I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Such a pleasure to get to see my astronomy colleagues this evening, as always. Tonight’s presentation was a quite fascinating talk on photographic advances with telescopes, some of which seem very promising.

We also had two quite spirited discussions about some new projects. First - after what I understand are innumerable commitee meetings - there’s a firm proposal for Guild use of a portion of Tintagel, and they’re working on the final details for the telescope installation.

Second, some conversation about what an improved astronomy text might look like - ideally something that would accomodate both student use, and interested adults who wish to review the topic. Students, on that last point, I’ve been asked to talk to all of you about what would be of particular interest and help. We’ll find time in our classes this month to do so, but please think about what you find frustrating and confusing, and on what you find useful or essential.

Mum, thanks again for tea and managing certain details.

In New London for the afternoon, a combination of errands and catching up with two of my sisters. It is amazing how quickly things fall into place after just a week or two back at school, really - I’ve been working tidily through my list and plans, and it’s so satisfying to see things checked off.

The weather, alas, not so much - we’ve had some glorious stargazing weather the last week, but I’m afraid it’s the last gasps before the far more uncertain days of the fall and winter.

Temp - thanks again for rounding more of those up. And for the other set of used-book searching, too. Gilly - no worries that you had to cancel, I found other company, but next week? Could do lunch at one.

My thanks to the three members of the YPL oversight board (and the invited guests) for an instructive and thoughtful conversation yesterday. I greatly appreciate your time, your decision and your feedback, and I’ll be in touch regarding various items as we discussed.

Students:
I’ll be back to my usual more varied schedule of availability in a day or two, as I finish tidying up a few loose ends. I also expect to be scheduling some practice observation times, particularly for the exam years. They’ll happen whatever the weather: if it’s cloudy, we’ll use one of the projections. Signups in my exam years first, and then they’ll be posted on the board for anyone who wants as there’s room.

A presentation:
Ms Gillian Chadwick, lead designer for the recently released Empyrean 3001 telescope, has agreed to come speak to anyone interested at Hogwarts on March 22nd. Discussion at half-seven, in my classroom, and then we’ll move outside if the weather is decent.

She’ll be discussing the telescope itself, along with the charms, runes, and arithmantic calculations involved in her design work, so there should be plenty of interest to many of you. She’ll also be bringing some of their prototype models so you can see the changes through the development cycle.

Congratulations to all the hard work of all three teams yesterday. I understand from the planning staff that there will be some additional individual feedback forthcoming for our CCF students, but overall, they were quite pleased with your creative problem-solving and approach to the various challenges. And to our guests, I hope you enjoyed the outing.

An event of this complexity takes many people’s time and effort: we could not have conducted these exercises without the efforts of the attending CCF planning staff, Aurors, Auror trainees, MLE staff, and Healer Kerr. They gave up a Saturday to join us, and I’m sure we all appreciate their time and careful attention.

My particular thanks to Mr Smith, Miss Bones, and Mr Macmillan for their help (and to their respective team leaders for the loan), and especially to Mr Smith for his quick thinking. As you may have heard by now, Miss Haley is quite recovered and back in her dorm.

I’m in New London for two days of YPL meetings. It’s hard to be away from Hogwarts - and a long list of things that need attention - but a change in routine is also surprisingly pleasant.

I’ve never been a morning person, and apparating over distance first thing is worse, so I made sure to get here in plenty of time for a walk to clear my head before we started our meetings this morning. But that’s given me time to be delighted by the shop windows, particularly this year’s fashion for sparkling light charms - so delicate - and the wider color palette.

I saw a gorgeous window in silvers and blues and purples, as well as many with more classic greens, reds, and golds. And of course, the charmed displays are wonderful: my favorite was several windows of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade in winter with a cunningly done Quidditch match in progress. And there’s the smell of pine in the air, and the clusters of little stalls, and banners snapping in the breeze... And of course, a pleasant little pastry at one of the nearby cafes to put me in the best possible mood before we started this morning.

I’m looking forward to being able to make a great deal of progress with the YPL plans for this spring and summer, but also a few chances to relax. I’m eagerly anticipating a performance tonight and then there’s dinner with my parents tomorrow, and a few other errands and tasks to finish getting ready for the holidays.

