On a normal Saturday morning, most mothers would take their children shopping and most fathers would speed off to work (to get there as quickly as they could so they can come home early!). The Dursleys were no exception. Every Saturday, by nine o'clock, Petunia, Dudley and Harry would head down the road to Sainsburys, and Vernon would get in his big, expensive car and drive to work.
On this particular Saturday, at this particular time, Miss Wooter was also in this particular branch of this particular shop. As Mrs Dursley's shopping trolley went round the corner between the frozen food ant the refrigerated food, Harry saw his oldteacher. As I'm sure you know, it is not every boy's wish to be spotted in the supermarket by his teacher. The young boy remembered all those times when no-one would notice him, just because he didn't want to be noticed – so he starting wishing!
"Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me." He repeated the expression over and over again in his head, and before long, Miss Wooter approached the family group, and then amazingly, she just passed on by them without stopping or giving Harry a second glance. Apparently, she didn't bother Aunt Petunia unless he was there to give a spark to the fuel! When he stopped the mantra, Aunt Petunia snapped at him for walking off, and Harry realised he had done it! He had somehow made himself invisible and then visible again!
When the 'family' got home, Harry helped to unload all the heavy bags of shopping for his aunt. As soon as that unpleasant task had been completed, Petunia gave her nephew a sandwich and a small glass of lukewarm water. When the boy had finished his lunch, he was sent to his cupboard to sit quietly and pretend he didn't exist and it was there he repeated the mantra.
"Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me. Please don't notice me." He whispered it over and over as quietly as he possibly could, and soon, the youngster noticed a tiny change in his appearance. After the chant had been repeated enough, his skin blended in with the background! Harry couldn't tell if he was invisible or just camouflaged, but whatever he did, the boy vowed to do again – every time Dudley or his gang caught up with him.
Of course, as with the best-laid plans, the theory didn't really work the whole time and he still ended up bruised from 'Harry Hunting' games all year round. He could only get away using invisibility when he could turn a corner before the other boys caught up – even an eight-year-old boy knew that only he should know about his extraordinary powers.
Harry groaned (quietly) and got out of his moth-eaten bed. It was Monday morning and on Friday afternoon, Dudley had stolen his homework, shredded it, scrunched it up, spat on it and then thrown it away in the big dustbins outside. Harry had only just finished it too!
Oh the joys of year five.
He had never got homework before, but now the teachers said his class had to start preparing for the S.A.T.s in May next school year. Instead of the occasional set of spellings to learn, he now had to do a reading exercises once a week, do a maths and science sheet each week-end, and occasionally write a story over two weeks!
Harry groaned once more, turned on the light and began to get dressed. But wait… there on the floor…what was that? Harry picked it up and looked at the paper carefully. Hang on a minute. He turned it over and gasped, his jaw dropping like an anchor. It was his homework!
From that day onwards, Harry decided he didn't really care what Dudley did to his homework – after all, it kept reappearing, so what did it matter? Every time Dudley 'ruined' Harry's work, it would reappear the next day on the floor, by his bed in his cupboard. Sometimes it would even be in better condition than it was before Dudley got hold of it – less crossings out etc. It was like magic or something!
Because the Dursley's hated anything out of the ordinary, Harry never told them the real reason he always had homework to hand in, even when they watched their son destroy it. He just said that he had re-done the work, and Uncle Vernon would always laugh at that point.
S.A.T.s are tests that English children do in May time ish at the end of year 2, 6 and 9 (Harry's age's: 6, 10 and 13). In this part, Harry is 9, nearly 10 so is in year five. The kids are tested on Maths, English and Science, or were when I was that old. I'm not sure if they were around in this story's time frame, and I think that now they have to be tested on IT (computers). Like I said, I'm not sure.