Freaks: Year Two

Lunch And Letters With Enemies

Harry had been staring at the blank piece of parchment for about an hour now.

His Mum and Dad had insisted on taking up Professor Slughorn's idea about writing to whoever he was tutoring in order to get in contact with the kid first. Maybe even get to know each other before they actually met in person at the start of the new term in January.

Harry thought this was a stupid idea as why would be writing to a child from a dark family be a good idea, but it wasn't like the parents could do anything to him specifically about a letter showing up at their door.

He stared at the parchment, at a loss of how to start.

He didn't even know the kid's name for goodness sake!

A big part of him was praying it would just be Fiona he was tutoring, but he knew that wasn't the case. Why would he ever get that lucky?

"I don't know what to do Lou," he said looked over to his rat who was sitting on the desk. Harry then gave her a rat treat which she slowly nibbled on. "But I have to do something, don't I?"

Lou squeaked.

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I have to do something," he said, picking up his quill.

Dear student I don't know the name of, Harry wrote.

Yeah, that was a horrible start, and he crumpled up the parchment and threw it in the rubbish bin, just missing. He groaned and got up and threw it in, wondering what he was going to say to this Slytherin he didn't even know. He guessed it would be best to stay professional. He was their tutor after all.

Harry sat down at his desk pulling out another piece of parchment and dipped his quill in some ink and started to write again.

Hi, I hope you're having a good holiday. As I am sure Professor Slughorn has already informed you, I am your tutor for History Of Magic. If you don't know my name, my name is Harry Warbeck and I am a second year Hufflepuff.

I was thinking it would be best if we met one or two days a week in the library. The only weekday we could not do is Tuesday and I usually help the Hufflepuff first years with their homework. Please let me know what works best for you.

I'll see you when the new term starts and it'd be great if you could let me know your name as Professor Slughorn never mentioned it.

Thanks. 

Harry Warbeck

Harry looked over the letter a few times, ensuring there were no spelling errors and that everything made sense, and then he sealed it up, addressing the letter to the person in the only way he could think of. Oto took the letter from his hands and flew off out the bedroom window.

Harry watched, hoping he'd get a nice reply.

"Do we really have to do this?" Alabaster asked, halfway up a tree.

"Yes!" Xeno exclaimed, on a thick branch a few feet above him. "It's important to get a good view of the area when searching for the Bemothumatera."

"I thought we were heading to a cave?" he asked, climbing a little higher, trying not to lose his footing. The last thing he needed right now was to fall out of a tree. He had fallen enough in the past day to last him a year.

"We are, but first we have to make sure that there are no Bemouthumatera's along the way and the best way to do that is to watch from above them."

"What if Bemothumateras climb trees?" Alabaster asked, finally getting the name with the correct pronunciation.