Chapter 168
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 NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
I'm very glad you weren't disappointed in me for what I did to Vernon. Losing your friendship would be far too high a price to pay for being free of them. Now that I know you aren't upset with me about it, the memory is much more amusing than it should be.
I think that we can rule out Dumbledore having found me at Christmas because of a tracking charm on me personally. That or he's busy with end of the school year stuff and hasn't bothered to check that I've gone back to the Dursleys yet, or he thinks that he's spelled me into doing what he tells me and for some reason it hasn't worked. I did what I could to try to remove any charms on my things that I could except for the rags and backpack that Vernon took back to Privet drive and I've thrown out my glasses which are the one thing other than my wand that they would've thought that I had to keep with me, and made a new fake wand and thrown out the one I've been using for the last two years, but I'm still half expecting to wake up locked in my room at the Dursleys tomorrow morning, or worse.
I only hope that if someone does come for me Dean and the Thomas's aren't hurt in my extraction from their flat. I won't stay there, at the Dursleys, even if I don't have much magic at all. The Dursleys made a mistake when they put a cat flap on an inward opening door with ordinary hinges. Even without access to my magic I should be able to prise the hinge pin out with my potions knife and then I'll use force to pull the door open from the cat flap. I don't want to use my broom as a lever but I'm sure I could pull the wobbly leg off the desk off to use. I'm keeping my trunk shrunk and taped to my hip with Elastoplast and a password locked sticking charm so it should end up in my room with me, especially since there is no way to prove it isn't in my bookbag without my willing participation. It's a bit itchy and uncomfortable but I've spelled it waterproof and applied a password locked notice-me-not charm so I can still wear it showering and swimming.
I hate to say it but I think what would happen to the Finch-Fletchleys would depend on how they went about removing Justin. He's muggleborn so nobody would take much notice if he didn't come back next year. There have been other students drop out of Hogwarts so I don't think that anyone would stop his parents from withdrawing him from school long as they didn't make too much fuss over it and try to convince others to leave as well. But if they began to create problems for the magical world or tried to damage Hogwarts reputation, they would be stopped, perhaps compelled to agree to leave Justin at Hogwarts and not to say anything about the magical world or worse. They could be obliviated and made to think Justin had died and Justin somehow made to think that his family had abandoned him or been killed, or worse made to forget each other altogether.
The problem is that doesn't apply to me. Even if I slunk away without saying anything or trying to make a fuss, I'm too famous in the wizarding world. They wouldn't be able to keep it quiet if I didn't return to Hogwarts and it would be a blow to the reputation of the school and it's professors. Even if I could somehow get them free of whatever spells are influencing their treatment of me at school, I can't trust any of them to help me leave.
Are you serious about the Superman college courses. That's crazy! It might be interesting but it's so impractical isn't it. We do not live in Gotham City. Vigilante's like Superman would be prosecuted like the mob or a gang by the police. Do they offer it by correspondence? Have you thought about applying to do it?
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
Yes, I was telling the truth about the college course in Superman's gadgets and inventions. The course doesn't seem very practical on the surface but if it encourages scientific invention and thinking outside the box it might be worthwhile for students. Remember how when we were discussing how History and Literature classes were teaching you how to think for yourself and consider the differences in the way facts can be presented as much as they were teaching a particular branch of history. This course could have value in that way even if the actual gadgets from the cartoon don't have any real world application or are impossible with the knowledge and technology we have available today or are just plain illegal to make and own. It would encourage future scientists to question what is possible and look for new ways to use and develop technology. Just because something is impossible to do with the knowledge we have now, doesn't mean it will be impossible in the future, many of the things we take for granted in our everyday lives was once thought impossible or only achievable through magic. There a lot of people who don't know about the wizarding world who believe this quote by Arthur C. Clarke. "Magic's just science that we don't understand yet."
As for Dumbledore, I do think that he has tried to spell you into doing what he wants. Or at least I cannot understand why he wouldn't have if it were him that spelled the professors and Ron and Hermione. It would've been much easier to stop you from asking for help than to spell all the professors to act against their instincts and refuse to help a student in need. He would also have thought that you didn't know anything about behaviour modification spells like that so you wouldn't be on the lookout for them. It's suspicious that none of your professors friends or family have noticed that their attitudes or opinions had changed or that their attitudes and opinions seemed to be diametrically opposed to each other or to their actions.
The only questions actually are, whether Dumbledore isn't the person spelling all the professors and some of your classmates. Whether he's doing it because he knows the spells don't work on you for some reason, or he has a particular reason we know nothing about for not trying to spell your thoughts and behaviours to be what he wants, or whether he does believe he's spelled you successfully but if he thinks that, why is he putting so much effort into spelling everybody else as well. I mean why bother spelling Hermione and Ron into ignoring the conflicts between the three of you when he could just spell you into forgiving them or forgetting your irritation with their behaviours.
