Sorry I'm taking so long! I just have this essay on the Industrial Revolution to do at the same time. I'm kind of shifting between the two at the time so if this sounds weird blame it on the Industrial Revolution and the Public School System. I can't help but feel the story is kind of breaking down on me.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
With a stranger's help
Harry let out a strangled whisper.
"Who's there?"
The light went out instantly before Harry's eyes could even land on the intruder. Harry was back in the darkness of the room.
"How did you get in here?"
There was a tense silence. Harry kicked off his blanket, for fear of hurting his hands again, then stood up. Trembling he began to move towards what he made out as faint breathing. He reached out and felt the air out in front of him. About arms length of him, there as a small crack. Harry drew in a breath and tried to focus his eyes even harder. It took him a while to come to the conclusion that he was alone again. Harry took his thin blanket and climbed back into bed. He ran his hands through his hair.
'Wait...my hands...'
Harry stood up in bed and felt his hands. The pain had completely gone away.
'Could that have been Madam Pomfrey? No, she probably would have taken me to Dumbledore then. Well it had to be a wizard. But who was it...who was that? Will they come back for me?'
There was only one thing he could think of to say even though he knew he was alone.
"Thank you."
Harry fell back on his bed to his first dreamless night.
--------------------------------------------------------
The next day Severus woke up his students early in the morning. After a quick breakfast he sat them down so he could select the next person to observe Harry and the muggles.
"Since Potter will be going to a muggle school you will be required to be additionally careful. You will follow him to all of his classes and back to the muggles' home. Any questions?"
No one moved. Severus' eyes landed on Millicent.
"Bulstrode you're next. Report back by sunset. And never lose track of him."
--------------------------------------------------------
Harry looked up at the building in front of him. He was meant to be a sophomore in high school at 15. Because he was attending Hogwarts he hadn't gone to a muggle school in five years. So he had only attended a normal school up to the sixth grade. Now he was in high school and with no idea of what he was expected to know. He was resigned to, and sure, he wouldn't make any friends. Dudley would have made sure of that. He entered the school building and passed a group of girls on his way to the office. They all looked at him and started pointing and whispering. He looked down at his clothes and felt very self-conscious. His baggy pants, blue sweater and book bag were faded and scruffy. He lowered his head and entered the office dodging their stares. He got his schedule from the lady at the office and headed to his first class.
"What in the name of Merlin are Social Studies?"
When he got to the class he felt relieved. Hermione had badgered him and Ron to take up Muggle Studies, and this class was just like it.
"Hey you, new kid? What school you from?"
The boy next to him in the back row looked at him curiously.
"Me? I'm from Hog-"
He heard his uncle's voice at the back of his head.
[You better not, if you know what's good for you...you won't say a thing.]
"Hog-lock. Hoglock. It's an old school."
"Must be an awful school."
Harry tensed.
"It's a very good school."
"Okay, relax. I didn't mean anything by it. I just never heard of it."
The boy didn't talk to him for the rest of the class. His next class was gym. He sat out because they were playing a sport he had become unfamiliar with ...baseball. He observed them and left his mind to wander to the night before. Harry held his hands up to the sunlight. Only a few scars were visible. The Dursley's hadn't even noticed that his hands were undamaged.
"I'd give anything to be back at Hogwarts right now. I have to find a way to contact Dumbledore or Sirius even -God- even Snape would be a welcome relief about now! Damn, I really must be desperate...Snape?"
A whistle blew and he picked up his bag to go to his next class, which was biology. He sat dumbfounded through the lesson on the human anatomy and left the room shaking his head in disbelief.
'They'd /never/ teach that at Hogwarts.'
In computers he learned how to move the mouse (it was like a wand) and how to make words appear on the screen (the teacher called it typing).
"So you've never used a computer?"
"No."
"And you don't know what the Internet is?"
"No."
"Maybe you'll do better in art."
