TBAY: Madame Lestrange is Loose!

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39071

        
Pip considers nervously the effect of her recent postings. She's 
still a newbie in this world, unable to tell yet when she's proposing 
something new, or when she's suggesting something that has been 
talked to death. She gazes out across the bay at all the ships, 
looking longingly on the Good Ship LOLLIPOPS. 'Too big for me right 
now', she thinks. 'Too many already explored decks and cabins. After 
all, I don't even know what 'Kool-Aid' tastes like.'

Then Pip hears the sound of voices, carried over the bay. They seem 
to come from a small lifeboat on the side of the ship, but she can't 
see clearly who is talking.

Suddenly Pip remembers that she is, after all, in Theory Bay, and 
whips out her Omnioculars.  A young woman is lounging in the 
lifeboat, talking with a small, dapper Belgian. 

     "Well, now that you mention it," says the young woman," it's the 
woman in the Pensieve scene. She's Madame Lestrange, isn't she? I 
mean, it seems obvious."

 "Yes, indeed, Hastings, eh,* pardon*, Madame Pippin." Poirot replies.

'It does seem obvious.' thinks Pip. 'Hardly a matter for HP's little 
grey cells.'

Pip feels a gentle tap on her shoulder. She freezes; then turns 
nervously, afraid she'll find herself facing Cindy and her paddle. 
But the only person there is a gentle, round faced old lady, with 
white hair.

"Excuse me, my dear, but could I borrow your Ommioculars for a 
moment? I'm sure there's a Jobberknoll somewhere about. Such sweet 
little fellows." 

The old lady takes the Omminoculars, but rather strangely, trains 
them on the lifeboat. Pip hadn't realised that there were 
Jobberknolls on the LOLLIPOPS.

More of the conversation drifts over the water.  Pippin is still 
discussing Madame Lestrange:

"Good heavens! You don't mean she's escaped!"

Poirot sighs deeply."I cannot rule out the possibility."

Mrs Lestrange escaped? Pip shudders. But where would she hide? 

Poirot continues: "Perhaps in Little Whinging?"

Pippin's voice exclaims: "Ooh! Mrs. Arabella Figg?"

'Mrs Figg! But no;' Pip thinks, 'surely the canon is against that 
possibility.'

"Do you really think that, dear?" says the old lady. Pip realises 
that she must have exclaimed aloud. "That's very trusting of you. But 
then, I do find that young people are so inclined to be trusting."

Poirot is still talking: . "You see, in Chapter Two, we learn of Mrs. 
Figg, she of the cabbage-smelling living room and the great fondness 
for the cats. But it seems she has broken her leg. And in Chapter 
Three, our Mr. Potter spends an afternoon at her house while Dudley 
is being taken for his Smelting's uniform. And he notices, does he 
not, that Mrs. Figg is no longer as fond of her cats as she once was, 
and that she lets him watch television, and gives him chocolate cake, 
with the implication that she has never done so before."
    
"But... but that's it right there! says Pip. "Harry doesn't come to 
any harm from his visit! For cryin' out loud, Mrs Figg even gives 
Harry chocolate cake! That doesn't sound like a vicious Death Eater!"

The old lady is smiling gently at Pip. "It does seem very sad, 
doesn't it, that such an innocent action as giving an orphan child 
cake, might in fact not be what it seems. But you see, dear, even in 
my little village of St Mary Hogsmeade, I have found that there is a 
great deal of wickedness in the world. Have you looked at what the 
canon actually says?"

Pip pulls out her copy of PS with trembling fingers, and looks at 
Chapter Three again. The line reads:

'She let Harry watch television and gave him a piece of chocolate 
cake...' ( Pip suddenly pauses in horror) '... that tasted as though 
she'd had it for several years.'

Pip stares speechlessly at the old lady, who blushes modestly. 

"It is interesting, isn't it," she says " that the cake tasted odd. 
And I'm afraid that Professor Dumbledore hasn't yet been so kind as 
to explain exactly what form of protection Harry is under. So we 
don't in fact know whether or not he is protected against poison 
within the protection zone." She pauses thoughtfully. "And there is 
also another incident, that reminds me very much of the butcher's 
boy, and how he was always flying too low on his broomstick. So that 
when he knocked poor Bertha down everyone simply assumed it was the 
boy's carelessness, rather than considering whether it might not be a 
spell."

Pip stares horror struck into those innocent, china blue eyes. "You 
mean... you mean Dudley, don't you? Who knocked Mrs Figg down as she 
crossed Privet Drive. Which was *after* she'd broken her leg."

The old lady gives her a dimpled smile. "Yes, dear, that *is* what I 
mean. Would you like your Omminoculars back? I think you might find 
that you're going to need them."

Pip

"Ah!" said Miss Marple. "But I always find it prudent to suspect 
everybody just a little. What I say is, you never really *know*, do 
you?"

The Murder At The Vicarage, by Agatha Christie
(which also includes Mrs Lestrange).