ORDER ONLY: Private Message to Sally-Anne

[alt_pansy]

Today's been

ugh.

So Fred sends me this patronus earlier this evening, which immediately sends me in to a tizzy because last time I got a patronus from Fred

you know.

Anyways. Turns out George went to the quidditch shed because he really wanted to hit some bludgers around and he couldn't, and it all sort of came crashing down into a giant thing where he was furious about not being able to help Ginny and ended up breaking half the things in the shed. It's a bloody miracle he didn't cut himself on broken glass or break something in his hands (I checked), and he'll be stiff as all get-out tomorrow.

It was like

Well, he's always been so even-tempered about losing his magic. You know George. Upbeat and "we'll sort it out." But he was just so furious and helpless for the first time about it, because of Ginny, really, and Fred yelled at him for a bit and Terry got all Terry because boys are idiots, but I managed to talk him down and we all sat there for like a solid hour crying about it, and then chucked things at the lake and threw sticks for the Professor for ages and ages.

I've never seen him that angry before.

I don't care if he gets his magic back, and I know that he's already found all sorts of things that need doing that don't need a wand, but rescuing Ginny will. If we ever manage to, that is.

How's Ron? Still wound tight?

I hate this.

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

Wound tight. Yeah.

I don't think having magic is making Ron feel less helpless. Or any of the rest. Because we can't get to her.

I could read that post from Bill last night. It's clear he wants to rescue Ginny but knows it's not actually going to happen because we can't get to her at a cost we're willing to pay (or maybe not at all) and also he thinks Bellatrix is going to use her against us somehow.

Rachel said Ginny's told them everything she knows, and they were still cruciating her.

[alt_pansy]

oh.

It's like

It's like Neville all over again, only he wasn't, you know, tortured continuously.

It's awful.

I wonder what Dolohov thinks about all of this.

[alt_sally_anne]

He must be okay with it. If he weren't, he'd do something about it.

[alt_pansy]

Yeah.

[alt_sally_anne]

I thought about writing him and asking.

[alt_pansy]

You could.

Call him on it.

It couldn't possibly make things worse.

[alt_sally_anne]

Yeah, okay. I suppose you're probably right it couldn't make things any worse.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, he wrote back.

He said, 'Miss Weasley is currently enjoying a bath, a meal, and the opportunity for a good night's rest, in fact. I'm certain you'll understand that we cannot allow her to write to you, but she has suffered no lasting harm.' And then something in Russian. And then, 'your lot does not precisely have the moral high ground. Is Mr Finch-Fletchley operating under orders, or is he simply freelancing?'

[alt_pansy]

You could ask Justin what it says. Or Evelyn.

Moral high ground. Hah. I'm not privy to everything he's been up to, but you can bet it doesn't involve torturing children or killing loads of innocent people in Brighton for purposes of public relations.

[alt_sally_anne]

Okay he added something. (After I yelled at him about -- it doesn't matter.) He said, 'I've asked Miss Weasley if there's anything she'd like to pass along to you to assure you that she is alive and well; she said to tell you that while accomodations are not ideal, they are better than the floor of the Great Hall, whether in her own body or her brother's.'

So

Well, she's definitely still alive.

That's not terribly comforting.

[alt_sally_anne]

I think I should probably go show this to Rachel or Mrs Longbottom, if they're still up.

[alt_pansy]

Yeah.

[alt_sally_anne]

I asked Rachel about this once.

She says that to cruciate someone into madness, the key is that you cast the curse and keep it on them continuously for a long period. They teach Aurors to do a ten-second burst but of course in an actual interrogation they don't do just ten-second bursts. Still, if you keep it on someone for ten minutes without respite, fifteen, twenty, it injures their brain badly enough that the person's basically gone. That's what Hydra did to Neville.

Rachel said she'd seen it done. They had one of the Aurors come and demonstrate on a prisoner they didn't need anymore, when she was in training.

Anyway they won't do that by mistake to Ginny. If they did -- there'd be no point in keeping on torturing her.

[alt_pansy]

But what is the point then?

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh.

[alt_sally_anne]

Do they even really need a point? Bellatrix likes torturing people the way some of us like back rubs or kittens or mugs of hot chocolate.

[alt_sally_anne]

Here's what Bill said about what he thinks they might be planning for Ginny.

'One: Ginny could be put up for a show trial, maybe even publicly killed, as a warning example to anyone else thinking of resisting them.

Two, she can be kept as an unwilling hostage, and they'll use the fact that they have her in their clutches to influence our movements or decisions.

Or three, she can be kept as a hostage but presented as someone who's seen the light and returned to the pureblood fold, ostensibly joining them willingly. I don't think that we can discount that third possibility, as it would obviously suit Bella's purposes beautifully and at the same time be a huge blow to us. We know perfectly well that they have no scruples whatsoever about lying the press.'

I can't imagine it's the second. It wouldn't work and Bellatrix knows it.

I doubt it's the first because they've never bothered much with trials. We care about looking fare and just. Why would they start now?

I think it's probably the third. They're going to make her pretend she's seen the light and returned to the pureblood fold.

[alt_pansy]

They could do that, yeah.

Or worse. They've got Rigel, remember?

They could make her actually believe it. Not just pretend.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well apparently (I didn't see this one) when Bellatrix wrote to Mrs Longbottom and the Weasleys about how she'd swap Ginny for Hydra, she said Ginny was playing with Rigel.

But if they want her to like them, cruciating her for days seems like it would be counterproductive.

[alt_pansy]

Oh, well, I suppose they have to find some way to amuse themselves.

Playing. Right.

[alt_sally_anne]

That might have been true, if Rigel was in the room. He likes people playing with him, Hydra says. Remember that time she played with him for four days straight because he wanted her to, and it felt like the most important thing in the world?