Written for Quidditch League Forum Round 7. Position: Chaser 1. Word Count: 1,609.
Harry Potter doesn't want to take action
He is a normal young child. Everyday, he packs his bags to go to school and he walks with every other young kid to the bus stop. He sits in the corner and dreads the moment when another kid comes up talk to or ask to sit by him
Harry is nervous. He doesn't want others talking to him or asking to sit by him.
You know what?
No one does.
He gets off the bus like a normal kid and walks to class, surrounded by others who have already converged into their own little trios and groups.
Even as he sits down, he tells himself, 'this is good. this fine. normal. be normal.'
But even he can't hide the disappointment that grows because someone takes notice of his petty wishes to stay alone in school, but they can't hear the wishes he makes every night in his cupboard. His wish to have a family again.
Later, in the schoolyard, Dudley pushes him when no teacher is looking. He gets pushed down in the dirt again, again, again because it's funny.
He doesn't take action and he doesn't find it funny.
But when they converge on this poor defenseless girl with pigtails. He makes the dumbest decision since he insulted Dudley's weight in front of his aunt.
He tackles Dudley.
Guess who gets to clean the classroom during break-time for the kiddies?
Not Dudley because he is perfect little Duddly and he's scruffy ol' Harry Potter and obviously he has violent problems with other kids.
He scrubs the chalkboard sparkling clean absently as he thinks. Harry doesn't want to hurt others for the sake of himself. He wants help others and he doesn't mind if it means tackling whales in the schoolyard to defend someone helpless.
He reflects on the grateful smile the girl gave him before the teacher came.
An idea pops into his head. It's tiny and it grows faster by each passing minute. The more he thinks about it, the more the boyish enthusiam rises up in him.
What if...he took action for others?
Harry grins.
What if he became a super-hero?
He starts to scrub harder at the board. Begone linear equations. Begone geometry. Who needs math when you have a plan for your life at twelve years-old?
Yes. What if he became a super-hero.
"It'll be brillant. There'll be bad guys. I can get something to cover my face. I'll kick-ass and-"
"I beg your pardon?!"
Was he talking out loud? His face pales at the stern look of disapproval his math teacher has on, but he swallows his fear. He is going to defeat villians and be awesome. So he levels a look of pure arrogance at her and hopes to whatever unicorn that's out there is protecting him and starts to say, "I said I'll kick-as-"
The stern look deepens and her hand is hovering over the ruler.
"... I mean...kick-butt." he finishes lamely.
Later when he lays face down on his desk, he consoles himself because hopefully tackling bullying whales will be easier than using language in front of stuck-up math teachers.
Through some careful digging in dusty corners of closets, he's able to find some of Dudley's old hoodies from a few years back. They still fall down to his knees and it makes him look like he's wearing a stylish potato sack and he gathers it up and ties it around his waist. Nobody is going to be picky about a fashion when he saves their life.
The Dursleys are over-whelmed to the point of tears when he asks to leave the house after he does his chores instead of lurking in the backyard.
And so, it was time to find his first job.
He smirked and brings the hood over to cover his face. It was time to kick some a-
Math. Alegebra. Rays. Lines. Acute triangles.
He shivers.
It was time to kick some... butt.
Only a bit more.
His hand can reach only so far and her pretty eyes were desperate, looking into his darker green ones. Harry wanted to shout, to plead with her. Just hold on, I got you, I'll save you.
I promise, I won't let you fall.
Even his breath stops as he looks down at the ground below him. This super-hero business never said anything about height challenges. But he resists the urge to close his eyes because - his strength returns - he has some super-hero-awesomeness to show off.
It's only until he hops from the tree branches to the ground and hands the disgruntled kitten to it's worried eighty- year old owner (who has some cough drops she gives as thanks) that this...
...wasn't exactly what he had in mind.
It never occurs to him that there might be more like him out there.
As he is doing some window-washing for an old couple - because super-heros can't be choosy - he looks over at the neighboring house and there is another kid washing windows.
"Yo." He calls out, hoping that the kid is friendly, but he doesn't know of any villians that washes windows and, darn, that kid is making them shine. What is his secret? He frowns at his own work.
The kid is gangly with red hair and freckles and returns the call with his own little 'yo' and sprays the windows more finess than Harry Potter could ever hope to possess.
He offers the kid his name. It comes out a bit more timid than he would've liked but hey, he was normal kid who went to school and never spoke to anyone except the teachers.
The red-haired kid returns with his name. Ron Weasley. Harry notes that his voice shakes a little when he introduces himself as well.
And then it occurs to him...
There might be others like him out in the world.
Harry finds out that Ron is trying to be a superhero too. He feels over-shadowed by his many siblings and he wants to shine in his own way. Harry tells Ron how he wants to take action against those who feel pressured and controlled by others stronger than them. To take a stand against the bullies of the world.
He feels like a connection between the two of them starts to grow as they laugh about how they help people with gardening and rescuing small kittens when their plans are much bigger,
Of course this is friendship, but Harry doesn't know that just yet.
There are actual villians in the world.
Villians their age and very evil.
Harry always thought the moment he would encounter some villian like that it would be with cackling, some fighting, and damsel in distress. You know, like the movies.
They weren't spoiled pompous gits.
But the world never really catered to Harry Potter's imagintion
Ron and him start to sneak around a trash bin and peer into an alleyway where said blond git was bullying a young girl. Harry thinks it's girl but they are wearing a very baggy hoodie that covers their face and he can't be sure.
"-filthy"
That one word is enough to send Harry and Ron into action. Both of them targeting the evil git and both preparing to tackle him.
Before they reach them however, the girl sends a powerful right hook at her tormenter and he collapses against the brick wall.
Harry and Ron collide in a messy pile of gangly limbs and over-sized hoodies and some cursing and yelps fall from each other's lips. To be honest, it was more from the shock that their first villian had been taken care of in an entirely clean manner before they could even make the first move.
Harry sighs. He hadn't even gotten to use his speech of 'justice always wins' on the villian boy.
"Who are you?"
Harry gapes at the girl - it was a girl- who has taken down her hoodie and is staring at them unimpressed. Her bushy-brown hair frames her face and Harry thinks she looks rather pretty.
"We...are...uh, super-heroes." He answers lamely.
The girl scowls, "Did you think you were saving me or something?"
"That..." Harry glances at the knocked out kid next to him. The scattered part of his mind wonders why someone would wear a suit in July summer heat, "...was the plan, yes."
"Girls don't need to be saved all the time."
Ron is sprawled out on the concrete and scoffs in disbelief, "Talk about ungrateful!"
She focuses her attention on him, "You were the one butting in."
Ron bristles and before they could start arguing, Harry cuts in, "Excuse me. Who are you?"
She draws herself up and announced proudly, "Well, I'm a super-hero too."
"Your name?'" He presses on.
It took only someone who had experienced it himself to notice how her hands started to flutter by her side with nerves at the thought of introducing herself, but it didn't stop her from sounding bossy as she said it, "Hermione Granger."
Harry smiles.
There seems to be others out there like him.
Who take action in different ways and for different reasons, but they all try to be normal kids in the end.
As he introduces himself and Ron, he realizes.
Superheroes need friends too.