Reality Check
~* Hey everyone, thanks so much to my first 7 reviews; fantangal, radarPLO, Catherinewei, kkroxyea, October Potter-Snape, Dark Lulu, Harry-Potter5972, and The anything girl! Here's the second chapter. *~
Chapter 2 ~ More Letters
Harry and Caprice were sitting in their classroom, trying to think of creative things that could have been in the letter which made the Dursleys upset. Harry knew that they wouldn't get all upset about a regular school acceptance form, so it had to have been something out of the ordinary. The Dursleys liked nothing abnormal. They simply wouldn't stand for any nonsense under their roof, as Harry knew from quite an amount of strange things happening to him over the years. Like the time his Aunt Petunia sheared his hair off except for his fringe, leaving him looking like he had been to one of those trainee hairdressers. All night he was dreading coming to school, but miraculously, his hair had grown back by the next morning. The Dursleys had been furious with him over the incident, and he had gotten a week in his cupboard, even though he didn't know how his hair could have grown back so fast.
'Maybe I got accepted into Superman School?' Harry wondered out loud. 'Man that would be so cool! I could fly around wearing a red cape, and save the world every day!' Harry imagined himself flying, and strangely, the idea didn't seem that ridiculous.
'I bet it was a bunch of Fairies writing to you, saying that you have to be shrunk down to their size and be their Fairy King. You'd grow wings and fly around, ruling all the little Fairies.' Caprice said dreamily. Harry looked horrified at the mere thought of being a Fairy King.
'Caprice, you're too much of a girly girl.' Harry teased. Caprice folded her arms and pouted.
'I could beat you at anything Harry James Potter.' She said matter-of- factly, emphasising his name, as she did when she was pretending to be angry at him.
'Yeah right, you're just a weak little girl!' Harry said playfully, not meaning a word of what he had just said. He considered Caprice a strong minded person who never gave up on anything. She was wonderful.
'I'll race you right now!' Caprice said, her voice raised from the whisper- tone of which they were talking in. Harry hushed her quickly, putting a finger to his lips, and hoped that Mrs Palmer hadn't heard her.
'Not now -' Harry began, but was cut off by his impatient friend.
'Now. Or are you chicken?' Caprice said slyly, knowing this would get a definite reaction from Harry. He hated being called a chicken, Dudley had taunted him with this name his entire life for as long as he could remember, and he did not like the name. Harry stood up.
'Lets go.' Harry said, and pulled Caprice out of her seat. Mrs Palmer snapped her head over to where the two friends sat, isolated from the rest of the class.
'Where do you think you two are going?' The aging teacher asked in a stern voice. Harry simply looked at her and replied;
'We're going outside for a while Miss, we won't be too long, just a simple race around the oval. That's all.' Harry moved towards the door, and Caprice giggled, but followed him.
'Not during my class time you're not.' The teacher said, with an even more stern voice than last time she had spoken. 'You will go back to your seats and stay there until the bell rings for lunch time. However, you will not be going to lunch, you will be staying here to clean the classroom.' She continued. Harry looked shocked. Caprice went to sit down, giving in, but Harry wouldn't let her. He grabbed her arm gently, and led her back over to the classroom door.
'Sorry Miss, this is rather urgent, and we won't be staying here. We also won't be joining you for lunch, as we have other plans.' Harry said bravely, without a stutter. Caprice shivered slightly next to Harry at the look on Mrs Palmer's face.
'Sit down Mr Potter and Miss Jenkins.' She barked, being completely serious.
'No!' Harry said, with a small waver in his voice, but he refused to sit down, and refused to let Caprice sit down either.
'Harry, we shouldn't cause more trouble than we already have.' Caprice whispered to Harry, her voice slightly fearful.
'Sit down cousin, or father will be hearing about this.' Dudley said in a bossy voice. Harry gave him a mean look, and went out the classroom door, pulling Caprice out behind him. Most of the class gasped, finding the concept of Harry and Caprice leaving the classroom rather hard to grasp.
'Come on Caprice, how about that race?' Harry said, pulling his friend away from the closed classroom door. Caprice looked at Harry with a wild glint in her eye.
'That was fun! What got into you Harry?' She said. 'Never mind, that was just fun! Come on, let's race to the oval!' Caprice said and took off down one corridor. Harry went the opposite way, knowing of a shortcut down the fire escape. He had discovered the small ladder outside the fifth floor window three years back, when he was being chased by Dudley. Back then, Dudley could still run with a small amount of speed. These days he ran about as fast as a snail.
