Lee Jordan

We've been getting the word out about avoiding floo and portkey use. Promising more information to come, but that it might be a bit.

Starting to get reports of odd magics, mostly west. Wales, the west of Scotland, Cornwall, Devon. Unusual waves, a lot of fish showed up dead off Portpatrick, an entire beach worth's of rocks by Aberystwyth are now coral instead. We're making a list, even the things that don't sound related, but nothing's been obviously lethal or dangerous that we've heard.

Other info about Fradswell we should get out? We've not heard much from contacts in London yet.

Mrs L -

Sorry, had to stop running people out to other sites for the night, my parents lost it about my not being home all week. Should be able to get out a bit more tomorrow.

Everyone else, we've been moving people from Sherwood elsewhere, the people who don't want to focus on fighting. Still sorting it out, who's best where, so there may be more moving people round. If you hear of anyone somewhere looking for specific skills or whatnot. And there's a lot of food and blankets and all that sort of stuff that needs to get matched up with people who need it, if you can spare a couple of hours.

Wayne and I both have a pretty good sense of who might know things or need things, and Mrs L has a full list.

Pansy, the folks at the radio have been working on the new words, think they've got it near ready. Plan to debut it Monday evening, right after the news. I passed the word onto the button network people, so everyone knows to listen.

So here’s the thing. The radio folks at Aldrich have been talking to the handful of women who ended up there, and they’ve got it in their heads to do this big reporting thing talking about the device and what happened, and how horrible it was. Not just brief news, but something way bigger, more involved, I guess.

Only, um, yeah. Do we want that?

They’ve been talking about it for days, I guess, and when I turned up this morning, they grabbed me and basically said they were going to, and they were just telling me as a courtesy.

Mrs Longbottom, I asked them to wait, please, because, I didn’t know if that was a good idea, and I couldn’t think through all the bits on the spot. And I said I’d tell you all today, and we’d get back to them this week with whatever thoughts we had.

(The women there seem to think talking about it would help, but they’re sort of not really clear about it? And I’m not sure if all of them think the same way, too, but I couldn’t figure out how to ask, and they’re still pretty wary of men and wizards, and I’m both, so. Maybe someone else needs to talk to them.)

I can probably get out there Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, depending on work, or can tell you who to talk to if some other time’s better. Or someone else is.

Got some more news from Saltash to share. We managed to get a group from Aldrich out there - it was a trick. But there's good news, too.

For one, they got the worst burn cases stabilised - we managed to sort out the patrol patterns enough we could sneak the worst cases just outside the border and use magic.

Two, we had Regina (Mrs Lee) and Lisa, who's her assistant, from Moddey Dhoo along, and they had all sorts of advice about garden plots and winter crops - beans and cabbage and kale. Real nutritious. They're still worried about food, though.

Three, they're looking at building a water wheel for power. Couple of people there have an idea how to make it and what to do when they've got it.

Four, I rounded up enough radio receivers they could have them various places (we got some for the various bits of the Bedford Collective, too), and both places are working on radio tower plans. (That's part of why we want the water wheel pronto.)

They're still real short on food choices, and there's still a lot of people recovering from burns and stuff. And I guess there's other news about how much MLE's been searching the caves near there, but I heard a bit about whether it's worth trying to tunnel down and meet one of the caves in the area now they're starting to lay off those searches, so we could get more food in and out easy. Other things, too, of course.

And the Aldrich folks have been talking to Saltash and to Bedford about governance and all that. (I think the Saltash folks are just still too busy to sort some of it out, but they're thinking it through.)

I've been talking with Fred and George about putting a hand in with their business (we like your idea of setting up a place that could help incubate new businesses, Mrs Weasley. I think Fred and George were going to send you an owl about that). But I've also been thinking about trying to find a job in radio. I got interested in it from commentating on the Quidditch matches at Hogwarts.

Have also been thinking: I've been collecting old ham radio equipment. Could Aldrich Town be a good place for a radio station? Free Britain Radio or Free Albion Radio (or whatever we're gonna call ourselves after the Protectorate). I'm not sure I'm ready to apply to live there permanently (for one thing, not sure what I'd tell my parents) but maybe I could go in and do a show once a week or something? Something with a mix of muggles and magical folk talking.

Bad news. Neville passed this on to me.

Sally-Anne Perks was caught by Madam Umbridge giving Stephen Capper a tisane to help him sleep, because he's been so terrified of what happened to his brother happening to him. It wasn't even one of the medicinal potions you left for her, Madam Pomfrey. It was just stuff like chamomile and valerian. But Madam Umbridge said she wasn't allowed to do it, even if it was only a tea, and her punishment is that she's not allowed to brew any potions at all until after the O.W.L.s exams--even in class, or with supervision!

