Selwyn

I heard Mr Derrick joined the Order. My father's old clerk, Maghnus Derrick. Is it true? I also heard he can't come to Moddey and I don't know why, I want to see him. Can you take me to visit him some other place? Like Sirius Black's house where the meeting was everyone went to?

I found ALL THE BROOMS and Mrs Longbottom said they were from you? Though she wasn't sure, she said she couldn't think who else would have done it.

I think she was happier about the wands actually. But!!! They try really hard to get us wands and Melli even makes them but NO ONE cared about brooms, NO ONE. Our best broom (the one you wrecked) was utter pants compared to my old broom and the ones you got were TEN TIMES BETTER, how did you get them, did you steal them? Sarah thinks you must have stolen them using Harry's cloak, is she right?

Anyway NOW maybe you can come fly with me? Mrs Longbottom says we're going to have to have lessons but I DON'T NEED LESSONS I've been flying on a proper broom since I was old enough to hold one.

Also the younger kids think the hamper is brilliant but I'm much happier about the BROOMS. Thank you!!!! I was SO CROSS WITH YOU but I'm definitely not anymore!

This ink is very odd.

Terry are you sure no one can

Hullo Ron. Mrs Longbottom says that I can write to you this way and no one will be able to see it. Not even her because she's a grownup. Well and also its a private message.

She said I should tell you all about what I remember from the night you rescued me because it might be important. Even though I already told her about it. And also Tonks and Mr Lupin that night. And I don't think I left anything out.

But here's what happened. Mummy took us to this hotel where we'd gone on holiday once and there were men there with wands waiting for us and they petrified us and took Mummy's wand away and then they side-along apparated us to the Ministry and I threw up.

Wait I forgot something important. Before that Daddy came in at bedtime one night and he gave me a necklace with a tiny glass bottle on it and he said if I was ever in trouble but it should be REALLY BAD trouble like the WORST POSSIBLE trouble ever I should open the bottle and drink what was inside. And in the meantime I should always keep the necklace on even in the bath and when I slept and he said no one should notice it and I shouldn't tell anyone even Mummy and it was up to me to know when the right time was if I needed to use it.

Anyway I knew it was the Ministry because of the statues in the big room where we came in. And I screamed but no one did anything and then they took us down the lift and I was afraid they were taking us to MLE and we were all going to be crucioed forever until we went mad. (I'm not supposed to know they do that but I heard Mummy and Daddy talking a few times when they didn't know I was there. There's a bloke named Trunchon, did you know? You don't ever want to meet him.)

But, they didn't take us to MLE so at first I was relieved and that's why I didn't use my luck potion right away. (Well I didn't know that's what it was then. Now I do. Then I just knew Daddy said it was to be saved until I was in THE WORST trouble.) They had us in a room and it wasn't terrible. It was locked but we weren't in a dungeon. Though they didn't give us anything to eat. We were alone for a long time and Mummy told us stories to keep us from being scared.

Mr Strangeweale came in and I didn't know who he was but Mummy did which is how I heard his name. First she said he should let us go because we had friends on the Council who would be very angry at him if he didn't. And he laughed at that. And then she tried to offer him money and he laughed at that, too. And then she begged him not to hurt me and Hector. I mean she went on her knees and said she was begging him and he cast something on her to make her fall down on the floor and he said not to disgrace her blood with unseemliness and then he said that he had something very special in mind for me and Hector.

He said he and his colleges colleegs had been working on a procedure to extend life and restore youth and all that was required was someone who wouldn't be needing their own youth. And he said they'd perfected the procedure on mudbloods (I know I'm not supposed to say mudblood but HE said mudblood not muggelborn) but that of course a mudblood would be the wrong thing to offer to Our Lord but a pureblood child would be perfect and I was also just the right age.

Mummy said 'no no no not my little girl' and Mr Strangeweale said that of course since we were the children of a traitor our lives were forfite anyway and this way we would live on because it would turn our magic into something beautiful and it wouldn't hurt for long at least none of the mudbloods screamed for very long and he said it could be worse for all of us because what if Our Lord had given us to Bella (he meant Auror Lestrange) instead and then he put the Imperius on Mummy so she'd stand up and go with him and he didn't let her say goodbye. He said he was going to use her to calibrate things so they didn't have to waste even a drop of my blood and then he left me and Hector alone.

I knew THAT had to be the WORST possible trouble so as soon as he was gone I drank the potion and then I noticed that when Mr Strangeweale was there he'd left one drawer of the desk unlocked and inside was Daddy's diary and also a quill and ink. So I wrote to you. Do you need to know anything else?

Come to my office, please, there's a message I need someone to hand-deliver.

I need to see you.

In person.

There's something I need to tell you.

Fudge hasn't given you any more trouble, has he? Any fidgeting from the Prophet? Letting word get out before things are entirely settled is just an invitation to trouble.

My sources say Old Glendower was seen with Nott. Could be nothing, but I'm keeping an eye on them. Any news from your sources I ought to know?

Something terrible has happened. Come to Buckingham as quickly as you can, both of you.

Higgs.

HIGGS.

THEODOLPHUS HIGGS.

Tosha, I'm not sure you would have known about this as you were still abroad at the time; Higgs worked under me, for a time, in Communications. He was sacked with prejudice after leaking confidential information in private messages; someone's personal scandal wound up in a gossip magazine because he couldn't keep his pathetic mouth shut.

Mulciber was at his Marking -- along with Minerva.

Higgs demonstrated rather conclusively that he was not worthy of trust or confidence. I think --

I think it's going to prove a mistake to have elevated him.

I don't suppose either of you knows what exactly transpired at Hogwarts last night?

According to my sources, Dolores Umbridge tried to kill Cedric Diggory (or possibly DID actually kill him) and Harry Marvolo killed her, then used the floo to dump her body and claimed she'd taken off through the floo. Does that more or less cover it? What's the official story going to be? I got a sickeningly ingratiating missive from Peakes this morning, by owl, and another from Strangeweale; clearly her allies think her time has run out.

Are you utterly mad? To mete out something like that as a punishment for trivial schoolboy pranks? Those young men lost their father a mere five months ago. Their mother, given half a chance, would doubtless expel your entrails, and let me be clear in noting that she would have the assistance of several Councilwizards who are experts in the relevant curse.

In addition to still being in grief for their father, Fred and George Weasley are about to SIT THEIR NEWTS. If you are utterly devoid of human decency or simple compassion for their loss, ordinary common sense might have directed you to choose a punishment that did not MEDDLE WITH THEIR MEMORIES.

Let me point out to you that the ONLY students who cannot be withdrawn from Hogwarts are half-bloods in fostering who have not yet passed their OWLs. Unless you wish to preside over a school consisting of first through fifth-year students of the most questionable possible background -- who are not yet so desperate to escape you that they've fled into the Forbidden Forest -- I urge you to IMMEDIATELY rethink your approach to this particular incidence of misbehaviour.