Chapter 108

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A/N: I've gone through the last 9 chapters and changed the dates to make this date make sense. No need to reread, I didn't change anything else.

Tuesday 8/14/1992

Dear Harry

I hope you're still okay at the Dursleys. I know it's annoying that they saved up all the chores for you but at least if they have things they want you to do, they aren't going to incapacitate you until they're all done and hopefully Ron will have turned up and rescued you by then. It is odd though that he invited you to stay for the last two weeks of your vacation, and then hasn't written all summer. He should have contacted you by now to make arrangements to pick you up today. Especially since his mother has been so oddly keen to, well I don't know exactly what she was trying to achieve by sending you handmade gifts as if you were part of the family. It's odd that Hermione hasn't written either, even without the compulsion to be your friend she should see that having you as a friend is good for her. We both had the impression from her behaviour that she didn't have any friends before Hogwarts and I couldn't imagine that spending the whole year away at boarding school will help with that situation. So I would've expected her to be feeling lonely by now.

It was good of Mrs Thomas and Mrs Finnegan to send you home with food but if they truly know that the Dursleys were going to starve you why did they let you return there at all? Surely, they both live in the nonmagical world enough to be aware of how to call child services and report an abused or neglected child. Or they could simply have kept you for another week or so each, it wasn't as if you weren't paying your way at the Thomas's. In fact, providing you food at the Dursleys would've cost them more than letting you board with them. It would be easy to think that they must be being compelled to send you back there but why would they be? Nobody could've expected you to spend the summer with Dean and Seamus from your behaviour outside of the dorm room or been in a position to know that they'd invited you, and if they had been compelled to send you back to Privet Drive surely it would have taken effect at the start of the summer and if they'd been compelled to ignore how the Dursleys treated you then they wouldn't have seen the need to send the food. Then again I could never understand how some of our neighbours didn't call in child protection when it became obvious that Dad had left and wasn't coming back and Mom was so clearly unable to look after herself let alone a child. People just tend to ignore realisations that would be uncomfortable for them to have and I think that as time goes by, they get embarrassed for not having done something sooner, or they become accustomed to hearing the screams and start blocking them out. But Mrs Thomas and Mrs Finnegan don't seem to fit into either category, they have no reason for feeling guilty for not reporting the Dursleys when you were younger. Of course, Mrs Finnegan at least might realise that getting the nonmagical authorities involved would prevent you from going back to Hogwarts (and she wouldn't realise you don't want to) and getting the magical authorities involved would be impossible to keep quiet as famous as you are and since you haven't asked for help maybe you'd prefer that she kept it quiet and just helped where she could. She could also have warned Mrs Thomas, but I'm only speculating what might have happened. I have no way to tell other than asking them directly.

Thank you for offering to try to make a charm for Mom. I originally thought that I would like to give it a trial, to see if it can help her schizophrenia. You're right about the risk of a false sense of security but forewarned is forearmed so I should be okay, I'm more concerned about Mom's friends, if the charms work to prevent her delusions and then she takes it off and has a really bad day when they aren't expecting it because I can't warn them, and as you said if the protections are skewed towards protecting me they might not work unless I was there to be protected and then I would feel guilty leaving her to go to college if it had a big effect on her health. Perhaps we'd better not risk it until I'm home next summer.

I don't seem to have much news in this letter it's all verbalisation of my worries for you. Mom is well, things are going along quietly here. I'm reading a lot of different books but nothing is really grabbing my interest at the moment. I've spent a fair bit of time reading to Mom or attending her lectures this week. I won't say she's worse because she's still keeping calm and eating and sleeping well but she has spent less time knowing where she is or who I am and it's getting me down a little.

Your friend always

Spencer

(This letter was intercepted by Dobby and therefore not received before the letter in the next chapter was written).

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

Stay safe everyone. Please stay safe.