Chapter Two – The Vanishing Class

Nearly ten years had passed since Harry had been dropped off at the Dursleys. The sun shone on the same brass number fourteen, though now it had a large chunk missing off one of the sides. The brass one was also crooked, but anyway, there were still in the same house. There were pictures of Dudley, Mrs. Dursley, Mr. Dursley and Harry standing in front of the entrance to a Magical Theme Park. Harry was looking as disgruntled as ever next to his beaming relatives. Dudley even had his arm on Harry's shoulder. Harry was shoving him away in the picture. It was the last week before the summer holidays where Harry would be advancing to Hogboards, a public wizard's school, whilst Dudley would go to Sweltings, a top class wizard's school. It was going to be Harry who went to Sweltings, but he had insisted, threatening to tell the neighbours about Aunt Flatulence's love affair with the family broom. There were other pictures of the whole family, in which they were always smiling and cheering.

Harry had taken a liking to black as long as he could remember. In every picture he was wearing all black, sometimes with the occasional white sleeved shirt underneath a black t-shirt. Only last year had he bought his first dog-collar choker.

Harry Potter was a lean and skinny boy, with pale skin a mouldy green eyes. He bore large round glasses on his nose with thick black frames. His pitch-black hair was untidy, sticking out in odd places. He spent hours styling it with Potion-Gel, but that somehow made his hair tint green.

Harry Potter was never mistreated, in fact, he got everything he wanted. It was to his disgust that they treated him like a king. Most children would love this attention, like his cousin Dudley, however Harry hated it, and this is what made him unusual. He also had a squiggly line on his forehead, once mistaking it for something Dudley had drawn on his face. Dudley had a broken arm after that and Harry was forced to endure several hours watching Disney movies. He supposed Mr. Dursley had stolen the idea. He lived with his Aunt and Uncle, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Onion.

Well, anyway, that morning, Harry knew, was the beginning hours of Dudley's birthday. Since this was the only day when Dudley could do what ever he wanted, Harry made sure he woke up early. He reckoned his cousin still hadn't forgotten Harry hanging him out of the bathroom window.

'WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!' his alarm clock yelled. Harry, who had been awake for hours, felt like letting the insane screams carry on for a few seconds. He loved terrorising the Dursleys. Mr. Dursley let out a startled yell and Harry smirked, switching off the alarm. He had been dreaming about a man who was talking into a black box. It had been a good dream because the man had also been reading the newspaper.

'Wake up, yer lazy scallywag' the clock growled. Harry ignored it. He went over to his wardrobe and flung open the draws dramatically. Inside there were clothes of only three colours, black, white and grey. It was pretty boring, really, but Harry liked boring. He donned a pair of black trousers and a long sleeved black shirt before slipping a white T-shirts over the top, which had a picture of a spider on it. Once he was satisfied with his appearance, he trudged downstairs and started rooting through the cupboards.

'Good morning, Harry' came a cold voice. Dudley, who was usually a little angel and really nice to Harry, must have felt pissed off or something, because he was rubbing his hands together.

'Mornin' Dudders' Harry teased, standing up holding a box of Cheer-i-hoe's; the packet catcalled and strutted around the kitchen table when you'd eaten some of the food.

'Still no signs of magic, then?' he asked. He, along with Harry, had no idea what happened when you could not do magic, but he decided it'd be something terrible. Harry picked up two bowls for him and Dudley before retrieving spoons.

'That's your birthday present' Harry informed him as Dudley sat down.

'What? Cheer-i-hoes?' Dudley said, peering into the whistling packet.

'Of course. It's the least I can do and that's exactly why I'm doing it' Harry said. Dudley glared at him.

'Never mind' he growled. Harry smirked behind the Cheer-i-hoes and started to eat quickly.

'We're going to the Zoo today' Dudley said, halfway between his bowl of cereal.

'Yeah?' Harry said, uninterested.

'With my friends from school.' Dudley was a highly popular boy. Harry was anti-social, though he did have many admirers.

'The whole class is coming?' Harry asked in awe. He also asked because there was a girl in their class who was very attractive.

'Yeah' Dudley said. And that was that. Harry sprinted up stairs after eating and got ready, arranging his clothes and hair to be as messed up as possible, though stylishly. He didn't want to have baked beans dripping down his shirt. When the time came for them to go to the Zoo, Harry and Dudley squashed into the back of the Dursley's car.

'You all right back there?' Mr. Dursley asked. Dudley piped up cheerfully whilst Harry just grunted. The rest of the Dursleys were wearing extravagantly colourful robes, Dudley bearing a golden 'Birthday' crown which Harry thought was particularly sad. A man outside the window of the car was wearing a suit. He looked up and waved at Harry, who waved back.

'I had a dream last night' Harry said.

'Yeah? What of?' Mr. Dursley asked.

'That a man was reading the newspaper' he said.

Uncle Onion almost crashed into a lamppost, which jumped out of the way.

'PEOPLE DON'T READ NEWSPAPERS!' he roared. Harry looked absently back.

'All right, keep your hair on' Harry sighed, fiddling with his hair.

At the Zoo, Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. Within the first five minutes, the Dursleys had buggered off and he was free to do what ever he willed, which involved staring at ugly animals and making faces. The rest of the class at school appeared some time later, when Harry was examining the things inside the reptile house. None other than his crush, Daphne Phillips, soon joined him. Harry knew that Dudley liked Daphne too, but she had come to him... in the reptile room!

'Hi, Harry' she said dreamily. The rest of the class including Dudley scuttled in.

'Hello, Daphne' Harry said. She took his hand in hers quickly.

'Interesting animals, aren't they?' Daphne said. Harry moved forwards. There were sudden yells of outrage and disgust as Harry moved in to kiss Daphne in front of everyone.

'Ignore them, just ignore them' he whispered, as his lips got closer to Daphne's when all of a sudden they were alone. Harry kissed Daphne quickly on the lips and stared around.

'Where'd everybody go?' he asked. He looked back at Daphne who was blushing and shooting embarrassed looks at an invisible crowd.

'Eh?' Harry cried. No one was there. He quickly wandered out of the building. No one was inside the Zoo, until suddenly, a tall young woman with her hair tied back in a bun came over to him.

'You have been admitted in to Hackwords,' she said, handing him an envelope. 'Please inform us if you have any difficulties.'

Then all of a sudden, the image of the woman became distorted and everything, every person and a few things he couldn't see but knew were there swam in to view.

'We're going home' Uncle Onion barked sharply. Harry spun around.

'You kissed Daphne Phillips! She likes me better!' Dudley shouted, ranting on about all the "signals" he'd been getting from her. Harry just rolled his eyes and trudged along behind his Aunt and Uncle. He had already stashed the letter into his pocket and was thinking about it all the way home.

Harry had been an unhappy and anti-social child ever since he arrived at the Dursley's house. He didn't like them, and they sure as hell hated him secretly. He wished he had his own family.

He remembered only one small thing from his childhood, a blinding green light and the reminiscent echoes of Celine Dion. For some reason he hated that music. He supposed this was the music that had been playing in the car when his parents crashed. He couldn't remember a car, though. In fact, he could only remember the music and a flash of green light. However, he couldn't imagine where the green light came from either. There were a lot of things Harry didn't know.

He also showed no signs of magic in him. Dudley started turning things blue when he was four, yet Harry had done nothing. This suddenly reminded him of today. He reached for the letter in his pocket and started to open the letter slowly...