I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: Sarah and Post-mortem

[alt_terry]

Sarah has arrived here and settled in, and she's doing well, even if she's a little shy. There's one thing that's made her awful happy, and that's that she has a relative here she didn't even know was alive. So they're getting acquainted. She remembered me, although she was real startled to see me, and to realise that I'm not really like the way she knew me back in Hogwarts--crawling boot, I mean.

Luna, I think there's one thing you might do that would mean a lot to her. She came in Sally-Anne's robes, you know, which are Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw. Do you have a spare Ravenclaw badge you could send via Pig? I think, well, that she may be homesick for Hogwarts for a bit. It's a pretty big shock for her. I think it could be nice if she had at least something with the emblem of her House. I don't think you dare get any of her private possessions from her room to forward here; people would wonder why they were missing. But a badge at least would be good. If it's not safe to send it now, sending it after the summer holidays start would be fine.

The Order wants you all to know how happy they are with you, with the entire Sophie's Army, really, and how impressed they are that you pulled things off so well. Oh, yeah, you may like the way one of them put it: 'the level of planning and coordination that went into this entire set of actions from the attempted potion delivery to Sophie's extraction is quite sophisticated.' So yeah, you did great, as far as they're concerned.

They did have one thing to ask: they want to do what they call a 'post-mortem' with you, maybe if there's some time at least some of us can all get together this summer. (I guess that's an Auror thing? The person who mentioned it is an ex-Auror.) What he means by that I guess is that you sit down and figure out exactly what happened, how you made your decisions, and you evaluate them. What worked really well? What was a mistake? They think it's useful to go over stuff that way, because you can learn from it--and they want to learn from us, which is really quite cool--and you can maybe see things you might do differently next time.

Of course, you can't get together until summer, like they say. But it might be a good idea to at least write some stuff down and think it through now, while it's all still fresh in your minds. Anyway, it's a thought.

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Every time you mention 'Aurors' it throws me, you know? I think of Auror Lestrange and Auror Crouch, not Neville's parents.

Anyway about Sarah's badge. I actually still have her robes -- I left some of the fabric in the forest so it looked like it had been caught on branches and ripped but I didn't leave the badge behind. The (remains of) the robes are in the Hidden Room and I could cut out the badge.

The trouble is using Pig. ALL our post is being searched, coming and going. I'm not sure what she's doing to get the owls to stop off and let her search them but it's been very effective and we can't risk her finding something like this. If Professor Sprout could hand it through the floo to someone like Tonks or Mr Lupin we could give it to her and let her pass it along.

While we're at it maybe you could send me back my own robes. I don't have very many that fit and are in good shape. I was actually going to make Mrs Stretton take me shopping over hols and obviously I was busy and THAT never happened, so.

Oh and about a Ravenclaw thing you know another possibility would be to have Madam Pomfrey order a banner. There are shops that sell anything you could ever ask for with your House crest, you know, in New London. I could dress in Slytherin pyjamas and I could get Slytherin cot sheets for my hypothetical future baby and I could get Slytherin rugs for every room in my house and so on and so forth. They have banners with House crests and Madam Pomfrey could get a Ravenclaw one without anyone thinking it was strange because that was her House, you know. And then send it on to Sarah, since she's not at the school.

[alt_terry]

Oh, good. If you could send along her badge, that would be fine. And yes, I think you'd better wait until summer.

Although I suppose we could arrange for someone to pick it up during a Hogsmeade weekend, or you could leave it in the Shrieking Shack, and they could pick it up there.

Sure, I'll make sure you get your own robes back. They can probably package it up so that it looks like a delivery from Madam Malkin's.

That's a really good idea, to have Madam Pomfrey order a banner. I'll send that suggestion on.

[alt_luna]

I can knit some of my little bookmarks that look like Ravenclaw scarves and send those, during the summer.

And tell her I'd be happy to be a pen friend with her. If it'd be allowed, and once we have a secure way to do it.

[alt_sally_anne]

If she'd taken her journal we could put her on the lock, but I don't think she did.

Something else to remember for next time: have the person grab their journal. If possible.

I suppose we wouldn't have delayed while someone ran up to Ravenclaw to fetch it, and 'accio' might have attracted the wrong sort of attention. She never used it much, it was probably in her trunk anyway.

[alt_sally_anne]

Also, about things that worked well and worked poorly.

Draco's idea was brilliant. We should start now thinking, if we have to get someone ELSE out, how we're going to make it look like they've died or got away so we don't have any awkward questions. We were lucky Sarah's a Ravenclaw because we don't have that many people in Ravenclaw and apparently everyone in her House is being questioned.

I think the biggest stroke of luck we had was Sarah thinking to inscribe her name on the galleon after the 'X.' No one had said to do that but it meant right off we knew who needed rescuing and we had a good idea of where she was.

I think we have to say that giving Megan the potion was a mistake, no matter how much pain she was in or how bad the consequences would have eventually been for her.

