Catch The Snitch

Nigel!

I can’t believe I’ve been here for four years and did not realize you were at the school! I only found out recently because I heard from a student that you’re the Transfiguration professor! Somehow that class seems fitting considering.

I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve set up shop here in Hogsmeade! A little shop called Enchanting Essentials. I can get into the details and such some other time, otherwise this letter would be too long for an owl to bring you.

If you come by, I picked up some things while traveling that made me think of you! Also, I have some nifty tricks with paints I came up with that you might find interesting too! I’d love to hear about what you’ve been up to since our Hogwarts days, may you could come by for coffee or tea sometime?

Anyways, I’m sure you’re busy with all your teaching stuff! Let me know if you need anything at all!

Adeline Green

As Nigel had expected, it was easier for him to repair a 19th-century Swiss-made singing bird box without magic than write a reply to Adeline.

The aforementioned antique sat on his workbench, having been restored to its former glory over the course of an entire weekend. Nigel had heard the surprisingly realistic birdsong – produced purely by clockwork movements – so many times now that it was playing automatically in his head on loop, even though the enamelled lid of the box was firmly shut and the internal mechanisms were at rest.

Come on, you can do this, he told himself as the auditory hallucinations continued, and a different thought crossed his mind. I really should sleep soon.

He closed his eyes for a moment and massaged the bridge of his nose. He would sleep only after he finished writing the letter. But where to begin? The truth was definitely out of the question. My sincere apologies, I didn’t visit because some evil version of me emerged from a magical mirror, and I fear I might endanger you if my reflection were to see us together. What would Addie say? Maybe she’d laugh at him for being a worrywart. Or maybe she might feel offended that he had no faith in her and their friendship by hiding such an important thing from her.

No, that knowledge was too dangerous to emburden anyone with, outwith those whose fates were already entangled with the mirror. “Sorry, Addie,” he said aloud, as though the winds would carry his words across the short distance that lay between his office at Hogwarts and her shop in Hogsmeade.

A partial truth then. He genuinely didn’t visit Hogsmeade much despite the village’s proximity to the castle, and it wouldn’t be a stretch if he feigned ignorance about Addie’s shop. With that, he picked up his quill and started committing ink onto parchment.


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Dear Adeline,

I suppose the cliché concept of an absent-minded professor is quote rooted in truth after all, though it appears in my case the fault is obliviousness. While I rarely visit Hogsmeade, it’s a poor excuse for me not knowing that you’ve opened a shop there. That said, I found something recently that I hope suffices as an apology.

Coffee or tea sounds wonderful, and I’d love to hear about your travels and your new tricks with paints. Would next Tuesday afternoon be convenient for you? Please feel free to let me know if that works, or if you have another preferred timing.

Looking forward to our way-overdue reunion.

Best wishes,
Nigel