The computer teacher looked at him as if he were slow (stupid) and walked away shaking her head sadly to make the transfer arrangements. Next he went to a class in which he was required to know a different language. The only thing he left the class with was the knowledge of saying his own name.
"Me llamo Harry Potter." (A/N: Daniel takes Spanish in school :))
Then he was at lunch. He looked at the food and packed as much as he could fit in his tray.
'Where do I sit?'
He looked around the cafeteria and saw a few of the girls he had seen before staring at him again. He blushed and moved to a table in the far corner to sit alone. He ate quickly and hungrily and didn't notice the girl standing in front of him until she cleared her throat. She had warm brown eyes and a friendly smile.
"Can I sit here?"
He stared at her for a moment and nodded.
"My name's Dawn."
She put out her hand and Harry took it.
"Harry Potter."
They talked for the rest of the period. Later on they were dumping their trays when Harry tripped. It felt as if someone had put a foot out in front of him. But no one was there except him and Dawn. His milk had sprayed her legs and his beans somehow ended up in her hair. Everyone was laughing.
"What did you do?!"
He stood up and tried to clean her with his napkin.
"I'm sorry I-"
"Leave me alone you-you jerk!"
"But it was an accident!"
She ran crying out of the cafeteria. He could hear people murmuring around him.
"Poor Dawn...she just wanted to be nice...that jerk...he didn't have to be so mean..."
Harry left the cafeteria longing to get away from the students stares. He now completely gave up on making friends. No one would talk to him now. After that everyone was colder towards him. He got mean looks and someone tipped his books off his desk by 'accident'. He was almost glad to go back to the Dursley's until he realized what he had thought.
*'The Dursley's.'*
He couldn't help but think about what his uncle Vernon would do to him today. It seemed he really didn't have a happy day unless Harry was hurt in some way physically or mentally. Harry neared the door and pushed it open slowly. He couldn't see his uncle and before he did he was already coming down on him. Harry covered his face on impulse as Vernon's huge fist connected with his stomach knocking the wind out of him. He fell to his knees gasping for breath, hands flat on the floor and waited for his uncle's routine kick to his ribs. For some reason it didn't come. It all ended soon.
'Too soon...'
His aunt was making a subtle effort to protect him. This surprised Harry as much as it surprised Vernon.
"Vernon. Please, the boy didn't do anything."
"He didn't do anything indeed! There's work to be done around the house and he was out in the streets doing who-knows-what!!!"
"Vernon! Listen to yourself! You sent him to school remem-"
Vernon fixed his wife with a firm stare.
"Have you turned into a freak-lover now? Have you?! Perhaps you'd like to send our son off that-that ruddy school with the little bastard!!!"
"Of course not."
"Then shut the hell up, make yourself useful for once and make me dinner!!!"
Petunia nodded quickly her barrette slipping off her blonde hair but she didn't notice and ran to the kitchen to make dinner. Vernon turned back to Harry his eyes narrowed.
"Anyone asked about your hands?"
'Crap.'
"No."
Vernon smirked.
"Let me see them."
Harry held out his hands to him and saw his uncle's purple face turn pale.
"WHAT DID YOU DO????"
He yanked Harry's hands towards him and examined them.
"Bloody bastard!!!! You did mag-magic!!!"
Harry tried to look alarmed for him and he half was. Who knows what Vernon would do if he though Harry was doing magic.
"No! I swear I didn't! I cant do magic without my wand and I'm not old enough yet."
Vernon turned as white as a sheet (if that was possible).
"Then...that means...someone...was in my house..."
He covered his face with his hands.
"Garden. Lawn. Floor. Dishes. Bath. Bed. No dinner."
Harry understood.
'Pull the weeds out of the garden. Mow the lawn front and back. Mop the floors. Do the dinner dishes. Take a bath. Go to bed. There will be no dinner tonight.'
