must think of you and how they're compelled to behave in front of their peers.

I think an object lesson for him, before his son gets another point of view about him, might be a good thing.

Oh, and remind me to tell you all about arriving to find Severus holding a tabby cat in his lap like he actually might have cared for her. Downright touching, if it weren't so bizarre.

Re: Private Message to Alice

[alt_alice]

Back in the day, he and Fabian and Gideon used to go off on a tear whenever things got to be too much, and I think he just never sorted out any other way to handle it.

It must sound like I'm making excuses for him, but this past week was the first time he's had anything since this summer. He went off after we returned from our family trip where our petition was turned down, and Neville had been obliviated. He had to come back earlier than he'd expected because of the storm that hit us, and even though he'd sobered up as best as he could, Terry Boot could smell it on him.

So he's been trying.

He didn't drink a thing after Emmeline and Benjy and that awful mess in Ireland. Even though he wanted to. I could tell. But Arthur... well. Arthur hit him rather hard.

He's a soldier. In the middle of it all, he does what he must and keeps his head. When he's safe, that's when things get hard.

I know. I know.

It's a liability. And a weakness.

And he knows it too.

And you're right. He ought to see. Maybe it'll make it just that much harder next time around. We'll be by.

[alt_nymphadora]

Ellie can go straight away if you'll hand that list through the fire.

When you say the potion they're trying could have disastrous results, what do you mean, exactly?

[alt_sirius]

Yeah, it's in the drawing room by the grate. Be right there.

Apparently my brain is far too simple to grasp the intricate details (according to someone) but the potion's one of that class where there's no way to be sure it's been brewed correctly short of taking it. (Presumably that's if it's close within a certain margin. I'm sure there are ways to brew it so horribly wrong that anyone would know it's not correct. But I didn't offer that option.) Anyway, the point is that if they're off even by a hair, it not only won't be effective it could have lethal consequences. So you see why Poppy's been resistant to the idea.

[alt_nymphadora]

So does that mean-

I think I'd best go for those ingredients myself. I'll make as sure as I'm able they're selling me the best they've got and not passing off near-substitutes.

Ask Poppy if there's anything I need to be especially careful of?

[alt_sirius]

You're asking me to wade into a professional debate, you know. I think watching Poppy and Snape row over who's better equipped to brew this would be comical, if the stakes weren't so high.

As it happened, his highness the repugnant prince insisted on answering. Says the myrrh resin's got to be as pure as possible, no additives, oils, perfumes or thickeners, no enhancement of any kind. If the saleswitch claims it's 'extra strength' or anything like that, probably not what we need.

The calamus must come from the Himalayas, Mongolia, or Central Siberia (which I think I already noted on the shopping list but twice told, etc.) and the cardamom we had was 'all wrong' according to his nibs. It's Indian. The strain he wants (needs?) comes from Bhutan or Nepal. In fact, it's black cardamom he really wants, not the other kind. That means the black or brown pods, not the green ones. (Amomum if you need to be technical about it. Sorry but he keeps shouting new information at me, which if he'd told Aleks probably would have saved us all a lot of - hang on.)

[alt_sirius]

Right.

Oh, and. Probably goes without saying, love, but being this precise in what you're trying to get might point to what we're trying to make. So you might want to think of a story, should the shop ask loads of questions about why it's so specific.

And maybe when you get back you could stay for a bit and I'll go back and take a break. Mordred, if sitting on Ridley wasn't half this frustrating I don't know how Kingsley and the others managed it.

[alt_nymphadora]

Right. Got my instructions.

I'll come there straight away. And, yes, of course, you may go home. I'll stay.

[alt_severus]

Black, that you remain incapable of retaining even the smallest bit of information for more than five minutes shall never cease to amaze me.

'Cardamom' are two distinct genera of plant, Elettaria and Amomum. They are both used in cooking, but only one can be used in this preparation. Miss Tonks, it may be called 'black cardamom', 'red cardamom', or 'Siamese cardamom'. The myrrh must be pure resin, unadulterated and untreated; the descriptor used to be 'ingestable' but in the past several years has started to become 'brewable'; if the price is less than three times the 'unguent' preparation it is not suitable.

