| 17 September 1942 - early morning |
[08 Dec 2008|10:47pm] |
Still no luck learning the exorcism chant. More immediate problems have come up.
In a way, it's heartening that the people running the school are taking our safety seriously enough to have drills. It would be even more heartening if the last one had been less of a mess. For a while I was worried about Nelvana getting squashed, but she's fine.
One of the older students had gone home, and wrote a letter to the newspaper about her opinion on the situation. She seems to think that the students need to return to their ancestral lands in these troubled times. Canada seems to be getting on all right without me so far, but maybe it's different for feudal aristocrats.
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| Sunday, 13 September, 1942 |
[16 Apr 2008|11:01pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 shocked |
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Well, that's one mystery solved at least. It turns out I was right in one thing: the Unknown Sinister Forces were something that looked human. Or Unknown Sinister Force, in this case. Miss Peverell seemed pretty confident that the creature was the cause of all the problems. At least all the violent scary problems. She didn't mention what, if anything, it had to do with the house elves.
I suppose I shouldn't be too horribly shocked, considering all the other things I formerly didn't believe in but now know really exist, but somehow demons seem on a different level from centaurs or even ghosts. Most metaphysical, I guess. I need to learn that exorcism chant thing they were doing as soon as possible. Miss Peverell said that this one wasn't coming back again, but it never hurts to be prepared. Especially when the people who do know what's going on won't tell you because they don't want you to worry! I can understand the desire not to have everyone panicking, but a person can worry about something without having a clear name to give it. It would have been nice knowing that Mercuria, Anjali and Elisa were not in immediate danger of a horrible yet inconspicuous death after all. Although it is comforting to know that someone had been aware of what was going on and was doing something about it.
Magister Goyle was awfully mad, although I suppose that's to be expected. When grownups in a position of power get scared, they tend to deal with it that way. I just hope Sunday Tea doesn't get canceled! I really want to talk to Dylan, or maybe Magistra Gardiner, about helping out with the food situation. Miss Abbott might know what's going on, but I don't want to set her off again by bringing up cooking.
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| Saturday, 12 September 1942 |
[14 Feb 2008|08:32pm] |
A bunch of people are gone for the weekend, including Dory and Silvia. Apparently some members of Florian Leffoy's extended family are getting married and all the relatives and family connections have to be there to celebrate. I wonder what wizard weddings are like? The Jewish students went home too, for some kind of religious holiday.
The people who went home aren't missing much. The house-elves are on strike or something, the library is a shambles, and we had porridge for breakfast instead of the usual variety of things. It seems the combined magical expertise of the faculty only goes so far. Or maybe they all heard the story of the Sorcerer's Apprentice when they were growing up and are afraid that any magical efforts at cleaning the place up would backfire horribly. I suppose I could ask Dylan this Sunday, if I see him at tea again and he isn't too busy talking to other people. He takes Housewitchery, so he should know. I can also ask him if Magistra Gardiner wants any more help. Even if I wouldn't be much use for magical things at this point, there's probably lots of chopping and stirring that needs doing, and I'm good at that sort of thing. It would be interesting learning to cook for lots and lots of people, since the most I've ever cooked for at once before was ten.
There's a new girl in Pelby College. She's few years older than me and comes from some country where they don't speak English. I wonder if she's a refugee. She might be related to the Leffoys somehow, since she left with them this weekend. She's doesn't look very Leffoyish, but aristocrats have relatives all over the map, so it's certainly possible.
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| 10 September 1942 |
[24 Nov 2007|12:44am] |
Hebrew is not an easy language. How on Earth did all the ancient Israelites manage? It must be easier if you grow up using it and don't get used to things like the English alphabet first.
I've been trying to teach Nelvana to fetch, but not with much luck. I suppose an opossum in the wild wouldn't have the incentive to chase after things that a dog or cat would, since they're mostly scavengers. She'd probably be more interested if it was something she could eat, but that wouldn't make the prefects very happy. Especially since this is wartime and we're supposed to conserve food, not toss it around our bedrooms or the common room.
I don't know whether to hope that the people in charge know more than they're telling us. It would be nice if somebody knew what was going on, but it's very frustrating being kept in the dark. How can anyone solve a mystery without any knowledge of the evidence? Well, I suppose that a detective with brilliant insights into human nature could, by interviewing all the suspects and finding the holes in their stories. I'm not even sure that the bad guys here are human.
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| Thursday, 10 September 1942 |
[03 Nov 2007|05:48pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 thoughtful |
] |
Asher Greengrass wasn't in Transfiguration today. I don't think he'd have missed it on purpose, since he's very good at it and seems to get on so well with Professor Mathers. Maybe Elisa knows what's going on with him.
