Disclaimer- the story is mine- although the characters are not (for all the idiots out there, they belong to JKR)



Harry Potter stood still as the school bus came closer. A big yellow monster that was going to swallow him up and spit him out. It was his first day of third grade. Harry wasn't exactly nervous, but there was a small flutter in his stomach when he thought of all those unfriendly people….

"Heads up!" Harry immediately ducked as a small rock made it's way towards his head. The rock missed him narrowly and instead hit the side of the bus that had come to a stop next to the curb.

Harry glared at his cousin Dudley as he picked up the pathetic bag his Aunt Petunia had gotten at a thrift shop for him two years ago. He climbed onto the bus and sat down silently in an empty seat near the front. The seat next to him remained empty through out the whole ride.

When he got off the bus, he followed Dudley towards the third- forth grade section of the school. Once in his classroom, the teacher asked all the kids to sit in a circle and introduce themselves and tell one special thing about them. The first child, a girl with blonde pigtails introduced herself as Lizzie, and the line continued down all the way to where Harry sat at the end. He stared at the ground and muttered his name rather quietly and silently pointed to his lightning-bolt shaped scar.

The teacher, (who had been somewhat shaken when Dudley had burped loudly at his turn) didn't seem to happy when Harry didn't say his name very loudly. And even though she was sitting right next to him she still made him repeat his name.

After she was satisfied with all the names she had them play a few games. And right before that infernal first day was over, she asked them to do a small piece of homework.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-and for tomorrow, I would like you all to draw a picture of you and your parents, brothers and sisters-" Harry scrambled to his feet- amazingly fast- and made a beeline for the tiny bathroom just outside of the door.

He could hear the teacher call out to him, and he also heard Dudley say, "it's because he doesn't have a family-" in a rather singsongish voice.

Harry remained in the bathroom for several minutes trying to slow his breathing and calm down a bit. 'She didn't mean it - she didn't know' he kept telling himself.

Finally, Harry emerged from the bathroom and immediately the teacher walked towards him. Harry pushed his glasses back us his nose and stared very hard at the ground.

At least she has the right of mind to look bad of what she said Harry thought to himself. The teacher was now kneeling down in front of him and looking deep into his eyes as though hoping that Dudley were lying.

"Harry," she said quietly, "I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings," Harry shrugged off her apology; he didn't want to hear it. "Why don't you draw a picture of what you remember…" she asked him. Harry nodded mutely.

The bus ride back to the Dursly's was uneventful; as yet again the seat next to Harry remained empty. Just as well he thought to himself, at least they're not looking at my scar strangely. He had been amazed that nobody had asked him about it- a bolt of lightning across his forehead. Most people on the street would stop and stare at it as Harry walked by.

The bus came to his stop and Harry gladly got off the bus, which almost immediately lurched back into motion. He cast a look around him and realized that Dudley was scooping up more rocks from the ground, no doubt to throw at Harry.

Harry threw caution into the wind and sprinted down Privet drive and burst in the door of number four. Surprisingly, Dudley appeared right behind him. Aunt Petunia looked up and smiled at Dudley.

"Dudders!" she practically shouted, completely ignoring Harry. "How was my baby's first day of school?"

Dudley grinned maliciously at Harry, "it was kinda boring till' Harry ran away from the classroom when the teacher asked us to draw a picture." He told her. Aunt Petunia rounded on Harry with an angry glint in her eyes. She grabbed him roughly by the collar of Dudley's old tee shirt and dragged him into the cupboard under the stairs.

And there he stayed. He didn't cry, he didn't whine. He just lay on his cot and tried to remember what his mother had been like, did she read him a story at night, or sing him a lullaby?

What did he remember? Nothing, that was the problem, he couldn't remember a thing. Quietly he lay there and stared up at the ceiling. Then he slipped into a deep sleep.

*******

"James!" A sharp voice caused a man holding a small baby to look up. The messy hair on the baby boy in his arms only matched his own untidy black hair. "James," the voice repeated, "why can't you just let Harry get some sleep?"

"Lily," the man practically whined at his wife, "Harry doesn't need any more sleep, he's been laying there with his eyes wide open for at least *three* seconds! Besides, Sirius, Remus and Peter are coming over soon, we were going to watch Harry while you went shopping."

She laughed, "just don't let Sirius take him for another broom ride," she kidded.

"I only did that once," said a new voice. A man with black hair and twinkling black eyes had just walked into the room. He clapped James on the back and looked down into Harry's eyes. His nose twitched, "by the way," he added, "I think your bundle of joy, has a bundle of-"

"Sirius!"

"What?" Sirius looked up and grinned rather apologetically. Lily impatiently took Harry from her husbands' arms, and started to replace his soiled diaper.

When she returned two more people had entered the room, a man with graying brown hair and lively blue eyes, and a small plump man with blonde hair, and watery blue eyes.

"Hey, what is that disgusting smell…" the short man had just twitched his rather pointed nose in disgust.

"Remus! Peter! Glad you could make it, we were just going to take Harry here up for a broom ride…"

"Sirius…" the man with graying hair had the merest trace of a growl when he spoke in a sharp voice, then his face took on a knowing look, "we were going to do that when Lily went shopping-"

"Remus!" Lily's voice cracked with laughter.

Remus held up his hands in mock surrender, and back away from Lily who was advancing towards him, wand in hand. Suddenly, a tiny squeak followed by a gurgle of laughter sounded from where James was, again holding Harry.

"I didn't do anything, I swear," he told his wife, who was having trouble standing up because she was laughing so hard. She leaned against a table piled with baby toys and laughed harder.

************

Harry suddenly woke up with a start- what was that? 'Was that a dream' he wondered, 'were those my parents?' he quietly got off his hard cot and moved over to where he had dropped his backpack, and pulled out a set of broken crayons.

And before he could forget his dream, he quickly drew a picture of what he had seen. His mother- his father- the man with black hair, the other men, who had they been? He pondered over the picture he had completed and was amazed to see that he didn't put his special trademark on himself- the lightning scar.

Harry started to draw more pictures and when he had finished he looked over them and gasped at one in particular- the one with his mother advancing on the man with his hands in the air… what was that in her hand? Why was his mother threatening someone with a stick?

The next day at school, Harry gave one of the pictures of his parents to the teacher and she just stared at it. Then she nodded curtly and put it on top of the pile she was holding.

And on the bus ride home a little boy with flaming red hair sat next to him on the bus, followed by a little girl with bushy brown hair who was missing her front teeth.