Entry Number Two

[Harvey Branden]

Dear Haven,

Well as promised I am going to give you a guided tour of my house today. I just know you must be thrilled about it. I have been going round the house bugging Robert and Pa by taking pictures of literally everything. Unfortunately we did not have the right stuff to make them move. Mainly because I was stuck with this dusty old muggle camera that Robert shoved into my hands and insisted I use. Apparently it is good for my education. I do not have photo's of everything because Pa blew his top when he saw the camera and destroyed it. We have all been on very thin ice with him recently. Ever since we had to move here, and go into semi-hiding, he has been ready to bust. Though how it can be hiding when he says I am still allowed visitors. Though only certain people got on the list of okay people. I made sure your name was on there, Aaliyah however was a bit more shaky.

If you are not interested in the tour - though cannot see why you would not be - skip to the next bold section and read from there.

Anyhow on with the tour of 'The Branden Estate'. But before I begin I should mention the name of the house. It comes from our old house in Ireland, which we had to sell. Now Pa wants our old friends to think we are still living like we use to so he bought the name with us to our new house. I explained to you in my previous letter the reasons behind our abrupt change of country and location even though the sale of our Irish house got us plenty of cash. So our new house, while certainty not tiny, is much smaller than our old one. It is situated in a tunnel where all the other houses are, for people who are laying low for a while. Alright it is much more complex than that but I cannot go into it so lets move on.

We are going to start upstairs with my bedroom. Now Robert, as you know he is my Pa's incredibly hot executive assistant (though rather amusingly everyone thinks he is Pa's gay life partner and the assistant thing is just an excuse to cover up the truth), turned a four bedroom house into a three bedroom house. He made his bedroom, and Pa's bedroom tiny, and knocked down a wall of the final bedroom so he could make my bedroom really big. He then set about decorating it in pirate theme because he knows I like water and things. In truth I like sharks and the like, but I have to admit my finished bedroom is awesome. It has two beds, though I am just going to show one picture, so I can have people to stay.



In the second from last, and last, pictures you can a tunnel with a rope which leads down. Unlike in these pictures where it just goes down to the bedroom, my one goes much further. The tunnel leads downstairs and comes out in the playroom. It is so I do not have to use the main stairs if I do not want to. Because there are wooden slats all the way along it you can climb back up it to my room if I want to. Though it can get quite dizzy making as it is quite high by the time you get to the top. If you do not look down then it is certainly fun. It also makes a great hiding place.



I know these pictures are not exactly in order. But here is the upstairs bathroom. Robert clearly has not realized I am already thirteen by this point. But choosing to ignore that particular thing this is the bathroom I use the most.



Keeping up with the bathroom theme, this is the tiny downstairs bathroom.



Anyone that knows me but at all will know by playroom I meant my favourite room in the entire house - the library. So yes the tunnel from my bedroom comes out here. My haven of leather bound books and uncomfortably authentic chairs.



Yes this is why the kitchen is so small (though you have not seen the kitchen yet). Robert turned the lounge / kitchen / dining area into one giant TV room and then put the kitchen into the utility room. Now I know nothing about TV having lived muggle free all my life - but you know that of course. Same goes for my Pa as you also know. But Robert has slowly been teaching us. Apparently this is a big TV compared to what most people have. I love it, I cannot believe I have been my whole life without one, but we are only allowed to use it during certain times. It is in fact the only muggle thing that Pa has allowed in the house and he is not wavering on that. He still hates muggles / muggle-borns / and is still determined that the TV is too much. But he let it stay under sufferance.



(Real life Note - remove the computers and pretend they are not there. I could not find desks without computers on.)

Well these are the tiny bedrooms that belong to Robert and My Pa. They also double as studies. Because that is the only space left in the upstairs after my room. I have not much else to say except I am banned from ever going in either of them.



This is my study, it is like an ensuit bathroom as in it joins onto my bedroom, but its an ensuit study. You can see the door through to it in the pictures of my bedroom. In the pictures above it looks like it is two doors that lead to a bathroom and a wardrobe. But Robert knocked those two rooms together and created this study instead. As I have a bathroom just opposite me across the upstairs landing.

End of Tour

Well moving onto the important part. Though in all honesty there is not much news. I still have the same two friends. I still have not met a guy who makes me feel warm and fuzzy like you do. Though I have found great amusement and delight in the fact Robert has taken to - due to the rumours going around that he is my Pa's gay life partner and the executive assistant is about as good a cover up as honest ma he is my room-mate - wondering around the house topless and singing 'if I was gay' in a loud voice. It drives my Pa insane but he cannot fire him because apparently he knows too much. I am not as brave as him. I only join in the singing when Pa is not at home. As you know I have a phobia of things that can kill me, and my Pa definitely could.

School is good as ever. Though there is no quidditch team, because you can not play quidditch underground in a secret hide out beneath New York. So I just spend most of my time in the library. How did the quidditch match go? Who won? Has anyone been mourning my non-appearance? Has anyone noticed?

How is life with you anyway? I hope your family is well and fairing better than mine. Talking about hoping people are well have you been avoiding being beaten up by anyone of late? Without me there to take punches for you. Though over here I kinda wished there was any boy I loved liked was friends enough with to take a punch for. Maybe I would take a punch for vampire boy. Though it is more likely that I will punch himself myself if he pleads with me to turn that light out one more time. It is my library and I will have it on if I want too. He should study at home. Talking about small enclosed spaces, I bumped into a new friend today sort of. Did not mention her earlier because it was weird. But she seemed nice. We were both in the storage closet screaming over a giant spider, then she found some ancient diary, so we checked it out.

I got to go eat now, you know perfectly well I love to eat, so don't judge me,

love from

Harvey