Not much of an opener today, I just want to jump into the story. I do not own Harry Potter or Ed, Edd & Eddy. They are owned by J.K. Rowling, At&T and Warner Media.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

She wasn't used to the quiet. Normally she would be spending her time right now with one of her siblings or be in detention with them, but ever since Marie left things have been rather boring lately. Oh she still chased the Ed's on the weekends, even her new arrangement with Double-D hasn't changed that and there was a sort of serenity to just being at home and being able to watch what she wanted to watch on tv or read one of her mother's cookbooks but the silence had started to wear on her. She was laying on the couch, the silent buzz of reruns of Golden Girls playing on the TV behind her.

Lee's month long of detention had been extended. A derisive comment by some boy had resulted in another hospitalization and Lee was given detention everyday for the rest of the semester. She was also given a two week long in-school suspension on top of it and was prescribed weekly visits with the school counselor to deal with her anger issues. May snorted. 'They'd need to have her have daily meetings with a professional psychiatrist if they want even a hope of helping her control her temper.' She sat up and grabbed a tennis ball from her backpack, which she had left on the floor. She started tossing it into the air, catching it each time before it hit the ground.

'Wonder what Double-D's up to today? I think I heard Eddy say something about going to the junkyard after getting some screws from the hardware store.' It was strange being able to talk to one of the Ed's. While she was disappointed that it wasn't her Big Ed, it was still a marked improvement over what her relationship with them was a month ago. She had had four meetings with Double-D since their talk on the playground and she was shocked to find out how enjoyable it was. She wouldn't call him her friend yet, there was still too much distrust between them in order for that to happen, but she was glad that he was no longer her enemy.

'I should probably get this homework done. Lee isn't going to be home for at least another hour.' May dragged her backpack over to the kitchen table and opened up her books. She opened up her math textbook and started to struggle through seventh grade math. While she wasn't as smart as Marie, she was nearly a year younger than her and two years younger than Lee. As such in order to stay in the same year she had to stay on top of the class standings in order to advance a year so that they were in the same grade (Lee was born in October, so she had to be held back a year). But she didn't study very well, and as a student she was above average at best. Taking that test that placed gave her an exact 85% and put her in the 7th grade math curriculum was in her mind one of the worst things that happened to her, as she just couldn't get a handle on multiplying and dividing negative numbers. Vocab and grammar were also a struggle, as the letters continued to float off the page and arrange themselves into words that made no sense, and her understanding of perfect and imperfect tenses clashed with present and future tenses. The fact that she was having the same struggles in Italian just made everything stressful whenever she worked.

'What is 7 divided by -11? Great.' She pulled out her calculator. 'Freakin' decimals.' She typed in the number and wrote down '-0.63 repeated.' She sighed and laid her head on her arms. 'I wish Marie was here. She would've been able to get through these in a mature of minutes.' She looked over to the front door and stared at it for five minutes. 'I should see if Double-D is willing to tutor me. Hopefully he accepts.' She got up and when over to the cordless phone. She was just about to dial when she heard a tapping at the window.

She looked up and saw a familiar Great Gray Owl scratching at the latch with his talon. She opened the window and let the owl squeeze into the kitchen and land on the table. She reached over to him and started to stroke his plumage. "You must've flown a long way in order to get here." She then noticed that in his beak was a large envelope. She grabbed it and looked at the front. May. She recognized the handwriting, she had had Marie correct her study guides enough to know what Marie's stiff and blocky script looked like. The owl clicked it's beak irritably. "Oh right, let me get you some water." She filled a bowl with water from the sink and gave it to the owl, who hooted grately before taking several deep gulps. May then grabbed the envelope again and opened it with shaking hands.

