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[21 Nov 2010|08:21pm] |
Moving house is such a curious experience. This must be what it feels like to be dragged by wild A bit exciting, really. But I can't see why so many people do it so often; after a time or two I imagine it must get tedious. It's provided, at least, a wonderful opportunity to prune my seemingly endless collection of files - and a valuable sense of perspective. So many things are better burnt so much less important than one imagines at the time of receipt.
And then, I had no notion that I had such a prodigious number of cravat pins. The years do fly by. I doubt if anyone even wears them anymore.
( Draco )
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[25 Oct 2010|09:25pm] |
For a season that's begun with two victories, this one's been rather underwhelming. Indeed, when the only offensive player carrying anything close to his own weight is the Seeker, the word disappointing may be employed without troubling the conscience. Falmouth ownership has some decisions to make. Just because things might have turned out worse than they have is no excuse for complacency. Break a few heads, eh?
At least no one's gone missing, I suppose. How wretched. Is this nonsense never buried?
( Narcissa )
( Draco )
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[06 Sep 2010|06:26pm] |
It's always wonderfully exciting, of course - but now that the Cup's wrapped up the right way, it will be nice to have a little time to put one's feet up. When so many other areas of life are consistently in a state of activity bordering on frenetic, it seems as though one's leisure ought to be a little less ... dramatic.
No one in my family, curiously enough, has ever seen fit to acquire any property nearer the shore than Norwich. We all must find something distinct to leave as our generation's legacy, I suppose. I can remember taking some really lovely holidays on Jersey. And islands are so pleasantly defensible do have so many benefits.
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[15 Jul 2010|10:54pm] |
[Mulciber]
I assume certain recent events have nothing to do with your planned reappearance - I shouldn't like to be associated with the perpetrators. It's an awful shame when respectable collectors have to fear for their birthright, as though the Ministry isn't thief enough to contend with.
[Narcissa]
Hard not to despair at the state of the news, these days; it makes me wonder, really, whether we shouldn't take the bulk of the family collection with us when we depart. There's no doubt the lot of it belongs in the Manor, but with things as they are - I don't know. There's more than one way to keep up appearances, more than one party to keep them for. The cellars at Ranmore have room enough to take it all, in any case.
I may be overreacting, in which case you must correct me. But when the daily read is full of romance novels and old families done wrong and not a single voice promoting a return to a more reasonable policy regarding blood and lineage - it's difficult to see properly, perhaps. At least England's doing
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[21 Jun 2010|06:50pm] |
Wedding announcements always produce such an embarrassment of congratulations that one hardly knows how to respond - but an abundance of good wishes never hurt anyone. We could not possibly be more proud, and I have no doubt that the future Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy will be exceedingly happy together.
( Private to Draco, Narcissa can read )
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[02 May 2010|10:26pm] |
I know there was rather a lot of excitement about the new faculty appointments, and I'm pleased to see that everyone seems to have settled down to the idea. I do sometimes wish the nay-sayers could come to Board meetings. No one would dare apply the word excitement to any of our actions after sitting through a resolution reading from the Chair. Capital fellow - tireless force for the advancement of all that's best, etc. - but one wonders if he isn't dreadfully tired after eighty-some years of banging the gavel. Who knew that waking the blighter up would require a parliamentary inquiry Such an illustrious career deserves a restful end.
( Narcissa )
( Draco )
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[06 Feb 2010|06:13pm] |
The past couple of weeks have illustrated excellently the difficulties that arise when authority is placed in the hands of those unfit to hold important responsibilities. One struggles to understand why for centuries we've been content to entrust our fortunes to a race of miserly creatures whose only qualifications seem to stem from their avarice and lack of manners. I'm surprised it's taken so long for incompetence to shine through, but perhaps now we'll get around to doing something about it.
And our children, of course, are given over to people of questionable stock and expected to come out proper witches and wizards. If I had a daughter, I should be afraid of the example she was being set. I've made sure to place the matter on the Board's agenda, but - really, it's unfortunate that it should take a vote to address such a shocking situation. When I was at Hogwarts, there would have been a veritable parental mutiny had a fallen woman been kept in any sort of post, never mind a professorship. I can only assume the dearth of outrage comes from a lack of information.
