Ron Weasley

I'M FINE!

Alright?

Thanks for the birthday parcel. The biscuits are great. Actually, they're pretty much gone already. And I had some of the jam for breakfast and it was really it tasted like home, Mum. So, yeah, thanks.

Um. We're looking forward to being home for hols soon. Did George or Fred already ask if we could have friends over for one of the days? We were thinking maybe Quidditch, but maybe a broom trip to keep up our skills for CCF--well, for my lot, but G&F said that'd be fun for them, too. If it's all right with you, we'll start asking people now, so they can get permission and make plans and all.

Dear Mum and Dad,

It was a Hogsmeade day, so we all went into town. It was cold, but I wore my jumper under my robes, Mum, so I kept warm. Don't worry.

It was a bit naff today because loads of people had dates because of Valentines coming up, but that's all right because Zonko's wasn't so crowded as usual, or Honeydukes after they all went off to the Broomsticks or that cafe with the lacy curtains. What's it called? You should've seen it. Whenever anyone opened the door, loads of hearts floated out--like soap bubbles, only pink and sparkly. And heart shaped. Totally naff.

Oh. And I saw Percy. He was coming out of this inn called the Protector's Circle. And while we were talking, didn't Penelope Clearwater come out of there, too? She seemed a bit embarrassed when she saw me. Wonder what they could've been up to in there all afternoon?

Nice that Percy likes his job. He said it's really brilliant. And that he does super important stuff for Mr Malfoy. Shame it's all super secret so he couldn't go on and on, telling me about it. I've really missed that.

Term's going fine.

Looking forward to Easter hols. Did you hear they're getting up a trip for the visiting students? I guess maybe some of us in the YPL might get asked to join in for some of it. Maybe. They haven't said for sure yet.

And the Second Task is coming up.

I think that's pretty much all of it.

Your favourite son,
Ronald

Have you seen today's Prophet? We finally got it away from Mum and Dad and Percy. At least the part with Sporting news.

Anywiz, it's right there. A whole big story about Oliver Wood.

It's all about how he was the one good egg in a basket of rotten ones. And how all eyes will be on him to see how he represents right-thinking wizards in this country.

And it quotes Theodolphus Higgs--remember him?--saying he was a mate of Oliver's and Oliver was always saying that his family were queer and how he never felt he fit in at home. And how he hoped he'd get a Quidditch contract right away out of school so he wouldn't have to go back there.

Only the twins say that's bollocks. Higgs was never a mate of Oliver's.

Though, um, maybe Wood did say something about his family being odd.

Um.

So last night I asked about having people over. Y'know, when would be a good time and all, because obviously we all know Mum loves it when we have people. The more the merrier, right?

And she gave me the most

I don't know what kind of look

a LOOK

like I'd asked her if it'd be all right if I practised Transfig by turning Ginny's head back and forth to a pumpkin

and she dropped a whole basket of runner beans on the floor and left the room. Left them all there on the floor, didn't she?

And when she came back, she had a list of ten things for each of us to do. All in separate parts of the house. INSIDE the house, mind you, and when I went to beat one of the rugs outside, I found out she'd put some locking charm on all the doors.

And, y'know, this sort of thing's happened before, but I think this time Mum may just have gone completely off her nut.

Mind you, she cooked us all eggs and toast soldiers this morning and pretended none of it'd happened at all.

What is all this about Zabini's party last night?

Sounds well amazing. Unless it's just people talking rubbish.

Hey, Nev!

Yesterday was loads of fun. Thanks for inviting me. Tell your gran it was really nice of her to have me. Errol will make it there sooner or later with a proper thank you, but Mum said I'd better write you here just in case it takes him days.

And tell Evelyn I think she could really be great at that mud hex. It's a pretty good one to have ready if things ever get sticky, y'know?

Of course, it'll be a while before she could get any use out of the spells in those books you've got. There aren't many that a first year could do, but you're right, there are some wicked things in them that we could try to work out.

I wonder. Maybe this summer we could all get together sometimes and really work on our defence stuff. I mean, it would be good to really be ready next year for whatever Carrow does. And if the twins would help, we could all be really solid.

That's enough for tonight. I can get the rest of it in the morning.

Can you believe we're going to get out of here without any of us getting Crucio'd by Carrow? I thought for sure someone was going to meet the nasty end of his wand this week.

I can't wait to get home. I bet Mum's been cooking up loads of good stuff to get ready for us.

'Course, she'll also have a list of things we've got to do for her that'll keep us busy for days, but it'll be good to just be home, y'know?

What are you lot planning to do?

Oh. And who's for taking over a compartment just for us tomorrow?

There's lots of stuff to tell you about.

