Recap for the week of 6 October, Year 1

[alt_moderator]

6 October

Lucius discusses how the Lord Protector will be coming to Hogwarts to celebrate his birthday, and in the comments Harry and Draco speculate about why Quirrell was sacked. Lucius' secretary is ill, and it was indeed Quirrell skulking around the school, he writes. Pansy and Harry meet up and Draco teases them about it in the comments. Madame Pomfrey orders Hermione and Boot to help her in the Hospital Wing. Ron riffs on being a carrot-head. Michael's necklace is still missing. Arthur posts about Lucius' terms for the Quibbler re-opening.

7 October

Narcissa says that Aunt Walburga is still put off by Regulus' presence in the Malfoy household.

8 October

Lucius's fill-in secretary is excruciatingly useless. Millicent Bulstrode makes her first post. McGonagall feigns enthusiasm for the Lord Protector's visit to Hogwarts. Alice discusses her most recent mission. Lupin hares off after... something. Sally-Anne posts about classes. Theodore finds Michael's necklace.

9 October

Sally-Anne got mail from Theodore and arranges to be a pen friend with Ginny and Luna. Neville had tea with Mr Lupin a few days ago. Xenophilius Lovegood is moving into the Burrow, according to Molly. Terry is helping Madam Pomfrey sometimes now. Dumbledore is worried about where Lupin has gone. Someone took Millicent's quill. Sirius says hello from Constantinople.

10 October

Pansy doesn't understand the Charms homework. Arthur reports that something has gone on to do with werewolves; in the comments, the Order discusses Alice. Pomfrey and Hermione brainstorm how best to help Boot.

11 October 

Harry saw Mr Lupin in the infirmary and wonders what happened to him. Hermione asks if she did right by bringing Lupin to the infermary. Alice posts about what happened - what she and Lupin were doing. Draco is bored and discusses morals with his mum. Sally-Anne reports on her pen friends and her revision group. 

Secrecy and its cost

[wintercreek]

Oh, Arthur.

I was totally unprepared for the ways this game would break my heart. Between this and Minerva's having taken the Mark, I'm fairly shattered. We knew early on that it would be rough - early in the game, Minerva posted about "the frustration, the anger, that I am constantly crushing down" - but to know the true sentiment underneath and to see the exterior they must present is awful.

Sirius, of course, has been operating secretly and thumbing his nose at the idea of detection in typical fashion. This is more worrying than crushing, espeically as I suspect he has motivations not tied directly to his own safety - Sirius may be hoping that if he can project enough dash about his sometimes precarious concealment, he can bring some courage and heartening to others in more dangerous and thus more oppressively secret positions.

This raises some interesting questions, I think, about the long-term ramifications of the roles the Order members are having to play. How long can one mouth the positions required for one's cover before they begin to corrode one's soul? Not necessarily in a "You become what you pretend to be" kind of way (although that is a risk too! How long before one of Our Heroes is horrified by the automatic bigoted responses that spring to mind before anger at the injustices?) but more in the wearing, stifling kind of way. Sissela Bok, in her book Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation, writes "Scientists working under conditions of intense secrecy have testified to its stifling effect on their judgment and creativity. And those who have written about their undercover work as journalists, police agents, and spies, or about living incognito for political reasons, have described similar effects of prolonged concealment on their capacity to plan and to choose, at times on their sense of identity."

From a literary standpoint, I'm intrigued by the character arcs this is likely to construct. My emotional attachment to the characters, though, means I'm dreading the toll this will likely take on them.