(no subject)

[alt_zacharias]

Yesterday was pretty snitch. I wasn't sure I'd like the panto-thing, but it was really funny. There was this witch in it, right, and she had a mudblood servant who looked a lot like her. Well, they said so, though I don't think they looked that much alike. Anyway, they decided to switch places - I dunno why, I guess she wanted to go and be a nobody for a little while, and her mudblood obviously wanted to be a witch instead and have servants and eat fine food and meet warlocks and all. Only it didn't work out very well for either of them. Until the end, that is, when her father figured out what had happened and set things straight. And the mudblood went back to the camps where she had to scrub out toilets forever, and the witch realised how silly she'd been to want the life of a dirty mudblood. And the warlock who'd sort of liked her as a mudblood and felt guilty about it was free to marry her now that everyone knew she was a witch and had just been playing a stupid game. I didn't care so much about that part, but the warlock had a cool sort of wand holster thingy and he looked just like some of the Aurors when they were duelling yesterday. So that was good.

Today they're taking us to more museums. We're going to the Museum of Curiosities, which Moon says used to be the muggle parliament building (parliament's kind of like the Council is now, only it was much bigger and they never agreed on anything because they're muggles), but now it's got all sorts of weird objects muggles used to have to use to get by. I guess there are some important artifacts from the fall of their government, too, which should be boring interesting.

But later we can go in swimming round Hyde Park, I guess, and there's to be a picnic. So that'll be fun. Moon, I know you said last night that you've brought your Gobstones, so bring them. Ernie and I think it'll be okay. There's a smooth court near the fountain with loads of shade and the stones will roll better than on grass.

Comments

[alt_ron]

Well, yeah, they didn't look so much alike because the young witch was played by a bloke in a curly wig and the mudblood was an actress, but that's how panto works, right? Boys play girls and girls boys and fuggly old blokes play the panto dame. I mean old widow Snitchy, the young witch's nasty old aunty was dead hilarious.

[alt_harry]

Well not always. Sometimes the pantos Father has didn't. At Christmas I mean, there were pantos. Because we're wizards he said we didn't need to make fun of how bad actors look when they try to dress up. But, he didn't really mean it. I mean, it isn't anti wizardly to see a panto like the one we all saw.

[alt_ron]

Well, then it's just a play, isn't it? If it doesn't have a Dame and a boy who's played by a girl and people dressed up like cows or horses--or chickens, I guess, though I never saw that happen before yesterday!

[alt_harry]

I suppose. Only it was a special Christmas play that was a lot like a panto. I dont know, maybe it's a planto. A panay?

[alt_ron]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Did it have an aspidistra as the lead role, then?

Planto! Get it?

hahaha!

[alt_zacharias]

Well, yeah. Obviously, I knew the witch was really a bloke. But I think they could've made them look more alike, if that was the point of it. I mean, they could use some transfiguration to make them look more like one another. Not too much, though, or it'd have been hard to tell them apart.

But the Aunt was really funny, yeah.

Do you know Moon very well? Only he's been hanging about with us more this trip - more than last year's, I mean - and Gobstones works better with a fourth. Or a fifth, even, if Finnigan wants to join too.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, sure. Are you playing at the park, then?

[alt_zacharias]

Yeah, over by the big fountain with the statue of the unicorn at the centre of it.

But be warned: Marvolo says Moon cheats.

[alt_ron]

Nice.

We'll see about that!

[alt_zacharias]

Too right.

[alt_lavender]

Honestly, I think most pantos are a bit naff, but the bit at the end where the witch and the warlock got married was rather sweet.

[alt_zacharias]

Why is it that girls always go gooey whenever anyone gets married at the end?

I thought the broom-back duel was the best.

[alt_draco]

Because girls think that getting married is a beginning, not an end.

[alt_zacharias]

Ha! Well done, right.

They're always thinking about snogging, aren't they? I mean, even yesterday when we were watching all the duelling, and on the boat with Owain Pritchard and Kirley Duke, you could tell, couldn't you, they were all just about drooling over them all. Crickey.

[alt_draco]

I suppose that's all that some of them think about. Which is a waste, because it isn't as if Owain Pritchard is going to be bothering about with some spotty thirteen year old, is he?

[alt_zacharias]

Too right.

Mind you, there were one or two lady Aurors who were rather fit. But I heard Mr Gupta say that Mrs Pandya's married already. And Miss Wright was, well, sort of driven. Which is a good thing, for an Auror, I suppose. But yeah, I think girls take that sort of thing too far.

[alt_draco]

What is it that they take too far, then? Ambition, or admiring Pritchard and Duke?

[alt_zacharias]

The fancying, definitely.

[alt_draco]

Some of them might ought to be more mysterious about it, anyway.

[alt_lavender]

Isn't it? I mean, why would marrying be an end?

Unless someone got horribly ill and died on their wedding night or something. That would be Tragic, but still Romantic.

[alt_draco]

It's the end of being unattached, yeah? It's a different sort of event for men...or I think it must be that way for some of them, at least. Like my Uncle. He could have married loads of different girls but he hasn't, because he doesn't want to stop being a bachelor. Of course, he probably should stop being one by now.

[alt_lavender]

Handsome men, pretty dresses, and True Love--that's why!

But of course, you're more interested in silly brooms, Zach.