Students Outside the ISS

[alt_moderator]

Alternity gave many of its characters the ability to carry on conversations that were not able to be monitored by the Protectorate. Chief among these were the Order's private lock, for Order members only, and the "ISS" or "I Solemnly Swear" lock, which was created by Fred and George primarily as a way to speak to Terry.

But there were a number of students who were never part of the ISS lock. These students often had to rely on off-journal communication, or carefully couched statements to one another, to make their shifting ideas and allegiances known.

This thread is for any and all questions for the student-characters who were never part of the ISS: Lavender, Linus, Seamus, Padma, Blaise, Zach, Michael, Megan, Ernie, Eloise, Ginny, Daphne, and Milli. And although they don't have played journals of their own, it's possible that if you have a question for an NPC who was not on the ISS lock, we might be able to relay an answer....

Comments

for Linus Moon

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

Who are some of your favourite Muggle writers? Are there any writers you liked who you thought were wizards but later turned out to be Muggles after all, or the other way around? What was the rebuilding of Oxford like?

Re: for Linus Moon

[alt_linus]

Merlin, to construct a list, even partial, of favourite Muggle writers -- I shall leave that task for a bit, and and likewise the one of being surprised by who turned out to be what, and instead talk of something that attempting to diagramme the who-was-what-ness led me into.

I can unequivocally state that the question of Muggle and Wizarding influences and inspirations in poetical movements over the years is quite the most fascinating part of the exploration of Muggle poetry to me, really.

Looking at fairly recent work, of course there were the Metaphysical poets, who went on and on and on about certain notions fashionable among Muggle poets of the time, attempting to use philosophy and the poetry thereof as if it were a sort of grimoire of nature and love and lofty thoughts, and transcending this and hereaftering that, and so on. And they really did make some quite good efforts, particularly where the celebration and investigation of the arts of love and friendship were concerned, metaphysically speaking — I wrote a paper which was quite well received, with the Matchless Orinda as a sort of Theoretical course where Aphra Behn was the Practical — but they gave rise to the true flowering of Byron and his chums, the sadly unappreciated Southey and so on.

It is quite interesting to discover that part of the reason the Imagists were doing what they were doing is that they had a member whose spellwork was glimpsed one day and the necessary Obliviation was imperfectly cast, and the resulting effect on certain poets’ work, the sharpening of language, all that, was an attempt to get at what they thought was the underlying truth of all, which was actually spellwork half-glimpsed and half-erased! Nevertheless, their quest for the clear image which then fades into blue air, and for Pound’s luminous details, was quite, quite productive for them.

Oh, dear, is that the time? Pardon, but I fain must answer the rest later, as there are a number of parchments which yet require my attention this evening. Anon, then! Excellent questions! We shall return to this!

[naomikritzer]

For Blaise and Milli: did you ever suspect that your dorm mates were having some sort of ongoing conversation behind your back?

[alt_blaise]

I didn't really. I mean, Draco and Harry always had secrets, right back to when we were children. And I suppose I reckoned they had ways to signal one another that the rest of us didn't know about. Charms, you know. And then they had the mudbloods, too, to carry messages. And one year for Christmas they got a pair of boxes that could send things back and forth. Draco showed me. I think they came from his cousin Regulus Black.

Mind you, I wondered a bit about Hydra sometimes. I don't know. There were just a few odd things with Harry, but I didn't pay much attention to it, honestly. There were some people it was better not to be curious about, you know, and then it turned out she's a legilimens, and that explained everything, didn't it?

[alt_daphne]

It may be worth noting that I, like Ginny, was never a part of ISS. By the time I learned about the Order, I was already 17.

I was openly suspicious of Pansy and Sally Anne after Draco's death, but they likely don't know that I was suspicious well before then.

You see, Pansy, Sally Anne, and Ron were all quite chatty on the journals during our first year or two at Hogwarts. It was quite evident to anyone paying attention that a friendship was brewing. And then there came a point when the journal conversations seemed greatly reduced - even with the addition of the private message function. Yet once more, anyone paying attention could see that Pansy, Sally Anne, and Ron were still friends. But how did they maintain that across houses and without using the journals? I assumed that they found a secret way to communicate in order to not upset Draco and others. I never, imagined, however, that they were part of a seditious organisation! Not until later, anyway.

[alt_millicent]

Yes.

[elisem]

To Zach Smith: What was it like to make that final statement in your journal, the one supporting Harry and telling him to go for it? What led up to that, for you?

