A/N:
And here it is, nearly on time - the sequel to Distractions. Some of you may be wondering why Today is a Gift appeared during our exam time. That would be because TiaG is (mostly) Mira's, and Discussions is (mostly) Elsha's, and Mira managed to find the time to post it. Updates, unfortunately, depend on Elsha remembering to give Mira the next chapter back, so you'll know where the blame lies if it's almost time for book six and we're still on chapter one. ;)Anyway, enjoy Discussions. In other news - Distractions has got a beta (thanks Aerin!) so that's the cause of any updates there - no sudden epilogue! It has also been accepted at the Sugar Quill (a fairly well-known HP fanfic site) which is a cause for much rejoicing. J
Chapter One - Summer Time
July 7, 1996
Dear Anne,
I hope your trip home was okay. Mine was fairly uneventful, except for Malfoy. He decided to go and ambush Potter, along with Crabbe and Goyle. I don't know why he bothers; he does it every trip up and down , and he's always the one who comes out worst. He's not too bright in some areas, revenge being one of them. When he hadn't returned after an hour, I went to check on the ambush site; they'd all been hexed until they were nearly unrecognisable and hung up on a coat rack. Since the nearest compartment happened to be full of Potter's supporters - various Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws - I drew my own conclusions.
Home seemsrather empty. My mother is occupying herself by aiding in plans; I suspect she has been given a projected date for my father getting out of Azkaban, as she isn't as upset as I had thought. The Dementors rebelling will certainly help. However, our house-elf is cowering whenever she so much as lays eyes on it, so I do suspect she has been in a bad temper. I'm honestly surprised by the lack of things happening; no attacks, and it has been a good two weeks. The tension isn't good. I have been practising the piano quite a bit. The house is far too silent otherwise.
But enough of that. How are you, and how is your family? I hope they're listening to what has happened, they will need to know. Tell me if your sister gets a Hogwarts letter. What House do you think she will be in?
My OWL results should be arriving in about three weeks. I'm a little worried about the Astronomy one, given the interruption, and also Transfiguration - neither has ever been my strong point. But I guess time will tell. That seems to be what I have to say about most things lately. Thankfully I don't have too much homework over the holidays, as a lot of courses are mark-dependent; I may not make it into some of them. But I do have some background reading. If I recall correctly, you won't have too much - I didn't last summer - but a lot of Potions. As always.
Yours sincerely,
Theodore
July 9, 1996
My trip home was nowhere near as eventful as yours seems to have been! Just noisy. But then, I was in a compartment with a bunch of teenage girls, so I don't know what I expected. One of my friends - Gabby - finally worked up the courage to ask out another fourth-year she's been mooning over for months, so all she could talk about was Chris Cullen and how wonderful he is. I have never been so relieved to see King's Cross in all my life. If I ever start to go on like that, you have my permission to shoot me.
It's wonderful to be back home. I've missed my family so much, and my sisters have grown - a lot! Theresa (my next-oldest sister) is getting quite worked up over the possibility of a Hogwarts letter. I'm quite scared that she won't get one - I think she's been showing the signs, but what if she doesn't have enough magic? I know my brother Edmund was very disappointed when he didn't get one. He was quite nasty about me being a witch for a while after that. He seems to have got over it - he's busy this summer with his cricket team, and apparently he's a good player, so he seems happy enough.
My parents, now - I have tried to explain to them about He Who Must Not Be Named and everything, but they don't treat it as quite real. They never have really believed in magic; oh, they see it in Diagon Alley, they know I'm a witch, they're happy about it, but they don't think it can ever affect them. They think it's a whole lot of scaremongering, the Death Eaters and everything. You'd think the Ministry had been at them. I'm going to talk to the Martins about it. They're the closest wizarding family; Priam Martin works in the Muggle Liaison office, he's responsible for preparing reports to the Muggle Prime Minister if there are things he needs to know. He has some Muggle relatives, and his wife's a Muggle, so he understands their world very well. His wife is lovely, she took my mother and me to Diagon Alley the first time to get my school things. It was them who explained about the wizarding world to us when I got my letter. Elise, their eldest, is going to be a second-year in Hufflepuff. I baby-sit for them sometimes; I'm trying to save up for a broom for when I leave Hogwarts, I don't really need one now, since I never play Quidditch or anything. Do you have a broom? Silly question, you probably do.
