Order Only: Preparing Lies
Apr. 6th, 2012 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_arthurI know I've barely been able to respond to posts and so on. Molly and I have been preoccupied with the fall out from the events precipitated by the twins and their little stunt at the picnic. But more than that, I've been busier than a niffler going after galleons with this asinine scheme that's been cooked up to give the foreign students a tour of a camp.
And what a camp it is. We've picked a site in Newcastle, and with several people in my department, I've spent the past several days constructing a picture of a cosy life for the muggles and muggleborn there. Of course, it's all a pack of lies.
Everyone has been issued new clothing, and many will be wearing shoes for the first time in years. And more extra clothing will be flapping on laundry lines, to give the impression that the residents actually have more clothing to change into. We have them busy planting flower boxes and tidying landscapes. We wizards have been constructing false facades on all the buildings, showing newly painted exteriors, non-broken windows, with plenty of pre-fabricated "public art," etcetera. We've handpicked the model residents, who have to be specified ages: mums and dads, a few grannies sprinkled here and there just to suggest the possibility of comfortable retirements; babes in arms and toddlers are all right, as are eight to ten years old (as long as they're shy), but no very young children prone to talk, or teens who could blurt out embarrassing truths at inopportune moments.
Food has been trucked in, and a fancy lunch will be served. Good, nourishing fare, of course--the sort of thing these people never see in early April, if ever. An orchestra has been rounded up and instruments provided. I'm sure the programme will be charming, and a touching tribute to Our Beneficient Lord Protector.
Merlin. The hypocrisy makes me ill. On the one hand, I desperately hope the visitors see through it all, but on the other hand I know that the repercussions, if they do, could be severe.
Addendum: I still cannot find Sirius Maxwell and Ivy Lowell. Alice also thought we might wait a little longer to collect our Leap Year baby, Ethan in Brighton, as he is still so young.
And what a camp it is. We've picked a site in Newcastle, and with several people in my department, I've spent the past several days constructing a picture of a cosy life for the muggles and muggleborn there. Of course, it's all a pack of lies.
Everyone has been issued new clothing, and many will be wearing shoes for the first time in years. And more extra clothing will be flapping on laundry lines, to give the impression that the residents actually have more clothing to change into. We have them busy planting flower boxes and tidying landscapes. We wizards have been constructing false facades on all the buildings, showing newly painted exteriors, non-broken windows, with plenty of pre-fabricated "public art," etcetera. We've handpicked the model residents, who have to be specified ages: mums and dads, a few grannies sprinkled here and there just to suggest the possibility of comfortable retirements; babes in arms and toddlers are all right, as are eight to ten years old (as long as they're shy), but no very young children prone to talk, or teens who could blurt out embarrassing truths at inopportune moments.
Food has been trucked in, and a fancy lunch will be served. Good, nourishing fare, of course--the sort of thing these people never see in early April, if ever. An orchestra has been rounded up and instruments provided. I'm sure the programme will be charming, and a touching tribute to Our Beneficient Lord Protector.
Merlin. The hypocrisy makes me ill. On the one hand, I desperately hope the visitors see through it all, but on the other hand I know that the repercussions, if they do, could be severe.
Addendum: I still cannot find Sirius Maxwell and Ivy Lowell. Alice also thought we might wait a little longer to collect our Leap Year baby, Ethan in Brighton, as he is still so young.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-06 05:45 pm (UTC)I hope the visitors see through it, though I understood from Aurora that she had extremely specific instructions on which Hogwarts students were and weren't to attend. One can only hope that the ones who were allowed have some brains in their heads.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-06 07:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-06 07:58 pm (UTC)One of our Hufflepuffs - Ernie MacMillan - came to me, after being not quite satisfied by her response. His father's a Healer who works with the camps. I do wonder if they're not trying to keep those who would recognise a fraud from direct observation.