Chapter 100
A/N: A reminder that I'm only including the highlights and important correspondence, rest assured they wrote multiple emails in conversation every day.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Criminal Minds or any of their characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
Friday 3/8/92 6:06pm (GMT)
I heard back from Nezcalilizcali Naualotl Tlateotokani Toltekayomeh today. I failed both the language tests, I came close on the Spanish but they don't think it's quite good enough for me to cope with attending classes in Spanish and learning what I need to learn without being a burden on the few classmates that speak English. Of course, they don't know that I've only just started learning it in the last couple of weeks and would probably be a lot better by September or that I was intending to use the whole first year as a refresher to improve my language skills because I'd already completed first year elsewhere and learned most of the things they'd be teaching me, and I would write back to the head teacher or head of enrolment to explain all that but then I'd have to admit that I was currently enrolled at Hogwarts and didn't have my magical guardians permission to transfer to another school and I'd be turned down for the same reason as everywhere else. I wish that I'd thought of trying to enrol as a first year before I'd already applied to transfer to all of the English speaking schools I could find. I've heard back from most of the schools I applied to and they all said the same, that they could not accept me without my guardians permission. The only school I have not heard back from is Beauxbatons in France which according to my book on magical schools are probably the most conservative school I applied for, and classes are all taught in French. I'm worried that they may have sent the request for permission directly to my magical guardian instead of dealing with me so Dumbledore will know that I'm trying to leave Hogwarts.
I'm worried that if he has received the notification he will try to contact me and realise that I haven't spent the summer at the Dursleys like he told me to, if he hunts me down here he might try to prevent me attending here next summer as well.
I have some good news, well good for Dean. He passed his audition so he's in magical drawing and magical painting. I know they sound the same but magical drawing teaches how to animate drawings how to make them move so it looks natural, and magical painting is more than that how to give a painting the subject's personality, voice and memories as well as moving like the person. They're not about drawing skills at all but Dean says there's a club after classes that does teach some of that as well, that he's actually been going to twice a week for most of this summer and I just haven't noticed.
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
Friday 8/3/92 10:11am (PST)
I am more sorry than I can express that you weren't accepted into the magical school in Mexico, not just because it would have been amazing for me to be able to visit you and you to come stay with me on the odd weekend you were allowed away from the school and to be in the same time zone and able to email or even call and speak to each other every day and I would worry less, but for your sake because I know that you would feel safer and happier there. Hell, you would be safer in any other school, not just think that you were. I'm also sorry that you couldn't convince any of the other schools that your magical guardian is too negligent to deserve a say in the decision of where you go to school. I'm extremely concerned about you being at Hogwarts again this coming year with all the manipulations and false friends. Especially as whoever set those wards at your relatives will have known that you didn't spend the summer with them like you were supposed to and I worry about what they will try to do to get you back in their control if they're who you think they are. I also worry that after a summer of freedom from all that, you will have more trouble putting up with it and may act rashly, giving whoever is trying to manipulate you reason to hurt you. At least you know that you can trust Dean and Seamus to be genuine friends. Though I suspect you're going to be noble and try to keep your distance from them as much as possible to keep them safe.
At least you can be friends again at Scoil Draiocht next summer even if you do end up keeping your distance at Hogwarts, so you'll have that to look forward to, and you'll always have me as a friend.
I'm glad that Dean has a reason to be happy about going back to school again next summer too.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
Friday 3/8/92 6:17pm (GMT)
I wish that I could be as confident that I will be able to count on Dean and Seamus when I'm back at Hogwarts. They are genuine friends and I do trust them not to act against my wellbeing and safety if they're acting of their own volition but can I trust that they will be fully in control of their actions if the person magically influencing Ron and Hermione and the professors gets to know how much more I trust Seamus and Dean than any of my other so called friends then they will be in danger of being magically influenced as well. I don't want someone to mess with their memories or personalities because of me but I don't know how to explain that to them without sounding like I'm just being paranoid. I've been looking in the library here to see if there is some way to protect them but I haven't found anything yet. I'm thinking about asking Mrs Finnegan if her friend who knows about wards can think of anything but I don't want her to think that I'm a risk to Seamus.