Oh dear, this letter is getting quite long, isn't it? I should probably stop now
Yours,
Anne
PS What's your owl's name? She's gorgeous!
July 10, 1996
How're you doing? How's your family? I'm so glad to be home, with everything going on. My parents are really worried, they're suggesting I not go back next year, honestly, what's their problem? We're not going to be attacked at Hogwarts! They want me to go to Beauxbatons or something. It's tempting, it'd be really neat to go to school in France (even if my French isn't that great.) And a lot of the boys who came over for the Triwizard Tournament were pretty cute. But it'd be a big change, and besides, I'd miss all of you too much. You should come over to my house sometime, it's not so far by Floo network, and your neighbours are connected aren't they? I have no one to talk to, it's dead boring here, and it's only the first week! I'm going to invite Ellie and Mai and Gabby too, what d'ya say, we can have a girls-only day! Please?
Love
Sarah
PS And if I went to Beauxbatons I couldn't be Prefect next year, and I've got my fingers crossed about that.
July 12 1996
Don't worry about long letters, honestly, I'm not exactly going to get much other correspondence this summer. Our house is pretty far removed from everywhere, typical pureblood paranoia, and the only people likely to visit are a) Death Eaters (and thus far too likely to want to recruit me) or b) family (who are either in category a, as good as in category a, tiresome little brats, or have been kicked from the family for not liking those in category a, and thus will not be visiting.) The only letters I am likely to receive are my OWL results and possible one from Malfoy if he's bored. But that will be all about him, and after five years of being in his dorm, that is one topic I know far too much about.
If your sister is going to get a letter, it will probably be about late July; that's when I got mine, at any rate. But they might send them out at a different time to Muggle households, I don't know. As for magic, it is actually quite common for Muggleborn witches or wizards to have siblings at Hogwarts, possibly more so than for us (given that second or third children are rare in pureblood families, especially if the eldest child is a son.)
I don't know the Martins, but I do know a little bit about the Muggle liaison office. They generally have Muggleborn witches or wizards working there, because they know the Muggles best. According to the Daily Prophet, and the far more reliable source of my mother, Fudge has decided not to tell the Muggle Prime Minister anything except that the Dark Lord has returned; he has already been informed about the Azkaban breakout, and I suppose the incident at the Ministry too. The Muggles are going to be supremely unprepared, I think, which will probably lead to quite a few casualties. I hope the Martins can persuade your parents of the truth of the matter. Then again, they may be reluctant to let you return to Hogwarts if they get too scared, so it could be in your better interests for them to be disbelieving.
I do own a broom, but it isn't very good - a Comet 260. Then again, I don't have a hope in hell of trying out for the Quidditch team, and I've always preferred watching the sport to playing it, so I guess it doesn't matter all that much. The Comet line is okay, but if you're saving for a broom, I'd get a Cleansweep, they're better for long distance flying and that's really the point of an everyday broom, you don't need massive acceleration or anything. They're not too expensive either. There's a really good magazine which would probably have all the information you'd want, it's called Which Broomstick? I think that Quality Quidditch Supplies in Diagon Alley would have it, or alternatively, you could ask one of your friends if they have a brother or boyfriend who has a copy they could borrow for you. I don't think many of the boys at school don't have access to it. Is there an equivalent obsession for Muggles? I'd hate to not be able to follow Quidditch.
My owl's name is Bronwyn, if you're really interested. I got her at the end of last year as a present for doing well in the end-of-year exams - before that I had to use the family owl, which is unnamed (too sentimental for my parents) and very cranky. I lived in fear I'd lose a finger. I hope your owl doesn't have similar tendencies.