Mum and Diane -

I'm sure Andromeda's gotten around to writing by now, but I thought I'd add a few notes, since I know you were both anxious over her first days at Hogwarts. (I meant to write sooner, but it's been quite chaotic here, getting everyone settled.)

As we'd all expected, Andromeda was promptly sorted into Hufflepuff, and seems to be settling in quite nicely with her classmates. (I don't know any of them well yet, but they seem as pleasant as first-years ever are. It always takes everyone a few weeks to stop being nervously on their best behavior and relax into being themselves a bit more, as well.) There seems to be plenty of cheerful conversation from that part of the table during the meals I've been around for, and of course, I've checked in with her casually several times, just to make sure there isn't anything she needs.

(Her biggest complaint is finding her way around - but really, that's true for everyone and there's nothing for it but practice.)

As you can imagine, we're still all a little bit overwhelmed with the aftermath of the attack, especially having so many of our students actively involved in really quite dangerous situations. At the same time, I'm so very proud of the students in the CCF programme who stepped forward to be of help, and I've received some really quite gracious thank yous from senior ministry officials, as well as those who were directly helped.

Mum - thanks for the package to start the year. It was much appreciated. I've been able to share them with Poppy, and with Rabastan, and I'm sure the rest will quickly disappear once students remember I sometimes have treats out before I go up to observe in the evening.

Oh, Mum, it's been awful.

Thank you for the owl with the tonic potion - it's helped a bit. But all I could think about last night is that I should have spent the day reviewing with students, and then marking papers and drinking with Raz.

And instead, one of my students, a sweet girl - and from my own house - is dead, and Raz injured, and everything as strange and chaotic and unpredictable as my final years of school were. Those times when people would disappear, or their parents die, or mysterious things happen that you only half-heard in gossip. And then there are all those affected most closely - Percy Weasley's barely been seen in public spaces, and I'm sure Miss Lestrange is not much better off. The visitation last night was horrible - all her friends missing her so much - but of course, I had to be there.

Of course, even if I had news, I couldn't pass it on, but truly, I don't know much beyond the public announcements you'll have seen. I stop by the infirmary twice a day, as much to see if Poppy needs an errand run as anything else, but other than that, it's been marking that still has to be done, and finding things for students (and me) to do that fill their hands without requiring too much of their minds. (My telescopes are cleaner and my office and classroom are better organized than they've been in years.)

In between, there's been meetings of all kinds - staff talking about how to go forward with exams, getting called in for conversations with the Board and the MLE who are investigating various pieces of events. And of course, the three people I'd normally want time with - Poppy, Pomona, and Raz - are all far busier than I or unavailable. (Pomona's been hit doubly hard: not only was Hannah in her house, but she was showing quite some promise in Herbology.)

I do still plan to take a few days with you when school's out for the summer, but then I'll need to throw myself back into YPL planning. Is there any chance you could keep most of the family away, though? I really do need a few days of peace and quiet somewhere. If you think that's too complicated, I might do a short walking tour instead, and then commute with you to New London for the YPL meetings so we'd still get some time together.

My love to the family,
A.

Mum -

Nashira's still busy with orders I need for materials before students arrive, so a note this way seems faster.

Sorry again for not managing to visit: I know I said I'd try, but the YPL debriefing took forever and a day. (Well, till yesterday). And now I'm up to my neck in plans for next year, plus that promise to help Rabastan Lestrange settle in. (I certainly don't mind, but it is one more thing on my list. Plus there's that wanting to be helpful part, and yet not wanting to be overeager or anything like that.)

Speaking of: did you get a chance to ask Orion about our new addition? Orion keeps saying he's too busy with that secretive Ministry project to write, and he's a lousy correspondent anyway. If you do get him to come for dinner, please ask for me if there's anything I should know about, since they were the same year. I'd hate to put my foot wrong with some old upset, especially given his (and his family's) current influence. Storm was no help whatsoever, but he was enough younger that it didn't surprise me. (And, well, Storm. Barely notices his own feet until he trips over them.)

