August 12, 1986
Dear Dora,
Congratulations on your splendid results. They are very well deserved. I know how hard you have to work to get one Outstanding, let alone four. Let me guess – they were for Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts?
Mr Weasley would never laugh at you for wanting to become an Auror. He would be an excellent person to speak to about it next time you see him.
Honeydukes Dark Chocolate is my favourite chocolate, and I've enclosed a bar. I am sure you know which Dark creature chocolate is an antidote for?
Yours,
Remus
...
August 13, 1986
Dear Remus,
You guessed the subjects right! And I didn't even have to look it up – you should eat chocolate after being in the presence of a Dementor. Or just because. I ate it just because.
Yours,
Dora
...
September 12, 1986
Dear Remus,
When I started back for the new school year I thought things were going to be easier. I'm not new anymore, the castle feels like my second home and I have friends. Not just Charlie and Phoebe, but lots of other third-years as well, from all the houses. Except Slytherin. I don't say they're all as mean as Snake and Redfern, but they can be quite haughty and I just can't seem to warm to any. Petra Gargonelle wouldn't share a book with me in the library the other day because she was 'using' it. It was sitting by her elbow, closed! And it was the only copy. I watched her for hours while I tried to write my essay, fuming, and she finally opened it, once, for five minutes, and then WALKED PAST ME to reshelve it.
But third-year is not easy, Remus. In fact it's much harder. Our teachers seem to think we've been indulged with easy lessons and minimal homework. EASY LESSONS? MINIMAL HOMEWORK? Are they mad?
Phoebe and I had a bet going about how many of our professors were going to mention the O.W.L.s in our first lessons. Phoebe said seven. I said all nine. I won half a galleon. We don't have to sit them until fifth-year but apparently it's 'never too early' to be thinking about them.
As well as all the usual subjects I'm taking Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Charlie is in Care of Magical Creatures with me! It's wonderful to have a class with him again. He's brilliant at it. He can already identify all the species of dragon just by their silhouettes.
I should go. I have a mountain of reading to do.
Stressfully yours,
Dora
...
October 5, 1986
Dear Remus,
Third-year is not getting any easier. I've had a terrible week. In Defence Against the Dark Arts we learned how to banish a Boggart, and the professor brought in an actual Boggart for us to practice on. It was my very first encounter with proper Dark magic and I was so excited to put all the theory I'd learned into practice.
I was so excited, in fact, that I forgot that the Boggart would turn into something that would actually frighten me. Oh, Remus. It was awful. When it was my turn and he opened the chest, my Aunt Bellatrix stepped out. I couldn't breathe. She looked at me with so much hate and coldness in her eyes, and then lifted her wand and screamed, 'Crucio!' I cried out and crossed my arms in front of my face, certain that the curse was really going to hit me. When I looked up a few minutes later she was gone, I was sobbing and my hair had turned white. I wasn't the only one who couldn't do it, but I was the only one who cried.
Being an Auror isn't really about good grades, it's about facing Dark magic and Dark beings without flinching. I flinched.
Yours,
Dora
...
October 6, 1986
Dear Dora,
I saw Bellatrix Lestrange just before she was imprisoned in Azkaban, and a colder, more zealous and remorseless person I have never encountered. She more than any other Death Eater was unable to accept that Lord Voldemort was gone, and it was this disbelief that led her to torture the Longbottoms into madness. As two of the ministry's best Aurors I believe she thought they were somehow responsible for his disappearance, or at least knew where he was.
I was at a loose end in those days and I attended many Death Eater trials, including hers. I think I needed to reassure myself that it was really over, and that those responsible for the deaths of so many were being held accountable.
Bellatrix sat upon her chair in chains as if it were a throne. It was an impressive, terrible sight. How proudly she proclaimed her loyalty to the Dark Lord, even as so many others were scrambling to distance themselves from him. Her own sister, Narcissa Malfoy, and Narcissa's husband, Lucius, claimed to have been under the Imperius curse and were not really Death Eaters. It's true that Narcissa does not bear the Dark Mark. Bellatrix sneered when asked about the Malfoys by the Minister, and whether she had suffered from an Imperius curse too.
You are very sensible to be frightened of a witch like Bellatrix Lestrange, but I think your fear is more complex than you realise. I think you fear not her, but the Black blood that runs in both of your veins, and the Black connection with Slytherin house. That connection frightens you. Perhaps Slytherins and Death Eaters are even one and the same in your mind.
I remember your very first letter in which you were so afraid you would be Sorted into Slytherin, and another letter in which you mentioned that Sirius betrayed James and Lily Potter despite being in Gryffindor. You have realised that simply being in Hufflepuff is not enough to preclude you from the temptations of Dark magic. It's not Bellatrix you fear, but your own potential for evil.
Personally I've always thought that Bellatrix Lestrange would be improved by giving her a motherly Babbity Rabbity appearance, perhaps with the addition of a rabbit's front teeth and furry ears.
Yours,
Remus
...
October 10, 1986
Dear Remus,
Reading your letter was like being hit with the Knockback jinx. My own potential for evil. I think you're right. I never thought about it that way before. You believe, then, that anyone might do evil things?
After I had thought about it for a while I went to see my Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and asked if I could try banishing the Boggart again. He said yes, I took a deep breath, and he opened the chest. Out stepped Bellatrix. She cackled and reached for her wand. I thought hard. I pictured it in my mind. I said, 'Riddikulus!' And suddenly she was Babbity Rabbity, half changed into a rabbit. She even hopped about.
Do you think the court made the right decision in letting the Malfoys go free? I suppose if anyone is capable of evil, then anyone is capable of good. Even a Malfoy.
Thank you, Remus. I don't know what I'd do without you.
Yours,
Dora
...
October 18, 1986
Dear Dora,
I think the courts did the best they could with the Malfoys on the evidence they were given. So many people up and down the country had been Imperiused, though the Malfoys were the only pure-blood family to claim such a thing. For now they're abiding by Wizarding Law and if they continue to do so I believe we can say the courts made the right decision.
They love their son Draco very much, I hear, and when the time comes for him to begin at Hogwarts I am sure that Dumbledore will keep a close eye on him. He will start the same year as Harry Potter. I would like to be a bowtruckle in the tree those two boys meet.
Well done with the Boggart.
Yours,
Remus
...
Coming up with something to make a Bellatrix Lestrange Boggart into something funny was really quite challenging! Babbity Rabbity is in The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and she's a very bosomy old woman who can transform into a rabbit.
It's so lovely getting all your reviews and comments! I'm glad Remus is writing back properly now, too, he's so much fun to write. Let me know what you think of today's chapter!