Harry dropped down from the bottom of the fire escape rickety ladder, and began counting patiently in his head. He was up to about thirty six when Caprice came running, red faced, around the corner, and almost bumped into Harry. To avoid doing so, she skidded, and slipped over in a flailing mass of limbs.
'Ahhhh!' Caprice screamed gleefully. 'This is so much fun! Let's race around the oval!' The small girl jumped to her feet in a fit of laughter, and took off, running as fast as she could around the oval. Harry scowled playfully, and chased after her.
'I'm going to get you Caprice!' Harry yelled out to her. She turned her head to see Harry sprinting up on the inside lane of the tracks Caprice was running on. She burst out laughing and rolled over on the ground, where she lay and laughed some more. Harry caught up to her, and sprawled himself out next to her on the green grass of Princewald Elementary. Caprice sighed.
'We're probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this.' She said. Harry looked a bit surprised, he had never seen his friend be so serious.
'What? Don't you like having fun?' Harry teased with a large, goofy grin plastered over his face. Caprice tried to twist her leg around to playfully kick Harry, but she ended up in a tangled mess, and just laughed some more.
Harry got up, and helped his twisted friend to her feet.
'You know, you'd be very good at Twister.' Harry mused, seeing how flexible Caprice was. She grinned playfully.
'You'd be surprised Harry Potter!' She said, kicking his knee out so that his leg bent, and he fell flat on his face. She ran around Harry chanting: 'Harry fell on his face, Harry fell on his face.' In a sing-song, whiney tone of voice. Harry grabbed Caprice's leg and pulled her over, where she began giggling frantically.
~***~
Harry thought that day would never end, but Caprice and himself got off that time with a warning, and a phone call to their parents. Well, to Caprice's parents, and to the Dursleys. Harry didn't mind. He knew the Dursleys wouldn't care, as long as he did nothing abnormal. He wondered why they were so plain? So boring? Maybe it had something to do with his mother. Petunia never really did like her sister much. Perhaps Harry's mother was into some Celtic thing?
On their way home to Harry's house, Caprice tripped over and fell flat on her face, scraping her knee and elbows.
'Owwwwww!' Caprice wailed and started crying. Harry had never seen his best friend cry before, so he knelt down beside her and tried to calm her down.
'Come on Caprice, the Dursley's house is only a few more blocks away. I'll get those scrapes cleaned up nice and good.' Harry said, helping her to her feet.
The whole three blocks to the Dursleys house, Caprice was crying and sobbing over her injuries. Her elbows and knee were bleeding quite badly, as she had hit the cement pretty hard.
When they got to the Dursleys house, neither Vernon, Petunia or Dudley were home. Harry helped Caprice into the kitchen, so that they wouldn't have to go upstairs to the bathroom.
'Ouch ouch OUCH! It hurts! It hurts!' Caprice wailed, screwing her face up. Harry brought her leg up into the sink and poured cold water over her knee. Caprice screamed.
'Oh, please don't scream Caprice!' Harry said desperately. Caprice reduced her scream into small whimpers. 'Wait here, I'll be right back.' Harry said, and dashed out of the kitchen, up the stairs and into the bathroom. He returned to the kitchen carrying a large box of bandaids in his hand.
'Here, put all these on.' Harry said, handing Caprice some bandaids. Caprice looked at Harry strangely, but started putting bandaids on her knee. 'I'm just going to get the mail. The Dursleys will probably want me to.' Harry went out into the hall.
Lying on the ground, pushed through the slot, was a pile of letters. Harry picked up the pile, and flipped through them. Most letters were bills, or addressed to Vernon and Petunia, but at the bottom of the pile, there were three letters addressed to him. Harry Potter. He had letters! All three letters said the same thing:
Mr H. Potter
The Cupboard Under The Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelopes were thick and heave, each made out of a yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Harry turned one of the envelopes over, his hand shaking. He saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter "H".
It was at that moment, that Vernon burst through the front door. He took one look at Harry and the letters, went white, and snatched the three letters off Harry. Harry scowled.
'Give those back! They're my letters!' Harry said, trying to keep calm, however, it appeared Vernon Dursley had other plans for those letters. He pushed Harry back and went into the kitchen. Harry cringed waiting for the reaction. Sure enough, there was a loud bellow, and Harry heard Vernon scream.
'OUT! Get out of my house girl!' Harry watched as Caprice half ran half limped out the front door, waving a quick goodbye to Harry as she left.
