Private Message to Lucius and Barty

[alt_antonin]

And as though this month has not been enough of a trial: today Dolores bloody Umbridge messaged me and Raz saying that she's had the most wonderful little idea: 'to create a memorial garden here at Hogwarts to honour those Council Members who have fallen in Our Lord's service'.

I cannot tell if my anger is due to the suggestion itself -- ours are not her dead to mourn and I would rather their names remain forever unspoken than to be used as fodder in her cheap and tawdry political machinations -- or the implication that of course we will drop everything and rush to do her bidding. (Or possibly it is the constant rebuke threaded throughout her message -- 'to direct the energies of our dear students in the most appropriate and productive direction' being the most outright, but hardly the only.)

Barty -- if she should turn up dead one morning, do arrange to be given the case. I promise I will make it look sufficiently like an accident. (I am joking. ...Mostly.)

Do talk me out of telling her where to stuff her plants? I know we cannot expect outsiders to understand that which ties us together -- and I know there are many even of our company who would find my protectiveness over our dead to be sentimentalist twaddle -- but I still cannot help but fume, and all I want to do is curl up and hiss at her like a dragon protecting its kits.

Am I being unreasonable? ...no, allow me to revise that question: am I being unduly unreasonable? (I know I am being unreasonable, but a certain amount of unreasonableness is, after all, our prerogative, and after the last few months I believe I am overdue for my share.) I have not yet spoken to Raz -- I will catch him at supper -- to see what his thoughts are, but I know myself: when I react this fervently to what will look like a wholly innocent suggestion to others, it is best to get a second opinion.

Comments

[alt_crouch_jr]

I could pay a visit to Madam Umbridge myself, if you don't want it on your ledger.

Sufficiently like an accident. Say the word.

[alt_antonin]

You have no idea how tempted I am.

Or, rather, I suspect you do. But no: after three months of putting up with her, I would claim the satisfaction myself. Though you'd be welcome to join me: I would not deny you the pleasure.

[alt_lucius]

If the discussion is to take that turn, Barty, then do not think you shall be left alone to claim the satisfaction. Believe I have at least as much right as any, after four years of suffering her week after week.

But. In all seriousness, you two, the idea has merit, if only she had not been the one to suggest it.

Toshenka, how are Lycus' boys? One of them was mixed up in the unauthorised duelling, was he not?

[alt_antonin]

I do not know how you did it. But I've long known you've the most patience out of all our lot.

And yes. If it had been anyone else, I would have smiled and nodded and let them do whatever they wished. But the thought of her using our lost to score points in her petty little manoeuvrings --

Well. I managed to be cordial enough in my reply to her -- but it will not stop me from snarling where she cannot hear. They are ours, not hers, and no puffed-up pink-clad toad of a flunky has the right to mourn our dead.

Lycus's eldest was one of the ringleaders, yes. I was forced to impose on him the same punishment as the others responsible, but I've let him know privately that I am willing to take him under my wing as much as I might. He does not seem to be taking his father's death well -- well, neither of the boys are, but I suppose that's to be expected. I cannot imagine how they might react to this.

[alt_lucius]

Not sure I agree with you on the point of patience. Currently running out of it with my clerk - but I do think I've set in motion the final push he needs to devote himself fully and unreservedly to my service. It's his move, at any rate.

However, do agree with you, brother, that the source is truly the problem, not necessarily the sentiment. Still. When I consider how Pansy might have prospered more in her first year, had there been a place she could go to invoke her father's memory, or were there one Charles or Darius could visit now, and what trouble that might have saved .... If the bovine baggage is sincere in her proposal, then it's easily handled. We shall simply inform her that the Council would naturally oversee and appoint all decisions related to the design and installation of the thing. If she wishes the YPL to do the work, no matter. We can see to it that no credit for the effort actually reaches her pink and padded shoulders.

[alt_antonin]

Yes, of course, you're right. See: this is why I wrote to you rather than allowing my first reaction free rein.

Although, ugh, I'm certain the responsibility as liaison would land on my and Razzer's shoulders, and we're both nearing the ends of our ropes. (Complain about your clerk all you might, at least you have one! I am beginning to think I ought follow your lead there -- or, at very least, take on one of the children who has left Hogwarts recently as formal apprentice, and fob off the most tedious of my responsibilities on their shoulders in exchange for making up the lack left by Alecto's tutelage.) And I do not think you will have room in your schedule, either. (And I am certain Barty would find regular visits to Hogwarts pleasant were he here to see me, but excruciating were they to deal with our resident sickly-sweet slug and the children she will no doubt be enlisting.)

Ari, perhaps? Or Stephen? I would not mind the chance to spend more time with either.

Why did you put up with her as Minister for so long, anyway? Surely you could have installed a more pleasant figurehead.