Private message to Lucius Malfoy

[alt_selwyn]

Are you and Narcissa going to that performance at Hogwarts? I got an invitation, I rather suppose more as a courtesy than anything else, and I hadn't intended to go but I left it lying out and Arista found it. Her nanny made the mistake of reading it to her and she is now positively DYING to go.

Will it be highly inappropriate for a six-year-old, filled with shocking violence and foul language? I suppose that's too much to hope for.

It's probably fairly short, at least. Your son's in it, isn't he? And your god-daughter? Or is she helping behind the scenes?

Comments

[alt_lucius]

Must you remind me? Yes, they're all in the bloody thing: Marvolo, Hydra, even Rosier's ward. Miss Parkinson elected to help backstage.

Am bringing work to avoid requiring full focus on the ... production. Even Narcissa, who as you know is more tolerant of such things, is somewhat trepidatious.

At least we shall not be entirely alone. Ari is coming, though Pandora is not. Apparently Ptolemy has been strangely eager for them both to see it, for reasons one can only speculate.

[alt_selwyn]

Speculate away, by all means.

Is it true we're both being portrayed by girls? Honestly. I tried to beg off by telling Arista my presence would merely make the actresses nervous but unfortunately Chloe added that someone in the play was portraying me, and you can imagine how thoroughly THAT squelched Arista's desire to see it for herself.

[alt_selwyn]

Admittedly, seeing Barty played by a school girl might almost make the trip worth it.

He's surely not coming, is he? Barty, I mean. I'm trying to think of an engagement LESS likely to attract his interest and ... well, perhaps if they'd done it as a musical, that would be worse.

[alt_lucius]

Merlin, no! He's far too busy defying Healers to conduct the DogStar interrogations himself. Lucky sod.

But yes, I do recall that as the cast was posted right about the time of his birthday, the lads had a good laugh or two at his expense over the choice. Naturally there are always a larger number of girls who fancy themselves quite the actresses, but the Greengrass girl notably wishes to follow in her grandmother's footsteps, according to Narcissa.

No doubt she'll have Barty fainting away at the sight of Moody.

I have resigned myself that the evening will be a loss, apart from whatever humour one may glean from it. Unintentional humour, of course, but nonetheless, it's the only saving grace of the ordeal.

[alt_lucius]

Well, you've read the dreadful thing, I presume? Ptolemy was the historical consultant on it. All that sop at the end of the first act. Of course, dramatically, one understands wanting a tragic love scene, but ... one can hardly blame Pandora if she has no wish to watch while her husband's first marriage is played in its final moments before her very eyes.

As it happens, I believe you and I escaped the ignominy of being played by girls. Though from what I gather in Draco's letters, you have only teenage caprice to thank for that reprieve. On the other hand, we shall have to suffer the ignominy of being portrayed by teenage boys, which may hardly present an improvement.

[alt_selwyn]

I read just the first three scenes when it turned up and then I misplaced it. I didn't try to hunt it down, as I was quite busy that week and it had seemed harmless enough.

That does sound rather painful for Pandora. They actually show Serena's death on stage? It must have been tasteful enough to pass muster but I certainly don't blame her for not wishing to go (I was rather thinking perhaps Ptolemy had his eye on one of the young ladies and was hoping to show her off to his parents without tipping her off.)

[alt_selwyn]

And I'd say being played by a teenage boy is at least a small improvement over being played by a teenage girl.

Unless he's got dreadful spots, that won't do. I suppose it's a bit too late to find out who it is, and send him a parcel of Mrs Beanworthy's Spot Removing Soap or whatever it is they use nowadays.

[alt_lucius]

I think Ari would have been all too pleased to come if he were inspecting a prospective bride for Ptolemy.

Misplacing it - ingenious. That's what I ought to have done! (Unfortunately the cabinet Narcissa gave me last year has rather tidily removed that excuse from my repertoire. However, on the whole I should rather be able to find a thing when Hooper has misfiled it than have to remember to occasionally tell him to misfile it. Gryffindors.)

Later drafts may have changed from the one we received, but yes, her death is the note on which the first half closes.

As long as Alecto Carrow's representative is nowhere near Serena when she falls, I'll keep my suspicions about Ptolemy's goals to myself.