ORDER ONLY: Private Message to Siz

[alt_alice]

Siz,

I'm so very glad we were able to sort out your visit to Moddey and Sherwood yesterday. I hope it wasn't too overwhelming for you -- there are quite a lot of faces and names floating around, I'm sure, and our little ones do tend to swarm when there's someone new. Divyesh was absolutely thrilled about the lecture you gave on locational magics and apparation -- he's always been quite strong at maths, but we don't have anyone who specializes in astronomy and when Cecelia stops by for her occasional guest lectures, she prefers to focus more on runes than arithmancy, so we've been sorely neglecting both those areas of study, I'm afraid. (Divyesh helps us with brewing our day-to-day potions, if you'll recall.) Tim, the young man who showed us the communications network in Sherwood, was also especially keen to hear your lecture, and I'm so pleased you got a chance to see Sarah Fawcett again too.

Regina thoroughly approves of you by the way --- she's the herbologist, and tends to appreciate people with a 'firm scientific mind', as she likes to say. And you certainly seemed to hit it off with Cecelia from what I could see. I hope you don't mind my popping off to chat with Davidson while you met with her.

Arista's been peppering me with questions all morning, by the way -- I think she was intrigued by your conversation, and more than a little chuffed that you wanted to talk to her especially. Even though she didn't remember you terribly well, I think it did her good to meet someone who was friends with her mother, so thank you for that. Hector didn't have much to say about it, but he's an unflappable serious sort of boy who takes a while to chew on things before having an opinion about them.

I know you've got quite a lot brewing in your cauldron before the term begins, so thank you for stopping by, I really do appreciate your taking the time.

Comments

[alt_sinistra]

Yes. Babies are I'm better once they're - well. Talking and running around on their own and learning things, mostly.

Teaching's the thing I've planned for, from - oh, fifth year, when Alcor asked if I wanted to take over for him one day. It's not much, sometimes, compared to a lot of other things. I'll see if I can sort out some written things once I get settled, and I can definitely send round copies of the new Astronomy text we're using this year.

(Actually, I made that offer to Cecelia, too. If there's books you need, there's a number of fields where no one will wonder why I'm buying them. Not the obscure things or the ones that would draw particular attention, but astronomy, charms, runes, arithmancy, defence are all rather plausible.)

I keep poking at some of the warding magics too. I'm wondering about talking to Brutka - does one call him Albus or something else? - once we're back at school and I can be less obvious about it. There's a newish locational warding method that takes advance calculation, but might be less risk than that Fidelius variant for some kinds of uses. Maybe.

And yes. I just keep remembering talking to Chloe two springs ago, and she'd known - something was up, but not what, and she was so terrified for her children. What might happen to them.

[alt_alice]

Albus would suit, but if it'd be easier to call him Brutka for consistency's sake, I'm sure he wouldn't take offence.

I suppose I've been rather desensitised, having been surrounded by babies for years and years. They can be rather terrifying, though, can't they?

Books would be absolutely wonderful. We've had to make do with so very little that anything you can pass along would be thoroughly devoured.

Harry and his crew deserve every accolade for Hector and Arista -- they were utterly brilliant, and foolhardy, and lucky, and rash in the way only young people can be.

[alt_sinistra]

Oh, it's as much the old problem of calling people by first name who taught you as a child as which name. It never gets easy to do, maybe.

Right. Books. Books is a thing I can do. I'll start figuring out some useful things, then. Books are reassuring. They stay put in my head.

The thing about babies

It's not that I'm not used to them. (Eight nieces and nephews - going to be nine, and I was old enough to remember my youngest brother as a baby and help.) It's. Well.

Raz and I were planning on trying this autumn. For our own. And I'd expected to spend the summer sorting out the practical parts. So it's raw. Very.

We hadn't told people we were going to, though Mum and Dad and Tosha and Storm and Di know now. And it's my own thing to deal with. But I didn't want you to think that it was the babies that were the problem. Just me.

[alt_alice]

Oh, love.

Yes. I can see how that would be hard.

[alt_sinistra]

So. Yes. Other things.

I wrote to Tosha, mostly to pass on something about Septima.

I keep thinking about staff. Patterns and - oh, alliances. I won't duck the word. And it's going to be complicated.

First thing is keeping everyone safe as we can. Second thing is making sure they can learn. Right?

[alt_alice]

Yes. Harry's certainly devoted to doing what he can on that front. The recent choices for Head Girl and Boy bode well for Patil and Finnigan not running roughshod, and it helps that so many of our people are placed as Prefects too.

The galleon group is its own particular sort of risk, of course. And there's always the unexpected. Anything in particular that has been keeping you up?

[alt_sinistra]

Those choices, yes. And I think Lana being Tosha's apprentice will give him some additional controls there, as I said.

(I'd say I'd rather someone else, and I would, but I actually can't think of anyone who'd be much better, and a lot who would be vastly worse.)

The Galleon group is a complication, yes. And the unexpected, which we keep having. Over and over again. I do best when I think through things in advance, as I said, but I don't even know where to start with some of what might come up now. Not yet.

Which is a lot of what's keeping me up, really. And how to balance things. Staff. Students. The NEWT classes. Protections on the tower. All the little things, like how to be social at meals in a way that's useful and not too much for me to manage, which - well, it's going to be hard, considering.

At least Tosha won't forbid the elves from bringing food to my office, like Madam Pinkness - or do I say Madam Toad? - did.

[alt_alice]

Frank can talk over basic safety protocol with you if it would be useful -- I've found it helps to have something you can turn to quickly and know without needing to think too hard, even if you might have to modify as you go. How you can get out, how you can help someone else get out, what happens in case we need to pull everyone in a hurry, that sort of thing.

It does help that our Order members attending Hogwarts already have some experience in these matters, and have fairly good instincts.

And goodness, I can imagine it'll be a rather exhausting transition. You have my best wishes on that front, and it seems as though you have a good support network waiting for you at Hogwarts. (You must know that my Evie would do just about anything for you, all you need to do is ask.)

[alt_sinistra]

It might help to talk through, yes. Raz and I - we had plans. Lots of plans. In case. Because I don't think fast in the moment, not fast enough to matter, but if I've thought through, I'm so much better. I don't need all the specifics for each, just more to think about what I'm supposed to make happen, and some ways to do that.

I expect lots of time on the tower. It's soothing. But I've known for years, since I started teaching, that it's easy to be pinned up there if I'm not careful. The Carrows, then other fears.

So you know, I keep a broom up on the observing platform, could keep more, and there's things that show me who's on the tower. (A star chart, the magnitudes shift by constellation when people in the class I've set are there, and then I have other stars that change for each of my newts and the staff and anyone I particularly want to know about. Not my design, but very clever, and students can't really read what it means.)

And yes. It helps they've got practice. And - for other reasons, but it's handy - I gave Harry something of Raz's that'll show where I am in the castle.

As to the rest, well, I suppose, the only way forward is through. And you're right, there are people who'll help. Students and staff. I don't know how I'd have managed this summer without Poppy in particular.

[alt_alice]

We can certainly make sure that happens, then. His brain is rather built for that sort of thing, and he wouldn't mind in the least.