(no subject)

[alt_antonin]

Students: I am afraid I must cancel class for tomorrow. Sixth years, you may wish to use the time to put the finishing touches on your group research projects, which are due to me by Friday; third and fifth years, you may use the extra time to study.

Comments

Private message to Barty

[alt_antonin]

Summoned to His side, by the Mark. As always, will let you know when I return.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_crouch_jr]

Envy you the chance to be of service.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_antonin]

You need not; apparently He wishes for us to work together on this task.

I don't know what to think

He has instructed me to allow Him the honour of briefing you. I am in New London at the moment still trying to bring myself to drink the hangover potion and get moving but will be returning to school this evening; I do not know when He will call you.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_crouch_jr]

Now.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_antonin]

I do not know how long He will keep you, but now that you have been briefed, I thought it wise to compare our experiences and what He has asked of each of us, so that He cannot we might ask for clarification should one of us have the wrong end of the wand.

He said that He has always appreciated my ability to train others, and "to win the loyalty of many ... to My causes". The pause was quite significant; I still do not know if I am being rewarded or put on notice. As such, He would be giving me, "and your chief protégé", the task of "working out a way the army I have created can be of use", that they would obey His commands without question but it would be our task to determine how they might be commanded by those other than Him.

I asked Him what he meant by that, and what army He had created, and that was when He took my arm and side-alonged me to -- somewhere. I did not recognise it, and He used some hex or charm to keep me from being certain of the location. (Very disorienting.) We were standing atop a hill, ringed with a wall made of earth and scavenged stone and wood. I was still trying to shake off the effects of the spell when He clapped His hands, and what I had taken to be stacks of wood sat up and --

-- well. You've seen them now, I suppose, or will have by the time you are able to read this. Inferi. Dozens, if not hundreds; He must have been working on them for quite some time. Years?

He showed me how they would obey His commands, and how He could direct them, and how they would obey Him even to the point of tearing themselves apart. What He was interested in, He explained to me, was a way for Him to delegate their management to others, so that He need not supervise them personally, and that you and I were to spend our summer on finding Him an answer.

I still do not know if we have been tasked with creating our replacements, or with giving Him an army that is far more biddable than our fractious company. And oh, my heart hurts at such massive desecration of the dead, and He must know my feelings on that, and I cannot help but wonder how much of this is a test, and what I am being tested on.

When you've a moment, tell me what you saw, and we can put our heads together on a plan of approach this weekend; I have been going through the library to find all the resources I have, which are unfortunately scant. He was clear that this did not supplant my task of unrooting any of Iphigenia's allies in sedition, nor my task of teaching the children. I suppose it will be a busy summer.

Have told Raz that Our Lord has given me a task, but He instructed me to keep the existence of the monsters Inferi quiet until such time as He is ready for their unveiling, so I did not get into much detail. I am growing rather tired of It has been difficult being given so many orders I cannot discuss with others, but at least He has placed the both of us on this task; that much is one bright spot.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_crouch_jr]

Not dozens, Batya, nor mere hundreds. At His word, they rose from the hillside and out of the marsh all around its foot. As we watched, the earth rumbled--He has barrows, who knows how extensive, beneath the earthworks of that fortification.

An army in truth.

One that does not quail in the presence of Dementors. (As demonstrated.) Or Death Eaters.

And we are to make them accept our command. He suggested they be made to accept us as His Vicegerents--two puzzles there (or one joke):

One who knows no peer does not share power.
Inferius animatus derives animus directly from its creator: His will supplies its only being.

To do this without committing the treason of breaking the bond between creature and creator? A test, indeed.

Re: Private message to Barty

[alt_antonin]

I have never doubted His ability to combine joke and test into one when it suits Him. (I am beginning to regret all the times I have complained that there is nothing in the world more difficult to instruct properly than third-years.)

I can see very few ways in which this might end well enough, and here it is our responsibility to find one of those few ways through the field of curses. It will be an adventure.