He went about doing his chores and found out he made more mistakes than usual. The lawnmower somehow decided to go over his aunts garden so he had to pull the weeds /and/ plant new flowers. It also felt like the dishes just kept pouring back into the sink, even then clean ones. After he had done all of his chores as quickly as he could, he took a bath. He put on Dudley's gigantic hand-me-down pajamas and went to bed. He stayed up thinking for a bit.
'So a wizard had been in his house. And a full-grown one too. A student couldn't possibly have done it. We can't do magic yet and I don't think I know any seventh years besides the Twins. I wonder if they'll come back tonight...'
Harry had every intension of staying up but his exhaustion got the better of him.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"...then I tripped him in front of all the muggles in that school."
At the moment Severus was glad he had placed that silence charm on the students or the uproar would have waken up the entire neighborhood. Malfoy grinned.
"Brilliant Bulstrode! Simply brilliant. You could have gotten him a beating though. That would have been fun to watch!"
Out of the whole group only Blaise and Millicent didn't laugh as loudly as the rest and who should notice but Pansy Parkinson.
"What's the matter with you two?"
Millicent shrugged and Blaise followed the example.
"I dunno. It just doesn't seem as funny anymore."
Pansy edge closer to her and grinned.
"You're not feeling sorry for Potter. Are you?"
Millicent put a menacing look on her grotesque face.
"Of course not you dimwit."
Pansy smiled.
"Good."
Severus just snorted.
'They truly are heartless. What kind of people are these kids? You'd think they'd feel at least a bit sorry for the poor boy...even if he is a Gryffindor.'
Draco silenced the Slytherins.
"What else did you do?"
Feeling she shouldn't display any repentant behavior Millicent smirked.
"Well let's see...it was stupid really. I pushed him into running over the flowers with a flower-cutting thing and he had to replant the whole lot. And I made him wash all the dishes twice. And slipped in the clean ones from the pantry too."
The Slytherins chuckled wickedly, each of them thinking up ways to make Harry miserable. After only hearing a few of the Slytherins ideas Severus forbade them to interfere with Harry's day in any way and those who did would be severely punished.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Later on when the Slytherins had had a good laugh at Harry's expense they retired. With the exception of Millicent and Blaise.
"You think we should do something about it?"
"About what?"
Blaise lowered her voice.
"Potter."
"No we shouldn't."
"Come on. That man is going to end up killing the poor guy."
"What can we do? Remember what Professor Snape said. We can't get attached to the-"
"Subject, I know. But he's a human being right?"
They remained silent.
"How are his hands doing?"
"Yeah about that."
Millicent glared at her.
"You said he was burnt."
"He was...wasn't he?"
"No. His hands weren't burnt."
"They weren't?"
"No."
"That's weird..."
Blaise concentrated on figuring it out.
"You think someone did it?"
"Did what?"
Blaise rolled her eyes.
"Healed him."
"Who could have?"
"Snape."
"He hates him. He wouldn't heal him."
"Right. Then who?"
"Look I had a long day."
Millicent entered the girl's tent and not soon after her snoring was heard as Blaise also entered the tent. Both had been unaware of the shadow listening in on their conversation.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Fizzysoda: Thanx and will do!
Lei Dumbledore: I'm going to get conceited soon...no not really. Thanx you're great!
Elektra Joradees Gamblin: Yeah I want to but I don't want to offend Drafica by doing so. I think that what you saw with Zabini was the first hint of humanity from the Slytherin's side.
Zeynel: Yeah basically right? But I think that Snape's purpose is to kind of teach them how a muggle born wizard manages living without magic and around a complete muggle neighborhood.
Drafica: Um...no comment on that question. (Evil grin) You just wait and see...
Crydwyn: Well sometimes things in the Wizarding world don't really make much sense now do they? Wizards do happen to have very...eccentric ideas, don't they? Glad to know you like it.
Boycrazy: Thank girl! I'm really loving this. I've got tons of things to tell you! E-mail me.
