Private message to Antonin Dolohov

[alt_sinistra]

Tosha Antonin Former Headmaster Tosha

We still have missing students.

I We want to make sure there's no one hurt in the castle. Find them before more of them die.

What location spell would you recommend? Something that will tell us if they're in the castle or grounds. I don't care where they are if they've found other places to be.

We've clothing, bedding. Sometimes hair on a brush. Sometimes a bloodlocked container. I've handwriting samples for everyone.

Comments

[alt_antonin]

Gods of all my forbears, you would find the one thing that would make me help you, damn you.

How many missing?

As you're not likely to offer me amnesty to come use the methods I have available to me -- nor, I'm afraid, would I be able to take it if you did -- the second-best option would be to find one of the seventh-year students and ask them to use Whitfield's Pendulum. If they need a reminder, I taught it ... last month, or possibly at the end of March, it all blurs together. Tie a length of string or yarn, precisely seventeen inches long, to a silver ring that has been dipped in vigorously boiling water for ninety-one seconds, then thread what you have of the missing person through the ring and speak the incantation; the ring will be pulled in the direction of the person from whom the sample was taken.

Hair or blood will always work, unless the person who is missing has taken steps to protect against sympathetic magic. If you don't have either, clothing or bedding may work if you tear a strip of the cloth from the portion that had the most skin contact for the longest time and use that. I've never heard of it working with handwritten items -- paper does not hold the right impressions. It has a range of about a quarter-mile; if you don't get a response, either the person you are looking for has warded against sympathetic magic or they are not within range.

[alt_sinistra]

Too many missing. Far too many dead. Working on getting the necessary items together.

If someone has taken steps against sympathetic magic, is there any other method?

Poppy's list

Should you find yourself at any point willing to discuss amnesty or surrender, that's not mine to decide, but I will gladly play messenger owl to the appropriate people.

I am.

I am glad you weren't here.

You'll have seen, maybe. Cedric is alive. Hurt, but alive. Savitha nearly killed. Evelyn is all right too. Linus had the sense to get a dozen younger ones safe and keep them hid.

Too many other dead. Far too many.

[alt_antonin]

Little star, there is no amnesty for the likes of me; to think otherwise is to delude yourself. As I told Miss Perks just now, I made my choices long enough ago that the only thing to do now is to see them through. Particularly since whither Barty goes, I go, and I cannot imagine he is anything but right behind Bella on your list.

Bella, I might add, is all yours. Should you be able to catch her. But I won't let you have what's left without a fight; if you're to kill us for what we've done or kill us in battle, I know which one I'd prefer. Tell Alice Longbottom I look forward to matching wits and wands with her.

Protections against the sort of sympathetic magic we're talking about aren't in the curriculum until fifth year, but if you've sixth and seventh years missing or a particularly precocious fourth or fifth, I'm afraid there's not much that can be done. The elves might be able to help. Or if you have a family member available (parent is best, sibling may work in a pinch), blood ties may be able to override the protections if the family member is the one to perform the spell. Mr Weasley or Mr Finch-Fletchley should be able to teach whoever needs to know. It will work for up to seventy-two hours after death; the pull will be weaker the longer it has been.

[alt_sinistra]

I had to make the offer. Fairness and justice and hard work and inclusion.

I keep thinking about Severus's last post. About how while there's life, there are different choices. But you are right about the necessary justice. And about Barty. Other things I can't think about

We're working on contacting the parents. Or other family. But some of them, we're quite sure, won't answer, won't trust us.

[alt_antonin]

I would advise you, meanwhile, against trying to enter any part of my office other than the receiving room. Please warn Mr Finch-Fletchley in particular that when I am away from the castle for longer than thirty-six hours, the wards all reset themselves, and all access is revoked, until I am able to disarm them; he will be very badly injured if he tries.

[alt_antonin]

And tell my students

Tell them Harry died well. That I had a plan to get him out of there, and he told me not to do anything to stop what would happen, because it was what he needed to do.

And that Voldemort died screaming

[alt_sinistra]

I will tell the ones I can.

It. I haven't been able to think about Harry.

Or stop thinking about him. Both. At once.

But of course he did what was needed.

[alt_antonin]

Necessity is, as it always has been, the most powerful motivator anyone has ever found.

[alt_sinistra]

Right.

Tosha. Would you be willing to officially resign the Headship? I don't know, write a note.

We think the castle might respond better to Septima if you do. The elves say the castle's unwilling to give up her greatest treasures, the students, while things are uncertain. (Well, the 'her' is me, you know how I feel about the place.)

[alt_antonin]

I am afraid, dear heart, that you will pry Hogwarts out of my dead hands. You may now occupy her, but I am still her Headmaster, and I will not give her up without a fight.

I shall, however, order the elves to help you in retrieving those who have not yet been found. This far, and no further.

[alt_sinistra]

Thank you for telling me exactly where you stand.

[alt_sinistra]

To answer what you haven't asked because despite everything you probably deserve to know. Even if I want to strangle you right now. Still. Bloody-minded obstructionist snake.

They asked me to join them last summer. After Raz. They'd been thinking about it a long time, I guess. Years. And I'd seen and heard some things and didn't tell anyone.

I think a lot about what would have been different if Raz had still been alive. He'd had doubts, because of the ritual, after the third task. We'd started talking a little about it, when

We didn't get that choice. And we'd probably both be dead now, without having helped much. So.

It was a lot easier once I found out Harry was part of it. You know my loyalty's been to the school and her students, all along. How could you let it come to this?

I don't think I ever actually lied to you. I tried not to. I just didn't tell you things. And you didn't ask, after the point when I would have had to lie.