Chapter 151

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AN: Yes I am aware that in canon Penelope Clearwater was Muggleborn. Here I've made her a halfblood.

25/3/93

Dear Spencer

That funny old diary that Hermione had has gone missing. Hermione was very upset someone broke into her trunk and threw her stuff everywhere ripping a couple of her books. She says that she's sure the only thing missing is TM Riddle's diary. I wonder if it was the person who threw it away and if so, how they'd known Hermione was the one who found and kept it. It must be a Gryffindor girl (the other houses couldn't have got into her dorm without being seen and the stairs to the girls' dorm rooms are charmed so boys can't get up them) so maybe she was seen with it.

McGonagall came and looked over everything, and Hermione said she repaired her books and used a packing spell to tidy up but she didn't find who did it. The culprit was asked to confess but nobody has, and nobody has earned themselves a huge point demerit or a tonne of detention. I don't think they tried very hard to find out who did it.

The strange thing is, the day after the diary was taken, I heard that voice again saying "Kill this time … let me rip … tear …" I realised that I last heard it just before Hermione found the diary, and about the same time that Justin had been attacked. I told Hermione and she had this epiphany and ran to the library to check it out. I didn't see her again, we had a quidditch match so I went out to the pitch to get ready and meet the team, but then just before the game McGonagall came out, cancelled the match and sent us everyone back to their dorm rooms except me and Ron. She asked me to come and Ron insisted on joining me. Hermione has been petrified, and one of the halfblood prefects, Penny Clearwater, as well. She's not a Gryffindor so I don't know her well but she seemed nice enough and didn't participate in bullying me. I never saw her trying to stop it either, but it wasn't as bad when she or the other prefects are around so she may not have been aware how bad it got at other times.

Now that Penny and Hermione been attacked they're instituting strict curfews and having teachers and senior students escorting the lower years between classrooms, they're even talking about planning to close the school, though there's no set date for us to leave yet. I'm pretty sure it has more to do with Penny being a halfblood from a wizarding family than being a prefect or the third attack on a human or the fact two people were attacked together or even that this attack happened in the daylight. I guess muggleborns really are second or third class citizens, even to those witches and wizards who pretend not to be blood purists.

Funny thing is that now that I've lost Hermione's support things are starting to get better. For one the escorts mean that my attackers aren't able to hex me while we're being supervised by a professor and I think people are finally starting to realise that I'm not a blood purist and wouldn't attack my 'best friend' and I'm no longer being shunned or heckled in the hallways. Even Seamus has fully come around and is initiating hanging out with me not just following Dean's lead, though he has been a lot better since Christmas. His change in attitude doesn't make a lot of sense since he's one of the few people who know that I believe that Hermione isn't a genuine friend and that I find her just as annoying most of the time as I found Colin. Maybe he realises that even if it was me and I was trying to target people who annoy me I still wouldn't have chosen Hermione because it will cause suspicion among the other people watching or paying others to spy on me and I'd be watched even more carefully. Or that it's better to put up with the watchers you know about than risking taking them out and having someone recruit someone else you don't know to watch out for. To be honest I'd rather they attacked Ron, Hermione was at least defending me and I got hexed less when she was around.

I hate to say it but my first thought when I heard Hermione and Penelope had been attacked was 'Thank Merlin it wasn't Dean and Seamus,' even now Hermione not being in classes seems to make them go more smoothly and not having her in the common room nagging about homework is a relief, though I think Ron's going to fail all his subjects if she doesn't wake up soon. The sad thing is that I think everyone else feels the same, including most of the professors, no-one really misses her. I've not seen anyone looking sad about it. Not even Ron and she's supposed to be his other best friend. I knew I was pretending to put up with her and I know he gets annoyed with her about the nagging to study but I thought they were genuine friends, at least on his side. I guess not. I'm beginning to think he only put up with her because I did or because she helps him with keeping an eye on what I'm up to for the Headmaster. I almost feel sorry for her but she doesn't put any effort into being a genuine friend to me so I'm refusing to let myself feel guilty. I would have been her friend if she'd been trustworthy.