But first, I wanted to say thanks for pressies.

Nev, the chocs were great. We ate them up right away before Mum could tell us not to. Heh!
The Cannons mittens are nift, Perks. And Mum really liked the wrist warmers you knitted her, too. She spent a long time looking at how you'd done the design, so I guess you did pretty well! And I've got the picture from one of my Cannons posters on that picture thinger you gave me. Mum said I should have a picture of all the family, but, y'know. I'll maybe do that if we take a picture with Charlie while we're visiting, but right now it's really nift because the picture I've got is Wintringham making this amazing save with two bludgers coming at him from opposite directions!
Parks, you're the best, getting me that book on broom charms. It's the same one you checked out from the library in London over the summer, yeah? But it's got an extra chapter on modern innovations, which is aweome. I keep working on the Silver Arrow, and she's getting better all the time. The broom kit's got really great twig clips, too, and they're supposed to be charmed to always stay sharp, so that's nifter than wiznift!
Hey, Terry. That box you carved is really dead amazing. And the lion on top looks really good. I don't know how you do that.
I'm really sorry all I could do for you lot was crackers again. I'm dead hopeless at making stuff. I mean, really. Anywiz, I liked it all a lot. So, thanks!

There's other stuff I wanted to tell you, too. Like about some stuff I've talked about with Mum and Dad--well, mostly Dad, actually. Some of it was about that hex of Percy's. They were really cross about that. But it was interesting, too, because I got to ask Dad some questions I've been meaning to about Dark Magic. Well, because he was trying to say that I should think about the things I do to get back at people sometimes, because putting a mean hex on someone that embarrasses them or whatever is a bit like using a hex that makes them do stuff they don't want to, and he said it was all a matter of degrees.

Anywiz, he says Dark Arts are always about either hurting people or making stuff happen against someone's will. Like the Imperius curse or the hex Percy put on me are both bad because I didn't get to decide for myself what I'd say to people. I had to do just what Percy wanted. And it felt really, really wrong. But really Dark spells use stuff like blood in order to do really big stuff that no other magic can make happen. Like he said that Dark sorcerers sometimes do spells that start with killing someone in order to make the wizard's power greater or make him live longer or heal someone who's about to die. So it's not always something horrible that you want to do, but it takes doing something really awful like killing a person or a unicorn or something in order to do it. Like the Death Eaters. That's why they're called that, I think. Because they do Dark stuff that takes lifeblood for the spells or potions or whatever.

But I wanted to tell you, too, about something else interesting that's happened. On Wednesday we went off on our brooms, exploring. I mean, it was really getting dull being cooped up inside, and when Percy was around--did I tell you what we did to Percy?--it was terrible, so Mum said we could go off with Mr Diggory and Cedric to go scavenging a bit in some of the old muggle towns around here. There are loads of them, y'know. Little places tucked up in the woods and round the coastline and in the hills. Hamlets, Mr Diggory calls them. Not even proper villages, some of them. Like they'd have a pub but no owl post office, or a church but no grocery or pub. Anywiz, the big seaside towns have been pretty well picked over by teams from the Ministry, but some of the little places haven't been touched. Mr Diggory says that at first people were too sensitive to, y'know, take stuff that belonged to the people who used to live there, but now it's clear they're never coming back, and if it's stuff that could be useful, then it's better it's put to use than just left to the vines and rust and rats and all.

Anywiz, we went first to a little tiny hamlet called Hand and Pen where Mr Diggory had seen a bunch of yarn in a house one time, and he said Mrs Diggory'd been after him for yonks to go back and collect it for her. So we did that and found some jars and stuff in an old canning cellar, so we packed that up, too. And we had a big sort of sling, like a hammock, that the twins strung up between their brooms, and they went and took that stuff back to the Diggories' while the rest of us went on to a place called Slewton Combe that's not much bigger than a knut and wasn't worth that much. So we didn't stay long. Just kind of looked in windows and poked about in a couple of sheds. And then we got to a place called Whimple that's quite a bit bigger than the others--I mean, it has a square and there's a church and a school building and there used to be two pubs and a big place called Whiteways that made cider and stuff out of apples and pears. Mr Diggory thought there might be some things there that people on the barter network could use, and he found loads of stuff that he got us to shift out of the barns and buildings. And then Mr Woodhayes turned up and said a couple of the other men from the network were on their way, too. And about then the twins came back, so Mr Diggory said we could go off on our own if we wanted and do some proper exploring.

