Chapter 169
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To:
From:
Dear Harry
You're right about the motels of course I don't think I would feel safe in the type of establishment that would rent a room to me by myself now, let alone when I was thirteen-year-old without an adult to arrange it and make it seem that I wasn't there on my own, so as much as I'd prefer you were safe behind a locked door at night, I can't recommend that you try that. Do you have an adult you could trust enough to help set it up. What about Dean's or Seamus' father. And yes, I am well aware before you feel the need to point it out that I'm clutching at straws, but I'm worried that Dean or Seamus's parents will want to take you home and meet the Dursleys and almost anything would be better than risking being sent back to the Dursleys for the last three weeks before you can return to school, especially after what you did to get away from them after they picked you up. I am worried about you. I wish you could come here.
I'm glad that you've written to Hermione, one of the worst things about coming home for the summer last year was being cut off from Caltech, the professors the libraries and classes more than my housemates and classmates but it would've been nice to be able to exchange ideas or even just have the concrete reminder that it was real and still there to go back to. Still, I'm sorry that writing to her was so difficult but I understand why you can't discuss the Dursleys, telling her the truth that you're not there could be a disaster if she tells the wrong people and could get her in trouble next year too, and anything else would be a lie and also lead to potential problems. Telling her that they're treating you somewhat better than normal would make her question why you needed to run away. I can't encourage you to discuss your plans with her and if you can't tell her about Scoil Draiocht either you're not going to have a lot to talk about, so it won't be easy to keep up a correspondence that doesn't sound fake or stilted. Even if she eventually sees it as a betrayal when she realizes that you're not coming back and that you had a lot of things going on this summer that you didn't write to her about at least she will be back at school before she finds out.
You say that you thought Justin's parents would prefer that he went to Eton and learned magic over the summer. I'm sure they would, it's probably a major embarrassment to them that he's not at Eton like they planned, especially when I'm sure they told all their friends about him being accepted at Eton and they can't tell anyone where he does go to school, and they're missing the networking with his classmates' parents as well. It's surprising that nobody tells students that a summer time dilation program like Scoil Draiocht is available. It's a wonder the school itself doesn't advertise in Britain, or at least to try to have someone approach the muggleborn first years and their families as they do their school shopping before first year. It must be pretty easy to notice when it's a family's first trip to Diagon Alley. Like you can always pick the first-time tourists in Vegas.
But the question is whether Justin, or really anyone other than Hermione or I and perhaps a couple of other more studious students, would've agreed to go to Scoil Draiocht every summer for seven years it takes to complete the standard magical education and spend what is essentially another full school year while all their mates from during the year are off on holidays, or would he come to resent having to learn magic the way Seamus and Dean resented having to attend nonmagical classes last summer, or convince his parents not to keep sending him.
It's lucky that you aren't expected at the Weasleys. You couldn't have gone unless you want to go back to Hogwarts and if they arrived at the Dursleys' to pick you up then they would've reported you missing that much earlier, perhaps even before you had time to get out of the UK and beyond any means Dumbledore has to find you.
Batman lives in an apartment building owned by Superman.
Your Friend Always
Spencer
To:
From:
Dear Spencer
It's not easy to write to Hermione, I chucked out three attempts before I had a letter that didn't say anything that I didn't want her to know and I think won't arouse her suspicions about what I'm reading or doing. I don't want to complain about the Dursleys because if I said anything about how they would really be treating me if I was there, she'd either call me a liar or try to get someone to help me, which could be a disaster if whoever she spoke to did anything about it. She doesn't actually live all that far from the Dursleys by car though it's inconvenient by public transport. I honestly think that she'd believe I was lying like she did when I spoke of the Dursleys, or she'd tell Dumbledore who probably wouldn't do anything about it, but I can't afford to wrong. I also don't want to pretend that they're decent to me because they wouldn't be. I don't want to write anything anyone could ever use to justify having sent me there. So, I mostly talked vaguely about our homework and what essay topics I was considering doing. I didn't want to admit that I'd finished most of them or she'd be demanding I send them to her to look over and then I'd have to write them again after she'd marked them up, and I'd get annoyed with her about it.
