Sirius Black

So, what are the odds that we'll go more than ten minutes today without Bea reminding us that she's three?

I think the hardest part so far has been keeping her out of the cake. (To say nothing of the incongruity of Kreacher even making a cake. I've checked it for razor blades or rat poison or anything equally malicious.)

When are we expecting the Moddey contingent? I've fielded about a million questions about Kevin, Keisha and Sara already. Who else did Alice plan to bring? (I can't quite explain so she'll believe me that Rory's not really interested in a party for a three-year-old.)

Maureen is coming, isn't she? Because if there are about to be a dozen children under six here we might need to set up a few more safety spells.

Alice, Frank: Thank you again. I'll definitely want to go back and see what I can get assembled. The engine and carburetor need significant reconditioning but it'll be much easier to put the spells in place on them before they're fitted into a frame. I thought I saw a few Triumphs and even a Royal Enfield; I'll have to look at the numbers to make sure they're compatible, though. Also see what manuals the place might have.

Anyway, it's brilliant. I'm glad you waited until after the lessons to show me. As it was, I hope Maureen didn't get too tired of Bea. (Oh, and please tell her I appreciate her volunteering to mind the monster, but I might take it personally if she keeps ducking Potions to do it. Perhaps we could ask Florrie to switch off now and then.)

I do think it's good for the young miss, anyway. Seeing other kids, playing. Between that and her earlier bedtimes she might just turn out civilised yet!

Curtis Reinman should be happily ensconced at Moddey.

We talked about going yesterday, but then Dora pointed out that today's Molly's birthday - Happy Birthday, Molly! - and decided it might be preferrable to wait until today, so that she could bring a new addition with her to introduce at Molly's birthday supper.

So once Dora woke up this afternoon, she and I went to Ely to collect Curtis Reinman.

It went so quickly that we decided to take a little side jaunt, out to Walsingham to see if we could close in on that device thing.

No guards this time, but it's certainly got about half a dozen different kinds of ward on it. We didn't get too close - you could feel the repelling charms - but we did cast a number of spells to try to determine what sorts of protections were on it.

Besides the repellent, there's an Impervius to protect it from the weather, there's a stablising charm on the base of the menhir and then, the worst one: There's a spell that burns anything attempting to go through it. (I threw a rock and it went through but was considerably charred when it landed.) We could tell there were another few spells as well but couldn't figure out just what without potentially tripping the wards we could detect.

But there's another thing. Dora reported last time that it's on a node of a ley line. There was a sort of ... energy ... emanating from the ring on the top. It radiated in two directions - sort of like a beam of light that gets sent through a focusing lens. I almost felt like we could mount brooms and follow the line. Not the ley line itself, but the energy passing through the ring. (It was running almost exactly northwest-southeast, by the way, almost parallel to the coastline.) So we went north a little bit from the plinth and ... well, there's no other way to put it: Things got rather odd.

Simple spells wouldn't work properly. Complicated spells worked too well. Curtis started kicking and fussing and we noticed that the trees were unusually lush for an area so close to the sea. (Also we both felt considerably twitchy and with Curtis crying, we figured we'd better retreat before someone heard him.)

Still, I think someone should definitely try flying north along that line of vibration and see where it goes.

Well, we're back from delivering Charles Kass - or rather, Dora just delivered him and got back with all her limbs in place.

Which is nearly more than we can say for her at the beginning of the encounter.

All right, there, Dora? You want to tell them your newest foolproof method of gaining trust, or shall I?

This evening we're making space in the storeroom for the good we're about to retrieve in the morning.

Frank, everything ready? Mac, how about on your end? I'm leaving here after we lock up for the night, so I should be at the rendezvous point in time for the tide to change.

Last chance for requests: I've got a little room in my pack for anything that ought to be ferried from here to you lot out west.

Oh, and Arthur, Molly: I've just reminded myself that after the holidays, we ought to check back with Miss Perks' mother and see if we can't think of a convincing way to arrange for her to join one of the enclaves living rough. But after the holidays - it's just been far too busy here to worry about anything other than tonight's run.

Well, that and the graffiti that keeps showing up and getting people talking. Last night there was a chalk drawing on a wall three blocks away. Depicted a Dark Mark with stars covering the eyes and open mouth. A little further down, someone had added a makeshift dog carrying a dead snake in its fangs.

I hope I'm being paranoid if I say I find images of dogs a little disquieting, especially so close to the shop.

Alice, Dora's heading your way with Mary Ashton, aged all of four months. We actually found her yesterday but it took some legwork. By the time we collected her, Dora had to get back and feed Bea and then, well, with one thing and another, the two of them had a grand time sharing toys and such. Anyway, she's bringing her along now. I think we both would have preferred to take her poor mum along, too. Only 19 herself and stuck in an unlikely corner of Hades.

As for our other local boy, his name's Puneet Kamathali. We found him this afternoon: His parents work at a curry place over on Thornfield Road. We had to order dinner in order to keep talking to them (and Kreacher was none too happy we returned with 'foreign food!' But I digress).

The problem is that Puneet's parents are quite well-treated, from what they told us. Their parents each owned a curry takeaway before the Ministry fell and their 'masters' essentially leave them to run things on their own. While they naturally want their son to have a good life, they didn't see much point to giving him up. Plus Mr Kamathali was extremely concerned that if we took Puneet elsewhere, he might not be raised in their faith, which apparently is not a problem for them in their current circumstances. But would he be around other Indians? Would he know anything about his ancestors? Etc.

We tried to explain the rings and the ways we can allow them to communicate but it was clear they weren't going to go for it. We had to Obliviate them.

Anyone have thoughts about what we might do to convince them on a second go?