YPL

[alt_blaise]

That was ridiculous. Utter chaos.

It should have been a brilliant game, and would have been, if everyone had played by the rules. I've no idea what game certain people thought they were playing, but it wasn't the one Madam Umbridge laid out for us.

I mean, in what world does Lovegood win a fair fight?

Comments

[alt_padma]

Too right.

Alliances were bound to happen, I mean, we all had at least one truce and even more small units working together here and there, but there were, what, at least ten people all working together at one point. They had to have been communicating somehow. Maybe signals or something.

[alt_blaise]

Too right is absolutely right.

I had a better vantage than you did towards the end--thank you very much: yes, surprised, but I can acknowledge when I'm bested. Anyway, you probably didn't see, but that whole group converged on the pureblood stronghold and consulted. I'm certain of it. And they were acting in complete coordination when they ended.

They'd planned for it to be Lovegood.

It's baffling. I mean, I don't imagine she's even capable of Imperius, do you?

[alt_padma]

Well, you did ask for a surprise.

She may not be capable of casting Imperius but she's certainly capable of making a mockery of anything she puts her hand to. What I can't work out is why she of all people would care so much about winning that she'd buy everyone else's cooperation--to say nothing of what in Lakshmi's name she'd have to buy them with.

If we can work out how they were consulting, though...I've looked and none of them posted in their journals (which wasn't surprising, I mean, who spends time writing in a journal during an exercise like that?) but I also didn't see any other signs of them being able to talk together.

I wonder what Madam Umbridge would do if we figured out how they cheated.

[alt_blaise]

I wonder, too.

The answer to that would be clearer if it hadn't looked like Harry was part of it. Maybe he just happened to be in that same area.

[alt_padma]

Like you said, you had a better vantage. I heard, of course, how they all pulled off each other's armbands all at the same time. But Parkinson and Perks were in the thick of it, that's for sure. Finch-Fletchley, Lestrange, Corner, Hopkins, Summers and Stebbins, Weasley of course, Bundy, and I think even Daphs was in on it. Though maybe she just appreciated the grand dramatic gesture of it.

Private Message to Padma Patil

[alt_blaise]

She's gone completely daft about Weasley. Makes one wish the Revue were over, really. It's getting absolutely revolting at rehearsals.

Hm.

We could say we overheard Weasley conspiring with one or two of the others. Madam Umbridge would obviously take our word for that. And we know it's true, even if we didn't entirely hear them confessing it.

Re: Private Message to Padma Patil

[alt_padma]

Honestly I don't know what she's thinking. First Bole, then Krumgold and now Weasel? It's like her tastes are getting more and more common.

And as for turning them in, it'd be much better if we had something more than suspicion. You don't suppose you could get her to confirm whether she was working with them all?

We could meet after supper to talk about it. And rehearse what we'll tell Umbridge. Not in the Corner, though. There's a spot on the 7^th floor where the staircase turns onto an alcove. By the portrait of Brandon the Barefoot. There.

Re: Private Message to Padma Patil

[alt_blaise]

I'll ask her.

And I'll see you after supper. I know where you mean.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

I know, I know, it's TOTALLY UNTHINKABLE what can be accomplished when someone has friends who actually like them.

[alt_zacharias]

We had a team for a while but your lot annihilated too many of us. I think my fave part was the ice slide. Actually, I think we'd have had just as much fun if we'd simply had a snowball fight with that slide and the forts as places to cover.