Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:09:52 GMT

I've been thinking about timing, and the way things happen.

I think it's funny how, if you go on holiday, say, and something unpleasant happens at the beginning of your holiday, it's easy to forget about it and enjoy the rest of the time. But if you have a wonderful holiday, and something unpleasant happens at the end of it, it's hard to remember all the other good things that happened before.

I know, because I keep trying to focus on all the really snitch things we did earlier in the week, but all I can think about is Friday and Saturday. We were all ever so shaken on Friday afternoon, and I was so relieved when the Aurors came and gathered us up and got us all safely back to our hotel. I thought it was all over but that was a bit silly of me, I realise now, because of course they would have to question anyone who reported seeing a dangerous criminal. But I really didn't expect that Padma and I would get called back to MLE by ourselves for more questioning.

I've heard people saying all sorts of things about that and most of them are utterly ridiculous. For Merlin's sake, of course they didn't use Veritaserum on us! They save that for criminals, not for kids. And they didn't arrest us or anything either.

It was still a bit scary--I mean, I understand that Aurors have to be very serious and stern because their job is keeping us safe--but Mr Gupta from our demonstration was there and he wasn't smiling or friendly or nice anymore.

He was furious at us, because I guess he thought we were just being silly kids and wasting his time and distracting him from really catching people like Snape and MacNair. He didn't raise his voice at all, it was just so, so icy, and and he said he was disappointed in us--he thought we were better daughters of the Protectorate. I almost started crying (and I squeezed Padma's hand really hard--sorry Padma!) but I was a little angry too, because we really did see something and we didn't do it on purpose just to mess things up for him.

And then a witch came in that we saw at the demonstration but didn't really talk to (I think her name was Forney) and she was really sweet and nice to us, and then said "You know, I was a schoolgirl once myself, and I understand that girls sometimes like to be a little bit helpless so that boys they fancy will notice them. You can tell me if it was anything like that, and I promise I won't tell Mr Gupta or be cross."

And well, if it had been anything like I would have told her all about it, but Padma spoke up right away and said "Of course not, we don't fancy anyone in our year anyway, especially not Weasley." And then she talked to us some more, and I guess was satisfied that we really weren't doing it on purpose for a joke or something. Mr Gupta warned us to be more careful and more observant next time, and they let us go.

I still think we saw something--and it was a person, not a dog--but Ms Forney explained that because we'd been talking about Snape and MacNair all week, our minds were very, suggestible was the word she used I think.

So maybe all was saw was a tall, thin man, and he was only in the bushes going after his dog, but our minds jumped right away to thinking it was Snape. And now I realise how foolish we were to make jokes about Snape and MacNair and try to frighten each other with them, because maybe if we hadn't we wouldn't have been so quick to think we had seen them and made all that extra work for the Aurors.

I'll certainly think twice before I panic that way ever again.

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Lavender Brown