I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_draco]

So who of us has been invited to CCF camp? I already know that Harry and I have been, and Daphs told me yesterday that she was in, too.

I wonder what sort of excitement is in store for us this time around.

Harry, you missed an utterly posh gathering at Avery's yesterday. Plenty of drinks, food, music, and games. No deep topics of conversation whatsoever. It was restful, in a way.

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

I wasn't.

Presumably because I got an 'A' on my Dark Arts OWL.

I really didn't want to do it last summer by the end but it's really annoying to get kicked out, anyway.

[alt_justin]

Sally-Anne,

I say, I'm happy to trade places, if you like.

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

Why didn't you muff your Dark Arts OWL, then? What was your practical?

[alt_justin]

I say, I thought I had done. I even debated a point with the examiners. They made me repeat the spell--I thought I'd bally well made certain I wouldn't receive an excellent mark after all that.

But I got an 'Outstanding' all the same. I suppose arguing with the examiners impressed them, dash it all.

I thought I'd simply not elect to continue, what, but Draco says Professor Dolohov insisted that I be listed on his rolls. Which rather indicates that even had I received a sub-par mark, he might have made the choice for me, regardless.

I say, it's not that I don't think he's a good teacher or even that the subject has no practical application, given our present and future goals. It's just that I thought with enough others taking the lessons, we could manage to learn what we needed without all of us taking them.

Well, and I never expected he would be so jolly well imperious about whom he wanted in his class. There's no doubt he's diabolically persuasive, what, but I've never before found him to be so dashed peremptory!

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

Yes, it's interesting that he put you in the class when you didn't sign up for it.

Are you going to have to drop something you DID sign up for?

[alt_justin]

I'm not sure I want to withdraw from anything else. Without Dark Arts I was taking seven subjects, so I believe one may be able to withstand the load but it'll be dashed difficult.

As Draco says, one could always refuse to attend lessons but that could lead to worse problems than letting him think he's changed my mind. It might be best to make him think he's won, this time round.

Not before I make the point that he was wrong to take the decision for me, though, what?

-Justin

[alt_sally_anne]

Wait, you're going to argue with him even though you're planning to go ahead and take the class?

Well, it worked out well enough with the OWL examiners.

[alt_justin]

Oh, yes, absolutely. He might suspect something otherwise, what?

You see, we others can behave like Slytherins when we put our minds to it!

-Justin

[alt_draco]

It's not as if we won't pass along everything we learn, anyway.

[alt_sally_anne]

There's that.

I just hate being left out.

[alt_draco]

Well, you're not the only one of us who is.

Private message to Draco

[alt_sally_anne]

Are you thinking of anyone in particular?

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_draco]

I just meant that Boot and Hermione don't get to take lessons at all. It's tiresome, really, to see Justin moan so much when he has an opportunity that they'll never have.

I know that Boot and Hermione still get lessons from the Order, and who knows, they might not even take Noble Arts if they had the chance - surely Boot wouldn't. I'm not sure about Hermione.

Well, it's none of my concern if he wants to go on being stubborn about it.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_sally_anne]

I've thought a few times that Hermione would LOVE classes with Professor Dolohov, if she could take them. And his office hours. I mean, whenever I go to his office to ask a question about one thing I wind up talking to him about something completely different but really interesting and then I leave with a stack of books.

Hermione would love that. I think Mr Snape might be a little like this but he's very focused and not especially chatty.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_draco]

Yeah, I reckon she would. And she wouldn't be able to help being annoyingly impertinent in a way that he would probably find completely amusing.

She thinks Mr Snape is brilliant, even though he's sour. I don't mind his sourness so much, though - he's rather droll in his own way.

Acton would drive her up a wall, though.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_sally_anne]

He would. He would think she was delightful.

You're completely right about Acton. She'd get on well with Babbling, though. And she'd love Vector, from everything I've heard about her from Pansy.

You know she'd be the top student, if she were a student. Padma would have never stood a chance.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_draco]

Of course. That's what I told her after OWLs.

Maybe I ought not to have. Suppose it might have made her feel strange. Or left out.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_sally_anne]

I told her something similar when we worked together on the coins.

She seemed glad to hear it. She said it's hard to know, because she got her wand late, and she doesn't get to work in classes very often -- all of it.

Re: Private message to Draco

[alt_draco]

Then I suppose I'll be glad that I said it. Though now that I remember, I said it to Harry, not to her - she could read what I said, though.

Though who knows, she might not have believed me. I reckon it mattered a good deal more, coming from you.