Hey guys, this is my first fic on this site, so sorry if everyone thinks it's rubbish! I guess that's sort of the point of fanfiction; letting people write what they want and possibly share it with others who are also slightly obsessed with the original content.
In this story, Harry is sent to a military reform school due to his 'terrible behaviour' in Little Whinging. It is AU, but I'm also using a couple of fairly common - I think - headcanons, including one that depicts Harry as black, or at least dark-skinned or of some sort of Indian descent, as well as a few others that come into play later in the story. This will roughly follow the events of the Philosopher's stone with a few changes for the plot. I am hoping to make this into a series covering all 7 books, and the plots should begin to diverge a lot more later on, but the way this one has been progressing it mostly follows canon so far - the bigger more obvious changes won't come in to play for a few books yet.
My life and schedule doesn't really let me have a structured plan for updates (read: I'm disorganised and don't always have time to sit and write every week) but I pretty much have up to the end of Philosopher's stone at least planned out if not written, so I'll try and keep it sort of regular. Harry won't reach Hogwarts until around chapter 20 in this fic, which is looking to be at least 40 chapters long, so if you're looking for a story that is based mainly in Hogwarts and immediately jumps into the events of book one this probably isn't the fic for you - you could argue it's more like an original work using fandom characters for the first 15-20 chapters.
I don't have a beta, but I read through my work a lot to check for errors, and microsoft word is usually pretty good at catching grammar and spelling mistakes, but I apologise if there are any I've missed. Leave a review or PM me if you see one and I'll fix it as soon as I can (or just accept that in amateur fanfic writing there's going to be mistakes and move on, but I know that it's really annoying when there are mistakes and I'm happy to sort them out, especially if it's a big plot hole or something that just doesn't make sense!)
I know you don't really care about any of this, so hope you enjoy!
Harry looked over his shoulder to see that the 4 boys were gaining on him. He grimaced and ran harder, sprinting around a corner and almost bowling into elderly Mr. Rodgers. Without stopping to apologise, he turned towards the school kitchens. There were big, metal bins behind the building, if he could reach them he might be able to jump behind them and hide from Dudley and his gang...
He jumped, and looked over his shoulder for Dudley.
And saw the roof of the school kitchens.
His stomach dropped and he nearly fell off.
Harry flattened himself to the roof, and peered over the edge, thinking hard. He could see Dudley, Malcolm, Dennis and Gordon standing by the big bins he had been trying to jump behind. He was happy to see that Piers hadn't been able to follow him after he kicked him in the stomach.
"Where'd he go?" Dudley demanded, rounding on the members of his gang.
"I dunno." Dennis said, looking around.
"He just like, disappeared!" Gordon exclaimed.
"Well how did that happen?" Dudley spat. Harry wanted to hear the answer to that too.
"I dunno." Dennis repeated.
"Let's just go, Dudley." Malcolm said, already turning back the way they had come.
"But Potter-" Dudley began.
"I don't care about Potter, if we don't hurry up we won't get on the swings!" Malcolm whined.
"What are we waiting for then?" Gordon moaned. "Come on."
Harry watched them leave, relieved. Then he realised that he was up on the roof of the kitchen, with no way to get down. How had he gotten up in the first place? Perhaps the wind had caught him...no, that was ridiculous; there was no wind.
He scanned the flat roof, looking for a way down. He would be in so much trouble if the school had to call the fire brigade to get him down.
Cautiously, he crawled closer to the edge and peered down. It seemed like a long, long way away. There was no way he'd be able to jump it.
He carefully stood up, and walked further down the roof, towards the playground, hoping for a way down.
"Potter!" A voice shouted. Harry jumped and wobbled as he span to face the voice. He looked down over the roof, and saw Mrs. Galloway staring up at him, red-faced in anger. "What are you doing on the roof?" She spat "Get down this instant!"
Harry spied a ladder leaning against the wall a few metres in front of him, and carefully walked towards it, then climbed down.
Mrs. Galloway was waiting for him at the bottom.
She grabbed his baggy school jumper and pulled him along with her. "Never... in all my time..." She seemed incapable of forming coherent sentences as she dragged him into the school building. "What on earth were you doing on the roof!"
Harry didn't say anything; he was still trying to work out what he had been doing on the roof himself.
Mrs. Galloway huffed as she led him down the school corridors.
