New Lives

Al,

I know I promised I'd write straight away and let you know how I'm getting on, but the last two weeks have been absolutely mental. I haven't had a moment to myself since starting work at the Ministry, but I'm loving every minute of it. Steve and I get on brilliantly, and while the other members of our team are hardly particularly motivated, I think Steve and I have enough of an obsession with the project for all of us. Of course, they all go home the moment their working hours are over, which leaves us on our own doing all the extra work, but I honestly don't care. I love it.

Our boss, Alan, still hates me with a passion, but I guess that's understandable considering the article Rose initiated. He's always too scared to actually treat me any worse than anyone else, for fear of the press getting involved again. I just wish I could get him to like me for me, and not just because he was forced to hire me.

Anyway, Steve and I have this plan we've started working on. The programme couldn't be started for another year or so, but the basic idea is that adult witches and wizards who didn't take Muggle Studies and don't know very much about muggles could take a crash course in muggle life and culture, culminating in them spending between three and twelve months living in the muggle world, attempting to live without magic, not draw attention to themselves and perhaps even befriend muggles. The idea is both to promote understanding, and to avoid wizards attracting so much attention through their odd behaviour and clothes whenever they're out in the muggle world. Originally the course would mainly be aimed at people like your granddad who have an interest in muggles but don't really know much about them, but hopefully we could eventually persuade people from pureblood elitist families like mine (I'm not sure Dad would do it, but Mum might) and perhaps even criminals who have committed offences related to the treatment of muggles.

I know I'm rambling too much about this, and it's probably not nearly as exciting for you as it is for me, but I just can't seem to stop. It's not like there's much else going on in my life for me to tell you about. My flat's great, but I don't spend very much time there. Steve's only a couple of years older than us, so we go out with a bunch of his mates in the evenings sometimes, but most of our time is spent working, which sounds unbelievably sad and boring, but it's not.

I was surprised, actually, when I saw how young Steve was. I thought they'd have chosen someone older with more experience to run such an important programme, though in Steve's case what he lacks in experience he makes up for in pure genius and sheer enthusiasm. And it's only really us who think of this programme as important and revolutionary. The rest of the Ministry, including our boss Alan, reckon it's a waste of time and it's never going to succeed. We'll prove them wrong, though: they'll see.

Anyway, I'm probably starting to sound like your Uncle Percy now so I'll shut up and stop boring you with details of my job.

What have you been up to? Are you still thinking about trying to get into the Auror department?

Speak to you soon,

Scorp


Rose,

How's the Transfiguration course going? It must be weird living in Wales and having to study with loads of new people after being at Hogwarts for seven years. I'm sure you're doing great, though. The fact that you haven't written is probably a good sign. Means you're busy and enjoying yourself and stuff, right?

That was the case with Scorp, anyway. He wrote the other day. Apparently his new job's going great, and he seemed really excited about all the new programmes and innovations they want to bring in. Maybe he's already told you all this stuff, though. Has he written to you?

I hope you're enjoying yourself, and will write back soon and let me know how things are going.

Al


Al,

The course is brilliant! It's completely different to learning in class. There's still a lot of studying to be done, but it's no longer all about learning out of books and writing essays. We examine the more practical aspects of Transfiguration, as well as looking at the basic rules and principals underlying it and the way we can tweak existing spells in order to make them fit more particular purposes. Obviously that has to be done under very controlled conditions and only once we've done the proper preparation because it can go horrifically wrong. There's so much more freedom, though, which is brilliant. In school it was all about learning the set topics and spells that were a part of the course in order to do as well as possible in our exams. Here we have so much more choice about what we want to experiment with, and no one person is using the same spell as anyone else.

We get to choose what aspects of Transfiguration we want to look at specifically, so I'm doing a module on teaching it to others. It's mainly basic stuff at the moment, because teaching a spell is so much harder than doing it yourself, but I'm really enjoying it. There's so much more to teaching than I ever imagined. I've found my respect for every one of our teachers growing enormously over the last couple of weeks.

I'm glad Scorp is enjoying himself. I hope he continues to do well.

How's everything going with you? You still thinking about working with your dad? I heard James is doing very well at Quidditch. It was the Tutshill Tornados, wasn't it, who signed him on as a reserve player?

I'd better go – I've got a lot of work to do before tomorrow.

Rose


Scorp,

Don't apologise for talking a lot about your job. It sounds great, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. I remember the three of us all used to say our worst fear was to end up with some boring Ministry job. Of course, two of us are now working for the Ministry – because, in answer to your question, I am starting training fairly soon to be an Auror – but they're not exactly boring jobs. I'm going to be catching Dark Wizards – though Dad says that only a minority of the time is actually spent on that and that a lot of it's just paperwork – and you're going to be revolutionising the world and stamping out prejudice, while Rose is off in Wales twisting all the rules of magic and no doubt preparing to make some life-changing discovery.

Talking of Rose, what's the situation between the two of you? I know you had a fight and everything, but how did you leave it. Surely you're going to try and make up sometime soon, if you haven't already? The two of you are perfect for each other, and I can't let you throw that away on some stupid argument. Rose was stressed, and she always argues with people when she's stressed. You'd have to have the patience of a saint not to get annoyed with her when she's like that. She didn't mean any of the stuff she said, whatever it was.

Al


Al,

It's great that we're all doing the things we've always wanted to do. I can't imagine you doing paperwork, though. You could barely hand in essays on time! I think you'll make a great Auror. I know lots of people think you're only doing it because of your dad, but I know you're not. You'll be brilliant at it.

I'd rather we didn't talk about Rose, if you don't mind. It's over, and it would be easiest if you'd just accept that and don't try to get us back together. I'm in London and she's in Wales, so it's not like you're going to have to choose one of us over the other.

If you're doing this Auror course, does that mean you're going to be in London, too? I'd love to introduce you to Steve and some of my other mates here. We could even share a flat if you like. I've got a spare bedroom here, cos I'm living on my own right now. What do you think?

Scorp


Scorp,

Yeah, I'm not really looking forward to the paperwork, especially not without Rose to tell me off for not doing it on time and reading it all through and rewriting everything because I've done it so badly. I think I'm going to enjoy the practical side of it, though.

The training takes place in various different parts of the country. I think we're even going to Franc at some point next year for part of it. I will be in London for a few months, though. I think it'll be in March, which isn't so far off now, really, and it would be great if I could stay with you, if you're sure you don't mind. There's no point in me getting a flat of my own if I'm only going to be there for a little while, and it would be good to see you again.

I'll write again soon with more details.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Al


Rose,

The course sounds absolutely great for you. It sounds like you're really enjoying it. I'm glad you're learning lots, though personally I can't understand why someone who's just endured their NEWTs would want to go on and do extra education.

I've started the Auror training course and it's going pretty well. Training lasts three years, so I should be done around the same time that you finish your Transfiguration course. We're out in the middle of nowhere right now doing some pretty intensive combat training. I'll be here for another month or so, and then we're all going down to London for training in stealth and tracking, which should be good fun.

It was strange not seeing you at Christmas. I think everyone was a bit disappointed that neither of us could make it back home, especially since James was away somewhere too.

You're right: James is playing for the Tutshill Tornados. He actually got to play in a match the other day because of a player being injured, and he was very excited about. The team won, which of course he's taking all the credit for, being as arrogant as ever.

Try not to work too hard, and I'll hopefully see you soon.

Al