She was a Taker

Chapter 6

"Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap-"

Tina woke up groggy the next morning to the sound of an owl pecking on her window. Beside her, Queenie was still fast asleep. She rolled out of bed, stood up, and shuffled to the window, still yawning.

"Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap-"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." she said to the owl and opened up the window letting the bird swoop in and rest on her table top. She fed him a biscuit and untied the letter from his leg, this was all routine for her now. The carefully opened the envelope, and excitedly began to read.

Dear Tina,

Thank you for the letter, I must say it came to me in the right time for things have not been going smoothly for my mother back home in England as I thought it were.

When I first arrived back home my mother explained to me that she had gotten a request saying that her Hippogriff herd was to be used by the Ministry of Magic for warcraft. She had wrote a letter back saying that she declined their request and her herd would not be used for war. A few days later at the Christmas party, a ministry employee of the beast division showed up and informed my mother that she had no choice whether the ministry could take away her herd or not. Lets just say... things got ugly.

Apparently the Ministry worker started insulting the Hippogriffs and my mother snapped. She pushed him down and started punching and kicking him... my mother is not a violent woman, but when someone insults things she loves she goes crazy.

It turns out the Ministry has been badgering my mother with requests that she give her herd to them so they may train them ever since our adventure in New York, she didn't think it was such a big deal so she didn't mention it to my father or brother, I suppose she didn't believe they would understand.

Now with the threat of the removal of her herd in her way, my mother is spending most of her time in the Hippogriff stables, I come down there often to see how she is holding up, she keeps mumbling about "Hippogriff rights," and "Animal cruelty," I am very worried for her, I have never seen her this riled up before.

But other than that... incident, I must admit my mother did a spectacular job on the party. And it wasn't a complete waste of time, she took the time to invite an old professor of mine, Albus Dumbledore. We spent the night discussing about my case, Grindelwald and New York. He said he was very pleased on how we handled the situation with Grindelwald and plans to meet with you next time he pops by New York. He was a magnificent professor, and a great friend. I'm confident you will like him.

So in short, it was a very eventful holiday. I am curious about your holiday traditions, I must admit I don't know much about Jewish holidays, perhaps you could explain it more to me when I return to New York? Also, what is a Dreidel?

I am glad that you have found a new clue to your investigation, I knew you could do it Tina! I took a look at the three letters from Mr Graves you sent me, I must confess the last one took a great deal of concentration, but I believe I have deciphered part of the message.

If you look carefully, you may notice that there are four capital letter in the message.

H23ElakeLstP

H23ElakeLstP

H E L P

"Help" That's one word, but I did not understand anything more. I hope this helps.

I would be very pleased if you would indeed "kick him in the shins" for me. A laugh would probably do my mother and I some good.

Thank you so much for the holiday gift, I never realized how nice it felt to have a new pocket watch, the only ones I own belonged to my father and my brother. As a holiday gift to you I have enclosed something I found Christmas shopping in Diagon Alley, I hope you like it.