The calamus must be Acorus calamus and not Acorus americanus; the easiest way to ensure this is, as Black already noted, to source it from the Himalayas, Mongolia, or central Siberia.

Those are the only three ingredients that must be sourced so exactingly, but the remaining ingredients on the list do of course need to be natural and not transfigured or adulterated.

If you are questioned about the potion it will be used in, you may say you are assisting a friend who is uncertain about the paternity of her child or that a customer believes he or she has been reunited with a long-lost parent and is attempting to brew a potion to confirm: all these ingredients are also used in ancestry potions.

[alt_pomona]

Bad to worse. Do you need another pair of hands, Sirius? I can find some excuse to be away from the castle. (Not that there's many here, either.)

On tonight, I was going to write. I woke up this morning dreaming of a conversation I'd had with Aurora, about one of her exam questions, something about having students calculate their location from the position of the stars. I gather it's fiddly work - that most people, even astronomers, don't touch it after their exams - but could that be of use, somehow?

As to the gathering, between the 1st and the 5th would be fine for me, the children will come back on the 6th.

[alt_bill]

That's...an intriguing suggestion, about the stars, Pomona. How would that work, exactly?

It probably would be excessively useful to go back and check the site of the rite afterwards, to see if we could gather any more clues.

[alt_pomona]

Goodness. The part I do remember clearly is that it's what's used for locational magics, that's why they teach it.

She said something about precision mattering, that that's where most of the errors are. It's something about measuring the angle from where you are to a given point in the heavens (more than one is much better). And you need to know the time, as precisely as you can. You can use any number of stars, or planets, or even the sun or moon, but obviously, you need to know what you're looking at.

Or - I gather it's something where you can sort out the missing piece if you have two of the others: time, angle, and location. Because now I think about it, she was very proud of working out a piece for the punishment for that duelling club, to limit the area affected, and she had the time and the location there, and worked out the angles.

Only, blast. I do remember her saying it's a fairly uncommon skill. There's a few people in the Floo Network office who use it regularly. She does, an astronomer friend of hers, from her year. Maybe a dozen others, in all the Protectorate. (Well, as she said, it's "tedious, fiddly, and not that interesting for most people.")

But maybe if you had a clear memory of it, and we could show it to someone who could work things out, it might be enough?

[alt_bill]

Yeah...my NEWTs astronomy class is beginning to come back to me, now.

The potion should help, with getting a clear memory. I hope. I think I have to note the time, particularly. Which might be a bit of a problem, since I won't be wearing a watch. I'm not allowed to bring metal. But if I take particular note of the time when I leave for the rite, and then make a point of looking up and noticing the constellations right when I arrive...yeah. That might do it.

That is, of course, as long as they come to fetch me at night, which is what I'm hoping for. And there's not too much cloud cover.

Very good suggestion, Pomona. I should put it into action. Thanks.

[alt_pomona]

Most welcome, and may it be of use. Seems like, even if it's not perfectly precise, it might give us enough of an idea to scout further?

[alt_bill]

I'll do another visual check of the sky right when it's time to leave and then note the time when I get back, and that'll give us another point of reference.

[alt_bill]

Yes, Poppy delivered the potion, and I'm following Terry's advice about preparation. Guess I'm doing everything I can to be as ready as possible.

About Minerva...I'm dismayed, but not, I'll admit, surprised. I'm very sorry to hear it. Hope the brewing goes well, and the potion helps.

After the 1st is fine with me. And we're flexible as to the exact date. No one is expecting much of any of us for at least a week.

[alt_molly]

It would be useful to give us as much notice as possible, though. We're going to have to think of an excuse for all five us away from the home for an evening without Ginny or Percy asking questions.

I'm doing...as well as can be expected, Sirius, thank you. I might stop by Laszlo's some evening, that's a good thought. Although not tonight, of course. I want to be available for Bill when he comes home.

Oh, poor Minerva! I'm sure you're taking as good care of her as possible, but do give her my love. If...if she's capable of understanding.

[alt_gredforge]

At least with us and Lee, we can use the Mutual Excuse. Tell his parents he's over at our house, and tell Ginny and Percy we're over at his.