A/N I hoped a non-story related note would be unnecessary, but evidently not. I read with a voice synthesizer as my vision is too poor to visually read and it has been so since birth and is not likely to improve short of a miraculous regeneration of healthy redness. That is how I have read all novels and text materials through my upper graduate work. Prior to that I employed readers. I check with spell check and reread what I write with the synthesizer. If it sounds write I go with it. Names and spellings that aren't in the Word Perfect data base are a particular problem. Short of digging out Mr. Webster's Big Red Book and a VERY powerful magnifier, there isn't much hope that it will improve, so if your looking for what one of my professors noted as "Della Street" copy, oh well. As to why I write, I want to and I probably need the practice. I'll try to be more careful, but I will not stop writing because looks distract people.

Chapter 4

The Next 9 3/4 Years

Shortly after the doings on November 1, 1981, #7 Privet Drive became vacant and a rather peculiar middle aged woman moved in just across the street from the Dursleys. Her and 12 cats made a rather lively addition to the otherwise cookie cutter boredom of the neighborhood. You couldn't say the area was awful. It just lacked any sort of personality. The neighbors and the Dursley's all took extreme pride in their perfectly manicured lawns, pristine groomed and pruned gardens and woe be it if a flake of pealing paint was ever spotted. All this striving for perfection in appearances left a gaping hole in the neighborhood where a personality ought to be, but along came Mrs. Fig. She was a rather pleasant woman, even if a bit eccentric. Well, maybe a tad bit more than a little. She was often seen coming home from the market pushing a tram from market with more cat food than human food. She didn't drive a car. She just seemed to walk everywhere she wanted to go. And she never seemed to want to go very far. She was always eager to strike up a conversation and was always entertaining with all the tales of Mr. Tiddles, her oldest old tom cat.

Of course they stretched credulity to the limit with all the heroic antics she attributed to the old tom, but she seemed harmless enough as she puttered around in her yard and up and down Privet Drive and around Little Winging. She soon became an excepted figure, and she did seem to have the most interesting garden in the neighborhood. Huge blooms of flowers no one had ever seen before and the strangest long stems that waved in the breeze even if there wasn't a breeze. Every now and then some strange looking people would come to her door and they could be seen in her garden pointing to this plant and that leaf and another bloom and Mrs. Fig could be seen bundling stuff together and giving them to the strangers. When asked about it, she would get rather vague and insist that none of her plants were for sale to the general public. Perhaps the strangest part of the rather unusual back yard was the way the neighborhood kids seemed rather certain to avoid straying into that back yard. One little guy insisted the cats guarded that back yard and wouldn't let anyone to close without running off to Mrs. Fig who'd come and shoe any kids out of her yard. Who ever heard of a guard cat.

Life went on at #4 with very little noticeable changes. There were two boys now as the house and the neighbors were all made aware that the Potter boy had come to live with his Aunt after the tragic deaths of his parents during some random violent attack of some I. R. A. fanatics while the family was in London. They had just moved to the city for a new job the father had obtained when the bomb went off in the restaurant the couple were celebrating in while little Harry was being watched by a babysitter.

Harry was a rather thin young fellow when standing along side of his cousin, Dudley. If you saw him by himself, however, he didn't seem unhealthy and was well developed and normal sized for his age. Dudley was just a large boned child, much like his father. Harry's most unusual characteristics were his piercing green eyes that, while kindly, seemed to look into your soul and a rather unusual lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead said to have been caused by falling down some steps and getting a rather nasty gash that never healed just right. He was a very bright child and did extremely well at school. In fact he did so well the teachers regularly had him helping the other children keep up. He was a natural leader without ever trying and had away of explaining "stuff", as the kids called it, that just seemed natural and they caught on right away. Dudley was thought to be the primary beneficiary. The teachers would wonder about how sharp Dudley really was by his responses in class, but, sure enough, when test time came around, Dudley's grades were right up there with Harry's. During one conference Petunia explained that the boys studied together and some friends of Harry's poor parents were professors at a private school and they had a unique way of making learning fun for the boys.

"What ever it is, don't change a thing." the teacher said. They boost the scores of everyone in the class trying to keep up with them.

When Harry and Dudley were 8 a new student was added to the class. Pierce, by name. He was a scrawny rat faced guy with a reputation for trouble making everywhere he had been. He seemed to follow around after the bully type boys and cause all sorts of mayhem for the teachers. Dudley struck up a friendship with the boy as he was the biggest boy in the class and Pierce was always hanging around. But the friendship almost ended in blows when Dudley saw Pierce corner Harry in the playground and was taunting him, calling him "Scar Face" for the scar on his forehead and "Slob" for never being able to control the mop of black hair on his head and "freak" for the almost luminesce green eyes . Pierce was maybe a little bigger than Harry but he considered himself street wise and wanted to establish himself as high as possible in the playground pecking order. When Dudley got there Pierce had grabbed Harry by the shirt when Harry refused to pay the tole Pierce was demanding to let him use the playground in safety - from him of course. Dudley grabbed Pierce by the back of the shirt, and somehow slung Pierce onto the roof of the cafeteria. That wasn't such an unbelievable feet as the cafeteria was built on a lower level of the campus and it put the roof at about the same level as the playground, but it did involve pitching over a 3 foot chain link fince a top of about a 10 foot retaining wall down to the classroom ground level and over about a 4 foot walkway around behind the back of the building. The gym teacher had seen the exchange from the far corner of the playground and was running to separate the boys when Dudley got there first and literrally appeared to throw the boy over the fence an well onto the roof.

The gym teacher was left standing there speechless. When he finally got his voice the only thing he could think to say was, "Dudley, have you ever thought about joining the wrestling team?"

