Who: Sarah Fawcett What: Hoping the pen is mightier than the wand. When: BACKDATED: Sunday, February 6, 1998 Where: Sarah's cottage in Hogsmeade, then the Owl Post in Diagon Alley Rating: Low
Sarah stared intently at the sheet of parchment that rested on the blotter of her small desk. Several of her previous efforts were crumpled in the bin, but after much revision she thought she finally had it just right. Now, all that remained was summoning up the courage to send it. Before folding and sealing it, she decided to read it through once more.
Madam Editor-
I am writing to express distress over the Wizengamot’s recent passage of the Muggleborn Aid Act. What seems, on the surface, to be a benign and supportive measure to assist the unfortunate victims of the Muggleborn Registration Commission is, in fact, simply a means of forcing those who are already in a tenuous position into even greater dependence on the Ministry.
If one examines the provisions of the Act logically, it is readily apparent that the current Wizarding government has, itself, forced the necessity of such an Aid law by creating a class who are unemployable and viewed as pariahs by the new standards of our society. The legality of the blood purity qualifications, and the very idea of the Muggleborn Registration Commission, should be examined before we leap to pass an Aid act which, without these prior laws and actions, would be unneeded.
In addition, what have we come to - as a society, and as individual wizards and witches - if we are now legislating who is fit to express kindness to our fellow men and women? To our fellow human beings? For a government that could create such depraved conditions for its citizens, and then have the hypocrisy to offer to “save” the victims from those very conditions, I fear that there is no aid.
Satisfied that the letter to the editor of the Prophet was as good as she could possibly make it, Sarah moved to add her signature, pausing just before she did so. This letter was incendiary, and if the Ministry hadn’t already caught on to what she and Stephen had been doing poking around at the Lovegoods’ house, this would certainly bring them right to her door. She couldn’t risk it. But she also couldn’t bear not to send the letter. It was seeing what she had at the Lovegoods’, coupled with Penny’s heartbreaking visit, that had prompted her to write.
No. She would send it.
Thinking for another moment, she smiled and reached for her quill, signing the document with a flourish...
E.S. Dennis
The pseudonym was a simple reversal of her initials and taking her brother’s middle name for the last name, but hopefully it would be enough to throw anyone who wouldn’t like the content off the track. Folding, sealing, and addressing the letter, she picked up her coat and bag. She didn’t dare use her own owl for this, it was too easily traceable. She grabbed a pinch of Floo powder from the jar on her mantel and spun out in the grate at the Leaky. Exiting the pub she strode towards the Owl Post Office in Diagon Alley - even mailing from Hogsmeade was too much of a risk - wishing that the words burning a hole in her pocket would do more good than harm, but not holding out very much hope.