Tuesday 8 September 1942
Claire Jeannot was found dead in the lake this morning. I can't say I knew her really-but I do feel I ought to be sadder than I am. What I am is overwhelmed. Every prefect's personal agenda must have come into play this morning. Dolores Umbridge would like to use it to do goodness knows what to the rulebook. Administer Veritaserum to all the students nightly perhaps. Tom Riddle appears to have a taste for either anxiety or drama: he's rather hoping that it turns out she was murdered. Pettigrew would like to stamp out student sexual activity once and for all. Vicky Wurfel would like to see some more of her dear friends, or some such. Antares Black, of all people, wants me, of all people, to sympathise with him about his various failures and their natural consequences. What any of this has to do with getting the student body through the next few days, let alone the next week, I don't care to inquire.
Charis, thank goodness, seems to be being sensible. (And flirtatious. I'm rather better at it myself than I would have thought.) I don't know if her thoughts on prefect roles can work in Gryffindor, but I should think about it. I wish I had more sensible prefects here to talk to. (Wood. Pettigrew. Need I say more? And Annie is a dear girl, but an authority figure she is not.) The Hufflepuffs, as usual, can assemble at least two or three sensible prefects at any given time and Slytherin is doing reasonably too. And Josette has spent some hours at least being a model prefect. She I do feel sorry for. I remember her sister. Of course she's got the badge because Eileen (with Miss Rochford) is a prisoner of the school, which I really don't understand. Can the War Bureau be responsible for ordering that?
As for Transfiguration, I now have a pile of books with at least mentions of the experience of being in a different form and will try and deduce a reliable way to make reverse transfigurations. I appreciate Professor Dumbledore's faith in my abilities, but I'd rather not have been stuck as a cat for an hour for him to realise that I might want to read these.
At least my leg has finally, as far as I can tell, completely healed. I had best find time to get Pomfrey to check it thoroughly before tryouts.
Charis, thank goodness, seems to be being sensible. (And flirtatious. I'm rather better at it myself than I would have thought.) I don't know if her thoughts on prefect roles can work in Gryffindor, but I should think about it. I wish I had more sensible prefects here to talk to. (Wood. Pettigrew. Need I say more? And Annie is a dear girl, but an authority figure she is not.) The Hufflepuffs, as usual, can assemble at least two or three sensible prefects at any given time and Slytherin is doing reasonably too. And Josette has spent some hours at least being a model prefect. She I do feel sorry for. I remember her sister. Of course she's got the badge because Eileen (with Miss Rochford) is a prisoner of the school, which I really don't understand. Can the War Bureau be responsible for ordering that?
As for Transfiguration, I now have a pile of books with at least mentions of the experience of being in a different form and will try and deduce a reliable way to make reverse transfigurations. I appreciate Professor Dumbledore's faith in my abilities, but I'd rather not have been stuck as a cat for an hour for him to realise that I might want to read these.
At least my leg has finally, as far as I can tell, completely healed. I had best find time to get Pomfrey to check it thoroughly before tryouts.