Dear Mr. Potter,
A Curious Thing Is a Friend.
We were most intrigued by your letter pertaining to our stone: rest assured we don't blame you in the slightest for Voldemort taking an interest in it, as there have been many a dark lord of the past who went after it in one way or another. We found it quite amusing to hear of your suggestion to remake it because we've actually done such a thing several times already, if you can believe it, but many seem to think the process quite laborious when the truth is far from it. The Hogwarts Headmaster is one of those people. I tend not to correct people who overestimate my abilities, it's a compliment to the ego.
Albus is an old friend but very concerned in this day and age while we've often been removed from today's coming and goings for many centuries. We destroyed the stone as he suggested and had not planned to tell him about how easy it would be to make it again—it'd be greatly appreciated if you could leave that little tidbit out of your conversations with the Headmaster should you have them. He is quite old himself but unlike Penny and I, he actually ages, and I believe one of the affairs left to get in order is our departure from this day and age is to, let us say, let him overestimate the timeliness of our demise. We shall lay low for a while and resurface in some years with some new Alchemy to show for it—Penny and I wish you much luck in your future endeavors and hope to one day meet you properly in a much different tomorrow. If you can keep our secret, I'd be happy to write occasionally if you have any Alchemy questions—Albus did away with that class for some reason decades ago but it can be a fun time if you know what you're doing. You seem keen enough to bring up the obvious of re-creating the stone, but also genuinely kind enough to consider reaching out about it. If you have even a passing interest I've copied a list of potential texts that might interest you.
I am aware letters are often not the safest method of communication, and in that case the blank parchment included is rather special. If you wish to reach out again, write your response on it and when finished, tap your wand on it repeating the first sentence of this correspondence. It'll make it hard for anyone who doesn't know the phrase to read what's written.
Best of luck young man,
Nicholas and Penelope Flammel
000
Dear Mr. Potter-Monroe,
I can't quite put into words how good it is to hear from you, it was a wonderful surprise to get your letter. I was indeed good friends with both of your parents and you cannot imagine my joy to get a letter from you. I did attempt to reach out through the years, however I was assured you were safe at your aunt's and didn't want to interfere. If I remember what Lily said about Petunia correctly, she probably wouldn't have been too happy with an owl showing up out of nowhere anyway. I hope you are well? Your relatives are okay?
What would you like to know about your parents? I will do my solemn best to describe them however I would think maybe you'd want to know a little more than their favorite subjects or their favorite colors. Red and Defense for your father, blue and Charms and/or Potions for your mother, by the way. It's been so long I worry the years might've blurred my memory a bit, but rest assured my best memories of your parents were when they were about your age. I swear it feels like yesterday. You're a second year now, I believe? I think your father and I really became good friends about that time as well. Lily and I were some of the more bookworm-ish Gryffindors from the start so we were friends right away starting first year; she always had this amazing way of seeing the best in people, which was good as I was and perhaps still am a tad shy and she wouldn't take no for an answer when studying for Defense. That was my best subject so she 'borrowed' my notes quite often.
Your parents didn't actually get along most of their time at Hogwarts, if you can believe that. James saw her on the train first year and was instantly obsessed, but she had no time for juvenile pranksters of course! She always was much more clever then all of us, from the very start. It wasn't until much later when James had done a lot of growing up in about sixth year they stopped bickering enough to realize they were actually suited for each other—it actually surprised us all quite a bit when she finally said yes. James had been asking her out every other week since day one of Hogwarts and she'd gotten very creative in different ways of turning him down and saying 'no' for years, so you can imagine the whiplash.
I realize that might make it sound like James was immature and… well honestly yes he was, but weren't we all? He was extremely talented at Transfiguration although certainly did well in other classes, even if he cared very little for schoolwork. He was a chaser on the quidditch team and a damn good one if you'll excuse the language, he probably could've gone pro if he hadn't been dead-set on being an auror since he was old enough to know what it was, like both his parents before him. McGonagall would've done anything to see him go pro at one point I think—she's a rather strict teacher but that seems to fly right out the window when it comes to quidditch if you'd noticed.