'Bye Caprice.' Harry called after his friend, who was getting away from that house as quickly as possible. Petunia pushed past Harry as she walked into the house. Harry noticed her nose was in the air, and she was looking particularly snooty. Dudley was no where to be seen.
'Get in here boy and clean up my kitchen!' Vernon bellowed.
~***~
The next day at school, Caprice was sitting on the steps waiting for Harry in her usual spot. She looked rather bandaged, but was chirpy again, as she normally was. She watched as the Dursley's red car pulled up outside the school. Dudley and Harry got out of the car, and it drove off quickly.
Harry walked up the stairs and sat next to Caprice.
'Are you okay?' He asked his friend. She nodded happily. 'Sorry about the Dursleys.' Harry continued.
'It's okay! I don't like them anyway.' Caprice said. Harry quickly told her about the three letters which Vernon had stolen off Harry.
'Really? Why would he take your letters? I mean, weren't they addressed to you? How mean!' Caprice said, clearly outraged.
'Yeah.' Harry said sadly, he wanted to know what was in those three letters, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Vernon Dursley had burnt the letters right in front of Harry in the lounge room.
'I would have socked him one!' Caprice said, jumping to her feet and pretending to punch an invisible Dursley. Harry laughed at this.
'You versus Vernon Dursley, hmmm.' Harry said, pretending to think about who would win in that fight. 'In the red corner, we have the favourite, Caprice Jenkins! And in the blue corner, we have the dork, Vernon Dursley!' Harry said, and burst out laughing. Caprice joined him in laughter.
'My parents were so mad at me when I got home yesterday.' Caprice said. Harry looked at her strangely.
'Why?' He asked.
'Duh silly, because of what we did yesterday! You remember, the school called my parents and the Dursleys because we cut class?' Caprice said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
'Oh yeah.' Harry said, suddenly remembering his charade with Caprice the previous day, causing them to get in trouble.
'Come on Harry, let's go into class.' Caprice said, hearing the bell ring. 'If I get into any more trouble, I'll be grounded for a whole week!' She added.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
~* There's the second chapter! Sorry for the wait, but I kept getting sidetracked with this chapter. Oh and I don't think it's as long as the last one, but hey. Please review guys! *~
~Gryffindor Gal~
~* Hey everyone, thanks so much to my first 7 reviews; fantangal, radarPLO, Catherinewei, kkroxyea, October Potter-Snape, Dark Lulu, Harry-Potter5972, and The anything girl! Here's the second chapter. *~
Chapter 2 ~ More Letters
Harry and Caprice were sitting in their classroom, trying to think of creative things that could have been in the letter which made the Dursleys upset. Harry knew that they wouldn't get all upset about a regular school acceptance form, so it had to have been something out of the ordinary. The Dursleys liked nothing abnormal. They simply wouldn't stand for any nonsense under their roof, as Harry knew from quite an amount of strange things happening to him over the years. Like the time his Aunt Petunia sheared his hair off except for his fringe, leaving him looking like he had been to one of those trainee hairdressers. All night he was dreading coming to school, but miraculously, his hair had grown back by the next morning. The Dursleys had been furious with him over the incident, and he had gotten a week in his cupboard, even though he didn't know how his hair could have grown back so fast.
'Maybe I got accepted into Superman School?' Harry wondered out loud. 'Man that would be so cool! I could fly around wearing a red cape, and save the world every day!' Harry imagined himself flying, and strangely, the idea didn't seem that ridiculous.
'I bet it was a bunch of Fairies writing to you, saying that you have to be shrunk down to their size and be their Fairy King. You'd grow wings and fly around, ruling all the little Fairies.' Caprice said dreamily. Harry looked horrified at the mere thought of being a Fairy King.
'Caprice, you're too much of a girly girl.' Harry teased. Caprice folded her arms and pouted.
'I could beat you at anything Harry James Potter.' She said matter-of- factly, emphasising his name, as she did when she was pretending to be angry at him.
'Yeah right, you're just a weak little girl!' Harry said playfully, not meaning a word of what he had just said. He considered Caprice a strong minded person who never gave up on anything. She was wonderful.
'I'll race you right now!' Caprice said, her voice raised from the whisper- tone of which they were talking in. Harry hushed her quickly, putting a finger to his lips, and hoped that Mrs Palmer hadn't heard her.
'Not now -' Harry began, but was cut off by his impatient friend.
