After the Dawn
Chapter Ten: New Friend
Another year passed. Harry, for awhile, was good friends with the girl Luna Lovegood, but then she moved away, and Harry was not far behind her.
Someone had reported to the Ministry that Sirius Black might be in the area, and so Harry and his godfather had once more fled, leaving Edinbourgh behind them.
"Sirius, do you ever get lonely?" Seven year old Harry Potter asked his godfather as they walked through a deserted park in Bath, the night falling around them.
"Sometimes kiddo. But I wouldn't trade your company for the world. I don't mind too much. I make friends and I lose them, as we move from place to place. But I always have you," Sirius replied, staring a sky, watching the stars come out, sometimes obscured by the thin streaks of cloud.
"What about you? Do you get lonely?" he asked the boy now.
"No. Never. You're a much better friend than any that I've made before. Most of the people who want to be my friend don't really care about me. I'm just the top kid in our year at school. I can fight, no one knows much about me, and I'm smart. I don't want friends who aren't really friends," Harry told his godfather, tucking his small hand into Sirius's larger one.
"Glad to hear it kid," Sirius said. "But you'll find it hard to find friends like that."
"I don't care. The harder they are to find, the truer they'll be. I don't want to make friends with a double-crossing like Peter," Harry replied stubornly.
Sirius smiled. "I don't blame you. You're right of course – choose your friend with care and they'll last you all your life. Find friends like your father and Remus were to me and you'll be set."
Harry smiled. "I liked Luna – she seemed a genuine friend."
"She was, kiddo. I met her, she's a lot like both her parents. She wouldn't play you false. She's got a good mind, even if she is a bit vague," Sirius agreed.
"I'll be going to Hogwarts soon," Harry remarked. "I don't know if I want to go or not though."
"I think you'll like it," Sirius replied. "At least you won't have to be constantly moving around and changing schools. And you'll learn things that I can't teach you."
Harry nodded. "I want to learn," he remarked. "I like learning."
"You going to try to get into Ravenclaw?" Sirius asked.
"No, I don't think so. I like mischeif too much for Ravenclaw," Harry replied. "I want to be a Gryffindor. Like you, and Dad, and Remus, and mum."
"Like Peter," Sirius sighed. "So be careful still – even those in Gryffindor might not necessarily be your friends, for all they are supposed to be brave and courageous. It doesn't mean that they are going to be on the good side."
"I
know Sirius," Harry nodded. "So I should remember that not all Slytherins are
bad?"
"Yes, you should at that. I haven't met
many nice Slytherins, but they do exist. I've had a few good friends in the
last fight against Voldemort who were Slytherins. Trust your instincts Harry –
they're good!"
Harry smiled. "I'll do that. Come on, we'd better head for home huh? I start school tomorrow!"
"So you do. Not too nervous are ya mate?" Sirius asked.
"Hell no," Harry replied with a laugh. "I've been to way too many new schools to be nervous any more!"
"So you have," Sirius agreed. "Come on."
They were staying in a house over looking the river that wound its way through Bath. "I like this house, it's almost as good as the Mansion," Harry remarked, smiling faintly. "Not as good, but fairly close."
"Much better that Grimmauld," Sirius muttered.
"Grimmaulds cool," Harry replied, green eyes twinkling. He wasn't wearing classes. He'd bought some contact lenses a few months back when he kept losing his classes in Karate. Now he wore them most of the time – one less target for a bullies fist. Harry attracted a lot of attention from bullies on his first few days at each new school.
"That's what you think. Everyone knows you're insane," Sirius replied loftily.
Harry tripped him up sneakily. "This coming from the worlds most insane person himself," he teased, giving his godfather a hand up.
Sirius laughed, accepting his godsons help. "I can't help being insane. And it allowes me to better notice it in others," he teased in return.
Next morning, Harry walked alone through the gates of his new school, called quite simply: Bath Elementary School. He had his school bag slung loosely over one shoulder and was watching the playground, picking out any likely people who would want to make life difficult for a new kid.
Two thick set older kids, accompanied by one slimmer, ratty looking boy. Harry knew they'd be trouble, but pretended not to pay any attention to the approaching trio.