My guess is that he knows you're not susceptible to spells like that.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
Your reasoning about the behaviour and attitude changing spells makes perfect sense except for the question why wouldn't I be affected by spells like that when the professors whose magic is much more mature than mine, are. There's nothing special about me so why would it be different with me? I don't believe that I could be invulnerable to those spells.
Your quote reminded me of another quote by Arthur C. Clarke that I read at Scoil Draiocht last summer, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Of course, we knew that it wasn't true. Real magic defies many of the scientific laws of possibility but the reason the professors included it was to teach us that nonmagical humans were capable of things the wizarding world haven't even imagined, and that their inventiveness and inquisitiveness about the world around them meant that they were discovering new things all the time, while our world sits back on it's laurels and false belief in their superiority. They pointed out to us that there isn't a single spell in the first, second or third year curriculum that isn't at least three hundred years old, and most of the potions in the first three years are hundreds of years old as well. Of course a lot of the spells we learn in first and second year aren't particularly useful. I can't see myself having a match and a beetle and needing a needle and a button any time soon and we haven't learned a spell to make cotton thread yet so what's the use of the other two? I'd probably just summon the missing button and use a sticking charm until I could get to a sewing kit.
I hope you are enjoying your summer courses in engineering. Do you think that you will get a third degree in it? Are they teaching you to use engineering to make new technology and stuff or are you just learning the theory at this stage? You can probably tell I don't really know much about engineering. I haven't been near a muggle library to look it up since you started talking about it. Perhaps I can talk Dean into showing me his local library soon.
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
I can recommend you some basic engineering books if you are interested, there are several branches of engineering, but it's probably easier to go to a fairly big library and ask the librarian for information on the differences between civil engineering and architecture or design, or chemistry and chemical engineering, or an electrician and an electrical engineer. That would give you a good overview.
I think you'd be interested in engineering. It's like adding science to things like the art of design.
The classes I'm taking are a mix of chemical engineering, which I think will give me an advantage when I start my Chemistry PhD and Electrical Engineering which I'm taking for fun at this stage. They're interesting but I don't know whether I'll ever pursue it seriously.
I would think that you're attitude of questioning everything would make you less susceptible to the behaviour management spells, memory wiping or having your opinions and attitudes externally changed but you've said that McGonagall is a leader in her field of transfiguration, and Flitwick a leader in his field as well. That kind of expertise and innovation, only comes from having a mind as questioning as yours and doesn't a mastery like that indicates they are also magically strong? I wonder if it was her loyalty to Dumbledore that made her vulnerable?
.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
McGonagall and Flitwick are two of the strongest magical users in the castle after Dumbledore, and I don't think that Professor Flitwick is entirely human either, he has ears a bit like a goblin and he's about their height too, though his arms, legs and body are more in proportions of a human and his skin looks like ours too. But shouldn't that make it harder to use wizarding magic against him. I don't think that he's anywhere near as naturally loyal to the headmaster as McGonagall is. He doesn't ever speak against him but I don't get the impression that they're friends like I do with Dumbledore and Mc Gonagall.
Seamus, Dean and I have just about finished our summer homework for Hogwarts. Seamus goes home tomorrow and Dean and I have a week here at Dean's on our own before we go to Seamus' place to start nonmagical summer school. I wrote to Seamus' mum and she's enrolled me in two full semester loads heavy on sciences and hands on subjects that it would be difficult to do by correspondence, so while the others finish their second year of high school, I hope to be half of the way through my third by the end of the summer. I'm also going to do an extra correspondence subject next year. After a lot of thought I've decided not to take any magical subjects at Scoil Draiocht this summer in favour of trying to make sure I'm fully caught up with my nonmagical education. Hopefully I will be accepted into Nezcalilizcali Naualotl Tlateotokani Toltekayomeh and I don't want to have to repeat any more classes than I already have to. If I don't get in there or another magical school, I think that I will go to a regular school and try to reenrol at Scoil Draiocht next summer to do the magical subjects I missed out on during the year and haven't managed to teach myself from the textbooks. That or maybe there's another school that runs a summer program that would let me attend without Hogwarts giving permission. Hopefully they will let me do that, even if it is only the non wand based classes which would be fine because I could usually teach myself all the spells before we learned them in class anyway. I have a good grasp of Latin to get the incantations right if I need them and wand movements don't matter to me anyway. I think I should be able to travel to Ireland for a month safely next summer and return without getting caught. I'll contact Dean and Seamus before I come to double check Dumbledore hasn't found out that I was attending Scoil Draiocht with them the last two summers. I'm sure Mrs Finnegan would agree to check with the school whether Dumbledore has looked for me there and knows that I was part of the summer program.
I thought about trying to reapply at Ilvermorny but the problem with my magical guardian still exists and the way the goblins refused to give me a passport that lets me change my name makes me think that it's either magically impossible or a really bad idea to try to use a false name in the magical world. Perhaps it's just their sense of honour or something but I am kind of well known so it would be hard to hide under a fake identity in the magical world.
