Dear Albus,
I've been at this blasted school for four years, and you're the only person who hasn't openly expressed your hatred towards me. Even though you'll never actually read this letter, it feels good pretending that someone cares.
Things really haven't been going so well. It all started with the Sorting. My mum wasn't extremely well when we boarded the train, and she only got worse after that. I'm pretty sure that was my father's doing, though. He'd always been cold to us, but when he found out that I wasn't a Slytherin, he got even worse (that Howler was just the beginning), and he blamed my mum for giving birth to such a "disgraceful" child. When I went home for Christmas that year, we barely talked. My mum was clearly getting worse, and my father obviously didn't care. She passed right after First Year ended, and that's when the beatings began.
They weren't beatings at first; he started out just yelling at me more than usual, then he started smacking me around a bit. I could handle that, and I hoped that as the summer progressed, everything would go back to normal. Of course, my hopes were too high.
My father found that he enjoyed sadism and began hitting me harder. That progressed to beating me with his cane, pots and pans, and anything else he could find in the Manor. His favorite is a bullwhip, an honest to God bullwhip.
You might want to ask me why I haven't told anyone at school about this. The answer is simple. No one cares about me enough to do anything. I told Professor Goldstein as soon as we got back to school, and he gave me detention for lying. Now that I look back, I probably shouldn't have gone to a professor who opposed my family during the War, but he's my head of house. If he doesn't care, no one else would either.
You know the rest. You've definitely heard stories from your friends about how they heroically beat up the evil Death Eater who somehow managed to worm his way into Ravenclaw. What you probably don't know is that even though I get regular detentions for picking fights, I never fight back. I just stand there and take it because I really don't want to hurt anyone. I guess I want to prove to myself that I'm not my father.
The real purpose of this letter is to say goodbye. Tonight during my rounds, I'm going to jump off of the Astronomy Tower. Then I'll finally be free of my father and everyone else who wants to see me in pain. Maybe after I'm gone, you'll read this. Maybe you'll understand me then, but you probably won't.
When I'm gone, don't pretend that you suddenly care. If you really do, I'm sorry that I'm going to hurt you by doing this, but I really can't take it anymore.
There's one thing that I want you to do for me when I'm gone. Make sure that no student at Hogwarts goes through what I did. Support those who are abused at home, and stand up for those who are bullied at school. No one deserves to be alone the way I am.
Goodbye, Potter.
Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy