Dear Mione,

How's France? We won't be there till August; we're spending two weeks there before we go to Britain. Damon has it all planned out, so we'll be in England for the World Cup. Are you going to be there? Ron said his dad got tickets for all of them and he invited you, but he didn't say if you'd said yes. I know Quidditch isn't really your thing, but if you're not going, I'm sure we can arrange to meet up together somewhere else. We'll be arriving on the 16th.

We're in Greece at the moment. We've been here for three days so far, and we currently on our way to Mykonos. We spent the first two days in Athens; you would absolutely love it there. We climbed to the top of the Acropolis Hill on our first morning, the view from the top was simply incredible, you can see the entire city and beyond. And when you're standing up there, it's like all the stories come to life, there's so much magic in the air, that it's like Athena herself might appear to you. I got some amazing photo's; I'll show them to you when we meet.

We went to the Acropolis Museum after that. The main museum is great, there's so many artifacts and so much history, that Uncle Elijah said it would be impossible to see everything on one trip, so he arranged a guided tour. Our tour guide was a witch, and she also took us round the hidden wixen wing, which was really cool, they have Circe's actual wand on display. They also have the sword Hermes gifted Perseus and Hippolyta's girdle, they practically sung with magic, it was awesome. They also had a collection of jars, which people over the years had claimed were Pandora's Box. None of them were real, most of them were mundane jars, but some were magical.

We had lunch at this café Uncle Elijah took us to. He has a house in Athens, which was where we stayed while we were there, and he knew the couple who owned the café, they were really friendly, and the food was great. They made us Souvlaki and Dolmades, and the wife even gave me the recipe to take home, and she made us Galaktoboureko for desert, it was almost as good as treacle tart. After lunch, their grandson, he works as a tour guide, gave us a guided tour of some of the other archaeological sites. We went to the Temple of the Olympian Zeus, and the Agora, where we saw the Temple of Hephaestus.

On our second day, we set off early to explore the National Archaeological Museum. Uncle Elijah was especially excited as he'd mentioned that it houses some of the most extensive collections of Greek antiquities in the world. Walking through its grand halls felt like traversing through different eras of Greek history. Each exhibit was a portal to an ancient time, from Mycenaean gold masks that shimmered under the soft museum lighting to statues of gods and heroes that seemed almost alive. The highlights were the Antikythera Mechanism and the Mask of Agamemnon, which Uncle Elijah insisted we spend extra time admiring.

After lunch we went to the Benaki museum. The whole thing is housed in a mansion, Klaus my dad father told me it's one of the few neo-classical buildings that wasn't destroyed after WWII. It was a nice building, you would have loved the collection, no magical wing sadly, but it was still pretty cool. It has artifacts from the Bronze Age all the way up till WWII, it had this really cool collection of Greek Costumes. Well, I thought it was cool, Aunty Bex said she's glad fashion has improved as much as it has.

The National Garden does have a magical section, we had lunch in the non-magical part. Uncle Elijah had arranged a picnic, and he said he didn't fancy being chased around by plants whilst he was trying to eat. Neville would absolutely love it; I think you'd enjoy it too. You can walk around the non-magical section on your own, but you have to have a guide for the magical part, because some of the plants are dangerous. All the guides are Nymphs, they look after both parts of the garden, they have some Wixen workers as well, but the Nymphs are the ones in charge. They have an entire greenhouse of Mandrakes, we weren't allowed in there, but we did get to meet the Nymph who looked after it, and she showed us some of the seedlings, since they hadn't developed their cries yet.

In the afternoon we went to the Museum of Cycladic Art. My father loves art, he's an artist like me, so he insisted that we should go to as many art museums as we can whilst we're touring Europe. We had another private tour, Uncle Elijah insisted, he said if we're going to try and do as much as possible, then we need to be smart about it, and tours are the best way to see the highlights of each of the museums. In the evening, we went to Anafiotika neighbourhood. The whole area exists because of an Ottoman law, that said if you can erect a structure between sunrise and sunset it then the property becomes yours. Can you imagine? It was quite pretty though, none of the houses looked like they'd only taken a day to build.

Yesterday we went to Delphi. In the morning, we toured the UNESCO site it's quite pretty, there are really great views. Then after lunch, we went to magical Delphi. After Emperor Theodosius I banned pagan practices and closed the temples, the Greek Wixen community, hid half of it away with magic, so they wouldn't have to stop practicing the old ways. They basically let some of the temples go to ruin to appease the non-magicals, and rebuilt them in a hidden enclave.