Have you since heard the phrase, "The Revolution will be Hufflepuff," and if so, what do you think of it?

[alt_zacharias]

Well, it's not as if I planned it to be my final statement, you know? But yeah, if I had to go out on something, that was probably about the best thing I could have chosen.

I guess, one thing is that those last weeks, things were clicking into place, one way or another. Like Justin and Ernie, and what was happening between them. And you could see how joining the Council wasn't really all that great a thing for Patil or Finnigan. And then what happened to Daphs. I mean to say, I loved driving her round the twist, getting a rise out of her, but she was...good, you know? She was far too good for Crouch. So when he killed her, and Harry left school, that's when things really kicked into gear.

So, I guess the point was: It just wasn't on.

'Revolution will be Hufflepuff,' eh? No, can't say as I have, but then, I've been dead for a while. I'm not sure I agree with it, if I'm understanding it right. In one sense, we're slow to withdraw our support but when we do see the need, no one's going to stand in our way. But on the other, we Badgers are willing to do whatever's necessary. So it depends on whether what you mean is that there will be a revolution and the smart play is to convince the Hufflepuffs that it's necessary, or whether you mean we're the first who're going to get fed up with unfairness and injustice and organise to do something about it. Because if it's the first then that's a Slytherin's revolution. If it's the second, then the Gryffindors are more likely to lead the charge.

[alt_ginny]

What does 'the Revolution will be Hufflepuff' mean, exactly?

The thing about a revolution is that you truly need all four Houses. You need Gryffindors because to defy an oppressive government requires tremendous raw courage. You need Slytherins because to build a new system requires tremendous ambition, not just in the sense of 'someday, I will be great!' but in the sense of 'we can actually accomplish this.'

You need Ravenclaws because a revolution requires tremendous intellectual energy -- to write the pamphlets and the speeches (and the novels) and to manage the logistics and solve the problems. And finally, you absolutely need Hufflepuffs because a revolution is really goddamn hard work.

But if all you have is Hufflepuffs, you may wait a long time. Though Alice Longbottom was a Hufflepuff, and maybe that's what the phrase is referring to.

[alt_alice]

I much prefer your version, Ginny. Well said, love.

[jenett]

Question for everyone: Are there events now that you're looking at in a different way, knowing what happened later?

I'm thinking particularly of Sarah Fawcett's escape, the reading of Pure Victory, and, of course, events in May of 1998 leading up to the Battle for Hogwarts, but there are so many others.

[alt_daphne]

I should have paid more attention to my tea leaves, of course.

[alt_megan]

Divination is complicated.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm particularly interested in Padma's answer to this question!

[alt_padma]

Really, why my answer particularly?

I mean, obviously, we'd be stupid not to look back at things and wonder. Like Daphne said, it was always clear that Ron, Pansy, Sally-Anne and even others had some way of communicating that wasn't a plain PM and that wasn't notes.

I kept my copy of Pure Victory. I still have it.

[alt_seamus]

I wasn't there for the reading of Pure Victory, although I did get one of the copies of the original version when the Order distributed it, so I got to read it.

Sarah's escape. Yeah. That evening made a lot more sense knowing that it was a coordinated rescue and not just a whole lot of disconnected coincidental chaos. The main reason the coincidental chaos was plausible was that everyone hated Umbridge so much.

On the other hand, I didn't notice a thing during Professor Sinistra's wedding reception.

[alt_lavender]

I wish I could have been there for the Pure Victory reading! I suppose everyone thought I'd grass because I was a Prefect, but I wouldn't have done.

Everyone knew the "official" third book was rubbish, even though we couldn't say so. I borrowed the secret copy from Parvati, and I think she got it off Padma. Or maybe Bundy.

Now there's something, or rather someone, I looked at in a different way afterward. We all thought she was such a little mouse, and she was actually a complete rebel!

[alt_megan]

Yes. But I was already looking at them in a different way by the time of the Battle. Which is partly why I am dead.


I am OK with that. Being dead, I mean. I don't mean I wanted to be dead. But I am not sorry about jumping in front of Sarah. Even if it killed me. Because it was

something I needed to do. The right thing, I mean.

(I miss you, Ernie.)

[(Anonymous)]

I have two questions!

One. For those of you who weren't in the know, did anyone ever suspect that Harry's mudblood servant was a secret mega genius? Or even that she was simply smarter than she let on?

Two. To those of you who were excluded from the Galleon network as well as the ISS, did you feel any resentment when everything came to light and you saw how much excitement you'd missed out on?

