11/28/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: HJP80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: something happened
D
I'm not sure why I'm still bothering to write to you when I know Hermione will tell you everything that I will. You asked though so I'll keep it up until or unless you tell me to stop. It appears that Hermione's memories were modified not just obliviated. The good news is the modified memories seem to be repairing themselves. She'll explain how as I have no idea. I will tell you this she alternates between being incredibly excited at the progress to very down and worried that this is all the progress she'll make, that she'll lose it too. She's trying control of herself and not let herself overdo things but I think in the near future I may have to lock up the pensieve and the memories when I'm not home. I'll let you know if anything else changes.
H
11/28/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
RE: PROGRESSDraco,
If you have more memories where Harry and I are together in them with you, you should send those! I think those might be the key unlocking everything else. Harry said he wasn't going to share specifics with you so I will. We watched your memory and discovered that I have the same one with someone else in place of you, Theo in case you were wondering. So we watched mine, where we saw Theo, then Harry's. A little while ago I did my rewatching like I do and went back to watch mine again, a new copy, but this time it was Theo with your platinum blonde hair. My memories had changed. I worry that if we don't try something similar this progress will regress. I know most of your research and mine has been into reversing memory loss or in the case of witches and wizards, obliviation, but have you come across anything on reversing memory modification? I didn't reverse my parents. I didn't trust myself to do it. I was worried I might mess up and lose them forever. I spoke to Kingsley and he had an Auror do it. It worked perfectly but they did it non-verbally so I don't know how they did it. Harry said the Unspeakable that took care of me did it nonverbally as well so we don't know exactly how mine was done either. Obviously I know the theories behind the modification since I did modify Mum and Dad, but this is different with some memories being modified and others completely gone. If you have any ideas share them with me please.
Hermione
11/28/99
To: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
From: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: re: PROGRESS
Hermione,
I'm glad to know that's something we're doing is working. I find it odd you don't think what you did to your parents is the same as what was done to you. It sounds nearly identical to me. I can understand though with your emotional state at the time having to memory modify your own parents that it might not all be clear. Maybe you could pull that memory and watch it, see if it gives you any ideas. Is the Auror that Kingsley assigned to work on your parents someone you can trust? Maybe you could talk to them. Could you even talk to the Minister himself? Would he help? I would write more now my darling but we only just arrived back and I have to be at work early tomorrow. I will do more research when I get the chance. I am excited though that something seems to be making a difference. I don't know how many more memories I have with both you and Harry in them but I will look them over and see about sending them soon. If not this next time then after that. Let's not push too far too fast. Goodnight.
Always yours,
Draco
P.S. As per your previous email I will tell you all about my trip and Thanksgiving in another message in the next few days.
11/28/99
To: HJP80ATyahooDOTcom
From: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: re: something happened
Harry,
I see what you mean. I can almost hear her voice and the excitement and worry just in her last email to me. I have a feeling she will be angry with me as I won't be sending her the memories she wants to see next. I want to hold off, spread those out. I'll do my best to explain to her but I wanted you to be aware because you will be the one to get the earful when she decides to vent. Thanks again for keeping me updated.
Draco
11/29/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: HJP80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: something happened
D
Thanks for the heads up. I'll make sure I have some ear plugs handy or maybe just be ready to cast a quick Silence. No, I really wouldn't do that. I know better it would only make her angrier. I've lived through other rants before I can make it through this one.
H
11/29/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
RE: excellent ideas
Draco,
I don't know why I didn't think about asking Kings or maybe talking to the Auror I'll see if I can do that. As for my memories of modifying my parents' I'm not sure how much good they would be. I can try of course, at this point I'll try almost anything so long as it's legal, and possibly even if it isn't. Seeing Theo with the blond hair was incredibly frustrating as much as it was exciting. It's like we're on the verge of making a big breakthrough but just not there yet. I've spent a ridiculous amount of time wondering just why the Unspeakable chose to use Theo in place of you. Why not Crabbe or Goyle who you spent much more time with? Why not Blaise who seemed to be with you more than Theo? Or is that the answer? To distance those memories even more from you, to try and avoid tripping a reaction. What do you think?
Hermione
P.S. oh my I'm sorry I do want to hear about your trip and all about the people you have been working with I'm just so focused on this right now. It would probably be good for you to tell me more about your life now, get my mind going in a different direction. I need to get my focus back for work anyway. I was a mess today. I'm going to have a hard time keeping my job if I can't get any work done. Of course if I were to lose my job I could work more on getting my memories back. Don't panic I'm not serious. I need my job and I do enjoy it for the most part even with dealing with the bureaucracy that is the Ministry. Oh my this PS is nearly as long as the original message, sorry.