He walked further into the play ground, noting everything quickly and efficently. Group of what looked to be smokers over there, littler kids were over there. Trees without any low branches that way, and front doors, the only way into the school, straight ahead.
"Hey you," one of the three boys shoved Harry, sending him stumbling into the hand of a second. Harry allowed himself to be pushed and shoved around the circle for a moment, then stood straight and tall, walking forwards.
No longer was he the slightly stooped, almost timid looking boy who'd walked through the gates of the school. Dropping the bag, he prowled forwards, moving with the grace of a fighting.
"Now now boys, it's not nice to pick on people on their first day in a new school," Harry hissed at them, and the boys backed away slightly. Suddenly the new kid was radiating with cold fury.
"W-we didn't mean it!" squeaked the rat like one. "We was just ha-having some fun! Please don't hurt us!"
"Please don't hurt us," Harry mocked coldly. "Well, this once, I'll let you be. But you put one hand near me again and I'll break the arm its connected to. Get out of my sight, cowards."
The three fled in terror. Harry picked up his bag and continued walking. "Wow! Those guys ran from you like dogs with their tales on fire!" a voice piped up from behind Harry.
The boy turned to see another boy, about his age, standing behind him. "I'm Dan Kellith," the new comer said.
"Harry Sull," Harry replied, remembering the name that Sirius and he had agreed upon using. "Pleased to meet you." He shook hands with the other boy, not sure if he liked him or not yet.
"Welcome to Bath Elementary," Dan said brightly. "Don't mind those bullies you just met with – they were the power in the school, but now that you're here, that's probably going to be all different!"
"I'm sure it will be," Harry replied absently. "I don't like bullies at all. My first school was a nice place, but I was picked on constantly. Since then, I've learned to defend myself from them, and others too!"
"I think I'm going to like you being here, Harry!" Dan smiled. Harry nodded, still feeling a little absent.
Dan became Harry's shadow for the rest of that day. He wore glasses, round ones with thick black frames, and was a wiz at science, even though he was only seven. Everyone called him Professor Geek, and he had been a target of the bullies for a long time.
He showed Harry around the school, leading him to classes guiding him around the canteen, helping him out in science. Last class of the day was maths, and after that Dan walked with Harry out into the playground again.
"Wow! Another reason to hang out with you! There's loads of them now! First and foremost I don't get beat up, then you're a really friendly person, you don't tease me, and now I find out you're a mathamatical wizard! It's my worst subject," he confided.
Harry laughed. He liked Dan, who was funny as well as intellegent. "Well, I'm not too great at p-science, so I guess that we can help each other out, huh?"
"Guess so! Where are you staying?" Dan asked.
"Over by the river," Harry replied.
"Oh good, I live in that direction too!" Dan sounded relieved.
"Do those guys ambush you on the way home from school?" Harry asked, getting a suscious thought.
Dan nodded, shame faced. "Look, Dan, why don't you do what I did? Start going to Karate, or Tae-Kwon-Doe – learn to defend yourself against them, that way you'll alright," Harry said earnestly.
"Well, maybe … I'm not the fittest of people," Dan gulped.
"Come with me, I'll see to it that none of the older kids in the class try to pick on you," Harry offered. He wondered why he was being so friendly to this guy … Must be the Gryffindor in me, he thought. Gryffindors – proud and brave. We don't back down to anything!
It was funny, he already thought of himself as a Gryffindor, even though it would be some years yet before he went to Hogwarts, let alone found out what house he was in.
"This is my place here. D'you want to come in?" Dan asked.
"No thanks," Harry replied. "My godfather expects me back home."
Dan nodded, looking ashamed. "Maybe tomorrow night though?" Harry offered.
"Yeah! That would be great!" Dan looked so happy that Harry couldn't regret the promise he'd made, even though he preferred to hang out with Sirius and do homework or head to Grimmauld Place or Potter Mansion and talk to the house elves or learn magic.
Harry hurried homewards. "Hey Sirius," he greeted his godfather softly as slipped into the room. Sirius was watching the TV, something they had discovered in Edinbrough, and which they had both fallen in love with immediately.
