16th March, 1892 — By A Hogsmeade Bulletin Board, High Street

Ozymandias had been obnoxious about this; Christabel, at least, had been similarly incensed – although no amount of fuming within their household had quite sated Phyri’s rage or fixed the looming problem here.

Blacking out distressing details was one thing, but the forcible magic behind it, and the very wording! ‘Feminine’ sensitivity, they had decided, as if Porphyria was not simultaneously a woman and the least delicate person she knew. She had seen society’s general squeamishness before – she had once conjured a carcass in a duel, after all, and been certain the male judge had been about to faint – but that anyone could presume to decide which facts were appropriate or inappropriate for her was... well, there were any number of expletive remarks with which she might have ended that sentence, but now that would not have been ladylike of her, would it?

Phyri had ideas for some emphatic letters – and even the seed of a poem or two, or perhaps a whole Swiftian satire? – swirling round her mind, but with her sister’s help, she had turned her mind to a different scheme first. By the next morning, she already had heaps of copies of the advertisement printed, and was currently pasting them up on as many flat surfaces of Hogsmeade as possible.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Porphyria declared, sensing an onlooker hovering (awkwardly?) nearby as she smoothed a corner of the poster down with an extra sticking charm. That done, she thrust a small pile of posters into their hand before they could say a word one way or another. “These all need putting up.”

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Striding along the streets of Hogsmeade with the intention to head home Walter noticed a woman putting posters up, posters which he had noticed in several spots as he walked. The first one he had seen he hadn't paid any attention to but as more came into view he had stopped to read it. Like most people among the literate wizarding community he had read the Daily Prophet article which used new ink to hide sensitive contents from those of a more delicate nature. It never occurred to him some women would find that offensive, at least strongly enough to make a poster in protest.

He was about to move on when the woman finished putting up her latest poster, turned and shoved a stack into his arms before he could say a word. Walter raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"You seem to be doing a fine job of putting these posters up yourself, Miss," Walter responded flatly. "Did you create these posters yourself or are you helping the protester?"

  

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The man only raised an eyebrow. Porphyria scrutinised him steadily; she didn’t recognise him, so couldn’t pinpoint what he must be thinking about the boycott protests.

He had not leapt to help her, though. Fine. Phyri was not offended by the lack of enthusiasm itself – but her eyes narrowed slightly all the same. “Why?” She asked archly, of his question, though it hadn’t stopped her from unrolling her next copy, ready to paste up. She shot him an innocent look in challenge. “Did you want to arrest the protester, or applaud them?”

(She had no notion that he was an auror, of course, but on the other hand there was nothing wrong with this kind of legal protest, so it was not as if there was anything he could do but grumble if he did not like it – still, before Porphyria owned up to the boycott she wanted to know how much of a confrontation this was going to be.)

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Walter frowned when she responded to his question with a rather rude 'why' before asking another question. One thing he didn't like was rudeness but she was no subordinate he could bring to task. Deciding to not react to her rudeness Walter watched her without expression for several moments before speaking.

"Not part of my job to arrest those simply putting up posters proclaiming their views," Walter responded. At the moment the only crime the woman could be committing was littering or defacing town property but that would be a very weak case. Either way, such petty crimes were not in his authority to enforce anyway. "As for applauding the protester, not my intention neither. I read one of the posters and in truth I don't see why anybody would be offended by the precaution."

  

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She could not make much of his expression one way or another – and although Porphyria was rather spoiling for a fight this morning, she would have been just as pleased for an ally. A male ally in this endeavour would have been a particular treat, merely because it would have surprised her.

Ah, and there it was. His answer had started off well enough – Porphyria had briefly had an inkling of hope for his own mental faculties and sense of moral right – but her face hardened at his final remark. He couldn’t see why anyone was offended?

“Really?” Phyri said coolly, pausing in her task to advance a step towards him instead, to grapple with his stupidity directly. Merlin, she knew most men had it easy enough in life – the current of life carried them along reasonably well without requiring any special drive or skill of their own to propel them – but that this man could not see beyond his own nose was still something. “You cannot imagine taking any offence, were a stranger to begin making generalised judgements about you, and suppressing the truth from your delicate eyes?”

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

It wasn't difficult to see his words didn't meet the approval of the woman before him. Her words quickly confirmed what her expression betrayed. He could very well imagine why some people would object to having some parts of the Daily Prophet censored but he just didn't feel it was a valid argument.

"Clearly some people do feel offended at the Daily Prophet's attempt to protect their more sensitive readers," Walter responded, gesturing towards her with his hand. "You certainly are one of those who is offended by it. My point wasn't because I couldn't imagine somebody doing it, but more I don't see why some people just don't accept there are plenty of sensitive women who may appreciate the effort the Daily Prophet did to protect them."

"This protest in a way is pointless," Walter continued, recalling the editor's note in the first issue using the special ink. "Everybody, male or female is free to write to the Daily Prophet and let them know how they feel about the new feature. Perhaps your energy would be better spent in writing the Daily Prophet instead of putting up posters."

  

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Oh. So this man supposed that everyone in Britain should appreciate the Daily Prophet’s pandering and patronising because they were taking a thoughtful precaution for people – ladies – of a sensitive disposition. He though Porphyria and the rest should be thanking them. Just accept it, he said! Well, it was no skin off his back for him to do so, but she certainly would not be.

