Order Only - candidates and sponsors

[alt_draco]

After last night's mixer, I compared notes with a few people and was able to put together what I believe is an accurate list of council candidates and their respective sponsors. Should it be of any bloody use at all. Note that I am unsure what order each candidate was chosen in, though it is safe to speculate the order in some.

Ned Pennifold
Draco Malfoy
Cormac McLaggen
Pansy Parkinson

Lana Sandavol-Pennifold
Hydra Lestrange
Padma Patil
Greg Goyle

Julius Avery
Ron Weasley
Vince Crabbe
Zach Smith

Ptolemy Baddock
Richard Vaisey
Katie Bell
Dean Thomas

Sarah Yaxley
Teddy Nott
Blaise Zabini
Lares Tamblyn

Jason Montague
Alfred Montague
Heph Bobolis
Linus Moon

Virgil Crispin
Seamus Finnigan
Samantha Montgomery
Lizzie Stevens

Comments

[alt_sally_anne]

So during the soiree last night I slipped into the boys' dorm and got a look at a few other letters. (They all say such different things, I thought it might be useful.)

Teddy's sounded like it was written by someone who'd drunk a bad batch of Dreamless Sleep:

Dear Theodore and I call you Theodore and not Nott, for if you succeed, you will be my brother in His Service),

Of all Our Lord's devoted and loyal subjects He chooses but a handful to honour, to choose for His inner circle; He trusts us with His work, graces us with His attention, and placed His Mark upon our bodies.

In this winter He has invited some of us to choose candidates we believe might be worthy. Worth is measured in many ways, not merely strength in a duel but also strength of mind and spirit and purity. Strength to know that which must be known and to see with clarity what must be seen. Worth is powerful. Worth should be treasured.

I believe you may be worthy and so I present to you this Ouroboros pin as a symbol of your worth and your willingness to prove it. To test it, to defend it, to demonstrate it before the eyes of all that look and judge. Wear your pin night and day, that all may see it, that all may know that you test yourself against others chosen to compete for this honour.

There will be challenges. There will be tests.

Walk with care. He will not Mark a corpse. Nor a fool.

Twenty-one have been called. Seven will be sent into the presence of Our Lord. Whether He chooses to Mark or to cast aside will be His will.

Don't shame me, Teddy Nott.

Sarah Yaxley

Greg's was from Lana Sandoval but it was really different from the one Hydra got:

Dear Greg Goyle,

I'm sending you this pin to wear while you compete for a chance to take Our Lord's Mark. You will have to fight if you want to win this favour. You will notice that a number of other students will be wearing similar pins. All of them have been invited to compete for the same honour. Very few will make the cut.

My advice to you is that you do whatever it takes to crush your opponents.

I'm entirely serious.

Your sister in Our Lord's service,
Lana Sandoval-Pennifold

Also, I went to talk to Professor Dolohov because I thought he might know something. He didn't know anything -- well, I guess we all know that by now? But I didn't, when I went to talk to him. Anyway no one told him this was happening and he doesn't know what's being planned, why they chose candidates this way, any of it. The thing that was most striking was how very, very careful he was about exactly what he said. He's not usually terribly worried about saying the wrong thing, even to students -- he has books you aren't supposed to have, and I don't mean Dark Arts books, I mean he once loaned me a book written by an American muggleborn (at least I was pretty sure from the little biography of the author that he was a muggleborn). He was being really careful yesterday, picking his words in a way that would ensure that even if we were being watched by Bellatrix she'd find nothing to take exception about, you know? Like he feels the ground shifting under his feet, and is being very careful about where he steps until it stops moving.

[alt_draco]

They just left those lying about? Morons.

Interesting about Dolohov. I haven't had a chance to speak with him yet. I know we've spent a lot of time speculating why the Lord Protector sees it as advantageous to have his followers off-keel, but I think I've finally sussed it out.

He wants them in a position where they feel insecure and are literally willing to do anything to win his favour. On top of that, he throws out the occasional reward to keep hope alive. Even if all the back-and-forth that means that a few of them might turn against him, like Mr Selwyn, he'd rather risk that than having his followers get too comfortable. If they get too comfortable they might start thinking about themselves, their own wants and needs, instead of putting him first.

[alt_sally_anne]

I thought Greg might. I mean he left his JOURNAL lying around where Mr Snape picked it up, remember? And it was sitting on his desk, I didn't even have to touch anything.

I think Teddy's fell out of his pocket, I found it on the floor, folded into little squares.

[alt_draco]

Teddy's might be a fake, but then again, Sarah Yaxley is a little mad and that sounds a little mad.

And precisely, you'd think Goyle ought to have learned by now. Well at this rate he won't pose much of a threat, at least.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, it wasn't Teddy's handwriting. And it looked like a woman's writing, though there are men with very pretty penmanship.

[alt_draco]

If you're talking about me, it's my Mother's fault. Penmanship was always a part of my lessons, even from a young age.

Teddy can be quite clever. At any rate, I'm not sure that the content of the messages tells me anything useful about my competition. Surely we all know more about Goyle than Lana S-P does. But she is advising him to not hold back and to be as brutal as possible - and we know that HE knows how to do that, and do it well.

Private message to Draco

[alt_sally_anne]

I didn't mean you, your handwriting isn't girly! Anyone who said so was looking for an excuse for his own atrocious chicken scratchings.

I was thinking of Justin. I would NEVER know he wasn't a girl, if I had just his writing to go on.