TBAY: The Bill Weasley is Ever So Evil post (2 of 3)

[erinellii]

No: HPFGUIDX 85729

Erin was back on her barstool at the Royal George Tavern.  She had an 
appointment to keep.  Someone named Oliver had contacted her, saying 
he was interested in hearing more of her Evil!Bill theory. This 
encouraged Erin, who had almost given up hope of getting the message 
out after George had run screaming from the woods last night.  
Really, Erin thought, he *had* behaved rather childishly.  All she'd 
done was tell him he'd have to listen to a wee bit more 
characterization before she got down to the really juicy canon 
points.  

Well, and then Hercule Poirot had popped in.  And then Kneasy.... 
perhaps she shouldn't blame George for leaving before his head 
exploded.  A Snapetheory based on a dignified, logical Severus Snape 
couldn't be expected to react well to the sight of snot-nosed Snape!
Son.  Erin frowned.  Was Snape!Son Snape himself as a child, or an 
actual son of Snape?  She'd have to remember to ask Kneasy next time.

She sneaked a glance at George behind the bar.  Last night, he'd 
pulled himself together long enough to speak to Eileen before 
returning to the tavern.  And he seemed to be all right this morning. 
Erin had spoken to him when she ordered the drinks for herself and 
the mysterious Oliver, and he'd even agreed to post a banner listing 
the names of all BB GUN (Bitter Bill Goes Undeniably Nefarious) 
adherents.  So far, Erin and Eileen were the only names up there.

"It's not for you," he'd said curtly when she'd tried to thank 
him. "It's for all the rest of us in Theory Bay who have a right to 
know which of you nutters are running around armed!"

"Really, George," Erin had protested. "BB GUNs only sting a little.  
It's not as if they're lethal weapons or anything." She made a mental 
note to offer Eileen an actual BB GUN as soon as possible.

"You say that now," George countered, turning his handsome face 
towards her forbiddingly, "but just wait until one of them hits you 
in the *eye*."  He stalked off.

Suddenly, Erin's reminiscing was interrupted by the sound of a 
horrible mock baby voice somewhere behind her.  She shuddered, and 
turned to just in time to hear a young newbie being bullied by an 
older man declare, "I have an appointment here!"

That must be Oliver!  Well, no one bullied potential BB GUN converts 
when Erin was around.

"Leave him alone, you old fart!" she yelled loudly, causing George to 
drop and duck for cover under the bar. "You're not Bellatrix, and  
only she has a right to use a mock baby voice here!  Though I 
sincerely hope no one ever sees fit to bring her in," she adds in an 
undertone.  "Bellatrix is scary".

Oliver runs over to Erin, and they go through the introductions. Erin 
ties to press a BB GUN into Oliver's hands, -- "It'll give you more 
confidence, really it will!"-- but Oliver refuses, saying he wants to 
hear more canon first.

"But Erin," he whispers uneasily, "something is embarrassing me. You 
have red hair, you love guns and canon, you wear a trenchcoat, and 
you even admitted you have a lot of friends like Bill. Are you an 
evil Weasley too, Erin?"

Erin laughs and claps Oliver heartily on the back, "No, no, Oliver- 
you see, my trenchcoat is BROWN- and that makes *all* the difference 
in the world."   Seeing that Oliver doesn't look entirely comforted 
by this cryptic disclaimer, she casts around for something to make 
him more at ease.

Seizing on Oliver's PARTY LINE (Principled Altruistic Righteous 
Teacher: Yummy Lupin Is Not Evil) badge, she exclaims, "Hey, I have 
one of those, too!  I didn't actually argue for it or anything, but 
there's a box of them up there on the counter and I figured, why not? 
JKR loves Lupin, so why shouldn't I?  So see, Oliver, we're not so 
different, you and I."

"But I see your point.  Thus far, I've pretty much just stereotyped 
Bill based on his clothes."

"Yes," agrees Oliver in his charming French accent. "Let us look at 
BB GUN.  So Bill swears and annoys his mother, even though he should 
have grown up by now.  He wears dragon-leather boots (a bit flashy if 
you ask me) and a fang earring.  He is so cool and so attractive 
(even Fleur falls for him, and I can tell you, it is not every day a 
french girl falls for a red-haired British). So here you have a 
rebellious youth, <snip> with a dubious sense of morality, maybe 
permanently traumatized by the loss of a younger sibling..."

