Dumbledore asked Tamblin to stop by his office as summer was reaching a close. Tamblin had been expecting this. He knocked on the griffin knocker and entered the room.
"Ah, Tamblin," Dumbledore said, as if there was anyone else it could reasonably have been.
"Professor, I have urgent business; can we make this quick?"
"Actually that's one of the matters I had hoped to discuss. You've been spending every day in the Great Hall receiving and sending a large number of owls. While students are certainly permitted to make use of the school owls, and to answer such owls as bring them mail, it will be disruptive to have so many occupying so much of the Ravenclaw table."
"I understand, Headmaster, and I am making preparations to limit the amount of personal involvement my project needs once the school year starts. I suspect no more than one or two owls a day."
"Your project would be the other matter we should discuss…"
"You still want to recruit me," Tamblin said bluntly. He found he had no patience for coy games at the moment.
"I believe we all have a common enemy, Tamblin, one that requires that we all work together."
"No. The Death Eaters have successfully pushed me away from neutrality, but this is my war on them. Not yours. And as a piece of advice, for the ministry, I'm in no mood for their interference. Fudge was worried that I was threatening him third year. I wasn't then. Now I am. They get in my way at their own peril."
"I think you'll find I have very little influence with the Ministry these days, Tamblin."
"You do with the people who matter. Let them know."