Magical Hogwarts

From: Lorin Odell
To:?á Seth Stanton
Sent: 12 March
Status: Normal Letter; the letter is written in deep mauve ink on bone-colored parchment.
Contents:



Sorry it's been so long since I've written. Last semester was awful with all the dome rubbish, and I have barely been able to screw my head on straight since then. I just recently got back to school after a month-long holiday, and I still wonder if I should have bothered coming back. I feel haunted inside the halls, now. It's like living inside of a nightmare, and every second I worry that something may happen to cause the dome to reemerge and I'll be trapped in here again.

It all started with the fire. It awoke in the middle of the night to find that Slytherin house was burning down. I barely had time to grab my valuables before I struggled to get out. There were several deaths and more than a few injuries. A few students were so injured that they needed to go to St. Mungo's, and there were healers set up around school to help those of us who were suffering from smoke inhalation, small burns, and minor injuries. I was lucky to be one of the few that came out of it unscathed, but of course my belongings were all burned. I had no clothing, no school supplies, and no way to contact my parents once the dome came down.

They housed the Slytherins in Gryffindor tower, and I was forced to borrow ill-fitting clothing from other girls in my house, none of whom wore my size. It was humiliating to walk around with too-small skirts, and I had to wear men's shirts just to accommodate for my chest. This wasn't the worst of it, though. This was a minor annoyance compared to what happened after the gauntlet opened.

Monsters, Seth. There were monsters everywhere. Some were magical beasts, but many were dark creatures, and some things I never even knew existed. They hunted in the hallways, trying to hurt us and drive us away. I got desperate to leave. I rounded up everyone that I thought could be potentially helpful and tried to make a getaway, but it was all for nothing. My months of careful planning and desperation, my humiliating fear, it became worthless when the dome came down. I am still ashamed of what I showed to my classmates, but how was I to know the dome would come down when it did? All I knew was that I needed to get out of there. I never should have let my friends talk me into going back for the seventh year to begin with. I could've had a job, even without my N.E.W.T.s. It's so frustrating.

I hope things have been better for you in the meantime. I hope your job is going well, and your extra-curricular activities as well. I really appreciated you taking me to the club and letting me see what it is you do. I wish I could go there again, often, just to watch you... but I wouldn't dare go alone. Even so, I bet you're one of the best they have.

What have you been doing for the past six months? Perhaps we should arrange another visit in Hogsmeade, if you're up for it. I really should have sent you a letter when I was home. It would've been so much easier to see you then, but I was very busy trying to recover from the past term, replacing everything I own, and hiding from everyone who may have seen me.

(p.s. I punched Nathalie Wilkins in the face. You would have been proud of me.)