It's clear that the Headmistress is determined to make her flunk her exams.

Well, we're not gonna let it happen.

Her classmates in her year plan to nick the potions ingredients she needs, and I've agreed to supervise her brewing. We have a room where we can do it securely. Haven't talked to Fred, but I bet he'd be willing to help, too. And yeah, we know we have our own N.EW.T. exams to study for, but we can be with her, looking over her shoulder, and working on our own stuff as she's going through each brewing step.

So it stinks, but we're not letting the pink toad win on this one.

So....

After Sunday's meeting, I've been thinking: I wonder if one of us should try testing things out a bit with Madam Headmistress Bumbridge. What exactly is she likely to do if she gets hacked off with one of us? What sorts of punishment are we risking if we run afoul of Her Foulness?

We should try to gauge it so whatever we do isn't too serious, but would give us a good idea of what to expect. I think it had better not be a half-blood, because I don't want to give her that excuse to make additional trouble for whoever's doing the experiment. You two already have a bit of a reputation, whereas my record's more clean. I'm not a Prefect. It's already clear she's not gonna put me in her stupid student organisation, so I wouldn't be burning any bridges there. And I'm not on the Quidditch team, so she can't cut me from that, although she may yank my privileges to broadcast the games. But I'm willing to volunteer.

I'm thinking a Private message. Nothing too incendiary or likely to get us in trouble as regime disloyal, just critical of her, with everything in it arguably true.

I've met with Nick Towler a couple of times to try to get a read on what he thinks of his new job and the Ministry. And you, Mr Weasley. We met at his house again last night, and stayed in his room and talked there. I put up one of the charms Fred and George showed me (without him noticing). So I'm sure we weren't overheard. He shares a room with his brother Ken, but Ken was staying overnight with a friend.

I suggested chess, since Nick always liked to chat while playing (drove his opponents mad, in fact). He had opinions about everyone, but he likes Vilas Rupadam (hope I'm spelling that right) and Mr Weasley the best. Vilas has been good about showing him the ropes, and he's brilliant at knowing where every last piece of parchment is. And Mr Weasley because he 'treats people decent.'

He's changed since the Frost Faire. Dunno how to describe it, exactly. Maybe quieter. Less happy-go-lucky. But I'm a long-time friend, so he trusts me, and he opened up more last night. He's been smarting over some remarks he's heard at his job, casual slurs about half-bloods. The thing is, he's a half-blood, although technically he's classified as a pureblood, now, since they 'elevated' his family in blood status when his brother Mark was killed. He knows perfectly well that everyone calls him a pureblood, but no one thinks of him as one. So he takes those remarks he hears dropped all the time as little digs at his competence. Gets him real hot under the collar. It's making him think, maybe for the first time, about other stuff he's heard all his life. He's heard talk around the department since he started work about muggles and mudbloods: about how they're nothing but animals, and dumber than rocks and can't wipe their bums without help--sorry, but that's the way he put it.

Thing is, Nick's a real fan of history. Not just magical history, but the history of England before the Protectorate. 'It's bleedin' crazy,' he told me. 'Muggle England was the navigation superpower of the world, ruling an empire spread across the planet. The royal families ruled for over a thousand years. And now we're supposed to believe that the people who did that are incapable of anything but hoeing turnips for wizards?'

I took a chance. I asked him, 'So do you think the way the Ministry treats muggleborns is right? Or muggles?'

That seemed to make him struggle a good while. But he finally said, 'No.' Looked troubled and added, 'But it's not like I can do anything about it.'

Mr Weasley, I think Fred and George steered you right when they told you to hire him.

This is my last post here on the Lock. I turn 17 tomorrow! Funny, because I haven't really posted much, just commented mostly. Anyway, I'll see you lot back at school and Terry, you will be hearing from me, because I'll write to you, using Pig.

I'm going to miss this, talking freely the way the Lock lets us do, but you know that since I hang out with Gred and Forge, I'll be keeping my hand in with causing mayhem.

Ron and Nev, we'll be counting on you mostly to keep us up-to-date with what you think we should know. But this safe space is up to you to run now.

Use it well.

Hey, Gred and Forge, in case you didn't get the message passed on to you via your mum to Charlie to you, CHECK YOUR JOURNALS.

We're trying to find out more, and we'll let you know what we find out.