[alt_ernie]

Wouldn't call it 'missed excitement.'

I don't know.

See, I wonder sometimes if things would've been different if I hadn't turned down Sue like that. When she approached me, that is. (Course I had to find out after all was said and done because people have a habit of obliviating me. Story of my life, really. Oblivious. That's me in one.)

So yeah. I wonder whether it would've made a difference to have a place where you could think and sort things out and not be so alone or feel so hopeless or so bloody terrified about tripping up.

Because I was. All the time.

But that's the rub, innit? Too much of a coward to take a risk, so I blew my chance to not be as much of a coward, but even then, might've still been in over my head.

Figure it's more that I resent myself, if I'm being honest.

And you know, being honest doesn't come easy. Had to really work at it, you know. To be honest about what I did, and what I didn't do. And what was real and what wasn't.

So that brings us to part one, I guess. Because you get told things enough, things you're supposed to just accept. And some of them don't fit or make sense. So there's these lies you tell yourself to stay safe, because you're too thick to see what sort of choices you have beyond 'follow the rules' and 'don't rock the boat', and you tell them to yourself often enough, you start to sort of believe them because otherwise you've got nothing to hold on to.

And then a whole bunch of people turn round and go, 'Yeah, those were all lies though,' and this reality you cobbled together with spellotape just sort of falls apart, and you feel like a right idiot.

Which is to say, there's a whole tonne of things that I didn't know, but part of it was because I didn't want to know.

...and now I've gone on far longer than I thought I would. Anyways.

[alt_seamus]

I'll take the easy one first: Hermione. No, I never suspected. Well, I might have said I thought she was too clever for her own good, but -- yeah. Here's the thing, it wasn't exactly a safe thing to speculate about, so I tried not to. There were a lot of roads I knew I was better off not going down, so I just didn't.

Resentment. That's a much harder question.

I resent that I wasted so many years giving my loyalty to people who despised me, who saw me as a tool to be used and disposed of.

So much of who I was at seventeen came out of who my friends were when I was twelve or thirteen. My friends, the people who I could count on and trust more than any others, were Padma Patil and Stephen Rosier. They treated me like I was worth something, like my ideas counted, like who I was mattered.

But they were part of a system that considered me a second-class citizen at best.

I can't honestly blame the revolutionaries for not trusting me at all, at the point when there was something to trust me with. I'd made my choices. Or had choices made for me.

When I think back it's not them I resent. Most of the time.

[alt_megan]

Some of the excitement I didn't miss out on. I was just on the wrong side of it.

They were right to exclude me from the Galleons, as it turned out. Because, well. You know all that now, how things went with betraying Sarah. I was still following things Umbridge that horrible toad certain people told me, and it would not have gone well.

Thinking back after I knew everything, I did feel some resentment, but it was at how things went years earlier. Because I think being made the butt of jokes by some people and then being left out by others contributed to how things went. Also that sort of thing puts one in a spot where one is quite vulnerable to anyone who takes the slightest bit of interest. Which can be dangerous.

There were good reasons for my not being told, but it's hard to have any hope of doing better if one is isolated. The person who gave me any hope at all was Harry. He would talk with me about serious things, and he helped me start doing better. So I suppose that in a way I was in a separate network with Harry. But then he always was the one who was kindest to me. (Besides Sue, who was a brick.)

[alt_padma]

Well, it was fairly obvious that Hermione was more clever than she let on, but it didn't really occur to me that she was practising magic, because I thought surely if she were, someone in authority would find out about it and do something. What really didn't occur to me was that the people in authority were helping her. Or at least, turning a blind eye. Or something like that.

As for resentment, I think some of that sort of reaction's natural. I mean, there were two secret, seditious--excuse me, I mean, revolutionary--societies going on under our noses. But of course it made perfect sense in retrospect, that they could only include people they really trusted. If I'm resentful of anything, it's just that we had to grow up in the sort of place where we were taught to value differences like that. It's hard because some of my best friends at school actually were halfbloods--Su Li and Seamus, especially, but even people like Corner. But there was always a line they couldn't cross, and a line we purebloods wouldn't cross. And it was all artificial.

[alt_blaise]

One. Of course not. It was obvious that she thought more of herself than she'd any right to have done. There was trouble about that more than once, and I still have no idea how she avoided being sent back to the work programme as unsuitable (which she clearly was). Or, really, how she avoided being put down for failing to meet standards for staff at Buckingham.

But then, it wasn't mine to question Harry Marvolo.