Now that we're finished our homework, we spend most of the day at the local pool. Dean takes his sketch book and for a while he became really popular with girls wanting him to draw their portraits. Seamus was using the opportunity to flirt and Dean's got himself a girlfriend, so I spend a fair bit of my day on my own while they're off snogging. I've made some friends and I tried kissing a girl, but I really don't get it, it's nice and all but I'd rather be talking. Thankfully I've met a girl who feels the same and we talk about books she's reading and she talks about school and what she's studying. She wants to be a barrister, so she needs to do really well at school. Seamus called her the second coming of Hermione but they're honestly not much alike, she's more like my friend Patrick, interested in the way books are biased and trying to find alternative points of view. We've been lending each other books, she gave me a couple of really interesting reads about the British Parliament, one from the point of view of the house of Lords and some about the house of commons. She also reads a lot of different newspapers, and we talk about the motives behind the stories and the way they're slanted to one political party or the other. It made me think of the way 'The Daily Prophet' is written, they never seem to criticise the ministry at all. Nobody at Hogwarts seems to read any other newspapers, but there surely must be some. I'll look next time we go to Diagon Alley. The Irish magical newspaper seems much less biased, or perhaps it's just more critical of the ministry. There also doesn't seem to be anything about political parties in the 'Daily Prophet' other than an occasional mention of a dark, neutral, or light alliance bringing forth a bill.
Dean thinks we're mad but Seamus was surprisingly interested in the politics, he said he's going to need to know that stuff to run a pub, his uncle tells him it's important to be as impartial as possible and to remember which clients have strong political leanings one way or the other in a small country town so you don't offend them, but in the city it's easier because a person's politics would influence where they'd choose to drink so you just need to pick a side and be consistent about it and make sure any staff you hire are too.
Superman also part owns 'The Daily Planet' along with his enemy Lux Luthor.
Your Friend Always
Harry
To:
From:
Dear Harry
It's a pity that time expansion seems so rare, a big resort hotel with multiple restaurants, swimming pools and other activities could make an absolute fortune if they could offer a week's holiday in day or month in a week vacations, especially if they were able to ward an entire small island so they could offer a beach and water activities like riding jet ski, sailing or surfing. So many people can't get off work long enough to make travelling to a holiday truly worthwhile. Or if it weren't so clearly magical even a single study room students could use to gain an extra couple of hours to finish assignments or study for tests they've left too much til the last moment. Though that may not be a good thing if students start depending on it and availability is limited, or if students like Hermione started spending hours in there every day without compensating with extra meals and sleep.
I am enjoying my summer of doing only undergraduate engineering classes, I'm glad now that my supervisors demanded that I take the summer off after my masters' research before starting my Chemistry PhD and yes I probably will go on to get a degree in civil engineering. Even if I don't though, the adjunctive classes have improved my computer skills dramatically. I have so many ideas for my master's research in Mathematics that I can't wait to get started. I hope I will be able to do both projects at once. My chemistry master's research is finished, the thesis is written. I'm waiting on the grading, but the lecturer said there's no reason to worry and I've already been approved to do the next level of the research as my PhD project. It has been decided that I'm to be a TA and assistant lecturer next semester, in math and chemistry since it went so well this year. They were hesitant to put the double load on me last year because of my age but with my first masters complete they can't avoid it. All PhD students TA at least one class, it's a Caltech requirement. I like the idea of having to help the students with their questions but I can't help but worry how it might go, and the thought of standing up to give a lecture I haven't had time to prepare for when the professor cannot make it to class is giving me nightmares
though my supervisors say that that is normal and will stop once I've done it a few more times. I know I got really lucky last time that the professor had been so well prepared that I didn't have too much time to stress about it. But this time I will be assisting in some of the classes where there will be students who are only there to meet the math/science requisite in their degrees. I can't help remembering the time I had the attention of that many people, jeering and laughing at me when they tied me to the goalposts and these students will be only one year older than most of the people watching were that night.
I've never bothered much with politics, or at least not the federal or state government politics, I've heard a bit about the internal politics in Caltech and other universities among the students and I've also overheard hints about the politics among the faculty and the fight for tenure and research funding.
If you're going to stow away on a boat or ship, would it be possible to stow away on one of the cruise liners so you didn't have to worry about hiding and bringing a week's worth of food and drink? I looked into it and there are a couple of cruises available but taking the Queen Elizabeth 2 from Southampton to New York would probably be the safest option because they have a journey where they don't stop anywhere in between so they couldn't just put you off the boat at the next stop on some small out of the way place, you'd be in America and I doubt they're going to put a kid your age in jail if they do catch you so it would be pretty easy to just disappear on them and jump on a train. You'd have to go back to London to catch the boat which is a slight risk and you'd need to look up the dates it leaves on, but it goes once a month through the summer and early autumn, and it's a huge luxury ship so they have shops and free buffet meals and thousands of passengers to hide amongst once you've left port and with five passenger levels and more than over 1,100 ft long there has to be plenty of places you can hide for seven nights, you'd be a lot less likely to be noticed on a ship like that than on a cargo ship where the crew all know everyone that is supposed to be on board and a person your age would stand out like a sore thumb. If you can't get onto the Queen Elizabeth 2 there are other cruise ships that have repositioning cruises from Europe to the rest of the world in the fall, just be careful not to get on one that's only taking passengers over 18. The downside of doing that is that there would be no records of you entering the country. It would make it more difficult for anyone to find you, but you'd need to get a fake ID once you're here because you'd be an illegal immigrant. Is there a spell to change your accent so you sound American?
