Feliks Spectre
Slytherin House
Hogwarts School
Scotland

Johann Storm
Spectre Estate
Edinburgh
Scotland

Dear Feliks,

С рождеством Христовым![1] I hope the angel wings get to you relatively unbroken as a small mark of the day. Thank you for your letter.

We are well. Glad of a quieter weekend after Christmas. Both missing you of course. The dogs have decided your bed is theirs, again. (I hope you are happy with finding white hair in everything, despite efforts to clean it. ) I have asked the manor how it is, but I’ve yet to find an easy way to interpret the responses. No windows cracked, no floorboards bent up, and all walls stayed upright, so I interpret it in fine health.

Your dad and I will be taking the pack out for a good long walk, blow a few cobwebs out, make a few decisions about the wedding. Because apparently wizards have to be interested in what colour napkins guests should use? It’s best for us to make decisions together as far away from others as possible in my opinion. We’re far more likely to agree. I think witches should include ‘trying to plan other people’s weddings’ as their list of hobbies. Hopefully by the time you return everything will be set and there will be few questions left to answer. Just the important ones in the ceremony.

When you wrote werewolf club my first thought was that you meant a club for werewolves, or people who wished to be one. I am glad it is one to ‘make werewolves feel better’. I would be a member of that club. I have several good friends who are werewolves too. One of which I lived with for some time, and another who is very wise and was my best friend until your father and I got to know each other. By that I mean, we are still friends, but Balfour is my best friend these days.

As for the drama, well, drama is probably in every group at school. I think it is part of being a teenager. Adults don’t really grow out of it. But it keeps life interesting when you have long dull days in the office.

In answer to your question about muggles… in my travels I have seen a great many muggles. They are very keen to understand how their world works. Challenges that we might easily overcome with magic have been steadily overcome by a muggle’s intellect and ingenuity. They have created moving staircases with mechanics called ‘escalators’, ward their houses with locks and whooping charms called ‘burglar alarms’. They travel great distances in metal birds called ‘aeroplanes’ (or ‘airplanes’ as they sometimes prefer to write it), rather than floo. They haven’t quite mastered apparition or portkeys but I am to understand there is great interest.

NB …If you ever engage cousin Sasha in conversation in this, be prepared for a long stay.

For all that muggles wish to understand and better their world, I think if they were to find out a little of our world, then they might be fine. Certainly, muggleborns and those who marry muggles do allow this glimpse. It is accommodated in the Statute of Secrecy. Our kind can even apply Muggle methods to try and measure and understand our magic from the other side (indeed I believe there is a whole army of unspeakables on Level Nine who do, but as they are unspeakable one cannot ask).

If they knew about us in a sudden reveal, I think it would be ultimately destructive. Muggles are not capable of large shifts in understanding. They find it hard to accept what they know in the world does not apply to all. They prefer nice, neat categories and rules that can be applied. We do not fit into that structure. We are messy, often illogical, with our magic. Muggles might well be fascinated, but they may also consider us their new Gods - which would be a very, very bad thing for wizards with Messiah complexes. They also may react very badly and consider us a threat. That rather than magic, we are instead using advanced muggle technology. For our destructive curses could have impact as comparable to their war technology. The books on muggle studies at Hogwarts might be more illuminating on this. That and those about magic’s interference with the Muggle world wars[2].

I do feel they are better in the dark. They are perfectly capable of being at war with each other without our volatile help. I could write a whole essay on this, but it is important you make up your own mind on such matters following a good amount of research. I very much doubt one could argue it cleanly one way or the other. There are serious drawbacks on all fronts.

Don’t be swayed by the confident opinions of those older than you. Idiots will over-simplify. The more one learns, the more we realise how much we don’t know.

So, join the club, you might learn something. Keep reading and question everything (though perhaps limit yourself in Professor Storm’s lessons if you wish to stay alive). Enjoy your weekend.

Much love,



P.S. I hope this is the right book of poems. I accio-ed it from your room.

1.	S rozhdyestvom Hristovym! A particularly formal way to say Merry Christmas in Russian given Joh’s professional interests.
2.	How WWII Was Won By Magic amongst others