Order Only: 'Inspection'

[alt_arthur]

I'd spoken of dropping by this week for a surprise 'inspection.' How is Ellie working out? I've seen no indication in her file that she's had interviews with anyone in the department other than myself, by the way, if that helps put your minds at rest a bit.

Do you want me to test her loyalty, so to speak? Are you comfortable enough with her that you think it's time to sound her out, by letting slip something dodgey, something she might report to me if I give her the chance?

If so, let me know, and I'll act a bit sniffy toward Remus when I arrive, and insist on talking with the girl alone and then encourage her to open up. If you still think we need to stay cautious, I'll act a bit friendlier and won't press her for anything. Let me know.

Comments

[alt_sirius]

Arthur.

Yeah, we've been working on slipping her some suspicious information so that she'd have something to tell you when you came.

I think it's all right for you to drop in any time. We did have an incident at the weekend, a simple matter of a dropped and smashed water glass, which gave us some pause. Not because she was clumsy (Circe knows Dora's a poster child for butterfingers) but because she carried on as if sure that Remus would take the cost of the tumbler out of her hide.

Turns out her old mistress used to shoot off the hexes fairly quickly whenever Ellie made a mistake and throwing herself at the witch's feet was a reasonably successful method to avoid dire punishment.

I've a feeling so far all you'll learn is that Mrs Ponds is a bit of a funny duck for making her throw glasses at the wall yesterday. But we did make sure that she overheard an exchange last evening about needing to restock the jars of pickled kangaroos' claws, and that Mr Ponds had better do it because Mrs Ponds didn't dare drop one owing to how fantastically expensive they would be to replace, seeing as they're smuggled in and all.

So at least if you come, she'll have something she could choose to reveal to you.

Remus suggested I might hang about the pair of you just to see if she drops any other signs that a human wouldn't notice, which I think might be a bit conspicuous but might might not hurt, either.