"And the possible shock of finding out his father was enslaved by the 
Imperius curse, don't forget that one!" Erin interrupts.

"But, Erin, I think you left something out.  I would add that he has 
some kind of curse addiction.  I mean, who wants to work as a curse-
breaker in Egypt? Molly wouldn't even let Ginny enter in all the 
Pyramids.  So here is a man working daily in a place plagued by 
curses worse than being possessed by Voldemort. And he's even 
enjoying it.  Robbing ancient wizards of their treasure is obviously 
his idea of fun."

"That's very astute of you, Oliver" says Erin. "in fact, if George 
hadn't run out on me," --and here she paused to shoot a nasty look at 
the bar where George was busily polishing beer tankards in 
preparation for the evening rush-- "that would have been my very next 
point.  But since you're not George, I'm gonna throw you a little 
canon first. 

"You may remember that when I left off post #85610 in the woods, I 
was saying Bill joined up with the Death Eaters out of fear.  The 
old "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" syndrome.  I think he made this 
decision pretty early on in his life, most likely while he was still 
at Hogwarts.  And here is my reasoning for that:

***********************
>"You know, it rings a sort of bell,"said Ron slowly. "I think 
>someone told me a story about a secret chamber at Hogwarts once... 
>might've been Bill...."
************************CoS, Ch. 9

"Oh yes, it was Bill all right.  But how did Bill know?  Sure, there 
was all that unpleasantness with the Chamber of Secrets 50 years ago- 
would've been closer to 40 years ago when Bill was in school, I 
suppose- but then we find out that the Chamber has been "hushed up" 
by old Professor Dippet, the former Hogwarts headmaster.  Hushed up 
so well that no one knows what Myrtle died of, and students in 
Harry's time have to check out 'Hogwarts, A History' in droves to 
look up the legend so they can find out what it's all about.  

"The only people who do seem to know what's going on are the 
Slytherins.  Which only makes sense.  After all, the Chamber is a 
legend from their house, one which they probably hand down to each 
new class of students.  So in order to have heard about the Chamber 
of Secrets when he was at school, Bill had to have been associating 
pretty closely with some Slytherins- closely enough that they would 
tell him their house secrets-- sounds almost as if they thought he 
was a true Slytherin at heart, doesn't it?"

An alarmed look appears on Olivier's face. "Wait, I must check 
something." Plunging his hand into his cloak, he withdraws a battered 
parchment and quickly thumbs through it. "I knew it. Ever wondered 
who was Head of the Slytherin House before Snape ? Isn't it a bit 
fishy that he disappeared just when Voldemort met his downfall ? My 
bet is he was not at all opposed to the victory of the Heir of 
Slytherin. And notice he was still there when Bill started. Of course 
the young Slytherins would have known about the Chamber: their own 
Head of House would have been only too happy to tell them. Now what 
subject could he have been teaching ?" says Olivier

"Well, only Potions and Defense against the Dark Arts were available 
when it came time to set Snape up with a job" answers Erin.

"Exactly!" says Oliver. "Now Bill was an exceptionally brilliant 
student: he had 12 OWLs ! That suggests he aced Potions and Defense 
against the Dark Arts. And if the past Slytherin head was anything 
like the current one, I'm thinking Bill had to get along with him 
pretty well in order to wrangle that grade. 

"He could even," Oliver continued slowly, thinking hard, "have 
*suggested* Bill's career as one that would be useful to Voldemort."

"Oh Oliver, that's *brilliant*!" crowed Erin. "I, also, was going to 
say that Bill had chosen a career he thought would get him in good 
with the Death Eaters. I love the idea of the Head of Slytherin House 
telling him Voldemort had an urgent need for curse breakers!"

"It only makes sense, really.  If you're a Death Eater who's just 
been cursed in a shoot-out with the Aurors, you can't exactly toddle 
up to St. Mungo's and ask them to change your new chicken feet back 
into hands, can you?  You'd be arrested and thrown in Azkaban before 
you could blink.  Enter curse-breaker Bill.  Maybe he's not quite as 
handy as a fully trained Healer, (which I don't think any death eater 
would have the temperament for, they're more into the hurting) but he 
can reverse all the regular curses, at least. It's just his little 
way of trying to make himself indispensable to Voldemort.

