alt_antonin | Hogwarts lecture series

The final lecture of the fall term's lecture series will be held this Sunday, 7 December. Beatrice Marks, the author of several books including Who Rules Florence Must Be Strong, will be speaking on the history of the wizarding Medici family branches and their contributions to wizarding history.

The lecture will begin at 7:30PM in the Hogwarts library. Light refreshments will be served afterwards in the Great Hall. It is open to any citizen of the Protectorate who wishes to attend, not simply students and their parents.

Our lecture series will resume after Christmas hols on 18 January.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alt_antonin

I may need to be absent from the castle on Monday -- I will not know until then -- but I've left plenty of work on your desk, I'm afraid.

- The second set of addresses for Christmas greetings is in a folder on top of the other cards you've been working on. This set is the collection of international greetings; if you do not recall the procedure for sending those from last year, it involves delivering them to International Magical Relations for the next diplomatic pouch to go through the wards. Pontner's clerk should be expecting them, but if he gives you trouble, let me know and I will make the trouble go away. Everyone on that list gets the standard card with the regular range of personal greetings. (Your impression of my handwriting is getting eerily good; I found one of the cards you wrote last week and could not realise why I did not remember writing it.)

- Also in that folder are thirteen longer letters, already written, sealed, and addressed; they will also need to go through IMR for delivery.

- There is a box on your chair containing several parcels, all of which are (are you sensing a pattern?) sealed, addressed, and must go through IMR for delivery. Be warned, the one addressed to Marja Brouard is exceptionally heavy (books, and of the sort that do not take well to having magic cast upon them) -- it is clearly labelled with the warnings, but when you hand them over, do let Pontner's clerk know that it requires special handling. Likewise, the package addressed in both English and Arabic to Sayyid M. 'Aamir ibn Āzar al-Rashid al-Masri al-Sadiq c/o the Cairo Conclave is marked as 'fragile' and must not be shaken or dropped. The other parcels do not require special treatment.

- I've read through the cards that have come in so far; they can be filed. I am assuming you are keeping a list of who has sent them, so that they can be added to my list if they are not already on it. (Not that I believe there will be anyone of consequence who was left off -- my list has its genesis in my mother's of old, which could always have doubled as a guide to the best and brightest in Britain -- but one does like to be completist about these things, and if Mother finds me failing to return a Christmas card she will ~~rise up out of her grave and~~ return from the world-after expressly for the purpose of reminding me how only ill-bred heathens fail to reciprocate the season's greetings.)

- I've gone through the slew of Christmas parcels, tokens of esteem, gifts from parents, etcetera, and selected the things I am most covetous of; the remainder is set out on the sideboard in the receiving room. Help yourself to whatever you'd like -- I will be letting Professor Sandoval-Pennifold know to do the same. Once she's had her pick, please have the house-elves distribute the food evenly among the common rooms, and send anything else along to the charity shop.

- Professors Sprout, Babbling, and Gimlet have yet to turn in their departmental accountings for the term. (I believe Gimlet was waiting until the end of classes today to see what he needed to reorder for exams, so he may bring by his ledgers on Monday.) If you've a moment or you need to stretch your legs, can you drop by with each of them and casually inquire? Emphasis on 'casual' -- I am certain they have simply overlooked the request in the pressures of exam preparation, and I do not wish to breathe down their necks, but I will need to get the budgetary requests in to the Governors next week, and I'd like to have some time to compile the final figures so I know what I am asking for.

- Gringotts floo-called me earlier today, but I was in the middle of a meeting with one of the fifth-years and returning the call slipped my mind. If you would, please contact them and let them know the donation to St M's should come out of my mother's charitable trust, not my personal vault. Then, call St M's and let Healer Acton know that it's been straightened out, and that I appreciate her flexibility in the scheduling.

- While you are on the floo with Gringotts, likewise let them know that the donation to the New London Philharmonic comes out of the personal vault, and confirm with them that the last installment is set for payment on the 15th. Then, contact the head office of the Philharmonic and ask them what the deadline is for the phrasing of the dedication notice to be placed in the programme. (Have I remembered to tell you about that? I have commissioned a performance of Всенощное бдѣніе Рахма́нинова -- sorry, Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil -- for 24th December to honour our many losses over the past few years; however, I have not decided whether I will make that explicit or whether I will be comfortably vague about the purpose, nor have I decided if I will take credit for the commissioning or remain an anonymous benefactor. I suspect I will not decide until the day of the deadline.)