Uncle Kol insisted on going to see the Oracles. I know you have your doubts about Divination, and from what you've mentioned Trelawney sounds like a complete fraud, but the priestesses of Apollo are the absolute real deal. They don't give prophecies to everyone, but as soon as we arrived one of the priestesses took us see the Pythia, she spoke to each of us one by one.

It was kind of creepy, but cool at the same time. She told me that the hand of fate lies heavier on some people than others, and I was one of those people. She said I should go to the Hall of Prophecies in the Ministry of Magic when I'm in Britain, I didn't even know there was a Hall of Prophecies, did you? She said some other stuff as well, about my family, and trusting my heart to lead me down the right path. Then she got weird, her eyes filmed over and had this sort of silver glow to them, and she started speaking and it was like her voice had a thousand echoes, and she said,

"Where darkness and danger lurk, the hybrid's child will call forth the serpent hidden beneath the crown of thorns, revealing truths that twist fate's thread."

No idea what it means, but Uncle Finn said most prophecies only ever become clear in hindsight. Which I think was his way of saying, don't spend too much time worrying about it. Although, I think that was more for Babbo and my father's benefit, because both their faces got all tight and frowny when they heard. Probably because of the darkness and danger part, they think it means I'll be in danger, but Uncle Elijah pointed out that it doesn't explicitly say that.

Uncle Kol told them, darkness and danger was always lurking, which I'm pretty sure didn't help at all, because they all started arguing. I didn't hear much of it 'cause Aunty Bex, dragged me off to see the temple of Hecate, one of the priestesses there showed me some thread magic, and I made a necklace threaded with protection charms. The priestess said it was good enough to shield from low-level hexes.

In the evening, we went to Galaxidi, which was a town nearby for dinner, before returning to Athens for the night. We visited this Taverna, and they had musicians and dancers to entertain the diners, it was pretty fun to watch. The food was great too, I had Saganaki; shrimp cooked in spicy tomato sauce mixed with herbs and feta cheese. And Loukoumades for dessert, they're like these little donuts, drizzled in honey and cinnamon, they were really nice.

We're landing soon. We're going to be in Mykonos for a few days, Damon said he's booked us a Kayaking trip, like we did in Florida last year, which should be pretty fun. We're going to Naxos after, and we'll be visiting the Animal reserve there, they have Pegasi, and visitors are allowed to ride them, which should be a lot of fun.

Can't wait to see you. Let me know about the World Cup!

Love Maya.

Dearest Luna,

How's your hunt for Crumple-horned Snorkacks going? Have you seen any other interesting creatures on your journey through Sweden? We'll be staying with Aunt Cissa when we get to Britain, so we'll definitely see each other. We're trying to arrange a visit to the Hall of Prophecies, while we're there, would you like to come with us?

Greece is lovely, I've had a great time here. We've just arrived in Crete for the last couple of days here and next we're going to Iceland. The animal reserve on Naxos was amazing, I got to ride a Pegasi! It's all run in partnership with a herd of Centaurs. It gives them somewhere safe to live, and they watch over all the different herds in the area, protect them from poachers.

They have so many different creatures there, I think you'd really enjoy visiting. I got to feed some mooncalves, and play with the nifflers. Aunty Bex wasn't impressed because they stole her bracelets and rings. We got them back in the end, but Uncle Kol thought it was hilarious, right up until Aunty Bex pushed him into the manure pile they'd gathered from the Cerberus pen to use in the gardens.

We had a tour of the areas with the more dangerous creatures as well, The ones Hagrid would love! They have a chimera, a couple of hydras, and an erumpent. There's a water area attached which is looked after by the sirens, and what the tour guide called an Aviary, which is really just a word for the highest section of the reserve, where the Griffins and the Harpies live.

A lot of the beings that live there, do so because it gives them a safe place to stay hidden from the non-magicals, and they help out on the reserve in exchange for the sanctuary the Greek magical government has provided them with. The Harpies like it, even if they can pass as human when they want to, because it gives them a place where they can relax and let their feathers out. I was talking to one of them, and she said although they can stay in their human form indefinitely, most of them get quite antsy when they don't shift regularly, and helping out on the reserve, makes them feel like they aren't indebted to anyone.

Santorini was nice as well. It's very beautiful there. I went cliff diving with Uncle Kol, Uncle Stefan, and Aunty Bex, whilst Uncle Elijah and Uncle Finn distracted Babbo and my father for the day. It was a lot of fun. We went on a boat trip through the Caldera and saw the Volcano's, we even saw some dolphins!

