My beautiful Drell:
As I write this, I will see you again in only two days. And in those two days, you will be done with your exams and can finally, finally come home.
Rudy is making me go out and play Quidditch with him because he keeps saying that once you’re back, he’s never going to see me anymore. Let’s make sure he’s right.
Good luck on your Potions and Arithmancy exams today, and enjoy the cookies! Mum made them just for you. I’ve heard a rumor that chocolate increases mental capacities.
Love,
Sep
p.s. I decided I needed to ask you this first so you didn’t hex me into next week—would you mind very much if I proposed to you at graduation?
p.p.s. I AM THE SAPPIEST MAN ALIVE AND I NEED TO GET A LIFE.
p.p.p.s Rudy wrote that last postscript in indelible ink. Please hex him for me also when you get home. I love you.
**
June 3rd, 1935
Cedrella,
I wanted to wish you a happy graduation and say congratulations for the eight N.E.W.Ts I’m sure you received!
I don’t know where you are going to go after this or why you left, and even if I did I don’t think I would be able to understand. I assume you are with him. But I really hate how things were left between us and I wanted you to know a few things.
As you of course know, I didn't return to Hogwarts after Christmas, but I was tutored at home and took my O.W.L.s at the Ministry last week. I don't know my results yet but I think I did all right, and I know that was important to you.
I did not want to marry Caspar, but I want you to know I did it with good grace, because I knew that the safest thing for you just then was to be forgotten and hidden, and for our father’s attention to be directed elsewhere. You were right and I was wrong: being a Black is about loyalty, because it’s about doing what is best for the whole family, even when it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done. I'm doing the best I can. I can't say any more here.
I want you to know that I'm all right, that I am thinking of you, wishing for your guidance, and missing you every day. I wish things had turned out differently.
Please do not respond to this letter.
Always,
your little sister
**
June 3rd, 1935
Dearest Sep,
I've had a letter from Charis. I'll show it to you when I see you tomorrow- I don't know how I feel about it.
As for the rest of your letter, Rudy has it all right: you are terribly sappy and I love you for it, and he is not going to see either of us for days when I get back after graduation. But you do know that, however much I love your sense of humor and your refreshing originality, you can't offhandedly propose to me like that in a letter! I won't accept until you do it properly. I'll have you know I expect a lot from the man who took me flying to a secret mountain meadow on Valentine's Day...
Love,
Drell
June 4th, 1935
My Cedrella,
I will be seeing you in a matter of hours, and I wanted to formally ask your permission to, when I catch sight of you after two very long months, drop down onto my knees as an amused Alex tells me is the custom and ask you to marry me.
I won't have a very fancy ring, but something tells me you won't mind. I won't ask you to give up anything. I'll promise to make your life as happy as it can possibly be. I'll tell you that you're the best thing that ever happened to me, that you always surprise me and always amaze me, that I think you're beautiful, that I see your faults and love you more for them, that I think you're brave and brilliant and unique, that I'll love forever and that I think I have since the first time I saw you in the Owlery, dancing in your nightdress, as crazy as that sounds. I'll tell you that I know it's kind of silly to worry about marriage now when it's probably the last thing on your mind since you so recently escaped from it, and I'll tell you that I'm doing it now because I want to make a negative into a positive. I'll tell you that it doesn't have to mean we get married right away, that we can wait as long as you like, that I don't care as long as you're happy.
I'll tell you all of this, or I'll try, but I expect you'll be so excited to see my handsome face that we'll be snogging too much for me to get the words out, so I thought I'd say them here.
See you in a few hours!
Love,
your Sep
October 12th, 1935
Dear Miss Back,
We are pleased to inform you that your manuscript Talking with Owls: A History and a Journey has been chosen for publication! Please present yourself at the Obscurus Books Office in Suite 18a, Diagon Alley, on October the Twentieth for a preliminary meeting with your editor.
Yours truly,
Professor Otto Viridian
**
Cordially invites you and yours
To a ceremony celebrating the marriage
Of Septimus Arthur Weasely
and Cedrella Narcissa Black
(Affectionately known as Sep and Drell)
On June 15th, 1937, at noon
On the Weasley Lawn.
A reception will follow,
And in honor of the memory of Sagittus Weasley, it will last until the champagne is gone and there is no one left on the dance floor.
We await your owl no later than the day of the ceremony, (though Drell would like to add that there is no need to send a note).
**
June 5th , 1937
Dearest Pepper,
You’ll find a wedding invitation enclosed, but I wanted to ask you if you would do me the added honor of walking me down the aisle?
Love,
Drell