So we flew off, the three of us plus Cedric, and we went poking about the countryside and ended up in a place called Newton Poppleford, and it was full of mad muggle stuff. Like when we flew into town, and just as we crossed the river at the bridge where the main muggle road goes into town, there was this house that had sort of statues in the front that were of bears wearing clothes and posed like they're waving at you. Totally mad. There must've been a dozen of them, those bears! We decided we should go in one of the pubs because its sign says it has a skittles alley, but when we went in, it smelt as if something'd died in there, so we left right quick. Phoah! Cedric said it smelt the way you'd think that Mr Black's corpse probably smells if it weren't sealed up in that box. He's been to see it, and he said it was really decayed. Said it was pretty interesting to see what happens to a body. He was telling us that one of the cheeks had sort of caved into the mouth and the lip on the other side looked like it had sort of slid down his chin or summat. Anywiz, I don't know if we'll get to go now that we're going to Stornoway. Which is, y'know, probably good, 'cause if it's as awful as Cedric said, I can't imagine Mum letting us look at it. She'd have kittens about Ginny seeing it, for sure.

Anywiz, Newton Poppleford was pretty interesting. We went in some houses and they were pretty much just like the Muggles had left them. Only one of them'd had a leak in the thatch and stuff that'd got ruined inside.

Oh, and we went in the village hall and there was this picture display up.--Did you know Muggle pictures don't move? That was queer.--Anywiz, it showed pictures of people sledging in the winter, and there were some of people in fancy dress for some carnival they had there, and some were of kids running about in the schoolyard, and some were ladies in hats and odd-looking clothes standing about by the church. And then there were a whole load of pictures that showed blokes playing something that uses bludger bats but on the ground and has funny-looking masks and big padded kit.

And then there was this one picture of a lady who looked a bit like Mum, and she was holding a big bunch of flowers and smiling like she was really happy. And, I dunno. It made me wonder if we'd been into her house at all, and y'know, where she is now. It was odd.

But we found some nift stuff. Cedric found one of those bludger bats, and the twins found some tools and a really enormous cauldron in the school kitchen that they figured was for making soup, but they've got other ideas for it, and I just picked up some little stuff--a ball that bounces all ways you wouldn't expect, and a pipe that's carved with a bloke's head, and some sweets called sherbet lemons that fizz in your mouth, and I was going to bring a load of muggle blowing gum from the shop there, but we tried it and it'd gone off. It was just all hard and nasty. Oh, and I got a pocket watch that you have to wind up, but it keeps good time. I gave it to Dad because I knew he'd think it was really nift, and he really does.

Just so you know.

I told Percy that if he ever messes with me again, I'll make him wish he'd never held a wand.

Going to Defence now, though I don't know why. What good is it if the things you really need to defend yourself against, you can't? What a laugh that I'm turning in ten inches on shielding spells.

Whoa! I just missed having my head taken off by Vaisey up the Charms corridor!

Anyone know why he and Capper are getting into it with McLaggen? Capper's got cauliflower ears and McLaggen's nose is bleeding like anything. I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but it looked pretty serious.

Percy says Since we can't

Um, I know I don't really

It snowed again las

I was

So, yeah

Thought I should write you here since Errol can't take letters anymore, and Percy says I have to write you myself if um

Everyone's talking about what to take next year for electives, since we have to choose, and I was wondering if it's okay if I just take Care of Magical Creatures and maybe Divination if I've got to take a second one, 'cause I don't know if I'd like any of the other things, and it seems like the things we're already taking are really enough to be going on with, and, yeah. Is that okay, then?

Thanks, Dad.

Tell mum my jumper's got a little room for growing, but the arms are just the right length, so it fits.

And the mince pie was as good as always.


Oh, and tell Charlie I'm sorry about his wand.

Yeah, okay. I'm all right.

Just. I needed to get out of here last night. It's good you ate the stuff. I told you to, right? (You didn't have to leave me a note.) Anywiz, let's not talk about it at breakfast, okay? I'll see you there, then.


Hey, Marvolo! It was wicked meeting your snake last night! And, I dunno. I'd never really thought of stuff that way. Just, yeah.

You're getting better at chess, mate. We'll have to play again! Maybe Friday afternoon? If it's still chuckin it down outside, yeah?

I don't know about any of you lot, but I'm ready for school to start. Well, not ready ready, but now the camping's done, I'm really looking forward to being back at Hogwarts, cause mostly there's just chores to do here, and staying out of range of Mum's yell, and Not Pestering Percy (the pustule), and wondering what the twins have got up to since they've always got their door locked. And telling Ginny stuff she wants to know about school--and certain people who go there.