We've only got a couple of days in Crete, but we're gonna go to a Water Park; like a massive playground with lots of slides but they all have water pouring down them. They're fun, we'll have to go to one together one day. Babbo's also booked us a tour of the Minoan palace, and I'm gonna go parasailing as well. It's sort of like flying through the air, with a big sail attached to you, and a rope that leads to a boat, and the boat sort of pulls you along, which is how you stay up. It's hard to explain so I'll show you the pictures!

Can't wait to see you soon! Enjoy the rest of your time in Sweden.

Love, Maya

Dear Kamala,

It's a shame you can't go to the Quidditch World Cup Final, but I guess you can always listen to it on the radio. How was your trip to Pakistan? It must have been amazing to finally meet your cousins! Were they just as you imagined? And how was exploring the place where your family comes from? I imagine it must have been like stepping into a whole new world filled with stories and landscapes you've only heard about in tales. I can't wait to hear all about it when we're back at school.

We arrived in Iceland a couple of days ago, the temperature took some getting used to after spending four weeks in Italy and Greece. Uncle Finn took charge of planning the itinerary for this part of the trip, he's spent a lot of time here over the centuries, and has a couple of houses here.

The views here are amazing, like they've been taken straight out of the pages of a storybook! We went to the Blue Lagoon yesterday, even Uncle Elijah had a dip in the waters (Uncle Kol may have pushed him in, but it still counts!). Aunty Bex and I both got a mud mask, it was kind of weird, but it did feel nice, the water was really warm too, which was great considering it was pretty chilly at that time of the morning. We went to Reykjavik afterwards and had lunch at this place called the Saegreifinn, it does a lot of traditional foods, we all had lobster soup. It was okay, but not my favourite.

We spent the afternoon walking round the city. It's very colourful, and there's this massive church called the Hallgrimskirkja that looks like it's made of giant blocks of Lego. We climbed to the top of the tower, so we could see the city. Then Uncle Kol wanted to go to some museum, apparently, it's very famous but everyone else said no, I don't know why. So, we drove to the Þingvellir National Park instead, and did the walk between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

This morning, we went to the Golden Circle, we saw quite a few geysers. There's one called Strokkur, that erupts like every 6 minutes and goes as much as twenty metres in the air. We also visited a massive waterfall called Gullfoss, which means "Golden Falls" in Icelandic. Standing next to it, you can feel the mist on your face and hear the thunderous sound of the water crashing down—it's both thrilling and a bit scary!

We went to this place called Friðheimar, for lunch. It's a geothermally heated greenhouse, and the only thing they grow there is tomatoes! The soup they make from them at the restaurant there was very nice, but can you imagine only growing one plant! We spent most of the rest of the day driving to where we are now, and we're gonna hike a glacier tomorrow! Then on Friday, we're going to one of the magical enclaves, Uncle Kol said we might even see some of the Huldufólk!

Hope you're having as much fun in Pakistan as I am in Europe. Can't wait to see you again.

Love Maya

Dearest Maya,

Happy Birthday. I hope you like the present I picked out for you. I had them charmed to ensure they will always return to their sheath's after hitting the target, they're also undetectable to non-magicals, even their X-Ray machines won't detect them. I was tempted to coat them in poison as well, but I had a feeling Damon might confiscate them if I did that.

I hope you're enjoying your trip around Europe. I myself am still in America, I've been catching up with some things I missed whilst I was in Mystic Falls. I've even been chasing up some intriguing rumours, no luck yet, but I'm sure I'll find the truth behind them eventually. If your Uncle Elijah reads the letter, I sent him instead of burning it, as I suspect he might, he'll learn something that might be of interest to him.

I have no doubt by now that Damon is grinding his teeth, tell him not to stress about it too much. Nobody told me, I have eyes and you look too much like your father for me not to put it together. Damon and Klaus, when you read this, as I'm sure you will, know that I will do nothing to purposefully bring harm to Maya. She is a daughter of the House of Black, and thus the descendant of my first and dearest friend. I'm sure Lady Malfoy may well be able to tell you the story, Astraea made sure our adventures were written down and made a part of the Black Family History. I may even tell you about them myself one day.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday, and do have fun at the Quidditch World Cup. I myself am rooting for Bulgaria to win, but I won hold it against you if you support someone else. I look forward to seeing you play in it one day.

Feel free to write back to me if you wish to, and if your overprotective relatives allow it.

Katherine.

P.S. Always aim for the arteries or the eyes, they're weak points, and they'll debilitate your opponent the fastest.