.:strong fences make good neighbours:.

Happy fuckin' new year to me. My sister has run off in the middle of the night to perform some desperately important errand for that lunatic she works for. I have been given the third degree by Aurors because my older son insisted on haring off to Londinium after the Kaplan girl so he could sit on the train with her all the way from King's Cross back here. At least Ephraim hasn't bitten anyone this week. And I haven't heard word one from Jeannot or Dashwood in a while.

Of course that means I have also not heard from their backers. Which is fine with me.

Meanwhile, Bitsy wants gossip. I suppose I can tell her everything Zipporah Kaplan had to say about the Malfoy wedding parties.

I wonder what the hell has gone wrong with Igor. There is always something, it seems. I haven't heard from him or from Rohan in several days.

David and Zipporah Kaplan have been running around behind everyone's backs all weekend. The Kaplans have decided he ought to marry her, which I am against, he is for, and she is also against. (Which is annoying, because as much as I can see why she doesn't want to marry my son, he's still my son, and she's still a tart, and he ought to be more than good enough.)

When I said I wanted something to distract Gittel from bitching nonstop about Rachel, G-d? I did not mean that I wanted it to be my son.

So Ilan really does have a girl and the girl really is Teresa Silveira, and she actually seems to be happy with him. Which is cute. And G-d knows he's a better man than that sleazy bastard my sister works for.

It's Rosh Hashanah and in just a bit more than a week it'll be Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Most of the people I know are trying to figure out how to atone for the bad things they've done this year. My brother, my eldest son and his girlfriend, however...appear to be trying to get all the sinning they can manage 'in before deadline', as Galina would say. Galina talked to the girl for a little while--she's deaf as a post, but she can read lips--but mostly what she wanted to know was what happened at her boss's brother's wedding (which apparently didn't happen) because even though she swears she loves her boss, she's absolutely worried about the kind of mood he'll be in Monday morning, when she has to go back to work.

I absolutely do not get the way she caters to that man. She treats him like a favoured eldest son, even when he's keeping her up at all hours. Why should anyone be afraid of him? Oh, I don't know, just the fact that she can't ever talk about the things they do seems strange to me.

There is a fire out there. It looks like it's over around near The Three Broomsticks. Bloody hell.

...I'd better find out where my brother is. And David. And Zip. Oh G-d, am I calling her that now, too?

Oh, G-d, maybe I should have ridden up to Londinium with the kids and asked Galina to meet us there. Then Alexei wouldn't have been able to dawdle like that and we wouldn't be late. Gittel is going to have hives by the time we get there. Galina is dreading it badly enough as it is and our mother is not having one of her better days.

David won't stop babbling about Zipporah Kaplan and I do not like the sound of his conversation with Alexei particularly when they speak so softly Galina and I can't hear them.

At least hopefully Ephraim won't bite anyone.

Galina says Ilan has a girl. I understand that the girl Ilan has is Teresa Silveira.

I am not sure what I think about that. Bitsy is always telling me about how awful Galina's boss is for having affairs and how terribly he embarrasses his wife. I suppose that since Lady Malfoy has decided to become an honest woman (and the best of luck to her with that--I hope she comes out of it better than me!) Teresa Silveira has got to find another man, but Ilan?

Ilan is adorable, but...well... I suppose she must really be tired of Secretary Zabini, because it would be hard to find someone more different from him than Ilan.

My husband--Lucius Kerensky, whose name is still mine--has been dead for one year today. I would normally have expected to see Galina today, but of course, that terror my sister works for can't be arsed to let her out of his office, and she's as devoted to him as any of his mistresses. She came, finally, but she was so tired she fell asleep right after dinner, and I don't have the heart to move her, and she has to go back to the office tomorrow, and of course, she's working right through the holy days just like she always does. I mean to give that man a piece of my mind some day. Bitsy is always telling me how awful he is to his poor wife, it's her constant refrain. If he hadn't been so good to our mother, I'd have said something years ago, but enough is enough; Galina's debt surely is more than repaid, I don't care what he caught her doing with the accounting.

Still, it's not as though any of us are as good as we seem to be.

My sons are in school. This is probably the best place for them. It's even been a whole week since I've had a letter from one of their teachers, which normally would be cause for celebration.

I'll be glad when they're home for the holidays. I really will. No matter what Galina thinks.

Business has been horrible this year. None of the Hogwarts students have any money and most of them aren't allowed to come to town. At least they haven't closed the school entirely.