I'm loving being back in the muggle world a lot more this year. Last summer as nice as Dean's and Seamus' families were, and they did make me very welcome, I missed Hogwarts and I found electric lights and noises jarring, particularly the traffic around Dean's neighbourhood, but this year I seem to be trying to fit back into the muggle world more and looking for the things I like better about it. I'm still not terribly fond of being in an inner city suburb, it's incredibly crowded and noisy, but Dean loves it here, he says that the streets are alive with humanity and that he misses the feeling when he's at Hogwarts. Even when the corridors are full it's groups of students all trying to get to their next classes and it doesn't feel the same to him. I told him that the air seemed alive with magic at Hogwarts more than any other place I've ever been, but he said that he can't feel it. Seamus said he couldn't either.
One piece of good news though is that's Ron's family won the lottery and have gone to Egypt for the summer so they won't be able to invite me to stay with them later in the summer. Hopefully that will mean that I will be able to get away safely and won't be missed until the first of September. I wish I could come and stay with you for the last three weeks of summer but I'm afraid I'll probably end up having to go back to my original plan of buying a tent and travelling around the south of Europe if Mrs Thomas won't help me buy a ticket to America, since I looked it up on line and I would need a credit card to buy a ticket that way. Gringotts don't do credit cards and when I went to the bank here, they wouldn't issue me with one, not even with a debit card without my parents present to sign the paperwork. Don't worry, you don't need to send me a copy of the letter I sent you declaring that I wasn't going back. I understand the concerns you had with the idea of me living in a tent for any length of time and I am trying to find somewhere else to stay, I just don't know where. It isn't like any decent hotel in the magical or the muggle world is going to rent a room to an unaccompanied thirteen year old, even if I am the most famous teenager in Magical Britain. If I had a hideout that was accessible I would stay there for the rest of the summer but I've never found a place that felt safe enough to make one here. I looked while I was at Dean's, there are quite a few abandoned buildings but most of them already seemed to have squatters and drug dealers in them, maybe I'll have more luck with an abandoned crofter's hut near the Finnegans. There are always the local castle grounds, there's a few buildings that look half ruined that could be shored up with wards or stability charms but there's a few ghosts there and I'm not sure if any of the staff can communicate with them.
The other option would be to use my invisibility cloak to sneak onto the ferry from Ireland to France or Spain and try to make my way to America from there. At least I would be further away and nobody would have a reason to look for me in Spain, and it would be easy enough to do if the ferry is anything like the ferry we take to get to Ireland from here.
To: Harry Potter
From: Spencer Reid
I'm glad you won't be going to the Weasley's this summer. There's something not right about Mrs Weasley and the way she treats you. I'm not sure what's behind it. Is It possible that whatever is going on with Ron is also her doing and not someone at Hogwarts. Is it possible to spell letters to influence someone's attitude and behaviour like that?
I was thinking about what you said about Flitwick, there's no way to tell whether not being human would make him more or less vulnerable to certain spells. I mean the books suggest that using the cutting spell is easier on an animal than a human, it might also be easier on some of the other non human beings as well? Though if he's part goblin and not a different creature or being altogether I would have thought that would mean he'd be more difficult to manipulate mentally with wizarding magic. Afterall why would the wizarding world trust all their money to a being that could be easily manipulated or spelled into giving all your money to someone else.
To: Spencer Reid
From: Harry Potter
I'm glad not to be going to the Weasley's as well.
I've written to Hermione, mostly as a reward for the fact that nobody tried to tell me that I wasn't allowed to go to summer school and the Dursleys didn't mention it at all, but I doubt her parents will let her invite me to stay even if she asks them to, and I don't know if she will. She's still upset with me about threatening her into not telling Dumbledore about me going to summer school, and she changed her mind about inviting me last summer after hearing that Dumbledore wanted me to stay at the Dursleys. She doesn't know that I'm not with the Dursleys, she thinks they send me to muggle school to catch up, so she won't understand why I need another place to stay for the last few weeks of the summer.
I don't really care that she won't invite me, it isn't like we're really friends. It would be interesting to go there and see if she's different away from school but I couldn't go there unless I was planning to go back to Hogwarts anyway, it would be too much hassle to have to get away from her and disappear again and her parents are probably the sort that would contact the police and have me declared a missing person. Anyway, I hope my letter helps her feel less isolated from the magical world since she's clearly decided that that's where she wants to live. I guess it's a bit of a shitty thing to start writing to her and make her think that we'll be better friends next year if I'm not planning to return to Hogwarts and I won't be able to risk writing to her during the school year, but I don't think that anyone else will write to her this summer. Ron won't be able to write to us from Egypt even if he wanted to, but I'd guess he's probably more glad his mum can't nag him into writing letters than concerned about not receiving any.
Your Friend Always
Harry
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.