September 2nd 1985
It was Dudley's first day at school today, which, by default, meant it was Harry's too. Harry knew that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon wouldn't have taken him if they thought that they could get away with it, but as it was he'd been sent in raggedy, too-big clothes pulled from a rack in a charity shop.
Aunt Petunia escorted Dudley all the way to the door of his classroom, hugging him, and fussing over his hair and face. Behind them, Harry stood alone. Petunia finally craned her neck to look at her nephew, a scowl appearing as soon as she saw him.
"Haven't you figured it out, boy?" She hissed in a low voice that Harry strained to hear. "Your classroom is over there, now go away and let me say goodbye to my Diddums!" A manicured finger stretched out and pointed to a classroom three doors to the left. Harry nodded mutely, and scurried over to the room that Petunia had pointed out. Seeing the door open, and nobody standing outside, Harry cautiously put his head inside.
At a big desk in the middle of the room sat a man that Harry could only describe as tired. He had sandy hair and bright blue eyes that shone with friendliness as he looked up at Harry stood in the doorway. On the floor around his desk sat three other children that looked to be about Harry's age.
"Hello," the man asked standing up and moving towards the doorway. "Are you starting school today?" Harry nodded, unable to say anything in the face of this kind, smiling man. "Right, well, I'm going to guess your name then!" The man declared, picking up a sheet of paper from the desk and almost danced over to the doorway. "Hmm… are you Joseph Kilgallon?" He asked, but turned at a titter from behind him.
"I is Joses, Mr Lupin!" The largest boy declared with a wide smile.
"Oh, I see." Mr Lupin agreed solemnly. "Then you must be Sarah Jenkins?"
"I Saaaarrrrraaaarrrr, Mr Lupe!" The red headed girl shouted. Harry snickered a little too. Mr Lupin - or was it Mr Lupe? - shook his head again.
"How about Luke Smart?"
"Lukey here." The second boy said quietly.
"Hmm, I think I should guess again. Are you Harry Potter?"
"Yes, Mr- er," Harry mumbled under his breath. "M'I s'posed to be here?"
"Yes, Harry, you're right where you're meant to be." His smile grew even wider as he gestured Harry into the room, to sit with the others. "My name is Mr Lupin, and I'm going to be your teacher for this year." Harry nodded and smiled back softly.
"Than' you, Mr Lupin." He said, a little louder than the last time he'd spoken. "Than' you."
"Oh-ho, nothing to thank me for, little Harry! Now, why don't you go sit with Sarah, Joseph and Luke until the rest of the group arrives?" He paused, thinking for a moment. "Unless you want to go say goodbye to your Mommy and Daddy first?"
Harry shook his head and frowned darkly.
"I no say bye Aunie 'Toonia." He shook his head once more, and made his way to sit with his other classmates, choosing a place next to Luke.
The day, for Harry, was one of the best that he could remember. He had met the other children in his class - all together there were fourteen of them, and Harry was almost sure that he could remember everyone's name. There were Luke, Joseph and Sarah who he'd met at first, then Amy, Becky, Lucy and Katie, the twins Jacob and Jessie, Kyle, Reese, Michael and Thomas, plus Harry, of course. Everybody in his class seemed really nice, and they'd had fun all day, playing some games and Mr Lupin had shown them around the school. The head teacher had come round too, she was called Mrs Blakemore, and she seemed very nice. She and Mr Lupin had both said that if they had any problems, they could go talk to any adult at the school, and Mrs Blakemore told the whole class that no matter what the problem was, or how busy she was, that they could barge into her office and she'd help them to sort it out.
Harry had decided that his favourite place to sit in the room was under Mr Lupin's big wooden desk. He'd sat there for story time, when Mr Lupin had read them Jack and Jill, doing all of the voices too. The lunch he'd had in the canteen had been nicer than any other meal he'd ever had, and he'd had a lot more food than usual, but that was good. Dudley had tried to take his milk in the canteen, but Mr Lupin had been sitting at a table near to Harry, and had stopped Harry's cousin from taking it.
Harry quickly decided that Mr Lupin was his favourite person in the whole, wide world.
- HBP - HBP - HBP - HBP - HBP -
There were little things that set Remus Lupin wondering. He'd only taken the job as a teacher to get closer to Harry, and the more he watched the boy the more he worried. Harry was small for his age, anyone could see that, but by itself, that wasn't worrying. He was thin too, but lots of other boys were skinny. His clothes were too big for him, and even when it was warm, he still refused to take off his big jumpers. When everyone got changed for gym, Harry changed very quickly, off in one of the corners, and when it got cold, he wore the same clothes as when it was warm.
Another thing that worried Remus was Harry's tendency to shrink away anytime he was reached for, and his hair twisting. Remus was also worried that he hadn't seen any accidental magic from Harry. When he'd visited the Potter family in Godric's Hollow, years previously, Harry had done large amounts of magic. One of his particular favourites had been levitating dirty diapers, which always seemed to be aimed at one of the Marauders, and never Lily.