Ruby and I got the top mark in our Chemistry assignment and all of the experiments worked exactly the way that we had predicted they would. She was pleased as I was and I wouldn't mind working with her again but I don't think she has any interest in being friends with me outside of assigned work and that's the only joint assignment I need to do in that year level. I do have a joint oral presentation to give in History but we got to choose our pairs so I'm working with Dean and Seamus. It's going well and they're both doing their share of the work but Dean's going to do all the artwork for the presentation and Seamus most of the talking since he can pronounce the Irish names better than me or Dean and he really likes to talk, he's got what most people would call the 'Irish Gift of the Gab', which is a way of saying he's a good story teller if you're being nice about it or a creative liar if you're using it to be mean. Though if you were being nice you probably wouldn't refer to it as specifically Irish because it really isn't. So, I am doing the bulk of the research, which is fine, it's the part I like best anyway.
Part of me wants to turn things around so I do a magical course load at Scoil Draiocht next summer and go to a nonmagical school through the normal year. I would if I could convince anyone to enrol me in one. The problem with that is that I'm fairly sure Scoil Draiocht wouldn't let me do a full load of wanded subjects over the summer, I'm not even sure they're going to let me participate in the practical DADA classes due to the fact we're stuck in the school until the time compression ends each night. We had a student injured badly enough to need to see a healer on the second day of compression the other day and they just had to put him in stasis for three and a half days before they could transport him to hospital. The only reason they agreed at all is because I'm doing it at Hogwarts as well, they don't let us cast against classmates at all like they do at Hogwarts, we learn duelling and dodging with fake wands that only shoot colours or confetti and stuff.
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
Friday 8/3/92 10:22am (PST)
I hate to say it but if I was Mr or Mrs Finnegan or Mr or Mrs Thomas, I'd want you to tell me about the risk to their sons, especially if there is a way to protect them that you don't know about and Mrs Finnegan might she has much more experience with magic than you do, and if there isn't then Dean and Seamus should have the right to choose whether to protect themselves by avoiding you at Hogwarts, or to choose to take the risk because I know you would give up their friendship to keep them safe whether they agreed or not. I hope that there is a way to protect them without you having to give up their friendship. Mrs Finnegan might know of something. And if not at least you would know they planned to be true friends and they're definitely under the influence of something if they turn against you. Though that might be problematic too if the person who influenced Ron and Hermione realises why you don't trust them and learns from their mistakes then they will be a lot more subtle in influencing your new friends. You might not notice they've been influenced so easily.
Good luck with your History presentation, I hated giving presentations in high school but that's because I'd have to give it in front of a group of people that I knew would hurt me if I did too well and the teachers would question me too much if I held back, and say that I didn't have the confidence and social skills I needed to move up another class. It was always too difficult to work out exactly how much I needed to do to do just well enough to meet my goals for minimum retribution, there were too many extraneous factors outside my control that I couldn't account for since I'm not sure I even knew what all of them were. Oral presentations haven't been part of my college course load thank goodness, though I have been warned that as a post graduate student I will probably be offered a TA position and if so I would be expected to be able to take over and precent the rest of the lecture if the lecturer I was TAing for was called away mid lecture or at the last minute and they couldn't get a substitute, as well as doing some of the answering questions about assignment s and tutoring those who haven't understood the lecture in my office hours. I'm not looking forward to any of that but apparently it's mandatory to do some TA time before you can be considered to defend your dissertation since a lot of post doctorate positions involve teaching and a PhD qualifies you to teach that subject at undergrad and post grad level.