"And what about his present-day work environment, huh? Those goblins 
don't give a damn what Bill wears, as long as he brings home the 
treasure.  Do they care what he has to do to get it?  I like that 
idea of yours about robbing the ancient wizards of their treasure, 
Oliver.  You know, there are laws in the muggle world about 
antiquities.  Basically, if Bill was a muggle, what he's doing for 
Gringotts would be illegal.  The ancient artifacts he recovers would 
belong to Egypt, not a private bank.

"Even if you want to argue that he's only recovering treasure that 
belonged to witches and wizards, stuff that muggles never owned and 
should have no share in now, what about the Egyptian wizards?  I 
can't believe that in a society where Ollivander's family has owned 
the *same* wand shop since 382 B.C., there aren't some known 
descendants of those ancient Egyptian wizards still hanging around.  
Shouldn't that treasure go to them?  

"There's just something wrong about Bill's job.  Why else is Molly 
Weasley so determined to push the twins into boring Ministry of Magic 
careers that they've made it clear they have no interest in?  I mean, 
it would seem from an outside perspective that they have two older 
brothers who are happy with having rewarding careers outside the 
MoM.  But apparently Molly doesn't want them emulating Bill or 
Charlie.  I suppose I can see why she might disapprove of Charlie's 
job.  Handling wild dragons is extremely dangerous.  Charlie sports 
all sorts of burns and calluses when Harry meets him.  But what does 
Molly know about Bill's job that we don't?"

"Not just his job," says Oliver quickly. "I have always wondered why 
Molly always takes Percy as an example for the twins when she could 
impress them much more by taking Bill. After all, he was a Head Boy 
too, and the Twins most certainly respect him a lot more than Percy, 
considering he is much older and already working. There's definitely 
something that makes her uncomfortable about her son, and it's not 
just the fang earring" 

"That fang earring is starting to make ME uncomfortable," Erin 
mutters. She leans in closer to whisper to Oliver, "I think it's a 
*snake* fang, don't you?"

"Possibly," she adds, straightening up and speaking more 
briskly, "another thing that irks Molly is Bill's choice of 
companions. I get the feeling from OoP that he hangs around with 
those goblins *after* work, too."

"The Goblins themselves strike me as dubious characters.  I'm not 
going to get into everything we know about the goblins- I actually 
have an idea for another post that deals with that- but I do want to 
mention that there is a lot of doubt about what side they are going 
to support in the coming war. And if they stay neutral, just think 
how nice that will be for Bill. He won't even have to *pretend* to 
hate Voldemort while he's at work."

"Oliver, surely by now you're starting to see things my way?" Erin 
waves a BB GUN temptingly in front of him, but Oliver doesn't reach 
out to take it.

"Oh, all right," sighs Erin, "you want more canon, I suppose. Well, 
this next bit is really the clincher for me. It's my very favorite 
piece of canon for BB GUN- the one that leaves absolutely no doubt in 
my mind that Bill is Ever So Evil.  The Sneakoscope scene in Ron's 
birthday letter to Harry.

"For you to truly understand its relevance, I have to first refer to 
the PoA Sneakoscope scene on the Hogwarts express. I'm sure everyone 
remembers that one.  

"Harry, Ron and Hermione sit down inside a compartment with the 
sleeping Professor Lupin.   Ron notices that a whistling noise is 
coming from Harry's trunk. It's the Sneakoscope.  Ron explains to 
Hermione that he thinks the Sneakoscope is broken because it went off 
while he was tying it to Errol's foot to ship to Harry, but then has 
to admit that he *was* doing something untrustworthy at the time- he 
wasn't supposed to be using Errol.

"The first time anyone reads this scene in PoA, they immediately 
think, uh-oh, the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is 
untrustworthy!  He's just pretending to sleep!

"It isn't until a second reading (or third, or  fourth for some) that 
one realizes the Sneakoscope is actually reacting, not to Lupin, but 
to Ron's rat, Scabbers."

"Pippin's *never* realized it." Oliver says darkly, fingering his 
PARTY LINE badge.

"No, I suspect she'd say that Scabbers was a false clue leading us 
away from Lupin," Erin says, "but I think if we asked around we'd 
find more people see it our way.  Now, let's look at Ron's letter:

**********************
>Harry-- this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone 
>untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says 
>it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it 
>kept lighting up at dinner last night.  But he didn't realize Fred 
>and George had put beetles in his soup.
**********************POA, Ch. 1

To compare that point by point to the train scene:

1.) The Sneakoscope lights up. 

