Private Message to Harry

[alt_rabastan]

How did yesterday evening's lesson go? Were there any problems? Do you think he got your message?

Comments

[alt_harry]

Whitacre came in towards the end of things, but I told him it was contest business, and he backed off. I'm not sure he even wrote it up.

I told Teds once we were done that it wasn't anything personal, but he shouldn't mess with my property any more, and he sort of looked surprised, like he might've thought it was for something else, so I'm not sure. Maybe I should write Yaxley again?

And he didn't go to get patched up after. I think he might be proud of it.

So we need to think about a new type of lesson, maybe.

[alt_rabastan]

If anything comes of Whitacre discovering it, tell me right off and I'll take care of it.

Are you aware of anything else he's done recently that might have have annoyed you?

Well I didn't have Madam Pomfrey knocking me up last night to shout at me, so I assumed if he got patched up he at least kept his gob shut.

What you had done was a fairly straight forward, relatively mild consequence for failing to follow your orders. It'll work on some, not on others. If it doesn't work you can escalate or try a different tack.

The problem of the young Mr Nott goes beyond this contest. What do you think you could to to encourage him to follow your lead willingly? What about force him to comply? Both quickly under stress and over the long haul. He's an odd duck, but thinking about him will help you answering those questions about anyone.

[alt_harry]

I don't think it'll work. And I'm not sure force is the answer

It's

It's complicated, isn't it? Because sometimes you really can't predict how he'll react. And sometimes he'll get so focused on things. He reminds me of

I don't think anything scares him. And although he's going along with the challenge, it's not because he likes following rules. I think it's because he wants a council membership. Or because he thinks it's fun. I'm not sure he believes in any authority. Maybe My Father's. Maybe.

Maybe it's just a matter of figuring out what he cares about? It seems like he might care about this contest, but you'd think he'd be more careful about his behaviour towards me, then.

[alt_rabastan]

Knowing what he cares about would be good. Providing or denying desires can be very powerful motivators.

He makes me think of Malcolm Bosworth. He was a wizard beater. Total control of the bludger. But he was so much trouble. Foul after foul. His fouls against the Harpies when he played for Puddlemere lost them the game and the cup and he got cut. When playing for them he tried to hex the owner of the Tornadoes for some slight and got cut from them. Trouble with the Aurors off the pitch. Shagged the under He was so good every team in the league at least gave him tryouts. But he left quidditch when he was only twenty-four, there was no one left who would hire him, he was just too much of a pain in the arse.

"I'm not sure he believes in any authority." Tied with everything else about him, that makes him dangerous to you. When do you give up on trying to get control of someone like him and just remove him from the pitch? What line would he have to cross for you to feel that way? Given his connections it would have to be done carefully, but it's doable.

[alt_harry]

I wouldn't have said this a week ago, but it's getting close to that point.

I was talking about it with Draco, and the thing is, we weren't sure where it could go next. What he'd try to do. How far he'd take it. But we could certainly imagine some possibilities that I would not want to happen.

[alt_harry]

Hydra told me that he really creeped her out today. On top of everything else that's happened.

Like he was trying to flirt with her, but in a really creepy way, and he scared her. And you know she doesn't scare easily.

And he was asking her a lot of questions, too. About me. And And I think he got the wrong impression. Like it wasn't that I was defending my honour, but like I was trying to hide something.

[alt_rabastan]

Thank you for telling me that. That was incredibly inappropriate of him. It also shows a distinct lack of discretion and judgement.

Any idea what he thought you might be hiding?

[alt_harry]

Well, so, this whole thing started because he ordered Hermione to tell him an embarrassing secret.

And somehow, he's taken my taking offence at what he's done and the fact that Hermione didn't seem embarrassed enough or something to mean that Hermione was lying about the secret she told him in order to hide something really dire, or that I'm trying to cover something up, and he was bugging Hydra to legilimise Hermione to see what was really going on.

So yeah. Apparently it's a huge conspiracy. I don't know.

But it seems like instead of backing off, he's coming on strong. And he's really creeping out Hydra too.