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Thursday 20/12/90
Dear Spencer,
Merry Christmas I hope this gets to you in time. I have sent you a fruitcake, actually I sent it a couple of days ago so it shouldn't be too far away. Petunia made several small cakes this year in attempt to hide some from Vernon so we didn't have to bake again, Vernon has already found a couple of her hiding spots but luckily, I had already taken the cake to send to you, so I hope you enjoy stolen fruitcake. I did bake it completely myself this year though, so it's only the ingredients that were stolen. I have also sent you some 'White Christmas' which I think will keep well enough. It's my own work too. I would've sent some mince pies, shortbread and gingerbread but I thought they might be stale by the time they arrived since I didn't have a sealed container to send them in. if I hadn't planned on stealing some of the treats for myself and to send to you I would've suggested that the best place to hide it would be in my cupboard because Vernon and Dudley would never expect it to be in there. But then again if they did catch me getting some out for Petunia they'd know where it was and I would be punished if it went missing. Luckily, Petunia isn't smart enough to think of hiding anything in there, that or she doesn't trust me which is a bit rich since as far as she knows I'm locked up all night and can't be the person hogging into the food she's made for guests. One thing hiding the treats has achieved is that Dudley isn't eating as many. He's too lazy to really search for them, but I really don't know why she's so fussed. We really don't get guests other than her gardening group and she knows in advance what day they're coming so she could have just baked the day before.
Unfortunately, this year we are getting another guest. 'Aunt Marge', Vernon's sister who is just as horrible as he is and will also bring her beast of a dog. I don't hate dogs though I'm not very fond of them but Marge's dog 'Ripper' is a terror and I'm sure she's trained him to try to bite me every time he sees me. He doesn't try to bite anybody else. Marge always tells Vernon and Petunia that I'm an ungrateful whelp and should be sent to an orphanage since my parents lacked the good sense to drown me at birth as should happen to runts like me. The worst thing is she claims to hate me but she really enjoys insulting me. So she insists that I'm present most of the time, cleaning or working and not locked in my cupboard all day safe from the dog or kicked out of the house to visit the library and the restaurant, unless it's sleeting and really miserable out, then she will enjoy forcing me out into the bad weather. Don't worry about Marge though. She isn't physically abusive herself though she does encourage Vernon to punish me, but he never takes it too far when she's there. So I will be okay.
I'm not managing to sneak out at night and steal food from the Dursleys as often as I used to, I am starting to be able to get the door unlocked again every time I try but it exhausts me and no amount of food seems to make up for the energy I needed to use to get it. I've gone back to eating more at the restaurant since I feel a lot better there than I do closer to the Dursleys and I've resorted to stealing out of dumpsters again as well so I'm still getting enough to eat, even if very little of it is treats or Christmas food. It's also probably better for me that stuffing myself with treats anyway.
I'm glad that your classes are going well and you have friends to study with even if most of the advantages of studying with the others is social for you. Of course, you will get top marks. I'd be surprised if you don't get the top mark in all your subjects. I on the other hand am cruising comfortably into a solid D minus average. Hopefully that will be low enough not to beat Dudley. It's harder to know how badly I need to do when he isn't with me in class and of course his homework doesn't help because I do it all for him anyway. In spite of my marks I'm enjoying school most of the time and I honestly think that I could easily be one of the top students in my class now if I was allowed to do well. That's thanks to you. Before I met you, I was still learning the work though I was deliberately doing poorly, but it was hard to motivate myself to make sure I understood everything properly when I knew I could never show it anyway and I could feel myself starting to get lazy with it. But now I want to learn as much as possible because you made everything sound so interesting so I wanted to learn more about it and reading and learning began to seem rewarding for their own sake and I want to make you proud of me.
I've been reading 'The Changeover' by Margaret Mahy and 'Robinsheugh' by Eileen Dunlop, they're both stories about supernatural happenings and they're both delightfully creepy, if a bit girly. I've also been trying to read 'Oliver Twist', which I find interesting. Life for children living on the street seems to me like it probably hasn't changed much in the past hundred and fifty years. I also read 'All the Impossible Things' by Lindsay Lackey about a girl in foster care. Yes, you can see there's a theme going on about what my teacher recommends I read. I think she's trying to encourage me to leave the Dursleys. Maybe she is one of the people who tried to help me in the past and her memory either wasn't wiped out well enough or they missed her and she realised that direct intervention hasn't worked. I wish that I could talk to her about it, but it isn't worth the risk of making her think that I'm mentally disturbed and potentially dangerous since she doesn't seem to dislike me at the moment.
Your friend
Harry
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