"Alice your book list is here." Remus said as he opened the window and let the Apollo in. Despite storming off last night, I had awakened to find Severus' house empty. This caused me to go searching for him at Remus' house. When Remus realized Severus wasn't home he insisted I stay with him. My little barn owl tumbled through with several letters attached to him. I was already on my way to the kitchen as Remus opened the window.
"More than just the books list it looks." I said reaching for the stack. "A letter each from Emily and Mary. One from Draco probably an invitation to his house, one from Harry finally, the Hogwarts letter of course, and a letter from Sirius for you." I handed him his letter and looked over mine again. "Right I'll start with Harry's." I said taking a seat at the table.
Dear Alice,
I hope you're doing ok. I'm sorry I haven't written, but something strange happened to me at the beginning of the summer and I wasn't sure I should mention it to anyone. But then Sirius heard from Remus that you'd gone through to same thing. I'm talking about the elf of course. Anyway thanks to that I didn't get any of your letters. I'm not even sure you'll get this one. I'm sure you and Emily and Mary are having loads of fun. I've been spending a lot of time at Ron's. I've been so busy I nearly forgot to say Happy Birthday! Well hope to hear from you soon. See you in Diagon Alley.
Your brother,
Harry Potter.
Happy Birthday? "Remus how did Harry know my birthday was coming up? Oh duh! We're twins."
Dear Harry,
Yes I was having the same problem with my mail, but it seems to be working fine now. How is Ron doing? And Hermione? I nearly forgot our birthday too! Happy Early Birthday Harry! See you in Diagon Alley.
-Alice.
I read through Emily and Mary's letters next. They both said the same things. That they had fun visiting Remus and I and that they couldn't wait to come back again. Draco's letter was as I had expected an invitation to visit his house.
Miss Myra Prince,
The Malfoy family wished to extend an invitation to you and your Uncle Severus Snape, in hope that you will visit our house 6 August.
Lucius, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy.
Gee I'd love to, if Sev could bother to come back. It had been three days since we had told Severus about letting Draco into the family secrets. He wouldn't respond to owls, enchanted parchment, nor summons by Dumbledore. At first it was annoying, but when he did come for Dumbledore I started to worry that something may have happened to him. Remus broke me from my chain of thoughts. He looked concerned as he finished his rather long letter from Sirius.
"Alice, can I see your Hogwarts letter?"
"Sure." I said reaching across the table to hand him the letter. It opened it and read it three times before looking back up at me.
"It appears this year, we will be having an assistant in the charms department."
"And this is as problem because?"
"Well it appears our new assistant professor has requested that all students talking charms purchase his complete works." He handed me the list. "Gilderoy Lockheart."
"Oh my god, there are seven books from this guy alone!" I read over some of the titles "Voyages with Vampires? I think I've heard of that one. If this is who I'm thinking of this Lockheart guy is pretty famous. Severus says his books are all a load of rubbish though, so I've only ever read that one."
"For once I think Severus and Sirius might actually agree. The majority of his letter explains how much he already dislikes the man. The rest of it, about two lines mind you, Sirius asks when we want to meet up to purchase your books."
"How about on our birthday again. Like we did last year. That can be our tradition?"
"That should give us enough time to prepare. Hopefully Severus will have returned by then."
"yeah. I'm gunna go write him and tell him the book list is here. Maybe that will get his attention." I went down to my room and searched for my old parchment.
Sev. I waited. Severus the Book list has arrived. Still no response. HELP! I'm being attacked by a herd of death eaters! There are werewolves too! Within seconds his response appeared.
The number of things that are incorrect with that statement…
1. If there were herd of Death Eaters about to attack you, I would know much sooner than you.
2. No one knows where you live, the few that do are magically prohibited from telling anyone else.
3. Werewolves dislike humans immensely and would never team up with death eaters.
4. Remus is a werewolf and would be able to better protect you from werewolves than I would.
5. It's not even a full moon.
6. If there was an emergency you wouldn't have time to write it down.
But I got your attention. I wrote back.
Very well, what is it you want?
When are you coming home?
When you stop acting like a child.
I'm not the one hiding from my family and Dumbledore.
I'm not hiding I'm just. I wrote over his response before he could finish.
I'm not hiding I'm just avoiding my responsibilities as a guardian and excommunicating myself from everyone I know.
It's pathetic that you think you're being funny. You can expect me home AFTER your birthday. Before then do not worry I am fine. The words vanished and our conversation ended. Well it was better than nothing.
July 31st came soon than I had expected, but I was excited to see my brother again. Remus and I waited outside for Harry and Sirius to pull up with the car. When they finally arrived I hopped in the back with Harry. On the way to Diagon Alley Harry and I talked about Dobby. We decided it was probably just someone playing a prank on us, and that we wouldn't worry about it.
