Hydra Lestrange Finch-Fletchley

Bad news, I'm afraid. Crouch wants me to put the first Hogsmeade Saturday aside for training. As soon as he beckoned me over last night and indicated I was to sit with him, I had an inkling what I was in for. Also, I saw him thinking about how I was going to forget everything he taught me if I didn't get a refresher, and soon.

Did you enjoy the lecture? I knew Daddy would be part of the lecture series, but I didn't realise he'd be the first invited.

Astoria Greengrass was very disappointed that she didn't manage to secure a seat closer to you, by the way. And she found the back of your neck far more fascinating than Daddy's dark artefacts.

No, I don't normally dig around in Daphne's sister's thoughts, but in this case she was rather loudly projecting your name, so I couldn't help but investigate.

I think I know where Professor Dolohov and Raz are.

Daddy's just written and says he's been summoned to Ireland. Mummy's already been there a while, it seems. He says that the IMA are "kicking up their heels" which I suppose must mean that they're staging a rebellion of some kind.

They must have done something big. He seemed to be in an awful rush.

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'm ever so glad you didn't say anything to Padma about our plans for Hogsmeade! Because I'm sure you've seen by now that Daddy was reading. I don't know if he would have been upset to know that we have a Valentine's date or not, but it's probably better if he doesn't know. Especially as he was being so funny and peevish about the fact that I was mentioning other people's Christmas gifts more often than his, too. I think Mummy and he must be quarreling...

Anyway, I'm glad that SHE wasn't reading, at least. Because I said something daft that she might've taken the wrong way, if she had been.

I'm going to sleep like the dead tonight. How about you?

From,
Hydra

Daddy -

You know how I'm always meant to owl Mummy every week with copies of my homework and essays and other school progress?

Well, last week, I forgot to send the owl.

But I remembered yesterday, so I just put last week's work in the bundle that had this week's work. Mummy hasn't said anything, so do you think she noticed that I forgot to owl her last week?

From,
Hydra

I would like to very much apologise for the trouble that I have caused my family, my classmates and the Head Boy, my Professors, my Headmistress and Head of House, and my Lord Protector.

I would especially like to apologise to the Hufflepuffs, for the loss of Hannah Abbott.

I behaved irrationally when I agreed to help her rescue a kitten that no longer belonged to her, when I was fully aware that the situation would anger Mr Carrow and that it was a wrong thing to do.

I am very sorry for everything that happened, and please know that I am in disgrace for my part in this endeavour.

Thank you for reading and I hope that you have a nice day.

Well I've been practising for the play a lot, even though I only have a few lines, I want to make them good.
Not very many second years got parts with lines, so I feel that I've been given an important job.
It's a little strange to be in a play that has characters based on so many people I know, including my parents.
It doesn't really feel real, which I guess it isn't, it's make-believe.
Still, it's based on real history, and the valor of all the people who helped to topple the Ministry, and the wickedness of some people who tried to prevent it, like Dumbledore.
Draco, you must be ever so excited to be understudying for Dumbledore, he's the best villain in the whole play!
Only I don't understand what that boy Corner from Ravenclaw was doing today.
I thought he said that plays were for girls, but then when I saw him at dinner his hair was curly and long, and I think his eyelashes were, too.
Does that mean he decided to join the play after all, as an understudy, maybe?
I liked the glitter in his hair, though.
I'd like to learn a charm like that, one that lasts all day.
Every time I've made my hair glittery it's gone in less than an hour.

I've been back at home for a few days now.
My home in New London not Le'Strange Hill, since Mummy has had such an awful lot of work to do.
Rigel looks different from when I saw him last, and I don't think he remembers me at all, he keeps biting me.
Draco had a birthday party and it was utterly fun, even though his birthday was actually a few weeks ago, he wanted to wait until we were out of school to celebrate.
Father and Uncle Razzer are here and I think they've been celebrating all night, not because of Draco's birthday but because Sirius Black was captured.
Now that Sirius Black is caught, I wonder what will happen to him?
And I was wondering, if he says that he's sorry and that he didn't mean it, could he maybe be forgiven?

Last night I caught Cressida looking through my things.
Not just looking for a piece of parchment on my desk but trying to open the trunk in my wardrobe.
So I hexed her and now her fingers are swollen up like sausages and she was crying in the night because it hurt.
She couldn't even hold her wand to hex me back, and I think she wanted Norma to do it but Norma wouldn't.
She gave Cressida a salve, instead.
I don't know that it worked that well because at breakfast just now Cressida kept dropping her fork.
Maybe she didn't think I knew that she was the one who stole Tex so long ago.
But I knew and I didn't forget, and I don't want her stealing anything of mine ever again.
Maybe it was a little bit mean to hex her, but Mummy would have done it and so would probably a long time ago, too.
And then I got a parcel from Daddy this morning, so I think it will be a very good day!

I haven't been home in such a long time.
Sometimes it feels as thought I might never be there again.
Daddy and I had a firechat last night.
He says that Rigel has six teeth, and knows how to use all of them.
We talked about the books he sent me over Christmas, but I don't know if I understand them very well.
I always thought working with cursed objects must be easier than being an Auror, but now I'm not so sure.
There's all sorts of cursed objects in the world, more kinds than we could ever think up, but only one kind of Auror, and that's the kind that my Mummy is.
Nobody seems very frightened of being Cruciated anymore, I think they're more worried about being sick.
But no one is sick, are they?
If they are, they're not saying so.
I don't blame them because if I were feeling sick I wouldn't say anything, either.
There's always something to worry about here.
It must be like that in the real world, and this is just to get us all ready for it.