post-soiree

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

My first thought on reading alt_boot's post is: house elves are set free when they receive clothes from their owners; it's a pity it doesn't work that way for Terry. Next thought: what if it does work that way in some terrible ironic sense? What if the clothes are going to kill him? Or nearly so.

This morning alt_amycus's second post reads differently to me, not only in light of Terry's report on the "soiree" but also in retrospect of our conversation with Amycus' player yesterday:

tidbit's getting quite the sense of self-esteem!

So, tidbit, to celebrate, Alecto and I are holding a little soiree tomorrow night. I've got a surprise for you that will, I hope, drive you mad.

Be sure to wear your new clothes, too.

In other news, the pigeons are driving me crazy. The twittering's been worse than ever. Ha. When they see me coming, the birds all try and hide. But I'm onto them.

So, this morning, with a bit of hindsight and in the cold aftermath of a strangely anti-climactic soiree, I think Amycus has been practicing on the pigeons for a formula he has now applied to Terry's new clothes. The pigeons didn't like it very much. Amycus hopes it will "drive [Terry] mad". I hope Terry catches on and finds a way to get help before too much harm is done by his lovely new jumper, soft corduroy trousers and new boots.

Comments

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

If the pigeons are literal, then I think he's using animal subjects first before turning to human ones. He probably has access to a lot of pigeons at Hogwarts, and nobody cares about pigeons. Who would notice if their population dwindled? Who would intervene? On the other hand, he only has one Mudblood servant, and he knows that there's an audience watching what happens to Terry, so I think he might have worked on whatever his experiment is a bit before applying it to the more important (and much rarer) test subject.

(I did take note of Hermione's suggestion that Carrow's been eyeing her up recently, as though he might be considering whether she might be a replacement if his test on Terry proves fatal or if its results are promising but require another live test subject.)

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

...

That does actually make a lot of sense. Maybe I'm looking too hard for the non-literal. After all, pigeons could run away when they see him coming. Pigeons could make irritating noises, even if technically not twittering. They would be audible from near where he sleeps, and they would have large populations and be expendable. It would not be implausible for him to be keeping some or doing experiments on them without drawing attention from any of the people who might walk in on it. This is definitely the theory that requires the least amount of crazy jumping-through-hoops to justify it.

If they *are* literal pigeons, can we at least pretend that the reason he chose that species is that he enjoys the connection in his mind between them and Muggles/Mudbloods?

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

If they *are* literal pigeons, can we at least pretend that the reason he chose that species is that he enjoys the connection in his mind between them and Muggles/Mudbloods?

I'm totally down with that! Similarly, he collects poems about overpopulating, grubby maggots and recites them because he's preoccupied with things he believes to be filth -- and because he knows it makes other people (like McG) squirm to hear him spin out nonsense rhyme about maggots. (And because maggots populate not just poor Northumbrians' hats, but also rotting meat -- and he has an affinity for dead things.) Um, all of that, in my book!