( Narcissa )
( Death Eaters )
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[05 Jan 2010|06:58pm] |
I am certain I'm joined by the rest of the Board when I express my confidence that the rough patches we have all suffered in the past few months will not be repeated. And we remain, as always, eager to entertain commentary from and discussion with all interested parties with an eye to improving any aspect of student life. All the best for a new term, and for a new year.
( Private )
( Narcissa )
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[16 Dec 2009|08:21pm] |
There is precious little in life more rewarding than public service; I have always encouraged everyone I know to give - and generously - to causes they find particularly worthy. But I will admit that no donation can be as fulfilling as having an active hand in the education of the rising generation. I am exceedingly pleased to return to my seat on the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and look forward to a very productive year.
( Malfoys )
( Private )
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[23 Nov 2009|08:44pm] |
As someone who has held a position on the board himself, I happen to know that the school governors take petitions from interested parties quite seriously - and I do believe their personal addresses are kept on file. I would absolutely encourage everyone to make known his views on any matter of importance. It would, for instance, be a true disgrace if any child were forced to forego the education to which he has an ancient right when in fact it is a member of the faculty who ought to be withdrawing.
Headmistress McGonagall's utter disregard for the role of independent oversight in assuring the continued success of our finest educational institution is merely the latest demonstration of what is now a long-standing practice among that school's administrators: the unabashed promotion of a private ideological agenda at the expense of tradition and academic rigor. My quiet tenure as a governor - a post held in my family for generations - ended when I was unseated in brazen retaliation for my zealous efforts to remove a man whose outlandish ideas and flagrant incompetence threatened our children's very lives. (History so far seems to have confirmed my suspicions that he was always unfit to hold his office - a fact which gives me no pleasure, when I think of what might have, and at times did, happen to the students under his watch.) Since Albus Dumbledore's interminable term began, the administration at Hogwarts has been openly hostile to outside influence, inquiry and intervention. The school's importance to the wizarding community as a whole, which I should think would be impossible to overstate, has been forgotten. Hogwarts will become little more than an incubator for radicals unless changes are made. It seems abundantly clear that no change is forthcoming from the current Headmistress.
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[06 Nov 2009|09:36pm] |
I flatter myself I've been nothing but candid in my opinions on Albus Dumbledore. If the board had only listened to me, he'd have been out of a job five years ago - if not before. He has always been a corrupting influence, full of treacherous and sickly ideas about the place of wizards and magic in the world at large, and it really shouldn't take some tell-all memoir to show everyone just how poisonous his example has been for all of our children.
I - like every father who can only wonder how his child is faring so many miles away - wish the deed could have been accomplished less violently. But now that the champion of Muggles and blood-traitors, the so-called Boy Who Lived, has essentially been outed as a dangerous and unpredictable child (as some of us have always known), I have hope that the administration's eyes have been opened to the need for a new modus operandi at Hogwarts. No doubt the governors will step in and do their duty with all haste.
( Draco )
( Narcissa )
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[04 Oct 2009|11:04pm] |
[Private to Death Eaters]
Well? Whose fault was that?
[/Private]
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[20 Sep 2009|11:22pm] |
Falmouth - one bright point in an otherwise dismal day.
Oh, and the garden is slowly but surely becoming less lethal - normality in a matter of weeks, I expect. Now if I could just tackle the other infestation
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[13 Sep 2009|04:43pm] |
The city's changed for the better in the past year, I find. Everyone seems so very much more business-like - that unseemly boisterousness appears to be on the wane. The Ministry's as sorrowful a place as always, of course, and sinking ever deeper into uselessness. One hates to see talent withering away behind a file box, but that's government service for you. They're a wasteful bunch.
Someone ought to open up a proper jeweler in that part of town. It took me an hour to find anything decent.
( Private )
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