Capable indeed. Why, she'd even managed her own zipper. But, yes, Camilla did have an innate talent for smoothing things over. If worse came to worst, she'd simply ignore whatever didn't work; she'd pretend it wasn't happening.
She stretched up to give Henry a brief kiss on the cheek before taking his arm. House elves didn't really count as an audience, and she felt it was more important to reassure him than to be circumspect around house elves anyway. "We'll have a couple of drinks and meet some poor hapless man who's been dragged there by house-elves too, and then we'll come back and read Catullus or something." Surely house elves couldn't know how racy Catullus' poetry was, but Henry would get the idea.
All the way down to the Great Hall, she pretended the house elves weren't even there. She walked sedately and with no particular rush, as though she'd decided to go there herself. The elves didn't care as long as she was moving in the dictated direction, so they didn't feel the need to hurry the Winters along. (Also, none of them wanted to be turned upside-down like their unfortunate compatriot.)
no subject
She stretched up to give Henry a brief kiss on the cheek before taking his arm. House elves didn't really count as an audience, and she felt it was more important to reassure him than to be circumspect around house elves anyway. "We'll have a couple of drinks and meet some poor hapless man who's been dragged there by house-elves too, and then we'll come back and read Catullus or something." Surely house elves couldn't know how racy Catullus' poetry was, but Henry would get the idea.
All the way down to the Great Hall, she pretended the house elves weren't even there. She walked sedately and with no particular rush, as though she'd decided to go there herself. The elves didn't care as long as she was moving in the dictated direction, so they didn't feel the need to hurry the Winters along. (Also, none of them wanted to be turned upside-down like their unfortunate compatriot.)