Dear May,

I...uh...God I'm not used to this. I, well, I know you're probably wondering why I'm writing to you first and not to our mother or to all of you. Well, I just don't feel like I'm ready to write to her. I want to give myself more time to settle in before I send something to her. There's also this...problem that I need to bring up with her that I'm going to need some time to phrase properly. As for writing a letter to Lee, to be honest I don't think that I can talk about what I'm going to talk about with her. She just has this, stubborn belligerence shall we say, that would just make her angry and I don't want to deal with that right now when I'm already swamped with work and when I'm trying to deal with a few assholes that seem to just exist to try to piss me off. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Also, I feel that you're the best person I can talk to right now. I don't think I need to tell you why that is.

London was nice. I wasn't able to see much of it, but from what I saw it was alright. I spent most of my time at an inn called 'The Leaky Cauldron'. I know, sounds appetising, but the food there is actually pretty good. The bartender looks like Igor's bald cousin, he was pretty nice though, never looked down on me and actually treated me like a human being so that was pretty good. You'd probably like him.

I won't bore you with details about the wizard shopping district, I wouldn't be able to properly describe it without making this letter at least ten pages long. There is just so much to say about it that I feel that the only way to understand where I'm coming from is to actually show you. Yes, everything was that amazing. I even made an...acquaintance? A friend? I'm not really sure where I stand with her, not only because she has a level of stoicism and emotionlessness that would get Data a run for his money, but I also feel like I'm this curiosity to her, a specimen that she wants to study more than a person she wants to know. I don't even know why I enjoy seeing her, I just do. Have you ever felt that way? That you couldn't explain why you like something, it just is? Cause that's how I feel with her. Not that she doesn't have her qualities, she's intelligent, has a decent sense of humor and has a strong attitude, but she has the emotional range of a teaspoon and is always evaluating me! And then there's the way she looks. The platinum-blonde hair, icy blue eyes and her pale white skin just screams artificial. If it weren't for the fact that she could show some emotions, I would've thought that she was an android. Anyway, her name is Daphne Greengrass, and she's the heir to this wealthy noble wizard family (maybe that explains why she can't smile) and we only see each other sparingly from time to time. She was placed in a different dorm than I was and has a different schedule so I don't see her often.

Oh yeah, apparently when we get to school we are sorted into different houses based on our personality (I know, it's stupid) via a sentient hat that can read your god damn mind. I was placed in Gryffindor, the house of the brave and the bold, along with ten others, five girls and five boys. The girls...vary. Sally-Anne Peakes is more timid than that brace wearing boy that negotiated with us to kidnap the Ed's that one time. I dare say that she would prefer to have lived her whole life as a mute. I've been trying to reach out to her, but so far it has been slow going (I know, a Kanker trying to be nice to people and trying to put them at ease. Something must be wrong with the world if that's happening). Eliza Runcorn is very, very posh. Not arrogant, but extremely wealthy. I don't talk to her much outside of classes, but she's alright. It was rather funny watching her struggle to fold her clothes, though it did get kinda sad when she revealed that she didn't know what a laundry room is. Pavarti Patil and Lavender Brown are a bunch of conceited bitches that I hate. I don't want to talk about them and I'm currently planning a prank on them where I replace their shampoo with mayonnaise. I have some people on that getting the supplies. As for Hermione, I'll talk about her later, she's involved in something going on around here and I don't want to focus on that in bits and pieces. Either way, my living situation is fine, actually pretty good really. I have my own bed, so that's nice.

The boys are nice (No, not like that. I'm too young for that shit), if a little immature. Dean is an artist like me, though he's more of a traditionalist that I am. Really likes Baroque and Impressionist. He's also comes from a non magic family, so we have that in common as well. Seamus might be an arsonist in the making, and if not that than he causes a lot of explosions by accident. Very Irish, I'm thinking of getting him either a six pack of Guinness of a six pack of Smithecks for his birthday. The other three were also involved in what's going on as well so they come later. Just know that I like all three of them. Not sure if I like them enough to be friends though, give me a little time before I come to a decision on that.