11/30/99
To: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
From: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: my turn to tell a story or two
Hermione,
Please tell me you mean it that you won't try to lose your job. If I thought that you not working would help in any way I would suggest that you take a leave of absence. I know you haven't been working long enough for that usually to be an option but seeing as you know the Minister personally and all you did to help end the war I can't believe they wouldn't give you the time.
So it seems it's my turn to tell a story. I'll start by telling you about the group that I've been taken in by here.
I suppose I should start by telling you about Martha my Potions Master. My guess is that she's probably in her sixties or seventies but I haven't asked. My mother raised me well enough to know you never ask a woman her age. She is exacting. She is a perfectionist and that works well for me because I'm the same way. She is also however a very patient teacher. Obviously there are a great number of potions we didn't learn in school. Those that are most frequently used but we didn't learn previously are the ones she has been working with me on. We first discuss the theory behind the potion, we look at the ingredients list and the methods of cutting, stirring, adding ingredients. She shows me what she has discovered that works better for her than what is in the books. Then I start brewing and she judges my results throughout the process and at the end. For the most part I have done well but there have been one or two potions I had to scrap and start over.
When I first arrived here in New Orleans the MACUSA representative that was assigned to me when I arrived in the States had shared with me how to find the magical areas in several cities in case I decided that New Orleans wasn't for me though I had let them know it was my intention to live here. So I already knew how to find it here in New Orleans and how to access it. The first day I settled in, then wandered the streets of both the NoMah and wizarding areas of the city. I hadn't brought any supplies with me, only the most basic necessities, so I stopped in several shops to get what I might need. When I stopped in to Martha's shop, the clerk had gone to lunch and she herself was working the front. She noticed my accent immediately, as does everyone here, and asked where I had moved from. She wasn't sure if it was a British or Australian accent exactly though she knew it to be one of the two. You'll have to tell me just how similar those are as you've been to both places. When I told her that I was from the UK she quite forwardly asked if I was here to get away from the aftermath of the war. I hesitated a bit before answering probably not the best idea but she didn't read anything into it. I said that yes in some respects that was why I had moved. She asked why I was in the shop quickly followed by her next question what I was going to do. I told her of my interest in potions and that I was planning to do long-distance potions apprenticeship with Professor Slughorn. She asked why I didn't look for a potions Master there. I told her I wasn't sure about getting an apprenticeship I didn't know what was required, if it was any different than the UK requirement. She said all that was needed was for copies of my final potions assessment scores, the NEWTS in other words, and recommendations from my professors. The US system has adapted a very similar testing program to what we have.
I asked her if she knew of anyone looking for an apprentice she said that she had one person about halfway through an apprenticeship and was willing to take on a second if I met her qualifications, and asked if I would be interested. I'm not dumb I told her I was absolutely interested. I didn't necessarily care for Slughorn, he wasn't a bad teacher, but he's not Snape. I was never quite sure how a long-distance apprenticeships would work anyway. It seemed to make much more sense to do it here so I went home and gathered up all of the paperwork she needed. I added to it a letter sent from the MACUSA about my situation and the letter sent from the Minister. I took them all back to her shop, gave them to her, and told her that after she had read them all if she did not wish to take me on I understood. I thanked her for even considering me. She told me to return in three days for her answer.
When I return to the shop, Claire, the clerk was working. I asked for Martha and Claire directed me to the back. In the lightest, brightest, and airiest potions lab I have ever seen I found Martha and Terrence. She smiled when she saw me and asked me to join her in her office. Instead of her sitting her behind her desk with me in front of it, we sat together at a table she had in the corner of her office. She had all of my documents laid out. She thanked me for being honest and upfront with her in providing the documents about my participation in the war. She asked after my mother and we spoke for a little while, then she offered me the apprenticeship. She said that with my scores and the records of the work that I had done in my year at home she thought that my apprenticeship could be completed within a year instead of the standard two. I gladly accepted her offerAt the end of my first week working in Martha's shop she invited me home for Sunday dinner with her family. I met her husband Maurice, two of their children, and five of their grandchildren. Sunday dinners at Martha and Maurice's are a loud and noisy affair, nothing like the dinners in my home growing up. It took me awhile to get used to the difference which is odd considering how loud and crazy things could be dinners or lunches or even breakfasts at Hogwarts I look forward to those Sundays now. If not every week then every other week I attend. Each time there's a different array of people. I have now met all four of Martha and Maurice's children and all ten of their grandchildren. They have introduced me to many of their friends. They have taken me in and asked if my mother is ever able to visit me bring her along to dinner as well.
