Dear Mom,
The first week of classes has been interesting to say the least. Dumbledore called me to his office following the welcome feast and gave me my schedule personally. He wanted to speak to me about my year; he thinks I should just become a third year student, despite my age. His point was that I was already taking third year courses and spending all of my time with the third years. He said he had spoken to you about it previously and you had agreed. I was just surprised you didn't tell me before hand. Anyways, all of my belongings were moved to the third year dormitory. My bed is right next to Ginny's now. It's nice to be closer to her. Last year when people looked at me like I had an infectious disease I would go into my dormitory and be alone…at least now if that happens I can come up here and hide with Ginny.
This year I'm starting Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. I'm not really excited about either of them. Hagrid is an excellent grounds keeper, and he loves the animals he takes care of, but some of the things we study in class are really dangerous—and honestly, besides Hector, I have no interest in magical creatures. Every time I come down for class by Hagrid's hut Hector gets excited and thinks I'm coming to visit him. I usually say hello before I have to go back up to the castle, but I feel bad. He looks so sad when I'm walking away. I'm going to see him as soon as I send you this letter.
Divination seems like a joke, Mom. At least Professor Trelawney makes it appear as such. The subject however I feel could hold some real grounds because I have after all had psychic connections to Grandfather…and isn't Divinity a seer? I'd like to see Trelawney's reaction when Divinity sits down in her classroom. We don't have Divination with the Slytherins, but I'm sure that'd be fairly entertaining, especially since when I entered the room Trelawney looked at me with great fear. She told me that a great dangerous power lay deep within me and if I wasn't careful that power could destroy me and everything I love. Sounds a bit like what you were talking about the morning I left. Dumbledore really thought that your powers were strong enough to destroy you? Do you think they're capable of destroying me to? By not practicing are you raising your chances of losing control of your magic?
Dumbledore asked me how often I intended on training. He knows that Gabriel had me training daily. I told him I wasn't sure. I wanted to focus on school work, so I would probably train on the weekends when I have free time. Gabriel left a note in my trunk that says I should be doing strength exercises every morning before breakfast, running 2 miles at least twice a week, and practicing Occlumency every night before bed. On the note he says every thing else is low priority and I should practice it when I have time, but not at the expense of my school work. I suppose Gabriel's demands are reasonable and I do enjoy working out, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to keep up with everything. But I'd like to work on my conjuring. I still can only conjure silverware. That's crap. I want to be better.
Professor Moody is a very interesting character, Mom. He told me that you're responsible for him losing part of his nose—he had to save your butt and the Death Eater got his nose out of it. Is that true? He seems to think very highly of you and Gabriel and said I was lucky to have you as a Mom and Gabriel as a trainer. He said that Gabriel was the most sought after Dark Wizard trainer when he worked for Voldemort. Is that true? Is that why he was ordered to kidnap you when you first came to England? After class and the exercises we went through with defensive spells, Moody told me I was the best he'd seen of my age group. I didn't tell him I'm actually younger then my entire class, but still! I thought that was pretty cool! I do miss Remus here though, Mom. He was an excellent teacher. Have you heard from him recently?
I am excited for the foreign students to come in October for the Triwizard Tournament. New faces at Hogwarts would be nice—and hopefully these students won't know who I am or my heritage. I'd like it if people would stop looking at me as if I'm dangerous, like a bomb that's going to explode at any moment. Ginny is brave for standing by me. That's what makes her such a good friend. Harry's been good too. He's been asking if I've heard from Dad at all. I told him about how Dad and I fought so I didn't think I'd be hearing form him anytime soon. Harry told me that if he had the chance to argue with his Father he'd apologize and make it right. Life is too short to let stupid arguments divide us from the ones we love…because of that I'm thinking of writing to Father and apologizing. Do you think that's a good idea? I was harsh…but if you two have forgiven each other, why can't I? The only reason I was mad at him was because he was jumping all over you, blaming you for things he didn't understand, and being jealous of Gabriel. Do you think he's still jealous of Gabriel? Do you think he feels as if Gabriel has replaced him? How do I make our relationship better when what we have already is so weak? Why can't I have two Fathers, if Dad is willing to get to know me better? I'm just really confused and not sure how I feel about him. I don't want to forgive him for the things he's done, for being a jerk…but at the same time I don't want to hate him forever…
I'll worry more about that tomorrow. Anyways, Mom, I think I've said all I wanted to. I'm going to go visit Hector and then do the homework that is starting to pile up on me. It's amazing that it's only the first week of term and I have a stack of homework mountain high.
I love you! Say hello to Gabriel for me!
Love,
Carrigan.
PS. I have included a permission slip for Hogsmeade in the letter. Now that I'm officially a third year I'm allowed to attend the Hogsmeade weekends if you'll allow me. Thanks very much!