The teachers are mostly good, but I have grips on three of them. The most inoffensive is Professor Binns, the History of Magic Professor. He is a ghost. That is literally the only interesting thing about him. He is as emotional as a rock and as informative as a Wikipedia page after a troll edited it. Everyone just spends the class sleeping because his voice is like auditory Prozac. If I wasn't convinced that he was just ignorant of what's going on around him, I would say that he loves the sound of his own damn voice. Why though? He sounds like a disconnected phone. But at least I can understand him, unlike Professor Quirrell, my Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He's is a wuss. Everything he says is done in a terrified stutter that makes me want to punch him in the face. I can't understand anything he's saying in his class and I'm sick of smelling freaking garlic all the time! I thought I'd be learning about how to fight monsters, not finding the limits of my patience! Speaking of patience!

May winced as she turned the page and saw that the following page, back and front, was filled with a curse filled rant about how much she hated her potions professor, some unpleasant jerkwad name Snape. She saw that the rant continued on the next page as well. 'Jeez, this is like the time I read her diary entry and saw her curse filled essay on Nazz after the end of the year dance.' She saw that the first two paragraphs were about his hair and his nose. 'Nope, it's worse.' She scanned the next three pages and saw they were about the guy. 'Let's see, guy looks like an overhanged bat, bullies kids for no reason, voice that sounds like Hans Gruber, okay. What else, oh.' May covered her mouth as she snorted into her hands. "God Marie," she chuckled. "You always were the one that came up with the more creative pranks." She wiped a tear from her eye before turning back to the letter, which had finally stopped yammering on about Snape.

Sorry, I just needed to vent there. Other than that, things are alright. Food's good, even if it lacks variety, and the place is very interesting to walk around (even if it's just for the moving staircases that always seem to dump me on the wrong side of the first floor) and there are so many paintings that are enjoyable to look at (just wish the occupants would stop leaving the frame!).

However, it's not safe. At the end of the start of term feast, the headmaster Professor Dumbledore told us that the corridor on the right side of the third floor was out of bounds, for all those, and I quote, 'not desiring some painful death.' I've recently learned why that is. It started innocently enough when two of my classmates, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, got into a pissing contest with some asshole named Draco Malfoy (no, I don't know which of his parents hated him enough to name him 'Draco') that ended up with them involved in a duel that was to take place at midnight. I went with them because someone needed to watch out for them and Hermione and Neville had to go with us because they were locked out of Gryffindor tower (Why? Because our entrance is a sentient portrait that regularly leaves in order to get drunk. Don't ask me how they can do that.). So we ended up at the trophy room, where the duel was to take place. Surprise, surprise, Malfoy had actually planned to get us in trouble for being outside after curfew and had sold us out to the school caretaker, Filch.

Now I knew something like this was bound to happen and I told both Ron and Harry this before they left but Harry, well I can understand why he did it. He's come from a bad home, he was always bullied in school and he felt the need to stand up to another bully now that he had friends that would actually support him. I agree with the motive, but I don't agree with the method. Malfoy is a smarmy, egotistical, arrogant, and more than anything, cowardly. He is just the kind of person you want to punch in the face when you wake up in the morning and kick in the balls at night before you go to bed. There was no way that he would actually honor a duel that would cause him to dirty his hands. But no, Harry didn't want to lose face in front of Malfoy. Uh, boys can be so stupid.

So Filch chases after us throughout the castle and we eventually and unknowingly ended up on the third floor by the forbidden corridor. Desperate for a place to hide, we unlock a door at the end of the hall and slipped through before he saw us. He left in a different direction and all was well. That's when we saw the giant three headed dog. Yes, Cerburus exists and apparently he had children. Naturally we tore out of there before he could eat us.