M M are a funny couple, she is tiny. She might be a meter and a half tall she is also quite thin. Maurice on the other hand is a full thirty centimeters taller and weighs at least 17 stone. She has long dark grey hair that is most often kept in a knot on the top of her head much as McGonagall always kept hers. Maurice's head is bald except for very small patches above either ear. Their children are everywhere in between but all have olive skin and green eyes. I've never known a family where everyone has the same eye color but this one does.The clerk that I mentioned earlier Claire, is about our age. She says she enjoys potions and easily understands the theory behind them and how they work but just doesn't have the knack for making them. She does however have a way with people the rest of us don't. Claire is seldom alone. More often than not her sister Jean is nearby. Jean is a writer so she can work from anywhere. I've not spoken much with Jean as she is quiet and sits in a corner of the shop at a table, parchment and quill in hand writing furiously most days. The two are almost identical in looks, about your height with dark red hair they wear about shoulder length, their personalities though are night and day and they dress to match those personalities. I did ask as they looked so much alike but they aren't twins, merely very close in age, born only sixteen months apart.
That leaves Terrence. Terry is the one that took me home to Tennessee for Thanksgiving. T and his partner John that is. Terry is in his late twenties. He previously completed an apprenticeship in healing and began working in the position. After a few years, he decided it really wasn't what he wanted to do. He said his favorite time working was when he was assigned to the potions lab refilling the stockpile of basic potions used in treating patients. I guess the healers do all the basic potions and anything more complicated is contracted out to a potion master like Martha. His grades in school he claims, were not the best as he preferred to play and to flirt, so he spent a year studying with books practicing the basic potions at home. Then he retook his final exam receiving a much higher score than the first time he took it. He connected with Martha through a Wizarding job service. It seems when students here in the states complete their schooling and take their final test they express their desire to go into a certain field like when we had to meet with our heads of house about careers fifth year. There is a service for matching newly graduated witches and wizards to a job or an apprenticeship in the area where they would like to live.
Terrence already lived here in New Orleans. He met his partner John back in the original healer apprenticeship program. Martha says when she saw Terry on the list she contacted him and asked about his previous experience. She liked what she heard so she invited him to join her as an apprentice. He told me that at the time she had another apprentice that was not working out. He wouldn't tell me more but it's really none of my business so it's not a big deal. Besides we get along with each other and Martha so we'll cares about someone who didn't work out. It's not like I'd know them.
Terry and John are an interesting couple. Terrence is a joker; he's the comedian in the shop. He just loves to laugh and tell stories. John is much more serious though ready going. Every once in awhile he'll get this look in his eye and you just know what he's about to say will have you rolling on the floor laughing. They're apartment is just down the road, not far from mine. They, like Martha have taken me in, inviting me for dinner frequently. I take them up on the offer once, maybe twice a week I don't want to intrude on their time alone. I suppose since I've decided the others' appearances I should describe these to as well. Terry is a little more than ten centimeters taller than I am. Not sure how familiar you are with the American's measuring system but he says he's six feet two inches. John is just barely taller than me though he looks like a Beater, how build is wider but not fat. Terry is thin as a rail. They are ebony and ivory, T has skin a shade darker than mine and J is a shade lighter than Blaise.I'm not sure how much you know about Thanksgiving in the States so I'll give you a little bit of background though I suppose I could just ask you to research it yourself it would give your focus a new direction to go. The stories are centered around the first group of pilgrims who left England for the New World, what is now known as America. They suffered an incredibly hard first year losing a great number of those who had made the journey and settled there. They continued to struggle until a Native American came to them who had been educated and spoke English. He taught them how to plant food that would live get them through the long winter. The first Thanksgiving was a harvest festival celebrated by that group. It wasn't until the middle of the 1800s when Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln. Now the last Thursday of November families get together and gorge themselves on huge feasts and talk about what they are thankful for.
Terrence grew up in the Smoky Mountains. It's close enough that he was able take me by side long apparation. Martha was kind enough to give us both Wednesday off so w were able to leave Tuesday evening after we have finished work. When we arrived I was incredibly glad that I'd been spending so many Sundays at Martha's house. As large and busy as it is, T's family is at least twice as large. He is one of eight children. He and John are the only ones who don't have children of their own yet, though he has confided in me that they are hoping within the next year they will be able adopt a child from an agency that identifies magical children in NoMaj orphanages or foster homes. That is a story for another time but one worth telling remind me in the future if I forget.
