Letter 17: Arsenius Jigger to Hermione Granger, 8th February 1998

A/N: For simplicity’s sake, titles of books, journals etc are underlined and emphases are italicised. In reviving the old tradition of epistolary novels, I understand the plot may be a little slow, laborious and difficult to follow. Some might consider it AU and a little OOC.

In order not to weary the reader’s patience, a number of letters from the series of correspondences have been suppressed; those only have been given which appeared necessary to a complete understanding of the events in this group. For the same reason, some letters from the actors in the events of this drama have also been suppressed.

Proestigium or What the Seasons may Bring

Letter 17: Arsenius Jigger to Hermione Granger, 8th February 1998

Arsenius Jigger

c/o University of York,

School of Magical Arts

Faculty of Alchemy,

Potions Research Centre,

York,

United Kingdom.

Miss Hermione Jane Granger,

21 Fullers Road,

South Woodford,

London, E18 2QB,

United Kingdom.

8th February 1998

I submit myself, dear Miss Granger, to the superiority of our argument on the arrowroot trials. If this missive does not go astray, you will learn that I have news to report. I am pleased to inform you that arrowroot’s corrosive properties have been indubitably been proven. The volatile by-products that you mentioned in your reference to Hippocrates is Folstezen, used as a catalyst in that wondrous thing we call floo powder. I have tried your insane PVA glue suggestion and was astounded by the results. Arrowroot is truly the qualifier in the potion. As the qualifier, it has a part that remains constant throughout, hence the unvarying (Эx) where Э is its covalent bond and X the subsidiary. Fx represents the potion that is brewed and βp is the break-up of the arrowroot. The Ancients are known to deploy esotericism, Miss Granger; as such, I ask you to bear that in mind.

Attached is a draft paper regarding the findings on arrowroot, its corrosiveness and volatility. Please excuse the liberty which I use in sending it to you. You will notice that I credited you as a research assistant in the footnotes on page one. You contribution to it will not go unremarked, that, I am certain. Please excuse the stains on the paper and the envelope. I had nothing else handy and I wanted to get this paper off to you as soon as possible.

Do not put yourself out, young lady, with thoughts of being a nuisance to me. It is an extremely refreshing turn of events to receive intelligent letters from my readers instead of dry encomiums, which I ill deserve, or rude challenges to my theories. Perhaps you have misunderstood me, Miss Granger, I do not, in any way, discourage your projects with Professor Snape. Your intention to consider mallowsweet may be a little premature though. The lycanthropy cure alone requires a tremendous amount of work. I sense you are on the path to becoming an Alchemical philologist. The lycanthropy project (do please TRY to be discrete for your professor’s sake) is not entirely hopeless. If it does get off the ground, there may be a Master of an Oxford College prepared to sponsor it and hence, also myself. A paper you may consider perusing on the subject is in Recherches Alchemique, vol. 199, no. 1, by Alfred Laird, a professor in Aberdeen. I hope this finds you well. So write again, so that we do not lose track of one another.

Yrs.,

A. Jigger.

Footnotes

Proestigium is Latin for illusion. Ironically, the English word Prestige derives from it.

“Yrs” is an abbreviated form of Yours. Notice the change in his sign-off. What does it herald? I leave it to you to uncover.

I have decided not to reproduce the aforementioned draft of an article because you will have journal articles soon enough.