Private Message to Toshenka and Stephen

[alt_lucius]

Well, thank Mordred that's over.

Stephen, he did well. Quite well. Let me know if time with others his age will help him put this behind him. Harry's spending most of the holiday with us at the Manor; he could go flying with the boys and not dwell on what's been done.

Tosha, it seems you took the curse for us all in conducting Weasley elsewhere; you might be disappointed you separated, however, for Razzer joined us in Oban. (Thankfully he did not press us for details of the event, other than to ask if it had been successful.)

Dominic seemed to need the refreshment almost more than anyone. Kept going on about last Friday (and this), and how unpredictable He is becoming. Believe the business with Bettina truly unsettled him.

Don't know if you know this but Chloe locked him out that night. Then there was her outburst toward Razzer's astronomer, of course. Advised him that if he's truly worried about Our Lord's wrath being visited on his wife, he ought to counsel her toward more discretion, in future. He wasn't pleased with the remark but was too far in his cups already to give much protest.

Unfortunately, that did not stop him fretting over what might come next. First preventing Bettina Yaxley from holding a wand to punish Claudius. Then this business of forcing your ward to get his hands unnecessarily bloody, Stephen. He even suggested that Our Lord might take a notion to combine the two and force one of our children to kill one of our wives. (Do not need the night terrors that conjured!)

In the end we decided to book him a room. If he's having that much trouble with Chloe, she surely would not appreciate his arrival by Floo, stinking of firewhiskey, smoke and blood magic.

Merciful Morgana, it's been an absolute bitch of a week.

Comments

[alt_antonin]

Bitch of a week, true, but Cyprian's sword was tonight exhilarating. How often does one get to lead a rite that powerful?

(Pardon me; the exaltation has not worn off yet. I expect I will be vibrating slightly for the next three days from channelling that much magic.)

Dominic did seem unwell, yes -- it's a good thing he had you there to take care of him. I hadn't realised he was having that much difficulty at home. Do you think there's anything we might do to assist?

As for Our Lord -- I do not know what to think there. Must confess I'd thought you were exaggerating, when He was so much like old after Ireland -- but this week, I finally take your meaning. Troublesome.

[alt_antonin]

Weasley, meanwhile, was no trouble at all. He still seems much affected by his father's death, mind you -- quiet and fairly subdued, but interested in understanding what he'd seen and the ways in which it was fitting payment. He seemed quite satisfied with matters, at least. I sent him off with suggestion of a bath, a meal, and a good night's sleep.

Though I will say, I never did expect to be cordially raising a glass with Molly Prewett's eldest. The twists of fate are strange indeed.

[alt_lucius]

Nor did Stephen think ever to hire him as an assistant. (Nor, indeed, should I ever have considered his brother as a clerk!)

There is something delicious in the irony, is there not?

[alt_lucius]

I hope the surge does you much good, bratishka. Am similarly energised, though not with wholesale excitement. Perhaps it's just as well that you and Barty are not parents; I fear that those of us who have charge of our offspring cannot look upon a deed such as tonight's with anything but a mixed conscience. Had we proceeded to your original suggestion and forced O'Connor to perform the curse on his sister, rather than his nephew, sure I would feel much the same, with no qualms. That's not to say the boy did not do admirably - quite the contrary. Still. When I think of Draco in a similar position .... Well. Best not to consider such a pass.

As for Dominic, his brood are all even younger, around the same age as Ari's younger children. Sympathise with his fears for their safety. Of course, in his case, the simple introduction of separate bedchambers might affect any number of improvements to his domestic situation.

For my part, remain as devoted to Our Lord as ever, but must admit that His volatility creates the sort of uncertainty one finds inconvenient in running a country. In some ways, I believe He was so jubilant following Ireland because it allowed Him (and us) the chance to revive a proportion of the old order, to indulge, if you will, in our more straightforward rule of law. Cannot blame Him for loss of patience with the Ministry, the Wizengamot, even others in our circle, who do not share the same vision for our prosperity as Our Lord did does.

Private Message to Toshenka

[alt_lucius]

Moreover, you had already begun conversing with Weasley so you would not have heard Him to-night. Our Lord taunted me - somewhat humourously, I think, but nonetheless - regarding His savagery a week ago in selecting me to cast the Cruciatus on Bettina in order to assist His spell. (Not the first time I have been so honoured, to be sure.) He expressed His satisfaction with my role to-night, intimating that He had not been certain I could perform the task to His or your standards (as if I would shirk either of you!) because, as He put it, He was all too cognisant of my reservations when He proposed that young Finnigan should cast the spell or wield the knife.

In the discharge of my duties, then, am glad to have impressed Him, at least, and between last week and this, perhaps, proven once again my fidelity as well as my quality. Still, it means that a threat such as Dominic imagines is not outside the realm of possibility, should He take the notion that I or Draco or any of us require a reminder of His dominion.

Re: Private Message to Toshenka

[alt_antonin]

I hadn't thought to consider how you would react to the matter in that light, of parents and children; it's understandable you would imagine yourself in the scenario in different role. (Well, and particularly after Arthur Weasley's unlamented demise -- even though you did not care for the man in the least, I can only imagine the memories of your father it must have bestirred. If it is any comfort to you, little brother: when next I apply myself to my devotions, I will be burning an offering for Abraxas's souls, along with those of my own dearly departed, and paying honour to his name. I know you view my practices as affectation and bemusement, but I do honour him, for what he has given us in you.)

