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Year 6 Chapter 7, New Year, New Information

Dear Hermione,

Happy New Year! We had quite the celebration last night here at the Burrow. Unfortunately I didn’t have anyone to kiss at midnight. Well, that’s not quite true. I did get a peck on the cheek from Ginny. Don’t worry, it was the same as the one she gave each of her other brothers, no more and no less. In fact, I think she sees me as another brother now. More about that later.

I also got a kiss from Fleur. Two actually, one on each cheek, like she usually does. First she gave Bill a kiss that left him temporarily unable to remember his own name. You should have seen the look they got from Mrs. Weasley. Then she came over to me and Ron and gave each of us a kiss on both cheeks. I’m sure you can imagine the effect that had on Ron! While he was temporarily dazed she teased me about who I really wanted to be kissing. And she was right. Even though Ginny is really pretty, and Fleur is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, while each of them were kissing me all I could think about was how much I wanted it to be you.

Oh, and you should have seen Tonks go at it with Remus! There’s definitely no question about them now. I don’t think anyone else but me noticed, because she grabbed him while Fleur was attempting to remove Bill’s tonsils with her tongue. I wonder if Tonks and Fleur planned it that way, to have Fleur create a distraction. I wouldn’t put it past them. Anyway, aside from that, I have a lot to tell you about, even though it’s only been a few days.

I told Ron about overhearing Malfoy and Snape, and we speculated about what they were up to. He pointed out that the incident with Ginny and the dagger didn’t fit well with it being a long term project, and I agreed. Perhaps that was a diversion? We both thought that Snape’s role was curious – him being out of the loop and demanding to be let in on the plan. He, of course, is more ready to believe that Snape’s evil and wants to help Malfoy cause whatever trouble he’s up to, where you tend more to think that he’s still following Dumbledore’s orders.

We’ve tried to make subtle suggestions to some of the others here about Snape, such as Remus and Tonks and Mr. Weasley. But they all firmly believe that Dumbledore knows what he’s doing and that if he trusts Snape, then Snape must be trustworthy. The only one who deviates from the party line is Fleur, probably because she didn’t grow up here and wasn’t taught all her life that Dumbledore is some infallible god.

I also told Ron about what happened with Cho (but not what you and I did the night before I left!). That got him back to thinking that I’m the luckiest bloke in the world. (He asked some questions about her that I’m not going to repeat, and I finally had to threaten to hex him to get him to stop.) He then declared that he certainly wouldn’t have run away from an offer like that! So I asked him ‘what about Hermione?’ I could see he hadn’t thought that far. After a bit he decided I shouldn’t have told you – you’d have been happier not knowing and we wouldn’t have had a big fight about it. I didn’t agree with him though. I guess because of how upset I get when people have kept things away from me ‘for my own good’. Does that make sense?

Thinking about it some more, I think it’s more than that. I’ve always trusted you, probably more than anyone else in the world, and I want you to be able to trust me that way. I don’t think it’s good for a relationship to hide things like that from each other. Yes, it was very painful, but I think it helped us become closer in a way.

Sorry, I got off the track there. I’ve had other interesting conversations and observations as well. The most surprising one was with Ginny. She’s fine now and eager to get back to school, by the way. Anyway, she pulled me aside and asked me to go out for a walk with her yesterday. When I pointed out that it was cold outside she just glared at me and said, ‘Warming charm, you prat!’ I guess she also has discovered we can do magic here.

Anyway, when we were alone outside she told me she wanted to ask me for advice about her and Dean. Can you believe that – someone asking me for advice about dating? When I pointed that out to her she said I’m different now that I have you for a girlfriend. Said you’ve educated me. Plus, since I’ve been in a relationship with one girl for more than a year that qualifies me as an expert. Anyway, she wanted to know how far we’ve gone in our relationship. When I answered that that was private and I wouldn’t betray your confidence like that, she said she understood and admired me for saying that, and would try to ask the question a different way so that I could answer.

She then suggested that it seemed to her that we weren’t too physical with each other at the beginning, and that she assumed that it was at least six months before we got as far as touching each other ‘intimately’. I said that was a good assumption. Then she said she and Dean got into heavy snogging right off the bat this year, and that after the first couple of weeks he started trying to put his hands under her top while they were making out. She giggled a bit at the look on my face at that revelation. When I realized that it must have been quite a murderous glare, I jokingly asked her if she wanted me to go beat him up. But she replied that she already had plenty of brothers to do that – she was looking more for a male friend that could give her advice.

