alt_terry | The mudblood and mud

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The Headmistress has said that she doesn't need to have boot underfoot so much during the summertime. The Headmistress is busy and important and so must catch up with her meetings and correspondence. So she is assigning boot to do chores for some of the other professors. boot mucks out the cages of some the creatures used in Care of Magical Creatures classes for Professor Brutka. Shoveling muck is the sort of thing that mudbloods should do. boot will help Madam Pomfrey do the summer inventory in the Hospital Wing later this summer. boot also helps Professor Sprout do things like turn the compost pile and prune plants in the greenhouse. Professor Sprout says boot is better than she is at dodging when the venomous tentacula gets fiesty.

Sometimes boot is so tired at the end of the day that he barely manages to eat his dinner before falling asleep. The days go quickly.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alt_terry

This summer so far has been brilliant.

The Headmistress wants me to learn magic. I'm sure of it. It's just not something that's ever said out loud. I've not let her see my wand, of course.

She's arranged it so that I'm working with several different professors, all the nicest ones, during the mornings. Professor Sprout, and Professor Brutka. And Madam Pomfrey. Supposedly, I'm doing chores for them, and I'm always am careful to make myself look as dirty and tired as possible whenever Master's about to see. I don't know what she's told the Professors, but they are continually dropping tidbits of information that have to be lessons. Professor Sprout spent this morning teaching me about the difference between acidic and alkali soils, and the effect that different soil types have on various magical plants. All of it casually said, as if she was making idle chit-chat, while I was turning the compost pile. Professor Brutka tells me about the different creatures and makes sure I know why they eat the diets they do when he has me feed them. Madam Pomfrey is having me brew simple potions, all stuff that she says is for the Hospital Wing.

In the afternoons, I sometimes help Madam Pince shelve books and sometimes I work in our secret classroom, Hermione, practicing charms and transfiguration wand exercises. I'm getting better with my wand, although I still have a long way to go.

In the evenings, I read aloud to the Headmistress. She has me read texts on Transfiguration, Charms, Astronomy and Arithmancy. I'm learning so much. It's wonderful.

The only thing that makes me nervous is the way Master watches me. All the time. He tried to head me off once when I was on my way to the greenhouses, telling me I had to go with him to rearrange the shelves in the Transformation classroom cupboard. Grinning, like. I was so scared, because I didn't dare tell him 'no.' But I'd only gone about ten steps with him when the Headmistress suddenly appeared. She told Master curtly that I didn't have time to help him, and she immediately sent me off on another errand to the opposite end of the castle. I wonder if she's put a charm on me or something, so she's warned when Master tries to get close to me? Anyway, Master hasn't tried since.

It's too much to hope that he's given up. I think he's just biding his time.

From:

alt_sally_anne

I'm glad the Headmistress is watching out for you. I don't like thinking about what Carrow would do if he could.

That's brilliant about the books. And the lessons!

From:

alt_hermione

Terry!! You're going to be so much better than me!! I'm so jealous!!!!

Harry lets me do whatever I want with his books. He's moved to a larger set of rooms with a suite and everything, because his Father says he's becoming a teen-ager and he might as well have a grown up room. There was a lot of fuss about it, which I don't see why, because it's not as though he got to pick the decorations or anything. They're just all Buckingham things, with lots of snakes and so on. But they moved a lot of books in there, things that they thought Harry would like, and nobody ever watches us, and Harry doesn't mind if I read them.

Actually he doesn't even mind if I practise saying the incantations. I don't think he'd mind if I got a fake wand and tried to do the movements but I haven't been brave enough to try. Anyway if someone is spying on us they'd see, wouldn't they? And it wouldn't be like a real wand so maybe it wouldn't help so much.

I asked Harry about it once and he just said, well, you're training to help me more in school, so that's part of your job, isn't it? As long as you help me do other things too, so we only have to have the house-elves in here once a day when they clean. I think he knows the house-elves spy sometimes and that's why he likes having me around, because he knows I don't spy.

Well, I do, only not for his Father.

But I think Headmistress McGonagall will look out for you, Terry, truly I do.

From:

alt_neville

It sounds like it'd be dead dangerous to use even a fake wand in Buckingham, Hermione. Maybe only try it in the middle of the night, when everyone is sleeping?

I'm sorry, cause I know you really want to learn. But you've been caught with a wand once. They won't give you another chance if you're found trying to learn how to use one. Even if the one you're holding is fake.

From:

alt_terry

Oh, and I forgot to say...another thing I do in the secret classroom in the afternoon is to write down everything I can remember from what I learned in the Professors in the morning. I leave the notes there. So you'll be able to read them when you get back at the end of the summer.

From:

alt_gredforge

There's a charm to hide the writing on the notes. Circle the wand twice clockwise over the parchment and then tap it, saying 'Reddo invisibilis.'

To see the notes again, use the same wand movements and say 'Finite incantatem.'

Just in case.