Arthur Weasley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alt_arthur) wrote2009-11-13 02:48 pm
alt_arthur) wrote2009-11-13 02:48 pm
Order Only: Owls and more owls
Well, the Ministry's announcement recalling all the Muggleborn workers back into the camps has certainly caused a stir. Our office is positively buried in Howlers and other impolite letters, demanding an explanation. I expect the Prophet has probably got a lot of post, as well. We've been instructed only to tell people that all requests will be supplied with Muggles in about a week's time.
Going to the camps yesterday was heartbreaking. The administrators have taken to calling it the 'Hertfordshire Scourge'--but Deverill hastily warned me never to use that where Griderson or Spencer-Wells could hear it. Apparently they believe that naming it will make the thing all too real, as if it's not real already!
We arrived just in time to hear some conversation about whether the camps ought to be closed up and placed on total quarantine, leaving the poor inhabitants to fend entirely for themselves. Deverill was quick to say that he wasn't sure why we would bother to spend time or resources healing the 'creatures' and I felt very near to being ill myself.
We delivered our instructions and I had hoped to ask some questions, but no such luck. Deverill was dead set against staying any longer than absolutely necessary and of course, we were not allowed to walk freely inside the compounds at all. We were at least presented with gloves and told to use the Bubblehead charm, so they have decided to accept some risk, but it was made clear that this is at the insistence of the St Mungo's crews and not by their own good sense of self-preservation. Our guide insisted that the 'animals' present no serious threat to wizards and that the precautions were 'unnecessary but required.'
I have known for some time how very many sleepers there are--so very many more asleep than awake--but today I was struck by the enormity of the Death Eaters' accomplishment. Not that I admire them, anything but, of course, but to have successfully suppressed so many innocent lives simply boggles.
Well, within a week, the countryside will have its Muggle labour force re-instated and will be none the wiser where the reinforcements came from. I can't see how this will work for long, as they are sure to become just more numbers for the sick rolls, but I gather that much of the discussion in the directors' offices hinged on whether the need for labour outweighed the risk of further infection.
Molly, I don't think I can break away in time for supper tonight, either. Griderson is adamant that we respond to each and every one of these Howlers by personal note. I wish I could simply use a copying spell. I feel like the twins must do when they are forced to write lines.
Going to the camps yesterday was heartbreaking. The administrators have taken to calling it the 'Hertfordshire Scourge'--but Deverill hastily warned me never to use that where Griderson or Spencer-Wells could hear it. Apparently they believe that naming it will make the thing all too real, as if it's not real already!
We arrived just in time to hear some conversation about whether the camps ought to be closed up and placed on total quarantine, leaving the poor inhabitants to fend entirely for themselves. Deverill was quick to say that he wasn't sure why we would bother to spend time or resources healing the 'creatures' and I felt very near to being ill myself.
We delivered our instructions and I had hoped to ask some questions, but no such luck. Deverill was dead set against staying any longer than absolutely necessary and of course, we were not allowed to walk freely inside the compounds at all. We were at least presented with gloves and told to use the Bubblehead charm, so they have decided to accept some risk, but it was made clear that this is at the insistence of the St Mungo's crews and not by their own good sense of self-preservation. Our guide insisted that the 'animals' present no serious threat to wizards and that the precautions were 'unnecessary but required.'
I have known for some time how very many sleepers there are--so very many more asleep than awake--but today I was struck by the enormity of the Death Eaters' accomplishment. Not that I admire them, anything but, of course, but to have successfully suppressed so many innocent lives simply boggles.
Well, within a week, the countryside will have its Muggle labour force re-instated and will be none the wiser where the reinforcements came from. I can't see how this will work for long, as they are sure to become just more numbers for the sick rolls, but I gather that much of the discussion in the directors' offices hinged on whether the need for labour outweighed the risk of further infection.
Molly, I don't think I can break away in time for supper tonight, either. Griderson is adamant that we respond to each and every one of these Howlers by personal note. I wish I could simply use a copying spell. I feel like the twins must do when they are forced to write lines.
no subject
They're waking--
What condition do you suppose they'll be in? Is it really so simple a matter as waving a wand and voila! new labour ready to be kitted out for whatever work detail needs a body?
And, yes, I suspect you're exactly right, Arthur: supposing they are healthy to begin, it's most likely that these new folk will simply be more for the infirmaries. What are they thinking?
no subject
I know what they are thinking. Malfoy, Griderson and their kind.
no subject