March 27th, 2005


Dear Beverly,

The most strangous thing has happened to me! I still can’t believe it, but…it may mean I’m actually special. I still don’t know, this is like a dream. Am I pretending? This isn’t like pretending with you—with your pink castle by the lagoon with the dolphin shaped jet skis, where we have our slumber parties.

I wanted to dye my hair green for St. Patrick’s Day at school, even though I’m not Irish. Mum wouldn’t have allowed it, she says the hair spray is full of nasty chemicals that I shouldn’t be exsposed to until I’m 30. But I uncovered the can of spray paint I used last winter for painting the stand when I tried running a Xmas Cookie Stand out by our flat door—but I could never get the cookies to last long enough. After mum left for work I lingered in the flat before heading to school, sprayed my hair green and had an extra bagel for breakfast. I really wanted to do something cool for St. Patricks day, and as I watched my hair turn green in the mirror I wondered what it would be like if I actually had green hair my whole life. That would be special, even if it was funny looking.

But the green hair didn’t go over at school too well. That cheese-head Jerry Bagard called me a “moldy marshmallow” and the canteen lady didn’t let me get lunch because she thought I was a health risk. NO LUNCH!! My tummy was rumbling. I spent lunch period searching the rubbish bins and all I could find was a packet of brownie crumbs and a half eaten banana. That cheese-head Jerry Bagard caught me rummaging for food and said I should toss myself out in the skip with all the other dirty, thrown away food since I was a moldy marshmallow. Mum nearly fainted when she got back home and saw what I did to my hair. She dashed me off to the bath to wash off the green paint.

And here’s the strangous part. Not all of the green paint washed off! There were these blotchy circles left on my hair. Mum tried everything she could think of to clean it off but they wouldn’t go away. Mum said we’d have to wait for it to grow out, so she cut my hair as much as she could but there were still green spots. Everyone at school teased me the rest of the week when they saw my short cropped, green spotted hair including Jerry Bagard that snvil nosed fungus covered worm poop! I was crying because everyone was teasing me and I wanted my hair back. Then I woke up one morning and my hair was really long! Like that Rapunsel princess, all over my room, with hundreds of those green spots. Mum screamed when she saw it. When she got to cutting my hair back to normal length she was bubbling blubbering babbling. She said I was a witch, that my magic was coming out, dad had been a wizard before he left and in a few years I would go to magic school.

Well, Jerry Bagard would have said it was stupid but it kinda made sense. Like when I would be sad there was only one crisp left in the bag, then I would find five more in there. Or the time roddy Perkins Tapson next door threw a roll of toilet paper at me, and it bounced back and wrapped him up like a mummy.

The green dots in my hair are still there. I guess it’s better than being a witch with green skin. If I’m a witch, though, does that mean I might be able to make my own pink castle by the lagoon with dolphin shaped jet skis, Beverly?

Love


Obderedria Pienas

Nov 2, 2008


Dear Beverly,

Sorry I haven’t written as much. I know you’re busy playing tennis on Jupiter and painting the backs of unicorns. There’s some unicorns that live in the Forbidden Forest by the castle and I’m sure they need a fresh coat of paint too.

Hogwarts is such an amazing place! The food is amazing, it pops up on our tables like an endless buffet and we have feasts around the significant holidays but I don’t think there’s going to be one for Thanksgiving. I’m in the Hufflepuff dorm in the basement, for which I’m glad because some of the other houses have dorms up in the towers. I wouldn’t want to climb all those stairs after dinner to get to bed! Our dorm is the closest to the Great Hall and therefore usually the first at mealtimes. The kitchens are supposedly on out floor as well. I’ve heard a boy say that what houses the Hufflepuff dorm was once a cellar. You can sometimes smell a honey or fruit fragrance that sticks to the walls. The smells in our basement are wonderful, wafting from wherever the kitchens are. It makes me thirsty. Sadly since we’re stuck in the basement we don’t have any windows to peer outside. The dorm further down in the dungeons, Slytherin, claim they have a viewing platform to see into the lake, like an aquarium.