Mom and I are doing well, we even went shopping the other day and both bought some new clothes and Mom let me put some of the clothes that were destroyed beyond wearing into the bin and throw them out. It doesn't mean she won't be accusing someone of stealing them next time she wants them and can't find them but at least she won't be walking around in clothing with the buttons and zips cut out. I was careful to buy her only things without metal or plastic fastenings or embellishments. They're not exactly Mom's usual style but I think she looks nice in them and she's not teaching anymore so she doesn't need to dress so professionally. Hopefully they wont become a target of her paranoia so they wont be destroyed deliberately at least.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
Saturday 4/8/92 6:04pm (GMT)
I'm glad your mum is doing well and you've been able to enjoy your time with her. I suppose I should buy some new clothes too, well new clothes for the nonmagical world my wizarding clothes are in decent shape though I think I'll need to replace some of the uniform that I've nearly grown out of before I go back to Hogwarts.
You're right, I will speak to Mr and Mrs Finnegan tonight, and ask Mrs Finnegan to call Mr and Mrs Thomas too. It shouldn't come as a total surprise to Mrs Thomas at least and I hope she's told her husband. I think that I should probably warn Seamus and Dean what I'm going to tell them. It might go better if the Finnegans know that I've already warned their son about what I think might have happened to the people close to me at Hogwarts last year, and Seamus is more likely to forgive me if I can explain why I need to tell his parents before he loses his temper at me for doing it. Thank you for helping me see that it's the right thing to do. I also intend to tell Dean and Seamus and the Finnegans that there is a possibility that I'm just being paranoid, that Ron and Hermione weren't magically manipulated without their permission because neither of them has ever acted like true friends on a more than superficial level, and I have to admit to myself that they could be motivated by something other than magical interference. Ron hates being poor and Hermione hates not knowing anything. If there wasn't magic involved they'd be pretty easy for me to manipulate into being what I wanted them to be a lot of the time, not that I'd want to bother with them. It will be some comfort to know that I do have true friends now, people who actually like me and would want to act in my best interests, even if they're not allowed to.
Our History presentation went well. Seamus was able to present it in a way that the other students found entertaining and Dean's artwork was amazing and well received. I heard one of the other students commenting to Dean that I didn't feel like I needed to pull my weight because I was famous and Dean shot him down saying that I'd done more than my share by doing most of the research and that he didn't blame me for not wanting to stand up in front of everyone because I'm sick and tired of being gawked at because I'd survived my parents' murder. It was nice to have friends who stand up for me in the little things. The teacher conceded Dean's point and said that it was clear that we'd all contributed a lot to the presentation and that it showed great teamwork that we'd all worked to our strengths without arguing about the division of labour. She gave us the top mark of the class. Dean and Seamus were thrilled.
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
Saturday 8/4/92 10:09am (PST)
Good luck tonight with Mr and Mrs Finnegan. I hope she knows of something that will prevent all three of you from being able to be magically manipulated. I wish that I had access to a magical library so I could try to research it for you.
I've finished my correspondence classes for the summer, so I've just been roaming around the library reading randomly but there aren't many non fiction books here that I haven't already read, they don't get very many new books in each year. Their budget isn't very big and most of it goes on new modern fiction and children's books. I might catch the bus across town to the UNLV library and read there tomorrow. I had read most of their science and math books last time I was there but it was a few years ago now, surely they should have some new stuff that I haven't already read at Caltech. I think I should still be able to use their computers even if I'm not a student there and Mom doesn't work there anymore. I know several of my former high school classmates go there but I doubt I'd see any of them in the library over the summer.
A/N2: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
Stay safe everyone.
A/N3: To anyone who followed my attempts to help readers avoid plagiarists in "Hermione's Plan was Written by.." I apologise for my neglect in keeping it up to date recently and I am sad to announce that it was removed by the administrators for being a list instead of a story. Ironic really since I started the list to help send readers who cared to the real authors because the administrators were so bloody slow to remove stolen stories.