The Dungeons

Well! Quite a birthday this year, wouldn't you agree, Fred?

I would, Fred. Very....enjoyable. Quiet. Relaxing.

( How was everyone else's day? )

Well. Not bad overall. Worth coming home late for, in fact. Really, I think I'll keep the ring.

Dear Dad,

I need a little help if you don't mind with a small problem at work. It seemed like a better question for Hagrid but he only said "it's just what it says on the tin, lad," and then he laughed and then he said to ask you, so there it is. I'm looking after the reptiles and amphibians here at the Zoo which is usually the herpetologist's job but she's gone off on maternity leave, which is quite a good thing really but she's left me with all these notes about looking after them and most of the notes are perfectly clear - really it's just a question of doing what it says on the tin, just as Hagrid says, most of the time. Anyway the trouble is that there's one recipe for a tonic for a North American snake - just a regular snake, but it's in the Animals We Can Talk To exhibit, because it's such a pretty one, a Diamondback Rattler they call it, even though they're not real diamonds, they're just shaped like diamonds - and most of the ingredients are easy enough to come by if they're not in the stockroom here already, but the potion calls for Ten Diamond Match Match-heads, and I don't know what those are or where I can find them, but we don't have them around our workrooms or our potion labs at the zoo. I suppose if Hagrid said to ask you, they must be some Muggle thing? You don't by any chance know where I could find them, do you? Because the snake is looking a bit peaky and I would hate for the herpetologist to come back from leave and find it doing poorly.

My love to Mum, and to you of course,

your son Charlie

p.s. We won't be about this weekend because we're off to spend the Canadian holiday in Alberta with a friend of Elle's, speaking of North America. But we'll drop by the Sunday for supper and a chat.

"Yellow diamonds IN THE LIGHT

And we're standing SIDE BY SIDE

As your shadow crosses MINE

What it takes to COME ALIVE...."

Harry sings loudly along with Rhianna as he flips through file jackets full of proposed policy changes, slightly muffled when he takes a gulp of steaming hot tea from the cup that's left rings on the polished wood surface of his desk.

Shine bright like a diamond
Shine bright like a diamond

Find light in the beautiful sea
I choose to be happy
You and I, you and I
We’re like diamonds in the sky

You’re a shooting star I see
A vision of ecstasy
When you hold me, I’m alive
We’re like diamonds in the sky...

Blue diamonds how they sparkle for the one who warms my heart and soul.

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Along with the note is a small box containing an antique blue diamond brooch in the style of the Cullinan Blue Diamond Necklace.

*a quiet knocking*

Is there any chance you could make yourself less busy for a few minutes, Professor Snape?

R.

Just finished the exhibition match against the Fitchburg Finches. We won, of course. Up Harpies and all that. Off to buy a few pints for the girls--one thing to be said about Massachusetts is that they've at least got a few decent pubs around--but I thought I'd Floo over a present. I know how you like to munch when I'm away.

See you tomorrow morning, love.

V.

-----------------------
Attached to the note is a tin of Diamond brand pecan pralines.

Pretty much the best thing about seventh year is being allowed in the classrooms at night. Any kind of homework seems more fun when you could kill yourself entirely unsupervised.

Issy, I want a telescope for Christmas. I think I miss Astronomy. And Divination. And Potions.

I wish I could go to school without going to school with anyone annoying.

Bill sits with a tall businessman wearing a pinstriped suit, spats, and black lipstick, smoking brown cigarettes and nursing a dark beverage in tiny cups. A drag act performs on stage, but they are seated toward the back, in deep shadow. Only a portion of Bill's dialogue has been captured.

...

It's not the diamond, anyway. Diamond is seventy-five.

Nope, can't find that buggering file anywhere. Charlie any of those ones over there blue? Any of them say Trewallagher? Lil's a wonder at, well, lots of things, but she can't file for shit.

Sorry, what were you saying? Why do we need to go see Bill?

Well. You two.

And here I was thinking the ban on Apparition in here was just tedious but practical. Now it seems like a conspiracy.

Oh, for the love of Merlin.

( Go away. )

If I've got things straight now then I think I'm in America, but I shouldn't be. Must be April Fool's Day again.

If anyone is out there looking for me then I'm at a place called Pegu Club in SoHo: http://www.peguclub.com/flash/. That's SoHo, New York, obviously. The main problem was I didn't wake up till afternoon and so hungover it took me till dinner to really function at all. Then I was looking for a computer I could use and just wound up here. And then I remembered that I don't have a computer at all I have this iPad, which is part phone and part computer and part camera and part library and part sound system and part tv and generally seems to run this life. So here I am.

I suppose it's convenient that everyone knows me here, including that I apparently drink earl grey martinis at a stunning pace. Which explains the hangover. And no one finds these clothes ridiculous, although whoever's life I'm in he could aim for something a little classier is all I'm saying. Overall they've given us worse challenges over the years, but if any harm comes to my children I will be looking for answers. And my voice sounds absurd. Like a bad Muggle movie.

Severus? Harry? I'm hoping for the sake of the Weasley twins surviving to another birthday that the children are with you?

DUDES! Where is Lily???? Binns is trying to foobar my whole...

Oh, hey Binns, howzit.

*Bill is adjusting an extravagant cravat while staring at a Rococo mirror, in which his reflection does not appear. He speaks to himself.*

Mah deah boy, you look positively extrOHdinary.

*Mimes a bow*

Wah thank you, Ah'm sure. Have you had a look at the moon tonight?

*Goes to French windows and throws them open, to look at a large, grayish moon that seems to hang heavy and close overhead, turning the landscape silver. Smiles ironically.*

Oh how thoughtless of me!

*Leans on the rail of the balcony and drinks in the air.

Not at all, not at all. Several days past full, anyway.

*Inhales deeply*

Oh yes. Lots to eat. And lots to eat it.