Disclaimer:
All things not Allosia and Gabriel belong to JKR.
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Allosia –
Shortly, I shall be a dutiful spouse and inform you of this news both in person and actuality. First however, I need a moment to have this discussion with you now, such as it is. Against all logic I remain fundamentally convinced that the information I put down in these missives finds its way to you somehow, which I suppose is only slightly less logical than all of our suppositions that Albus not only reads minds, but in fact reads all the minds in the school at any given and all times.
Presuming you agree, we are going to Florence, as I have been invited to speak at this year's WISP conference. I hope you'll be happy for me, beyond just being relieved that I will not be spending the rest of this month as I have past Januaries, complaining about not having been selected to present yet again. Actually, I suppose this is unfair of me and to you, as you have never been anything but joyous at my successes and more tolerant than I deserve at the rest.
I don't know if you have ever been to Florence, or even Italy. You hadn't when we were children, and it's never come up these last years. Florence is an odd city, dark and wet and humid, magical, even to muggles, and not just because of its abundance of cheap gold and romance. It is one of those places where the borders between worlds become thin, and I speak not just of our world and that of lesser mortals, but also that of the fae and other ken the species of man is not so clever enough to interact with successfully at any frequency. There is much there that I believe you could find joy in, and I hope you will well use the opportunity for more than mere mundane pursuits. I hope also that you will choose come to my lecture as odd and dry as that may be for you. I must confess a certain nervousness about the matter that I am choosing not to dwell on currently, and your gaze has always helped me hold this unruly skeleton at least slightly straighter.
I am also nervous, of course, about the traveling. My first impulse, it should be no surprise to you, was to go alone, and it may be that that impulse remains correct. Thank our headmaster though, and certainly not my faith in the world or even my knowledge of you, that he seems to concur that your wrath towards me, should I have left you and Gabriel behind, was likely to be worse than any of the ill luck of the wizarding world that forever seems intent on finding me.
Today I have a lack of discipline that has not visited me since before we first met, because I cannot keep my mind on the lessons I am about to endure, suffused as I am with the thought of you beside me, Gabriel in your arms, at the welcome party for the conference, quietly scolding me for frowning so vigorously at the peers I have so long wished to be a part of.
Still mostly outcast,
Severus.