alt_draco | Order Only

What?

Why?

What's wrong?

Plenty.

Clearly.

Here's your report, Frau Commander General Madam:

- At the Spence House party last night, Padma Patil made a fool of herself by declaring her love for me - all night long. It wasn't clear to me if someone was merely having fun with her, or if it was some kind of test for me that had been set up by my Sponsor, who hasn't sent me a challenge for this round, yet. While this sort of thing would have merely been an inconvenience last year, this year's Councilwizard challenge changes everything. Every move matters. Every response counts.

- This morning when I elicited the advice of our esteemed organisation about Padma Patil's condition, which had become suicidal, Ron Weasley (and whoever else knew) said NOTHING. He only confessed that He was the one responsible for her condition after ascertaining that she had reverted to normal.

- I seriously doubt Ron Wealsey was the only one who knew precisely why Padma was behaving the way she did last night, but I wasn't informed because I would "tell." Or, more likely, it was just too bloody hilarious to watch me try to shake her off all night.

- It was also hilarious to spend all morning trying to stop Padma from offing herself. No, really. It was. You should have been there.

- Now, revoke my membership already.

Are you kicking me out yet or not?

Because if you're refusing to let me out, then at least spare me one of your little
"chats" the next time I'm at a meeting, telling me how hard you know this is for me, and how you'll do "whatever you can" to help.

I'm sure that you, your husband, Black, Mrs Weasley and the others all sleep tremendously well at night, so pleased that you've convinced your enemies' children to do your dirty work for you so that your own children can go utterly unnoticed and untouched.

First of all, know that I do not condone what Ron has done. He has treated you with a lack of disrespect I find shocking, and has shown incredibly poor judgement. His personal feelings towards you will not interfere with his communication again.

I completely understand your anger, and feelings of betrayal. You have every right to be concerned, and I can see how this would lead you to question your role in this organisation. Know that Ron's actions do not speak for the Order, and that I trust and respect you for the choices you've made, and for what you are willing to do.

There are certain things I have little control over, Draco. You and I both know that your position is a rarefied one -- that there are only a handful of people in this Protectorate who have your access, and your abilities. It is your burden, and ultimately, your choice as to how you will use this power.

You are right to say that you are in a greater position of risk. You are correct to think that I need you very much, and depend on you, and that there is only so much that I can do for you in return. And yes, to be blunt, if this depends on the willing sacrifice of children who are able to do what I cannot, I will take what I can, and will hate myself for the necessity, and do my utmost to make those sacrifices count.

We both work towards a common cause. I very much hope that we can work together, as the Order will undoubtedly be more capable with your help, and your ability to be effective without a ready support system would be greatly reduced.

My plan calls for a move within the next two years to even the playing field significantly. Yes, it will be difficult. Yes, it will be dangerous. But I would not keep you on the council for a decade while we wait for a damned Horcrux to be found and destroyed. I would rather strike as soon as we were capable, knowing that his death would be temporary, and hold off his return while we shift the tide of things. And if at all possible, I would do it with you at my side, as a trusted and valued member of this organisation. You provide a voice of clarity and honesty, and have from the start. You hold us all to a higher standard.

I would not be able to provide you with security, or comfort, or understanding, but I would use what you would give me to a far greater purpose, and I would make every effort to see that you and your family survive this.

Please, Draco, I ask you to reconsider, or at the very least, take some time to weigh your options.

If you truly wish to consider yourself as an auxiliary member, reporting what you see fit, and no longer under my direct orders, there's very little I can do to punish you, or force you to comply, nor would I want to. The decision is ultimately yours to make, not mine.

Know that should you decide to continue to serve with us, for our common purpose, I would welcome it.

Your thoughts are noted.

I won't leave, but that's not because of what you say here. It's only because of the case Hermione made to me.

So I'll tell you what I told her: I'll stay, but if anything like this ever happens again, I'm gone.

Understood.

Thank you.

And you can tell Ron Weasley and whoever else knew what was going on with Padma Patil last night the following:

Both myself (and Hydra, probably, and Harry, definitely), are putting our lives on the line so that we can walk into the lion's den and help you while you SIT SAFE AS HOUSES in your cosy little family hovel, or your magically protected home in New London, or your secret base on the Isle of Man, raising babies and making wands.

And we're NOT EVEN OF AGE. Hydra hasn't even done her OWLs.

Yet Weasley and his MATES treat this like a game and don't pass along crucial, possibly life-saving information when it's needed. Because they're too worried about making sure they don't have to be the ones picked to make the hard choices. What Gryffindor chivalry! That's one for the books, it is.

Where are you? Kensington?

Will you talk to me about it if I come there?

~~Not sure if you~~

Right.

I could come too.

Let me go alone first and then once he's calmed down a bit, I'll tell you to come along.

Because--well, things are awkward enough as it is. He's likely to think you were part of everything, too, at present.

Just--let me talk to him first.

It's all right, you can come over.

He's not going to leave the Order.

What?

Yes, I'm at Kensington.

I mean, yes. If you want to.

I'm coming over, then.

I will spare you the hand-wringing you are no doubt receiving from other quarters, and simply say once again that whatever you need that is within my power to provide, I will.

If that is for me to distract Alice from wanting to have a Hufflepuffian chat about feelings with you, simply say the word.

Thanks, but I think I'm seeing things more clearly, now.

I trust that part of what you are seeing is that you are far from the only one to find Ronald Weasley an idiot and a child who has never learnt to judge when something needs to be taken seriously. I will be having words with him, and with his co-conspirators, when we return to school.

And now we get to have all the Weasleys, except the one they don't want.

To think I was actually beginning to believe Ron was the most tolerable of that lot.

There is nothing to say you are not correct in that assessment, given that it is relative and not absolute.

The Order of the Phoenix, even under Albus Dumbledore, has often been bad at navigating any situation requiring nuance, and organisationally uncomfortable with the notion that one cannot simply declare oneself 'good' to avoid having one's actual actions questioned. (And, conversely, that one cannot likewise declare one's opponents 'evil' and have done with it.)

Weasley, like much of his family, is too accustomed to thinking of himself as the hero of his own story and to casting those around him in roles in that story without regard to their own wishes in the matter. I am familiar with how infuriating it is to find oneself being enlisted as a player in the drama of some self-styled hero's life — your Weasley was, and continues to be, my Black, and for many of the same reasons.

You and I are not the type of men meant to be storybook heroes, and others find that difficult to accept. It is easy for those to whom the world appears black and white to revile those of us who live in the shades of grey. That does not, however, mean that you should be treated with the contempt Weasley has shown you, and it is well past time he is made to realise his lack of judgement has consequences.

Storybook heroes only exist in storybooks, don't they? Real "heroes" (blimey, it's difficult for me to write that word in any serious way) are those who tell the truth, who show kindness (nope, don't like writing that one, either) when it's needed - not because it's the right thing to do, or to make themselves feel better, but because they genuinely feel compelled to.

I'm not kind but I am honest, so there's that going for me.

I can't say I like Black much better than Weasley, you know. Cut from the same cloth, they are.

Anyway, you've never been anything but honest with me, and I appreciate that.

I have always been of the belief that honesty is the only form of kindness worth the name.

Order Only - DONE

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Private Message to Draco Malfoy

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Private Message to Harry

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Private message to Draco

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