I feel like the story is breaking down. If you have any suggestions e-mail me at Sirena1115@netscape.com
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
With a stranger's help
Harry let out a strangled whisper.
"Who's there?"
The light went out instantly before Harry's eyes could even land on the intruder. Harry was back in the darkness of the room.
"How did you get in here?"
There was a tense silence. Harry kicked off his blanket, for fear of hurting his hands again, then stood up. Trembling he began to move towards what he made out as faint breathing. He reached out and felt the air out in front of him. About arms length of him, there as a small crack. Harry drew in a breath and tried to focus his eyes even harder. It took him a while to come to the conclusion that he was alone again. Harry took his thin blanket and climbed back into bed. He ran his hands through his hair.
'Wait...my hands...'
Harry stood up in bed and felt his hands. The pain had completely gone away.
'Could that have been Madam Pomfrey? No, she probably would have taken me to Dumbledore then. Well it had to be a wizard. But who was it...who was that? Will they come back for me?'
There was only one thing he could think of to say even though he knew he was alone.
"Thank you."
Harry fell back on his bed to his first dreamless night.
--------------------------------------------------------
The next day Severus woke up his students early in the morning. After a quick breakfast he sat them down so he could select the next person to observe Harry and the muggles.
"Since Potter will be going to a muggle school you will be required to be additionally careful. You will follow him to all of his classes and back to the muggles' home. Any questions?"
No one moved. Severus' eyes landed on Millicent.
"Bulstrode you're next. Report back by sunset. And never lose track of him."
--------------------------------------------------------
Harry looked up at the building in front of him. He was meant to be a sophomore in high school at 15. Because he was attending Hogwarts he hadn't gone to a muggle school in five years. So he had only attended a normal school up to the sixth grade. Now he was in high school and with no idea of what he was expected to know. He was resigned to, and sure, he wouldn't make any friends. Dudley would have made sure of that. He entered the school building and passed a group of girls on his way to the office. They all looked at him and started pointing and whispering. He looked down at his clothes and felt very self-conscious. His baggy pants, blue sweater and book bag were faded and scruffy. He lowered his head and entered the office dodging their stares. He got his schedule from the lady at the office and headed to his first class.
"What in the name of Merlin are Social Studies?"
When he got to the class he felt relieved. Hermione had badgered him and Ron to take up Muggle Studies, and this class was just like it.
"Hey you, new kid? What school you from?"
The boy next to him in the back row looked at him curiously.
"Me? I'm from Hog-"
He heard his uncle's voice at the back of his head.
[You better not, if you know what's good for you...you won't say a thing.]
"Hog-lock. Hoglock. It's an old school."
"Must be an awful school."
Harry tensed.
"It's a very good school."
"Okay, relax. I didn't mean anything by it. I just never heard of it."
The boy didn't talk to him for the rest of the class. His next class was gym. He sat out because they were playing a sport he had become unfamiliar with ...baseball. He observed them and left his mind to wander to the night before. Harry held his hands up to the sunlight. Only a few scars were visible. The Dursley's hadn't even noticed that his hands were undamaged.
"I'd give anything to be back at Hogwarts right now. I have to find a way to contact Dumbledore or Sirius even -God- even Snape would be a welcome relief about now! Damn, I really must be desperate...Snape?"
A whistle blew and he picked up his bag to go to his next class, which was biology. He sat dumbfounded through the lesson on the human anatomy and left the room shaking his head in disbelief.
'They'd /never/ teach that at Hogwarts.'
In computers he learned how to move the mouse (it was like a wand) and how to make words appear on the screen (the teacher called it typing).
"So you've never used a computer?"
"No."
"And you don't know what the Internet is?"
"No."
"Maybe you'll do better in art."
The computer teacher looked at him as if he were slow (stupid) and walked away shaking her head sadly to make the transfer arrangements. Next he went to a class in which he was required to know a different language. The only thing he left the class with was the knowledge of saying his own name.