Harry and Dudley exchanged an odd look and Harry muttered to the teacher, "Sometimes Dudley doesn't know his own strength. Please, don't get him in trouble. He was just protecting me."

"Oh, don't worry, I saw the whole thing. Pierce is a known troublemaker. We've been on guard ever since he came here for some stunt like that. Looks to me like he got just what he asked for." When they got the ladders up and collected Pierce off the roof, he was going on about Harry, not Dudley throwing him.

"Son, I saw the whole thing. You just keep your lying tall tales to yourself this time. We have your number."

They took Harry and Dudley to the school nurse as well as Pierce, who had bumps and scrapes from his rather unorthodox flight. Nothing was broken and the only thing seriously damaged was Pierce's pride. As they got to the nurse's office the headmistrice of the elementary school arrived with two oddly dressed individuals. They had introduced themselfs as the friends of the Potters and showed them their credentials of the private school and a letter from the Dursleys giving them permission to review Harry's scores for possible admission to their rather exclusive secondary school for extremely gifted children.

"The boys got involved in an altercation with a 'want-a-be' playground bully who thought he could intimidate Harry here and get the answers to the next test and extort his lunch money to be left alone. We're on top of that sort of nonsense here." the head mistress insisted.

"But it was Harry who shoved me over that fence. He could have killed me!" Pierce spluttered,. "He's a bloody freak and a menace!"

The elder of the two men gave Pierce what the head mistress thought to be a rather scary look and muttered something that didn't quite sound like blithering idiot - more like obliviate, but that didn't make any since. It must have meant something to Pierce because he got a rather vacant stare and quit running on about being thrown so far by a rather quiet book worm.

The incident did not have any long term effect on the smooth running of the school. In fact, it had a rather odd beneficial effect on Pierce. He quit being a bully and became friends with Dudley and Harry. His grades improved as he was incorporated into the group of high achievers after he learned that the entire class would defend Harry and the only way to have any friends at all in the class was to study hard and do your best. No one wanted anyone hanging around them who would drag them down. Harry and Dudley had them all going places and they liked it. They were the special kids in the school and for those who hadn't been in Harry's earlier classes it was the first time they had ever done so well and anyone who didn't get with the program could get lost.

The gym teacher got Harry and Dudley into wrestling classes that got both boys into serious conditioning training. Part of the training was running laps at the end of the class for general conditioning. The coach spotted Harry's speed on the track immediately and with the training he became a regular blur on the track. The following year the boys were recruited for the school's football team. Dudley became an excellent keeper for the team. His height and stocky build covered a lot of the goal, and his boxing and wrestling training improved his reflexes and ability to anticipate the moves of his opponents. Harry's speed and agility made him a natural at forward soon leading the team in goals as his foot work improved. For Harry the thrill of running - the faster the better - was worth all the hard work. As they moved into the next year the two began to attract the attention of the secondary school's in the area. Vernon was thrilled with this development and contacted his old private school he had attended, Smeltings, The coach from Smeltings came to see the last game against their crosstown rivals who manage to beat them by one goal in the championship game with a much bigger, more experienced, and older squad the previous year. This year the championship came down to the same two teams. Harry and Dudley were co-captains. Dudley was almost untouchable at goal tending allowing the fewest goals in city history for the season. Harry might could have crushed the leagues record for scoring, but he was brilliant at passing the ball and took great pleasure in causing his opponents to never know where the scoring threat was coming from. Their offence was relentless and balanced and they easily won the championship game 7 - 0. Harry scored 3 goals and the other two forwards had 2 each.

The coach of the public secondary school could see championship trophies in the school's case and pro scouts and university scouts filling the visitor boxes in the coming years only to have his hopes dashed when it was clear the Smeltings coach had the inside track for at least Dudley. The rather stylish older gentlemen with the long white beard and the younger man all decked out in solid black and an impeccably tailored suit from the exclusive school for extremely gifted children seemed to have Harry Potter's attention. But they took solist by recruiting three other members of this well coached and highly motivated team. The spirit of that team lasted several more years as the coaches were able to realize that teamwork was the key even for the most gifted athletes. The remaining players were talented and had discovered how to work together and how much fun it could really be. That lesson held even the younger years in good stead and they were able to spread the traditions, with help of good coaches year after year.

Both boys were in high spirits as the end of their final year at elementary school came to a close. The head mistress was practically in tears at the commencement exercises telling Petunia what a wonderful job she had done with the two boys and how much they would be missed.

With the euphoria of the end of their adventure the world seemed at the boy's feet for the taking to Petunia and Vernon. The horrors of Lilly and James' death were shunted to the back of everyone's mind and life held only good things for the two happy and well adjusted boys. Petunia often thought how proud Lilly would have been of her son and how he was turning out. It eased the guilt a bit of the harsh words and jealousy she had allowed to become between Lilly and her. She thrilled in "her boys" achievements. The future was full of hope and the monster seemed gone for good and all his henchmen were rounded up and put in Askaban, the wizarding prison Lilly had told her about guarded by those horrid soul sucking dementors and good for them, too. They got all they deserved.

Two men and a middle aged woman with a Scottish accent hadn't forgot. Rumors still oozed out of the dark places of the hidden world and an uneasy undercurrent and foolish contentment and complacency in the belief that they didn't need to work to keep the "perfect peace" brought about by the "boy who lived".came from the light places in that hidden world. But the "boy who lived" had not been seen for many years. But he would be coming to Hogwarts next year and the wizarding world could at last see him themselves. It would be a good time, or so they thought. The creatures in the forbidden forest seemed to think differently and so did a couple of fuddy duddies at the school and old Mad Eye Moody was just a senile old kill joy seeing monsters under every bed. He'd been great in his time rounding up all those death eaters. It was over now and all old history - wasn't it?