More than Penpals

by raspberry dreams

Harry and Spencer meet as children (timelines adapted to make Spencer two years older than Harry). Even though they only spend three weeks together, having the support of a friend, even one he can only communicate with by letter, transforms Harry's attitudes to life and those around him and may even help save his life and win a war.

19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

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 NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

Friday 27/4/90

Dear Spencer,

I'm so sorry you were hurt and humiliated. I wish that I was there to hug you and stop it from happening but I guess even if I was at the hideout I wouldn't have been at the high school. What happened to you is totally wrong and I wish you could go to the police and have all of them arrested for assaulting you. They're so much older than you the police should take it seriously. It was assault Spencer, every bit as much as you convinced me that what my uncle does to me is assault, not punishment. But one thing you always told me, one thing that you want me to believe, what happens to me isn't my fault. What happened to you that afternoon wasn't your fault either, and you shouldn't be the one who feels embarrassed about it. They are the ones who are monsters and should feel horrible about what they did. And the kids that watched and knew how you were feeling and still didn't stop it should feel embarrassed and guilty about not helping you. It should be them and not you that has nightmares about what happened that afternoon and some of them will I'm sure.

By the time you will get this you will have gone back to school and faced them all. I have no doubts that you did it, because I know how strong you really are and how important it is to you to finish school and protect your mum. I truly wish I'd been there with you on Monday to support you on your way to school and for you to know I'd be waiting and ready to listen to whatever you wanted to tell me on your way home.

I'm glad that writing to me helped, hopefully getting this letter will help as well. It is good to know that I have a friend too. I will be your friend always Spencer. I will always be on your side though there isn't anything I can do to your bullies from here. If my power stuff worked at this distance their heads would have all exploded I was so angry at them. Seriously I was trying to send them a rash or something that made wearing clothes impossible for them for the next year or two, and to turn their privates into something that everyone would laugh at when they saw them.

Don't feel guilty about being glad that your mum wasn't well enough to notice what happened. I'm glad she wasn't aware of it either, though it would have been good if there was someone there to comfort you or to have gone looking for you when you didn't arrive home. The main reason that you didn't want her to know what happened, was to protect her from the attention and investigations she'd face if she did know and tried to do something about it, and you know that it would only hurt to know you were hurt like that. Especially if she was well enough to realise she couldn't risk trying to do anything about it.

School continues here the same, everyone else is looking forward to the week off for the spring holidays, I would be too if there was any way I could come and spend it in the hideout. My spring break from school here will be an endless drudge of chores and running away from Dudley and his friends. I won't miss classes and the teacher glaring at me all the time but I will miss the library and being able to learn new things.

I finally got to read 'Maniac Magee' but I still can't work out why the teacher wanted me to read it. Yes it would be nice to get away from the Dursleys but I'm not naïve enough to believe that living on my own would be safe or comfortable, let alone a grand adventure. Adventures are fun to read about but I don't think that I'd want to live through one.

I think that the Dursleys would be happy if I ran away, until someone reported me missing and they had to deal with the investigation into my disappearance. I wonder if that happened whether the neighbours and the school would continue to protect them or if they'd report how the Dursleys always treated me since there was clearly something going on if I vanished. It would be nice to think about them being the ones that were glared at suspiciously everywhere they went. Of course, that assumes that the police didn't just find me right off and return me to Privet Drive which they probably would. I don't think I'd be much good at running away and hiding. Unless I could find a hideout inside a library. I think I could hide there for quite a while if I had enough to eat. I could use my power to let myself in and out of spaces I couldn't get to normally. The more I think about it the more I like the idea. Maybe I should keep working on my power stuff first and try to use it to make myself invisible or at least unnoticeable. Mind you if I could be unnoticeable then I wouldn't need to leave in the first place. I could stay and be left alone. That's the next thing I'm going to try to do.

I hope things go better for you. That some of the more decent people in your school do feel bad about not helping you and start stepping in to prevent something like that happening again. Or at least that the bullies realise how lucky they were to get away with that and back off.

Your Friend

Harry

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.