The First Wizarding War (in Britain) reaches its peak and members of the Order start getting killed left and right, including Harry's parents. Of course, Grindelwald would like to stir things up a bit, if given a chance.

1981

15th March 1981

Dear GG

It is us, the Prewetts. We have been busy hunting down Death Eaters and stuff. Things heating up loads both outside and at home. Would you believe we now have 6 nephews? Our sister does not get out of the house much with 6 young ones. We believe she is trying for a girl. The thing is – this war dragging out far longer than we expected. One does get sick of having a target on one's back after a while and worrying about possibly leading dangerous wizards to our sis' front door. Before you know it, wee Billy will be going to Hogwarts. Sadly, his dad's still pro-Muggle and more importantly, a total loser.

We are both still unattached. Well, Fabby tried to score with Marlene, but she turned him down. We are thinking of cutting and running, especially after Doc Dearborn went missing last month. It is not like him to miss our weekly poker game without reason. We have not yet approached our club president yet about our decision.

Does it sound like we are turning chicken?

F and G Prewett


Spring 1981

Dear Prewetts

Yes. Admit it. You have lost your nerve and are on the verge of deserting your posts. Back in 1914, the standard Muggle punishment is a firing squad at dawn for desertion. I am sure your little club would be better off without you pair of chickens gumming up the works. Go fly off. I am sure wee Billy and his brothers will enjoy being teased no end at school about having not one but two scaredy-cat uncles.

GG

P.S. If your club president is Albus Dumbledore, you might be interested to know he is the biggest chicken I know of. Tell him I said that.


15th April 1981

Dear Grindelwald

Stop writing to my friends and baiting them. Do you want us to stop you from receiving your mail? For your information, we just found Messers Fabian and Gideon Prewett dead. They died heroically, taking down several Death Eaters.

Your dear grandaunt just admitted to setting you up with this advice column gig. Cease and desist. You suck at advice – both giving and taking it.

Dumbledore


Spring 1981

Dear Albus Bumble-a-lot

Now look who's talking about advice? You declined to listen to me and turned down any help I offered. How many of your little circle of friends are dead or injured thanks to your incompetence? Sheesh, I expect you will probably stumble into some very unpleasant curse before falling off your precious Hogwarts ivory tower due to a shocking lack of good sense.

Grindelwald


15th May 1981

Dear GG

I am going stir-crazy stuck at home for the past year and a half while my friends are risking life and limb out there. I just snapped at my wife to keep our son quiet because he was crying. It wasn't Lily's fault at all that the baby's teething. Then while we were both arguing, baby Harry got hold of my wand and broke it. So now I must drop by a wand shop to get a new one - if and when I am allowed to leave the village. Long story there, but Lily was unhappy about me taking off to drink with my buddies in London and Prof Dumbledore got a tad annoyed I kept popping up in places where I was not supposed to turn up – like saving Moony's bacon from an angry mob in Wales, or bailing Padfoot out of Muggle jail in Bristol. I have been slapped with a Trace and that means Lily will know if I leave the village. This war seems set to continue forever. What should I do? I feel I am losing it.

Prongs


Spring 1981

Dear Prongs

So, you think you have it hard, wandless and with an entire village to wander about in and a family to keep you company for a couple of months? Try being stuck in the same room for three decades without any magic or visitors. You clearly need a hobby. How about some research into your family? Or home improvements? How good are your wards? You need to make some other friends who do not need rescuing from themselves. You are a father now and I do not think your son will like growing up with the memory of his old man as a loser and a drunk. Take it from me. Your wife and son are probably feeling as cooped up as you are.

GG


3rd June 1981

Dear Tante Giselle

I am surprised to learn you are still doling out advice despite no longer publishing in the papers. You see, I need a bit of advice on our wards. Thanks to little Marlene getting tangled up with some troublesome folks, the entire McKinnon clan has been confined to our hunting lodge in Caledonia behind war-wards. This is tiresome to say the least. I am looking forward to seeing my grandchildren and great-grandchildren back from school. However, escorting a dozen teenagers and preteens by broomstick is too exposed. Portkeys do not work well within our wards and Side-along Apparitions are tedious. My sons disconnected the fireplace from the Floo, but I understand it might be possible to have a temporary link up with a fireplace in Hogsmeade. Should I take the risk?

The headmaster was suggesting they could stay over the summer, but I do not feel like imposing on his goodwill.

