Private Message to Aurora Sinistra

[alt_poppy]

My dear, I intended to write you yesterday, this morning at the latest... and now here it is, bedtime.

Of course, I no sooner arrived here at Waddesdon, than I was caught up by old friends and then plunged into the business of the week, which is proving quite challenging. More really than I'd bargained for. I'm afraid I must be more than a year older than I was last summer!

Did you have a nice visit with your sister-in-law yesterday? I hope she's well. What keeps her busy these days?

I spoke to Pomona briefly last evening, by the way, and she'd got your parcel with Wattle and Daub. Said the owl was in a foul mood after carrying it so far! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I'll keep my eyes peeled for mysteries for you. Of a certain vintage, so you might not have read them before, and I'll especially have a look for the sort with strong women at the helm. I agree with you that one of the pleasures of that book was her decisiveness, and the fact that her notions of what needed to be done were often slightly aslant what the rest were prioritising or expecting. I hadn't noticed it until you mentioned that.

Before I forget, I'm going to close here and send you off an owl with the copied pages from my field books--mostly it's Dartmoor walks, but a few Bodmin treks. Do feel free to laugh at me about the creatures I've squiggled along the edges and in the corners. One meets so many characters when one goes walking!

Comments

[alt_sinistra]

Oh, Poppy, please don't worry. You've already been so giving with your time.

Dittany's much herself - some plans for the business (getting some of Storm's things in stores in New London, for people who think Ilkley's too far too floo). She wants it sorted this summer for, well, reasons.

I'm glad the book got to Pomona safe. Mum's reading too. Or will be. And please, that sort of book. I did find it so engaging, about Phoebe. I keep going back to the bit where she's trying to do the best thing, y'know, not the thing everyone says they want, near the end, when they're sorting just how much of a cad the father is.

I don't know. Always admired that sort of heroine. There's a series of Muggle books I read when I was still at school, an aunt of Dai's lent them to me. Very smart woman in the later ones, and very independent-thinking. I can't bear to reread them right now, but I keep thinking of bits. Like you do, I guess. Mind getting stuck on certain ideas.

I've been thinking some about what we talked about. Talking to a friend about some of it. Things I could do that would be useful. What would feel useful. Next you come, maybe we could talk some more about that.

I always sort of regret I never took Creatures. Picked up some, the time I spent in Wales, with someone to point out details. I tried my hand at sketching plants for Harry, late last week, and they were laughable, but maybe animals would be better. Give me something to do when I need a rest, anyway.

[alt_poppy]

Oh, yes. I used to read all sorts of wonderful mysteries by muggle authors. Back in the day. There was so much more to choose from when all of those books were available.

I quite liked a writer called Dorothy Sayers. She'd have been well before your time, though. And she did have a strong, clever heroine in some of the stories--a writer of mysteries, in fact, though that business wasn't overdone, I don't think. Truth told, I was a bit sweet on the gentleman detective in those books, though I must say that until she paired him off, I wasn't entirely certain he swished his wand in that direction.

I'll see if I can't put my hands on one or two of those for you. I'll be in Cardiff at week's end, and there are two book dealers who occasionally have 'older' titles of that type.

Do say, though, if you'd prefer I not press dodgy books on you. I shan't if it'll worry you to have them.

I've never regretted my NEWT in Creatures. Nor the Herbology, but they're much more closely tied to my profession and I quite understand those who leave certain subjects behind in order to focus more intently on those fields that matter most to their chosen paths.

I shouldn't expect you to find Staunching and Cleansing: Making Use of What's to Hand a page turner, but that's my assignment for the evening and I don't mind terribly.

Mind you, I'll be very pleased when the weekend comes! I'm looking forward to having time for more good conversation.

[alt_sinistra]

Oh, it was Sayers I was thinking of. Dai's aunt was at Oxford, back when, and when she found out I was aiming at teaching at Hogwarts, before my seventh year, she lent it to me. And then of course, I had to read them all. (Always rather liked the last one best.)

It's just - well. Harriet was rather a model for me, how to deal with marrying Raz, and do it with grace and without losing myself. I'm sure I'll go back to them eventually, but not this summer. Not yet. But if you know things in that vein, with rather a lot less romance, I'd like that. (I can't even pick up the new Magdalena Wright, either, same reason).

The book trunk does make storing dodgy books easier. Not that I've that many. (Have I ever shown it to you properly? Such a thoughtful present from Tosha, that, though his is much bigger.)

My NEWTs were all - well. Been thinking about that this week, too. Astronomy and Arithmancy, of course. Runes. Charms. DADA. Transfiguration. (That's the bit I've been thinking about.) Alcor insisted on DADA, and I just - Minerva was such a good teacher, I didn't want to drop it.

I'm about halfway through that Hidden I mentioned. The plot's decent, but I'm never quite sold on those 'things going on in two different times' stories. The setting's good, though. And beginning to poke at some astronomy. (I mean, beyond the lying on my back in the garden and looking up that isn't really focused.)