I told her that for me, I respected you too much to try doing things like that unless I was pretty sure you would want me to. Then she sighed and said that’s what she thought I’d say. She told me I was a great boyfriend and that to please let her know if you and I ever decide to call it quits. That startled me for a second, but then I joked that she’d have to get in line behind Cho.

She scowled at that comment and told me she’d heard about what happened. She said she didn’t blame Cho for trying but that she thought she’d gone too far. There’s apparently some sort of unwritten rule about how hard a girl is allowed to try to steal another girl’s boyfriend. I guess flirting is OK, but taking your clothes off in front of him isn’t. Hopefully I won’t have to learn these rules because I won’t ever need to find another girlfriend.

After we chuckled about that a bit she turned serious again. She thanked me for the advice and said she was going to give it another try with Dean when she got back to school, but she was going to be more assertive about setting some limits. Then she gave me a hug and said she was glad she had a friend like me. I can certainly see how she wouldn’t be able to talk to Ron about this! (By the way, she said it was all right for me to tell you about this conversation.)

It occurred to me as we were walking back how much Ginny has grown up. I’d always thought of her as Ron’s little sister, but she’s turned into a mature young woman without me noticing it. That prompted me to say something to her about Fleur. I told her I didn’t appreciate the name-calling and nasty comments, that I considered Fleur a good friend, and that I thought Ginny was a better person than that. That startled her, and she was real quiet for a time. Then all of a sudden she had tears in her eyes and she hugged me again, thanking me for saying that. She said she’d try harder to live up to my opinion of her. I was really surprised at that reaction. I guess despite your best efforts, I still don’t understand girls very well.

Since then, she hasn’t said the word ‘Phlegm’ once, and has tried to be nice to Fleur. I’ve noticed Fleur with a surprised look on her face a couple of times. That brings me to the next subject. Fleur and Mrs. Weasley are definitely NOT getting along. They hardly talk to each other, and sometimes it even seems like they deliberately antagonize each other. Mrs. Weasley will make comments that hint that the wedding still isn’t a sure thing, and Fleur can’t resist retaliating with comments about Mrs. Weasley’s preferences in things like music, food, decorating, fashion, etc. The other night we were listening to Celestina Warbeck, who is Mrs. Weasley’s favorite singer, and Fleur kept complaining about the noise. Mrs. Weasley responded by turning up the volume every time until all our ears were hurting.

The problem with all of this is that they’re supposed to be planning a wedding. And they can’t even agree on where to have it. According to tradition, it should be at the Delacour’s in France. And frankly, having been to both houses, that would seem to me to be a better location. But Mrs. Weasley has her heart set on having the wedding at the Burrow. Her argument is that they have so many friends and relatives in Britain that would come, and it would be inconvenient for them to have to travel to France. Personally, I think Bill should step up and support his fiancée, and tell his mum it’s going to be in France. (Of course that may be because I’ve become good friends with Fleur.) But you know how much trouble the Weasley children have always had standing up to their mother.

Oh yeah, that reminds me – Mrs. Weasley is still trying to get Ginny and me together. The look on her face when we came back into the house together after our talk was like Christmas had come again. I guess she was watching out the window and saw the hug Ginny gave me. Ginny has apologized to me a couple of times for the hints and suggestions she’s been dropping, and said to just ignore them – that’s what she’s doing. I think she’s had words with her mum about it more than once.

Speaking of Weasley children acting independently, the last bit of news happened today. While we were in the middle of a big New Year’s dinner, two people apparated onto the road in front of the Burrow and started walking up to the house. It was Percy and Minister Scrimgeour. At first, Mrs. Weasley was all excited that Percy had finally come home, and she even started crying a bit, especially when Ron, Fred and George had some rather uncomplimentary things to say about him. Unfortunately, it turned out that their comments were all justified. The reason they were there was that the Minister wanted to talk to me , and Percy had brought him. He hadn’t wanted to see his family at all! He just stood there and ignored them while the Minister took me outside. He even refused the sweater his mum made for him, the big git!