I think what James was proudest of though, what he might claim himself as his shining traits during his school days, was what a prankster he was. And I mean that very literally. Our group of friends actually, although some were certainly more instigators than others, was very involved in doing more pranks than homework on the average day. If I could kindly request for you not to tell McGonagall the part I played, I will confess about half the banned items on Filch's list and a good third of the existing rules about curfew and proper behavior in the Great Hall were directly because of some of the mischief we managed to make in seven short years. If Filch gives you an unreasonably hard time simply because of your last name… I am so sorry.
I'm trying to think of things James might find important for your time at Hogwarts… probably most importantly is that access to the kitchen can be found on the bottom floor, east corridor, tickle the pear in the largest fruit painting and a door will open. The house elves in there are happy to give you any treat you want at any time of the day—James was a big treacle tart lover so they always seemed to have one primed and ready for him any time we went. I am not sure I'd condone it but he would likely also say to ensure you pull at least one prank a year to keep things light—don't waste your life on the boring details. Although in equal part I can almost imagine Lily whacking him over the head for that: she would definitely encourage grades over nonsense, but I'm sure you can find a nice balance between the two. I performed my fair share of pranks alongside James after all, and those were some of the best moments of my life. I never let my grades suffer for it of course, so if it's possible I'd recommend both?
If you are interested in pranking, we did leave behind a rather useful tool that I think is still locked up in Filch's office. It's a map we created that shows the entirety of Hogwarts and quite a bit more if you know how to look. It's got a lot of tricks to it and if you can manage to get your hands on it, I think you'll find it worth it for many reasons. We poured our souls into it so if you're looking to know your father more, it might be invaluable. All you need for it, is the right words.
I'm a bit overwhelmed, it feels like there's so much I could say about James and Lily, but when faced with writing it all down I don't know where to begin. How do you encompass two entire people into a single letter? I've attached some pictures I had saved of them; we didn't take too many during our school days unfortunately so they're kind of hard to find but I hope you don't already have them. I would be happy to keep thinking of things and write more if you have any other questions or specific stories you'd like to hear… letters are not the most secure method of communication ever and some of our prank stories specifically I may have to edit for young and/or prying ears. Most other things should be fine though.
If you do not wish to continue writing to me, I do completely understand. I do not know if this trusted resource of yours told you about me, but I am a werewolf. Lily, being raised by muggles, didn't quite understand the gravity of that I don't think, and since you were also raised mostly in the muggle world you may or may not fully understand it either. In essence the wizarding community sees werewolves as dangerous, which we are to a point of course. One night a month it's an indisputable fact, although I do my best to get out of people's way.
I'm sure if you ask around your friends you'll get a lot of mixed takes, mostly negative. What people think is one thing, but you should know that associating with a werewolf can make any future careers or friendships you might've had very difficult. James knew as soon as second year, the clever fool actually figured it out himself given we did share a dorm room, and Lily found out in fifth. Both chose to still by my friend, despite it ensuring that Lily would likely not get to own the shop she one day wanted to open (she never decided on what the shop would be though) and James had half an eye on being Minister even—him publicly standing by me much less just having been friends with me during school back when nobody knew, ensured that would never happen.
But Harry you are not your parents, you're your own person and I fully understand if you want this to be our last communication, and call this a mistake on your part at best. It is not selfish in any way, there have been some truly selfless people who made a similar choice for the safety or success of their friends and family even. If you have hopes and dreams, I would be heartbroken if you chose anything less then to follow them for your own sake, or if I were the reason you could not reach them.
Thank you for reaching out, it meant the world to hear from you and to know you're okay. No matter where you go or what you choose, your parents were always a bit insanely, irrationally biased about loving you and would be so incredibly proud of you, no matter who you've grown up to be.
All the best,
Remus Lupin
000
Dear Mr. Potter
The gift basket was lovely, thank you kindly for the consideration, though I didn't think my whisper-down-the-lane message warranted such gratitude. I know Susan told you about my chocolate weak point, and while as a ministry official I must declare that I cannot be bought, I will in fact not say no to chocolate.