2.) Someone- Ron in the train and Bill in the letter- states that it 
is unreliable.  

3.) That statement is then retracted- Ron wasn't supposed to use 
Errol and the twins had put beetles in Bill's soup. 

4.) We are left with the probable cause of the Sneakoscope's reaction-
 Untrustworthy Lupin and untrustworthy twins.

"But, I think that a case can be made for point number five- the 
false clue:

5.) The TRUE culprit is someone different from the one readers are 
led to believe in-- untrustworthy Scabbers and untrustworthy Bill.

"OK, think about it" says Erin. "Why would the Sneakoscope 'keep' 
lighting up at dinner?  Wouldn't it just light up the one time, 
*while* Fred and George are putting the beetles in Bill's soup?  No, 
I think something else is going on.  ESE!Bill is having to make table 
talk with his parents.  He's having to discuss politics and world 
views.  And in order to hide his true opinions on certain subjects, 
he's having to lie.  And every time he lies, the Sneakoscope goes 
off.  Bill realizes what is going on, and quickly tells his family 
that the Sneakoscope is "rubbish sold for wizard tourists" in order 
to prevent anyone else from realizing it.

"What else? Well, there's the scene after Voldemort's return at the 
end of GoF:

*****************************
> "Then I need to send a message to Arthur," said Dumbledore. "All 
>those that we can persuade of the truth must be notified 
>immediately, and he is well placed to contact those at the Ministry 
>who are not as shortsighted as Cornelius."

> "I'll go to Dad', said Bill, standing up. "I'll go now." 

************************************GoF, Ch. 36

"I think it more than a little suspicious that Bill is so eager to 
leave. Dumbledore was saying that a "message" would be sufficient, 
presumably sent by owl post, yet Bill seemed to feel Arthur *had* to 
be informed in person?"

"Wait a minute!" cries George, who has obviously been listening in 
from over at the bar. "I thought you were a crew member on the 
Imperius!Arthur trimaran?!  Surely you remember that Elkins has 
already explained this for you? You Imperius!Arthur people believe 
that Bill was eager to spare Arthur- a victim of the Imperius curse 
during Voldemort's previous reign- the shock of learning Voldemort 
had returned through an impersonal letter.  You believe that Bill 
wanted to break the news to him more gently, and to be right by his 
side, like a good son should, while he coped with it."

Erin starts guiltily. "Well, yes," she said, "yes, I do believe 
that... and yet-- Oh George," she bursts out, "There just has to be 
more to it than that!  Look, look at the next thing Bill does:

***************************
>"Excellent,' said Dumbledore. 'Tell him what has happened. Tell him 
>I will be in direct contact with him shortly. He will need to be 
>discreet, however. If Fudge thinks I am interfering at the Ministry-
 "

> "Leave it to me," said Bill.
****************************GoF, Ch. 36

"Now look at that. Bill cuts off Dumbledore! Who, in their right 
mind, cuts off Dumbledore? Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the 
century, the only one Voldemort fears, should NOT be cut off when 
giving advice on how to combat the Dark Lord-- at least not by a 
young wizard on Dumbledore's own side. My guess is that Evil!Bill 
didn't want his instructions to get too specific so that he could 
claim a misunderstanding in the event his treachery is later 
discovered.  Specifically, he didn't want Dumbledore to instruct him 
NOT to speak to anyone other than Mr. Weasley.

"Because, as I see it, *this* is Bill's big moment.  This is the 
thing he's been waiting for nearly half his life- Voldemort's 
return.  Maybe he's been waiting with fear, maybe with anticipation, 
but he, like all the rest of the wizarding world, has always known 
that this day would come.  And Bill has always known what he would 
have to do.  He goes and informs Mr. Weasley just the way he's 
supposed to, of course.  He knows that it can be easily verified if 
he doesn't.  But what does he do *after* that?

"Elkins called Bill's decision to be the one inform Arthur 
a "preemptive strike" in the Imperius!Arthur theory.  That's a rather 
strong phrase for someone who just wants to comfort his father, don't 
you think?  But when you apply it to Evil!Bill, it becomes very 
literally true.  Where *did* Bill go after he informed Arthur?  He 
went straight to one of those Death Eaters that Harry Potter had just 
so obligingly named a few minutes ago, and said "I want to sign up."  