'Now. Or are you chicken?' Caprice said slyly, knowing this would get a definite reaction from Harry. He hated being called a chicken, Dudley had taunted him with this name his entire life for as long as he could remember, and he did not like the name. Harry stood up.
'Lets go.' Harry said, and pulled Caprice out of her seat. Mrs Palmer snapped her head over to where the two friends sat, isolated from the rest of the class.
'Where do you think you two are going?' The aging teacher asked in a stern voice. Harry simply looked at her and replied;
'We're going outside for a while Miss, we won't be too long, just a simple race around the oval. That's all.' Harry moved towards the door, and Caprice giggled, but followed him.
'Not during my class time you're not.' The teacher said, with an even more stern voice than last time she had spoken. 'You will go back to your seats and stay there until the bell rings for lunch time. However, you will not be going to lunch, you will be staying here to clean the classroom.' She continued. Harry looked shocked. Caprice went to sit down, giving in, but Harry wouldn't let her. He grabbed her arm gently, and led her back over to the classroom door.
'Sorry Miss, this is rather urgent, and we won't be staying here. We also won't be joining you for lunch, as we have other plans.' Harry said bravely, without a stutter. Caprice shivered slightly next to Harry at the look on Mrs Palmer's face.
'Sit down Mr Potter and Miss Jenkins.' She barked, being completely serious.
'No!' Harry said, with a small waver in his voice, but he refused to sit down, and refused to let Caprice sit down either.
'Harry, we shouldn't cause more trouble than we already have.' Caprice whispered to Harry, her voice slightly fearful.
'Sit down cousin, or father will be hearing about this.' Dudley said in a bossy voice. Harry gave him a mean look, and went out the classroom door, pulling Caprice out behind him. Most of the class gasped, finding the concept of Harry and Caprice leaving the classroom rather hard to grasp.
'Come on Caprice, how about that race?' Harry said, pulling his friend away from the closed classroom door. Caprice looked at Harry with a wild glint in her eye.
'That was fun! What got into you Harry?' She said. 'Never mind, that was just fun! Come on, let's race to the oval!' Caprice said and took off down one corridor. Harry went the opposite way, knowing of a shortcut down the fire escape. He had discovered the small ladder outside the fifth floor window three years back, when he was being chased by Dudley. Back then, Dudley could still run with a small amount of speed. These days he ran about as fast as a snail.
Harry dropped down from the bottom of the fire escape rickety ladder, and began counting patiently in his head. He was up to about thirty six when Caprice came running, red faced, around the corner, and almost bumped into Harry. To avoid doing so, she skidded, and slipped over in a flailing mass of limbs.
'Ahhhh!' Caprice screamed gleefully. 'This is so much fun! Let's race around the oval!' The small girl jumped to her feet in a fit of laughter, and took off, running as fast as she could around the oval. Harry scowled playfully, and chased after her.
'I'm going to get you Caprice!' Harry yelled out to her. She turned her head to see Harry sprinting up on the inside lane of the tracks Caprice was running on. She burst out laughing and rolled over on the ground, where she lay and laughed some more. Harry caught up to her, and sprawled himself out next to her on the green grass of Princewald Elementary. Caprice sighed.
'We're probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this.' She said. Harry looked a bit surprised, he had never seen his friend be so serious.
'What? Don't you like having fun?' Harry teased with a large, goofy grin plastered over his face. Caprice tried to twist her leg around to playfully kick Harry, but she ended up in a tangled mess, and just laughed some more.
Harry got up, and helped his twisted friend to her feet.
'You know, you'd be very good at Twister.' Harry mused, seeing how flexible Caprice was. She grinned playfully.
'You'd be surprised Harry Potter!' She said, kicking his knee out so that his leg bent, and he fell flat on his face. She ran around Harry chanting: 'Harry fell on his face, Harry fell on his face.' In a sing-song, whiney tone of voice. Harry grabbed Caprice's leg and pulled her over, where she began giggling frantically.
~***~
Harry thought that day would never end, but Caprice and himself got off that time with a warning, and a phone call to their parents. Well, to Caprice's parents, and to the Dursleys. Harry didn't mind. He knew the Dursleys wouldn't care, as long as he did nothing abnormal. He wondered why they were so plain? So boring? Maybe it had something to do with his mother. Petunia never really did like her sister much. Perhaps Harry's mother was into some Celtic thing?
On their way home to Harry's house, Caprice tripped over and fell flat on her face, scraping her knee and elbows.
'Owwwwww!' Caprice wailed and started crying. Harry had never seen his best friend cry before, so he knelt down beside her and tried to calm her down.
