alt_hermione | I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good

Is there a way through the wards?

Tell him I know someone who'd like to get out of the Protctorate, if she could.

He says, he wasn't living in England before, but he was at the Cup.

What kind of answer's that?

I'd say it's 'yes, there's a way through the wards' but without any information on HOW.

I mean, one of the possibilities was that he was actually in the Protectorate the whole time, and the chasing around in France was someone completely different, which is why they thought he was dead but he really wasn't. So it's not completely useless.

Hermione, ask him this, I phrased it as carefully as I could.

How can a person get from the Protectorate to France without being given official passage through the wards?

Also --

On one hand he says 'don't go setting bombs' and on the other he says 'next time maybe you should point your wands the other way.' It's not like you can't hurt people with wands, and it wasn't just the Lord Protector in the Protector's Box. Pansy and I were there. And Harry and Draco and Hydra. And Justin. And you, Hermione, part of the time (though not at the end). What does he actually think people ought to be doing? Ordinary people, I mean. Like me (when I'm a grownup). What does he think the people in Dogstar ought to be doing?

I asked. Both of them I mean. No answer yet.

Okay, I'm going to copy it out.

'I admonished the mob for taking out their frustration on helpless victims, rather than fighting for a change in regime. The question of what ordinary people should do, ongoing, however, is thorny. It depends largely on one's means. Simply being kind to the muggleborns around one is a start. Refusing to believe it when the Ministry tells you ... well, that I'm dead, for example, or when they try to blame muggles for something that Death Eaters have likely done themselves, that's another important thing. Keeping faith in true friends. Someone your age isn't likely to have the ability to do much more, but, in general, finding ways to make the world a little less prejudiced or unfair, that's perhaps the best we can ask for now.

As for the DogStar, well. That's harder to answer. Let's say for now that I don't condone their methods and I do wish they'd stop implementing plots that cause a lot of collateral damage. I'd rather see them using their resources to save muggles and muggleborns, than just trying to assassinate as many powerful wizards as they think they can get.'

Simply being kind to the muggleborns around one is a start.

~~I saw this~~

~~this made me~~

Hermione, tell him that your friends are.

He's right. Hermione and I could have been killed a couple times over in the past few years if it hadn't been for you lot. But more than that, friends make us feel like it's worth it to keep hanging on. Hoping that maybe better days are coming.

Speaking for just me (but I'll bet Hermione will agree), I'm ever so grateful.

I had the question that I figure he can't answer. Or you can't. Because I wonder how he knows my parents, and if he ever has been in contact with them since they sent him that birth announcement for my brother, and if they ARE in the wand smuggling group, I reckon you can't say it. Because of the unbreakable vow.

I mean, all the stuff we wonder about the most, he probably can't tell us, right? Who's with him, what is he doing, how does he trade information with the people he's working with, that sort of stuff. The stuff that the aurors are probably dying to know.

Well, here's a question maybe he can answer:

What keeps him going?

I asked.

He says, tea, biscuits, mutton, and 'knowing that no matter what people say about me, I'm not alone.'

I asked what happened to the muggleborns who disappeared at the World Quidditch Cup. They didn't die, did they?

I also asked how people could help him. Except probably not me, because I'm stuck in this stupid castle with the git. But people in general.

And I wanted you to pass on that it makes me really happy to see Grim Truths again.

I did and I asked, and I also asked all the other things from other people too, so now we wait, I suppose, to hear back more.

Is he always so ...vague?

That's a question for you, not him.

I mean, I know he has to be careful with what he says, but is he like that all the time, because I imagine that could get very very frustrating.

and thanks.

for giving everyone a chance to ask.

Are you going to ask him anything?

I mean, now would be the chance to, wouldn't it?

He says that you have to be careful how you phrase things, because -- well just because you have to. He says he doesn't know what happened to all of them, but he supposes some escaped and some didn't, just like you'd think. And he said thank you about the Grim Truths.

What made him change his mind about Muggles? And Muggle born witches and wizards?

Because I have a pretty good idea he didn't start out thinking that way.

Not with parents like his.

That's what I'd like to know.

I have to copy this one out --

'What made me change my mind? Getting to know some muggleborns. It's easy to hate or fear a group of people when you don't know anything about them first-hand. Once you get to know a few individuals, they come to colour your perception of the whole. When I realised that the idea of muggleborns being less skilled or less entitled to magic was rubbish, the fact that it was my 'birthright' ceased to matter so much. That they were my friends became more important than whether they had pure magical blood. As for muggles, well. They may not have magic but they've got some cool inventions of their own. Films and music and transport and such. They're quite creative--possibly more than wizards, even. That's a radical notion, I know, but I think it's ridiculous to ignore their capabilities or their contributions just because they can't use a wand.

And about our professions. Well. Let's just say it'd be much harder to do what we do if we all lived in hiding. Though hiding in plain sight is, I suppose, a form of hiding, as well.'

We looked back at what we wrote earlier, and what it all boiled down to was that we had a hunch about some of the people he's working with, but we don't want to come right out and say it probably any more than he does. Mutual plausible deniability is probably everyone's friend. But do pass on our heartiest congratulations to him for being the number one Protectorate Prankster. We recognise and deeply honour a kindred spirit.

If you want to turn that into a question to ask him, Hermione, you can ask him, are all of his lot out and out outlaws? Or are there some that are, we dunno, incognito? Holding down steady jobs, raising snotty-nosed urchins, and doing stuff secretly on the side?

Does he have any questions he wants to ask us?

Look. I dunno about all this. I mean, I have questions and all, but the answers aren't very

well

I dunno, I thought at first he was taking the mickey, using big words in some and then telling Nev he likes mutton

I mean

But he sort of answered Pansy, so

Ask him what it's like other places. Whether it's better or worse for wizards, I mean. What's it like to have to keep it a secret you're a wizard? And what's it like to live in a place where Muggles aren't slaves, but live all around, and control laws and things that wizards have to fit in with even if wizards have their own laws, too?

Cause here they tell us Muggles were dangerous when they were in charge of everything, and we were forced to live in secret because they'd've killed us if they'd found out. And, well. Is that wrong? Because, y'know, we did have to live in secret, and why was that if not because it was dangerous? And so, is it so wrong to say it's better for us now? And how can we make it better for everyone if they'd really kill us if they could?

Cause now, they say if Muggles ever got control again, they'd kill us first thing. Which seems about right, actually. I mean, after the way wizards've treated them.

So what does he say about that?

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good - My friend

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