"And where might he have gone after that?  Who knows what damage he 
could have wreaked? Perhaps this is the solution to the mystery of 
Percy's behavior all through OoP.  Just picture it: Bill runs 
straight to Percy and says "Harry's gone mad and killed Cedric 
Diggory.  And Dumbledore and Mum have fallen for every word of his 
crazy story.  They actually believe Lord Voldemort has returned, and 
Dad and Mum are going to join this nutty Order thing of 
Dumbledore's. "  

"So Percy is like, "Oh no!  Are you going to tell them what you think 
about this?" And that's where Bill says, "No, I don't want to fight 
with them.  If you have to bring it up, leave me out of it, okay?"  
And so, when Percy is fighting with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, he doesn't 
say anything about Bill because he's been asked not to.  But the 
whole time, he believes Bill secretly agrees with him that LV has not 
come back, and that their parents are acting irresponsibly. 

"After Percy moves out, Evil!Bill may even be corresponding with him, 
feeding him stories about what other crazy high jinks the senior 
Weasleys have been up to, and leading him to think that nearly all 
the Weasley children agree with Percy's stand but are too scared to 
say anything.  That may be why Percy writes to Ron, because he thinks 
there's a chance Ron actually sees things his way.  It also explains 
why Percy is so very happy when he thinks Fudge is about to arrest 
Dumbledore: he truly thinks Dumbledore is crazy and that after he is 
arrested, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley will see the truth and they can be a 
family again.

"What other Evil!Bill evidence is there? All of his behavior after 
the Quidditch World Cup seems suspicious to me. Again, this is 
definitely not consistent with Elkins' Imperius!Arthur 
interpretations of those scenes, but I've always thought those were 
the weakest in the LAW CAMERA theory anyway.  I confess I tried and 
tried to read into Bill's actions after the Cup the motivations she 
subscribes to them, and I just find myself not able to read it that 
way.

"So...There's Bill's enthusiasm when he thinks he's actually seen 
Death Eaters in action.  "I think we saw what's left of them tonight--
 the ones who managed to keep themselves out of Azkaban..."  Mr 
Weasley has to step in and remind him that they can't be sure those 
really *were* the DE's that they saw.  But I can practically hear 
Bill salivating every time I read those lines.

"And then, in post #85611, Allie recently said:

"At the end of GoF Molly says that it's "Arthur's love of Muggles 
that has kept him back at the ministry all these years." When I read 
that, I said, "ohhhhh." Makes sense, doesn't it? <snip> he probably 
could have moved up in the ministry, but he loves his dear Muggles 
too much. He basically *IS* the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, 
isn't he? What would happen if he left?  

"It's amazing none of his children resent the Muggles for it..."  
<end quote>

"Or do they, Allie?" Erin asks with a sinister smile, "Or do they?"

"Now hang on a minute!" Oliver protests. "I know, I am *positive*, 
that there is NO instance of Bill mistreating or resenting muggles in 
the story!"

"Not overtly, no," says Erin.  "In fact, Bill goes to great lengths 
to hide his resentment of muggles.  Let's take a look at how he 
refers to the caretaker's family at the Quidditch World Cup:

***************************
>We caught the Robertses before they hit the ground, though. They're 
>having their memories modified right now.
***************************GoF, Ch. 9

"Sounds so sweet and caring, doesn't he? "The Robertses". He's taken 
the time to learn their family name. Almost as if he cares about them 
personally.

"In fact, it's a little TOO sweet and caring for me.  I can't think 
of a time when I've heard another pureblood wizard refer to a family 
of muggles by their *name*.  Ron, who constantly hears Harry talk 
about the Dursleys, always calls them "those muggles you live with".  
Even Mr. Weasley, who loves muggles, never calls them by their 
names.  It's always just "muggles". I think it would have sounded 
much more natural for Bill to have said "We caught the muggles before 
they hit the ground."  He's trying too hard...

And lastly, there's the way his attitude towards the free Death 
Eaters echoes that of Barty Crouch Jr.  When he's telling Ron about 
them at the QWC, he says:

******************************
>"If they really were Death Eaters, they worked very hard to keep out 
>of Azkaban when You-Know-Who lost power, and told all sorts of lies 
>about him forcing them to kill and torture people.  I bet they'd be 
>even more frightened than the rest of us to see him come back.  They 
>denied they'd ever been involved with him when he lost his powers, 
>and went back to their daily lives... I don't reckon he'd be over-
>pleased with them, do you?"
******************************GoF, Ch. 9

"This is pretty much exactly what Crouch Jr. told Harry after 
Voldemort's return, isn't it? And it's also something Bill has 
thought out pretty fully.  Gee, I wonder why Bill would spend all 
that time thinking about how LV relates to his Death Eaters?" Erin 
sniggers sarcastically.  