It is both refreshing and a bit concerning to hear I have an ally though, especially considering the source of our apparently shared displeasure. You're Susan's age but given your note I can only imagine you're taking more from my words then even I mean so I feel pretty safe in my use of rather vague language. The hat almost put me in Ravenclaw but I talked it out of it—I'm going to take a wild guess and say you had a similar encounter with the snake house?
I can only imagine what grievances you had that made the gift basket worth the investment, but consider me intrigued. I've got my own of course and maybe someday we can share a cup of tea to vent our annoyances; bottling it up is never healthy after all although there's not much to be done given the state of the world.
Let's keep in touch! Susan has told me all about that football club you started and it sounds fascinating. She was never one for sports so the sudden interest has been a riot. I was a beater myself back in the day so the new conversation topic had been great, although I'm still struggling to understand the rules. Perhaps you could provide me a summary as I'm pretty sure Susan has changed them twice now or is at the very least contradicting herself and it's not very easy on someone trying to learn.
Thank you again for the gift, I've eaten half of it already.
Best,
Amelia Bones
000
Mr. Potter,
After looking into the potential mix-up with your original mail ward, I have indeed been able to identify and trace where your mail since your parents' death has been stored. It has been moved to your trust vault and sorted for things of more importance. Most is fan mail of some kind given your celebrity status, although a copy of all the missed Gringotts and Hogwarts communication has been provided in the parcel attached to this letter.
Additionally attached is the details on the Eileen Prince Foundation fund. Hogwarts tuition went up about five years ago and the initial funds Lily Potter placed inside of it dried up. With your permission I can take over management of this Foundation which includes identifying potential new students to Hogwarts who may be eligible and ensuring there is enough funds in the account to support them. Barring no changes to the Hogwarts tuition price this coming year, I will compile the amount required and provide the report reflecting as much to you the soonest you are available this upcoming summer. I would need your permission in person and am assuming there will be questions best done face to face.
Axeclaw
000
Dear Mr. Potter,
That paper you sent was quite a read! This development is simply remarkable if you'll take this old man's opinion! How many years I've been using Transfiguration and never considered this—and the world of possibilities! You could write a paper on every spell ever written and how you break down one spell into dozens of others means you'll be churning out new and unique spells in your lifetime—ah! Simply incredible!
I would propose a trade: I'd love to hear about all your new spells and your work into this discovery and I will trade some information on Alchemy since I fancy myself quite the professor if I do say so myself. Don't tell Albus but I did teach at Hogwarts a couple years after I attended myself near its founding, and the teaching was well fun but the, ah, teaching children bit turned out to be the unsurmountable challenge. I was simply reminded why Penny and I never had kids: no clue what to do with them. I'm a better researcher clearly. I don't think anyone favored me as a teacher either so the feeling was mutual. I do hope that's not the reason Alchemy was done away with as a subject, although it was 300 years ago so I'm not quite sure why it would be. Still.
In any case, in addition to those texts I recommended last time, I'd like to talk some about the history of Alchemy before getting into the details or any practical magic as I find what our predecessors did incorrect is just as insightful as learning what we now do correct. As you just proved, at any time we can discover we've been doing it wrong all along so learning about the past is always interesting. I don't mean to be biased given I've lived through a lot of said past but I digress.
I've attached a paper I wrote a while back about the origins of Alchemy, although originally it was called "tinctures" or "metallurgy" in Western Alchemy. Which is a whole other topic—ancient Alchemy which was thousands of years before my time even was actually developed separately on three separate continents: in the land known as modern day China, the subcontinent of India, and then of course the origin of most of Western knowledge, Alexandria in ancient Greece. Most of what I can speak to is known as Western Alchemy; from my understanding the ancient metallurgy art created in India later became far closer to today's Herbology or even Potion crafting, and the Chinese style is an extremely close guarded secret passed down from the larger known ancient family trees of that society. I did make an attempt to learn more about it but was essentially told to get lost and I would not recommend trying it yourself—wasn't a fun time, I'll leave it at that given your age. How old are you again?