My talk with the Minister was just like I’d expected from what Dumbledore and Tonks told me last summer. He wants my support. Don’t you think it’s pretty ridiculous when the head of a government goes to that much effort to get the support of a boy who’s still in school? I told him I had no intention of giving a press conference or making any kind of statement at all, and that I wasn’t really aware of anything he’d done that I wanted to support. According to Remus and Mr. Weasley, they’ve only arrested a handful of people on suspicion of being Death Eaters, and those few probably aren’t even guilty. One of them is Stan Shunpike, the guy from the Knight Bus! That’s ridiculous!

As a result of that comment he got mad and accused me of being Dumbledore’s man. I told him that yes, I was, and he stalked off. While I might not agree with everything Dumbledore’s doing, or the way he’s going about my training, he’s doing loads more than anyone else. So I’m not about to let Scrimgeour or anyone else try to split us apart or play one of us against the other. He’d also tried to get me to tell him what Dumbledore has been up to, but I refused. I didn’t tell him that I didn’t know myself. When we have our next lesson I’m going to insist on getting some more answers.

That’s about as much as I can think of for now. I wish you were here. It’s only been 3 days but it seems like forever.

I miss you.

Love,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

I am so proud of you! The way you handled all of those situations was wonderful. You really are becoming more sensitive. As much as I’d like to take the credit for it, as Ginny suggested, I’m certain that it is also due to your increasing maturity.

I don’t know how so many interesting things could have happened to you in just 3 days! Nothing has happened here since you left. I’ve spent the time reviewing my books and getting ready to go back to France.

I very much appreciate your response to Ron about Cho. That does sound like the sort of reaction he’d have, just do what looks enticing and think about it later. But what you said about how important trust is in a relationship is spot on. I do trust you, despite how badly I reacted, and you’ve proven that I’m right in doing so. It’s important to me that you trust me too, though I hope no situations like that arise for me that would make you doubt me.

It was good to hear what you did for Ginny too, and that she looks up to you as someone she can confide in about those things. I think you handled her questions about us very well. I don’t particularly want to have her (or Ron, or anyone else for that matter) know about how far we’ve gone. I’m certainly still enjoying the memory of that last night, but I want to keep that for just the two of us.

I don’t know what can be done about the problems between Fleur and Mrs. Weasley. I hope they can work something out – it’s not a good situation to be at odds with your mother-in-law. I’m certainly glad that my mum and dad both get along with all of my grandparents. And you are right that Bill and Fleur ought to have the biggest say in it, although often it’s the mothers who do most of the planning for weddings. Like you, I consider Fleur to be a good friend, so I’m inclined to take her side, even though I like Mrs. Weasley.

That is, I did until she started trying to break us up and get you together with Ginny. Honestly, why can’t she just accept that her dream matchup of her daughter with the Boy Who Lived isn’t going to happen? It’s certainly good to hear that Ginny’s not encouraging her. And I’m also glad that she’s trying to change her attitude toward Fleur. I agree with you that it sounds like she’s matured this year. And I wouldn’t worry too much about what she said about letting her know if we break up. For one thing, that’s never going to happen. And she does like you, so it would only be natural for her to want to date you if you were single. Like I keep telling you – you’re very fanciable. I bet if you asked any of your female friends there at Hogwarts if they’d like to go out with you, nearly all of them would say yes. Susan would probably only say no because she’s with Neville now.

Speaking of relationships – that’s really something about Remus and Tonks. That must be what all the talks between Tonks and Fleur last summer were about. I never would have guessed it was Remus Lupin! He must be at least 10 years older than her. It will be very interesting to see if they can make a go of it.

I guess the only other thing to comment on is your meeting with the Minister. Once again, I’m proud of you for how you handled yourself. And it was a good idea to keep your disagreements with the Headmaster to yourself. Scrimgeour doesn’t need to know about that. Don’t reveal any more to people like him than necessary. Sounds quite Slytherin of us, doesn’t it?

I’ll be heading back to Beauxbatons tomorrow. But I certainly wish I were going to Hogwarts with you. It won’t be forever, but you’re right, it will certainly seem like it. I need to stop thinking about that before I start crying. Good luck with Dumbledore.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

Well, the new term is underway. I had another lesson with Dumbledore yesterday. It’s starting to make more sense now. I’ll tell you about that later.

Our study group has changed. Cho’s not meeting with us any more. I understand that Susan had some ‘words’ with her. As you know, loyalty is a big thing with Hufflepuffs. We’ll just have to get along without her. Ginny has joined us, though. She missed more than 2 months and she’s really behind, so we’re all pitching in to help her out. Since she’s in her OWL year, it’s pretty important. What we really need is another Ravenclaw to join our group.

