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Spencer was incredibly relieved to find the letter in his letter box when he returned from visiting his mother. He'd been worried for more than a week. It just wasn't like Harry to take so long to write back. Particularly with school ending he would normally try to send a letter on the last day of classes in case Petunia kept him too close to home with spring cleaning and chores for the first week of the holiday. They'd gone this long between letters before but both had been making a lot more effort since the incident where Harry had had his memories altered, each wanting to reassure the other that they still knew and cared about their best friend.
Monday 7/15/91
Dear Harry
I was glad to get your letter. I was starting to worry that someone had interfered with your memory again and this time they made you forget me or forget about your friends at the restaurant and the fact that we were still writing to each other or even just my new address.
I did take the summer program I told you about and it is so incredible, everything I hoped it would be. I could ramble on for pages about how amazing the individualised teaching is and how many wonderfully interesting things I'm learning but don't worry I'll restrain myself and get to the point of what I wanted to say. The thing is that taking the summer program meant I hadn't been home for the last few weeks of term because I was busy getting my application in and getting everything organised, so I couldn't tell if you'd written to my home address. But I was home this weekend and I panicked a bit to see that there was no letter waiting there for me. Mom promised she hadn't thrown a letter for me out, not that she'd realise it was a real letter to me or remember doing it if she'd done it on a bad day. So, I was very relieved to get back to the house and find your letter this morning. I would have written to you today whether I got a letter or not.
I'm sorry you were punished like that and missed the opportunity to visit your new school and get to know some of the other students and potentially make some contacts you could spend time with over the summer. It would be good for you to have a friend your own age. I really don't count, I'm not normal enough to counteract the effect of spending all your spare time reading or hanging around with adults. I'm glad that you found a way to get enough to eat and that you had something to keep you occupied while you were locked up. It's good that your aunt seems to have started caring what happens to you, it makes me want to feel more confident that you are okay in that house but don't rely on it Harry, she might be feeding you properly behind Vernon's back but she can't be depended on to stand up for you if he decided to hurt you again.
I'm glad that you got to see the zoo. Some of it makes me sad to see the animals in cages but some of the new enclosures are more animal friendly and the inhabitants seem content enough. I know zoos also do a lot of good in raising awareness about conservation and the risks of animals becoming extinct as well as developing breeding programs for species endangered in the wild. But I'm guessing the Dursleys didn't care about any of that. What was your favourite part of the zoo?
Your story about Dudley getting stuck in the glass cage was very funny, I could almost picture it. Or it would've been funny if it didn't come about because you were hurt and cause you to be punished. I know you didn't admit to being hurt but I know you pretty well now Harry. To lose control of your power like that, you had to be either really shocked at being knocked down, which you wouldn't be if you'd known Dudley was nearby, you'd have been on your guard for it. Or you were really hurt, broken bone sort of hurt. Are you alright? Did you manage to heal yourself? Or did removing and replacing the glass to stop Dudley from being able to hurt you again wear you out too much? One other thing I found curious about your story. You said that the snake appeared to understand you? Has that happened before with an animal? Is this the first snake that you've tried to talk to? I've never heard of that happening before. Even so called snake charmers can't actually talk to their snakes. The snakes are reacting to the instrument the charmer uses as a threat and the poor things are usually defanged to make them safe because the 'snake charmer' has no real control over them, which is abhorrent. The thing is that snakes don't have ears, they don't hear sounds at all rather they feel vibrations so I don't know how the snake could possibly understand human speech. That's not to say I'm doubting you. I know you're observant enough to notice whether a snake is listening to you or just reacting randomly to their environment and wouldn't easily be fooled by a simple coincidence. It might have something to do with your power. There's no other rational explanation. I know it's not like a comic but I feel I should tease you that once upon a time when you were a baby you must have been bitten by a radioactive snake and are destined to become the next superhero. But that doesn't explain your powers at all.
I wonder if you will ever find a reasoning behind your power, how it came to be and what the limitations of it are. I hope you do find out one day and are able to use the power to it's full capacity even if you never use it to save people from burning buildings or to fight supervillains.
Your friend
Spencer
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