Chapter 164

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Dear Harry

It's possible or even highly likely that if Hermione had torn that paper out of a library book, then she would be extremely upset both that she felt driven to deface a book like that and that the paper wasn't found as soon as she was attacked and handed to the relevant authorities to come and deal with the Basilisk before Ginny was taken and you were hurt rescuing her because of the paper not being found.

Her tearing a page out of a book rather than running to get a piece of paper to copy down the information or taking the whole book to a professor, or bringing a professor back to look at the book is an act of desperation, and because she was attacked almost immediately afterwards an act that didn't produce the results it should have. Though I don't know why she didn't tell the librarian. Though you are correct that it is possible that she did try to tell them but the librarian and the professors were still labouring under the spell that prevented you from being able to get help protecting the Philosopher's stone last year.

If it were me I'd also be upset about the implication that Madam Pomfrey didn't do anything to care for her as a statue the whole time she was in the infirmary. The fact the paper was still in her hand and still intact means that unless it was planted in the last day or so like you believe it was, Hermione's hands and probably the rest of her hadn't been washed the whole time she was in the hospital wing, which would certainly really upset me. I know that as a statue she wouldn't need to sweat or use the toilet and be cleaned up that way but she was found lying on the ground, she would still have the dirt on her from before she was petrified and she would still get dusty. It's also another clue that Madam Pomfrey had been told what happened to the petrified students because she didn't have to look to see if there was something on their skin, mouth or stomach contents that could be analysed to find out what had petrified her.

I honestly don't know what to tell you about Ginny's state of mind, she needs to see a trauma counsellor, and probably be assessed by a psychiatrist. In addition to the trauma of missing memories and knowing she was part of the attacks on her classmates, she's probably highly embarrassed that the boy she had a crush on knows that she was tricked or forced by the diary to do those horrible things. It's possible that having saved her has blown her crush on you out of proportion, but remember we also talked about potential obsessive behaviour in her choice of victims.

Though it's also possible that obsession was also made worse by the possession, after all if Ginny told him about you she would also have told him what people think happened the night your parents were killed and Voldemort was disembodied. I don't know if Ginny was told about Voldemort's wraith last year or if she told the diary that Voldemort was killed by you as a toddler. It's only natural he would want to know as much about you as possible to try to work out how you killed him, either to plan his revenge or to make sure you couldn't do it again and his interest in you could have fed hers. In fact, I would have expected that Tom would've wanted the Basilisk to attack you, which further suggests Ginny was the one choosing the victims.

The way she's watching you closely when you're with Hermione sounds particularly stalkerish, I would be concerned about the fact she's already had Hermione hurt once. Though I did wonder when I read that whether it was just Hermione she watched you interact with more closely or would it be any girl you paid particular attention to and you haven't noticed it with anyone else because you're not particularly close to any other girls at Hogwarts? It is a great pity that there is not an adult there that you could turn to to make sure Ginny gets the help she needs. I don't know whether writing to her parents about your concerns would help but it might be worth a try, even anonymously if you don't want to draw attention to yourself.

It's easy to blame Ginny for not getting help when she started to realise the diary was controlling her and might be responsible for the attacks and because her knowledge was used to choose who was attacked and we will never know whether it was just because Ginny knew they were muggleborn or because Ginny wanted some of those people targeted, but we don't know how much control he had over her even when she wasn't writing in the diary by that stage. We don't even know if she knew why he was asking about which students were muggleborn, when she first told him. She may not be as innocent in this whole mess as those who were petrified but Ginny is also still a victim, she's an eleven year old girl, and maybe she was too naïve in your opinion but think about how immature Ron was at the start of first year, she is the product of the same upbringing and up against someone with decades of experience in tricking and manipulating people into following him obsessively, even killing for him. What chance did Ginny really have of fighting off Voldemort's possession? Regardless of what's going on in her head she can't be trusted at the moment, if she really was possessed for months there's no telling how he permanently influenced her thoughts and beliefs.

I also would be careful how much you trust Dobby. I know you freed him from the Malfoy's abuse, and that's a good thing and I know you said he's grateful and thinks you're great but he was abused for a long time and he's learned to be cunning and deceitful in his dealings with humans without outright lying so I'm not sure how much of anything he tells you should be believed. He probably has done it for so long now to avoid being punished that it's automatic. I also get the feeling you think of him as a peer, and the lack of prejudice is admirable but that doesn't make him a peer. You have no idea how old he is, or what his motivations are now that he's free.

Do you think that Myrtle will move on, or cross over, or whatever you call it, now that the creature who killed her is dead and her story is known? Does she have living family that could be persuaded to visit her? Do ghost mature in personality after their dead? Because Myrtle is also more than 50 years old in spite of still looking like a student, and she has spent that 50 years at Hogwarts under the leadership of Dumbledore. Should you be judging her actions and motives as a fellow student only a couple of years older than you? Or is she just as much under the influence of Dumbledore as the professors seem to be?

I feel like I'm telling you not to trust any adults and that wasn't my intention. But if Dumbledore is as manipulative and evil as we suspect him to be, anyone who has worked for him for so long probably can't be trusted not to either agree with him or be spelled or potioned or something not to oppose him. So I guess I am telling you not to trust anyone that works at Hogwarts, be they adult, ghost or elf. I'm not even sure whether he would've influenced the prefects for that matter either. They certainly didn't step in when they should have this year.

I'm in the middle of my end of year exams and they've all gone okay so far, I'm not really worried about the rest, the lecturers have all been teaching for a long time and their past exams were all fairly similar in the type of questions they ask so I'm not expecting any surprises. Exams seemed to take the usual number of students by surprise like they do every semester, it's astonishing that the same students seem to forget about them until the last minute every time, you'd think they'd learn.

We're at the annoying stage of the semester now where half the house have finished their last exam and are out partying every night and crashing in drunk at all hours of the morning and the other half are so stressed that it's a wonder fights don't break out when their studies are disrupted. As one of the senior students in the house I'm expected to try to help keep the peace and you can imagine how well that goes as the youngest and smallest person in the house as well. Not that size equals might, but sometimes I wonder if I should have tried to learn some sort of martial art for my physical education requirement.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the end of the summer, after you've done a second summer of time compression we will be nearly the same age. I've signed up for summer classes which will keep me in California pretty much all summer so I should be here when you arrive. Mum's doing well and her friends and Aunt Ethel agree that they can keep visiting her as long as I spend all my weekends at home this summer. My summer schedule has Mondays off so I'll be home from Friday night til Monday afternoons so they're happy about that.

It is absolutely ridiculous and makes no sense at all that Batman is allergic to his own planet. I can understand that they're trying to say that he may not have had so many superpowers on his own world because life would be very odd if everybody could do all the things Batman could do, but how did his people live on the planet at all if such a small sample of Kryptonite caused him such debilitating pain?

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.