These restrictions placed by Fletcher are ridiculous. I'm fine. Though the business of writing all communication is damned inconvenient. Shall need you to attend meetings along with me for next week; possibly two if I allow Fletcher his caution.

Meanwhile, see no reason not to re-commence business as usual after the week-end. Only leave Monday afternoon open since Mrs Malfoy will be taking Draco back up to school and returning. (Need to be back at the Manor before her Witch Weekly commitment has been met for the day.)


So. First things first: Have you contacted Rousseau's office since the Cup? Shall need to ensure that nothing about the incident has affected plans for Hogwarts. Suspect Selwyn has thought of it already but sure he has not had time to address it with Pontner; can only hope that Pontner exhibited some intuition regarding the need for action. Would be advantageous to take the initiative there as soon as possible. Same for the Bulgarians, though Pontner has been taking the lead there all along, so presumably he has already assuaged any misgivings they might have in light of the incident.

On that note, Bartley and Runcorn can wait. Push them out to mid-month.

Instead need Cuffe - first thing Monday. And bring the report on the casualties from the Harrogate camp reprisals (are they calling that the 29^th or was it 30^th by the time the demonstrators left the arena? No-one has told me). Want him here before MLE's press gaggle at ten o'clock.

Also Clarriker: Have the books ready. Wish to instruct him to increase the percentage of imports tithed to Buckingham by 10% - half of which ought to come from his portion, of course. He'll object; we shall impress upon him the importance of Our Lord's continued good favour; he'll capitulate. Tuesday would be acceptable if he cannot come Monday morning.


Blast. Reminds me: Thursday was first of the month. Need to go over the accounts to-morrow, then. Come to the Manor ... after tea will do. Should take no more than an hour or two.


Mrs Malfoy mentioned you had to answer for one or two rather insistent (and inventive) would-be visitors who slipped through our outer protections before someone discovered their presence. Kindly provide a list of the names. Trust that neither Hooper parent was among the invasive ones; of course, were there any of a suspicious nature, it would be prudent to inform Zuckerman immediately.

Speaking of which, understand that the younger Runge presented him-self to Our Lord at yesterday's Court. No need to guess why. Contact him but not before Wednesday noon and arrange tea at the Elysian or the Ouroboros sometime in the next week month.


Finally, seem to recall that we had agreed to host a supper at Ouroboros for new members. Check the diary. Think it may have been 17^th September. See if Yaxley will take it on; if not him (though it would be wise for him with MLE's upcoming announcement), then try Avery or barring him, Mulciber. Any of them ought to be attending, at any rate. Merely a matter of acting as master of ceremonies.

Sure there will be more by to-morrow. Already forgetting something.

Ah, yes. Mme Froissart's accommodations. Munroe's written to say he's had a change of heart and he'll vacate Mellerstain. However. In light of recent events, my sister feels it makes no sense to return to France in the interim. (Some plot she and Mrs Malfoy have concocted, I assume, to plague me with nursemaids over the next three weeks.) As a result, she would like to take residence at the end of September instead of the end of October. Have drafted an agreement for him to consider which you may deliver after we're done here in the afternoon.

Received word that the referendum on muggleborn registration passed through the French Confederation to-day. Over the next sixty days, all mudbloods residing within the country shall be required to submit their wands to be registered. Any mudblood using an unregistered or unmarked wand shall be subject to arrest or fine. Have already sent congratulations to Dideron and Minister Rousseau. This marks a vital step in their campaign to align themselves more closely with the Protectorate - and a necessary one if our borders and countries are to become linked more openly than they have been.


As if to demonstrate this commitment, this month's Muggleborn Labour Committee came to complete agreement regarding the need for a decennial census within the camps. What the Committee could not determine with any consensus was whether or not to grant Carpenter's request for a hundred test subjects. His proposal showed merit, but some fundamental misunderstandings of the challenges facing their adoption as domestics. Although if successful, his method would virtually ensure the obedience of said servants. Nonetheless, until such time as he can prove to the committee's satisfaction that he adequately understand and has prepared for the risks, a one-hundred subject study is far too ambitious. Recommended he revisit the feasibility of conducting a five-person pilot instead, to be reviewed next quarter.


Excellent bit of sparring, however, on Wednesday. Ouroboros has revamped its course, which brought our party back to square one and led to some unintentional humour. I daresay Cadmus had grown entirely too used to the left turning after the third obstacle on the old course; it's now a right followed by a swift vault left onto the balance bridge. He saw it a split-second too late and bounced off the corner - right into my stunning spell (and thence into the water trap). I think the whole episode added perhaps ten seconds to the side's overall time. I very much doubt we can count on the same again, however.


Continue to note with interest how the newest feature of Our Lord's beneficence - Private Messages - has been adopted with both success and, it would seem, its own etiquette regarding appropriate use. Urquhart's misguided choices aside, it seems there are some topics still sensitive enough to warrant the formality of an owl. Though one wonders, in some cases, why it would be worth the bother. For example, if one addresses a private message, the contents are hidden but the recipients are named plainly for all to see. What then, one wonders, is the logic in using an owl to apologise for sending the first message? Particularly when to do so draws more attention than simply leaving the first message lie, and moreover when the matter had been concluded with no special need for additional communication? Believe the reasoning must either rest in the author's youth and inexperience, in her lack of exposure to any semblance of polite society or perhaps simply owing once more to her determination to prove that her complaint and request had no basis in validity in the first place. It could be a simple side-effect of residing in Gryffindor House - but one is acquainted with some Gryffindors who do have more sense than a transfigured turnip. Few of them, for certain, but it is possible. Well. No matter; this is why one has a competent clerk.


Another week-end of social obligation awaits: I believe it's to be an anniversary and a house-warming? Oh, and Narcissa has a shower or two on Sunday, I think, though thankfully I may count on those hours to catch up on manuscripts for Obscurus and new applications for entry into the Protectorate.