Chapter Three- October
It is starting to cool off outside. I think we've seen the last of the sunny, warm days. Damn. I hope I got enough fun in before the winter starts. The leaves are starting to turn yellow.
Work is going well, or as well as work can go when you work for a ministry that is still too blind to send us after the real dark wizards, the death-eaters. For now, outside of the order I'll have to content myself to hunting the small-time baddies. There has been a sharp rise in muggle baiting crimes. This one bloke, Arnoff, caught him last week. He'd been plotting to magically reroute train tracks to cause a huge crash. That's a bit more serious than those dumb exploding toilets. Nobody knows if he has any ties to you-know-who, but he is a right flippin' nutter. It felt good to bring him down, like I had helped same all those people that could have been killed.
Sometimes it seems like the world is getting darker all the time. It bothered me a bit, so I went to go talk with Sirius. He's always happy to have company, especially me, his favorite cousin. He can usually help me put things in perspective, and cheer me up a bit. Amazing he can still do it after 12 years in Azkaban. God, I admire his strength. He told me not to focus on how much evil is in the world, just on what I can do to stop it, and he congratulated me on my arrest of Arnoff and said I should be proud of myself. Then he told me how frustrated he was at the state of his house, which is still cluttered with some stubborn dark magic. And I told him, don't worry about how contaminated the house is, just focus on what you can to clean it. Then he thumped me on the head and we had some fire whiskeys, and I managed to deflect his solicitous inquires about a certain werewolf and my possible feelings for him. Good times.
He told me poor Harry's having a hell of a time with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Dolores Umbridge. I've heard about her. Quite foul and toad like, Fudge's new right hand woman. She's worked to pass horrible, discriminating laws that make it even harder for my dream lover to get employment. So, naturally, I hate her fat, toady guts, and if the post wasn't being watched, I'd owl the kids with my permission, no, my blessing to make her life a living hell. But they are pretty smart. I'll bet they'll manage to find ways to rebel. I just hope they don't get expelled in the process or Molly will have an aneurism. Speaking of Molly, I begged her to teach me how to cook. You see, poor Remus needs to eat more, and Molly's such a good cook, and Mum always said the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and well, I'm a silly girl. It took some asking, levering, coaxing, and then some down right begging, buts she finally submitted (not something she's got practice in) and agreed to teach me how to cook. We are starting out very small. Yesterday, I successfully made very delicious coffee. And the best part is I didn't break a thing! Go me! I'll keep you updated on this learning-how-to-cook-thing.
N. Tonks