Hannah is back, too. I don’t remember if I told you, but her mother was killed in November and she left school for the last month of the term. Ron was pleased to see her. I think some teasing is in order there.

They’re going to offer apparation lessons this term, with an exam for everyone who’s of age scheduled for the last week of April. We all signed up, even though Neville and I won’t be able to take the exam until July. When do you learn to apparate?

I guess that’s all for now.

Love,

Henry

Hermione wasted no time tapping the parchment and reciting the incantation to reveal the hidden message.

Finally! I had a session with Dumbledore last night and we’re actually getting somewhere! It’s all starting to make sense. Now it’s clearer what he’s been leading up to with all these memories of Tom Riddle. It was necessary background to understand what Riddle did to turn himself into Voldemort. It turns out that there is an extremely dark ritual that he performed that split his soul. It’s called making a Horcrux, and it basically made him immortal. Yes, you read that right. As long as these Horcruxes exist he can’t be killed. So, if I’m to be the one to destroy him, the first thing that has to happen is to find and destroy these Horcruxes. But the thing is, we don’t know how many of them there are! More about that later.

The first memory we watched tonight showed the teenaged Riddle confronting his uncle Morfin, who told him some things about his mother and grandfather. According to Dumbledore, he then killed his father and the rest of the Riddle family and framed his uncle Morfin for it, even memory charming him into confessing. He was really that evil, even as a teenager! He also took the Gaunt family ring, which is important.

The next memory was of Riddle in a group of students meeting with Professor Slughorn. After the meeting broke up, Riddle stayed after and asked Slughorn what he knew about Horcruxes. Dumbledore thinks that Slughorn gave him some information about them, but we’re not sure because the memory had been tampered with. Once he saw how Riddle turned out – becoming an evil dark lord – Slughorn must have been ashamed to have helped him, so he somehow modified the memory.

After he told me that, Dumbledore said it was my job to get the real memory from Slughorn. He said there was no way he could force it out of Slughorn, but that he had to be persuaded to give it freely. Do you see what’s going on here? This entire thing with Slughorn has been a set up from the beginning. He knew he needed that information last summer, and he’s manipulated Slughorn into a position where he thinks I can get it from him. Can you believe how much planning and calculation Dumbledore has put into this, not to mention outright deviousness?

At that point Dumbledore dismissed me, but I refused to leave. I think that took him aback quite a bit. I said there was a lot more information that he hadn’t told me yet, and that he had to stop holding back. This was a life or death situation – my life or death – and I wasn’t willing to play guessing games any more. I needed to know exactly what he already knew about these Horcruxes so that I’d have a better idea of exactly what information I needed from Slughorn. He tried to stall some more, but I asked him if I was back to being an unwitting tool again.

That comment finally shook him up enough to get him to tell me more. Here’s the gist of it. Once he figured out that Voldemort wasn’t really dead, he worked on trying to figure out how he managed it. He finally decided that it was through the use of Horcruxes after our second year. I bet you’ve already figured out what I’m going to say next. The diary was one. That’s how it had the essence of Tom Riddle in it. When I destroyed it, I actually killed a fragment of his soul.

The ring I’ve mentioned several times was also one. Dumbledore found it at the Gaunt house and destroyed it at the beginning of July. There are two more he’s pretty sure about, and he’s going to show me memories relating to them next time. But the most important thing I need to find out from Slughorn is how many Voldemort made.

Hopefully, now that I know that it will be easier. So, do you have any suggestions on how I can ‘persuade’ Slughorn to give me information that he refused to give to Dumbledore? Or what other items Voldemort used, or where else he might have hid them? As you can see, I need you more than ever.

I miss you.

Love,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Your news about Voldemort was amazing. Even though I see where Dumbledore was going with the pensieve memories, it still seems like he could have got to this part a lot sooner. Why not give you this information in the first place? Why put you off and stall so long? And then the way he still tried to keep some of the critical parts from you even now? Sometimes that man is so infuriating!

