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[alt_frank]

arthur and me tracked down the lees. the lee-wilsons. they have twins like we thought, and they got the two mixed up in hospital and haven’t sorted out yet which one is francis and which one is james which is why the names kept switching. didn't seem to bother them over much, though. they're a bit different like that from what I can tell. both dead smart, I mean they make me look like a drooling idiot. worked as professors at muggle university, cambridge or something, and as soon as we told them about the book and the names flipping back and forth like they've been doing they started talking about german cats and just completely lost me there, but they got it all right away, knew what we were trying to do, they thought it was a great idea. and coming from them, well, I guess that really means something.

here's the thing though. they want to come with. and that’s what we’ve been talking over for the past hour. and it’s not just because they want to be with their kids, because they saw right away that we’d have to take both just to be safe, but because they want to help. and I really think they could. Regina, she’s the mum, she was a… well, she said it a couple of times, but it was pretty complicated – but it was something like botany and she was really good with plants. like she’d spent years learning about how to grow things more effectively and have bigger crop yields. and fu, he’s the dad, he was a historian, but his speciality was in weaponry. and he knows his way around a gun – all sorts. used to have a ball and shot musket collection, and would restore them for fun and knows how to weld and everything. I know John and Davidson would be all about that. they also have all these books they've kept secret so that they wouldn't get destroyed or grow all mouldy, they dug out a dirt cellar just to keep them safe. must be hundreds down there easy. they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty or help out in the nursery either, and we needed an extra hand any road, and they were teachers, so that’d help us out too. and that way they could be with their kids and not have to give them both up. but I told them we’d have to talk it over first of course. they really want to help, and I think they could. Arthur’s still talking to em because they have a ton of ideas that he’s real excited about.

I know we were planning on getting someone from sherwood to give us a hand, but these folks could help us both out.

Comments

[alt_bill]

German...cats?

[alt_arthur]

A German name, Shrodinger or something. They called it a thought paradox, apparently a famous reference to Muggles. I didn't quite follow it either, but it meant something to them.

[alt_bill]

Do you think this is a good idea, Dad? Bringing them in?

[alt_arthur]

I think it's a fantastic stroke of luck, and we'd be lucky to get them. Fu has spent the last ten years doing research on his own on the history of weaponry and guerrilla warfare. Regina's a plant...jenetists? A technical muggle term, but she's studied plant yields, crop yields. They're both brilliant, that's clear from an hour's conversation, if a trifle odd. Fu apparently likes tinkering with all sorts of stuff. Frank was discussing the setup of Moddey Dhoo, and when he mentioned the water pump they've set up, using the children's merry-go-round, he asked us right away how much elecktricity we generated from it. Well, such a thing had never even occurred to us, of course. And the library that they've secreted away, that Frank mentioned, it's amazing. It'll bring tears to Davidson's eyes, some of those books on juryrigging weaponry.

[alt_kingsley]

It sounds extremely promising.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Will any of their knowledge work, though? Ekeltricity won't be of much help around much magic. Have we even tried it at Moddey Dhoo before?

[alt_frank]

we hook up to electrick generators to run the movie projector thingy that danny sets up, and victor needs it sometimes for running his tools for fixing engines and cutting wood and things.

I don't guess he thinks about how we don't need it for lights and heat like he wouldve because weve got all that covered.

[alt_frank]

john's been talking for ages on experimenting with muggle weaponry, and I know he'd definitely want to talk to fu.

[alt_sirius]

Hundreds of books?

Remus is salivating at the very thought but.... That sounds like something that will require a little more preparation than a typical baby-snatch.

You might have to leave them today and come back again with more resources. An extensible charm on a suitcase at the least, to hold all the books.

Take your potion, by the way, Wanted Man.

[alt_frank]

youd better believe I have been.

I set a timing charm on my wand so that it glows when I've got ten minutes left on the potion, and pulses when it's five.

and yeah, we'd have to come back -- the books are one thing, but four people don't just up and disappear without a little creative paperwork that we just don't have.

[alt_frank]

not to mention we've got to talk it through with arabella.

[alt_poppy]

There are only the four, then? They haven't any older children?

Well, so long as you have a reasonable scheme for covering their disappearance, then I can't think of a reason not to take them. Since you seem so taken with the notion.

I suppose the question then becomes how you refuse any other parent who wishes to be taken along with a child.

[alt_arthur]

We've had that conversation many times before, trust me. What was different this time was that instead of saying, 'Let us come along with our baby,' they said, 'here's why you need us.'

And looking at what they have to offer, I do think they're right.

[alt_arthur]

Yes, we're going to have to come back again, with parchmentwork that'll cover the disappearance of all four of them. Bill, why don't you come for dinner, and we can talk ways and means that your forgers can help.

[alt_bill]

Right-o, Dad.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Well, though we've never seen the book do that before, that's no reason why it's strange - I do believe that Muggle hospitals were extremely good at keeping babies straight.

[alt_arthur]

Muggle hospitals, maybe, but not these Muggle parents. As I said, they're a bit odd. Molly and I were fanatical about keeping George and Fred straight. Molly even tied charms on their wrists for awhile so we wouldn't mix them up. But Regina and Fu aren't particularly fussed about which baby is which. Fu even joked that 'we usually call the one on the left 'Jimmy.'' And that's why the book is doing that. The other boy they call 'Frankie,' so we'll have two Franks.

They named the boys after some scientists by the way, Regina said, a pair of blokes she idolised, called Watson and Crik.

[alt_mcgonagall]

Haven't they thought to tie a string around the wrist of one of the babies? That should at least keep them distinct.

[alt_poppy]

I suspect even this couple will see the need of such a strategy once the babies become more mobile. It only takes one instance of not knowing which child you've already dosed with tummy tonic before you realise that being able to distinguish them is imperative.