All together the other seven children have fifteen children of their own and two of those have an additional two children each. Thanksgiving at Terrence's family was nearly as large as a feast at Hogwarts. His father William and his mother Regina live in the large main house. They have a rather large piece of land so they have built several cabins. Each child has their own and now the grandchildren with families of their own are getting cabins for themselves. If you stand on the porch at the main house and look down the hill, or mountain rather as they live at the top of one, you can see the roofs dotting the landscape, smoke curling up from the chimneys. They have a personal floo network setup for all of those homes. It can be turned on and off in each cabin or the main house, a kind of do not disturb function that we use wards for. It comes in quite handy with that number of people bouncing about. Regina and William, or Reggie and Bill as they insisted I call them, offered me a room in the main house and I quickly accepted not wanting to step on Terrance and John's toes or impede on their private time. I had almost a whole wing of the place to myself. It was a lot like being back home except it's made of wood not stone and filled with people rather than almost empty.The next day, Wednesday, Terry and his siblings introduced me to spelunking. It all started as we sat around the table eating breakfast. Someone asked me if I liked Quidditch. I naturally said following question was did I ever play. I said that yes I had played on the team at Hogwarts on my house team so of course they asked what position when I said Seeker they asked if I was any good. Unfortunately thanks to Potter I couldn't say I was undefeated but I felt comfortable saying I wasn't bad. After the dishes and things had been cleared away they found a broom for me and we all went what tracking off into the woods in one long line to the mouth of a cave. By this point I was a bit confused, but I followed along. The cave ran for a bit with much of the way through only wide enough for one person at a time. When we reached the end I could see that it opens up into a gigantic room with a very tall ceiling. Apparently when Terry was about three his siblings had gone wandering and found this cave. I think I forgot to mention he's the sixth of the eight kids. They all came running back to tell their father who went with them to see what they had found. They have turned this giant cavern into an indoor quidditch pitch. The have been playing in there for years. The walls and ceilings have been buttressed with not magic and by NaMaj means. When we got there they divided up into teams. With all of the kids, grandkids, and friends that had been invited along there were enough people for four full Quidditch teams so we were able to play a tournament. Bill was the referee and Reggie stood by to do any healing that might be necessary. It went almost all day and was more fun than I've had in ages. I woke up Thanksgiving morning happier than I've ever been for magical healing I was so sore I could barely move.
Dinner that day was a grand affair. The centerpiece of the meal was three of the largest turkeys ever cooked. On the side were mounds of mashed potatoes, cranberries, dressing, rolls and butter, corn, green beans, chestnuts, some little onion dish and it was followed up by just about every flavor of pie. I sat not far from some of the teenage grandchildren. They asked me questions about Hogwarts and we spent some time comparing it to Ilvermorny the American magical school.
We stayed until late Sunday, several more games of Quidditch were played, they took me all over the mountain and into the small magical town that is nearby. We consumed enough food to feed an army, and I enjoyed every minute.
Always yours,
Draco12/1/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
RE: sounds like fun
Draco
It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. You have really make some great friends. It makes me wish that I could meet them. Adopting magical orphans? Can you imagine how different life would be for so many people if we had that here? What if Riddle had been adopted and raised by people who loved him? I look forward to hearing more about it maybe I can suggest the a similar program to the Minister.
Hermione12/1/99
To: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
From: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: an apology
Hermione
I hope that someday you can meet them. I feel as if I should apologize to you. She knew everything about me from the records that I gave her my involvement in the war that is the others had no idea I felt they had the right to know before they had to work with me I sat down with Claire and parents and Martha's office at her table shared with them the story, story that you will find out I feel bad knowing you know things about me and that you don't know. They were the ones I went to for advice they asked after you they know that we are in contact they hope that this all works out they do get to meet you. I apologize for telling complete strangers to you anyway you and your life and our problem it was probably not the right thing to do without checking with you first anyway so I'm sorry I hope that you can forgive me.
Always yours,
Draco
12/2/99
To: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
From: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
RE: Don't worry
Draco,
Normally I would be upset that you had shared something so personal with strangers but this is not a normal situation. At this point I'd take suggestions from almost anyone. I know we just did a pensieve session this past Saturday but as Harry has the next package I'm planning on doing it again this Saturday and getting back on your schedule. Just wanted to let you know.
Hermione
12/2/99
To: hg79ATyahooDOTcom
From: dlm80ATyahooDOTcom
Re: okay
Hermione,
I'm not so attached to my original schedule that I feel the need to get back to it, however as things seem to be going well and progress is being made I don't see any reason that you shouldn't go ahead and do it this weekend. There are no memories this time with you and Harry but I'll send at least one of those next time.
Always yours,
Draco