Ginevra Molly Weasley Potter

( Private to Adrian )

Teddy got his Hogwarts letter, as expected, and has taken to espousing the merits of each of the different houses at every opportunity. His parents and grandparents alone come from each of the four, so who knows where he'll end up. I change my mind myself on a regular basis when it comes to where I think the Sorting Hat will put him, though Harry and I would naturally be thrilled if he ended up in Gryffindor. Weasleys and Potters always do.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. There's a lot of that, with Ted. Mostly involving his hair color of the day.

I don't know what we'll do without Teddy around when he goes to school. He's the one that finally managed to get Jamie to understand that his younger brother and sister are not tiny Quidditch players for him to reenact plays with. Though the goose egg Busy gave him probably helped as well.

Maybe it will finally spur Lily to start walking on her own. She certainly looks as if she wishes she could run away under her own steam. For now we'll just have to settle for her setting world records for crawling speed; she's practically a blur.

( Private to Meaghan, Oliver, Angelina, Katie, Dean, Seamus )

When you're a child, loss seems like something that only happens to the very old, even if what you'd have considered very old back then doesn't seem all that far away now. Still, it seemed like the purview of adults past their prime.

Then you get a little older, and you realize that life is a whole lot longer and a great deal shorter than you could ever imagine. That bad things happen not just to your grandparents and your great-grandparents, but to your parents, and to your peers.

We were unfortunate. We saw that a little bit clearer than most, a little bit closer, a little bit sooner. And then it seemed like it was over.

It wasn't, because life goes on, even if war doesn't. People keep dying. They get sick, they get in accidents, they get in the wrong place at the wrong time, they get in the way. It's not something that happens to the old, or the young. It's something that happens to us all, and it's devastating every time. I dread the day my children have to learn that.

I don't know a single person not touched by death, and that saddens me more than anything else, I think. But I think it also gives us all something in common, makes it so that there's at least this one thing that we all know.

It doesn't really matter who you lose - a parent, a teacher, a lover, a child, a mentor, a sibling, a friend. It all leaves a mark. I've lost a lot - more than some, less than most - and last week I added another name to the list of people I'll never see again. A lot of us did.

I hope I don't have to add another for a long, long time.

And now that exhaustion apparently has me waxing melancholy, I think I'll go put the kids, and myself, to bed.

( Private to Meaghan, Oliver, Angelina, Katie, Dean, Seamus )

( Private to Adrian )

( Private to George )

I'm still getting invites to Holyhead victory parties. You'd think they'd have all partied themselves out by now, but I guess they don't all have a husband and three children to deal with on top of all the celebrating.

I told them to figure out when the real last one would be, and to invite me to that one, and I just might show.

( Private )

( Private to former Gryffindor Quidditch players, minus George and Alicia )

I'm really looking forward to the Quidditch finals. Portree versus Holyhead, should be an excellent match. Of course we all know who I'll be rooting for, but I don't think I'll be too badly upset should the impossible happen and Portree manage to win.

( Private to George )

Playoffs! I have to admit that I'm not as neutral an observer as I should be, as a member of the press - Kill them, Harpies! - but I do love getting to watch all the playoff games, what with not having to practice to play in them. Well, half the games, anyroad, since some of them go at the same time (and trust me, I'm petitioning to get that bit fixed; I want to be able to see all of them, not trust that my fellow correspondents are covering them properly).

...

Sorry, wandered away for a bit to go shine up my own Quidditch cup. Arnold has taken to sleeping in it, apparently. Poor old thing, he's losing his color and is all faded at the edges, like Busy's favorite blanket.

Ahem. In far more important news: I have extra playoffs tickets. I get my own seats for all Holyhead games due to being a former player and all, so I have four tickets to that game up for grabs. I also have an extra pair of tickets to the Portree/Puddlemere game this Friday, and the Montrose/Falmouth game Saturday. The Kenmare/Chudley game on Sunday is being covered by someone else. Three matches in one weekend, I may die of happiness. Spare tickets will go to whoever I feel like giving them to. State your case and cross your fingers.

( She's been breaking into your broom shed in the garden since the age of six and taking each of your brooms out in turn when you weren't looking. )