Order Only: Private message to Tonks

[alt_charlie]

Tell my best girl happy birthday, and give her a kiss from me? The owl with my present should be there in the morning. You can tell her I carved the dragon all by myself, just for her. (I'm getting better! This one actually looks like it's supposed to.)

How are you doing? I'm run half ragged these past few weeks, or I'd've been down, but I'm hoping to get some time later this week.

Comments

[alt_nymphadora]

Oh, she'll love it!

Three years. It seems both longer and also so much less than that. I've seemed to be caught in a tempus wumpus cupboard, like at a fair, ever since she was born. (I think the Healers cast something like that on new mums while they're concentrating on pushing the baby out. I don't remember hearing it being cast, but I'm certain it happened.)

Things have been busy here, too, luv. Bigger crowds at the garden, even when the weather's disappointing. I think we're all wanting to pretend it's summer already! I know I'm ready! (Remind me I said so when I'm complaining it's too hot in a month or two.)

[alt_charlie]

I can imagine. Well, no, I can't really, but every time I see her it seems she's grown another year or five in the month since I saw her last.

And I'm making a careful note of the date and time, and will most solemnly remind you in the dog days that you wished for them. It's been quite chilly up here, too, and every time we think it's about to dry out, it decides to storm again. One of the hatchlings that we're hand-raising -- his mum rejected him, the poor love -- thinks rain is the most fascinating thing in the world, so even when he's soaking, he's out there trying to catch the drops or flame them so they stop attacking him. I can't decide if it's adorable or hysterical -- or both -- but watching a hatchling in the "trip over his own wings and feet every time he moves" stage flaming the raindrops until they boil in midair is quite the show!

Oh, and Em says the saffron you sourced for him is better than anything he can get through official channels, and he's most carefully not asking where you got it, but if you can get more he'll buy up your whole lot at whatever you're asking for it. (It's apparently part of one of the flameproof potions we soak our gear in.)

[alt_nymphadora]

Wee dragons! Or maybe not so wee? How big are they at that stage?

Tell Em, I'll see what we can do about getting some more saffron to him.

[alt_charlie]

He's about up to my hip at the moment. Although I swear every time I turn around, he's grown another hand or two. They're a little pathetic at that stage, though, since their wings aren't big and strong enough to take their weight yet, so they're ground-based for at least the first four months or so after they hatch. Usually in the wild, Mum would have him tucked up in the nest, but when we're hand-raising them it's better for them to be closer to where we are, so we have a pen done up like a cave on ground level. Which means he's walking more than they usually do at that age, which means he's falling over a lot.

I think someone's got a pair of Omnioculars with some of the funny bits recorded on them. I'll see if I can borrow them next time I come down.