Yours sincerely,
Theo
PS What on earth is cricket?
Memo
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
To:
Ms Hartley,
We need you to set up a team in charge of surveillance of the families of known or suspected Death Eaters, in Azkaban or not. We think that their post and possibly surveillance of their households may reveal valuable information on future Death Eater movements. Because of the official Ministry position for the last year, we're running blind here. We are assigning Johanna Beaumont as your second in charge of analysing the intercepted communications and Aethelred Fawcett as your second in charge of fieldwork. Please meet with them to co-ordinate setting up the necessary surveillance as soon as possible.
Amelia Bones
Head, DMLE
Memo
Auror Division
To:
Jo, you'll have heard you're in charge of reading the letters. I've dug up the old owl interception scheme used in the last war and attached it to this. We just don't have enough people to cover everyone so you'll have to concentrate on the families of known Death Eaters. I don't anticipate any major problems with this, but the important thing is not to let them know they're being watched – this only works for as long as they're writing freely. You'll need to be aware at all times of the possibility of a ruse, of course. Your team is in charge of receiving the copied letters and collating any information contained.
Io Hartley
July 15 1996
You so have to come to Sarah's in August. We can't all make it 'till then, you know Ellie's over in France until the first, but the rest of us can. Say you will? Sarah says you haven't written back. My summer's not going so bad, I got all the homework out of the way so I have lots of time to laze around. My tan is getting better every day, what with all this great weather we've been having. You working on yours? What about your flute playing? You spent all that time on that at Hogwarts, you should be taking a break now! (Of course, we all know you were off snogging your secret Slytherin boyfriend) I don't think this summer will be too boring. I'm owling Chris a lot - I'm so glad I worked up the courage to ask him! He's perfect. Sweet and kind and - yeah, I know, you don't want me to go on about it. I'll go and daydream instead. You know, you should get a boyfriend. It's fun.
Love,
Gabby
July 16 1996
So much for me thinking I'd written too much. You must have been really on a roll. I seem to be doing an awful lot of this; I'm getting a few letters from my dormmates as well – Mai, Sarah, Gabby and Ellie. Mostly gossipy girl stuff, but it's nice to have some light relief (like Gabby prolaiming I need a boyfriendjust because she has one.) Light relief is also coming in the form of babysitting – hard to worry about the deep issues of life when you're trying to persuade a seven year old (the middle Martin child) to go to bed. I enjoy babysitting them. It's interesting seeing a wizarding house – although as Mrs. Martin is a Muggle, the Martins have lots and lots of Muggle things. Then again, that does make it a bit easier when I'm trying to look after the kids.
Speaking of the Martins, they've had a word to my parents and they seem to be taking things more seriously now. We sat down and had a bit of a talk about You Know Who, and the Death Eaters, and everything like that. I decided you were right about not wanting to scare them too much, so I did leave a little bit out, but I told them enough to let them know that this is serious, it's real, and it could affect us. But I also pointed out that we're not exactly frontline targets or anything. My youngest sister, Nicola, has also been asking why I'm writing so many letters; I told her that it wasn't that many, and it was to friends. She is the world's most nosy creature, honestly, I wish I could lock my room. She comes in to look at Gwaihir and ends up going through my school things! Any and all letters are now stashed safely where she isn't going to find them. Fortunately she can't read too well, as she is only seven, because I caught her trying to read my first letter from you the other day (I'd been out in the garden, and came back in to find her in my room.) Siblings. Honestly. You don't want them, believe me.
You did mention tiresome little brats, if I remember correctly, so you do have some young relatives. Cousins? My mother's an only child but my father has three sisters and a brother so I have about ten cousins of different ages, ranging from twenty to two. They live scattered all over England, France, and even one in New Zealand, so family gatherings aren't common, but are big.
