Closed Outside Contact

[Stan Beckett]

[PLACEHOLDER]

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

[set starting in November (if that is okay with you)]

For an office that was usually not to busy Briar returned after her maternity leave to find a pule of letters and papers in her in-tray. it seemed like most of them were in relation to werewolves. how come when she had worked primarily with werewolves it had been a dead department but now she had taken three months off to be with her newborn daughter and it was like everything had exploded. It had taken most of the morning through letters about a werewolf attack that had occurred a couple of months ago which wasn't news to her she had still been in contact with work and urgent matters like this she had seen to from home. there were letters from the prophet asking for an interview which she replied to with a suggested date and time. and there was one letter written in familiar handwriting even though it had been ages since she had been at school she still recognised her old head of house's writing the crest on the back had also given it away, this should have been one of the letters forwarded to her. maybe it wasn't as important to the wizarding world as a whole as the rest but to her it was. she set this one aside. this was what she had gotten into the ministry to do. she would deal with the mess first so that she could take the time to reply to this one properly.
by mid-afternoon her desk was clear enough she reread the letter. it was from her Cyndi explaining that one of the first years had recently been bitten by a werewolf and that he had some questions that she might be able to answer but it didn't outline the specifics of the questions. she took out a quill and some paper and started to write. she had had a lot of practice writing letters about werewolves keeping them vague enough so that if they fell into the wrong hands that the owner would be able to deny the content. she usually started without using some keywords and avoiding addressing it properly and let the person at the other end decide the tone and what was an appropriate level of confidentiality. she was known to be as open as she could about her experiences but she knew many people, including her husband, were a lot more secretive.
she had once also written on letterheads from other departments but she had gotten into a fair amount of trouble for that so now she used the Department for regulation and control of dangerous creatures paper instead of the more specific werewolf support services one.

Dear Mr S K.
Sorry, it has taken me a little while to write to you. I have just returned to work from maternity leave and the vast majority of my mail was not forwarded to me. including some things that should have been seen as high priority.
Let me introduce myself. My Name is Briar Rowan-Cullen. I run the department for magical creatures at the ministry of magic. I am writing to you today as a friend and former professor of mine has informed me about the fact that you have recently been in contact with a magical creature and have some questions. your professor feels like I may be the best person to help answer them as I too have had regular experience with this creature ever since I was sixteen. she didn't specify what questions you had but feel free to ask them and i will answer as best as I can.
Where you are at the moment you are in safe hands. your head of house is an amazing woman and will always be there to help you. congratulations on your sorting by the way you got into the best house. the nursing and potions staff are also there to help.
So to start i will offer some general advice. Be careful. many people are kind and accepting about things but there is also a lot of people who are not. make sure you trust someone before you tell them. especially if you want things to remain a secret. but trust your own judgement on when is right, having some people who know and who will stand by you is important. The nights themselves are not too bad assuming you have had your medicine. I believe that you have your own space as the last occupant graduated last year.
and please send me a letter any time if you have questions or problems. I promise I will get back to you quicker.

Briar

Mrs Briar Rowan-Cullen
Head of Department: Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical creatures
Level 3, Ministry of magic, New Zealand

 

[Stan Beckett]

He wasn't sure if he should write back to the woman, partially because there was still a little bit of hope left that all of it was just a really, really bad dream and that he would wake up in his own bed with his mother standing over him to tell him that it was time to get up and get himself ready for another school day. With each passing day, however, that little bit of hope was fading away and Stanislaw would have to accept that his presence might not be well received by people in the wizarding community if they ever found out what he really was. As he read over the woman's letter, Stanislaw became less and less sure of whether he wanted to tell Allie about his condition or not. She was his best friend and was pretty much always with him wherever he went, so to have to keep a secret from her, and something so serious as this, was a difficult thing to pull off. So far things were going alright, though. He didn't think that she was suspecting a thing, and if she did, the nurses at the Hospital Wing would take care of it, thankfully. Deciding that it would perhaps be a good thing to ask the woman for a little more information about the whole ordeal, as he had yet to talk to someone like him, Stanislaw made sure that everyone had gone to bed and that the common room completely deserted.

Hello Mrs Rowan-Cullen,

I do not know what maternity leave is, I am sorry that my English is not very good, but I am happy to hear that you have returned to work again. I think that you already know my name but I will intod introduce myself still. My name is Stanislaw Kurek and I was bitten only a coupel couple of months ago by a werewolf in the forest near to where I lived.

I have already received a lot of infomasion informasion information from the Polish Ministry and the Professors of Hogwarts but I have not yet talked to someone who goes through the same problems as I do every month. And I have also talked to the nurse at the Hospital Wing. I can notice that she feels sorry for me every time that I look at her, did the nurses look at you that way too?