A girl in Harry's class was taking a book out of her backpack on one of the hooks on the wall. She turned and saw Mrs. Galloway, and opened her mouth to say something, but Mrs. Galloway cut her off. "I'm on my way to the headmaster at the moment, Sophie."
"Ok miss." Sophie nodded, disappointed. She turned and began walking down the corridor.
Harry was pulled along by Mrs. Galloway, passing other pupils who watched as he was manhandled through the school. A few whispered to each other, giggling or rolling their eyes.
"Christopher, Mathew, no running inside!" Mrs. Galloway called as two boys raced down the corridor, and they slowed to a walk with a half-hearted apology. "Come along, Potter."
They stopped outside a blue door with a metal plaque reading 'Headmaster'. Mrs Galloway knocked sharply on the painted wood, and there was a quiet "come in" from the other side. She opened the door rather harder than was necessary, and pushed Harry inside. "Good morning, Helen." The headmaster smiled. Mr. Fischer was a short, balding man, with dark skin and a waxed moustache that curled at the ends. His eyes fell on Harry and the smile vanished. "Potter." He said curtly. "What have you done this time?"
Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Mrs. Galloway interrupted. "I found him on the kitchen roof!" She cried angrily.
The headmaster sat up straighter in his chair. "Did you now?" He sighed. "Sit down, Potter." Harry slipped into the hard wooden chair in front of Mr. Fischer's desk. "Do you want to stay, Helen?"
Mrs. Galloway sniffed. "I think I've been present in enough of these meetings, if it's all the same to you, Headmaster."
"Haven't we all." Mr. Fischer sighed, rubbing his forehead
Harry Heard Mrs. Galloway leave, keeping his eyes fixed on a spot on the headmaster's desk.
"Well then, Potter." Mr. Fischer began, and Harry looked up to see him flicking through a filing cabinet behind the desk. He resisted the urge to say 'what' and instead watched as the headmaster pulled the thickest folder out of the metal cabinet and set it on the desk between them. "Do you know what this is?"
Harry sighed. He wasn't completely stupid. "My file or something, I guess"
Mr. Fischer frowned. "Don't you take that tone with me, boy, you're already in enough trouble as it is." He opened the folder and began flicking through it. "You know, normally people don't actually have their own folder, it's everybody who's surname starts with the same letter in one, makes it easier to sort, you see." Mr. Fischer looked up at Harry.
"Okay..." Harry said, unsure as to why he was being told all this.
"But you, Potter, have such a disregard for rules, and history of disciplinary issues, that you get your own." He held up the ring binder as if to prove his point, then began flicking through the pages again. "Running in the corridors... swearing... fighting... cheating... another fight... oh, and another one... vandalism... homework not handed in... stealing... more swearing... fighting..." The headmaster looked up. "You see my point?"
"That's only like ten things." Harry said defensively. It wasn't his fault his uncle never let him do his homework, or that Dudley always picked fights with him and tried to beat him up, or that the other children made fun of him for the colour of his skin.
"That was one term." Mr. Fischer said.
"Yeah, but-"
Mr. Fischer held up a hand. "Potter, I reckon you could be a smart kid, even if you never do your homework." Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Mr. Fischer raised an eyebrow and continued. "But you've been in seven fights this half of term already, I've suspended you four times in the six years you've been at this school, and I know that your conduct at home is not much better. I have given you three final warnings for your behaviour. And now this with climbing on school property. I'm just not sure this school is the right one for you."
"What do you mean?"
Mr. Fischer sighed. "I'm going to arrange a meeting with you par- guardians this afternoon. You won't need to come back to school tomorrow." The headmaster rose and moved around the desk. "Sally!"
The door opened and Mr. Fischer's young secretary poked her head into the office. "Yes, sir?"
Mr. Fischer rested a hand on Harry's shoulder as he stood up. "Could you take Potter back to his class please, and then arrange a meeting with the Dursleys later."
"Of course. Come on Harry."
"I can walk back to my classroom by myself." Harry frowned, shrugging off Mr. Fischer's hand.
"I am sure you are capable, Potter, but Sally will walk you there anyway."
Harry sighed. "Fine." He followed the young receptionist out of the large office and down the corridors in silence, his hands in his shorts pockets, strands of hair hiding most of his face.
"Well, here you go." Sally said, stopping at his classroom door. The rest of his class were already scribbling away on worksheets.
"Thanks." Harry said dully.