“Oh, but writing to them would be pointless, because the delicate constitutions of their editors and readership would not be prepared for what I have to say to them,” Phyri shot back; she was sure that they would refuse to publish her opinions if she wrote directly (or indeed her letters would require aggressive censorship). “Perhaps the Daily Prophet’s energy would be better spent using a special ink to translate the news into a simpler speech that is comprehensible to halfwits,” Phyri gave him a dirty pointed look, folding her arms, “rather than preventing perfectly capable women from reading it!”

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Walter listened and observed the woman's body language as she talked, a small part of him thinking she was a fine example of why women shouldn't be allowed to express themselves. The very fact she admitted to being unable to control herself in writing to the Daily Prophet something that was printable confirmed this. He took a moment to search his memory on the medical term for women who lacked control over their emotions and came up with 'hysteria' a few seconds later.

"I'm certain capable women will have little trouble expressing their views to the Daily Prophet without resorting to language inappropriate for print." Walter responded. "Afterall, if they are truly intelligent and in control of themselves, they wouldn't need to resort to foul language."

  

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Porphyria could see scepticism written all over his face, and he spoke of ‘intelligent women’ as if they were mythical creatures, and at this point she was sure she could have shocked and appalled him with the resources of foul language she possessed.

But that felt like precisely what he wanted, for her to explode – she and her sisters had suffered the same placid smugness at home yesterday. And, though she would not have hesitated to hex her brothers, she felt as though she shouldn’t begin hexing strangers on the street. (Not yet, at least.)

“Well,” Phyri responded, with a false brightness in tone designed to conceal her boiling rage, “if they are truly intelligent, they won’t be reading the Prophet any more at all.” She gestured at her advertisements for a boycott again with a sharp flourish. For if they did not care about women’s opinions, then surely they would care about their economy. “And I’m sure the paper will realise that women are very capable of expressing themselves in word and deed.”

(If Phyri hexed this man, he might even learn that too.)

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

There was a small part of him actually enjoying the conversation but his Auror instincts warned him pushing her too much was likely to cause her to do something rash. Then again if she did do something foolish he would have grounds to arrest her. In truth he didn't particularly want to, preferring to ride the streets of dark wizards, not hysterical or violent women. Still, there were limits to what he'll tolerate in any situation.

Her sudden bright tone immediately received his full attention. Something about it felt false to him and it wouldn't be the first time he encountered women who sounded sweet and happy only to turn around and try and hex him. Yet her words only amused him more.

"I expect the majority of the Daily Prophet's subscribers are men, I don't think they'll experience any decrease in sales if women simply stop reading it. Besides, what other paper would they read instead, if they aren't already doing so?" He knew about Witch Weekly, a newspaper aimed for female readers anyway. "I fear Miss your hopes this campaign you are running would ruin the Daily Prophet isn't going to work.. in truth, a far better use of your time would be encouraging women to write the paper to protest the use of the discriminatory ink. Its the only way they would know it wasn't being well received among the female population."

  

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In spite of what you believe, some women have an interest in the news and an income of their own, Phyri almost scoffed – but she refrained from commenting, only to let Mr. Patronising inform her of why a boycott wouldn’t work. Write to the paper, he recommended instead: of course, because women always doing what they were told to do was a sure recourse to solving all their problems.

“Do you think that if the management of the Daily Prophet actually cared what women think of the measure, they would have just gone ahead and implemented this?” No. He was trying to pacify her, but Porphyria knew who this measure was really for. This was entirely to appease men, to make them feel like they were doing their paternalistic duty to protect their wives and daughters – she bet no women at the Prophet had been so much as consulted in the process. But this man was oblivious, because all men were: if it did not affect them, why should they see a problem at all?

So she did not hold with the idea of making women write – she was sure it would make no difference, because any women’s opinions would always be thought of as lesser than of the men who approved – and Phyri had just opened her mouth to explain this to him as well, when she had another idea.

Oh, she could encourage women to write to the paper with their opinions. But, even better: she could encourage them to write to the paper as men. Porphyria had never published under a male pseudonym, if only because the Dempsey name afforded her some poetic privilege, what with her parents – but, in this case, whose opinions would hold more water?

But they could use that. Suddenly Phyri gave a sparkling, genuine smile, her rage reduced to a simmer with this new plan in her head. “But thank you for all your help,” she said in an unexpected tone, almost carefree and sunny again, as if she was taking his advice; there was a new glimmer in her eye, but she wasn’t going to let him in on the secret. “Maybe I will write in after all.”

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a sublime set by Lady! <3

Walter hadn't thought the management would have bothered requesting readers to write to them about the measure if they didn't care about their reader's opinions, male or female. He could only say what he felt and in truth he didn't place much value on the contents withing the Daily Prophet to begin with. In some ways he preferred they didn't print anything about any suspicious activity, especially an on going case. What women were allowed to see in the printed word was insignificant against the far greater dangers their world faced when it came to dark wizards and other mischief makers.

The sudden change in her demeanor and the brightening of her expression caught Walter's attention fully. There was a craftiness in this woman and he was certain she just came up with an idea to get her point across. Fortunately it seemed to lie in a direction far more effective than public demonstrations and loud demands for women to boycott the Daily Prophet. Whatever idea she came up with Walter hoped it wasn't one more likely to break laws or bring harm to others. In time he'll likely learn about it if it did escalate but he truly hoped she would simply write the Prophet her protest against the use of discriminating ink and not something malicious.

"I'm glad you have reconsidered my suggestion," Walter responded. "I hope it proved effective without bringing any trouble to yourself or others. Good day to you, Miss."

OOC: we can wrap on your reply or here, whichever you prefer. This was a fun thread to write :)

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   Porphyria Dempsey

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