Got the On the Buses ref rather quickly - it's a shame somebody *coughyoucough* can't do a comedy On the Buses style but with Ernie and Stan on the Knight bus as the main characters. I wonder what would become of the "Olive in the split sidecar-motorbike" scene during the 1971 movie?

That would be rather interesting.

So poor Ernie has been an informant in the first war and now in the second. I always saw that those working in the service industry (the Knight bus crew, the Magical maintence department workforce, wizarding pub bar staff etc. - not House elves as they are usually below a wizard's radar in the 1990's) would be in an ideal position to become informants for both DE's and Ministry personnel and Order members alike. This is a small section of human society (the House elves doing most of the work for St. Mungo's and the Ministry where humans fall short in numbers etc.) but a very useful one. Very, very useful. They make up a faceless and anonymous amount of people who remain above suspect activity. They are the ones people don't immediately leap to conclusions about or even question loyalty. I also imagine they are the muggle-raised (in some degree) working class background and therefore see themselves look to have gotten a job as they have left school after OWLS (not everyone going on to do NEWTS, I'm sure these ones begin their apprenticeships after they leave school).

I like how you have the heartbreak that Ernie's granddaughter was raised by him and his wife. How his daughter and son-in-law were killed during the first war. It's something that makes sense - the devastation and terror of the times ends with heartbreak for many families. Neville Longbottom's parents were just one tragic tale. Though having said that, the second war seems to be so much worse. I keep thinking of those poor unfortunate muggleborn children, aged eleven, who would prepare for their first day at a new magical school only to be taken off the Hogwarts Express, rounded up, tortured (likely) and then killed on the 1st September 1997. I only hope that Shacklebolt's Ministry found the mass graves at some point after the war. Such tragic stories.

Victoria x

I just saw that you had no reviews on this story so far but I liked it very much. Its a very good portrait of a not-so-important person, well done and so on.

(Please excuse my English.)