The Societies (masteratarms) wrote in thesocieties, @ 2010-10-11 22:26:00 |
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* * * Upon their arrival, the restaurant hostess escorts each member to the restaurant's private dining room. Fellow Wicks Whitney Warrington (the youngest member of the Alumni Council and landlady of Warrington House), Matthew Bobbin (Hogwarts Potions professor), and Darian Savage (assistant to Headmistress Bloxam) are already there when the younger alumni arrive. They chat as they wait for all the expected members to arrive, but Whitney and Matthew are both a little nervous. Darian suggests the younger alumni have a Ring of Fire, which his Circle class had designated as the official Circle drink. (It's orange-red and full of Tabasco sauce. Whitney interrupts to suggest they don't try it.) Once all the expected members arrive and dinner orders are taken, Whitney asks what they know about owls: not the bird itself, but what it means within, and to, the Circle. After finding out that the answer is not much, she launches into a history lesson. * * * The "owl contingent" began in the late 1970s/early 1980s as a secret sect within the Circle. A secret society within a secret society, if you will. It was political, liberal, and dedicated to uncovering, removing, and disgracing Wicks who were involved in Death Eater activity. When this sect was outed, the rest of the Circle was unhappy with these deeds, and a big philosophical question was posed: where does a Wick's loyalty lie? With fellow society members, even when their politics are abhorrent, or with political ideals, even if sticking to those ideals means betraying one's fellow society members? As an act of restitution and an attempt to put blood politics behind them, the class of 1982 voted to expunge the records of the owl contingent, to forgive and erase all political deeds of its members, and to move forward as a unified society. * * * At this point, Whitney says, only slightly ominously, that this information is confidential, and she asks them to not share what is said during this meeting with anyone outside their class. "The rest of the Alumni Council doesn't know how much--" Whitney takes a moment to choose her words carefully "--how much I try to look after your class, and the actives." She's dead earnest with this next remark. "I would strongly suggest not discussing theses matters with those outside of us, because I am dedicated to ensuring some secrets stay secret from those who wish you harm." With that, she moves on. * * * The latest incarnation of the Circle's "owl contingent" sprang forth in 2018, after the Alumni Council held a special meeting to address what members had been calling "the Muggleborn situation." A member of the Alumni Council submitted a proposal to change the selection process for taps, to ensure that a Muggleborn was tapped in each class. This proposal was torn apart and defeated, mostly with justifications of tradition (don't mess with the Eye!) but with a little purism on the side (can't trust Muggleborns to appreciate the cream of wizarding society). Some of the more progressive members, however, couldn't take no for an answer, and they instead took up the mantle of the owl contingent, dedicated to quietly and determinedly bringing equality to the Circle. "There are twenty-four of us alumni who consider ourselves part of the owl contingent," Whitney says. "And, after tonight, possibly more." Darian corrects her: "Twenty-three, now that Slinkhard has been rusticated." At confused looks, he expands on that. "Disavowed. Turned into a Shadow. Expelled from the Circle." * * * Rudy Slinkhard, Darian explains, was expelled from the Circle this past week by the Alumni Council. (Whitney is quick to interject that it wasn't a unanimous vote.) He was fired by the Ministry, too, and called to face the Wizengamot, just like the newspaper is reporting, but that mess is all the work of the Circle. "This, little Wicks, is what the Circle can do if you cross it," Darian says wryly. "Those charges, and the reason for his unemployment, are false. The Circle thinks it made him, so it thinks it can break him." Whitney cuts through Darian's fancy talk to explain: the Alumni Council, in investigating the circumstances of the Eye selecting Muggleborns, fingered Rudy Slinkhard as the cause of it. "He's one of us--still one of us--but he had the misfortune of being at Hogwarts, and in the vicinity of the Eye, the week before the Eye of Saint Valentine ceremony." Further investigation found in his possession books from the Library about the Eye and about spells involving blood determination. The Alumni Council, citing a source at the Daily Prophet, also accused him of being Gordon Unwin, who went public (if anonymously) about the Circle now