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[alt_gredforge]

We have some news to give, and we're hoping for some in return.

Terry Boot has checked Amycus Carrow's shelves, and he didn't see the two books that Sirius mentioned. From the sounds of it, we think he's doing a bit better. We're hoping that maybe Madam Pomfrey and Mr Snape have learned something from the blood sample he sent?

Professor Slughorn has agreed to our proposal, so we will be sitting the sixth year Potions written exam (not for credit, but just to get an idea of what we need to work on). He's given us a list of ten potions to study over the summer (we'll get you the list, Mr Snape) and he'll test us each on one of them when we return to school this September.

Sounds like the search of Alecto Carrow's quarters was as unpleasant as the lady herself. Did you learn anything signficant?

Comments

[alt_lupin]

I think they may all still be recovering from the horror of the experience.

They may also have a selection of books that they're combing through, looking for likely magic.

[alt_sirius]

Minerva said she was taking photos so they could examine the bookshelves at more leisure.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Indeed. Though they have not yet been developed.

[alt_poppy]

My apologies.

I was kept from this yesterday by a surprise inspection and a not entirely pleasant conversation with a colleague from St Mungo's.

I've completed my tests on Mr Boot's blood sample. He's not anaemic, thankfully, and the blood continues to clot normally, shows normal resistance to contaminants and disease agents, and is not deficient in either potassium or magnesium.

It does, however, suggest lead exposure, which is not good. I wonder whether the water system in that castle is full of lead piping. The level is not so high that I think Carrow is directly poisoning him, though he might, of course, be using lead in some potion he's forcing Mr Boot to imbibe.

You could send him a tonic if I were to brew one?

[alt_gredforge]

Yes, of course. Hope it's pretty concentrated: our owl can't carry much weight. Will it be something he'll have to take a lot of doses of, or will one dose do?

[alt_poppy]

Ah. Your owl is terribly old or frail, then?

I should be able to apply a lightening charm. I was supposing it safe only to send a single dose. He can't well store a bottle of tonic under Carrow's nose. It will be necessary to send further doses occasionally.

[alt_gredforge]

Pig...that is, Pigwigeon...is willing, but really small. A scops owl, we think. Which makes him dead useful for sneaking stuff past Carrow, but he just can't carry much.

[alt_poppy]

As for Alecto Carrow.

Paracelsus! What a wreck of a body. From the sound of it, her quarters are a magnification of the infected, infested, littered state of her person.

I found doxy bones driven under her skin at one elbow, atop one shoulder and one hip. And a witches' pouch containing an embalmed doxy hidden in a snarl of her hair--by which I mean, she had gone to the trouble and fine work of weaving hair into the traditional pouch and filling it with bits of coloured thread, shards of mirror, and the doxy itself, and then she'd tucked the whole thing into her coif.

She's covered in deliberate cuts and scars. Has a urinary infection and, well. Suffice it to say that I treated her for several chronic inflammations and infections. And applied a scouring charm to slough all the foul contaminants from all surfaces.

And, yes, Sirius: that's not a pleasant treatment to endure. I suspect that Miss Professor Carrow will be in an especially foul temper this week. If she has the energy to make her unpleasantness known.

She is definitely diminished. Weight, hair, lashes, nails, cuticles, cartilage, mucous membranes, pores, fluids and solids all chronicle loss of vigour. Her blood sample showed anaemic and betrays signs of Dark exposure, though I shall defer to Severus for that analysis (as in Mr Boot's case).

I cannot give any specific diagnosis, however. She is wasting. If pressed, I'd say she's been exposed over a long period to multiple malignant agents--probably it's a matter of surrounding herself with so many Dark items, but it's also her use of Dark spells. She's rotten inside and out, and I'd wager that at this point, she's poisoning herself with her own foulness. At any rate, that's what I wrote on the report: 'auto-toxicity.'