H. Granger's Journal

September 2003

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003

12:19 AM

Flat-warming party went off nicely, except that Bill suddenly decided he didn't approve of Fred and George (weird sibling issue that I don't understand; sometimes it's pleasant to be an only child) and starting lecturing them on their parochial outlook, lack of interest in world affairs, etc. Think he offended Alicia, at the very least; she's always had a soft spot for the twins. (Apparently her mother prefers Fred out of all the men she has ever brought home.)

And then Neville and Alicia stayed an extra day, which was really lovely. I never think of myself as an outgoing person-- but even I want to discuss the books I read occasionally.

The amount of Quidditch conversation that Harry and Alicia produce is nearly overwhelming, though.

And of course the journal feud came up in the middle of the party, when we couldn't fight it out properly, especially on top of all the tension with Bill and the twins. Don't want to bring it up now-- I like the happy version of Harry, not the one that has been mysteriously reminded of past woes.

And finally, we have masses and masses of alcohol left over, since Fred and George showed up with a bottle and a half of scotch and a bottle of wine, and Neville produced champagne, when of course I'd spent a good handful of gold on food and drink already. Duelling Society with Ron next weekend is going to be interesting.

12:32 AM

Still missing the Institute, though, and wishing my duties at the TRC had begun. All the parties in the world can't substitute for access to a good academic library. Two weeks . . .

10:40 PM

Ron arrives tomorrow. Hurrah! I've been missing him ever since we left the Institute. (As well as missing the Institute, or the sense that I was doing something worthwhile there; I've had a longer holiday than is really healthy for me.)

Am hoping all will go well. In recent years the situation has been Harry-and-me or Ron-and-me, not the three of us together; and I think the strain is showing, on all of our friendships. The silly bickering that Harry and I have been going through due to this journal, etc., is largely a symptom of the fact that, after a few years with much of the North Sea between us, we'd begun to grow a little apart; but that's true of Harry and Ron as well. It was good for Ron, I think, not to be in Harry's shadow (or Fred's or Percy's or Bill's, etc.) I'm not at all sure it was good for Harry, though; and I'm afraid I'll end up in some strange place in the middle, trying to please everyone, and failing miserably.

Sunday, September 7th, 2003

11:47 PM

Have returned from Duelling Society and am strangely exhausted. The past few days, in brief:

Thursday I met with my advisor at the TRC. He told me that I should take all of the fellows' core arithmancy seminars. I'm reminded of my third year at Hogwarts; I learned, of course, that I can't do everything, but I would like to. Would also like to fit in some Latin (Lucretius! I could finally read Lucretius, which is one of the less justifiable gaps in my education) but this will require negotiation with the non-arithmancy researchers. Now is the time, though, since my fellowship allows me to avoid teaching.

I am now cleared for access to the TRC library. Am already planning an expedition; I've been wanting to know more about Breton and Tamil onomastics, as well as Persian charms.

Ron arrived Friday. Bill had offended Harry more seriously than I realised at first, with his scene at Fred and George at our party, so meeting Ron at the station was rather uncomfortable. While we were waiting for Ron to appear I pulled Bill aside and tried to explain the difficulties he had caused by his statements, but he seemed less guilty than confused: "But my brothers are obnoxious! I simply can't respect their lifestyle."

Harry didn't say anything himself, though-- however he may wish to defend his friends, he can't make another scene when Fred and George find the whole thing hilarious-- and Ron's stream of conversation obscured any lingering hostilities. Besides, Bill is far too sophisticated to attend Duelling Society events with us, so there were only a few hours to endure.

And then the event itself. Roger was largely absent-- he has a new fascination with gambling which one hopes will not last (especially since I suspect that wizards cheat constantly)-- but we hardly lacked for company. In fact, our camp was overrun by children of various ages, from the ones inventing complicated myths about heroes outrunning Voldemort's fireballs to the would-be adults attempting to define masochism. (One could wish Hogwarts provided a less technical and more classical education.)

Through some grand feat of confusion, Harry, Ron, and I all managed to forget to acquire a tent for Ron. Harry has a lovely tent, that unfolds to a fourteenth-century French pavilion hung in red and gold (and has a giant wooden bed with carvings of phoenixes, which is about six thousand times more impressive than anything we have in our actual flat); but my little Swiss tent languished in a closet, and of course Ron could never afford anything so complicated. The first night we all curled into Harry's huge bed (and remained self-consciously very clothed. I was cold, but Harry and Ron are far too male to admit to feeling any response to temperature, so I must assume other motives).

The next day Harry and Neville duelled gloriously with all and sundry (and looked glorious, too; ah, red and gold armour!) Harry ended up with a headache, though (just an ordinary headache. Gone are the days when every twinge was worth a panic . . .) so I ended up spending the beginning in a very intense conversation with an occasional penfriend of mine named Juliana de Luna, whom I had just met in person, about the intricacies of Arabic and Persian spell construction. Evidently Ron spent the two hours that I was gone ranting at Harry; Harry later confessed that he had forgotten just how restful Ron's ranting can be.

