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Thursday 12/20/90
Dear Harry,
Merry Christmas. I know you said that your relatives don't let you join in on their celebrations and Mom and I don't celebrate it either since Dad left. Even before that she was weirded out by Christmas one minute she loves it and goes overboard decorating, and the next minute the decorations and gifts in the house are causing paranoid delusions and she destroys them all. Vegas isn't exactly the right climate to have proper Christmas trees they dry out too quickly and become a fire hazard, not that that stops the casinos or some people, and I share Mom's dislike for plastic trees and fake snow, but we used to have a Christmas meal and gifts though they often weren't wrapped. Wrapped parcels frighten Mom. Now though there's nothing. I can't cook a Christmas dinner and Mom's too disorganised to do it now even on a good day. We can't go to restaurants this time of year because of the decorations, so unless your cookbook works wonders and I can actually make something edible, it will be take away dinners or perhaps Mac and Cheese out of a box unless Mom's friends and relatives take pity on us. I don't think they will though. They've been looking forward to me coming home for vacation so they can take a break from caring for Mom so I don't expect to see them at all.
It will be nice to have more time to spend with Mom but part of me wishes that classes didn't stop for so long I'm going to miss being at school, though it would be kind of sad and pathetic if I were the only person in the dorm to stay over break and spend Christmas Day alone, and I'd rather spend it with Mom even if she doesn't recognise that it's Christmas. I think that I would enjoy the peace and quiet.
I am proud of you Harry, proud that you're making the best of your education in spite of your situation. It's a pity though that you can't trust your teacher well enough to explain the situation to her so she can check on Dudley's grades and write you a fake report card with grades just a little worse than his and a real report card that shows what you can really do.
I'm proud that in spite of growing up surrounded by nothing but pettiness and cruelty you still managed to become a kind and caring person using what powers you have to heal and feed yourself instead of hurting the Dursleys and those around you whose wilful blindness allows their cruelty and abuse to continue unnoticed. Proud that even when sending me stolen gifts you care enough to be honest and tell me, and proud that you are trying to better yourself. But you don't need to try to learn Chemistry and Math or any subject that doesn't really interest you to make me proud. I always will be proud of you and interested in whatever you want to write to me about. Especially if I know it's something that interests you. But most of all I'm proud that someone as amazing as you wants to be my friend and that my friendship has been able to help you, even if I can't help as much as I would like to be able to.
I got my report card and you were right I did get the top mark in all my science and math classes, though I only beat Ethan at math by a quarter of a percent. I also got high distinctions for my other classes too. College isn't like school. All of the classes I did this semester are finished and I will do different classes next semester. Some of them follow on from each other like inorganic Chemistry 102 follows Chemistry 101 but others I won't do again. For example, this semester coming I need to do a Physical Education subject and an arts subject, but I only have to do two English and three humanities subjects to graduate so I'm not doing either next half of the year. Ethan wants me to do music for my arts subject but there is a subject I can do that meets my requirements for both arts and PE called interpretive dance, I hope you won't laugh at that idea too much. I'm not sure if I should try it because I'm too unco-ordinated but it means I can do an extra math class and if I fail the PE component then I can try something else and it is one of the few subjects that has more girls than boys and it's totally non-contact so I won't get pummelled.
I hope you get some pleasure out of Christmas, even if it is just with your friends at the restaurant. Vernon's sister Marge sounds dreadful. I hope she doesn't stay too long and that her dog chokes on his Christmas dinner before it gets a chance to bite you. As you might guess I don't like dogs, or the bigger issue is that they don't like me.
Merry Christmas Harry
Your friend
Spencer
Harry eagerly ripped open the package to find a book on physics for beginners. It wasn't a new book, rather it had Spencer's name on the front page. Harry was touched, Spencer had chosen this book for him out of his own collection, thinking he'd find it interesting or useful. He knew how much Spencer loved his books, even those that he'd long since memorised were precious to him and he was grateful that no matter what delusions his mother had she'd never been able to destroy a single book. Books were Spencer's life and in giving him this one he was sharing part of himself.
The book itself was actually far too advanced for Harry's age and education level but he didn't realise that, everything he'd read about physics in the library helped him understand as he worked his way through it and the concepts fascinated him. The fact that Spencer sent it meant that Harry was determined to understand every single idea and process in the book. He didn't realise that he was attracting attention with his choice of reading or that a few of the teachers at Stonewall were looking forward to having him in their classes.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.