alt_evelyn

EVELYN LONGBOTTOM finishes her Mastery in Astronomy, and then takes off to MIT to study physics. She completes her Doctorate in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley, and lands a post-doc at NASA, where she falls in love with a cute engineer who works on the Mars project. They marry after ten years of co-habitation. She keeps busy in her field, and in her small circle of professionals, she is known and respected. She doesn't make it home often, but stays current with her Guild dues, and keeps up a voluminous epistolary exchange with her parents, Terry, Kevin, Artie, Kitty, and Siz, and writes regularly with Jeremy, Linus, and Cecelia as well. Kevin comes out to live with her and her partner for a year after he finishes school, and visits them for two weeks every year. When Terry is in his travelling stage, he'll occasionally crash on their couch. She is the proud Maid of Honor at Katrina Bundy and Artemus Ross's wedding, and is the equally proud godmother of their child (and auntie to Luna and Terry's children as well). She sends all three children ridiculously large shipments of books regularly. She can't make it back to England every May, but she wears a corsage of paperwhites on Neville's birthday and Remembrance Day, and lights a candle in the window every Christmas.

I miss you so terribly, you know.

Everyone does. But it's like there's this shining banner of beautiful red hair and a bright smile that's missing every time we sit down for dinner, or have a meeting, and I can just tell that the room is a little dimmer because you're not here with us.

I'm glad you're still alive. Beyond glad. I hope we'll get to see one another again someday soon.

Ginny, I need you to do me a favour.

I know you talk with Mr Dolohov. He saved my life once. And no matter what's happened since

I think this is something he'd consider very important, Ginny. It is news about Mr Crouch, and I feel obligated to share it with him, because I owe him, and it would harm neither him nor us to learn of it. I would write him direct, but I needed a touch of discretion, and you know how very much I dislike attention. If you could copy this down exactly, and give it to him, I would appreciate it, and I honestly believe he would as well. Here is the message.

Er fiel etwa eine Meile südlich südwestlich der Astronomieturm, in den Wäldern. Es war eine ziemlich große Explosion, die eine Lichtung geschaffen. Er war sofort tot, und sein Körper war abgesehen von der Explosion zerrissen. Ich habe Erfahrung mit leeren Gräber. Ich weiß, wie es sich anfühlt. Wenn ein geliebter Mensch stirbt, und es gibt keinen Körper zu begraben... Es ist eine schreckliche Sache in der Tat. Ich weiß, es war nicht deine Schuld. Wir sind nicht in den Wäldern, aber hüte dich vor den Kentauren. Ich hoffe, dass Sie ihn zu finden, und Ruhe finden.

أول الغضب جنون وآخره ندم

البقاء في رأسك

إن مع اليوم غدا يا مسعدة

السلام و احترام المعلم

Thank you, Ginny. All my very best.

- Evelyn Longbottom.

There's something going on in the Forest.

It's hard to see from the Astronomy tower, but there was a rather enormous tree that just came crashing down, and every now and then we can get a glimpse of flashes of light. We're seeing if we can modify the telescopes to see better.

I finished up the last of the observations this morning, and will be back in about an hour.

Stornoway is utterly brilliant, and everyone there was very welcoming. People let me just natter on about the projects we were working on, and Mr Emmett and Mrs Overton kept suggesting that I'd have a job there if I ever wanted one.

Mum, dad says you need to come up now, or he'll come stumping down to get you, and Madame Pomfrey will be angry with you for messing his knee up again.

And that you need to take your own advice.

He said it. Not me. But you do.

Professor --

I've finished that set of calculations you passed along to double-check, and managed to get through the last of the Solstice-related readings just now. I know you've quite a lot to work through with all the new material, is there anything I can do to help you sort it out?

I'm so very glad the meeting went as well as it did.

Things are still all sorts of mad around here. I tried out some of those questions you came up with to help test the Sherwood people who're going to try to fit in, and I think it helped, so ta very much. We've been sorting out clothing too, because that's one of the bigger tells, really. It reminds me of all the sewing I had to do for that review we did two years back. It seems like ages ago.

I hope it all goes well, though. With the Sherwood people. Mum thinks that once they have us come and Fidelius their new houses, their new neighbours will be quite interested in having something similar done, and that might be a way in, as it were.

And Professor Sinistra has us working on all sorts of projects. It's nearly enough to distract me, which is good. German has been fun. Using the letters I'm used to and writing left-to-right makes it a good deal easier than Arabic, too.

I miss you so very much it hurts sometimes.

But Artie, we can't risk it on Saturday. Because it wouldn't be just an hour, you know it wouldn't, and you and I both know you're under too much scrutiny these days. And disappearing for part of Valentine's day when your girlfriend is in hiding might make it too easy for someone to get suspicious.

I know I'm being a touch paranoid, but it just took three words

not even three, really

and everything came crashing down around our shoulders, and I can't risk putting you in that position even if it means missing out on seeing you face to face until Easter.

Oh, Artie. I love you.

Ich liebe dich mehr als die Sterne.

اصبر تنل

Give Kitty a hug for me, will you?

...apparently, the journal no longer classifies me as a 'current Gryffindor.'

Which feels odd.

But it's not entirely unexpected, I suppose.

It must be a devilishly difficult bit of spellwork, really, to get the whole business up and running, and have it be adaptable enough to make adjustments like that.

Anyways.

I don't suppose this is about Lucas? You and Sally-Anne have been rather furiously writing back and forth lately.

I'm not surprised he's been stumbling a bit in Transfiguration with Glozeman. He sounds rather intimidating. Lucas was absolutely petrified of Carrow during our first year. Truly. He'd freeze up during class and Carrow would call him out on it, and I don't think he successfully demonstrated a single spell properly the entire year. At least not in front of Carrow. Who kept chalking it up to the fact Lucas was half-blooded, of course.

He's sweet on Paula Ross, if that helps. She came round to the last galleon meeting before hols, so she's trustworthy and would be willing to lend a hand, or at least would do what Harry asked.

I know it will be hard today.

Take care of each other, all right?

And keep an eye on Fitz, will you?

I miss you both already.

Mum, dad, the Headmaster just wrote and what he was saying

He said he needed to drop off work, which is odd to begin with, but there wasn't any new work for me. Not until after hols.

It sounded just like what Professor Sinistra said he wrote when he was trying to get her to come down from the tower.

And Bellatrix Lestrange just wrote him.

I've given Neville a warning on the Galleons, the code we came up with for there being something dangerous at home, really dangerous, and I wrote him in the journals too, and if he were all right, he'd write back right away to tell me, I know he would, and he hasn't, and I have

I have this awful feeling about it.