Then Ron and Neville wandered off, arm in arm, to get very drunk together. (Though Ron prefers cheap or cheaply conjured rum, and Neville has pretensions to taste, or, rather, to expensive Scotch. He seemed rather alarmed by Ron's rate of consumption, and I had to explain several times, between their rounds, that Ron has unplumbed depths of self-sufficiency.) Harry and I remained beneath Angelina's glowingly red group pavilion, attempting to keep each other warm, and ended up retreating to bed before Ron and Neville had completed their third circuit of the area. Apparently they eventually stumbled into Neville's miniscule pavilion, narrowly avoiding Trevor and the various piles of armour. Ron was wide awake the next morning long before Harry and I emerged, though . . . Keeping Percy's hours does strange things to a man.

And Katie Bell apparently has a new interest; I've never met the man, as he's much older (about ten years ahead of us at Hogwarts.) I suppose with the wizarding life expectancy, age gaps matter rather less . . . And anyway we all know each other so well, love affairs can be so difficult. (Neville and Laura Madley were civil, for instance, but she seemed to resent his friendliness with Ron.)

Monday, September 8th, 2003

11:48 AM

Owl from Viktor this morning, informing me that Laura Madley was upset that Neville ignored her so completely. Had no idea that Laura and Viktor, of all people, maintained a correspondence of such emotional depth. Pity they're years apart and live in different countries.

Tuesday, September 9th, 2003

11:40 AM

Bought books yesterday. My advisor wrote the Manifolds text, algebraic methods looks like it might still be too easy (though the problem sets are the true test), and I already own Royden's Real Analytic Thaumaturgy, which is required for a course I'm not taking. The TRC bookstore is huge. Utterly massive. I was in a sort of heaven.

And then I visited their libraries, and acquired even more books, on construction of medieval Latin spells and Cartulaire de l'Abbaye des Sorciers de Redon which is absolutely gigantic and has all sorts of fascinating Breton fragments in among the Latin. Ran home clutching it to my chest, as I could not fit all my books in my bag.

However, I can only sit in on the Lucretian philosophy of magic course if I swear not to talk, since it's already overenrolled. Might go insane.

Wednesday, September 17th, 2003

9:39 PM

Am attending a conference on teaching at the TRC, largely to broaden my mind, as I do not expect to teach for some time. The conference organisers seem unnaturally pleased with themselves for having thought of such a conference. I suppose that among wizards instructional skill is not a high priority, or certain of our Defense Against the Dark Arts professors would never have been hired (and others never let go; to say nothing of Prof. Snape, though I learned a great deal from the man). But an unfortunate side effect is that we are forced to discuss our feelings in small groups, when we could be learning something from actual lectures . . . Though there were some interesting scraps of information on Welsh wizarding demographics.

Friday, September 19th, 2003

9:31 PM

It is my birthday. Harry made dinner. Our adorableness is frightening, sometimes.

Saturday, September 20th, 2003

12:13 PM

In some fit of inspiration, Arabella Figg sent Harry and me beef-jerky tea only slightly less strong than the sort Ron has. Ron tells me that he tried using some of the tea in his packet to make Chinese tea eggs; but Percy dropped by, decided any sign of Ron cooking was sinister and bound to explode, and threw the whole thing out. Still, Ron claims his preliminary results were good; I may have to try a similar experiment.

Arabella Figg has also promised us a kitten; which would be lovely, assuming I could persuade Crookshanks to tolerate it (he has at least mellowed in old age). I wonder, though, if it might not make more sense to find a kitten in Cardiff. And Harry doesn't have a job here yet, either.

Friday, September 26th, 2003

9:57 PM

Had a nice little chat with a Greek fellow in Applied Arithmancy about Plato last night. In general, though, it appears that arithmancy is about to consume my life. Still facing the prospect of specialisation with some trepidation.

Saturday, September 27th, 2003

8:36 PM

Tried to talk to Harry about the whole journal thing today. Was essentially stonewalled, with the remark that, "I don't think talking will fix anything." Which it might not . . . But I know not talking isn't working. Damn boys.

Monday, September 29th, 2003

8:52 PM

Courses began today. All the arithmancy courses are in a building which seems to be built like a maze; there's an intricately carved wooden pillar in the middle of the classroom where I spent most of today. The Manifolds professor asked me not to answer questions after the first five minutes or so, but I was unable to restrain myself; they're just so beautiful! And he was being unnecessarily vague about what he meant by "these metrics." Feel generally very much on top of things, but do need to do some more reading (as always!)

The professor for Euthumetric Analysis mentioned that his specialty is applications to geomancy and largescale earthquake workings; should be interesting to see what sort of examples he provides.

The Latin and Linguaturgy building has everything that Arithmancy lacks: spacious hallways, lovely views . . . And beautiful round towers with conical caps at each corner of the structure. They seem desperate for other resources, though: the professor announced at the beginning of the course that she was working a powerful feat of bilocation, and indeed she was-- no mere Time-turner, she genuinely managed to hold two classes in the same physical space without appearing particularly distracted or allowing them to intersect. The room still felt cramped, though.