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Wednesday 15/8/1992
Dear Spencer,
This letter's going to take a long time to write since I don't have much time for it, so I'm going to start it now and hopefully I'll have a letter from you to reply to by the time I finish, I hope you won't think that I've abandoned our correspondence. I'm working about sixteen hours a day, doing chores in the house and garden to get all the things my aunt demands done, and I'm pretty much too tired to write more than a little before I fall asleep at night and nothing is happening here worth telling you about. Every day so far has been the same. Vernon is determined to get a whole summer worth of chores out of me. I've been trying to get some time off during the day to get to the library so I can email you but it's just been impossible and Vernon or Dudley have put a password on their computer so I cannot use it. I'm sorry! Just as well I've already finished my homework for Hogwarts even though I was hoping not to need it, though I still have to do Dudley's. I wonder if his fancy private school will notice the difference in the authorship any better than Little Whinging primary or if Vernon is wasting his money. The work is easy enough thought there's quite a bit of it and I'm struggling to stay awake to get it done, I mean it's hard to tell the educational level of an essay assignment but the math and science are dead easy and the English novel seems a bit simple too. Some of the assignments say they should be typed on the computer so hopefully they'll leave me alone while I'm doing that so I can email you. I've been spending most of my time here working but it seems my aunt isn't much of a gardener without my help. The garden was overrun with weeds and it's totally the wrong time of the year to be cutting things back and pruning the roses but she has insisted I do it, so I'm desperately hoping they all survive at least until I leave. Neville explained to me how to feed a little bit of magic into plants to help them thrive so I've been doing that. It seems to be helping, nothing looks like dying yet at any rate.
The neighbours are all avoiding me, more than ever before, a couple of them even crossed the street to avoid walking past while I was in the front garden this morning. I wonder if Petunia's told them something nasty again. I tried to thank her for writing to Professor McGonagall and explain to her why it didn't work and I'm still here but she just huffed and me and walked away.
Dudley's friends seem pleased to have him back and surprisingly he still seems to be the leader of the group. I would have thought him being away at school all year would have changed the group more than it has. I mean sure their parents are impressed that he goes to some fancy private boarding school but that won't impress his mates. Gordon goes to the Grammar on the other side of Greater whinging but Piers, Dennis and Malcolm go to Stonewall Comprehensive where Petunia was going to send me. I would have thought that Gordon at least would have made some new friends and have better things to do but it doesn't seem he has. They're all just as bad as they ever were, they leave me alone if Petunia's home while I'm working in the yard but Dudley's been bragging about beating younger kids up for their pocket money.
I have to say that after staying with and seeing Dean's parents and Seamus' mum and da, that Vernon and Petunia don't seem happy. They use a lot of pet names for each other but they don't actually seem to like each other very much. Petunia always seems to smile when Vernon leaves for work, she seems to prefer it when Dudley's out of the house too. Maybe it's because she doesn't want him spending too much time sitting around or because she can't watch her own programs if he's hogging the tellie but even when he's in his room she's kind of more easily annoyed than when he's at his friends. Maybe that's why she believes (or pretends to believe) all his lies about playdates and tea at his friend's houses. I mean if he really were going out for tea then he'd also want to invite his friends for tea here.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to be able to find the time to visit the library or the restaurant or go to Hermione's. I would like to go and let them know at the restaurant that I'm alive and well and thank them for their care of me before I started Hogwarts but there literally hasn't been a spare moment if I don't want to be beaten for not doing all my chores, I'm barely getting them done as it is. I'd like to go and meet Hermione's parents too, maybe if I knew more about her family I would understand where her points of view come from and why she is so obsessed with studying and getting the best marks in everything, but even if I had time I'm not sure I would be welcome to visit after not hearing from her. I thought it would be good to get an opportunity to talk to her while she's not being influenced to try to befriend me and to see if some of her other personality traits are being affected, surely nobody could be as driven to studying as she is and still happily abandon her nonmagical education. I'd like to know what she's really like and what she really thinks of me and Ron… but I doubt it would be very flattering. Sometimes I think that she hates him, he seems to annoy her so much and the only thing they have in common is their fake friendship with me… I think she would've been happier in Ravenclaw but she was so determined to go into Gryffindor because that was the house Dumbledore is rumoured to have been in. That's odd right, I just realised how ridiculous that sounds. I know she worships authority but I would have said she was more impressed by McGonagall than Dumbledore, and she hadn't even met Dumbledore yet, or she shouldn't have met him, McGonagall was the one who brought her letter and took her shopping so he had no reason to visit her and she never mentioned seeing him before the opening feast. Could she have already been influenced? But why? And why Hermione and not Lavender or Parvati or the other muggleborns like Dean? If they wanted someone to hang around with Ron just about anyone else except for the Slytherins would be a better choice…
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
Stay safe everyone. Please stay safe.