::giggle:: if the muse will stay and behave ...
Isaac had managed to calm down - marginally. The Mudblood comment was one thing, but the second part? That had to have crossed some lines. Clutching his journal, the Head Boy paced outside the entrance to the headmaster's office until the door swept open.
Starting inside, he moved up the stairs, even though they were moving as well. Emerging in Dumbledore's office, he dropped his journal on the headmaster's desk, opening it up to the page Lily's entry was on. He thrust one finger wordlessly at the vile comment to her entry, and he gazed at the Headmaster. "Do you really think these journals are a good idea?"
Dumbledore read the entry, though he'd read it the night prior - along with all the other entries that the students had written and left public. Oh, he could read the private ones as well, but he opted not to. Not unless there came a real cause for it.
"I think they are," he said as he offered Isaac a toffee.
"But --" Isaac hesitated, then took the offered candy. "But when people can write things like this,and there's no way to know who wrote them?"
Dumbledore smiled. There were ways, and he reasoned the more clever students would work it out eventually. If they simply combined the right spells ... or found people who recognized the handwriting.
"The students can write other things as well," the headmaster pointed out as he picked up Isaac's journal. Flipping back a few pages, he showed him another entry. This one was from a third year, detailing how excited he was to be able to go to Hogsmeade and expressing interest in the shops his big brother had told him about.
Isaac floundered. "Of course they can write other things. I just meant they shouldn't be allowed to write such ... vile and disgusting things about people."
"Well," Dumbledore murmured. "Shouldn't be allowed," he mused. "People shouldn't be allowed to practice Unforgivable curses, but they do all the same. People shouldn't be allowed to kill, but they do."
"But they aren't allowed!" Isaac protested, his voice rising. "And those that are caught are punished!"
"Then there's your answer," the headmaster said calmly. "Find out who is hiding behind ink and paper. Find out who has decided to attack through this medium, and take care of it."
Isaac seethed. "So you aren't going to do anything about this?"
"Not just yet. If Lily herself has enough of a problem to come to me about it, then I will take a deeper look into the matter. I think she's handling it admirably, however. See?" he tapped her latest comment. "She's opted to ignore him. Or her, I suppose." He regarded the writing, and thought it had a more masculine slant to it. "It, like so many things, will blow over."
Isaac was not pleased. He wasn't sure what he'd expected when he came up here, but it hadn't been this calm attitude toward it.
"They're just words, Mr. Farnsworth." Words he wouldn't use - ever - but just words all the same. Dumbledore regarded the boy over the top of his spectacles. "Was that all? You're about to be late to class."
The Head Boy took the journal as Dumbledore handed it to him, and he scowled. "I'll find out who it is," he vowed before he turned away. He thought he'd like to see how well the bastard wrote with a couple of broken fingers. "Thank you for your time, Professor," he said before he started toward the door.
Dumbledore watched him go before he slipped his own copy of the journal from his desk drawer. He had his suspicions as to who was behind it ... but they were nothing but suspicions. With as many people voicing their distaste over Muggleborns, it could be anyone - and he reasoned it was one of the bit players, hiding behind the big dogs to have his bit of fun. That was what it tasted like to him.
But he'd been wrong before. Severely wrong. So he thought he'd keep an eye on that entry all the same, to see if it went anywhere else.