Dear Melly,How has summer been for you so far? It feels weird being outside of Hogwarts. Some of my friends mentioned that Witch Weekly said that Hogwarts might only allow learning from books. Is that true? Do they even tell you if it is, or do only the heads of house and their bosses know?

If that's true, I hope they don't ban quidditch. What an awful thought. Especially since I just became captain. How would anyone learn potions anyway? Or wand movements, really, if you think about it.

Summer has been nice so far, though a bit dull. Still wondering what I want to do with my life. Next year will be my last year. How weird is that? Being an adult and all. It's hard to imagine.

Your Brother,
Lucky

It is as strange for me to be without classes to teach as it is for you to not need to attend them, I can assure you! I bet you've never seen the castle so empty as I did on the day after you all left it! If everyone wasn't already entirely familiar with the ghosts, I'd call it haunted.

Don't let the thought of the future haunt you, either. I should not think that Witch Weekly has ever been the authority on the school's plans for its students, so I would take that news with a pinch of salt - although you're probably right that I, junior professor as I am in the scheme of things, would not be the first to hear. A shame for them, then, that even if my subject is not the most practical, that most of its theory comes from a time before books were even invented. Whatever shall they say to me about that? I can't imagine that they would refuse to teach spellwork, though. Whatever would be the point of your NEWTs then?

Speaking of which, I shouldn't worry about what's beyond that. Worry about getting past your NEWTs first. And I'll tell you a secret, Lucky: plenty of adults don't have the faintest idea what they're doing with their lives.

All you have to do to be successful in life is, well... live. At least a little. And if it's any comfort, eventual death is, at least, a certain future.

It's summer, Lucky!

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