Being Found
Dymphna showed Harry the more important aspects of the camp; well at least to her: the bathroom, the caves and the lake. Then she told him to go off to the "class" that was going on near the caves.
"And remember to take care of that necklace, I come back in a few years and I find it broken, you're gonna be in trouble." she said. Harry nodded and ran off to the class, Ford was there, along with six other bright-eyed youths sitting around a table (which was more a large flat stone placed on four boulders).
"Oh, you must be the new boy." A woman with long blonde hair, streaked with brown, dressed in a sleevless tan top and a tan skirt, with a no belt.
"I'm Harry." Harry said.
"Well, you're welcome to sit down, Harry, we're right in the middle of Arithmetic. You can share with Maeve." she said, pointing to a dark-haired girl with feral yellow eyes and pale skin, there were black circles around her eyes and she was thin. Harry went to sit down next to the girl and she put the book in the middle.
"We're learning about adding." she said simply in a whisper. "Do you know about adding?" she asked. Harry nodded. "Good." she said. The lesson was very different than Harry's old school, it included sticks and rocks, and also writing tallies. There wasn't much use of numbers, when Harry questioned Ford about this later, he said it was because only Providers get to use real numbers, you learn it after your Rite of Passage. After the class, everyone went out to the lake to swim. A boy named Abbott jumped into the water with his arms and legs spread wide, like a fish, he came back up sputtering out water. Harry stayed by the edge of the water.
"Come on in, Harry!" Ford said.
"I don't know how to swim." Harry said.
"Don't worry!" Ford grabbed Harry by the ankle and pulled him in. Harry flailed for a minute, before realizing that he was floating. "It comes naturally, see?" Ford asked, swimming across the lake. The kids splashed eachother with water, threw fishes, and rocks at eachother. One boy got hit by a particularly big rock and started crying, the teacher grabbed him from the water and took him back to the caves.
"'Spossed to wear that stuff on the inside boy!" A girl playfully poked Harry's rib. Harry took his glasses and the necklace off and left them on the edge of the lake, then joined in the water games. Today's game seemed to be grabbing something and throwing it, ammo included: fishes, rocks, bugs, flowers, other children. One girl got hoisted out of the water and thrown clear across the lake, screaming with laughter. Harry ducked underwater when a hand reached out to grab him, then resurfaced.
"GOTCHA!" Harry was raised out of the water and dunked back down by a rather large boy named Hilton.
"TEN MORE MINUTES!" the teacher yelled. The children ignored her and kept playing. One girl latched onto the back of a boy and yelled "GEE UP!", the boy was forced to chauffeur her around for the rest of the time. When it was time to get out of the lake, the kids grudgingly clambered out of the water, grabbed their discarded belts (along with knives, pouches, and other needed items) and put them back on. Harry took a look at his glasses, realizing that he didn't need them, and threw them into the forest. To dry themselves off, the children simply shook themselves free of any water, then ran back to the caves, where dinner was being served. They all sat down at a table where there were a few adults already, the Alpha at the head of the long table, and began to eat the meat placed in front of them greedily.
Later when asked, Harry replied that this had been the best day of his life.
Six years later, Hogwarts
Albus Dumbledore sat among thousands of returned letters, all addressed to Harry Potter. He'd sent Hagrid a yesterday to fetch Harry from the house, and he hadn't returned yet.
"Albus," Professor McGonagall walked into his office. "Hagrid just returned, Harry Potter is not at the muggle's house." she said. "I asked Professor Flitwick to do some tracing charms and we've managed to pinpoint a location." she said. "Harry Potter is in the Forbidden Forest."
"Haha!" Harry yelled with triumph, as he managed to pin Felan Caolaidhe onto the forest floor. He stood up and raised his fist in the air. "Undefeated!" he yelled.
"Fine, have your jewelry back!" Felan said, handing Harry's necklace back. Harry grabbed it and put it back around his neck.
"Back where it belongs!" he said.
"So you've got a Glass Walker friend, big whoop." Felan said. Harry, now a clever boy of (one day past) eleven was out and out the smartest boy in his class; and by far the most smug about his abilties. The Caolaidhe family had been the first to accept Harry into their family, so he stayed with them. And Felan was the self-proclaimed leader of their gang. The gang consisted of three people: Harry (treasurer), Felan (leader), and Fiona (Fi, secretary).
"When's the next Moot? I need to drink myself into a stupor." Fi Faoiltiarna, a elevenish (no one was sure on her exact age) girl with dark hair and hazel eyes came walking into the cave with the normal tan dress on.
"What? Fi, no hug?" Felan asked. Fi stuck her tongue out at him and sat down across from where Harry was doing a small dance of joy.
"Harry, stop dancing." Fi commanded, in a voice that all too well meant "do it or you'll have a very untimely demise". Harry stopped dancing, and looked at her.
"What happened now?" he asked.
"Keavy burned all my pants and is forbidding me to fight with anybody for a week." Fi said.
"That's like hell for you." Felan said.
"Thank you very much, Felan, Prince of Rabbits." Fi said.
"So you're drinking yourself into a stupor because you can't fight?" Harry asked. "There's tons of other stuff to do around here!" he said.
"Yeah, you can...make clothes and clean the caves.." Felan said.
"I don't want to do any of those sissy things." Fi said. "I'm not happy sewing clothes or doing any of that stuff, it's too time consuming."
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"What's what?" Felan asked.
"Humans." Fi said, sniffing the air.
"How? Humans rarely travel into the Dark Forest." Felan said.
"Unless they're very large or coming in packs." Harry said. Suddenly a howl went through the camp.
"Yep, humans," Fi said. Felan listened to the howl.
"They're calling for ya, Harry." he said.
"But, why?" Harry asked.
"I donno, human expertise?" Fi asked. "You're the only one of us that knows as much as you know." she said.
"We're coming with you." Felan said. "For protection, they might try to take you back."
"I don't think that's too possible." Harry said.
"But still, they could be something horrible like... head hunters or cannibals or those people who use werewolf coats in Sri Lanka." Fi said.
"Where do you get all this?" Felan asked, "These massive stores of information that you let loose from time to time?"
"I read a lot." she declared. "Either way, we're coming with you, Harry. Remember the club's code." she said.
"Store the best and give the worst?" Harry asked.
"No, not that one." Fi said.
"Don't declare war on peaceful animals?" Felan asked.
"The other one!" Fi said.
"Oh, you mean eat ye not of a buck's bollocks?" Harry asked.
"No, but that's a good one too." Fi said. "Oh, well, let's go."
A/N: Sorry I didn't do any other chapters with all of that childhood friendship stuff between the three. This chapter was royally the worst. Hey, at least I did one thing with the him being accepted at the beginning!
COOKIES AND MILK TO ALL REVIEWERS!!
PS: (8-20-04) Alas, a chapter I rewrote...I think. I'm not sure, it might just be the next chapter. Oh well, I'll be rewriting things like this every few chapters. So you might want to read it through again.