(no subject)

[alt_dean]

This summer seems to be moving along swiftly. It hardly seems like we have time to do every thing we need to get done. Mr Peakes thinks we need some fresh air, so tomorrow morning we are going to his house in the country for the week. We may extend our time there if business does not require that he need be back in town.

Weasley,

Please feel free to alert me before hand if you have another invite for me. Mr Peakes Doesn't take too kindly to unfamiliar birds, nor does our owl here. The owl here is very aggressive towards unfamiliar birds. However, I am sorry I could not attend you little gathering. We had more important things to attend to and had no time to send replies to frivolous invitations, as Mr Peakes always has demands on his time.

Ginny,

While I cannot express to you my thanks for your invitation this week, I cannot attend. Maybe at some other point in the summer I can send you an invite here. Otherwise our conversations will have to wait until next term.

Seamus,

We sent you and Mr Rosier an owl last evening. Did you all receive it? Please feel free to send us word through the journals. Will you both be able to join us later in the week? Mr Peaks and I look forward to seeing you at the country house. Do drop us a line.

Comments

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

'Weasley' is it?

The heck?

[alt_neville]

Your loss, honest. Ron and me had a really good day together.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

Just what I was wondering. What's gotten into him?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

I don't know.

It doesn't sound like him at all.

Maybe he has to put on a kind of a show for that Mr Peakes?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

Why, did you talk with him much? I mean, after he came to Hogwarts? I know you knew him before they found out he was really a half-blood, right?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

We exchanged a few notes, privately.

If he tries writing me again when he gets back to school, I'll think real hard before I answer. Maybe not answer at all. I thought he was okay. But maybe that Mr Peakes has changed his mind.

[alt_dean]

Thanks Longbottom,

Its good to know that you two enjoyed you activity. But I must ask for fair warning next time. That old owl just wont do. Please alert me through the journals. My days this summer are scheduled weeks in advanced.

I'm sure you all understand. Plenty of important rounds to make, and juvenile activities, not approved before my schedule is set just wont make the cut.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

Whew. Uh, I guess we've been put on notice, then.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_neville]

Longbottom?!

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Like Finnigan.

You know you can't trust him, right?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Yeah. Hope he's having fun with all those 'rounds' and meet ups at the country house with Finnigan. Looks like he doesn't have to book weeks ahead.

Nice.

[alt_ron]

No worries, Thomas. Sorry to bother you with unimportant stuff when you're so busy.

[alt_dean]

Its no bother really. Just give invites out further in advance, and give me warning through the journals. Then if you want to send a formal invite you may, but I will have to send the owl here to you.

[alt_ron]

Yeah. It won't happen again.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

I know.

It's hard, because, well, I really liked him. And from what he wrote to me, I thought he still wanted to be friends.

It's all I can do, sometimes, not to be bloody jealous of him. He was a mudbl muggleborn, just like me. He knows what it's like! And now he gets to take classes, and he'll be treated like a proper wizard and everything when he leaves school.

It helps, I guess, to remember that I have a wand of my own.

But still.

[alt_seamus]

Cheers, Dean! We look forward to seeing you, and it'll be wizard having you show me around Mr Peakes' country house.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

You're 'Weasley' but your sister's still 'Ginny.'

I think Thomas fancies her, though.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

It really is odd.

What's he like usually? Maybe he was SO rude because he wanted you to be able to work out that his guardian was making him say no? I don't know what he expects you to do, though. I've never heard of an owl who attacks owls he doesn't know already.

[alt_dean]

That's great. We got here this afternoon, and this house is massive. I look forward to meeting your guardian formally. And we have some great things planned for the day. We will see you in a few days then.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

I meant Finnigan, actually. But Thomas, too, I guess. It's just

I dunno.

I didn't think he was like that, either. But now

yeah.

I dunno.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Ewww.

Well, he can just keep his hands off her.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

That doesn't even make sense, does it? His guardian told him to be rude, so he was extra rude so we'd know it wasn't him? I mean, don't you think if he wanted us to think he cared or really didn't want to say no, he'd sort of apologise or anywiz he'd say something to show he wished he could've come? Instead, it's like he's cheesed off at us.

No, actually. It's like he's been spending time with Finnigan and Patil and Malfoy, which, y'know, he did do.

He doesn't care. He's just another one that thinks you're nothing if you're not in tight with Patil. And I guess he thinks he can maybe get Ginny to go along, but I expect he'll get a surprise if he thinks she'll want to be matey with Lavender Brown and the Patils after the way they've been treating Luna.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

You're not saying that because he's a halfblood, are you?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

I'm saying it because he's turned out to be such a stuck up git.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_terry]

All right. I spent the morning looking over the notes we exchanged and thinking it over some more.

I think...I think he's putting on an act. I won't be able to tell until I get near him, because my magic can usually tell whether a person's trustworthy or not. But it was only four short weeks ago that he sent me a note that made it perfectly clear he'd take a risk to look out for me and do something for me that he's not supposed to do. He gave me a book to help me study magic over the summer. He could have had a world of trouble for doing that, if anyone had found out.

See, you have to understand what it's like for people like me, and like Dean used to be. You know how I have to be stupid crawling boot wherever people can see, right? The same probably goes for Dean. We have to lie all the time. He spent years as an Infirmary Rat. They had a whole elaborate system of coded communication all worked out, hand signals and notes and such, and it was all based on maintaining a what-d'ye-call it facade of being one way when you really were something else. They needed to do that to get around the administrators, because they sometimes had to steal food and supplies to treat the sick among the muggles and muggleborn. And they did it to escape punishment and it just made things easier. Probably for him, it's just second nature now. Like it is for me. But that doesn't mean it's the way he really is necessarily.

So I say, give him the benefit of the doubt until you see him again. He may be curt over the journals, because that's what he figures his guardian wants. And it may even help him if you're curt right back at him where other people can read. And then, when you get together again, you'll maybe find out that he can be a more honest friend, when you're alone together, if the people looking over his shoulder think you're not friends with him.

Don't know if that makes sense, but it's the best that I can explain it.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Well, and also because it's Ginny, and she's too young for anyone to be fancying her, and anyway that's just disgusting because, well, fancying Ginny? That's just

uggh