'Come on Caprice, the Dursley's house is only a few more blocks away. I'll get those scrapes cleaned up nice and good.' Harry said, helping her to her feet.
The whole three blocks to the Dursleys house, Caprice was crying and sobbing over her injuries. Her elbows and knee were bleeding quite badly, as she had hit the cement pretty hard.
When they got to the Dursleys house, neither Vernon, Petunia or Dudley were home. Harry helped Caprice into the kitchen, so that they wouldn't have to go upstairs to the bathroom.
'Ouch ouch OUCH! It hurts! It hurts!' Caprice wailed, screwing her face up. Harry brought her leg up into the sink and poured cold water over her knee. Caprice screamed.
'Oh, please don't scream Caprice!' Harry said desperately. Caprice reduced her scream into small whimpers. 'Wait here, I'll be right back.' Harry said, and dashed out of the kitchen, up the stairs and into the bathroom. He returned to the kitchen carrying a large box of bandaids in his hand.
'Here, put all these on.' Harry said, handing Caprice some bandaids. Caprice looked at Harry strangely, but started putting bandaids on her knee. 'I'm just going to get the mail. The Dursleys will probably want me to.' Harry went out into the hall.
Lying on the ground, pushed through the slot, was a pile of letters. Harry picked up the pile, and flipped through them. Most letters were bills, or addressed to Vernon and Petunia, but at the bottom of the pile, there were three letters addressed to him. Harry Potter. He had letters! All three letters said the same thing:
Mr H. Potter
The Cupboard Under The Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelopes were thick and heave, each made out of a yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Harry turned one of the envelopes over, his hand shaking. He saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter "H".
It was at that moment, that Vernon burst through the front door. He took one look at Harry and the letters, went white, and snatched the three letters off Harry. Harry scowled.
'Give those back! They're my letters!' Harry said, trying to keep calm, however, it appeared Vernon Dursley had other plans for those letters. He pushed Harry back and went into the kitchen. Harry cringed waiting for the reaction. Sure enough, there was a loud bellow, and Harry heard Vernon scream.
'OUT! Get out of my house girl!' Harry watched as Caprice half ran half limped out the front door, waving a quick goodbye to Harry as she left.
'Bye Caprice.' Harry called after his friend, who was getting away from that house as quickly as possible. Petunia pushed past Harry as she walked into the house. Harry noticed her nose was in the air, and she was looking particularly snooty. Dudley was no where to be seen.
'Get in here boy and clean up my kitchen!' Vernon bellowed.
~***~
The next day at school, Caprice was sitting on the steps waiting for Harry in her usual spot. She looked rather bandaged, but was chirpy again, as she normally was. She watched as the Dursley's red car pulled up outside the school. Dudley and Harry got out of the car, and it drove off quickly.
Harry walked up the stairs and sat next to Caprice.
'Are you okay?' He asked his friend. She nodded happily. 'Sorry about the Dursleys.' Harry continued.
'It's okay! I don't like them anyway.' Caprice said. Harry quickly told her about the three letters which Vernon had stolen off Harry.
'Really? Why would he take your letters? I mean, weren't they addressed to you? How mean!' Caprice said, clearly outraged.
'Yeah.' Harry said sadly, he wanted to know what was in those three letters, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Vernon Dursley had burnt the letters right in front of Harry in the lounge room.
'I would have socked him one!' Caprice said, jumping to her feet and pretending to punch an invisible Dursley. Harry laughed at this.
'You versus Vernon Dursley, hmmm.' Harry said, pretending to think about who would win in that fight. 'In the red corner, we have the favourite, Caprice Jenkins! And in the blue corner, we have the dork, Vernon Dursley!' Harry said, and burst out laughing. Caprice joined him in laughter.
'My parents were so mad at me when I got home yesterday.' Caprice said. Harry looked at her strangely.
'Why?' He asked.
'Duh silly, because of what we did yesterday! You remember, the school called my parents and the Dursleys because we cut class?' Caprice said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
'Oh yeah.' Harry said, suddenly remembering his charade with Caprice the previous day, causing them to get in trouble.
'Come on Harry, let's go into class.' Caprice said, hearing the bell ring. 'If I get into any more trouble, I'll be grounded for a whole week!' She added.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
~* There's the second chapter! Sorry for the wait, but I kept getting sidetracked with this chapter. Oh and I don't think it's as long as the last one, but hey. Please review guys! *~
~Gryffindor Gal~