Letter found on Harry's pillow on his 11th Birthday
Son or Daughter,
As I write this letter, your father and I are still arguing about your name, and occasionally even if you'll be a boy or a girl. You should be born in around two months time, and I hope to any gods that are listening that I can burn this letter. However, we are in a war, and you may be an orphan by the time this letter is needed. I'm trying to imagine what you look like, reading this letter. Do you take after me, or James, what are your favourite hobbies and foods. Are you excited to get your Hogwarts letter, are you even living in Britain now?
The only thing I do know is that you will have just reached your 11th birthday and should also have reached your first magical maturity, or only be a few weeks at most away from it. If you are reading this at that time, then I didn't make it through the war, and there are some things you need to know about our family. About my family.
What you read in this letter shouldn't be shared with anyone that isn't related to me, as it could put yours and others lives in danger. Though, most of the things you'll learn here you may already have heard in the way of fairy tales. But not even your father knows the truth.
You may have noticed that there are no truly nocturnal magical creatures, even the owls sleep at night. This is because our world is not alone in space. Instead, it is accompanied by a myriad of other worlds that breach the aether every night during the witching hour. My Great Grandfather theorised that the reason for this was to equalise the magical pressure across the worlds. Whatever the truth, the important thing is that any magical person or creature that is awake, and using their magic, during this time will be carried away from this world to other worlds that are more heavily saturated with magic. What does this mean for us, for you? Magic is a type of energy, if we are awake, then we are using magic. Not only when we are casting spells, but while we are doing any activity. Normally, the only time that magic becomes quiescent is while we sleep.
It's funny, when I found out about this from grandma, I was so jealous of Tunie. When she grew up, she'd be able to go out partying all night without a care in the world. While I'd forever need to be careful of the time, unless I vanish into nowhere.
I digress. If you've been raised in the, I hesitate to say normal, but I can't think of a better term that isn't insulting. If you've been raised in the normal world, you may think you can just power through, and tough it out for an hour. Magic doesn't work like that, out there, time is not linear, not entirely. The further away from our world you go, the faster time flows. To the point that you could live an entire lifetime in the time it takes for that hour to pass. On top of that, the further you travel into the dream, our name for what is beyond earth during that hour, the more magical the worlds become, and the less hospitable to life from our world it becomes. Out there the worlds are wild and untamed, and our modern technology doesn't work.
When I started school, I wasn't sure I believed grandma, but if you read the papers, you start to read about the odd disappearance now and then. It's always the same, someone disappears from their room at night, and is never found again.
Because of Great Grandfather, all of this is especially important to us. He was born in 1870, and was what the magical world call a squib. Someone that has just enough magic to see past the protections around the magical enclaves, but not enough to use a wand and be part of their society. He was lucky, as his family placed him with a rich patron, rather than dropping him on the street, when they discovered his lack of magic. Because of this, when he grew up, he considered himself to be somewhat a scientist, and in 1895 he read about an experiment where dogs were prevented from sleeping. According to grandma, on the 23rd June he performed his first, and last experiment. Neither of them would ever tell me what the experiment entailed, but during the experiment he met grandma, your Great Grandmother. Whatever happened out there, resulted in him bringing her back to earth, where they were soon married. Together, they had four children. Your Grandmother Trudy was the youngest, and a miracle child when she was born in 1918. Her older brothers, twins Simon & Fredrick were born in 1899, and her older sister was born in 1903.
Both of your Grand Uncles were conscripted during the first world war, and disappeared during a sustained bombardment in 1916. Officially, they were marked AWOL, though letters grandma received from their comrades claimed they disappeared from the bunker in front of them during the night.
Susan married, and had one child in 1923, eight months later she and the baby disappeared from the marriage bed during the middle of the night.
My mother, Trudy, married a doctor towards the end of world war 2, she died giving birth to me in 1959. Father remarried, and Tunie was born from that marriage.
All of them were taught to make their magic quiescent by grandma, just as I was, and I hope I will be able to teach you. However, this l have written this letter just in case I can't teach you.
Before now, you were safe, as your magic wasn't mature enough to be active unless you're stressed. But now you are now reaching your first magical maturity, your magic will be starting to stabilise. This is the time that you need to start learning how to feel your magic, and how to coax it into quiescence even when you're stressed. If you don't learn, then as you approach adulthood, and your second magical maturity at 17, your magic will remain longer and longer after you've fallen asleep, until it never quiets unless you make it.
I've made your father promise to give you my journal if I don't make it. I've blood locked it to my direct line, so only you, or your children, will be able to read it.
If neither of us have made it, get a book on occlumency, or a book on meditation that doesn't use a breathing technique. Practice the starting exercise to allow you to calm your mind, and once you've done that you should be able to find your magic.
Once you've found your magic, you'll need to work out how to make it quiescent on your own.
If you are an orphan, know that both of us dearly wanted you, and wish we could have raised you as your parents.
From your loving Mother
Lily Potter.