Since Remus is not convenient to do this, and I am quite sure Albus won't, bear with me.
Meeting Minutes
Date: April 17, 1996
Location: Antonin Dolohov's rooms.
Parties present: Bathsheba Babbling, Albus (David Brutka), Antonin Dolohov, Mina Grubbly-Plank, Rabastan Lestrange, Irma Pince, Aurora Sinistra, Horace Slughorn, Pomona Sprout, Septima Vector.
Parties absent and much missed: Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey
Parties absent and entirely not invited: Dolores Umbridge (there are no words), Gwendolyn Acton (toady)(toady), Cuthbert Binns (ghost, no point), Cordelia Carpenter (toady), Rolanda Hooch (toady), Luxovius Kerr (untrustworthy healer), Carolus Milland (double agent).
Treasurer's report
We don't precisely have a treasury, but it was made clear by parties with substantial vaults that they were glad to throw galleons at whatever was needed. (I must say, that's rather a different view of the world to our usual.)
Review of previous meeting
Since we had several new people present (Albus, Babbling, and Mina) and it seemed useful, we covered some of what we'd talked about a fortnight ago at Horace's home, namely:
- A brief discussion of how Umbridge got power in the first place, and some of where she seems to have allies. (Marston Strangeweale - Death Eater - and Latimer Caldwell, Division Director of Education at the Ministry.)
- The specifics of the accusations against Rabastan (we did not cover this in detail, I filled in Bathsheba and Mina in whispers and notes.)
- That 'Our Lord' (naturally, in that company) has reasons for leaving Dolores where she is right now, but that he would not object if the staff pushed back, and that Antonin did not expect the matter to drag out forever, at any rate. (The blasted man would not elaborate, however.)
- That our general plan was to fix the places we could, connect with those former students and connections we all have, and see what we could do.
Food
After our previous meeting, Poppy and I arranged to order a variety of nutritional supplements and powders that the elves here could add to juice and food for those students who are not getting enough to eat under Umbridge's seating. Poppy just let us know the next shipment arrived so I thanked Antonin for paying for it up front, as it expedited things substantially. (The quantities we need for the school are no small matter.)
Several parties made it clear they were also doing what they could to get more substantial food to at least some students, but obviously that is limited in scope.
Punishments
What brought on the current crisis was that Umbridge has instituted a great many unusually harsh punishments, including those that have disrupted the learning of other students or had a significant impact on exams.
Despite Horace protesting again, Miss Perks is still not allowed to brew potions until after OWLs. (He is, he says, taking every step to allow her to learn all she can, and of course, we're ahead of him there.) She cursed Miss Parkinson to say foul things to Miss Perks (that is over tonight, I understand it). She has cursed one student (Miss Brown) with ugliness, and another (Mr Moon) with being unable to read or write. (He's one of Septima's - a Ravenclaw's Ravenclaw - and she was irate.) We're quite worried about what's next.
We are all determined to do what we can to alleviate the actual punishments as much as we can, and various people are spreading the word to students who can make use of that. Some things we can't undo entirely - the risk is too great, or the magic too unpredictable - but we think we can at least ease it enough in most cases.
Removing Umbridge
Antonin noted that he'd had a firecall from Lucius Malfoy, who was furious. There is some work afoot to call Umbridge to account (he translated after Auri coughed meaningfully, and clarified that that meant calling her into Court and asking Umbridge to explain herself.) However, he didn't think that would be immediate - there's apparently other matters that our local usurper considers more important.
Auri also mentioned that students - starting with Mr Diggory and Mr Moon - were planning to do some work to list and classify punishments given out so far, in hopes that the data might be useful to those who could make a clearer petition of mistreatment and abuse.
We then touched on the accusations against Rabastan, and Antonin said he had plans to talk to Miss Calderwood (with Narcissa Malfoy as chaperone, I gather!) this weekend. A large part of the issue is that Umbridge has been preventing that kind of access.
Septima said that she had been provided with a charm-locked box with what she was told were additional accusations, and that it was to be opened if something happened to Dolores. Septima was sure this was neither the only box nor the only type of failsafe. We mutually decided that forcing it open just yet - before we had the other pieces in place - was too much risk of tipping our hand, but we have it in reserve. Antonin and Rabastan, however, are likely to go examine it further, and see what they can learn. Albus offered as well, and I think Irma had a few ideas.
Removing students
I did ask - very cautiously - about that. I said I'd heard from a few concerned parents wondering if it might not be better to remove students, at least until it's resolved.
There was rather a lot of silence at that, but then Septima picked it up, and talked about the current legal requirements (When - well, I asked why she had it at the tip of her brain, and she admitted to knowing about Thomas Capper earlier this winter and wanting to prevent anything like that again. That was news to at least a few.)
When we finally regrouped, she made it clear that anyone who left might well not be allowed back to take exams, and that it would drastically impact their future chances - well, anywhere. She said that while the current situation was abysmal, she - and we all agreed - was willing to accept a lower standard of exam pass for continuation for the NEWT, if the cause was clearly due to Umbridge meddling. That doesn't make our question any easier, but there you are.
(If you ask me, we ought to ask the Institute whether they want to stay at school and tell them the implications. We clearly have many more resilient and creative students among the student body than I'd realised, hearing various stories.)
Remaining discussion
We then devolved into discussion about managing things ourselves - we all, it turns out, had similar but different approaches to her demands that we detail our time. Horace turned in his gastric diary rather than give her a proper account. Antonin refused to submit anything at all (and told her to apply to his lord and master if she needed details.)
I wrote up a great many plant details, and implied I was off rambling when I was at 12GP. Auri came up with code words (the one I remember is about 'study of inertia and gravitational pull' for having a nap). Mina went into many details about owl breeding. Septima - her sense of humour is clearly returning - apparently did the entire thing in arithmantic calculations and descriptions, and so on.
That's the gist, my dears, but if you have any specific questions I can try to supply more details.
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