RP: Cassandra w/ Notes to Belvina & Regulus Who: Cassandra Urquhart, Belvina Black, and Regulus Black Where: Urquhart Estate to Hogwarts When: Sunday, 19 September, 2025 Summary: Cassandra makes plans and contact.
From the first radio broadcast of James Potter's, Cassandra had been considering her options for if things were to get worse. Once she began corresponding with Belvina and Regulus inside Hogwarts, those considerations became preparations for the day she would have to leave, either to join them at the castle or to flee to her family's home in France. Ever the pragmatic, she had known she would not be able to continue her activities forever.
Although, she had thought to have longer than this.
The attack on Friday, both Katherine and Lilith being taken into the school, and now the note from Lex, it was all coming to a head now and she wasn't going to trust to luck to see her safely through this at the Estate. It was time to leave now, while the injured were still healing and the enemy was preoccupied with recovering from it's losses.
Still, she had the horses and her staff to worry about. Many of the staff that had stayed had done so out of loyalty to the family and to her. She couldn't simply abandon them to fate. And, the horses were her family's legacy. She refused to leave them behind to be taken as some sort of spoils of war once her defection was discovered.
As soon as she received Lex's note, she began writing owls to all those she had appointments with that week, for lessons or sales, cancelling those appointments and giving a sudden outbreak of a mild disease requiring the horses be quarantined for some time as the reason. That would buy her some time before anyone came to the Stables. A notice of quarantine was also placed at the Stable entrance.
While she sent the owls, the Stables' house elves were sent into the muggle world. Several of the staff who had disappeared earlier in the summer were muggleborn, as were some of the breeders of non-winged horses she dealt with. It had been to these people she sent inquiries after Potter's first broadcast. Now, she would use the plans they had put in place to protect her family's legacy and see the horses, both winged and non, transported safely to family lands in France that had been readied for this purpose by her father and sister during their 'grand tour'.
Though she wasn't exactly sure how these 'horseboxes' the muggleborns talked of worked, they were muggle transportation and therefore untraceable by the lunatics in charge. As the other, muggleborn, breeders came from muggle families who operated muggle businesses, the horses would be safely transported by ship under these business names, again passing through channels not monitored by Wizarding government. Once they were on French soil, they would become de Montmorency property until they could be brought back to the Urquhart lands.
The staff would be going with the horses as they would be needed to get them settled in their new stables. It would also get the staff to safety, not leave them behind to face whatever repercussions came from her own flight.
Grandfather wouldn't leave. He'd refused to go with Father and Persephone in June. As the summer had worn on, it became more apparent than ever his loyalties had never changed since the seventies. Though she had hinted at what might happen if they had to leave, Dhougal Urquhart would never leave his estate while he still believed in the Dark Lord's propaganda. Hopefully, that support would be enough to keep him safe after Cassandra was gone.
Cassandra herself would go to Hogwarts if she was able. Inside the walls she would be useless to Belvina and Regulus as an avenue of information. But, there might still be something she could do there to help in the work. While she was not a true fighter, she also could not sit idly by and watch her world fall apart, her family and it's history burned to ruins. It might not be safe for her to stay, but she wouldn't abandon all hope, either.
Once the plans to bring in the horseboxes after midnight, to start transporting the horses out, were confirmed, her next task was to write to her allies at Hogwarts. The answer she received from there would decide her own course of action. Those notes she entrusted only to Dorcas; and, after she had sent the house elf off with those missives, Cassandra could turn to the next step in her evacuation plans -- boxing up all her ledgers and employee records, anything that would be necessary to resume business again when this was over, or which might lead searchers to the muggleborn employees helping her, and shrinking the boxes down to take with her wherever she would go.
Dear Regulus,
I have received word this evening the Ministry is being closed and a state of martial law will be declared. This information comes from a friend within the Ministry, a friend who has also recommended, in light of Katherine's 'disappearance', that a trip abroad might be in order.
Though I had not thought to accept your previous offers of safe haven so soon, it would seem the time has come.
I am sending our horses to the muggle world for transportation to family properties in France. All of my staff, as well as the house elves working for the business, will go with them to safety. My wish would be to remain on Scottish soil and continue what little I may do in working to rid us of this lunacy. However, if it is not possible for me to join you there, send word back with Dorcas and I will arrange to leave the country by other means.
My only regret is my flight will leave you with one less avenue of information, which I fear will be sorely needed in the days to come.
Sincerely, Cassandra
Dear Belvina,
I have written to Regulus, but also wished to write you personally, as well.
Lex has gotten word to me this evening the Ministry is being closed down. We will be in a state of martial law come morning. His advice to me was to close the Stables and consider a trip abroad, particularly in light of Katherine's disappearance.
I have decided to take his advice. I cannot hope to remain unnoticed for long after the manner of both Katherine and Lilith's disappearances. My own social intrigues may now begin to work against me. Still, I do not intend to wait and see if I will be found out. I am getting the horses and staff to safety. Then, if there is no way for me to join you there, I will be leaving the country.
Either way, I do not know how long it will be before you hear from me again. I do hope you are well and uninjured after the events of Friday night.