Elffire: Volume One - Secrecy and Sorcery

2nd Year - Who is he?

Dear Mum, I hope you had a good Christmas, wherever you are right now, I hope you've enjoyed travelling too. Thank you for my gift, the blanket looks really nice on my bedspread here. I did want to ask you something, it's about our Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, he's said a few things that have made me think, he said he went to school with dad, and that he knew you. His name is Hamich I think... Hamich Fraser. He's spoken about fulfilling a debt. Something peculiar also happened on Christmas eve and he spoke about a few things then... but everything he says just makes me more and more confused and I have loads of questions. I haven't raised my suspicions with Dumbledore yet but I think I will when we start our lessons again next week. I'll see you soon ~ Love Alvar. X

The twins and I woke up late on Christmas day. I wasn't really in the festive mood but Fred and George put all of the effort into trying to make me forget about the events of the night before. They didn't dare to mention anything Fraser had said in his office... From what he's said, it has indicated that he thinks it's his fault that I had grown up fatherless. Did that mean that he had something to do with his death? This was the reason I had run to write a letter the morning of Boxing day, the twins wouldn't let me out of their sight on Christmas day, they didn't want me to be alone so I had to wait.

There was one table set out for the Christmas Lunch and all of the leftover students and the teachers sat and ate together... Fred and George barely spoke during the meal as we sat directly opposite Professor Dumbledore and Professor Mcgonagall eventually they lightened up and embraced the conversation with Mcgonagall whilst Dumbledore and I spoke on light topics which I had to admit was strange, we couldn't talk on common interests such as the lessons that took place during term, but instead we discussed subjects such as Transfiguration which I found out to be the subject that Dumbledore used to teach at Hogwarts. Percy was talking avidly to Professor Flitwick a little further up the table, to which the little Professor was listening intensely at Percy's opinion on the OWL exams which he will be taking next year. Professor Fraser did not join the feast, Fred and George had brought this up afterwards, I didn't care to think much about his absence nor did I want to know where he was.

The morning of Boxing day the twins had slept late and I had left for the Owlry to send the letter to mum. I wasn't sure where she was or if she was home yet from her travels or not but I sent it with Finn who I knew would always find her.

The hall was empty when I went to breakfast but I sat alone anyway and began to draw in the book that Mum had sent me for Christmas. I began to think of everything I had said in the letter... Thinking about whether I am digging up unspoken events of her past, events that she would have preferred to keep buried... and then my mind swam with the question; Why on earth would Dumbledore hire the man with such a sticky past... a man who carries so many questions? Did he bring Fraser here for me to learn the truth of my past? A truth my Mother didn't want me to know?

I chose not to raise my concerns with Fred and George when they finally arrived for breakfast and decided if they were not going to mention Fraser, I wasn't going to either. They didn't for a short while, Boxing day was a day where everyone was just trying to shake off all of the festivity from the past few weeks and just relax and keep to themselves. I distracted myself with reading and drawing whilst the twins kept their distance watching me... they didn't know that I was aware that they were lingering and stepping lightly but I did... and it was getting to be a bit annoying by dinner that evening.

"I wrote to my mum..." I confessed as the dessert plates appeared.

"You did?" Fred asked "When?"

"This morning... asked about Fraser, who he is and if she knows anything more."

"Is she home yet? From travelling?" said George.