Private message to Harry Marvolo and Hermione Granger

Hi, Harry,

I found a way to ask Daddy about the ritual. I told him that I was looking through my new Dark Arts textbooks for information about something I'd read in a storybook.

He asked "what storybook?"

I said that it was one of the Bramblewick Orphan books, and in it, when Elinor and Petra are kidnapped by the hedgewitch, she locks them in the cellar, then makes them part of a ritual, during which Petra holds their dead Mother's locket while the hedgewitch tries to make Elinor murder the hedgewitch's enemy, the glass knight. But the ritual is interrupted when Elinor and Petra's brother, Cid, bursts into the cellar and saves his sisters.

It's all true up to the part with the glass knight (I don't even know what a glass night is, I just made it up, but it sounds like something from a storybook, doesn't it?).

Well, Daddy said there were lots of rituals involving objects that require "blood sacrifice," but it's the sort of thing that can kill you, if you don't know what you're doing. And it's usually for making an object that causes a lot of harm and destruction, often death, but that that's definitely not always the case - some dark objects are for protection, too, or make a person more powerful. He talked about how the glass knight being the hedgewitch's enemy is significant, because the blood of one who wronged you is different from the blood of the innocent. He said that the most important thing to ask was why the hedgewitch would want a powerful and deadly object, and that I should wonder if the object was meant to go to Petra, since she was the one holding the locket.

Then he laughed and pointed out that it was just a storybook, and probably not based on any "true depth of knowledge for dark artefacts."

So, whatever you had to do, it wasn't something that Daddy immediately recognised. But it sounds like it wasn't anything good.

I'm sorry I couldn't find out more. Maybe this gives you some ideas to go on?

From,
Hydra

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

Is anyone going to Smith's proposed water fight?

I'm not; it wouldn't be worth trying to lie around Mummy for. She doesn't ask many questions when I say I'm going to see Remy, but she would certainly ask about Smith. Especially now. Earlier this week she pointed out that I've been very neglectful of Harry and that I haven't tried hard to see him at all since CCF ended. I pointed out that he was on holiday but she acted as if that wasn't much of an excuse. So, to make her happy I told her that Harry had been confiding in me more that he used to. That's at least a little bit true, and she didn't press for details, either, so that's good.

I suppose this is where I say that when we're at school this year, I'll have to be careful about who I associate with from the lock. Of course, no one would say a thing if I spent time with Sally Anne and Pansy...also, Luna is in my year, so that makes some sense as well. And Justin and I are always careful, or try to be.

Right now I'm certainly not planning to purposefully ignore or be unkind to anyone, but if I seem a little aloof and distant, it's only because I don't want anyone to be hurt because of my parents. Because of my Mother, I mean.

I always have to be careful. She might go for months and months with scarcely a comment to me, and then, out of nowhere, unleash her disdain for something I didn't even realise she was aware of, or even cared about. And it's not because she's a legilimens. It's because she notices everything. She stores it away and saves it, and then, when she's ready, she uses it against you. I don't ever want her to be able to every use this against me, because I need it.

So, that's all. Have fun at the water fight (if you're going).