Superman's favourite animal is an owl.
Your Friend Always
Spencer
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From:
I looked up the Queen Elizabeth 2 and it looks like a lot of fun, or it would be with some friends to share it with but at least there'll be plenty to do to keep myself busy if I can move about freely. I think that I probably could find somewhere to hide in all that space, particularly if I could transfigure my clothes to look like I belonged there and get a hold of whatever paperwork or ID passes the guests are supposed to carry with them long enough to transfigure myself a copy.
There's no spell I'm aware of to change accents but I'd have a week to listen to the American passengers talk and try to copy them. I may not get it quite right, but it wouldn't matter as long as I don't sound British. I can do a pretty fair approximation of an Irish accent these days, and it will be even easier by the end of the summer. Even if I slip a bit, I'm sure there are a lot of Americans who have a British or Irish parent and have a bit of the accent.
I wouldn't need to fake papers or prove how I entered the country, my passport can look American and I assume that the goblins have taken care of making sure it doesn't raise alerts anywhere. Though I don't know if they've kept up with the advances in computers and how data is stored and able to be searched in the nonmagical world these days. I don't know whether they'd be offended if I asked them, but I think I should anyway. If a magical passport is going to cause trouble in America because I'm not on whatever computer databases they're going to use to check on me, then I'm going to need to know.
I got a letter back from Hermione, she seemed glad to have heard from me and she must have written back straight away or have already had most of the letter prepared, Hedwig wasn't gone long. Her letter was fairly friendly and much less bossy or preachy than she is at school. Of course, it's all about the magical books she was reading, and the trip her parents took her on to Flourish and Blotts on the way home from King's Cross and nothing about how she feels being home with her family or meeting up with friends. She mentions that they're about to go to Spain for a month's holiday and how she's trying to find out how to find the magical shopping area there, so it's just as well that I didn't end up going there. I asked Hermione about the feeling of magic in the castle, but she didn't mention it in her reply. Hopefully she will next time she writes.
I didn't know that about Superman's favourite animal, perhaps he's secretly a muggleborn wizard.
Your Friend Always
Harry
To:
From:
Dear Harry
I didn't think about your crazy magical passport, it will get you into the country okay and prevent them from thinking about sending you back to Britain or searching for your relatives there. But having an American passport with no other form of ID will be almost more trouble than it's worth day to day once you're here. You're also going to need to have a social security number, I'm not sure if it would be written on an American passport or not but it needs to be added to so many computer systems these days that it would be impossible for you to do. It would take a computer genius to write a mini computer virus to add it to every system. I don't know if the goblins or magic could do that, but I also don't know how you'd go about getting a real one without officially becoming an American citizen which would be impossible at your age without a parent or guardian living in America. Hopefully the goblins are more up to date than British wizards when it comes to nonmagical technology and can get you a valid social security card.
Perhaps Superman could be a wizard, we know that Batman isn't, for all his powers he has no defence against magic and has been defeated by it.
Your Friend Always
Spencer
To:
From:
Dear Spencer
We are at Seamus' place, Mr and Mrs Finnegan welcomed us back and set us up in the loft above the barn again. And we have the morning chores before school the same as last year. It's nice though to have a place of our own where we won't be overheard. I know Mrs T could've put listening charms in the loft if she wanted to, but I can't see her as the type to spend time listening to us gripe about schoolwork and chores.
Seamus' sister is still ignoring Dean and I. She's going to Scoil Draiocht with us this summer, but she is doing only magical subjects. She got a Hogwarts letter but after all the things I told the Finnegans last summer they decided not to let her go. Seamus said that Meaghan was a bit upset but she decided that if she wasn't going to Hogwarts she wanted to stay with her non-magical friends from Primary School and learn magic over the summer. Seamus pretends not to care that she ignores him. I thought it was just because Dean and I were there, but he said she was just as bad last week before we arrived. I hope that being at school together for a virtual year will help them start to get along better.
Part of me wishes I could stay here with the Finnegans and attend regular school next year, but of course I can't. Seamus will go back to Hogwarts, and they have no need of a kid boarding with them for the year even if they'd let me leave Hogwarts. Dumbledore wouldn't let me either and I doubt Seamus would keep it quiet where I was. I'm surprised he and Dean don't seem to have mentioned me spending summers with them to anybody, or at least not to anybody that was paying attention. Perhaps the fealty oath is helping them to keep the secret.