I heard that Hamish's big brother is going to be teaching some extracurricular classes. (I wonder what Miss Abbott thinks about that?) Sounds interesting, although I don't know exactly what they'll involve yet. Edmund Bradbury is very nice, and new knowledge is always useful.
Constable Forester is still here at Hogwarts investigating. Do Mounties always get their Unknown Sinister Forces? I hope so. It's rather nice having another Canadian around, even if we don't actually know each other. I'd like to meet him properly some time, when he's not too busy doing Mountie things, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to introduce Nelvana and his wolf, even if they are both expatriate Canadian wildlife.
At this point I've decided to postpone any solo scientific expeditions until the Unknown Sinister Forces are discovered and defeated. At least I'm waiting until we get a good idea of what we're dealing with and how to protect ourselves. I don't believe in living in fear, but that doesn't mean I'm going to be stupid on purpose.
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| Wednesday, 9 September, 1942 |
[17 Oct 2007|04:54pm] |
I can't believe that I've only been here a week and a day! Last Wednesday, the only impending doom I was remotely worried about involved an imaginary rowboat tipping over on an imaginary aquatic research expedition. Now we have to deal with Unknown Sinister Forces for real. It turns out that this sort of thing is more exciting to read about than to live through.
I've been trying to think of recipes that don't use too much of what Dylan told me has become harder to get around here. People around here need cheering up under the current circumstances, and baking is the best way I can do this. Let's hope Miss Abbott won't object too much.
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| Wednesday, 9 September, 1942 |
[01 Oct 2007|10:19pm] |
I thought that Miss Abbott was possibly a bit off, with her notions of sinister culinary conspiracies, but it seems that other Colleges have been having more serious leadership problems. A couple of the Pelby prefects had to hand their badges in at breakfast today. I wonder if it has anything to do with Claire Jeannot (the missing Pelby girl) being found dead.
We're also having an Inquisition here at school, whatever that is. It doesn't seem to be the Spanish kind, which I'm very glad about, since I'm not Catholic and a lot of the other students aren't either. Apparently it involves drills and keeping track of where our roommates are so that they don't wind up going off on their own and getting killed. This all seems sensible enough. Maybe it just has a scary title so people will take it more seriously. I hope my friends in Pelby College are being careful.
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| Tuesday, 8 September, 1942 |
[26 Aug 2007|12:48pm] |
I'm beginning to suspect that this place isn't very well-regulated. First there was that mess with the boats last week and one of the students not being where he should be (have they found out anything about that yet?) and now one of the big girls in Pelby College has wound up dead in the lake! I hope Elisa, Anjali, Dylan and Mercuria are all right.
Maybe the lake is cursed somehow. But if it was, wouldn't someone have noticed by now? This needs more investigation.
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| Friday, September 4th, 1942 |
[04 May 2007|09:41pm] |
It has been Quite a Week.
School started on Tuesday, and so the new class of Firsties got to meet the rest of their Houses. This led me to think about the sorting process (not that I mind having been assigned to St Hilda's, but sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if I hadn't been), and then to wizarding psychiatry, if there is such a thing. This is not a subject with which I have much firsthand experience, but I can imagine there'd be a need for it. From what I've seen of my fellow students and the faculty here, magical people don't necessarily have it together any better than regular people back home. There must be something, because the government wouldn't want crazy people running around with spells.
My new housemates seem really nice so far, although I don't know any of them very well yet. I've been busy enough just with school stuff and reacquainting myself with the place.
I don't envy the firsties with mundane backgrounds and no Classical education. Three new languages, only one of which uses an alphabet you're used to - I remember how confusing it was for me at first, and I'm a reasonably quick study with this sort of thing. I'm glad I've reached the point where I can actually read things. I'll be able to travel around Greece and Rome and the Holy Land and decipher ancient inscriptions like they were magazine ads! Although if I really want to do that I'll have to study hieroglyphics as well.
After waiting in suspense for so long, this year I finally get electives! Herbology still seems to be my best subject, however.
This should be the year that I finally investigate all the potentially interesting wildlife in the lake. I've been planning it for ages, but somehow the weather was always horrid or I had too much else to do. If I had a glass-bottomed rowboat (with a don't-tip-over charm that actually works) I'd take it out this weekend and explore.
In the meantime, now that I know that the school has access to all sorts of ingredients that are normally rationed, I need to look into ways of acquiring some for myself and getting access to cooking facilities. It's been a long time since I had a chance to properly bake.
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cheerful