I think we need to talk about Megan. And how to make absolutely sure she doesn't betray anyone else. Because her life isn't worth

[alt_neville]

We should ask the Order about safe places we could go, if need be, in an emergency. That might vary depending on the time of day. I remember one of them saying something casually to another sometime during the Easter hols about meeting somewhere by having both of them apparating to the 'rendezvous point.'

The firework dragon certainly got everyone's attention, but that's not a trick that you can use more than once maybe. So we need other ideas for distractions. Besides, everyone KNOWS that Fred and George like fireworks, which means that suspicion would fall pretty quickly on them if we have to do this again.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well there's Pansy's townhouse, although I'm not sure anyone but Pansy could apparate there (I could, if I could apparate, but I can't apparate, so...) Also, in theory her mother could be there though that would be really unlikely.

And Doughty Conduit, I don't see why we couldn't use that again.

And the Burrow, though Percy could be there. But we could apparate somewhere Percy doesn't like to go. Ron's bedroom, say (although that's Percy's old bedroom so who knows, maybe he goes in there when Ron's at school?)

And WE can get to Sirius's house but that didn't do us any good last night because we needed to get Sarah away and we couldn't apparate there with HER because we needed the secret keeper. That's worth remembering if it's one of US who has to get away, though.

There are loads of other places that would be safe for a bit, too, like places off in the woods. Oh and that farm where Madam Pomfrey is staying, they took us there so we'd know what it looked like.

Other distractions....maybe the Twins have more ideas. I'm better at thinking about ways to avoid attention than ways to get it.

[alt_justin]

Sally-Anne,

You know it just occurred to me that they did suggest the farm where Madam Pomfrey has been staying. They even took us there by Floo so we could Apparate there if needed.

It's much closer than Laszlo's all the way at Doughty Conduit. I say, we're lucky Ron and Pansy didn't splinch themselves, going that far without loads of experience.

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

None of us even thought about that farm last night, when we were waiting for the distraction.

I mean, we knew everyone who'd be at Doughty Conduit, you know? Or at least we knew Mr Lupin and Tonks and Sirius Black. We knew they'd take us seriously and they'd get Sarah somewhere safe straight away and they wouldn't waste a bunch of time demanding explanations because they could get them from Terry and Hermione and Ron and Pansy could get back to Hogwarts before Umbridge realised they were missing.

[alt_neville]

Yes, and it turned out to be a good choice and it all worked out.

[alt_terry]

True. But they sometimes do have customers there, and it might have been awkward if one of them had spotted a kid suddenly showing up in Hogwarts robes.

Ron said that apparating to New London wore him out. Yeah, apparating to the farm would probably be easier.

(Not that I'm criticising, Ron; I think it's marvelous you managed it at all. I still can't apparate yet.)

[alt_neville]

I guess that's the point of a post-mortem. To think about this stuff ahead of time.

[alt_ron]

Y'know, this post mortem thing. It's not like anyone died. Why do that have to call it that?

I mean, in CCF, we have debriefings and assessments, but... do Aurors call it that because people usually end up AKd when they go out on field ops?

[alt_sally_anne]

That's a good question.

I like 'debriefing' better.

[alt_pansy]

Agreed.

[alt_sally_anne]

They apparated straight into the kitchen and customers aren't allowed in there. I mean they have wards up or something, they must, because Ellie has a wand, you know? So we knew they wouldn't see anyone who wasn't trustworthy.

[alt_ron]

Yeah.

And I was so keyed up I didn't really have to think twice about the Apparating, but I have to admit when I'd got Fawcett there, I was really drained, and it was a good thing I didn't have to do it again to get back here.

D'you know, I slept until two today. I mean, just dead out sleep.

I reckon, though, that in the heat of that sort of business, you just sort of get a huge rush of energy and you can do loads of things. It's happened sort of like that for me during CCF exercises, but this was loads more intense. While it lasted.

[alt_sally_anne]

I wondered why you weren't at lunch.

What time did you fall asleep? I know what you mean about the rush of energy, last night when we were all finished the LAST thing I wanted to do was go back to Slytherin House and go to bed. I wanted to go flying. Flying would have been perfect. And play quidditch in the dark, maybe. Or run up to the top of the Astronomy Tower.

I don't know what time I fell asleep but I think it might have been getting light out.

[alt_ron]

I was practically asleep by the time we got back here. Pansy had to prop me up when we were trying to find Cedric after. I think it takes more out of you to side-along someone, too.

I dunno. Fawcett may be lucky I didn't splinch her. I'm not sure I'd do it again right away if I didn't have to. Only, really. I had to, yeah?

[alt_sally_anne]

I'm pretty sure she'd have been better off splinched at Doughty Conduit than back in Umbridge's office.

Well, maybe not if you'd left HALF of her back in the Shrieking Shack. But, like, a leg? you could've sent Mr Lupin back there to fetch it and he could've called Madam Pomfrey to fix it back on.

[alt_pansy]

I think it's good to remember the farm next time.

Didn't they say that the person who was there wasn't a member, but would keep her mouth shut?

So it's closer, but not perfect. Because we'd have to explain things to her.