including Muggleborns. After a heated debate, the Alumni Council voted to expel Rudy for his disloyalty to the Circle and its traditions, and Whitney (and the other owl contingent members) suspect that the more conservative (and vindictive) elements of the Alumni Council have pulled strings to get him fired and in possible legal danger as revenge. Though he was involved with the owl contingent and supportive of their endeavors, he wasn't the one who orchestrated or implemented the process of tapping Muggleborns. At this point, Darian and Whitney turn to Matthew, who has so far been quiet, to continue the story. * * * Matthew explains that he had first intended only to examine the Eye to see what sort of magic is used to prevent Muggleborns from ever being tapped. It took him, with the assistance of others in the owl contingent, a couple years to figure out the magic used to do that, and then develop the magic used to modify it so that Muggleborns could be tapped. He hadn't intended the modified Eye to tap mostly Muggleborns, or to not tap any purebloods. His main concern was to make sure that Muggleborns could be tapped. He repeats this, trying to get this point across. He knows there were Circle-worthy purebloods in last year's sixth-year class who did not get tapped, but his intention, and the intention of the owl contingent, was never to discriminate against purebloods. He doesn't know if the Eye will continue to disregard purebloods in its selection process, only that now, it does at least recognize Muggleborns. He says their work was an attempt to fix the Eye, to remove the blood discrimination magic inherent in it. He didn't modify or add any silencing charms. He just changed the way it considered bloodlines. Matthew was also the one to draft the Gordon Unwin letter, but "it was from all of us," Whitney adds. "I, for one, wasn't happy with the bad press the Circle was getting both at Hogwarts and everywhere else, when certainly, none of you were responsible for the hazing, or any Ministry employment discrimination." "I should have been more organized," Matthew says, still frustrated. "I should have kept better track of my own notes, my own records. I think I've found everything, but there still could be more. And Rudy--" "He doesn't blame you," Whitney says to him firmly. She turns to the younger alumni. "And he's certainly not mad at you, or anyone else other than the Alumni Council. We all knew, by going behind the backs of the official Circle, we were risking very much. We still are risking a lot." * * * While the group eats and discusses, Brian Proudfoot (owner of the building, landlord of Glinda Gardens) enters the dining room. Society talk stops, he's greeted by both Whitney and Matthew (Darian rolls his eyes and studiously avoids acknowledging Brian), and he hands Matthew a roll of parchment while Whitney introduces him to the others at the meeting. He looks over the attendees with interest and says semi-quietly to Whitney, "Yours aren't what I expected." He then makes a polite departure, and Whitney directs the conversation back toward society stuff. * * * At the end of dinner, Whitney clarifies why the owl contingent is officially recruiting the class of 2023. "You have already been casualties of this battle, unfortunately," she says. "I'm doing my best to keep the current actives out of this, and to keep their morale up, because it's not their fault at all. I don't want them to regret agreeing to join this society. I don't want them to be used as political pawns because of stuffy traditions." "I wouldn't worry about that particular set of students being unwittingly used as pawns," Matthew says, smiling a little for the first time during that night. "The Eye chose well." "As it does," Darian agrees. Whitney continues, explaining that things are getting dangerous now. Not only was one of their own expelled from the Circle and is in the middle of having his life unfairly ruined, but also:
* * * Whitney and Darian stay behind to talk and answer questions, but Matthew leaves at the dinner's conclusion to meet Althea Clearwater (Muggle sister of Minister Clearwater, his collaborator in the wizarding music project, and his girlfriend) at the restaurant's bar. * * * Any Circle 23er who missed tonight's dinner can meet with Whitney at some other point during the week and also receive this information, or hear it all second-hand from fellow members. Characters' reactions to the dinner, questions characters might have asked (we'll respond with answers), or comments they might have made, can be posted to this thread. Whitney wants to hear from each of the 23ers by next week Monday. We'll solicit their responses (who's in and who's out) on next Sunday's plot post, so decisions don't need to be made or posted until then. |