Grandmama McKinnon


Summer 1981

Dear Madame

I suppose my advice will reach you too late. No. Never link up to the Floo, not even for a few minutes. Take it from me. I have used the Floo network to break into a few so-called safe places in my time. There was that little incident we got into the German minister's bedroom to assassinate him and his lady friend in the 1920s. Even if you do have blood wards, a row of students lining up in front of a public fireplace is too easy prey. You just need their blood to trick the wards. I have found a bloody handkerchief works, even if I am trying to get into the family estate of the Director of MACUSA's Magical Law Enforcement. I am sure there is one little lady who has a tale to tell about some strange wizard who handed her Uncle Percy's journal after popping up in the fireplace one winter night, if they ever took that Silencio off her. Once in, well, the wards are toast. I would recommend flying the children back on hippogriffs and threstals if Side-along is too tedious. Those critters can be so protective of their young riders.

With all due sympathies

Grindelwald


31st July 1981

Dear GG

I guess you are not really my neighbour Bathilda, though she admits to being the Daily Prophet's Tante Giselle. However, I have concluded from discreet chats with your great-aunt that you are an infamous relation writing from a prison overseas. You have given me sound advice and much needed support for a Muggleborn witch still trying to figure things out in the magical world. Thank you. I am now the mother of a one-year-old and we have been in hiding for more than a year. James is going crazy stuck at home while our friends are getting picked off by Death Eaters. I am just as worked up learning good wixen are getting killed, including innocent children. However, I sense my son is special somehow and this is more than just maternal pride. Harry has to be kept safe at any cost.

After Benjy and Dorcas got killed, our friends decided to stop visiting the village for our safety. Wormy was so skittish the last time he visited. We expected him to bolt when the cat came in. I want to do something. We are not Aurors like the Longbottoms. I am only a dabbling potioneer and James – well, he is trying to work on his ward mastery and getting nowhere. It is hard to convince Gringotts to give you an apprenticeship if you are stuck under a Fidelis Charm for your own safety. We are just digging into his family coffers for now, which thankfully are quite sizeable.

Little Harry has developed the unfortunate tendency to chew on our wands when he started teething, so we must keep them away to prevent accidents, which does not make me feel any better. The little broomstick from his godfather amuses him for hours but he is a little zipping terror then. Is there any way we can protect our son? Bathilda has been offering her guestroom to us, but we cannot possibly impose on the old dear, even if she sounds awfully lonely.

Lily


Summer 1981

Dear Tiger Lily

Yes, my poor grandaunt is a lonely old lady. Please do accept her offer of a sleepover or have her babysit for you. I am sure she is not senile yet. Does the boy have a godma yet? I am sure my auntie will oblige. Or perhaps her maiden name does not weigh well for a possible saviour as a certain old wizard is no doubt thinking of him as. In my honest opinion, your love as his mother is enough protection until he comes of age. After that, we all need to fend for ourselves, don't we?

Being a Seer, I sense your boy will be a legend long after we are gone. Let's just keep GG's identity quiet as I can imagine all the phoenix feathers that would fly if a certain headmaster knew.

Yours in all honesty

Gellert Grindelwald


30th September 1981

Dear GG

I am sick of hiding and worrying about when I will be killed in a most horrible way. I mean, just look at what happened to Benjy Fenwick! And Dorcas Meadows! Killed in her own office by who-know-who. It is not fair that some of us get to play happy families in some safehouse while the rest of us risk life and limb. I want to bail out. Will handing over some much sought-after information buy me some mercy? I do not want to end up in bits and pieces like Fenwick. There is also my old maman to think of. They did not spare the kiddies at the McKinnon's and Bones'.

Seeking to save my own neck

Wormtail


Fall 1981

Dear Wormy

Looks like someone has graduated from worm to viper. You disgust me with your cowardice. Your poor maman will do best to hide her face in shame and disown you. Throwing your lot in with those magical child-killers. Are you sure you will come out the better for it? Or will you spend the rest of your days as vermin in the shadows, reviled and cursed? Fate has a knack of trapping us. I expect you might get your neck broken in one such trap.

GG


1st November 1981

Dear GG

My best friend has been betrayed and murdered with his wife by one of our closest friends. I am going to blast the traitorous rat to smithereens! James and Lily did not deserve that. I loaned my motorbike to Hagrid so he could check on the Potters and he just told me what happened. He has my godson. I will go pick him up after I deal out some vengeance! If I do not make it back, I suppose Hagrid could raise Harry.