I’ll search the library here for anything I can find on Horcruxes. I’ve also been thinking about the unknown items and locations. I’m pretty sure that one of the ones Dumbledore’s going to tell you more about next time is Slytherin’s locket. That must be why he made a big deal about it earlier. I also suspect that his emphasis on Tom Riddle liking to ‘collect things’ is significant. As far as where they might be, I’m guessing they’re in significant locations, not just scattered randomly about the country. That’s probably another reason why you learned so much about his background. So, for Tom Riddle one significant location was his pureblood grandfather’s house, so he hid the family ring there. Perhaps another would be the orphanage he grew up in? And mightn’t Hogwarts be a possibility? And don’t forget that Lucius Malfoy had one. That’s all I can come up with so far.

So, Ron and Hannah Abbott, hmm? It sounds like he might have a thing for blondes, given who he’s dated so far, as well as his infatuation with Fleur. For teasing purposes I’d suggest you ask him if blondes have more fun, but I doubt he’d get the muggle reference.

I must confess I’m not at all disappointed that you’re not studying with Cho any more. You remember how much I wanted to hex her for going after you last year, so you can imagine what I want to do now. I did hear from Susan about her ‘talk’ with Cho. Let’s just say the results of that confrontation are going to stay between us girls. But I did find her description of it quite satisfying. (Picture your Hermione sitting here with an evil smirk on her face.)

As far as needing another Ravenclaw to study with, you might consider Padma Patil. I’m not sure how you’d ask her without also including Parvati, though, and then you’d also have to have Lavender. Then that raises the question about how well she and Ron are getting along, or her reaction to Hannah. So many complications! Believe it or not, that’s the sort of stress that ‘normal’ teenagers generally have to deal with. Not at all like us!

Things are going pretty well here at Beauxbatons. Some of the things we’re scheduled to cover this term look very interesting, especially in Charms and Transfiguration. I’ll be sure to let you know what happens with regard to the nude rituals in Runes. As far as learning to apparate, the others in my class learned last year, of course, so I’m joining the other sixth years for that. Ironically, it’s my first class with Sally-Anne. We’ve decided to be partners. I’ve been telling her some of the things happening back home, especially news from Susan about her former classmates in Hufflepuff. It’s good in some ways but unfortunate in others. It’s nice having someone to talk to about Hogwarts, but it reminds me even more that I’m not there with you.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-ooo -

Dear Hermione,

Before I get to the serious stuff, I have to tell you what happened in Potions today. I really wish you could have been here, because it was a problem that you’d be really good at. Slughorn gave us a vial of a mixture of poisons and told us to identify them, then brew an antidote for as many of them as possible. As you can probably guess, I didn’t have a clue what to do. Somehow the Half Blood Prince never got around to writing a procedure on how to separate poisons. I would have to actually know something about potions to do this one.

So anyway, I figured my reputation as a Potions genius was really going to take a hit. That would be fine with me, if it meant that Slughorn would stop obsessing over me, but I doubt that would happen in any case. I peeked at what Ernie and some of the Ravenclaw students were doing, and Specialis Revelio identified the poisons well enough, but I didn’t have much idea of what to do next to separate them. Then, while I was looking up antidotes to poisons in the book, I found another tip in the margin.

Just shove a bezoar down their throats

Remember the very first day of Potions in first year, when Snape was trying to embarrass me by asking questions I wouldn’t know the answer to? (Perhaps you also remember a little bushy-haired girl raising her hand trying to answer all of those questions.) That incident is pretty well burned in my memory. One of the questions was about a bezoar, and I now remembered that it’s supposed to be an antidote for most poisons.

Now, you’re probably going to scold me for ‘cheating’ on this assignment, but I walked over to the supply cupboard and found one. Then, when Slughorn was going around the room checking our results, I just handed him the bezoar.

Well, he ate it up. Told me I had nerve, just like my mum. (I get the impression that he really liked her. I wonder if I can use that somehow.) Then he chuckled and agreed that a bezoar would certainly act as an antidote to all those poisons. Unfortunately, the students who had actually done the assignment were pretty ticked off. I tried to tell him that they should get house points instead of me but he wouldn’t hear of it. On the bright side, I reckoned this would be a good time to ask him about the memory.

It didn’t do any good. As soon as I said the word ‘Horcruxes’ he froze right up. He knew right off that Dumbledore had shown me his altered memory and insisted that was all he knew. He yelled the last bit as he was shoving me out the door of the dungeon and slamming it behind me.

