Private Message to Harry Marvolo and Draco Malfoy

[alt_hermione]

Happy new year.

I've been looking at Harry's present. I think it'll be easier once we're back at school and the two of them are in the same place.

Or, are you coming to New London tomorrow, for the revue meeting? You could bring it then, if it'd be all right for me to meet you (and get out of Buckingham for a while).

I need a better idea of what you would like to do, though. I think it some modifications will be easier than others.

Comments

[alt_draco]

Assuming it's me you're addressing - yes, I'm going to the Revue meeting, but I don't know if Harry is. I suppose since he has mates that will be there he could conjure up a good reason to show up and bring you along.

Blaise and Daphne will be there, probably Samantha and Lizzie Stevens, too. Fair warning.

A better question might be what do you want to do... but since you ask, I'm curious how to expand their uses to others. For example, duplicating the box so that items can be sent to multiple people (though perhaps not multiple people simultaneously; seems impossible, that). I don't know how many people, specifically, but three would be a good start, though I'd prefer at least four, eventually.

[alt_hermione]

I wasn't sure if you were both going. I guess you're right and it wouldn't be much of an outing, though. It would just be nice to get away from B

No, I don't think it's possible to send one item to multiple destinations. Just a cursory examination indicates that it's somewhat limited. Otherwise people would buy loads of them and then link them all together, wouldn't they?

I think I'd like to see it working, though. Have you tried sending anything yet? I'm going to put something in this one and send it. When you get it could you send it back? I want to see if anything changes when it's transported.

[alt_draco]

I'll see if I can talk him into it.

Well, considering where (or who, rather) the boxes came from, I would presume that their use is restricted across the Protectorate, and for good reason. They would make certain activities far too easy for most peoples' liking. I don't know of anyone who has more than a pair of them, and very few who do at that.

All right then, I've got the bit of parchment and sent it back. But now I think you ought to make a change to the parchment and send it again, to see if the change holds as it ought to.

[alt_hermione]

Well, that's just it, isn't it? It's like the other project, where it's easier to create the objects from the same original material. But there probably is a way to connect pairs that aren't 'keyed' to this pair. It still wouldn't create duplicates but at least maybe you could figure out a way to send an object from one to any of the others.

You'd have to have a way to tell the box which box it's sending to, if that makes sense.

Okay. I'm putting another piece in. (The first one didn't change.)

[alt_draco]

That would be ideal: a means to send one item to one box, but to have many different boxes - and box-owners, as it were - to choose from.

I'm going to need to dig into my Arithmancy books when I get back to the castle. There's one on the Floo network, how they're all connected, particularly in public locations, that might be useful.

I've got Perthro. Is that what you sent? Parchment itself looks the same.

[alt_hermione]

Yes, that would be a good place to start.

And that's what I sent. Probably we can move on to more complex things. Hang on, let me try something else.

[alt_draco]

Black queen from a chess set. Still moving about, and violently, at that. Was that how it was when you put it in the box?


Oh - shite. Bloody nightshade, I've just had a horrible thought.

[alt_hermione]

Well, she was upset at being separated from her king but she wasn't necessarily 'violent' I don't think. She hadn't drawn her sword or anything.

What's your horrible thought?

[alt_draco]

Bollocks, I'm an idiot. I should have thought...

Black queen, see? Made me think of it. The possibility that Harry and I might have been given the boxes for the same reason that the people - all of us - were given journals. To keep an eye on what sort of things we're passing between each other. Blast.

[alt_hermione]

If that's true then they'd certainly know if you started modifying them.

Should we stop? So far you've only been experimenting with what you can and can't send.

[alt_draco]

Yes. Right. Modifying isn't itself necessarily a bad thing. We could say that we just wanted to make them more useful, which is true.

But until we know for sure, we'll have to be careful about what we send through them.

Which is annoying. Their very appeal lies mostly in the fact that there's no need to be careful. Or less of a need, at least.

We'd best stop for tonight. I'll check with Harry about the Revue tomorrow.

[alt_harry]

Right, we're coming.

I still don't get how they'd know. Unless they had a box too, that showed what we were passing, but that doesn't look like something they could do. At least not according to you lot.

[alt_draco]

I suppose it'd be more worrying if the gift came from your Father. Auntie Bella always acts as if you can do no wrong, after all.

I wish there were a way to know for sure, though.

Anyway, I'll give you my box when were at Featurette today and you can give it to Granger later.

[alt_harry]

That's only because she thinks He can't do any wrong, and I get lumped in with all that.

I guess it's sort of like the PMs. We can't be sure, but we can be careful.