Order Only Private message to Alice, Draco, and Hermione

[alt_severus]

As I promised, an accounting of the five newest residents of Moddey. With some diligence towards searching houses and personal effects, we were able to identify all but one of the individuals we selected, and their ages and dates of birth, through such means as Muggle identification papers carried on or near the sleeping person or around the house, though some of the identifications are essentially assumptions:

Patient 1: Robert Smith, age 28
Patient 2: Elizabeth Smith, age 27
Patient 3: Joseph Heller, age 22
Patient 4: unidentified male, mid-20s
Patient 5: Victoria Barnes, age 26

To the best of my ability to determine, the Smiths are a married couple; I made the decision to bring them both because I did not want to separate them. Likewise, on the off chance we are able to aerosolise the antidote (when it is developed) in much the same fashion as the original potion was, I left notes at each location indicating, to anyone who may come searching for their relocated family members after we are able to wake the village, that they had been removed not by the Protectorate's cleanup teams but by someone who had their best interests in mind. (As foolishly optimistic as that might be.) As I did not wish to give us away to anyone malicious who may visit in the interim, I did not provide any further detail identifying us or where they were taken, only that they would be cared for to the greatest extent possible.

Taking a cue from Muggle hospitals and their practice of identifying patients by providing wristbands with identifying details, each of the patients is now wearing a wristband of worked leather with the name that is our best guess for each of them stamped into the leather.

Hermione, Draco, I must thank you again for your assistance in transporting our unfortunates to Moddey, and in searching their houses and personal effects to identify them.

Alice, I will now spend the next several days attempting to discover as much as I can about the physical effects of the Sleeper potion. I will not proceed without informing you of our status.

Comments

[alt_alice]

Thank you, Severus. Draco, Hermione, I very much appreciate your help as well.

[alt_alice]

I was talking to Regina about what we were planning, to see what she'd think about it.

She said she'd known it was something we were trying to do, but the reality of actually testing on people was a little difficult to process. She also said that although not everyone would agree with her, she wanted this done, and if Fu had been a sleeper, she would have agreed to have it tested on him. So there's that.

She also said that it's customary for Muggles to call unknown men John Smith, and unknown women Jane Smith. Perhaps we should use a similar custom for our own unknown.

I've also passed along the news to Davidson, with a request not to let others know until we have a greater degree of certainty. He's cautiously on board as well, and, Will being Will, immediately brought it round to review our previous conversations of tactical uses should we prove successful. (He's already generated a list of priority targets, naturally, although the logistics of supplying, arming, and housing give us both headaches.) It's all been hypothetical, of course, as it always has been, it's just more potentially immediate now than it has been before.

I am honestly uncertain of Poppy's reaction, but I've sent what assurances I can, as well as letting her know we're all doing this with eyes wide open about the possible risks. We'll see.

[alt_severus]

Now that you mention the alias for unknown persons I do remember it, vaguely. John Smith he shall be.

I do not pretend that the process of deciding who to wake, and in what order, will not be excruciating, nor that the question of obtaining access to those Sleepers who have been carted off and warehoused will not be vastly difficult. I suppose all we can do is take it one step at a time, however.

I have spent today attempting to study what I can of the effects the potion had, and match them to the sample we obtained previously. I am cautiously optimistic about our prospects, as much as it is within my nature to be I suppose.

[alt_alice]

I wake up nights sometimes thinking of everything that could go wrong before we have a chance to make it right. MLE and the Council may sort out what we're trying to do, and in anticipation, may start simply killing Sleepers to prevent the possibility of our giving them freedom. We may be missing a vital key that only a handful of people know of, which may very well die with them if there is to be a conflict. But we must try. We must.

And although I doubt and worry and fear and question, I do trust you. Please know that. Your level of care and concern will never be taken for granted, and I know you hold yourself to the highest standard. I will take your cautious optimism as a good sign indeed, because I know the degree of thought that's gone into it.

These people are not subjects in an experiment, they're patients under our care, and we will try our best to do right by them.

And Severus, I know this is necessary, and important, and you have my fullest support. The best we can do is put one foot ahead of the other, hope for the best, trust that we're headed in the right direction, and learn from our mistakes as we go.

Are you getting enough sleep? Do you need anything?

I'll bring tea over tomorrow.