But the good thing is that this afternoon I've got a break from answering all her questions about the marvelous, mysterious Harry Marvolo. (I'm pretty sure she'd rather I'd got her his autograph on a picture instead of the pixie I brought her from Cornwall for her birthday. Especially after it got out in her closet yesterday. Ooooh, that wasn't pretty!) Right now she's stood on a stool in the middle of the kitchen with Mum taking in and doing up some old robes for her to wear for school this year. I think they were Mum's Aunt Mirelda's robes, but I guess she was a bit bigger than Ginny when she wore them. Ginny says they smell like Mustbunnies have been nesting in them for years, and they've got funny pleats in them--or maybe those are just creases from being folded up so long, I don't know.

I'm staying as far away as I can because Mum's got a mouthful of pins, and it wasn't going so well when I looked in earlier. She was muttering about just knitting Ginny some new robes--'cause I guess Mum's better at knitting than sewing--and Ginny looked like she might cry at the idea of that, 'cause-- Well anyway, she wants to have robes like everybody else, and you can't really blame her. And Mum's about spitting pins because every time she casts the hemming charm, it seems like one side or the other hikes up. I thought at first that maybe Ginny was doing it--y'know, twitching her elbow up at just that moment, but then Mum Petrified her and it still happened, so maybe it's just that sewing's tough to do.

Anywiz. I guess on Wednesday, we're going to Diagon Alley, all of us, to get our books and supplies. Mum's all excited about it, cause she won some kind of contest that means she can queue up at Flourish and Blotts to buy a signed copy of Professor Lockhart's new book. Can you imagine entering a contest for that?! I mean, it's not like she won the book, just the chance to stand in line for him to sign it!

So. Any of you lot going to be there on Wednesday? We could try to meet up.

Hey, mate. Happy Birthday. I'm late, I know. Sorry. I tried sending an owl, but it came back tonight with the letter unopened, so I guess you didn't get it. Mum wouldn't let me send you any chocs, 'cause she said you get so many gifts from people you don't even know that the parcel room at Buckingham is probably just buried under a mountain of packages. Maybe that's why the owl didn't make it to you?

Anyway, I guess I'll see you this week, yeah? It's going to be wizard, I think! (In fact, it might be even better than I'd thought--I think maybe my parents aren't going to let Percy come along. He's in a huge amount of trouble right now, so I think maybe they're going to make him stay home. Which would be completely wizard since it was going to be dead awful to have him there shouting at me all the time.)

Hope you had a good birthday and all. See you soon!

So, yeah, hols were fun. My older brothers, Charlie and Bill, were here last weekend and that was wizard! They had loads of stories about dragons and cursed stuff and dueling, and Charlie brought me a dragon-hide wrist protector which is dead cool, and was really useful when we all went flying, cause I always have to have the wonky broom, so I'm always getting dumped off whenever I bank a turn, or sometimes it just coughs and drops like a stone and then starts up again (if I'm lucky). So I got pretty good at falling on my right arm, and then I found out that its as good as a beater bat for whopping Fred or George when they get cheeky. And we had amazing dinners--Mum had stuff bubbling on the stove all the time they were here, and pies and everything we all like. Oh, and Bill taught me a totally sorcerous charm for locking my door so the twins can't get in. Hope I remember it when we get home for summer.

But then when they went back, Charlie and Bill, it was back to work for the rest of us. I had to clean out all the cupboards upstairs--and I mean clean--I had to take everything out, charm away all the dust, then scourgify every shelf and the walls and the floors and even the ceiling, and I would have had to fold everything and put it back, but I was so hopeless with the folding spell that Mum made Ginny do it. (Good I never learned that, huh?)

And we trimmed the hedges and then we had to go to the Lovegoods and trim theirs, but Luna's Dad is really mad and hed made a bunch of his hedges into animal shapes that snapped their jaws at us or swung vicious tails to try to knock us off our brooms (and my broom didn't need any help with that!!) and we tried to petrify them, but that made the branches impossible to cut, so it was a huge load of work and when we got home Mum said we needed to finish getting the gnomes out the garden, cause a lot of them had moved back since we worked on it last week.

And all the days this week were pretty much like that. Today I had to clean out the canning room and the other cellars and I'm telling you, you don't even want to know what lives in our cellars!!! There was this one rat, Sally Anne, that was as big as my foot and that's not counting his tail and he was black as midnight. I wonder if Pansy's kneazle is any bigger!! And there were tons of totally evil spiders down there. You wouldn't believe how big their webs were, I mean some of them were floor to ceiling and then if you looked up in the rafters, you could see great wads of white web wrapped in sort of packages that were as big as rats, and I'm telling you, I couldn't get out of there fast enough!!

So I'm kind of glad we're going back to school tomorrow. It'll be good to get back to Neville's snoring and Seamus' foul socks and wondering if Trevors going to turn up on my pillow or in my shoes.