Everyone seems pleased enough with the YPL work, and there's talk of adding another person to the planning staff next year - since after all, we'd be up to three separate years to plan for, and only so many weeks when events are really feasible. If you know anyone who's free in the summer for at least three or four weeks, and is interested, do pass on the name, and I'll send it along. (They are, of course, doing very careful screening: have I mentioned again how glad I am you invested all that time in tracing all the family lines back? Made it so much easier when they were interviewing me.)

Dai sent me a very brief owl earlier this week: he still hasn't found a new job, and he's still refusing to let me help him out. I keep telling him it's not like I've got much in the way of expenses - and the extra YPL salary as well - but he keeps refusing. If you do hear of anyone looking for someone with good detail skills, I'm sure he'd be grateful of a referral. It's not like he chose his parents, or to get so sick and have his miser of a boss fire him. The good news is that he really is mostly recovered: still some weakness, and he really shouldn't have a job that requires lifting or lots of walking, but other than that, he's almost back to where he was.

My friend Poppy's gotten some new interesting possible options transfigured foods in her travels - do take a look at her recent journal about it. I know you think that the real foods are best, but honestly, you'd lose it if you had to eat just what we could grow in Scotland in the winter, even with the greenhouses. And feeding students is hard enough as it is. (Though she was grateful for your recipes: if someone's recovering from something, obviously, it's a bit different than feeding the whole horde.)

If things get sorted a bit sooner than I think they will, I'll see about coming for a day or two before term starts, but no promises. Now, I really should go off and poke around the DADA room to make that list.

A.

I'm still at Hogwarts for the moment, wrapping up some loose ends. I'm partway through grading the last assignments my OWLs and NEWTs students did before break began (and will be sending a few off to students who wanted to study over break, to boot.)

I'm alternating that with reviewing some information about a project I've been recommended to participate in. No details I can share yet, but the more I read it, the more I think it's a very interesting idea - and that I have a fair bit to offer, perhaps. I took a good chunk of time this morning to go through the notes available to me point by point, and to note down some questions (scale, timeframe, practical things, mostly) to send off by Owl. I'm most of the way done, but paused for a late dinner first.

Tomorrow afternoon, I'm off for the weekend. A pleasant enough walk to Hogsmeade (at least if the rain doesn't reappear...) and then apparating back to Mum and Dad's for the weekend. They want to see me, and I did promise my eldest niece I'd take her on a trip to Diagon Alley to buy a birthday present sometime around now.

I expect to be back at Hogwarts by Tuesday at the latest, as I still have quite a lot of preparation to work through to wrap things up before exams. There are still some changes in the OWL and NEWT standards I want to make sure I'm covering in enough detail, and I'm not sure my current star charts and preparation questions emphasise it enough.

Poppy - any chance of scheduling our Monday afternoon chat for later in the week? And since we've no students, if you'd be free after dark and up for a climb, I'd gladly show you things through the larger telescope.

Been a busy couple of weeks, and I didn't get the chance to comment on all the uproar last week. No matter - life continues on, doesn't it?

This week has brought another pleasant chat with Poppy, this time with some discussion about something in a letter from my mother. I think I mentioned my sister Diana's pregnant again (her sixth!). Mum's been rummaging around in some of our grandmother's recipes for older foods - you know, the things that grow here, without being transfigured. She's got this bizarre theory that transfigured foods might not be as healthy for an unborn child. (Me, I pointed out that we certainly eat enough of them here, and surely there's ways to balance it for health if we're feeding them here at Hogwarts. It's just a matter of making sure you start with a healthy diet before you transfigure it, and don't do it all out of one kind of food.)

On the other hand, she sent along some of the recipes, and there are some rather nice things in there that certainly look like good eating whether or not you agree with the rationale. Not, of course, that I have a chance to cook here, as the house elves are most attentive, but perhaps some holiday, just for fun. Mum made sure we all knew how to cook for ourselves, and all of the best charms for it - and for the washing up after - as a matter of course, and it's nice to keep my hand in.

I spent last night up on the tower with a few students who had some catchup work to do for OWLS and NEWTS - and both the moon and Venus were showing lovely crescents. Beautifully clear night, so the students got a good chance to fill out the parts of the star charts they'd been struggling with.