Order Only: Sara Cullinane
Mar. 8th, 2011 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_arthurFrank and I are here in Ampfield, to retrieve Sara Cullinane from her parents. And once again, we’ve run into a situation that is somewhat less than cut and dried.
Sara has a huge and doting family. She has five brothers and sisters, as well as aunts, uncles, and cousins who live nearby and see her regularly. Her grandmother watches her during the day as her parents work. We managed to track down the parents at their work assignments and have spoken with them, and they have agreed to let us take her. The grandmother was more doubtful, but in the end was persuaded, too. The two younger siblings who were here when we arrived are obviously too young to keep a secret like the fact that their younger sister was spirited away as we trust the parents of our other Moddey Dhoo residents to do. Once the parents agreed, we charmed the two with a sleep spell and then administered a judicious modification so the children won't remember Frank's and my visit. The parents will tell them that the baby has been taken to the infirmary because she was ill, and then will tell them tomorrow that she has died.
I must admit that for once the cruelty that the regime does not allow funerals for muggles will work in our favour. It keeps from the other relatives the awkward fact that the parents do not have a body to produce. Still, I will probably have to check back with the parents next week, to see if anything else is needed to explain her disappearance from the midst of so many loving relatives.
I saw a muggle photograph displayed upon the wall showing one of the older girls proudly holding her newborn baby sister. They will no doubt grieve a great deal to be told that she is gone. I think we do need to give some thoughts to the issue of when siblings can safely be told that they have a brother or sister at Moddey Dhoo. I would argue for the age of seventeen, but of course Frank and Alice’s Neville and Evelyn know about Kevin, even though they don’t know where he lives. Their situation is a little different, though, since their parents are in hiding, too.
Sara has a huge and doting family. She has five brothers and sisters, as well as aunts, uncles, and cousins who live nearby and see her regularly. Her grandmother watches her during the day as her parents work. We managed to track down the parents at their work assignments and have spoken with them, and they have agreed to let us take her. The grandmother was more doubtful, but in the end was persuaded, too. The two younger siblings who were here when we arrived are obviously too young to keep a secret like the fact that their younger sister was spirited away as we trust the parents of our other Moddey Dhoo residents to do. Once the parents agreed, we charmed the two with a sleep spell and then administered a judicious modification so the children won't remember Frank's and my visit. The parents will tell them that the baby has been taken to the infirmary because she was ill, and then will tell them tomorrow that she has died.
I must admit that for once the cruelty that the regime does not allow funerals for muggles will work in our favour. It keeps from the other relatives the awkward fact that the parents do not have a body to produce. Still, I will probably have to check back with the parents next week, to see if anything else is needed to explain her disappearance from the midst of so many loving relatives.
I saw a muggle photograph displayed upon the wall showing one of the older girls proudly holding her newborn baby sister. They will no doubt grieve a great deal to be told that she is gone. I think we do need to give some thoughts to the issue of when siblings can safely be told that they have a brother or sister at Moddey Dhoo. I would argue for the age of seventeen, but of course Frank and Alice’s Neville and Evelyn know about Kevin, even though they don’t know where he lives. Their situation is a little different, though, since their parents are in hiding, too.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-08 09:05 pm (UTC)I don't know what to say about an age at which children might safely be told that a sibling they thought dead is, in fact, alive.
That's a different matter from having the parents know a secret that affects the safety of so many.
I should think it would be different in nearly every case: experience of adolescents and fledgling adults suggests that not all of them are trustworthy or mature in their thinking. I could easily imagine a situation in which a young person who learned that such a secret had been kept from them might use the information against their parents or against us in anger. With devastating consequences.
I'm afraid the conversation we ought to have concerns what we will do if--when--a parent we've dealt with decides on her own to tell our shared secret to the sibling(s) of a child in our care. We might find ourselves suddenly confronted by the consequences.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-08 09:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-08 10:40 pm (UTC)I guess it's better than another Bella.
Merlin, I'd give my arm to see anyone call Bella 'Trixie' to her face. And then Apparate away very fast.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 01:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-09 01:15 am (UTC)Still, I'd look out if I were you. If she starts pinching anyone else in the nursery, you may be in trouble.
Private Message to Sirius Black
Date: 2011-03-09 02:17 am (UTC)He always gets so dear when people make a fuss about him. And it doesn't happen nearly enough for my tastes.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-08 10:00 pm (UTC)