Chapter 141

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1/2/93

Dear Harry,

Happy New Year! I hope it's much better for you than the second half of this past one have been.

I'm sorry that I suggested the plan to run away during the Christmas vacation and that we failed to plan for all contingencies. I hope you didn't get in too much trouble for it and that it doesn't make it harder to get away or to get to Scoil Draiocht over the summer. I am excited about the passport though. That way if you do manage to get out of Britain then the authorities won't know to send you back and it avoids child services from advertising for your identity and information on your guardians in Britain. You could turn yourself in as an abandoned child and they'd have to find a home for you in that country. You didn't mention whether you'd managed to find out if there was such a thing as a wizarding tent before you were caught by Dumbledore. Is there a way to check yourself and your belongings for tracking magic and could you remove them if you find the tracking spells or would you have to leave behind everything that has been spelled?

Do you think the fact that you don't think you were memory charmed to forget wanting to leave could mean that it wasn't Dumbledore memory charming you and returning you to your relative's house when you ran away two years ago? Or do you think he was just worried that you'd told someone who would want to know why you came back. He couldn't have made you forget leaving to go home for the holidays, too many people saw you on the train. I think if he wanted to remove part of your memory of the trip to Diagon Alley he would have made you go back to your relatives but that would be too suspicious since you never would've chosen to go there if you knew you could've stayed at school. Of course he could have made you forget that too. This whole thing is so confusing, there's no way of knowing what you potentially don't remember.

How are you feeling about being stuck at school for the rest of the term? Are you going to be okay? Who else other than Hermione and the Weasleys and Draco and his best friends have stayed over the break? Do you have a spring break? Do you think that you'll try again then?

The passport sounds amazing and it would certainly help you hide in another country and not be found by someone British looking for you, but what happens if the money falls out? Does it revert to being blank? It would be easy to lose like that, or to accidentally use as a notebook or if it happened while the authorities were asking for it you wouldn't be able to find it for them or make it say what you wanted in front of them. It would be helpful if there was also a way to change your surname but I suppose that would be asking too much and at least Harry Potter isn't that rare or memorable in the nonmagical world. Remember that you shouldn't be using the Polyjuice when someone needs to check your passport unless you can make the picture change to match your new face and back again when the potion wears off.

I think that if you tried to stow away on an airplane, you'd have to sneak onto one that had a first class otherwise you'd be caught by people trying to get past you in the narrow walkways and seats and it would cause a major freak out if people didn't pull the cloak off you and realise you're a flesh and blood person and not a ghost. I don't think that there's enough room to hide beneath a seat, or up in the overhead luggage racks even in first class, to guarantee you won't be walked into, so your only hope would be to catch a plane that wasn't full and to sit in the empty seat and I don't know how you would find out before hand if there were empty seats and once the plane left you'd probably find people moving about to get away from the person they were sitting next to or to get a better view. Do not whatever you do try to stow away in with the luggage, that part of the plane doesn't have the oxygen supply that the cabin does unless you find a plane transporting livestock.

Killing in self defence isn't murder and I wouldn't blame you or think less of you if you did end up having to use violent magic against Vernon or Dudley to protect yourself and accidentally killed them in desperation, I understand how you feel it might come to that, but it still might be more difficult to do than you think it will be, even if you think they're about to kill you. It might be better if you can pre-emptively destroy the house to get out from under the wards and away from the Dursleys that way if you can get away from there without getting caught. There's a reason that your magic has never lashed out and killed Vernon for you and I'm pretty sure it's not just because the wards were sucking the power out of you. I know that you think that your magic killed Professor Quirrell last year but if he'd accepted Voldemort's possession and was drinking unicorn blood to keep himself alive he had already corrupted every cell in his body. Your magic wouldn't have needed to be trying to kill him, it could even have been trying to get Voldemort out of his body to save him and he still would have died. You need to try to get away before you arrive back there. A word of warning though, if they're together and you don't have any alternative but to kill them, kill Vernon first, he's the bigger threat but once you've killed him do not freak out and stop. Do not hesitate to kill all three of them if they're all at home or arrive home before you manage to leave and you can't get away from them safely, I think you would need to unless you managed to separate them, once you've killed the first the others may become enraged. Once you've killed one of them you must never under any circumstances go back there. The biggest problem with killing them other than the trauma and the guilt I know you will feel afterwards, would be that while I know you would be justified in fearing for your life you might have a hard time proving it if the police were called, since your reputation around that neighbourhood has been manipulated by the Dursleys so thoroughly and even your so called friends and the professors at Hogwarts refuse to believe you are in danger. If you do go to trial then I would be glad to stand as a witness for you. I've kept all your letters so I'm sure I could prove you were being abused but the problem is even most of the letters before you found out about magic have references to your powers. I'm sure Dumbledore would step in and prevent you from actually being sent to a juvenile detention facility but I'm worried about what he would demand from you in return.

I'm glad that you stood your ground and refused to take the Polyjuice potion. It seems that it worked as it was supposed to and didn't harm Ron or Hermione but it was a huge and very stupid risk for them to take. Does Ron really believe in Hermione that absolutely? Or is he just too naive to realise what a risk he was taking? At least you know that the dose you took from the cauldron while you were cleaning up should be safe since the other two turned back without side effects. Do you think that Professor Snape did substitute the potion he made for Hermione's? If he did, could Ron have known about it? Is it even possible that she could have made it correctly? What's the shelf life on Polyjuice potion and what would be the side effects of taking it after it's best before date because if Snape substituted that doesn't mean he started making it when he o Dumbledore found out about Hermione attempting to make it. He might keep it on hand for nefarious purposes of his own and have made it some time ago. If nothing else, if it is still safe to take it should help you get away from the Dursleys if you end up back there with someone watching the house, (and give the neighbours a chance to see another suspect for their murders if you choose someone that looks shifty enough for them to notice). The only problem with that plan is that it is a plan. Self defence can't be premeditated like that so if you were caught you would have trouble using that as a defence.

On a side note, wouldn't it have been better for Hermione to plan the potion so it became ready during term time? She had no way of knowing that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle would all stay at school over the break. Do you think it is possible Snape encouraged them to stay so Hermione's plan would work?

I'm having trouble believing that Draco didn't notice that there was something wrong with his two best friends. He spends all his time with them and while as a second year he wouldn't have a reason to suspect his friends were being impersonated via Polyjuice, he should have noticed that their behaviour was very unlike them. From what you've told me Ron and Hermione aren't very good actors and they don't spend enough time watching the behaviour of Draco's friends when they're not in your face trying to cause trouble to mimic it effectively. Then again Ron and Hermione consider you one of their best friends and haven't noticed in the past year and a half that you don't like or trust them. I don't think that I was ever that oblivious and unobservant and I know you're not but perhaps that's one of the side effects of not having a normal happy home life, it teaches you to pay more attention to what's going on around you. I could see Hermione not particularly caring whether you genuinely liked her and her arrogance would encourage her to believe that she's fooling you about her real feelings for you, but Ron sounds like he seems genuinely jealous when you try to have other friends. He may or may not actually like you (or at least not like you enough to stand up to criticism from the rest of the school for being your friend) but he is certainly very possessive of your friendship when it suits him for some reason and he's going to react badly possibly even violently if he finds out it's false.

What are they planning to do now that they've proved you were right and it isn't Draco opening the chamber? Did they acknowledge that you were right and that the Polyjuice was an unnecessary risk? Have they latched onto a new suspect or are they completely baffled? Please don't tell me they're starting to believe that it might be you!

Batman can fly.

Your friend always

Spencer

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Please stay safe everyone.