I want to tell my best friend about what I am but I am scary scared that she will look at me the same way that nurse does. She already feels sorry for me because of my home situation and I do not want her to feel even more sorry for me. I do not remember a lot of things from my nights, is that normal? I think that I was sleeping. Will it ever get better, the sick feeling I feel before a full moon and how tired I am afterwards?


Sorry again if my English is not very good, it is not my native language.

Stan.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

Briar had had a rough night. Ivy had not wanted to sleep. she wasn't sure if it was teething if it was the effects of the moon on her or some other cause but it had meant that she had come into work with the dark circles under her eyes even more pronounced than ever. she had thankfully over the last couple of days managed to get on top of her work so it was clear when she saw a letter arrive for her in the kind of writing that looked like a young person and not an adult. she opened it and read it picturing someone like lin writing the letter. he heart went out to him. at least until she came to the part of the nurses feeling sorry for him. no, she wasn't feeling sorry for him. at least not in regards to being a werewolf. she just wished there was a way to protect, or at least prepare him for how cruel children could be. she read through the letter again before she picked up a quill and started to write.

Dear Stan.
please call me briar. you don't need to apologise for your English. I too only started to learn it properly a few months before is started school especially reading and writing. it looks fine to me. Maternity leave is when you take time off work because you have had a baby. I took three months to look after my little girl.
It is good to meet you. It sounds like you have had a lot of support the last few months which is great, a lot more than some people have. Though I agree nurses and professors can help but there are some things that can only be learned from another werewolf. when I was bitten I only knew one other werewolf and sent him a lot of letters with questions, I think it drove him crazy.
For the nurses. I can't really remember that much in detail. I guess they may have done but i didn't really notice I was too much of a headstrong kid for people to really feel sorry for me, I was always getting into accidents on the quidditch pitch. and it sounds like you are similar.
I would recommend telling your friend. even if she does feel sorry for you to begin with she will soon figure out that you don't need to be felt sorry for it is just part of who you are now, nothing more in need of sympathy than having brown hair or coming from Poland (neither of which need sympathy)
If you want to see how she reacts you could try talking about werewolves in general first and see what she says. or wait for the topic to come up. of its own accord. it will do eventually, in the news, or in class. but it is worth telling someone so you know they will help you if anything comes up.
Actually, if you want to tell someone who I promise isn't going to feel sorry for you. or react badly. My daughter is a prefect in your house her name is Willow Cullen. and my son Linden is in your year in Hufflepuff, don't worry I won't tell them about you unless you want me to. They have lived with a werewolf their whole life and know what it's like.
sleeping through your transformations is not a common thing. if you are able to sleep through them that is great. they are not necessarily memories that you want to keep. Unfortunately, the feeling tired and sick is very normal and doesn't really ever go away, even my children experience it in a mild way. but it does become easier after time. you might also find that you might feel really good and full of energy around a new moon. which in some ways makes up for it.
sorry, i got carried away I hope I managed to answer your questions. feel free to ask as many as you want. I would love to hear how it goes with your friend.

Briar

I just thought If you want to see how your friend reacts you can always point out willow (she is the prefect with short bright red hair and seeker on the quidditch team) and say you heard her mum is a werewolf. that is well known enough that she won't mind.

 

[Stan Beckett]

Stanislaw had been nervous about writing and sending someone he didn't really know such a telling letter, what if it would get in the wrong hands and people at school might know about it? But fortunately for him, he hadn't run into any trouble while on his way up to give the letter to one of the many school owls. Now if only the owls could be just as discreet at delivering him the woman's response, that'd be great. What he mostly meant by that was that he didn't want Allie to find out that he was writing to some strange woman about something without having told her about it first. Thankfully, the Gryffindor did not have to wait that long for a response from Mrs Briar. He had gone back up to the owlery to check if she had send him something back, as he had missed breakfast that morning, and found the owl sitting there waiting for him, hooting happily. He stroked its feathers and took the letter from its leg, opening it and reading it immediately. He thought that she had a good idea and that it might be wise to casually bring werewolves up next time he was talking to his best friend. When he returned to the common room sometime later, Stanislaw went to write a response at once.

Hello Briar,

You are not English? If not what are you? I have my best friend helping me to improve my English. I think that it is going good also. In the meantime, I am learning her Polish because she asked me to. She is a quicker learner than me, but I am confident that I will be good at it soon. Happy Birthday Congratulations on having a baby girl. I have question about that. People have already answered it but I want to be really sure. Can our disease be transferred to other people, for example, by

I think that you are right and that should tell my friend about my condition. She was really nice when I showed her my mother's letter about disowning me. I am thinking that she will be just as nice when I tell her about this. But I do think that I will try your suggestion first to see what she thinks of werewolfs werewolves. I do not think that I am good with the idea of other students knowing about what I am even if they will not react badly, sorry. I will keep it in my head!