Of course, all of the things that Remus had noticed could be easily explained away, as his fellow teachers told him repeatedly, but, when, on the ninth of December, Harry came into class with a small round burn on his left hand, Remus knew he had evidence that none of the other members of staff could refute. He kept Harry behind while the others went for their break, and sat with him on the floor.
"Harry," Remus said softly. "Your hand looks like it hurts."
"A bit," Harry replied in a whisper. "Buh s'my faul'."
"Why is it your fault, Harry?" Remus asked, almost dreading the response.
"I was naughty."
"What did you do, Harry?"
"I was messy, n'so I got punished. S'cause I'm bad."
"Harry, who told you that you were bad?"
"Uncle Vernon." Harry thought for a moment. "And Aunt 'Tunia. Mr Lupin, am I really bad?"
"No, Harry, you're not bad." Remus paused, plucking up all of his courage for his next words. "Harry, did your Uncle Vernon punish you too?" Harry nodded slowly. "Harry, I want you to know that your Uncle Vernon is wrong. You're not bad, okay? Your uncle is bad."
"Okay," Harry repeated. "Mr Lupin, if my Uncle's bad, how come he don't get punished?"
"He will be punished," Remus growled darkly. "Don't you worry about that, Harry. I won't let you go back to him, Harry, I won't let him hurt you again, d'you understand that?" Remus made sure to make his eyes look warm and human, rather than angry and wolfish, no matter how much his inner wolf desired to roam free - or at least, to eat Dursley.
HBP - HBP - HBP - HBP - HBP -
When he'd applied for the job, Remus had told Mrs Blakemore that the son of his late best friend was likely to be starting at the school that year. He'd been sure to mention the times that the child's Aunt and Uncle had sent him away without letting him see young Harry. In return for his honesty, Mrs Blakemore had put Harry in his class. Remus had taken all of his concerns about Harry's treatment to Mrs Blakemore as well, wanting to have the law fully on his side when he finally got Harry to talk to him.
As he entered her office, Remus was grateful he'd made the effort to lay the groundwork. She took one look at Remus and the small forlorn child trailing behind him, and pulled out a tape recorder.
"Mr Lupin," she said with a soft smile. "And is this the young Harry Potter that you've told me about?" Much to her surprise the boy shrank in on himself.
"I didn' do 'nythin'!" He backed away from Remus, arms wrapping around his torso protectively. "You didn' nee' to tell her, I go 'way now, I be good, I promise!" Remus knelt down next to him, putting himself at eye-level with Harry.
"Harry, Harry, I need you to look at me, okay?" Hurt green eyes, watery with tears looked up into amber orbs. "Harry, do you remember what I promised you back in the classroom?"
"You- you said- said tha'- tha'- tha' you wouldn'..."
"That I wouldn't let anyone hurt you again." Remus finished for him. "And I'm going to stick by my word, Harry, okay? Nobody is going to hurt you, I won't let them. Now, do you want to come and sit down while we talk to Mrs Blakemore?" Harry nodded slowly, moving forwards to grab hold of Remus's hand as the elder man stood.
"C'n I- c'n I- Dudley does- so c'n I?"
"Can you what, Harry?" Remus asked fondly.
"C'n-I-sit-on-your-lap?"
"Will you talk to Mrs Blakemore if you can sit on my lap?"
"...Yea'," Harry nodded firmly, a small smile creeping onto his face. "Bu' I didn' do 'nythin' bad, righ?"
"No, Harry, you didn't do anything bad." Remus sat in the larger of the two chairs across from the Headmistress's desk, lifting Harry into his lap. His brow furrowed at the weight of him – or more rightly, the lack of weight. Harry barely weighed a thing, and Remus's fingers could feel the thinly covered ribs under Harry's too-large jumper.
"So, Harry, Remus tells me that you're his favourite pupil." Mrs Blakemore started. "He says you're very clever, is that right?"
"Uh-uh," Harry shook his head vehemently. "M' not clever, Dudley's more cleverer than me, Aunie Tooney said."
"Does your Auntie say that Dudley's better than you at a lot of things, Harry?"
"He is better. He doesn' make a mess an' he's not bad and Uncy Vernon doesn'-"
"Doesn't what, Harry?" Harry buried his face in Remus's jumper, and Remus couldn't help but to wrap his arms around the shuddering body.
"He doesn' hurt him!" Harry cried out loudly. "Mr Lupin don' make me go back, I don' wanna go back, please don' make me go back! Please! I c'n be really good, I c'n make you breakfas' an' I c'n tidy up for you an' I won' take up much space, I c'n sleep in a cupboard like at the Dur-ley's an' I'll be real good, I promise!"
Mrs Blakemore's face hardened at Harry's outburst.
"I'll call the social worker, you stay here with Harry." Picking up the tape recorder she left the room, leaving Remus and Harry alone.
"Harry?" Remus asked softly. "I'm not going to let you go back to the Dursley's, okay?"
"You promise?" Harry asked, pulling away from Remus so he could look up into his teacher's eyes.
"I promise, Harry. You're not going back, okay?"
"Mmkay Mr Lupin."