Now, I was too busy staring at his heads to pay attention, but Hermione noticed that the dog was standing on a trap door. She said that he was guarding something, what I don't know. At first, I didn't pay attention to her because she's bossy, a know-it-all, has an annoying voice and she believes that getting expelled for being found out of bounds is worse than getting killed (May had to blink at that. 'Seriously, not even Double-D likes school that much.'), but Harry told was. The next morning he told Ron and I about his first trip to Diagon Alley (the wizard shopping district in London) and to Gringotts (the wizard bank) with Hagrid, the school groundskeeper. Harry's an orphan that knew nothing about the wizarding world (his parents were murdered when he was young and his relatives wanted nothing to do with him), so Hagrid was assigned the task of helping him integrate. During the trip to the bank, Hagrid emptied out a vault that he'd been told to empty by the headmaster. It wasn't much, according to Harry, just a small package two inches big, but someone wanted it. Enough to break into the bank and try to steal from the goblins (oh, did I forget to mention, we have goblins. And they control all of our money. I don't know how to feel about this.). They weren't caught, so whoever wants it is still out there. Harry mentioned to Ron and I that Hagrid had told him that there was no place safer for protecting something than Gringotts, ''cept perhaps Hogwarts.' Considering that dog, I'm inclined to believe him.

That's the main reason I'm writing this. After my near brush with death, I felt that I couldn't hold on to most of my anger (not all of it. Lee is still a complete and utter ass for how she's been acting before I left) and I should be more forgiving. I know that you realized that your behavior was unwarranted but you don't need to apologize. You're ten, I would be surprised if you didn't have some irrational fear of what's going on. I'll try to write more, but don't expect a lot of owls, they take too long to cross the atlantic most of the time anyway (I think that this thing is two weeks late. I sent this out in the middle of September.) (May looked at the calender and saw the date. October 2nd, 2007.), but I'll try to send an owl every other week to let you know how I am.

The rest of the letter was spent discussing her friends, from Harry's determination and selflessness to Ron's brilliance at chess and very little else. She wrote about an incident she had had with her best friend Neville that had resulted in a broken clavicle and how the incident with the cerberus had allowed them to reconcile (she was both jealous that Marie was learning how to fly and slightly bitter. 'Marie is my best friend.') and she complained about having to deal with an uptight mini adult in the form of Hermione Granger. She talked about her other classes and her other teachers, the food and the castle grounds before she reached her conclusion.

In spite of all of this, I miss you. I miss all of you. Maybe it's because the allure has worn off a little, maybe it's because 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' might actually be a real phenomenon. But I can't help but feel that there some aspect of home that I miss. There's no music to listen to here. The only thing that will play anything here is a steroephone and nobody here has vinyl. Ipods don't work due to the magic of the wards being too powerful and I miss tv. Is Dexter still good? Has Cartoon Network let us back on the air or are they still focusing on that Johnny Test shit? Or are there other things that are actually good on right now? And when is that writer going to stop playing Dragon Age and start to actually focus on writing this story, I mean come on, this isn't spending six months to write his fifteen page thesis paper, this is actually something that he can enjoy doing. No wonder he's always late.

Sorry, lost my train of thought. Anyway, because the school is up in the Scottish highlands, there's just a bunch of pine trees. I miss the fall. Remember when we would jump in those leaf piles along the banks of the creek? When the sun would catch the warm patterns of red, gold and orange and the smell of cider from Rolf's distillery would waff over the cool breeze as we plotted to steal a keg. There's nothing like that here. It's alright now, but I know that it will be cold and dreary soon. It's getting darker later and later as well, and staying darker for longer. I wouldn't be surprised if school started before the sun was in the sky and ended long after it went down once winter comes. The cold water off the North Sea comes in from the Black Lake every day, which makes it difficult to stay out long. I'm trying to send you some paintings of the place at different times of the year so you can see what it's like, so I apologize in advance if they aren't very good.

I hope things are going well for you back home. MAKE SURE THAT MY OVENMITT DOESN'T FORGET ABOUT ME OR I WILL WRING YOUR NECK!

