Private Message to Aurora Sinistra

[alt_pomona]

How are you (and your O.W.L. students) faring this week?

It's quite pleasant, I must admit, to be able to use our little books to chat about ordinary things once again. Though I do feel Minerva's continued absence, and not only because Rolanda and Horace and I have been called upon to take up extra duties.

And it sounds as if you've been plunged from the Umbridgian fires into the much happier (but still wearing) cauldron of wedding preparations--I do hope all continues well in that arena?

Comments

[alt_sinistra]

Hmm. I've had a slow but steady trickle this afternoon and so far this evening - enough I'm glad I didn't go into New London, but not so much as to be a difficulty. More nerves than real gaps in their knowledge, too.

(The projection stones do help there - all that practice time when we weren't at the mercy of the weather.)

You're quite right that it's much more pleasant to be able to chat, and not constantly be looking over one's shoulder about the implications of even a casual friendly message.

On the planning - well. I think so. I hope so. We did a lot of good work with the fiddly decisions last week, so really it's just the things we can't make final quite yet - the seating charts, for example. And then there's the really last minute things next week, the last dress fitting and the final approval of the flowers, and so on. (And then the primping.) I finally feel a bit more secure in the shoes, at least: I did rather a lot of practising last Friday, and it helped no end.

I didn't take time to poke my head into the actual sett this afternoon, but is there anything there? Yesterday, it seemed mostly like the usual round of nerves, but I didn't pry, just left biscuits from Mum.

[alt_pomona]

Yes, I think we've been somewhat fortunate that our subjects weren't terribly interfered with by all those bloody Educational Degrees.

It sounds like your Raz has had rather a time of it,though, helping his lot make up for lost time. However, it certainly could have been much worse--and we can thank young Mr Marvolo for that, at least in part.

As for the sett, well, it was a trial to everyone, but I suspect that the effect of Her Late Pinkness's reign will be felt in our House for some time.

Between that, O.W.L.s, and the upcoming anniversary of Miss Abbott's death...well, it's been a busy time to be Head of House.

[alt_sinistra]

Not that Madam Pinkness didn't try, but no. And it's not as if wandwork is a big part of my field anyway. As to Raz - I'm not entirely sure he'll relax about it until the exam results are actually out this summer, though he's more hopeful than he was. Mr Marvolo, indeed, did a great deal.

On the sett, yes. Between that and the anniversary. (Speaking of: I don't know that something like last year is quite the thing, but doing nothing feels even worse. Do you have ideas?)

Anything I can help with? I admit I hadn't quite realised how much Cedric was passing on that was useful, until he wasn't there, and I rather suspect I've missed some things. (On him: apparently St M's expect to send him home sometime this week, last I heard.)

[alt_pomona]

On that note, I'm so glad you've been able to be there for our Mr Diggory. As much as I'd like to be more present during his recovery, Head of House business has been keeping me from spending as much time as I'd like with any one student.

And I'm certainly pleased that the examiners have seen reason in the matter of giving him an extension on his N.E.W.T.s. I suspect his recovery will be hard enough without adding in that as a worry.

The rest of his cohort seems to be doing well enough; I'm more concerned with our 5th years, though there's no one I consider in true danger of failing.

[alt_sinistra]

Well, and you getting away is a trick. At least I've been in New London of a Tuesday for other reasons, which makes a stop at St M's much more manageable. But no, it's not precisely a pleasure (a pleasure would be not needing to do any such thing), but after last year. Well.

I'm not nearly as worried about the 7ths, either. Is there anyone in the 5ths I could keep an eye or ear open about? That year is not a bit of the sett I feel like I've got the best sense for, somehow.

[alt_pomona]

At the moment, the student who worries me most in that year is the younger Miss Jones, though Mr Stebbins has struggled more academically. He's had a hard time catching up ever since that episode with the basilisk.

I suspect Miss Jones will be a long time recovering from her experiences with Umbridge and dealing with the consequences.

She avoids me as much as possible while still being polite and dutiful, which would concern me less if she'd not burnt her bridges so thoroughly with several of her former mates. At least she's bonded with that kitten--it may do more that anyone to help her at this point.

[alt_sinistra]

On Mr Stebbins - quite. He's struggled a bit in mine, though I think he'll be all right if he just keeps going. With him, it's partly having missed the time, and partly being convinced he's still missing things, I think. And it's the latter that's harder to fix than the former.

On Miss Jones. Mmm.

Not sure I'm the right one to try and help there, either, but I do see what you mean, now you bring it up. The kitten's something, you're right (as the pile of fur on my foot reminds me...) but it's not the same as people. Friends. Conversation. Study partners.

I don't know. I've talked to both Raz and Tosha about the divisions left by Madam Pinkness, between students (and between staff, for that matter), and they both hope that the summer will mend things. I admit I'm less certain that's enough. And it certainly doesn't help for the next few weeks.

Is there anyone - the fourth years or the sixth, even - who might be a help there?

[alt_pomona]

I'll have to think on it. Mr Finch-Fletchley did visit her while she was in the infirmary, and as a newer member of the sett, he sometimes has fresh insights and is less hampered by past history.

I'm inclined to agree with you that it will take more than time away over hols to mend things, though currently everyone seems anxiously determined to behave as if things are normal.

In some ways, Miss Jones' response may be the healthier, despite the brooding and the rather severe robes she's taken to wearing. Whereas, others, like, say, Mr MacMillan, don't seem to acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary happened at all.

[alt_sinistra]

Not that you need me to tell you this, but you taking this much care with it makes me glad all over again I'm of the sett, and not somewhere else.

It's not that I don't understand the temptation to push it all aside. Or have some very good examples of how sometimes that's helpful. But you're right, I'm not sure it's actually for the best, long-term. Or what it will mean next time something else so very difficult happens. (Been asking myself that question a lot recently. I'm still none too happy with some of my own responses to this thing or that.)

And I've had more than a few conversations recently where I wonder if I'm doing anything that helps, or making things worse, or what, and then realising I won't even really know for months, maybe years. (Things no one ever tells you about teaching, really.)

Which does rather bring us around to past history again. There's no escaping it, is there? Do we want to do something next Monday? And might that, actually, be a way to see about reintegrating some of the sett more than they are right now?

[alt_pomona]

Perhaps a quiet candle-lighting at the site of the previous ceremony?

I do hope that it may help heal some of the tension between Miss Jones, Miss Bones, and Miss Midgen especially.

I can tell that they all miss Miss Abbott, though each has dealt with it in her own way.

[alt_sinistra]

Candles, and then - I don't know. Tea and biscuits and cocoa. It seems so absurd, but it does help, I think. The food.

Why don't we both think, and we can talk more Thursday or Friday? Figure out what we need, and how to arrange it.

You're right. Anything that might help, it seems worth doing.

[alt_pomona]

Food does seem to have a soothing effect, especially after having it forbidden so recently.

Let's plan to talk again--I, for one, am for a cup of chamomile and my bed.

It's always a pleasure, my dear.