Padfoot


Fall 1981

Dear Padfoot

Hold it there, young man. Your priorities are all wrong! You are the lad's godfather, no? You are the boy's guardian now and he needs you - not some random drinking buddy you loaned your bike to. Lily's a nice girl, I will miss her letters too, but you will not see me running about blasting some moron to bits in such a crude manner like some hot-headed Muggle. Revenge is a dish best served cold. May I propose you adopt the boy before some idiot decides to shunt him off into an orphanage, or worse – Muggle relations? If you can just keep that temper of yours damped down a little, you might be the perfect person to bring up a young wizard. It might be tough, but I figure you can do it, for your good friends' sakes.

May I suggest moving to South America or Africa? Loads of open spaces for a lad to grow up in and they have solid magical institutes as well. You might take to a bit of adventuring yourself. Britain can be so insular at times. The lad might become an animagus like you and his old pa or master some wandless magic. Uagadou wizards are experts in that. Of course, if plants and critters are more the boy's cuppa tea, there is Castelobruxo.

Mmph, it appears you did not wait for my reply, going by the newspaper the guards wrapped my hardtack and cheese in this time. I do hope you enjoy the remainder of your likely short life in Azkaban.

GG


15 December 1981

Dear Grindelwald

I understand you have a certain understanding with our headmaster Albus. I hope you can talk some sense into him. Grief at losing so many beloved friends and students in recent months seems to have forced all the common sense from his thick skull! I have just done a rain check on a young orphan and I am shocked that he has chosen to persist in keeping the lad in the care of such unfeeling creatures! Whenever I bring the topic up, he goes on about family, blood wards and ancient magics. I understand from Lily (as her former Head of House) her sister hated all things magical. I do not see how leaving Harry with these relatives could be for his own good.

Jeez, I am willing to bring this up with my new husband to see if we can adopt him. Yes, I finally accepted Elphie's proposal during the celebrations. I know at least a dozen other wixen are willing to step up to the plate - Lupin, the Tonks, Augusta Longbottom, Bathilda, the surviving Bones, the Scamanders… even Hagrid. However, Albus has found some excuse to turn all of them down. When we voiced our concerns about his uncle hitting the toddler, he just sends a cousin to keep an eye on them – a squib! What's Figgy to do if the boy is in danger? She can't Disapparate him out of there.

Please write some sense into him.

Minerva McGonagall

P.S. You may be pleased to know that Augusta gave Albus her characteristic earful and some when she learnt about the boy's uncle hitting him.


Winter 1981

Dear Minerva

Alas, the old coot never listens to me. Would I be shivering in a stone cell if he did? Nice try all the same. I would expect the boy to turn Obscurial, if he does not end up starved or beaten to death first. Here is where I tell you all's lost yada yada – unless you are up for some kidnapping. Judging from what I've been hearing, his folks will crack out the champagne if the lad were to vanish one night.

Grindelwald


Winter 1981

Dear Albus

I thought our past experiences with Aurelius will be sufficient grounds to convince you that magic-hating Muggles should never ever be entrusted with any magical children. Or are you hoping the lad will go Obscurial? When and if the boy grows up, he will have years of childhood neglect, trauma, and abuse to deal with. Do not be too surprised if he starts going off the rails, taking to drink, drugs and bad company to cope. Perhaps he might even run away from home in favour of the streets. Not all of us have families remotely as happy as yours. Perhaps if I had not spent the better part of my childhood having my father trying to kill me for alleged squib-ness, I might not have been so much into the forbidden arts and darker magics. Or are we trying to groom a little future dark lord here, uh?

The kindest thing you might do for the infant in this case is to send him off to live in an actual wolf pack. Wolves raised the founders of ancient Rome until some shepherd took them in as boys to teach them to walk on twos and speak as humans. Lad might have a better chance of surviving to manhood.

You disappoint me.

Gellert Grindelwald

P.S. Did you or the Ministry bother to give the boy's godpa a fair hearing before packing him to Azkaban and throwing away the key? Did anyone stop to consider he might not be guilty? Or did his pureblood family name do him in?

Author's Notes:

Grindelwald is getting a tad impatient with Albus' rubbish. Short of shooting down birds, or confiscating Gellert's stationery, there is little Albus can do to stop folks from writing in or receiving replies.

Grindelwald is probably going to tone back on his advice column since most of his old correspondents are dead or unable to write in. He is being sarcastic about having Harry raised by wolves.