I dread to think what you are implying by referring to ‘a child like Charity’. Is she so much a lost cause? The likes you had never heard of before? Her own category unto herself?

But no indeed, you would not be boring me with any amount of detail – I would like to hear what you find amiable about the position of matron.

In any case, Caroline suspects this baby will be a boy – she says she is carrying it differently. I would not wager on it, but I have thought it might be another girl: there, at least, we would have the practice, as you say.

I wish you the best of luck with your student disputes: I can only imagine that there are more of them to be found in impassioned Gryffindor than there ever were in Hufflepuff. (Although there were a few.)

Perhaps this summer, then, when your schoolyear has ended, you will be able to visit – to meet the new babe, and say hello again to Charity in your old teaching grounds.

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