Harry frowned. The last thing he wanted was to give his godfather the chance to hurt him yet again. He had quite enough emotional pain in his life already. He put the letter to the side. He would decide later what to do. Harry moved on to his next letter the one from Nicholas Flamel.
Dear Harry,
It sounds as if you had an extremely busy summer preparing yourself to enter the world of magical politics, my deepest sympathies. Politics are a curse especially when you reach my age. Each generation thinks that they are the only one to have faced trouble, trust me they're not. Even the troubles vary only in specific name. Inevitably a lack of sense brings about the repetition of history, I frequently wish people could learn the lessons history teaches. Because if we don't learn it, life has a way of putting the lesson in front of us as many times as is required to learn it and then people wonder why history seems to repeat itself. I tried to teach this to Albus but it was a lesson he failed. Hopefully you're a better student.
A new cousin as well, well family is either the Creator's greatest blessing or an absolute curse, and sometimes they are both at once.
Congratulations on passing your belt test. A black belt is quite an achievement. Well done!
I also highly approve of the electives you have chosen. They are very useful, and tie into many fields including alchemy. I found your questions about the beginning alchemy book to be insightful. Alchemy is as much muggle chemistry and physics as it is magic. I would strongly urge you to do the experiments on pages 115, 150 and 198. Those experiments done with a scientist's perspective should give you the answers you seek. I also approve that you have continued to follow along with your IGCSE studies. The isolationist policy of the magical world has definitely made it lag. I agree that it has more the flavor of the 1940's than that of the 1990's. That was one reason Perenelle and I left the magical world when the statute of secrecy was imposed. We had money enough that hiding in plain sight wasn't an issue for us. Neither of us is particularly dependent on magic to get by. Our son was born without magic. Sadly that meant that the elixir wouldn't work for him, and his descendants died in the Reign of Terror.
It hurt to lose all our descendants like that. Like I said family can be both a blessing and a curse. We avoided France for roughly a century after that. India and Indochina of that era were very intriguing. We came back to Paris at the invite of the Curies. It was astonishing how much Paris had changed.
Perenelle and I had a relaxing summer going from tennis tournament to tournament. She is quite fond of the sport even after all these centuries. Although she does at times miss the original incarnation of the sport that was played indoors, she has come to appreciate lawn tennis. She compared Andre Agassi with a very young Henry the Eighth, I don't see the similarity myself, but her memory for these things is much sharper than my own. Do you play tennis?
I have searched for a book containing the legend mentioned in the study on snow phoenixes. I have yet to find one. Perenelle has a great memory for stories. I think she knows this one, so perhaps I'll persuade her to sit and write it down for you.
Do let me know the outcome of your test and tell me about your teachers. Take care.
Your friend, N.F.
Harry grinned. Trust Nicholas to make him smile. Harry pulled out a piece of parchment.
Dear Nicholas,
Thanks for your letter. I passed my Government test, barely. I think I may ask my trustees to let me have an easier summer next year, I didn't get nearly enough time behind my easel this year.
As for school most of my classes are what I expect. History, how anyone can learn it from a monotone, one topic ghost is completely beyond my comprehension, and I sort of like history. Perenelle's observation of Henry the eighth for example was very interesting and amusing. I mean why can't they get ghosts of different eras to come in and teach history from a first person point of view, or they get someone with a little life in them to liven up the subject. Pun intended. Transfiguration is a little better this year, McGonagall isn't as bad for some reason. Flitwick is pretty much the same as always. Sprout has actually ceased watching me from the corner of her eye. Snape, while still an uptight prick, actually has ceased his perpetual fault-finding with me. Durrand is something of a bore but at least he's not a complete incompetent like Lockhart. I'll probably still learn more from Dan and Will. Sinestra is as boring and behind the times as ever(and always). I swear the woman could at least have read the American Navigator it teaches all the equations needed to figure placement on Earth via the stars if you know where one is the rest are easy to find. (Of course it also works in vice versa, if you know where on the earth you are you can find any celestial body.) I have yet to learn anything from the woman. Vector is amazing, knows her subject backwards and forwards. Of course something tells me that she is so wrapped up in equations that real life is passing her by. Babbling is hysterical, absolutely rock solid on her subject and she has this clever way of inserting little puns and witty, cynical comments into her lectures that on the surface are easily missed (especially by those lacking in the brain or humor department) but to anyone else-hysterical. Sadly I think most of it goes straight over the heads of my peers. For such a dry subject she keeps it plenty lively; I think she's my favorite all-time teacher or maybe second thinking of Sensei. And then of course comes Hagrid. I 'm dreading his classes. Don't get me wrong, Hagrid is an okay bloke, and he knows his creatures, but his perception of appropriate material is the stuff of nightmares. In his first class does he bring out bowtruckles or unicorns? No, he had to be different and bring out hippogriffs. I had to freeze one with a petrificus totalis before it could maul my roommate. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it, he was insulting the beast, but Malfoy is the vindictive sort. I suspect if the beast had hurt him he would have seen the hapless creature dead. I got a week's detention for saving the beast, go figure.
I swear there are times I almost regret demanding the Hat sort me into Slytherin -mostly when experiencing undue prejudice from those of other houses-. but most of the time I'm okay with that decision. I have fewer expectations to deal with from people, even if I have to deal with more sideways looks from them.