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Friday 4/3/92
Dear Harry
Has McGonagall done anything about the dragon yet? Or someone else found out and removed it from the school? Please tell me that someone's done something to protect the students even if it's just to give Hagrid a cage to keep it in and promise me that if nothing's been done that you're at least staying away from it and Hagrid's cabin so if it does get loose you have a chance of not being the student burnt to a crisp or eaten by a dragon!
I know you don't like Snape and you worry what will happen to it if he or one of the other professors you don't trust finds out about the dragon, but even having the baby dragon rendered for potions ingredients as horrific as it sounds would be better than the dragon having the chance to grow big enough to escape Hagrid and get into the school. We already know that whatever wards are on the school, they do not keep out the dangerous things they are supposed to keep out and I doubt they've been strengthened since the troll got in or you probably would have felt the difference just as you felt it when the wards around the Dursleys' house and neighbourhood were strengthened.
I share your suspicions of Hagrid winning the dragon egg, but I can't offer any other suggestions why it happened. The only harmless possibility I can think of is that someone was trying to pay Hagrid back for something good he'd done for them without letting him know who was indebted to him. Perhaps a Slytherin or someone Hagrid wouldn't have accepted the egg from as a gift. The problem with that idea is that while we have no proof of the cost of a dragon egg I think it would be very expensive and difficult to come by so not something someone would normally give as a gift unless Hagrid had saved their life of the life of their only child or something equally momentous, and I'm sure you would have heard about something like that. One other possibility is that the forgetting spell, obliviate, might not work reliably on Hagrid, so distracting him from the conversation was the only option short of killing him. You did say you were sure that he is not totally human the way he didn't get badly burnt by the dragon so maybe spells don't work the same way on him either. But of course, the expense of the egg makes that less likely too unless the secret they want kept is so important that revealing it would be life changing or life threatening in some way.
Your gambler theory about the Weasley's made me laugh, it's possible of course but most gambling addicts wouldn't take their family on holiday with a small win, and it had to have been pretty small not to afford to take the boys left at school, they would keep gambling until the win had been lost. And if they did take a trip it would be a spur of the moment thing, not planned a week or more in advance. At least gambler's in Vegas would but perhaps they're addicted to gambling on something that doesn't happen that often, a wizarding sport perhaps. The problem with our world these days is that there's too much access to gambling be it cards, dice, horses, sports or slot machines all day and all night. There's no forced cooling off period after a big win or loss. But on a more serious note, could the money be related to whatever reason they have for Ron to insist that he's your best mate and his mother to send over the top gifts to a near stranger?
I haven't received the photos yet, Mrs Thomas probably sent the parcel sea mail, so I'll get it in a week or so. I'm glad you thought of sending her money and asking her to have the film developed and sending me actual photos so they won't be damaged. Did you get a set too? I hope you did. The only way to get better at taking photos is to see them afterwards so you can see what you did right or wrong and how to change what you're doing. It will be good to see what your friends actually look like and be able to put faces to who you write about, I have a bit of a picture of each of them in my head from your descriptions but I'm sure they're not very accurate. Did you send me a photo of yourself as well? I'd like to see how you've changed as you've grown up a bit since I saw you last.
I know you think I don't like the things you're learning at school. It isn't that, they all sound very interesting and I'd like to read all your textbooks and would love to be able to visit and attend classes with you for a week or two. The real problem I have with the subjects you're learning at Hogwarts is that from your descriptions they're all more vaguely vocational training than proper education. They follow these instructions to practice this wand movement or to accustom your magic to do some particular action or follow directions to look after this plant or that recipe to produce that potion. Education is supposed to teach you how to learn, how to think for yourself, how to judge multiple sides of an argument or opinions on a topic and form your own opinion. None of your subjects even try to teach critical thinking or morals and ethics. All things that a lot of the stuff you learn at high school is supposed to teach. And with magic so easily reversed a lot of the time and healing so quick and painless there isn't really the same life opportunities to learn that actions have consequences, sometimes terrible consequences that you didn't really expect them to. Not to mention subjects like English where you examine the characters motivations for their actions teaches students to look into motivations behind their friends' and family's actions and form their own decisions and views on things. Not every student will learn the hidden lessons the curriculum is trying to teach but your classmates aren't even being given the opportunities to try to learn and grow into independent thinking adults.
My subjects are getting more interesting this semester, of course a lot of the class are complaining that they've also got a lot more difficult but they still seem fairly easy to me. Mom is preparing to teach a new class, not in reality of course but she's spent most of the last few weeks reading books to set the curriculum and making new lesson plans and setting term paper topics. It's keeping her busy and alert and mostly in a normal sleep wake cycle and taking her medications so it's a good thing. Not to mention I will have some new lectures to listen to when I go home and she's having a bad day and thinks I'm one of her students. I wish she could still at least guest lecture but her good days aren't reliable enough to predict when she'd be able to attend class let alone stand up in front of everyone and present the right lecture coherently. Outside of class and looking after Mom I don't have a lot of news, there's not much free time this semester and what there is has mostly been spent with my house mates planning pranks. The house has been very careful this year to make sure the pranks are funny without anyone at risk of being hurt or singled out for humiliation which is great. We're not winning the prank war but I don't think that we're losing it either, there's still a way to go before everyone settles down and stops pranking in order to finish their papers and study for exams. The house is getting along fairly well, that is I get along with all but the most dedicated party goers, them I rarely see.
Your friend always
Spencer
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.