Two. You're asking about the seditious groups that formed around Marvolo, I suppose. I don't know enough to of the particulars to give much of an answer--except to say that resentment doesn't come close to how I feel about the fact that they lured Daphne in and then coaxed her into getting herself killed.

[(Anonymous)]

Two for Blaise:

1. How did you feel when you found out about the extent of Daphne's involvement with the Order? That she was working as a spy, was personally responsible for destroying a horcrux, etc.? Were you shocked?

2. Just before your arrest near the end of Year 7, you drunkenly admitted that you'd always had a bit of a thing for Sally Anne. Did you ever consider "experimenting" with her, the way Draco's father once advised him to do with young witches of inferior birth? If so, why didn't you make the attempt?

And one for everybody:

Often, over the years, many of the older Order members worried that your generation would turn out to be a total loss due to the Protectorate's brainwashing. How do you feel about that line of thought? Obviously, most of you weren't too hopeless to see that things needed to change, but are there other ways you feel that you, as a generation, are irreparably damaged?

[alt_megan]

Well, a lot of us are dead. So there's that.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, Megan! On a personal note, and for what ever it's worth, yours may be the death I'm sorriest about! I'm happy you finally got your moment of badassery, but I hate that you never got to live in a world where you could be anything you wanted. And that you never got the chance to tell off your guardian, or Mrs. Stretton.

[(Anonymous)]

Or Lavender and the Patil twins. Or the kids who harassed your cat in Year 5.

God, you had plenty of people to hold grudges against.

[alt_sally_anne]

No. I mean, other than the ones of us who died, obviously. No.

[alt_sally_anne]

I mean, I think psychotherapy was a good thing for a lot of us, after the war. I think that helped.

And we're marked by our experiences and all the things we grew up with and if you want to consider that damage, you could. But our generation refused to give up and refused to give in and refused to believe that life under a Death Eater boot was the best we could ever hope for. And we changed the world.

[alt_padma]

Blaise held a torch for you? Did you have any idea?

[alt_sally_anne]

No. Well, except inasmuch as I was female and breathing and there were definitely days that would've been sufficient, judging from his book-carrying strategies.

[alt_sally_anne]

Anyway I have a couple of theories why he never tried anything with me.

1. He wasn't Sacred 28 (like a lot of Slytherin), just a regular pureblood, and so he didn't feel like he could afford that sort of relationship even if it was obviously exploitation.

2. I was roommates with Daphne and best friends with Pansy, and Blaise was just aware enough of the sort of social currents between girl roommates to realise that he might wind up in unexpectedly hot water if he openly took advantage of me. (An actual relationship was obviously out of the question.)

3. He was probably afraid I'd turn him down, and while being turned down by a pureblood girl was painful, being turned down by a girl he considered below him would have been utterly humiliating.

(This is all assuming he really did carry a torch for me. I mean, he was very drunk that night when he wrote all that out.)

[alt_seamus]

I know I'm not the only expat who doesn't think I'd ever be able to stand to be in London again.

(I mean, not counting actual exiles, like the Malfoys. Or Dolohov. If you can't go back because you'd be arrested, that's different.)

[alt_ginny]

I don't think we're damaged as a generation because that rather implies we're all damaged in a similar sort of way. Like ... burns scars on loads of people who all survived the same fire.

I think we're all damaged. But I think it's different for each person, just like we have different sorts of physical scars.

[alt_padma]

Blaise had a thing for Sally-Anne?

[(Anonymous)]

I love Remy Jugson. There, I said it. He seems like someone who's just about bursting with cutting opinions, yet he's stuck living in a society where he has to keep almost all of them hidden, and while I don't know if I have a specific question for him, I kind of just want to know everything that's going on in his head in a general sense.

I think it's amazing that Alternity has so many vibrant NPCs, and if I can be honest, in my fantasies? Remy, Honoria Sandoval and Thomas Capper (the tragedy! The wasted potential!!) form an alternate friendship trio and take down the Protectorate with the combined power of arithmancy and bitchiness. (I may be slightly obsessed with those three characters.)

Actually, would it be possible for me to ask a question of all three of them? Same question for all three. Remy, Honoria and Thomas: If you'd been members of the ISS, what skills or assets do you feel you would have brought to the group? Were there any events, particularly ones that took place later in the game, that you think would have gone down differently if you'd been a part of them?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh and Lavender! Were you and Luna ever able to form anything resembling a functional adult friendship? Or had too much happened between you two as children for that to be a real possibility?