Dear Parvati,

Erin's going to be graduating from Hogwarts in a week. Will's already been working for the Ministry for two years now, and Vena is well on her way to finishing Hogwarts.

The years have flown by faster than I ever would have believed possible. Yesterday I was giving birth to Venna. A week ago Will was born. A month ago I was married to Liam. Two months ago I was getting my first job. And only a little before that I lost you forever.

I woke up this morning and found that I could no longer ignore the grey hairs that are starting to pop up. How could it be that I had turned onto the exact same type of person me and you used laugh at when we were little? How could I become middle age without noticing?

There's no doubt that the world has changed back since our school days. Thirty years has wrought quite a change in, well, everything. I don't think that you would even recognize the Ministry. Thanks mostly to Hermione (I suspect), it's very different. And I think that you would have a difficult time recognizing a lot of the D.A. we all look older, though some people are defiantly more recognizable then others still (Poor Harry, the scar's always going to be a giveaway). Kids run around in a way that, growing up, we never got to see. So much time has passed that some of them don't even have a older generation looming over them, telling them how horrible it was in their day.

It's not all different though. Diagon alley still looks mostly the same, the some stores have changed. Gringotts is still there though, as is Flourish and Blotts, and of course the leaky cauldron hasn't changed one bit since you last stepped in there.

Hogwarts still looks the same from the outside, as looming and comforting as ever. I haven't visited there since I left school, but I'm willing to bet that everything still looks exactly the same. But that's Hogwarts for you. No matter what has happened to it in the past, it still satnds like it always did, as timeless as ever.

Many of the teachers that we knew have left by now. In fact, I doubt that I would recognize very many people there if I went now. Oh well, there's always Peeves I guess.

It's odd, but when I see children running around Diagon alley, I think of you. After all, if it wasn't for your sacrifice (and others like you), they wouldn't be running around Diagon alley like that, pointing at the newest broomstick. You gave so many people the chance to live peacefully, and they don't even know it. I always used to question how they could live without knowing, but I realize know how silly that is. It's not the children's fault you died. Why should they have to know? Your death, and the death of everyone else that died that night is mine, and my generation's burden to carry.

The scars from that night haven't ever left me. For a while after your death, I wondered if it was worth it. I couldn't help but think that it had all been for nothing. To me, the world seemed the same, and winning the last battle at such a terrible price seemed worthless. Now, I know that it was worth it. Losing you was and will be the worst thing that I will ever have to live through. But now Erin's graduating from Hogwarts, and she'll never have to fear losing her family. She'll never have to lose her sister like I did. For the first time, I can say without reserve, that it was worth losing you, for the oppertuity to see my kids live a happy, fear-free life.

Look at me! Middle age must have made me sentimental. Well, that's not true, I was already sentimental, but now I guess that now I'm so old, I have to be more sentimental.

Isn't it funny that something as innocent as Children running around can make you think of something like this? And then before you know it, the idea makes you write a letter like this. Odd, right?

With much love,

Padma