Chapter 47

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Six months and a dozen letters later

Tuesday 9/7/91

Dear Spencer,

Sorry it took me so long to reply to your letter but I've been locked in the cupboard for the last couple of weeks and only let out to use the bathroom and be handed a small meal twice a day.

I was being punished for letting my power get out of control again. It's a bit of a long story. They Dursleys went to the zoo for Dudley's birthday, taking Dudley's best friend Piers. Mrs Figg wasn't available so to Dudley's great disgust Vernon insisted that I went with them. To start with the day wasn't too bad but then we went into the snake enclosure. One of the snakes was looking at me as if he understood what I was saying and when Dudley saw that he pushed me over and I hurt my arm. The glass on the snake tank vanished. The glass was only gone for a moment, if the snake hadn't escaped and Dudley fallen into the enclosure, I don't think anyone other than Dudley would've noticed. But he was leaning on the glass banging it and he fell into the enclosure just in time to get trapped when the glass reappeared.

You can imagine the fuss. There's this great big snake on the loose. It was a boa constrictor so it wasn't poisonous but once it was out of it's enclosure, I guess most people wouldn't recognise that so people are running and screaming in a huge panic, trying to get out of the dark where the snake exhibit is. And Dudley's stuck behind the glass in its cage so he got the blame for setting the snake loose and he and Vernon and Petunia cant explain to the zoo keepers how it happened.

Anyhow Vernon tried to drag me out of there by the ear, and the zoo keeper objected because he didn't think that I could've had anything to do with it and even if I had it wouldn't be fair to punish me and not Dudley. Not to mention pulling me almost off my feet by the ear isn't a normal punishment for a ten year old. One of the zoo keepers threatened to call the police on Vernon, which they half wanted to do for Dudley letting the snake out anyway. Eventually things calmed down, though I'm not sure how and we drove home.

They threw me in the cupboard and Vernon said that I wasn't getting any meals for two weeks and then the took Dudley and Piers out for dinner to make up for being treated so badly by the horrible zoo keepers. So, I unlocked my cupboard and carefully collected a good pile of food that will keep well for a week or so and a large amount of water in case it gets really hot because the cupboard is so stuffy even if it is one of the coolest places in the house. Surprisingly, I didn't need the food though, Petunia has been feeding me when Vernon and Dudley aren't around. Not a lot but enough not to starve and I let myself out every couple of days to stock up my stolen food supply. Other than missing the last week and a half of primary school, and the orientation for Stonewall High and knowing that you'd be worried not to get a letter it hasn't been too bad. Luckily I'd changed all my library books the day before so I had plenty to read and the Dursleys let me out in time to return them before I got fined.

I've been reading the Encyclopaedia Brown books where this kid is super smart like you and solves crimes by using obscure knowledge. I don't think I'd recommend them to you, I'm sure the stories would be too obvious and they're a bit too childish for you. And 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl, it was a recommendation by my teacher and is also about a really smart kid that was bringing herself up like you but her parents weren't sick just extremely selfish and ignored her because she was too different from them. From there I read a couple of his other books too. I also read 'Wonder' by R.J. Palacio about a child with a physical deformity and how he overcomes bullying to make friends and learn to enjoy school. It's a great story but it seems really unrealistic. I've read some other stuff too but those are the books I'd recommend to a friend to read though they might seem a bit young and simple for you.

Missing the end of school means I didn't get to see my report but Vernon didn't get angry about it so I'd guess I passed well enough to go to Stonewall and didn't do better than Dudley which is what I was hoping for.

I have great news. Vernon and Petunia have definitely decided to send Dudley to 'Smeltings', it's the boarding school that Vernon went to which means that I not only won't I have him in class scaring people away from becoming my friend I won't need to put up with him at home either. I don't think they've really thought it through properly, though. There's no way that I could do Dudley's homework for him if he doesn't come home at night. He will have to do it himself. Not that I'm about to point that out to him. I don't know how they can afford it either, perhaps you're right and someone's paying them to look after me. If so, they must be paying quite generously. He's a legacy student which is why he got in without having to sit an entrance exam and interview, I heard Petunia bragging to the neighbours about it. Just as well because I saw the letter they received from the local Grammar where they were going to send him and Dudley was refused admittance because of his grades this year. The Dursleys don't know that I know that.

I hope your end of semester exams went well, I'm sure you're probably at the top of all your classes again, except for your dance class. I hope you passed it. They'd have to give you some credit for effort because I know you tried your best even if it was a bit of a disappointment about meeting and practicing talking to girls. I'm not sure why you'd want to talk to giggly silly girls anyway. Isn't it better to try to talk to the girls in your science and math classes, at least then they'd be smart like you and you'd have stuff in common to talk about.

Did you go home for the summer, or did you take the extra courses you were talking about? How is you mum? I hope everything is going well

Your friend

Harry

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