I can remember my first night in the cove cave. I did not like it, it was very lonely there and I had nothing to do but lay around. I want to be what Professor Pendleton is when I am older and make potions also. I want to invent a potion that can help against the sick feeling people like us get. Do you think that is possible or have people tried that already? So that is why I was feeling so busy alive?


I will tell you once I know how my friend will react!

Stan.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

it had hardly been a couple of days when the next letter arrived on her desk. by now she recognised the boys writing. she smiled. as much as she hated writing this was one of her favourite aspects of her job. she read through the letter and couldn't help seeing a younger version of herself in the letter. she wasn't sure where she was from exactly. but in eastern Europe somewhere. she had heard the region referred to as a Slavic area. disowned by her family at eleven for being something that was out of your control, only in her case it was because she was a witch. the important issue was how to answer his question and not betray her family. she wrote the first paragraph and read through it. that sort of covered the key points.
as Stan spoke about how his friends would react. she thought about the day she had been outed to the whole school. she hadn't told anyone other than some professors that she was a werewolf and suddenly everyone knew. her sister and brother had both been very supportive. she could still picture minoas covering all the posters with a fur growing spell she smiled to herself at the thought and the irony. she really missed him sometimes. at his mention of his mum disowning him, she felt bad. she knew exactly how that had felt like she had had two mums disown her. one when she had just been a day old and the other when she had been eleven. maybe it was that memory. or the recent information about the werewolf attack that had lead to a lady dying, or the fact that she was still in a 'broody' mood that led her to add in the offer of somewhere to stay. she knew it was well beyond what she was meant to do through the ministry. but if it was a choice of him spending the night with her and dederick on their farm. where he was safe from others and would no be able to hurt anyone or spend it somewhere else where someone could find him she knew what she would want. besides if willow's friend ever showed up then he would have someone closer to his own age as well to talk to.

Dear Stan.
I am afraid I don't know how to answer that question. before I started at Hogwarts my family travelled a lot we never had a set place to live but travelled throughout what I think would be called the Slavic areas in Europe. I don't even know what we spoke a combination of different things I think.
no being a werewolf can only be passed on by being bitten by a werewolf during a full moon. you will find a milder form of the condition can be passed on to whose bitten by a werewolf no during a full moon, or children of werewolves. they may, like a werewolf feel tired around a full moon, and may have an increased liking for raw meat than a non-werewolf but they don't transform.
your friend sounds like a very good friend. I am sure she will take it well. some people have a way of surprising you. when I told one of my friends he thought it was one of the coolest things that ever happened. if you have nowhere to stay during the holidays you are welcome to stay with us. even if it is just for full moon nights, you will be safe from harm, and there will be no one else around other than a couple of other werewolves so you won't be able to hurt anyone. my kids won't be there and won't have to know you were there. of course, that offer has nothing to do with the ministry. but it is important that you have somewhere safe to transform where you can't accidentally hurt anyone.
I always used to stop off at the kitchens on my way down to the cavern. and get a couple of raw steaks to eat during the night. other than that I would just pace and I think I destroyed the furniture more than once, as in every month.
that sounds like a good idea for a potion. I would try it if you managed to create it. I don't know if it has already been tried. I never had the patience for potions. wolfsbane is the only one I ever make. and even then I usually buy it from the hospital.
Briar.

 

[Briar Rowan-Cullen]

It had been so long since briar had given the interview that she had almost forgotten about it. She hadnt forgotten the content. that was still keeping her department busy but the interview its self had been a while ago. it wasn't until she recieved a note from the prophet letting her know that it was to be published the following day that she rmemebered. she hoped that it would not cause panic. though there were a few of her clients that she knew she should warn just so that they wouldnt be confronted with it and leave them in a sticky situation. she took out a quill and started to write.

Dear S.
I hope that you are well and that semester two is going smoothly. but more importantly i hope that you and your friend are still on good terms with each other. if she is even half the friend oyu described her as being i am sure that is not any cause for concern.
unfortunately, as much as i would like to hear about how things are going that is not the main reason i am writing to you. I just wanted to let you know that tomorrow the prophet are going to be publishing an article about an attack so it may be worth trying to get your hands on a copy. if you cant get one I will be sending one to both of my children and i am sure they will let you read it. though if i remember right there are usually a few spare left behind in the great hall in the morning, or i can send you one too.
good luck.
B