Here’s something I forgot to tell you about last letter. At the beginning of my meeting with Dumbledore, I mentioned what I heard Snape and Malfoy doing. He assured me that he was well aware of the situation, and that Snape was acting on his orders and keeping tabs on Malfoy. So I guess it’s like you suggested. But a few other things still don’t add up. What about Snape’s vow? And it sounded like he wasn’t really having much success at finding out what Malfoy’s up to. I tried to ask Dumbledore about that also, but he said it wasn’t my concern. Then I pointed out that Ginny had almost died, and that there was a good possibility that I had been the target, so it bloody well did concern me. Then he apologized for brushing me off and said that he understood my concerns, but that he was certain there was no danger to me, and that with Malfoy aware that Snape was watching him it was unlikely that there would be any more attacks on students. I agreed to drop the subject for then, but let him know that I was keeping my eye on Malfoy as well.

So, I’ve been watching for Malfoy on the Map whenever I get a chance. I still haven’t seen him near the Room of Requirement, but we have run into young Slytherin girls in that corridor a couple of times lately. And I mean that literally. Ron knocked one over once and she dropped a set of scales, which made an awful racket. It’s not been the same girl each time, though, so I don’t know what to make of that. I still think he might be using it as part of whatever he’s planning.

We started spell combinations in the DA this week. It’s coming along nicely. We’re all caught up with what we should have learned by now for NEWTs and we’re also improving our fighting capability. Tonks stopped by and helped me show them some of the stuff she taught me this summer.

Susan doesn’t think Padma would be a good person to add to our study group, but not for any of the reasons you mentioned. She says she’s still sore at Ron because of the Yule Ball. I guess it wasn’t enough to keep her out of the DA, but she doesn’t want to study with him. So apparently she doesn’t mind me helping her out (in the DA) as long as she doesn’t have to help us (in our study group).

I think I’ll try to have a talk with Parvati sometime and see if she’s still upset with me about the ball, and apologize for the way I acted toward her. On the other hand, Susan says she could get just about any other Ravenclaw girl to join our group if we really wanted, because all of them have a crush on me. I think she was kidding.

In your next letter to Susan ask her how her apparating is coming along. We’ve been giving her a hard time because she was the first one to splinch herself yesterday. She left half of her leg behind. It sounds really gruesome, but Pomfrey was right there waiting for something like that to happen and fixed her up immediately. It’s slow going for the rest of us. I can feel a tingle and a bit of a tug when I try it, but no success so far.

Those were some good ideas you had about the Horcruxes. I’m very glad to have you working on it with me. You’ve always been the one who makes the key discovery to bail me out on my adventures and it sure would be great if you could do it again.

I miss you.

Love,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Oh, what am I going to do with you? That stunt you pulled in Potions – well, it was rather amusing to read about, but I’m sure that if I was there I would have scolded you for getting points when you hadn’t even done the assignment. Honestly, the nerve of you, just handing Professor Slughorn a bezoar! It seems to me that you could spend a little more time trying to learn something about potions from that book instead of just looking for tips and shortcuts. Oh well.

I have some things to tell you about on several subjects. I’m doing well with apparation. I was the first in my class to manage a short one without splinching. No matter what they say about how it’s reversible and not that serious, it still seems horrible to me. I feel so sorry for Susan. You boys are so mean, teasing her like that! Now I, of course, would never do anything of the sort. I may have just happened to ask her if she was planning to practice her hopping skills though. (Yes, your bookworm girlfriend can be just as mischievous as you, she’s just more subtle about it.)

We learned a spell in Transfiguration this week that I think you should teach the DA. It turns common objects instantly to stone. Do you see the application? You could use it to block an Unforgiveable! The incantation is Duro and I’ve included a sketch of the wand movement.

The next thing is that we’re learning about enchantments in Charms. The examples given in class reminded me of the mirror Sirius gave you. I think I might be able to duplicate it. Can you get one for me? Perhaps you could get Kreacher to bring you the one Sirius used. Didn’t you say he hid it? As much as I disapprove of using house elves, he does have to obey you if you order him to give it to you right? Barring that, could you send me a piece of the one you broke? It would be like the Protean charm I used on the DA Galleons, only much more complicated.

I haven’t found anything in our library yet about Horcruxes. I need to ask permission to look in the ‘dark’ section, but I’d have to give a good reason for that. I’ll keep working on it. I’m going to find some useful things for you, I promise. Like you said, I’ve always solved problems for you in the past and I’m not going to stop now, just because we’re apart.

I’m back to holding my snitch pendant at night while I think about you. Five more months to go.

I miss you.

All my love,

Hermione

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-