"And when you add in Crouch Jr's hatred of the escaped DE's, and 
Bill's attitude towards Snape...

*********************************
>"Bill doesn't like him either," said Ginny, as though that settled 
>the matter."
*********************************OoP, Ch. 4

"Oh it *does* settle the matter, Ginny.  Yes indeed."



Erin turns to Oliver, offering a BB GUN in her outstretched 
hands.  "Take it! Take it!" she urges. "You believe now, I *know* you 
do!"

Oliver takes a long, hard look at the BB GUN. "It is not a such a 
clear-cut question in my opinion," he says regretfully. "In fact, it 
raises the problem of-- what does believing in a theory about Harry 
Potter mean? I would say that I can believe in a theory in two ways. 
I can believe in a theory in the sense that I think it is likely that 
this theory will be proved in future books. Or I can believe in a 
theory in the sense that I would not consider it illogical that this 
theory is proved in the future books."

"I must confess I do not believe in ESE!Bill in the first sense, but 
that, contrary to what I thought when I first heard about your 
theory, I was convinced by your reasoning in the second sense."

Erin thinks about that one for a second. Finally, she says "You know, 
that's OK with me. I think that is enough, really, for Theory Bay. 
And that goes for anyone who wants to sign up for this theory!" she 
shouts so that the whole room can hear her. "Here, take the gun!" She 
tries to press it once more into his hands.

Oliver holds off a little longer. "As I told the Old Man, I do tend 
to stay on shore. Especially after the release of OoP. Well, let's 
say that I am most willing to carry a BB GUN with me, but I am not 
yet ready to sail the distant sea onboard the BB GUN ship."

"That's okay!" says Erin brightly. "We're not even gonna have a 
ship.  This one is more suited to a room in the Safe House, I think. 
And, besides, I'm pretty loyal to the trimaran. Hey, George, put 
Oliver's name on the list!" she hollers as Oliver at last accepts his 
BB GUN.

In walks Eileen, looking rather wan and pale.  Erin immediately falls 
upon her, screeching, "Eileen! Eileen!  Did you hear me? I convinced 
Oliver to join us!  Here, here, take your BB GUN, I saved one just 
for you!"

"Do I have to carry that thing around all the time?" Eileen asks dis-
spiritedly.  "It looks rather akward."

"No, no, you can keep it in the Safe House room whenever you're not 
using it!" Erin answers elatedly.  She can hardly believe her luck.  
Eileen, one of the most respected OCELOTS in the Bay, taking a BB GUN!

Eileen silently reaches for one of the weapons as Erin continues to 
babble at her. " I *knew* I could convince people once they heard the 
evidence!  I know Evil!Bill's not a generally obvious spy, but it's 
like The Elkins said back in message #40168, 'Hey, if you don't take 
that Egg under the surface of the water, then how are you ever going 
to understand what it's really trying to tell you?' "

"You are entirely too Colin Creevyish about Elkins," remarked George 
sniffily from behind the bar, "And it is not at all becoming."

But Erin and Oliver are now grabbing Eileen's hands to form a victory 
circle as the three of them chant, "We believe, we believe, we 
believe!"  

No one notices the tall, shadowy figure with its long hair tied back 
in a ponytail and an upraised wand arm begin to take shape in a dark 
corner behind them.

To be continued...

--Erin
(who would like to request that people answering this post try out 
the TBAY format. It doesn't have to be anything elaborate; just 
saying "so-and-so [your name and a brief description of your TBAY 
persona] popped in and said to Erin: [then making the rest of your 
post like normal]" will do. Though if you want to get more detailed, 
that would be great! Go on, try it, it's fun! Thank you!)

-- and with special thanks to Oliver, who contributed several 
excellent ideas.  Without his email support and that of everyone 
who's responded so far, I probably would given up in the middle of 
writing this, by far the longest message I've ever posted to the 
group.


Notes on post references:

The Ever So Evil Bill post part 1- message 85610

TBAY responses to Part 1 (so far)- messages 85635, 85639, 85650, 
85653, 85656

Imperius!Arthur theory- messages 40168, 45290, and 77654

Evil!Lupin- messages 39362 and 35040