So far as Western Alchemy goes, there was a time when it was considered one and the same as Potions and Transfiguration even, but as magic evolved and the practice of writing things down and educating others on it became more common practice, the subjects split and further refined until they became what we consider it to be today. Alchemy as you'd practice it is less a separate topic of magic (as I would say most of history's Alchemic principles and theories have thus been proven wrong) and more a way of approaching magic to create new and unique magics of any type or sort that you may be interested in.
Most people in modern day who speak about it or teach it focus on the materials themselves, which is of course the critical factor, but the true spirit of Alchemy is to always question the materials themselves. The query is never 'what can this material do?', it is 'WHY does this material do this?'. Finding out what a material can do is the easy part, even a garden gnome can eventually figure out that a rock is hard and cotton is soft, but the more you dig into WHY cotton is soft or one rock is harder than another, then you start to get places. As you read and experience your education even normally, always ask this question and if you have the curiosity and initiative to find these answers yourself, you'll be an Alchemist in no time no matter if you never take a class or finish an Alchemic textbook on it in your life. No matter if you never find your answers either! It is all about the mindset I find, not so much the success. As I've proven though, given enough time and eventually success will come as well. I am a firm believer that all we know at this moment is that we know nothing—one day, no matter how far away that day is, we will all be proven wrong and everything we once knew will be irrelevant. Perhaps that's an immortal's philosophical take on life but I'll stop preaching it when I'm proven wrong and it hasn't happened yet. And isn't that a paradox worth pondering over, eh?
In any case, I hope you take my offer up on the trade, and anything specific on Alchemy you'd like to hear please do let me know, I can go for hours on this.
Yours,
Nick
Harry my dear, I hope you don't mind too terribly, but I've made some edits to your paper from a grammar perspective. Never fret if it feels like a lot of corrections, I'm a tad picky about grammar and comparatively Nick is centuries old and still cannot form a coherent sentence on paper when it comes to academic work. I am typically the one double checking his writing and have for hundreds of years—it is never without hassle. Hopefully you will be easier to work with; he's such a stick in the mud about his writing. He can't take any criticism, but it's honestly unintelligible. You're already well on your way—take my advice and don't be like him. He knows about Alchemy and baking but take any other advice he's giving you with a grain of salt.
Stay safe,
Penny
000
Sylvester,
In exchange for a blanket debt from your family I'm sure there's much I can do to see your dog star gets its due. Unfortunately, I am unable to accept a debt from the star itself without its own sworn word but rest assured one from a linage such as yours is plenty satisfactory.
I have already gotten started as an opportunity presented itself the other day and I elected to jump on the chance. I'm thrilled with this deals so thought it only polite to have some news to share in our first correspondence.
As it turns out there was already a party interested in making contact with the dog who shared your interests of sort—either the justice or the punishment although they did seem fairly confident in the former, surprisingly. Since we'll be working closely it seems, trust me when I say, White is not someone to be trifled with in any way. They are most certainly know what they are doing.
I ensured White made contact safely and confirmed that none are any the wiser that the meeting has happened. It is with a mix of emotions that I can confirm the dog star claims to be innocent. White believes them, and frankly I'm not a betting soul but I would bet quite a bit on White's judgement.
Of course nothing is confirmed until under Veritaserum in court, but it is something. Getting to court will also not be so easy as there are some difficult names who are actively attempting to prevent this potential mistake from seeing the light of day, for obvious reasons I'd hope. It will take time, unfortunately more time than I had initially hoped, but while we have that time please consider our contingencies. If justice is found, what would you like me to pursue as the best course of action? In court, once the truth is uncovered, I will have to act accordingly in real time—I will need to be aware of your preferences in detail prior to that day. Make as many potential scenarios and reactions I should be taking in advance so we may be prepared.
I hope this letter finds you well and look forward to our partnership.
Fields