Sincerely, Marie

May folded up the letter and placed it down on the table. She contemplated what to do with it. She couldn't keep it here, Lee would throw a fit if she saw it and Mom would likely fall into a deep depression if she saw it. Still, she didn't want to destroy it. She sat down, her hand clasping her closed eyes. A thought came to her like a slimy and strong thendral from the shadowy depths, grasping hard to her brain and refusing to let go. She quickly tore a page from her note book, wrote a quick note in case Lee came home and set off, the letter tucked under her armpit.

'She's right, it is pretty good out here.' As it was early October the trees had yet to start turning color completely, but the cool breeze from the shores of Lake Superior were giving a nice chill to the afternoon air. The temperature was in the low sixties, giving a nice chill, but May had been able to wear her standard grey shirt and red shorts in even colder weather than this. As she walked through the woods that lead to the back lane, she took the time to enjoy the light rustling of the leaves as the wind darted between them and the piercing glow of the late afternoon sun shining down onto the forest floor that crunched below her feet. The smell of cider hadn't yet came to the air, as Rolf wouldn't make the cider for another two weeks, but the crisp air still had this palpable energy to it, the kind that invigorates you as you walk through the countryside or down a bustling street of a small city. It makes you feel alive, it makes you feel like no matter what, nothing will ruin your day.

May walked down the dirt alley, making sure to avoid the ever present puddles that never seemed to disappear, even after many sunny days. She looked around cautiously. She knew she wasn't welcome in the neighborhood, but that wasn't the main reason she was making sure she wasn't seen going to her destination. She observed the Cul-de-Sac, quickly discarding just crossing the street. Kevin was busy running post routes with Rolf, as both had made the junior varsity team, and Nazz was practicing some cheering moves nearby. Jimmy and Sarah were having a tea party in front of Sarah's garage and Johnny, well she didn't know what Johnny was doing. It looked like he was having a staring contest with that piece of wood he carried everywhere, but for all she knew he could've had a stroke and nobody would've noticed. She crept around the houses, carefully darting between and the bushes as quickly as she could go. She had to pause for a motion outside of Eddy's house as he flitted across his bedroom, dancing to some music in white, skin tight John Travolta suit. As she passed his window, she caught the horror that he was listening to.

'Seriously? This guy listens to Disco Duck? Lee, what the hell do you see in this guy?' Shaking her head in disgust, she quickly moved around the Cul-de-Sac. At last, she reached her destination and slightly slid to the back door. She knock once, then three times more. No one responded and not wanting the kids in the street to hear her, so opened the thankfully unlocked door and slipped inside. She silently closed the back door. "Hello? Double-D, are you here?" She called as she wandered through his kitchen, making sure that she was unable to be seen through the giant window of Double-D's living room. She heard a small yelp come from the upper floor, followed by a frantic scramble down the stairs before Double-D stumbled into the kitchen, his hands covered in blue pencil chalk.

"May, what are you doing here? Don't you know it's impolite to invade another person's denison's without permission?" he chastised. May rolled her eyes. "I knocked on the door, it's not my fault you didn't hear it." she replied as she sat down and threw her feet on top of the kitchen table. Double-D grimaced at the bits of mud that fell onto the table. "As much as that is an explanation to why you're in here and that it is my fault for not hearing your knocks, that still doesn't explain why you're here." May removed the letter from under her arm and tossed the envelope on the table. "I need you to hide this." Double-D, curious, picked up the envelope and scanned the front. "A letter?" "Yes, I need you to hide this for a bit. Marie doesn't want anyone to know about this letter and I figured the best place to hide it is with the person least likely to care about what's in it." Double-D quirked his eyebrow. "Fair point, but do you really intend to sneak into my house everytime you need to hide a letter?" "Like I said." May explained as she took the envelope and started up the stairs. "This is only temporary. As soon as Marie gives me the go ahead or as soon as she actually writes a letter to Mom or Lee, I'll show it to Mom." She emerged onto the landing, Double-D hurrying after her. "Now, where can I hide this without anybody finding it?" Double-D thought carefully, weighing the pros and cons of something important judging by his conflicted face, before gesturing toward a door on the far left of the hall.