"Wizards really should pay more attention to Muggles," Sirius remarked. "They do have some good ideas."
"Guess what?" Harry asked, and Sirius immediately forgot about the TV, concentrating on his godson instead.
"I dunno, what?"
"I made a friend," Harry replied.
"Good on you!" Sirius exclaimed.
"His name is Dan, he's a Muggle and he gets bullied," Harry said.
"Why is that whenever you make a friend on the first day, it's someone who gets bullied?" Sirius asked tiredly.
"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "But he seems nice. I'm going his place tomorrow afternoon for awhile."
"Bring him around here sometime," Sirius said, turning his attention back to the TV. "I hope your teachers weren't cruel enough to give you homework on the first day?"
"Nope," Harry replied happily.
"Good, come and sit down then," Sirius waved a hand at the couch next to him. "There's still an hour before your Tae-Kwon-Doe starts." Harry sat down, curling himself up to watch the box.
The next day Dan introduced Harry to a few of his almost-friends, as he called them. They were people that Dan hung out with in the library, where they wouldn't get picked on by the bullies.
The group seemed nice enough, though they were all a little distant from each other and everyone else, the only thing that held them together was their fear of the bullies.
Harry knew that he would not be good friends with anyone in the group. He wasn't sure if Dan was really going to be his friend, or if he (Harry) was just going to provide a sheild for Dan to hide behind, but at the moment, he and Dan got on just fine.
"Well, let's go," Harry said as the last bell rang and they walked out of science, which had been a theory lesson, so Harry hadn't minded it at all.
Dan looked very happy to be taking a friend back to his house. "I don't have any real friends," he confided in Harry with a faint sigh. "Mum's always telling me to get more of them, but I'm Professor Geek at school, so it's hard."
"Well you've got one now," Harry pointed out, smiling, as they reached Dan's home.
"Come in," Dan invited him, walking inside and looking a little nervous.
Harry walked in, feeling nervous himself. "Mum! We're home!" he called out.
A tall, fairly young woman with nervous brown eyes and pale blonde hair walked out to greet the two people. "Hello, I'm Dan's mother, Helen," she said.
"Nice to meet you Helen, I'm Harry," Harry replied, smiling courteously and shaking her hand.
"Welcome. I'm sure you're hungry?" Both boys nodded fervently. "Never knew one your age who wasn't," Helen remarked to no one in particular. "Go to the living room and watch the TV, if you want to."
"We don't have much to do here," Dan remarked appologetically. "We do have monopoly though, if you'd like to play."
"I haven't played that before," Harry said thoughtfully. "But I'd like to learn. Let's give it a go!"
The pair of them spent three hours, first teaching Harry to play, then playing a game of monopoly, taking breaks every now and then to eat something.
Helen watched her son and his friend playing with a fond smile. She was happy that Dan had found a friend, and this boy, Harry, seemed a very nice one.
That night, Harry was sleeping soundly, when he was woken by a nightmare. He had the nightmare often before, but had not had it for some time now.
"Harry, Harry," Sirius shook his godson's shoulder gently. "What's wrong?"
"I saw It again," Harry replied. There was no need to say what It was – Sirius knew exactly what Harry meant. He had, once more, watched his parents die.
"Harry, mate, it'll be alright. I wonder why you're having this nightmare now though, when you haven't in … how long is it now? At least a year."
"A year and a few months," Harry replied sadly. "I hate it! Why do I always have to watch them die?"
"I can't answer that, Harry, but I'm sure that somewhere out there, there is a reason," Sirius replied tiredly. "Can you go back to sleep?"
Harry nodded, curling himself up again. Sirius stood watch until Harry was sound asleep, then returned to his own bed, leaving his godson to sleep and dream. Hopefully this time of nice things.
****
Sorry that chapter is a little shorter than most, but I decided that this was the best place to end it. Please let me know what you think in a REVIEW, and don't worry, there will be some more action soon.
In regard to reviews: Let's try to get to 510 reviews this time, but I'll update after 500 if I have the chapter ready in time. I've got 463 reviews at the moment, so it's only another 37 to 47.
~WolfMoon~