My the girls in the dorm my age are an okay bunch, we get along well around bedtimes. There’s Dahlia Collins, who is really smart. Sometimes she’s helped me with Transfiguration work because it’s so hard! She has a twin brother in one of the tower dorms, named Erik, who gets her into a lot of trouble but she plays along. She’s kinda brave like you, Beverly.

There’s Harper O’Malley, and she’s really tiny if you, um, compare her to me. She looks more like a china doll you would find in a toy shop window. She’s very artistic, like you Beverly, and very cheerful although sometimes she seems sad or tranquil. She has paintings and sketches up all along her bed and corner of the room.

There’s Verona McGregor and she has this hat collection, knitted caps or these bright ones she gets from an older student in the dorm. She’s very imaginative (kinda like us in a way, huh Beverly?) and suddenly starts something new whenever she wants. She and Harper have art projects or exploration of the halls of the school.

There’s also Mary Beth McEvoy. She’s a potty mouth! I cringe every time she says something bad, I think a teacher is going to hear and land her in trouble. But she never apologizes, in the doesn’t take low snuff from anyone way like you can Beverly.

And then there’s Heliotrope LeJean. I thought I was going to be the freak of the bunch, what with my green speckled hair and all, but Heliotrope is such a source that I look normal compared to her. She never says anything unless you talk to her first, she just stares off into space. She spends every moment out of class swimming in the lake. She smells like a bucket of chum. We have difficulty pulling her out of bed in the mornings and sometimes she drags her pillow and sheets under the bed and sleeps there! And as the weather gets colder she seems to be getting…sluggish.

The girls are sweet in their own way (even Heliotrope I suppose) but sometimes there's quibbles or stepped toes. At least they don’t tease like the kids did back in primary. It would be horrible rooming with someone who bullied you! But I’m the slowest to catch up with them, and we aren't always together. But they’re good housemates, overall, I think you would like them Beverly.

Love,

July 30, 2009

Dear Beverly,

How has your summer been? Probably more interesting then mine. There was a school sponsored trip to Egypt that some of the kids went on. I didn't go. Mum said we didn't have the money for it (though I think her main reasoning was the thought of me doing on international travel, chaperoned or not). I probably needed a passport, first. Do you need passports to travel, Beverly, or do you just sneak across the borders?

Anyway, something else that also hasn't happened as frequently as past summers have been going to the cinema. Mum and I like going to see a movie, we always split the combo pack where I fill my soda with grape-orange-citris-carmel cola or some variation like that, plus mum let's me have the freezie. We've only seen the two movies thus far. Living home again is...kinda dull. We aren't allowed to use magic outside of school. And in the summer when they run repeats of cartoons you catch up pretty quickly. I've got my peach tree to take care of though, it's started to bud with little puppy peaches. Not actual dog peaches, just whatever you call the small form before they grow and ripen. It gets plenty of sun by the window.

But the real reason I wanted to write. A housemate of mine, Pax Wintergreen, invited me to Hogsmeade (that's the magic village right by the school) to the opening of the Tetra Wizard Tournament! It used to be Tri-, when they had two schools visiting. It's a year long tournament where exchange students stay at Hogwarts castle. Although apparently the last one didn't go over all that well. This year an American school is visiting too. I sometimes wonder what it would be like had mum stayed in Texas and I would have attended an American magic school. But then I wouldn't know Pax, or the other girls in Hufflepuff, or even the punchy Gryffindors or that funny Ravenclaw boy with the vulgar frog. What'll be best about going to Hogsmeade is going to Honeydukes, which is this fantastic candy store where the sweets are sweet but they can do magical things too. Like sugar mice that make your teeth squeak. Or these sweets that make you feel floaty, though it's just an inch. I haven't thought of writing to Mr. Flume, the owner, this summer. I can't really send anything by wizard mail, mum's only recently gotten used to the owls showing up though she's glad for a break. Unless I went to Diagon Alley to use the post office, though mum hasn't let me go alone too often. I meet a future first year there once, maybe I'll see her again in the fall term. She could even be sorted into Hufflepuff.