I wonder if they're finally going to spend the money to cure the students that have been attacked so they can return them to their parents when the school closes or if they're just going to transfer them to a magical hospital somewhere and not tell anyone about it. I guess they could just leave them here or stack them in a corner somewhere, it's not like they need to eat or drink. If the school closes, then are they still going to be able to use the Hogwarts mandrakes, they're out in the greenhouse so someone could harvest them without entering the castle. I had a nightmare last night that they abandoned them somewhere and left them petrified forever and I couldn't find where they'd put Hermione. Dean's mother at least has the comfort that she knows she'd hear from me if Dean suddenly stopped contacting her. I wonder if I should contact Hermione's parents but I don't know how much she's told them about the dangers of the magical world and I don't want to snitch on her if everything is going to be okay. I also don't want to make them think that we're close friends when I have no intention of ever contacting her again if I get away from this place. But if they don't wake her up before we leave, I will ask what's going to happen to her and contact the Grangers if they don't tell me they have.

I don't know where I'm going to go if they send us all home early. Your idea that I should attend Scoil Draiocht this summer to catch up in nonmagical classes with my age level and hopefully grow a bit, before moving to America and trying to enrol in normal school there is a good one, but it doesn't start for two months. The Dursleys will be even worse if I turn up unexpectedly a month before school is supposed to finish so I'm definitely not going there if I can possibly avoid it, and while Seamus has been better towards me, I'm still not sure he's going to want to invite me home for the extra month as well as the first month of the summer. I have my passport and if I don't get invited elsewhere, I will try to buy a ferry ticket to somewhere warm and touristy for the six to eight weeks before the summer term at Scoil Draiocht starts. Or I could try to come straight to America and enrol in a summer school there instead. I'll stay in the hideout if I can't stay with you and you could visit me on the weekends you come home to see your mum. I promise I won't be any trouble. With my invisibility cloak I should be able to get in and out without being seen and nobody need know I'm homeless.

I thought that maybe I should head straight to Ireland since I know where their magical shops are and try to find a tent there before I come to America or head to southern Spain. Maybe one of the shops there will also have a map showing where the other magical shopping districts around the world are.

On a side note, though it hardly matters now, Ron and Hermione were both angry with me about my course selections. Hermione not about the subjects I chose but the fact I hadn't talked it over with her and taken her advice before making my decision and Ron that I would only be in one of his two elective classes, and only that one if I am allowed to do three subjects. You were right that neither consulted me on their choices even though Ron expected me to pick whatever he picked without thinking about what I wanted for myself at all. Hermione wants to try to do all five electives. If I was coming back to Hogwarts I would support her to do this no matter how idiotic it sounds, at least it would give her less time to nag me about stuff.

I've begun looking up hexes that might work for on the train on the way home, though I've tried to be careful not to let anyone see me looking up that sort of thing. In some ways the best thing would be a spell that's effects aren't noticed straight away though that will cause the people who live in the nonmagical world a lot more trouble than those with magical relatives to notice and remove the spell and I don't want to do that. Even though the muggleborns have been equally vicious to me they've been under a lot more pressure this year already. I want a subtle spell, something that makes sugar taste like shite, or gives people hayfever or something like that but I haven't found one yet. I wish there was some sort of Karma spell that made you feel the affects of every hex you cast. That would be fun.

I think it's stupid how Batman has his superhero costume on under his clothes the whole time and nobody notices. Especially in the summer, he'd get so hot and sweaty having to wear long sleeves and tight collars to hide it, and what happens to all the suits and clothes he abandons in phone booths all over the place?

Your friend always

Harry

A/N2: I've set up a poll on my profile page for this story, so if you have a strong opinion about it you can go and vote when you want Harry to get away from Hogwarts.

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