Private message to Poppy

[alt_antonin]

I stopped back in my office tonight when I returned to the castle and saw that my wards had registered your visit -- did you need me for something? I am sorry I was not there; I took Auri into New London tonight for dinner and the opera, for her birthday.

Comments

[alt_poppy]

For better and worse PP incubates quickly. That's why it's generally possible to snuff it out in short order. That and the fact that if they've been exposed before they shouldn't get it again... though stranger things have happened, and ailments do sometimes switch their patterns without warning.

Let me see this through the weekend before we screen them all. Best to avoid all the worry that inevitably follows such a full-on effort. (Mind you, last time that was needed, we were having a dragon pox scare, but I'll tell you, it was not a happy afternoon when Rita Skeeter marched onto my ward, dicta-quill in hand and photographer in tow.)

[alt_antonin]

Miss Skeeter and her employers have been made aware that she is no longer welcome on Hogwarts grounds, but I take your meaning. Still, keep me posted: I would rather the fuss than the risk of a wider outbreak. And we can always invent some other reason for your examining the whole school.

[alt_poppy]

You're quite right, of course: if it comes to it, we'll do everything necessary to protect the health of our students. I do have hope that we will escape without that being necessary.

[alt_antonin]

From your quill to the ears of the gods!

Oh -- while I am thinking of it, as I know it will slip my mind otherwise -- I am having a genteel but spirited debate about the budget, and am preparing my best arguments. Some reinforcement would not go amiss. When you've a chance, can you duplicate your books for me and send them along to Mr Diggory? Let us say, oh, the last five years' worth; that will give an adequate picture of the ebb and flow. The records I have from Minerva have the sums, but not the details, and I'm certain your records are much more detailed. A brief tallying-up of the list of supplies or ingredients you would purchase if you had room in your budget, along with an estimate as to what they would cost -- I will not hold you to that estimate; to the nearest hundred Galleons will suffice -- would also help provide some ammunition.

This is not urgent -- I will not need it for this month's Governors meeting -- and at our next staff meeting I will be asking everyone to do the same, but since I was thinking of it this morning I thought I ought mention it now.