About school[1]--when that letter got "mailed off to you" did you actually get it? I mean, you're not real real, Beverly, but you're real for me. But then I've never gotten a reply before, and I never expected a letter to be my invisible message revealing test in Charms, but...must have dreamt it, or maybe you can write really quickly using a wand, it was like me now writing a letter to you, only from you to me, but I still don't--[2]

I'll be sure to tell you all about the Tournament, Beverly, when I find out more details.

love you lots,

1.	You lick the stamps, they taste like pears - May 22 2009
2.	1st Year Charms Final - Jun 1 2009

August 11, 2009

Dear Beverly,

You'll be happy to know that our neighbors didn't steal anything from our flat when they were being evicted and arrested (though I like to think you would have been there to fend them off). That's good because I wouldn't want my peach tree or the telly or anything from my room stolen. That would be horrible.

But besides that, I wanted to write because I still haven't written as much. Sorry. I've gotten the chance to hang out with a few more people from school. There was Pax with the Tournament Opening, like I told you, Which Was Very Fun Indeed!! The booths they had out were amazing, a little of something each like free cupcakes from the Magic Bakery, Magi Cakery pastry shop and Honeydukes had all these international sweets. And Butterbeer! It's an amazing drink, like a butterscotch root beer float without the ice cream or the root beer, but it feels the same. I won't be able to go to Hogsmeade in the school year until I'm a third year, which kinda stinks because all the shops are quaint and fun. Though the faire had a lack of things on a stick.[1]

But that's not all. A week later I got to see Dahlia's penthouse, though her brother wasn't around. That's my roommate, one of the few who I know where they live. I've been to her house now and although I know Mary Beth lives on a farm and Heliotrope lives on in a lake but I haven't been by their homes (Mary Beth promises chicks, though that would make more of a mess than a peach tree). And we both realized we've been-----------

Growing up.[2] I guess it's because our birthdays are so early in the school year that makes us slightly older than everybody else. Though mine's not till the end of November and hers is December...nevermind. But she's going to blossom, that's the best word I can figure for it. But it was nice meeting her, I feel we're getting closer. I don't know if like sisters. Dahlia has one but Ayla and her aren't close right now. From what I can tell Ayla, though she creates all these baking recipes, is something of "one of those girls" in the teen pop high school movies. Seemingly. Or maybe she's like Ms. Lovett luring in men with baked pies (no! no! no! I wasn't supposed to have watched Sweeney Todd when they were showing it on the telly! Angela Lansbury was nothing like a teapot!)

But those aren't the only people from school I've seen recently. We were supposed to go shopping for my school things but mum got the call though I did see Philo. The Ravenclaw boy with the frog like Mary Beth. He's kinda funny, the way he jitters about. I told him a few things about muggle living and we shared a dirigible plum, which are so light and airy (I wonder if they're used in Fizzing Whizzbees). But he's such a picky eater! I don't understand why nobody would like fruit. His nose actually turned up at it.[3]

Well anyways, you'll be happy to know I've been hanging out with other friends, Beverly. Tomorrow we'll try to get my school things again. It doesn't feel as exciting as the first year you do it. But there's not much to get, though mom insists my robes need to be altered. Which, since I'm growing up is important is there such a thing as WhopperWear Junior?

write to you again soon,

1.	Sweet and Sour - Aug 2 2009
2.	Hufflepuffles - Aug 8 2009
3.	A Moment Together - Aug 10 2009

August 13
Beverly, I'm in St. Mungo's[1] and I don't know why! They say that mum and I were--

There was a man? Bad, no long haired, I can't--

Mum is in here too, something about a punctured lung?? I'm so worried--

1.	You'll Look Forward To Remembering This - Aug 12 2009

August 14
We're home, there's something about bed rest---I want to sleep for so long but I'm not getting any dreams
You're not in them, Beverly

But, did you---?