Thanks for the advice on the magazine - I think I'll get a copy when I go in to pick up my school supplies. As I said, I probably won't be getting a broomstick 'till next summer, but it can't hurt to think about it. The Muggle obsession would, I guess, be football. It's only got one ball and eleven players per side - there's a goal at each end of a field and you have to kick the ball into the goal. You can hit it with anything except your hands, except for the goalie, who stands in the goal to guard it, and can use his hands. I used to play football at school a bit when I was younger - it was great fun. My brother plays it in the winter, and so does Theresa, but right now Ed is playing cricket. That's very complicated, but basically someone throws a ball at you and you have to hit it with a wooden bat. Then you run a certain distance, and for every distance you run you score a point. You stand in front of three wooden sticks, and if you miss the ball and it hits the sticks, or you're running and someone throws it at the sticks (called stumps) you're out, and the next person takes your place until everyone on your team is out. Then you swop sides. It's more fun than that, but I'm not good at explaining.
Oops, here comes dear Nicola again. I am definitely asking for a lock!
Love from,
Anne
PS No, Gwaihir doesn't peck. He's very sweet.
July 16 1996
Salut, Anne,
Ça va?
Of course, even now I'm in France, that's the limit of my French, but hey, who cares. The scenery is exellent, the weather's great, and I'm in the French Riviera. What more can I ask for? The wizarding shops and the Muggle ones are both very good, and I am having far too much trouble deciding what to buy with my limited funds. Clothes, probably, and some touristy stuff as a souvenir. I hope you're having fun back in Englandpoor you, nothing to do. Hah. Only one and a half months 'till Hogwarts again, eh?
Hope this postcard reaches you okay.
Love,
Ellie
July 19, 1996
Dear Anne
Just wondering – you mentioned your dormmates, were those the girls I saw you with the day that you tripped me up in the corridor? I seem to remember one of them was Asian, she was giving me some pretty dirty looks – fair enough, I suppose – and Mai sounds like an Asian name. I never did apologise about what I said then, did I? Sorry. Even if it is a couple of months too late. I tend to try to blend in to the company I'm keeping, and when it's Malfoy – no, that's an excuse. I shouldn't have called you what I did.
Relatives - no, not too many of those here. My mother's uncle, Andrew Jugson, was killed by the Aurors in the last war; her elder brother was in Azkaban, and he's back in there at the moment. My grandparents are all still alive. My closest relatives apart from them are on my father's side, like you - his elder sister Karena and her family. She married Paul Amberley, who works for a publishing company, and also owns quite a bit of the Daily Prophet. They have two children, Celia and Lucas. Lucas is eight, and a more annoying kid you would be pushed to find. Celia is thirteen, she's in Ravenclaw - very bright, very cunning, far too hard to lie too. I'm a bit wary of her, to be honest, she has a tendency to be nosy (like your youngest sister, it seems.) She's going to get into trouble one day with that; she'll hear something she shouldn't, or she'll say something she shouldn't, and she'll have to be dealt with. Mind you, she is only thirteen, so she won't have too many opportunities to get into serious trouble, this summer anyway. And she is a Ravenclaw.
I sort of wish I had siblings, sometimes. Especially now. The house is just so damn quiet, most of the time, with only me and Mum home. And she spends so much time in the study. It would be good to have someone to talk to - I used to talk a lot to my father in the evenings, just about what I'd done that day, or his work, or just anything, really. I can't see that happening for a while, if ever again. They'll be watching our house, when he does escape. You're so lucky, Anne - you have so much less to worry about. Apart from if-okay, you do have some things to worry about, but you've got all your family with you. That counts.
Football and cricket sound rather complicated, but I'd have to say you can't beat Quidditch. I mean what's the point of a sport where there's only one ball and everyone stays on the ground? Give me broomsticks any day.
Have you been playing your flute much? It must be hard, with so many people in your house. Does anyone else in your family play music? My mother plays the harp quite well, she's the one who insisted that I learn the piano, she's very into knowing things like that. I haven't seen her play it since I got back from Hogwarts, though. She makes me learn French as well. D'you speak any French? I have a feeling you might know a bit, but I'm not sure.
