The contract requires the sentence to be said to the living party, and the living party has to be in a state to hear it, which is a phrase with a great deal of room in it.

CorvinaIt means willing. That is all it has ever meant. A party who is not willing cannot be the party, and a fetch is never unwilling, which is why it is not a party.

MalfoidI am willing. Write it down if it makes you feel better. I have been willing since I was fourteen and I have been unbearable about it since.

She says it in a corridor in a dressing gown with the fetch watching, and the fetch stops smiling for the first time since March.