"Me llamo Harry Potter." (A/N: Daniel takes Spanish in school :))
Then he was at lunch. He looked at the food and packed as much as he could fit in his tray.
'Where do I sit?'
He looked around the cafeteria and saw a few of the girls he had seen before staring at him again. He blushed and moved to a table in the far corner to sit alone. He ate quickly and hungrily and didn't notice the girl standing in front of him until she cleared her throat. She had warm brown eyes and a friendly smile.
"Can I sit here?"
He stared at her for a moment and nodded.
"My name's Dawn."
She put out her hand and Harry took it.
"Harry Potter."
They talked for the rest of the period. Later on they were dumping their trays when Harry tripped. It felt as if someone had put a foot out in front of him. But no one was there except him and Dawn. His milk had sprayed her legs and his beans somehow ended up in her hair. Everyone was laughing.
"What did you do?!"
He stood up and tried to clean her with his napkin.
"I'm sorry I-"
"Leave me alone you-you jerk!"
"But it was an accident!"
She ran crying out of the cafeteria. He could hear people murmuring around him.
"Poor Dawn...she just wanted to be nice...that jerk...he didn't have to be so mean..."
Harry left the cafeteria longing to get away from the students stares. He now completely gave up on making friends. No one would talk to him now. After that everyone was colder towards him. He got mean looks and someone tipped his books off his desk by 'accident'. He was almost glad to go back to the Dursley's until he realized what he had thought.
*'The Dursley's.'*
He couldn't help but think about what his uncle Vernon would do to him today. It seemed he really didn't have a happy day unless Harry was hurt in some way physically or mentally. Harry neared the door and pushed it open slowly. He couldn't see his uncle and before he did he was already coming down on him. Harry covered his face on impulse as Vernon's huge fist connected with his stomach knocking the wind out of him. He fell to his knees gasping for breath, hands flat on the floor and waited for his uncle's routine kick to his ribs. For some reason it didn't come. It all ended soon.
'Too soon...'
His aunt was making a subtle effort to protect him. This surprised Harry as much as it surprised Vernon.
"Vernon. Please, the boy didn't do anything."
"He didn't do anything indeed! There's work to be done around the house and he was out in the streets doing who-knows-what!!!"
"Vernon! Listen to yourself! You sent him to school remem-"
Vernon fixed his wife with a firm stare.
"Have you turned into a freak-lover now? Have you?! Perhaps you'd like to send our son off that-that ruddy school with the little bastard!!!"
"Of course not."
"Then shut the hell up, make yourself useful for once and make me dinner!!!"
Petunia nodded quickly her barrette slipping off her blonde hair but she didn't notice and ran to the kitchen to make dinner. Vernon turned back to Harry his eyes narrowed.
"Anyone asked about your hands?"
'Crap.'
"No."
Vernon smirked.
"Let me see them."
Harry held out his hands to him and saw his uncle's purple face turn pale.
"WHAT DID YOU DO????"
He yanked Harry's hands towards him and examined them.
"Bloody bastard!!!! You did mag-magic!!!"
Harry tried to look alarmed for him and he half was. Who knows what Vernon would do if he though Harry was doing magic.
"No! I swear I didn't! I cant do magic without my wand and I'm not old enough yet."
Vernon turned as white as a sheet (if that was possible).
"Then...that means...someone...was in my house..."
He covered his face with his hands.
"Garden. Lawn. Floor. Dishes. Bath. Bed. No dinner."
Harry understood.
'Pull the weeds out of the garden. Mow the lawn front and back. Mop the floors. Do the dinner dishes. Take a bath. Go to bed. There will be no dinner tonight.'