August 24

Dear Beverly,

I'm about to go back to school. I think we're meant to get my remaining things for school but it seems we have. Though I'm missing potion ingredients. But my uniform was altered, what mum was most worried about, although she had to wash it and stitch up a rip

August 27

Beverly, I'm so worried about mum!! She's forgotten where I go to school!! I don't know how, but when I said I had to catch the train in three days she was confused. I told her about Hogwarts but she couldn't remember!! She didn't believe me when I said I was a witch, I showed her my books and my wand but I couldn't even show her my orange Lumos because we can't do magic outside of school, only talking about my peach tree I brought home from last year was something she didn't have an explanation for--

Eventualy I was able to find my acceptance letter and that when my hair turned green she told me about dad, who must have been magical

I can't sleep because

August 31
I'm glad to be back at Hogwarts, really I am but I miss home---

I think I barbequed Heliotrope!!![2]

2.	Welcoming Feast - Aug 30 2009

September 13

Dear Beverly,

Our Head of House Professor Sandusky wanted to meet with everyone. When we meant I felt there was something important I forgot to tell him but he found my wand to be rather curious.[3] It turns out I've been using an improper wand and he asked Mr. Ollivander, who I should have bought a wand from, to look at mine and 'fix' it, I don't know how that would work--

Professor Sandusky gave me his wife's wand for a replacement!![4] Former wife, she died, both he and Mr. Ollivander think it will work for me, its so pretty and charming compared to mine. Though i feel like I've lost so much, my wand, mum, my-----

3.	When You Need Someone to Talk to - Sept 8 2009
4.	The wand was weighed and found wanting - Sept 13 2009

September 17

Dear Beverly,

We had to transfigure pizza before lunch in class. We never have pizza at Hogwarts. I always liked getting pizza and cream soda at home. Maybe sometime I can try it with butterbeer. you can only get butterbeer at Hogsmeade and we're too young to attend the weekend visits. I tried some over the summer during the TWT hullabloo, it's a very nice drink.[5]

But back to the class, we had to transfigure a pizza to be more edible but I didn't do so well. Mine, well, I guess it turned into a monster?[6] And I was using Professor Sandusky's wife's wand and this was a sign of me not fitting with it. I wonder if I'll ever get mine back.


Are you real, Beverly? I mean, you're my imaginary friend but---

Sometimes I wake up and I'm not sure if magic even exists---

5.	Said request inspired some of Beverly's antics in Hogsmeade, including sneaking into Abigail Reid's birthday party at The Three Broomsticks. (Oct 3 2009). Beverly's gift package would get delivered on Oct 19 2009.
6.	Leopold's Transfiguration Class, 2nd Yrs - Sept 16 2009

Dear Beverly,

Nightmares again!! It feels like every fourth or fifth time I fall asleep that nightmare happens again. The one where I'm trapped in those phantom horror filled dungeons under the Potions stairs again. Only you're not there to save me. The walls crumble and the stench released--I never thought you could smell in dreams so much!!

It's happened much more since my hair--well, I don't know how to explain it!! My hair went wild again, just like my first time with magic.[1] It grows and grows and sometimes hits people too. Poor Juni got throttled by it all the way to the Healer's Hut.[2] Madame Nadge isn't too sure what's causing it outside of me loosing magic control again even with my wand back and the only remedy is to try to stay calm and have it cut every three days but it needs a really sharp pair of shears. It's more aggravated when I'm--

I feel helpl--

It's always bad after those dreams. My hair, that is. I try to shy away from the nastiness that edges through the walls of that collapsing dunging. But I feel something horrible happened behind it. One time I dreamt and I felt my tongue had shriveled!! I couldn't speak, couldn't talk, the room was upside down and--and--[3]

why can't I remember what happens next??

1.	Planting Seeds - Jan 8 2010
2.	Even Medusa Didn't Have this Problem - Jan 8 2010
3.	Specifically, Dione Sayer's perspective from A Twist and A Turn - Jan 8 2010