Superman is afraid of bats, I wonder why he wanted to become something he is afraid of.
Your Friend Always
Harry
To:
From:
Hi Spencer
I know you probably haven't even got my last message yet, but I needed to talk to someone about what Mrs Finnegan told us after Meaghan went to bed.
She had a couple of magical newspapers from last week. 'The Daily Prophet' and the Irish one, 'The Daily Nuacht'. A man called Sirius Black, convicted of murdering 11 people has broken out of the Wizarding Prison, Azkaban. Mrs Finnegan told me that he was also responsible for betraying me and my parents to Voldemort by telling them how to find us the night my parents were killed. I asked how they could know for sure it was him but apparently there's this magical spell called the Fidelius Charm. It literally hides a secret so only one person can tell anyone and anyone who knew the secret before the spell was case will forget it and you can't find out the secret by accident except for overhearing the 'Secret-keeper', the only person who's able to tell the secret. So, he's the only one that could have told him.
Mrs Finnegan couldn't tell me anything else about this Fidelius Charm or about Sirius Black, she's never heard of him before these articles, but he had to have been someone my parents trusted to have been made the secret keeper.
'The Daily Prophet' story hinted that he broke out of prison to get to me, but 'The Daily Nuacht' didn't mention me or my family at all. They were concentrating on speculating how someone could break out of the prison, they reported that it had never happened before and warning people not to approach the convict, stating that they were concerned that he would be completely insane after 12 years in Azkaban exposed to the Dementors. They were also warning people about the Dementors themselves because there were rumours that they were going to be sent out to look for him, though the 'Daily Prophet' didn't mention them.
Dementors are a creature that sucks happiness out of people and if they can get their mouth on yours, they're said to suck out your soul. I asked about that and someone with their soul sucked out can still follow orders to do stuff they could do before like eat and drink, walk, fly a broom and even complicated things like shower, clean the house and make stuff, but they couldn't cast magic, talk or decide to do something for themselves, and they never showed any emotions. It sounded to me like they still had muscle memory and could still talk but couldn't think so they didn't have anything they wanted to say. Worse than that, it's speculated that their souls are eaten so the person ceases to exist when they die, they cannot go to heaven, or be reincarnated, or whatever comes after this life. Nobody knows for sure of course. I don't know if I believe in life after death but it's still a horrible thought to think that there might be one and there are creatures out there who can take that away from people.
Mrs Finnegan said that Dementors should all be destroyed, that it was inhumane torture to lock people up with them, even murderers. She's more worried about the possibility of the ministry sending them out to find this Black fellow than she is of having an insane mass murderer out on the loose somewhere potentially looking for me.
I offered to move into the school full time, so I'd be behind the school wards and not putting her family at risk. Mr and Mrs Finnegan didn't think that it should be necessary, neither Black nor the people looking for him have any reason to think that I might be in Ireland, even if they believe that he is looking for me. She's asked us all to keep an ear out at school for any news that suggests Black or the Dementors are coming here.
I feel unsettled and angry that someone my parents trusted could do that. The last thing I need is another enemy out there somewhere trying to kill me.
Superman only needs to sleep 3 hours per day and can micronap and wake feeling like he's had a good night's sleep.
Your Friend Always
Harry
To:
From:
Dear Harry
I think that Mrs Finnegan might be right, the Dementors do sound worse than one murderer who if he has any sense at all will be as far from Britain as he can get. Particularly if there are a lot of them out looking for him all over the place. Please look up what they look like so you can try to stay away from them, and Black. Is there a defense for the Dementors? A way to destroy one, or at least to protect yourself from that kiss happening?
Though if Black is looking for you, he's more likely to look in Surrey, he has no reason to believe that you'd be in Ireland. So, it's unlikely that the Dementors would be sent there to look for him either. I think that Mrs Finnegan is right not to send you away unless there are rumors or information suggesting that one or both of them have been seen nearby.
It's difficult to think of trusting someone that much and then being betrayed but then I remembered all the problems you were having trusting people in the magical world. Is it possible that Black did not deliberately reveal your parent's secret location. Could someone have used Legilimancy or a truth potion or something to get him to tell them the secret. Or used Polyjuice potion to make Black think that they were one of the people that he was allowed to tell? Would the magic of the Fidelius protect from any of those things?
I don't think that Batman would need to sleep at all, he doesn't need to eat or breathe.
Your Friend Always
Spencer
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