Professor Montgomery Pendleton
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Wellington, New Zealand
Dear Mr Pendleton,
I recall you mentioning 'the bins' being taken out on a Saturday, and my first letter to you contains an admonition as well as my great amusement. Cast aside that foreboding, Sir; I laughed very hard when I remembered, but you ought to think yourself very naughty for slipping it past me in the first place. I hope this means that you are familiar with the suburb I live in, as I might invite you to tea when the weather's nice.
In truth, I wished to ask you a question, although it is more rhetorical than anything else; how does one go about procuring unicorn's tears without making a unicorn cry, yourself? It is something I have puzzled over these past weeks with much lamentation. I am aware that it is not on the list of banned ingredients in alchemy, but nor is it readily available in stores or by mail-order. It may just be that rare, but it is essential to the next phase of my moon absorption glass, and I recoil at the prospect of traipsing out into the moonlight to look for a poor unicorn to scold to tears. I am sure I would find myself gored.
Oh, but I neglected to tell you of my next project! Of course I did, I never told you of a first one. Never mind. You might be interested in hearing about the moon absorption glass. I suspect, but am by no means certain, that such things are of an interest to you. I cannot very well ask you to stop me if it isn't, so power through to the goodbyes if you must! It is quite the little gadget, the moon glass. Muggles have an ingenious method of obtaining energy for daily usage by harnessing the sun's rays. It gave me the most wonderful idea to do create a similar device (muggles call theirs 'solar panels') for a similar need us witches and wizards have. You of course know that the most powerful ally to an incantation, ritual, potion etc. is moonlight, but there are always times (especially in good old Mother England) where it is in short supply. Imagine if you could harness the power of the moon in a safe, portable receptacle to maximise the efficacy of your work. Oh, the possibilities!
Yes, this requires unicorn tears, I am sure of it. [A scribble of a sad face with lots of curly hair] Nevertheless, we must power through our deficiencies and make the most of what we have. I have toast racks in abundance, and they will make excellent cooling racks for the glass slides.
Mr Pendleton, my best wishes for you in the school year. Write me if you have the opportunity, but if not, look forward to my next letter and pray for sunshine!
Your faithful correspondent,
Ms Francine Fairebrother
Suite 19, Floor 3
Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, M.o.M.
Whitehall, London
England, Great Britain
