There was a knock on the door of the Burrow and everyone jumped. It had been a month since the war ended, but relaxing was still hard. Ginny slid out of her seat, “I’ll get it.”
The rest of them slowly turned back to their conversations as she left the room. A moment later Ginny came back into the room followed closely by Neville.
Molly looked up and forced a smile, “Hello Neville, are you here for lunch?”
Neville shook his head and locked eyes with Harry, “I have to talk to you actually, Harry. I think you're going to want to hear this.”
Harry nodded, “What is it?”
Neville looked around the room and then stepped forward and handed an envelope to Harry, “We found this in my mum’s old things. Gran didn’t want to go through them before, which is why no one found it. I haven’t read it, but I think you’ll want to be alone.” Then Neville turned and walked out of the room. Harry turned over the envelope and froze. The writing on the back read Give to Harry on his seventeenth birthday. -Lily Ginny came up behind him, “What is it?” She looked at the envelope, and then nudged him in the shoulder, “Go upstairs, read it, come back when you're ready.”
Harry was up the stairs, and in Ron’s room faster then he ever had before. Then he pulled open the envelope and began to read.
Dear Harry,
If you’re reading this letter I’m sorry I didn’t get to see you grow up. I love you so much, and I hope I can tell you this in person, but if I can’t there’s something you need to know.
There is a prophecy and it says that you could be the one to destroy Voldemort. It goes-
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches,
Born to those who have thrice defied him
Born as the seventh month dies
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal
But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not
And either must die at the hands of the other
For neither can live while the other survives
I know this sounds scary and awful, but I need you to remember that prophecies don’t have to come true. There are so many examples where they don’t. Your dad and I are doing everything we can to keep you safe. Also you might not even be the child in the prophecy, we just don’t know. But if you end up fighting in this Godforsaken war you need to remember, we want the Order to win, but we want to keep you safe more. I know you're probably wondering why I waited until you were seventeen to tell you this. You had a right to know sooner, but we wanted you to have a chance at a normal childhood, and what kind of person would send a child into a war?
Another reason I’m writing this is because now that Marlene is dead and Mary moved away there’s really no one left who would talk about me the way Moony, Pads, and Wormy would talk about your dad (although I hope he is still around to tell you about me). I also know that there’s a chance I won’t survive this war. If I die I still want you to know a little bit about me. I gave this to Alice, because even though she’s no Mary and she’s no Mar, she might be able to tell you some stories about me. You’re sleeping while I write this, and I keep looking over and wondering what your biggest questions will be, what will you want to know the most if I’m not around. I can’t answer that, but I can tell you a couple things about me.
- I’m a healing-in-training at St. Mungo’s (before we went into hiding anyway). I love potions and I love helping people.
- Both of my parents died before I was 16, but they would have loved you if they had ever gotten a chance to meet you. I have an older sister, her name is Petunia, but I would steer clear of her, because she does not like magic.
- My favorite color is purple- like right after the sun sets, before it’s completely dark.
- The first time I met your father I punched him in the face. I was nervous on the train and I made the mistake of talking to Sirius- he told me that in wizard culture I had to be respected, and to do that I had to assert dominance by punching someone in the face. I had no idea about wizarding culture so I listened to him (a word of advice; never listen to Sirius). When we were all in the room before the sorting Pads crept up behind and told me- “now's your chance”. I pulled back and punched James without hesitating. Sirius thought it was the funniest thing ever and James had a bloody nose during the sorting. But he didn’t tell McGonagall that I hit him- he says that’s the moment he fell in love with me. It took me a bit longer to come around.
- My best friends in school were Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald. After our seventh year the boys made us honorary marauders (you’ll have to ask your father about that nickname). Marlene and her family died fighting Voldemort. Mary fled the country after her fiance was killed. I think she is living in America if you want to get in contact with her. Now that they are gone I spend a lot of time with Alice Longbottom. Of course there’s always Remus- I was friends with him before I liked your father.
James ticked me off at first. He really ticked me off at first.
Aside from that though I have some advice about life now that you're an adult. These are all things I would have wanted to tell you in person.
- Fight- if you need something fight for it. If you want something really bad, fight for it, don’t let people make decisions for you, but pick your battles. Before you start stepping on toes and ask yourself if it’s going to be worth it. If the answer is yes- go ahead. This is how James and I got into the Order. We kept pushing the issue until McGonagall let us in. It’s also kept me alive several times while doing missions for the order. If someone throws the first punch (or hex) don’t hesitate to fight back.
- Change is permanent- nothing will stay the same forever, that’s just life. One day you’re just like everybody else, the next you’re a witch. You need to just make sure that you don’t get stuck in one way of thinking.
- People are always going to matter the most. In 500 years from now your accomplishments probably won’t be remembered. The people you are close to would still remember you if they were still around.
- On the flip side of that, if you're friends with someone or dating someone, and you can’t remember why you liked them, if the bad outweighs the good let them go, because they will only hurt you more in the long run. I had a friend like that. We were good friends when we were little. Through the school years we got into more and more arguments. Eventually I realized he wasn’t a good person anymore. At that point, however, he'd already decided to become a Death Eater and had called me slurs. Keep yourself surrounded by people who make you feel good, it will be better for you and the people you’re around.
- Last tip, don’t judge on first impressions. I judged James on first impressions for years, and eventually I learned that he wasn’t that bad and I felt kind of awful about how I acted to him. Don’t let what other people tell you about someone change the way you look at them- make your own decisions.
You're starting to wake up so one last thing before I go. I love you.I want you to know that I’m not fighting for some noble cause. If I’m dead and you are reading this, I wasn’t fighting to save the world. I’m fighting so that you can grow up in a world without war. I’m willing to die for you to survive, but if I thought that the only way to get you to live was to stand down I would do it, I want a better world for you then the one we’re living in. That’s what this is all about. It's not about the glory, it’s not about the greater good, it’s not even about doing the right thing- Death Eaters think they’re doing the right thing too. It’s about the people we care about, that’s what makes us different from them. Never lose sight of that, because the minute you stop caring about people, is the minute the bad guys win.
Be brave, and remember I will always love you.
-Mum
P.S. tell James I love him.