My beloved Madelaine,

My heart should be too full to even beat, so full it is with you. Without tangible proof, still I know this must be true for I act in your wisdom even when you are not by my side. Mayhaps you are now my bright angel, whispering what is good and true into my ear. Verily, I would not have penned a line to Mary if not for the still small voice of my beloved leading me on the path of virtue and humility.

You, my dear heart, know that I am not a man who can easily bow his head when the time comes. Perhaps I have fared too well in being the stoic one for too long, but it brought me pain to admit my wrongdoing to Mary Hallett. My ignorance weighs as a fistful of dust, no heft or measure to gain me good footing. But see, again I fall victim to envisioning the world as a great battlefield, with all against my select band of brothers. I digress and shall attempt to wend my way back to you.

I did scribe a long bit of parchment to your old friend Mary, expressing my culpability and begging her good will. It was an act of such pain, but of no greater pain then that fine woman must have felt herself. I shall not dwell on my own pain and diminish hers, nor seek pride of place for having borne it. The matter is that Mary Hallett is a more gallant soul than I would have credited. She extended a hand of grace to my sorrowed brow and lifted me from my guilt, and she bears up under her pain of loss as I would have only credited a Gryffindor capable. Surely your words of wisdom hold – we are none of us wholly one thing or another.

I feel there is grounds for reparation between myself and the other Houses, although this will mean I have to separate from the Mane. My heart grows heavy to consider the loss of my soldier brothers and our plans, but methinks a man is his mission, whether scoundrel, scourge, or angel. Am I a man of flight and whimsy to consider cleaving to what I do not know, or a man of bold vision? Can I share my vision with others aside from you, or are these merely whispered murmurings of a madman? It seems I need your wisdom once again.

All my love,
Your Auberon