"We can hide it in here." He opened up the door to reveal a large room with two twin sized beds with scarlet red bed sheets and painted lavender walls. The floor was chestnut wood with two rugs on it, a rectangular cream orange one between the beds and a patchwork blue elliptical rug in front of the beds. "The guest room? Wouldn't my Big Ed or Eddy be able to find it by accident?" Double-D eyes grew down cast and a dark cloud hung over him. "This isn't the guest room." He answered sorrowfully. May winced. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean…" Double-D stopped her by raising his hand. "It's fine, you didn't know." He led her over to a large dark brown armour. "This is my father's junk drawer." he said as he opened up the top left drawer and showed a bunch of disconnected chips, mother boards and wires. "He isn't home much as he works abroad most of the time, but he likes to take apart broken machines and collect the parts that still work. I tend to take these for some of my creations for Eddy's scams." He then takes the envelope and hides it under a pile of LCD bulbs and converters.

"There, will there be more in the future?" "Most likely. Marie may not look like it, but she can hold a grudge like no other. She still hates that blonde you danced with." Double-D looked shocked. "Why, it's been five months since the school dance." May shrugged. "Runs in the family I guess. I know that Marie's grandparents disowned her father over differing political opinions and never forgave him. Wouldn't be surprised if they didn't forgive him even on their deathbeds." The two of them left the room.

"Are you interested in getting something to drink? I don't like to seem like I am disrespectful host." Double-D asked as they walked down the stairs. "No thanks, I need to leave before Lee gets home. She's been really grumpy the last few days." She stopped at the bottom and whispered conspicuously into his ear. "I think the detentions are starting to get to her." The two moved back into the kitchen. "Besides, I need to get back to working on my homework. If I don't finish my math equations by this evening I'll never be able to do that essay about When Will Come Soft Rains before tomorrow." She reached for the handle. "Are you having trouble with it?" Double-D asked politely. "Yeah. Marie used to help me with math. She could do the equations in her head in five seconds, all without having to write it down." She sighed, her hand grasped around the handle. "She used to help me with my homework all the time. Didn't matter how difficult or simple it was, she just did it, sometimes without me asking. She would just see me struggling and she'd just barge in and grab the book and show what I was doing wrong. Heh, used to annoy me all the time. Now that she's gone, I've been struggling to get through most of it." Double-D was intrigued. "Why's that?" May blushed as she opened the door. "I have problems reading. I actually didn't learn to read until I was six and I still struggle to read today. The letters just, don't make sense. And when I try to read it out loud, I keep mispronouncing simple words wrong." A tear rolled down her face. "Lee used to pick on me all the time for that until Mom stopped her."

Double-D looked at her with sympathy. "May, I think you have dyslexia." At her questioning look, he clarified. "It's a reading disorder where a person finds it difficult to identify pronunciation patterns and spelling. Let me ask you, have letters seemed to reverse themselves or words appeared backwards?" May's deer in the headlights look confirmed his suspicions. "How about this? You need help with your homework because of your disability and you need a way to transport letters when they arrive for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I would like to offer my services as a tutor for the next, oh three or so years. We can discuss extensions if you wish at any time in the future." May was so astonished by his selflessness that she could only nod dumbly. "Excellent, I'll see you on Monday," Double-D said as he lightly shoved her out the door. He then turned around and headed back inside. "Oh," he turned around as he grasped the door to close it. "Do try not to cause any problems if Ed or Eddy comes over. I'll try to placate them by saying that the principal assigned me to tutor you, but if you try to captivate Ed with your...misguided attempts of flirting, I will have to ask you to wait till evening for our sessions. Good day." He then slammed the door, leaving both a confused and conflicted Kanker staring at the barrier that Double-D had unwittingly erected.