Owl from Surya Patil to Delilah Lockhart Patil, 7 Sept 1942
In response to her letter, also in Tamil, and warded equally strongly.
Dear Lilah,
Thank you for your concern. I agree, we should meet soon. When are you free? Unless I have a subject to investigate, my hours are quite flexible.
If my brother has revealed everything about my gifts - and I admit, I have never been able to predict his actions; he knows quite well how our father felt about protecting those of us whose gifts are likely to unsettle the unenlightened, but whether that would cause him to keep Father's secrets or reveal them just to spite him - well, I doubt even Father's mad Spaniard would be able to determine that outcome.
But if he has merely included me on the list without adding his knowledge of my abilities, that can be managed - my colleagues have never enquired too closely into the means by which I obtain information. If pressed, I can tell them that my gift is intuition as to which forensic spells might be most productive; mindful of Father's warnings, I have always made sure that I have other evidence to corroborate the information I obtain from my subjects.
We must also talk about my cousins and the situation at Hogwarts. I cannot discuss an investigation while it is still ongoing, but as we have been working on this since before the school term began you can imagine how little progress has been made, and you know how the English are - always willing to blame the outsiders when things happen that they cannot understand.
Surya
Dear Lilah,
Thank you for your concern. I agree, we should meet soon. When are you free? Unless I have a subject to investigate, my hours are quite flexible.
If my brother has revealed everything about my gifts - and I admit, I have never been able to predict his actions; he knows quite well how our father felt about protecting those of us whose gifts are likely to unsettle the unenlightened, but whether that would cause him to keep Father's secrets or reveal them just to spite him - well, I doubt even Father's mad Spaniard would be able to determine that outcome.
But if he has merely included me on the list without adding his knowledge of my abilities, that can be managed - my colleagues have never enquired too closely into the means by which I obtain information. If pressed, I can tell them that my gift is intuition as to which forensic spells might be most productive; mindful of Father's warnings, I have always made sure that I have other evidence to corroborate the information I obtain from my subjects.
We must also talk about my cousins and the situation at Hogwarts. I cannot discuss an investigation while it is still ongoing, but as we have been working on this since before the school term began you can imagine how little progress has been made, and you know how the English are - always willing to blame the outsiders when things happen that they cannot understand.
Surya