Dear Parvati,

It's been over three years since my last letter. A lot has happened since then, so I better get writing.

First off, I showed myself that I could live without you comforting me. I had to learn how to deal with decisions on my own, rather than trying to do what you would do. I can do that now, and I'm not afraid that I'm going to lose your memory now. I'm almost 25 now, and I've just now finally moved past the battle completely. It took me until last week to know that it doesn't have to haunt me anymore.

I still miss you of course, but I don't feel like I'm trying to draw you back into my life anymore. I don't feel like I have to write you letters because I need you in my life. Now, it's to help me clear my mind, and also because I do miss you still. Just don't expect me to write these as often, because I'm not going to.

Now for everything that's happened in the last few years.

First off, Liam proposed to me yesterday. We had been together for over three years and it takes until yesterday to propose to me. Men! I was thrilled though. We haven't started planning the wedding yet, since he only asked to me yesterday, but I imagine that it will take place in the summer, far away the cold winter months that I'm not too fond of.

It will be a small ceremony, and if Liam disagrees, I'll just have to put him in a full body bind until the wedding. I don't want a lot of people attending, just a few friend and our parents. I'd think I die of embarrassment if a lot of people were looking at me.

I didn't think that I would ever have the problem of being well known, but more and more books have come out about the war, all emphasizing the role the D.A. played. We didn't even do that much, and yet here we are, presented to the world as heroes again. Worse still, the most popular book's author actually did some research and found out exactly who was in the D.A. and who fought in the battle, though he didn't include a list of who died in the battle. I looked through it, and it even has the picture of the D.A. in our seventh year. Someone must have finally broken down and talked about what happened.

That's actually how Liam found out about you. I know that's odd that he would find out that way, but I had never been able to tell him about you. It was just too hard to talk about you, since I would have had to tell him that you were dead.

Even 8 years after you left, you're still affecting me. I might have let go, but it still hurts when people ask about you. I have to tell them that you're dead, since for some reason the books have been too busy praising us to bother giving a complete list of everyone who died.

Still, I shouldn't be too bitter. I was there that night, and I don't even know who everyone who died. It's not surprising that they don't know either. In some ways, it's easier not to know anyway.

So beside getting engaged and getting sort of famous, not a huge amount of new things have happened. I'm still at the same job, though our entire group has moved on from charming regular household objects to harder things, and we even gained a few more people to help. It's more exciting to do this specialized work, rather than making or repairing a piece of furniture for some family.

Our parents are doing well. They approve of Liam, and dad got promoted, so I guess that there pretty happy about that. Mom talked to me today about the engagement for several hours. I honestly haven't seen her this happy in years, since before out fifth year. It's actually quite cheering to see her smile this widely again.

I think that that's most of the information for this time. I don't know when I'll write again, but don't count in it being earlier then the wedding.

With love,

Padma