There was at least one other thing I wanted you to do, but of course now I cannot remember it. I'm certain that will be plenty to keep you busy, however.

From:

alt_cedric

The cards, letters and parcels have been delivered. Except for the one going to Sayyid, with fragile packages there are a range of charms they typically use and he asked whether any would be problematic for the contents. I have until half nine tonight to get it to him with that answered. Is it particularly magically sensitive?

On the filing, how do you want to handle the Greengrass family given recent revelations?

I had nice conversation with Professor Sprout, she promised it would be submitted 'shortly', even before I brought it up. Professor Babbling may need to be prodded on the urgency, you would think after all these years she'd understand the academic calender's perpetual grind. And if I didn't know better I'd swear Professor Gimlet was avoiding me so as not to discuss it. I'm sure I'm imagining things however.

Gringotts has been advised on the payments. A second goblin inserted themselves into the conversation to demand a conversation with you concerning "the provenance of an item in your vaults." He refused to discuss it any further with me, but I believe that he was implying that it was of goblin manufacture. Your calendar looked clear, so I managed to schedule a floo call on Monday the 22nd at half ten. I said you would call them as I didn't know where you would be that day. If that time is a problem, or you don't wish to discuss it with them, I'll reschedule or put them off. Grindlepoke was the goblin's name, he gave no title, but the clerk I'd been talking to allowed the interruption, so he must be relatively highly placed. I'll figure out his title and position in the next week so you can be more prepared for the floo call.

The Philharmonic indicated that the programs could be corrected as late as the end of the week and an insert could be prepared for inclusion as late as 20th with no difficulties. If you wished your name or particular information on the banners and outside advertising, it's far far too late.

Edited Date: 2014-12-07 07:08 pm (UTC)

From:

alt_antonin

I recognise this is short notice -- I apologise; it has taken me this long to receive final confirmation of the schedule -- but the dates that St Mungo's will be offering their next first-responder and emergency aid certification class happen to coincide with the Hogwarts holidays. (Specifically, 26-30 December, five full days from Friday to Tuesday inclusive.)

As we'll be beginning the process of arranging your admission to the Healer training programme within the next few months or so, it occurred to me that adding that certification would show your dedication -- Ekaterina Petrovna's recommendation will carry significant weight, of course, and I flatter myself to think that my sponsorship will likewise not hurt, but sacrificing some of your Christmas hols to yet another classroom would emphasise that you are quite serious about your calling.

It is entirely up to you, of course, but if you are interested, send an owl to St M's registration and certification department to enroll, and I will arrange for your registration fees to be handled.

(Meanwhile, I've a new delivery in from my set-aside shelf at the bookshop, and there are one or two in there I think you might enjoy. I will not have time to read them for quite some time; if you'd like to borrow them for holiday reading, I will not miss them. Stop in whenever you have time; I will let you browse to your heart's content.)

From:

alt_sally_anne

Oh! Yes, please, I would be very interested in doing that. I'll send the owl this afternoon.

And I'll come up today or tomorrow, if that's all right. (And you're sure you won't have time to read them yourself.)

From:

alt_antonin

I'm sorry, my dear; I didn't see this until just now. I'm out of the castle today, but if you'd like to stop up tomorrow, I should be back an hour or so before supper.

And no, you will not be depriving me! My stack of things to be read is at least as tall as I am, and my time for leisure reading has decreased drastically. I will not miss whatever you take with you. Books ought to be read, after all.

From:

alt_sally_anne

I'll stop up tomorrow late afternoon, then. Thank you.

From:

alt_antonin

I tried flooing you earlier tonight, but the elf said you were napping and I would not let it disturb you. How are you doing, milaya? And are you ready for visitors, or would you prefer to still be left alone? If you are willing to break your seclusion, I would like to stop by. Saturday evening, perhaps, or Sunday afternoon?

The latest news from Barty, meanwhile: he is much improved. He cannot speculate as to how much longer his task will take, but his handwriting no longer looks so miserably ill, for instance, and he sounds much more like himself. (His latest note even included assurances that he was fine. Whether true or not, the fact he made the assertion eases my mind somewhat.)

If he's not back by Christmas, I've promised him we will hold Christmas at Cottesmore for him whenever he does return. I hope you'll be able to join us, either way, milenkaya. And if there are any traditions you would like to add to the mix, you have but to say.