Lucius S Malfoy

The blood traitor resurfaced yet again, like an insect one thinks one has crushed, only to have it scuttle away after lifting one's boot. So of course, the last couple of days have been a bit on the calamitous side.

After the blackguard (no pun intended) retreated from the journal where he made a nuisance of himself, he apparently decided to incite an attempted break-out at Cheswell. It's all in the papers. He must have accomplices in this country, whom he induced through some method (doubtless an illicit and indecent form of magic) to disrupt the camps. Bella believes, as do I, that these culprits are the same miscreants who corrupted the Goblins enough to gain access to Gringotts and rob the bank last month. It makes sense: Their modus operandi seems to lie more in encouraging - possibly forcing - members of these inferior castes to rise up in revolt, creating chaos and bother for the rest of us.

Bella called upon a number of the MLE consultants to come to the scene, on the chance that some of Black's accomplices were there directing the action. No such luck, more's the pity. It took several hours to round up all the escaped Muggles, but not a wizard or witch mingled among them. Whomever started the riot must have Disapparated as soon as they reached a safe distance.

Naturally, after such a long night, I could not be expected to maintain the better part of my agenda on Friday. I confess I quite forgot to notify Crispin to cancel everything apart from tea at Hogwarts. I had every intention of doing so, but when I returned to the Manor, I found that the elf had allowed the bedroom fire to bank and die. He stammered something about not expecting me back home that evening. Utter incompetence - I ought to have done with it and behead the creature. If it had managed to get issue before now, I might have done so already. At any rate, by the time he arranged things to my comfort, I was both too fatigued and too out of sorts to give a thought to my clerk. Narcissa, wonderful woman, kindly set him to rights when he inquired after me around nine, and then compounded her splendid value by sending up a tray around eleven.

The one item I was certain to keep yesterday was tea. There was really no reason to cancel an afternoon engagement, and moreover, I had no wish to disappoint the children after we'd promised to be there.

I fear I rather did disappoint, despite all that, for I had many matters weighing on my mind and must have appeared ... distracted during our interview with Harry, Draco and Pansy. I knew that Pansy wished some private discussion and I was happy to oblige her; but even this I had to cut shorter than I would have liked in order to ensure adequate time for my topics of conversation with the Headmistress.

I have been growing concerned of late with a certain sullenness which I detect in the demeanour of some of the other students, even those who claim to have befriended Harry. Some of this is to be expected, of course, and while I shall necessarily do that in my power to prepare him and Draco to take care of themselves, it is part of growing up that we must all, in the end, fight our own battles and stand our own ground, or be trampled.

Nonetheless, the resentment of their status and resulting theft of valuable items (if they are related), suggests that the other students are not, in fact, as respectful of class as they ought to be. Particularly with the Lord Protector planning to attend Hogwarts next week, this presents a potential embarrassment. I should not like to think of His displeasure should anyone dare to show less than the proper deference to His son.

One individual in particular troubled me, and when I mentioned this to Professor McGonagall, she quite accommodatingly sent for the wretch. While his journal comments to students such as Longbottom seemed oddly bold, in person, he was gratifyingly cowed enough. He could barely look up even when I instructed him to do so. She has told me that he is Amycus' creature; presumably that is more than enough to keep him in his place under normal circumstances. Perhaps this additional dose of contact with a real wizard shall remind him what reason he has to fear.

Looking at the urchin brought home to me, in a way I have not felt so viscerally in some time, how vitally important the Lord Protector's New Order is to our safety and survival. I have always believed with every fibre that dominance over the more prolific, more bestial and less intelligent Muggle population is the only way to truly ensure Wizard prosperity. But this ... abomination, born not of the natural conception between witch and wizard, but rather the unnatural product of Muggle interference and blood-tampering, has no sense of birthright, no idea of the heritage to which real witches and wizards are heir, no cognisance of the higher purpose for which real Wizardkind was meant. This runion, this caitiff, has no hope of truly understanding the power that generation after generation have passed from father to son, mother to daughter, and thus, he is incapable of ever really attaining mastery of his full potential, or more importantly, the extent to which his progenitors have condemned him to a half-life.

In short, he can never be completely a wizard, because he can never be completely trusted not to sympathise with his animalistic forebears.

This week has been quite a study in contrasts: Half-bloods, Muggles and now this Mudblood abomination. I wonder if he has any sense that the ones to blame for his lot are not we, who have at least accorded him some measure of existence among his betters, but the very Muggles who beset him with the burden of powers which he cannot ever truly call his own. By making him the object of a failed attempt to usurp our proper place, it is they, and not we, who have spawned the grotesque creature that he is.

It convinces me more than ever that what we do is necessary, the only acceptable course and above all, right.