He went about doing his chores and found out he made more mistakes than usual. The lawnmower somehow decided to go over his aunts garden so he had to pull the weeds /and/ plant new flowers. It also felt like the dishes just kept pouring back into the sink, even then clean ones. After he had done all of his chores as quickly as he could, he took a bath. He put on Dudley's gigantic hand-me-down pajamas and went to bed. He stayed up thinking for a bit.
'So a wizard had been in his house. And a full-grown one too. A student couldn't possibly have done it. We can't do magic yet and I don't think I know any seventh years besides the Twins. I wonder if they'll come back tonight...'
Harry had every intension of staying up but his exhaustion got the better of him.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"...then I tripped him in front of all the muggles in that school."
At the moment Severus was glad he had placed that silence charm on the students or the uproar would have waken up the entire neighborhood. Malfoy grinned.
"Brilliant Bulstrode! Simply brilliant. You could have gotten him a beating though. That would have been fun to watch!"
Out of the whole group only Blaise and Millicent didn't laugh as loudly as the rest and who should notice but Pansy Parkinson.
"What's the matter with you two?"
Millicent shrugged and Blaise followed the example.
"I dunno. It just doesn't seem as funny anymore."
Pansy edge closer to her and grinned.
"You're not feeling sorry for Potter. Are you?"
Millicent put a menacing look on her grotesque face.
"Of course not you dimwit."
Pansy smiled.
"Good."
Severus just snorted.
'They truly are heartless. What kind of people are these kids? You'd think they'd feel at least a bit sorry for the poor boy...even if he is a Gryffindor.'
Draco silenced the Slytherins.
"What else did you do?"
Feeling she shouldn't display any repentant behavior Millicent smirked.
"Well let's see...it was stupid really. I pushed him into running over the flowers with a flower-cutting thing and he had to replant the whole lot. And I made him wash all the dishes twice. And slipped in the clean ones from the pantry too."
The Slytherins chuckled wickedly, each of them thinking up ways to make Harry miserable. After only hearing a few of the Slytherins ideas Severus forbade them to interfere with Harry's day in any way and those who did would be severely punished.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Later on when the Slytherins had had a good laugh at Harry's expense they retired. With the exception of Millicent and Blaise.
"You think we should do something about it?"
"About what?"
Blaise lowered her voice.
"Potter."
"No we shouldn't."
"Come on. That man is going to end up killing the poor guy."
"What can we do? Remember what Professor Snape said. We can't get attached to the-"
"Subject, I know. But he's a human being right?"
They remained silent.
"How are his hands doing?"
"Yeah about that."
Millicent glared at her.
"You said he was burnt."
"He was...wasn't he?"
"No. His hands weren't burnt."
"They weren't?"
"No."
"That's weird..."
Blaise concentrated on figuring it out.
"You think someone did it?"
"Did what?"
Blaise rolled her eyes.
"Healed him."
"Who could have?"
"Snape."
"He hates him. He wouldn't heal him."
"Right. Then who?"
"Look I had a long day."
Millicent entered the girl's tent and not soon after her snoring was heard as Blaise also entered the tent. Both had been unaware of the shadow listening in on their conversation.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Fizzysoda: Thanx and will do!
Lei Dumbledore: I'm going to get conceited soon...no not really. Thanx you're great!
Elektra Joradees Gamblin: Yeah I want to but I don't want to offend Drafica by doing so. I think that what you saw with Zabini was the first hint of humanity from the Slytherin's side.
Zeynel: Yeah basically right? But I think that Snape's purpose is to kind of teach them how a muggle born wizard manages living without magic and around a complete muggle neighborhood.
Drafica: Um...no comment on that question. (Evil grin) You just wait and see...
Crydwyn: Well sometimes things in the Wizarding world don't really make much sense now do they? Wizards do happen to have very...eccentric ideas, don't they? Glad to know you like it.
Boycrazy: Thank girl! I'm really loving this. I've got tons of things to tell you! E-mail me.
I feel like the story is breaking down. If you have any suggestions e-mail me at Sirena1115@netscape.com