Oh, and by the way, why is your owl named Gwaihir? I've never heard that before. Bronwyn is Bronwyn because she's really dark brown and Bronwyn means dark. Partly, anyway.
Yours
Theo
July 21 1996
Yeah, Mai's Asian. Her family's from Vietnam, actually, her parents came out here about - oh, ten years ago. Not sure why, I think her father used to be some sort of diplomat but retired from that and decided he wanted to stay in England. She's quite smart, Mai, definitely the most sensible of my friends. Gabby lives up to her name no end, plus, her world begins and ends with boys. I've never quite got that. I mean, boys are perfectly okay as friends and all that. I mean, here I am, writing a letter to one. You. It's just going out and everything to do with that. Why do people spend so much time thinking about it? But - um, I think I'm digging myself into a large hole here, so I'll just stop. I think that's a good idea. Yes. So, Gabby is boy-obsessed, and my friend Ellie - tall, dark hair, you probably saw her - isn't too much better. She does pay attention to the world around her, which is a bonus. Sarah, the other fourth-year Hufflepuff girl, has her head screwed on, but tends to gossip, and takes things a bit seriously. Her break-up with her boyfriend meant she didn't talk to him for the rest of the year. What's the point in that?
But you don't want to hear about my girlfriends and their lives. Celia Amberleythink I might know her, well, by sight, anyway. Average height, quite dark but blue eyes, nose always in the air.
Music? My family is fairly musical, more than most. My mother plays the piano a bit, my sister Theresa plays the 'cello, Edmund the violin, although he's given it up for sport. Nicola doesn't play anything, she'd drop it. The amount of plates we lose every year by getting her to set the table, you wouldn't believe it. Still I suppose she might be okay on the piano, it's kind of hard to drop that on anyone. I could believe she'd end up tipping it over, though - it'd just be so Nicola. To tell you the truth, I'm probably giving you an unfair picture of her; she's a totally adorable kid at times, especially when she's asking me to read her a story or she's listening to me play the flute. She's so quiet, it's the only time she is. Tucked up in the corner like a little mouse. She loves to listen to music, any sort, and to dance to it as well - she's starting ballet classes next year, she's been begging Mum to let her for ages.
I've been playing the flute quite a bit, for Nicola, and just for me. And for my parents, once; they were impressed I'd kept up practice over the school year so much. I told them about you. Don't go all thin-lipped on me; just that I'd found someone who played the piano, or rather, you'd found me, and we'd been playing together. Yes, I mentioned your name, no, not your House, and God knows nothing about your family. I've had quite enough trouble persuading my parents that Death Eaters are a danger as it is without complicating things.
I should probably go to bed now. It's getting a bit late. Summer evenings are so deceptive.
Love from
Anne
PS Gwaihir is named after a bird in a Muggle book. Just don't ask. And don't worry about the corridor thing, I'd forgotten, honestly. I did feel a bit hurt at the time, since you never said anything, but it would be impossible to be around you for five minutes if I couldn't take some flak.
July 21, 1996
Anne,
I'm glad you're coming to Sarah's on Friday! It feels like forever since we've seen you. I know it's only been about three weeks, but the holidays are just so boring – nothing's happening. I wish something interesting would happen, then I'd have something to write about! As it is, it's dead quiet where I am. Mind you, I suppose that there are a lot of things that could be happening which we don't want to, so. That reminds me – do you want to come and stay for the weekend in August? My parents are going away, they're leaving my brother in charge – you remember him, he just finished Hogwarts. Anyway, they say I can have a friend over for that weekend, so d'you want to come? It'd be the third to the fifth. I thought it'd be good for you to stay in a wizarding household and see how it is. And then maybe I can come over later in August and see what a Muggle household is likeplease? Write back soon – well, I'll see you on Friday, won't I?
Love,
Mai
