Order Only
Jul. 22nd, 2014 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_lunaI overheard something last night.
I had already blown out my candle for the night, but I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd work on one my sketchbooks by wand light, and I reached for where it should have been, in the little drawer of the table beside my bed, but then I remembered that I'd left it on the window seat in the library.
So I pulled my robe over my nightgown and tiptoed out of my room, and just as I was about to pass Mr and Mrs Brown's room (the door was a little ajar), I heard Mr Brown say something impatient, about how 'Nott would never have agreed to it anyway.'
I stopped then. Since Mr Nott was on the Council, I wondered if they would say anything useful for the Order to know. But then Mrs Brown said--well it was rather muffled, because I think she was pacing back and forth, but I made out 'As long as we have that wretched Lovegood girl on our hands' and 'would have been worth it just to get rid of her' and 'if only he hadn't died, think of the connections we might have made!'
I cast 'notice-me-not' and 'muffliato' charms over myself and inched a little closer to the crack of the door by the hinges. They didn't talk much longer, but I think I managed to learn the gist of what they were saying.
Mrs Brown had hoped to convince Mr Nott that I should be married off to Teddy Nott. The Notts are one of the oldest pureblood families, so they have quite a high status, especially with Mr Nott on the Council, but the families do talk amongst themselves. Teddy Nott was getting to be known as cruel and rather frightening, so Mrs Brown thought that no normal pureblood girl's family would have agreed to the alliance. So she hoped to convince them to settle on me as a solution, because although I'm legally halfblood, everyone really knows I'm pure. 'Best of all,' she said, 'she doesn't have any family to object.'
Mr Brown told her that since the boy was dead it was ridiculous for her to keep fretting over it. They talked some more, but I couldn't hear anything else. Finally, they blew out the lamp, and I tiptoed back to my room.
I think it would be a good idea if I made myself rather scarce for the rest of this summer instead of letting Mrs Brown drag me around to her various teas and charity events. I'd rather not make it easy for her to come up with any other matchmaking ideas.
Maybe Mr Brown is correct, that Mr Nott wouldn't have been interested anyway.
Still...I just didn't realise until now that I had a personal reason to be rather glad that Teddy Nott isn't around anymore.
I had already blown out my candle for the night, but I couldn't sleep. I thought I'd work on one my sketchbooks by wand light, and I reached for where it should have been, in the little drawer of the table beside my bed, but then I remembered that I'd left it on the window seat in the library.
So I pulled my robe over my nightgown and tiptoed out of my room, and just as I was about to pass Mr and Mrs Brown's room (the door was a little ajar), I heard Mr Brown say something impatient, about how 'Nott would never have agreed to it anyway.'
I stopped then. Since Mr Nott was on the Council, I wondered if they would say anything useful for the Order to know. But then Mrs Brown said--well it was rather muffled, because I think she was pacing back and forth, but I made out 'As long as we have that wretched Lovegood girl on our hands' and 'would have been worth it just to get rid of her' and 'if only he hadn't died, think of the connections we might have made!'
I cast 'notice-me-not' and 'muffliato' charms over myself and inched a little closer to the crack of the door by the hinges. They didn't talk much longer, but I think I managed to learn the gist of what they were saying.
Mrs Brown had hoped to convince Mr Nott that I should be married off to Teddy Nott. The Notts are one of the oldest pureblood families, so they have quite a high status, especially with Mr Nott on the Council, but the families do talk amongst themselves. Teddy Nott was getting to be known as cruel and rather frightening, so Mrs Brown thought that no normal pureblood girl's family would have agreed to the alliance. So she hoped to convince them to settle on me as a solution, because although I'm legally halfblood, everyone really knows I'm pure. 'Best of all,' she said, 'she doesn't have any family to object.'
Mr Brown told her that since the boy was dead it was ridiculous for her to keep fretting over it. They talked some more, but I couldn't hear anything else. Finally, they blew out the lamp, and I tiptoed back to my room.
I think it would be a good idea if I made myself rather scarce for the rest of this summer instead of letting Mrs Brown drag me around to her various teas and charity events. I'd rather not make it easy for her to come up with any other matchmaking ideas.
Maybe Mr Brown is correct, that Mr Nott wouldn't have been interested anyway.
Still...I just didn't realise until now that I had a personal reason to be rather glad that Teddy Nott isn't around anymore.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 01:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 01:27 am (UTC)And yeah. Keeping scarce would probably be a good idea.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:06 am (UTC)And who know? If Mrs Brown starts pushing one of them at me, perhaps Lavender will throw over Linus Moon and fall madly in love with him instead.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 01:33 am (UTC)Anyway, I can see how that might be disconcerting, kiddo, but even if Mrs Brown keeps scheming, there's no law that says you have to consent to a match they propose. Particularly as you're over fifteen. (In fact, at least it used to be that for witches, marriageable consent was fourteen, though usually that was with the agreement of one's parents. I've no idea if they've bothered to change that. But assuming they haven't, you can't be forced into a marriage you don't want.)
Besides, even if they intended to drag you to the altar, you know you can just leave and come to Doughty or to Mrs Weasley and we'd make sure it couldn't happen.
Still, it's yet more evidence that Teddy Nott was a menace and it's just as well he's gone.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 01:44 am (UTC)Must've been hard to hear, Lunes, but Mr Black is right, you've got choices. And if they don't listen to you, you can tell them to sod off and come here to Moddey.)
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:19 am (UTC)Perhaps you might go over your paperwork and some of the finer points of law with Tonks sometime soon, to make sure you're absolutely clear on your rights in this matter. I'd hate to see you taken advantage of like that.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:11 am (UTC)She hasn't objected to having you stay overnight with Ginny in the past, has she? You are always welcome to spend the night here, dear, if it's getting too uncomfortable for you with them.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-23 02:17 am (UTC)Private message to Allice Longbottom
Date: 2014-07-23 02:37 am (UTC)To think they were thinking of marrying her off to Teddy Nott! I've heard Ron and Ginny talk about what a dreadful monster he was.
Private message to Luna
Date: 2014-07-23 02:41 am (UTC)Honestly if the Browns are that eager to get rid of you, maybe they'd let you come live here now? We could promise to keep it quiet. Or! Maybe Mum could offer to 'hire' you on to help with the goats. Then it would be a job, instead of just you living with our family. I mean, we could pretend to the Browns it was. You wouldn't actually have to help with the goats.
(Okay, that's not true. You'd totally have to help with the goats if you lived here all the time because I am UTTERLY FED UP with them and ALL MY BROTHERS HAVE MOVED AWAY NOW except for Ron who's gone sixteen hours a day. I think some of that time he's actually with Sally-Anne and not at his internship, too.)
Re: Private message to Luna
Date: 2014-07-23 02:49 am (UTC)Re: Private message to Luna
Date: 2014-07-23 03:54 am (UTC)That's a wonderful idea, Ginny. I think Mrs Brown would think that if she can't marry me off to Teddy Nott that forcing me to take care of goats is a perfectly reasonable alternative. Or perhaps your Mum could imply that she needs me to be a janitor at her building.