Disclaimer: I am not JKR.
The Compton Diary
(Address Withheld)
Dear Dr Helena Stanfield
I am writing to you because I know this is your area of expertise. You have dealt with many cases of the supernatural and I want to know what you make of this.
The following is a diary kept by my late mother-in-law, Mrs Alice Compton. It is an extraordinary account of six days in mid-March, 1998. Neither she, nor her late husband Bernard Compton ever discussed it with me or my husband. Upon reading this, it is clear they thought we might scoff. I did not scoff.
There were no other witnesses to these events. All we have is this couple's word.
I can only say this:
My father-in-law, Bernard, sadly developed Alzheimers in 1992. Since then, he was under the care of Alice. However, when I met Bernard during Easter 1998, after these alleged incidents, he was very much changed. He not only recognised my children and I, but he absorbed every piece of information there was to be gathered. This was astonishing, considering his prior state. His main entertainment to his grandchildren that holiday was to recite the order of a shuffled deck of cards, having looked through it only once.
I can find no explanation for this, apart from what is recorded in the following script.
I hope you read this with an open mind,
Yours sincerely,
Mrs Louisa Burke-Compton