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Saturday 1/4/92
Dear Harry
Thank you for the gifts, and for the warning that the chocolate frogs jump. It gave me quite a shock so I'm glad I didn't open it in front of Mom. I had trouble bringing myself to eat the first one but I'm glad I did, it was the best chocolate I've ever tasted. The other sweets were interesting and very different from anything I get here but I guess there are quite a few nonmagical treats in England that aren't available here too and vice versa. I will send you some of our lollies and chocolate bars to try.
The potions book was interesting, but you're right it would be good to know more of the theory behind things, that's the truly interesting part of it all. There must be some general rules or reasons things are done a particular way. It doesn't sound like your teacher is a very good teacher not to explain these things, even if he is brilliant at brewing potions themselves.
The novel made me laugh. It's so old fashioned in a lot of ways but it doesn't really fit with any actual historical period I've read about. I guess with the total lack of modern technology in the wizarding world it could be set anywhere from in the last few years or a couple of hundred years ago. You were right, as supposedly 'classic literature' it isn't very well written, and the inherent bigotry in the novel that nonmagical people were less human than they were and that the house elves were like highly trained dogs, or worse, most people treat their dogs a lot better than elves seem to be treated. I'd say the elves ate treated more like a vacuum cleaner, than a maid. You get it out, use it and put it away. You don't stop to thank the vacuum cleaner or feed it, you don't worry if the cupboard you keep it in is comfortable or crowded or too cold. It's just a machine it doesn't have feelings. I hope elves are treated better than that in real life.
I'm glad you got to stay at school for the holidays. Do they hold Christmas celebrations for those that are there or was the Christmas party held before the other students left? I hope they do something special Christmas day. I guess I shouldn't assume that the wizarding world is Christian, they're just as likely to follow some of the older pagan or even druid religions, maybe more so since it was the Christian churches that were burning witches at the stake a couple of hundred years ago. Is there any religious observances or education at school, or do they like the regular school system not teach any religion to avoid offending those of other faiths?
Are there many students staying for the break? I would imagine some of the more studious senior students would want to stay for the library, particularly those from nonmagical homes. Perhaps this will be an opportunity to get to know a couple of people from the other houses and year levels.
Your quidditch team mates sound nice but I guess if they're two years or more ahead of you, and you've never mentioned them before you're not close to them away from practices. Still it was nice of them to help you with your shopping. It seems strange to me that you're not allowed to leave the school, even to go to the local village. I can't think of any other secondary school that's so restrictive. And surely the village would like it better if smaller groups were allowed to visit more often rather than all the top five years of students on one day every five or six weeks. It would make it very difficult for businesses to be suddenly swamped like that, and for the teachers to supervise their students in such a large number. One year level per weekend day with everyone getting a turn once a month would make much more sense, except perhaps from a teacher's perspective having to supervise the younger years. From what you've told me unless there are quite a lot of professors you haven't mentioned there really aren't enough staff to adequately supervise you outside of class time and complete the preparation and marking for their classes.
Don't worry about what you tell your other friends, I'll never meet them so it makes no difference to me if they know you're writing to me or not. I'm glad Dean knows and has a way to contact me if you ever need me though, even if I'm still not sure how I'd get to you if you did.
Ethan does know about you. He sees my enthusiasm as I receive your letters and I've told him a little about you. Not the big statute secret thing obviously, or the fact you were virtually homeless for those weeks in Vegas, but that you're my best friend from home and who's now in England.
Mom has known since your first letter that I have a penfriend in England and is supportive of the idea, but she doesn't know that we've met, I originally told her that writing to you was a school assignment and that we've kept writing because we became friends. She's grateful that I have a friend to confide in and while in her right mind, respectful of the privacy of our correspondence. I keep your letters locked up in California and the ones I receive while in Vegas I keep on my person as much as possible or in the hideout until I get back to Caltech. As far as I know my original fear that she would destroy your letters before I got them doesn't seem to have occurred, but if I ever didn't respond to an important letter or seem to have ignored a question you wanted answered then it is possible I've missed one or two.
As to your concerns about Ron and Hermione affecting your study habits, I wish I could tell you that you were just being paranoid but I'm afraid I don't know. It might be just that you were thinking like that when you told me about what they were doing that makes it seem like it's possible someone might have encouraged them to behave like that. One thing that I can say though is that I don't think that Ron at least is doing it on purpose. From what you've told me of his other habits that have nothing to do with what you are reading or learning he is genuinely that lazy and that procrastinating comes naturally to him. His behaviour fits into the pattern of his personality. I can't guarantee that his personality couldn't have been influenced to be like that but I doubt it was done with his knowledge and consent, or his parents. After all, for everything he stops you from learning he's stopping himself from learning even more.
Hermione is more difficult to judge. I do think that she is oblivious of the effects of her personality and attitude most of the time. She might not realise she's stopping you from learning things for yourself. Or she might be doing it out of a need to feel that you need her help, even though I'm sure she knows deep down that doing someone's homework for them doesn't do a thing to really help them or form a real friendship between the two of you. Of course, you don't have to actually look at the work she's done for you. You should remember most of your draft outline well enough to do the research and write the essay without it. Have you tried asking her to stop and let you finish your work before she tries to correct it? If she apologises and stops doing it then it's likely she just didn't realise that her behaviour wasn't welcome, after all I'm sure that's exactly the sort of help Ron would want.
I will remind you of what I've said before, real friends don't try to change you to suit their way of seeing things. Real friends would be happy that you're doing your work and trying to be the best that you can be. Real friends can be trusted to know your secrets but the fact you don't trust Ron or Hermione suggests that you already know they are not real friends.
You asked about Ethan, I believe he is a real friend, albeit a quite competitive friend. He and I have had a few disagreements more as we got to know each other that first semester. He teased me about going home so often at first but now I trusted him enough to tell him about Mom and he understands and supports me to go home and collects my assignments when I can't get back in time on a Monday if Mom has a bad day Sunday. Thankfully Ethan and I are about as tidy as each other and most of the time it's fine, every now and then one of us has a mad fit of tidying up and gets annoyed at the other persons mess but the irritation and cleaning fits pass pretty quickly. I am fairly tidy, I think it comes from living with Mom. So much of the time I had to do my own washing folding and ironing that I developed an appreciation for the work that goes into making my clothes look neat and tidy and putting them away properly keeps them nice and saves me from doing the work twice. That and things put away in cupboards, drawers and the bookshelf were less likely to upset Mom or attract her attention when she was having a bad day.
Your friend
Spencer
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