But then, you and I have always had very differing concepts of death, and of the realms beyond. I've been mulling over, these last few hours as I pondered my reply to you, about what I would have felt if I had been in Finnigan's shoes with Kolya (were he still alive) as the sacrifice, or had I been the one bound with Barty's hand upon the knife. It isn't the same, of course, but -- I think it better, if the action is fated, that it come at the hands or the wand of one who will pay the traveller full honour, and who better for that than one of your family, if not of your blood? For they alone know how precious that blood truly is. I would rather go into the worlds beyond at the bidding of someone who loved me.

But I can see your fears, and Dominic's, when I remember that my faith is far from universal. And I hope you do know that whenever you do go forth -- may that day be far from now -- I will do everything within my power for those of your family you leave behind, as I know you would for me were I to leave any of my blood behind me.

And speaking of faith, I had nothing but, that you would be a most satisfactory acolyte -- well, you know there are none other in this world I would rather have at left and right hand for a rite such as this than Barty and you, save for Our Lord, and had He wished to take the circle, He would of course have played the Magus's role. Must admit I had similar reservations about the wisdom of Finnigan's participation when He first laid forth the possibility, but upon second thought, I believe I take His reasoning: the argument we laid at His feet was that Finnigan was more worth to Him alive than dead, and so He wished to take stock of Finnigan's mettle Himself. (As to that, I agree with you: the boy exceeded my already-high expectations for him. Well, Stephen's eye for potential outdoes even my own, and I am hardly surprised he claimed the pick of the litter to foster.)

I take your meaning about Our Lord's loss of patience, though. I wonder: I've been thinking, recently -- prompted by several conversations from a number of different directions -- about the difference between restoring and nurturing a realm into its full flower, and governing it once it has been shepherded past its childhood and through its growing pains. (And we spiral back to parents and children, and what is owed to, and owed from, each to the other.) Easier for me to see that difference, I suppose, what with having been away throughout those years as our realm moved from war to peace and seeing them now as contrast rather than step-by-step progression. It should have been expected, that our fervor should be co-opted by those who know nothing of our ideals and seek only self-aggrandisement, wanting power and prestige (and Our Lord's reflected glory) without ever understanding or honouring the price we paid, in blood and in sacrifice, to buy this world of which we dreamt for so long.

I do not think that price too dear. But I wonder if Our Lord might be having second thoughts about the being, rather than the becoming, He and we have bought for ourselves. Not of its value -- I have travelled far and wide and would not trade this nation built on our culture and our ideals for any dozen others I have visited between -- but after having fought for so long, the tedium of governing may be grinding Him down, now there are no glorious battles for Him to set his wand to.

I will think more about this. And do whatever I might, that He be reminded that we are His loyal hands, in this world and all the worlds thereafter.

Re: Private Message to Toshenka

[alt_lucius]

My father, Tony, even Serena, in her way - too many over the years. As for your devotions, while I do not share the superstitions, do not think me ungrateful for them - or for the esteem for him that it represents.

But as for your thoughts on the realms beyond this one ... well, that's our age-old debate again, is it not? Perhaps it is better to cleave to a belief in something, as a balm against the 'inevitability' of finality. Personally, thought that was no small portion of Our Lord's mission, in which we are His acolytes, as it were. That when He has mastered the veil, we His best councilors shall share in the bounty.

Though there are times when I wonder

Mordred, you and I both know that despite Our Lord's talents in all things, His predilections have never lain on the road of diplomacy! You have grasped the central difficulty, yes.

Re: Private Message to Toshenka

[alt_antonin]

I still maintain that one of us will someday convince the other, and immediately find himself honour-bound to switch his position immediately so as not to lose the comfortable ground over which we have trod for so long! And I am well aware my bedrock faith in the worlds beyond is alien to you, little brother. You are all so very indulgent in not mocking my beliefs. (Much.)

But as I said, you've given me more to think about, in this particular iteration of our eternal wrangling. About immortality, and the various forms it takes, and about lineage and our responsibility to the ancestors who have gone before us and to the children who have and will come after.

Well, and I suppose that after a rite like last night's is a good time to think those weighty thoughts, and a snowy December eve at the turning of the year is a suitable backdrop!

If it is any consolation to you, if your own thoughts are as vast and ponderous as my own: I will say once again, you and Narcissa have engendered a fine son between you, and nurtured and shaped several other fine children throughout the years. The ones you've had a hand in the raising of proclaim their worth again and again. And as Tony lives on in Pansy, and Serena in Ptolemy, so will you, in Draco. And in the others you've had the teaching of, as I will in my fine collection of students.

As to more pleasant matters: Before this surefit of energy from Friday's working wears off and I must once more return to hoarding every scrap of power this damned curse will spare me, we should take advantage of it. Wednesday is your morning at the Ourobouros, is it not? Will you be keeping that appointment this week despite the holidays, and if so, would you care for a round or two? And we can discuss the ways in which we might be of the greatest assistance to Our Lord and His vision, and redouble our efforts to take the more displeasing parts of His obligations from His shoulders, that He might be more free to continue His work in the ways He sees fit.