AN: Have no idea where this is going. Un-beta'd, so I hope my child-voice isn't too irritating.

Chapter 1: First Day of School

Dudley Dursley hated his new school. He hated having to spend hours and hours away from Mummy. He hated the kids on the school bus, who were bigger and louder than him, and laughed at him when he tried to tell him how awful they were. He hated Miss Allison, his teacher, who never did what he wanted and made him be quiet or sit in the corner and said that his stupid cousin Harry was just as special as him. He wasn't, Harry didn't even have his own lunch packed by his mummy, because he didn't have a mummy. Harry had to eat the lunch the school gave out to the dirty kids that Daddy said were dogs. (Actually, Vernon Dursley had said they were riff-raff, but Dudley thought that sounded like dogs barking.)

But most of all he hated Sam Smith, who giggled at him when he threatened him and said things that Dudley didn't understand and then said he'd called him stupid, but thought that maybe he was too stupid to understand even that. And then, to top it off, Sam had just sat down in front of Harry at the lunch tables – as if Harry were more interesting or better than him or anything like that at all!

Sam was eating his strawberry jam and banana sandwich – which had an extra layer of banana on top for some reason – eating primly for a six-year-old and staring at Harry silently. Harry, who was not used to anyone paying any sort of attention to him that wasn't yelling or hitting, stared just as silently back, looking a bit terrified and very confused.

Finally, after Sam had finished his sandwich, and apple, and most of the sparkly drink he had in his sipper, he pulled out a crinkly paper bag and opened it in Harry's direction.

"Jelly baby?"

Harry, who wasn't ready to stop the staring contest yet, didn't know what to say.

"My dad says you should give people Jelly babies if you want to be friends with them."

Harry shook his head, and looked over his shoulder before answering. "I don't eat babies. That's mean."

Sam kicked his chair. "They're not real babies, silly! It's candy! Take one."

Dudley thought that this was his chance to show Sam who was the stupid one here. He got out of his chair and marched over to Harry's table.

"Harry doesn't get candy," he told Sam.

Sam didn't look like he understood, and he did look like he was going to call Dudley stupid again, so Dudley tried again.

"I get candy. Harry doesn't." He said it as loud as he could so Sam would understand. Then to show him what he meant, he grabbed the bag of (what were they again, Jam Bies?) out of Harry's hand and shoved a bunch in his mouth.

Sam smiled at him, and Dudley smiled back: now Sam understood!

Then Sam turned around, and he suddenly looked more like he was going to cry than anything else.

"Miss Allison! Dudley took my Jelly Babies without a-asking!"

Later, laying on his cot in his cupboard, Harry tried to decide whether he liked going to school or not.

Sure, the time he'd actually spent at school had been some of the best times he could remember, but some other things had been scary. The big yellow school bus sounded like a hungry animal all ready to eat up any little boys it didn't like, and some big kids on the bus had yelled angrily the whole bus ride. And then they'd been dropped off on a big big lawn – much bigger than Aunt Petunia's – and everyone had run around yelling some more. Harry had tried to make himself invisible and find a small place to hide in until they went away, but people kept on finding him anyway. He even tried to climb up into a twisty red tube, but kids kept on coming down on top of him and yelling at him to move.

But then there was a big loud ringing sound like a giant telephone and most of the other kids ran inside the school. And then Miss Allison had come out and said Hi to everyone!

Harry liked Miss Allison. She called out all their names and told them to follow her and then they all went into the school and into their new classroom. Harry liked the classroom too: it had blue carpet and yellow tables and chairs, and really great pictures on the wall everywhere. Everything was clean and new and shiny, and Harry thought this would make it really easy for him to clean, but nobody even asked him to, so that was even better.

Then Miss Allison read them all a story, and Harry got to sit on the carpet in a circle with everyone else. Then Miss Allison gave them all, even Harry, a chocolate biscuit for a special first-day-of-school snack! Harry thought his new favourite food had to be chocolate biscuits. No wonder Dudley was always asking for some! Harry thought that if he was allowed, he would eat nothing but chocolate biscuits.

They spent the rest of the day colouring, which Harry enjoyed just as much, even when Miss Allison asked them all to write their name on their picture and he was the only one that didn't know how. He drew a lightning bolt like the scar on his forehead instead.

At lunch the really amazing thing happened. Harry was sitting alone at one corner of a table, not wanting to talk to anyone else. Miss Allison had scolded him for forgetting his lunch, but Aunt Petunia hadn't given him one, and then Miss Allison told him not to tell lies, and that he'd have to eat the school lunch, which he shouldn't do because that was only for little boys and girls whose parent's couldn't pack them a lunch and who were hungry a lot at home. Harry said that he went hungry a lot at home and Miss Allison said she would be cross if he kept on telling lies, so he just said okay and went to eat his school lunch alone. But then one of the other boys, called Sam, sat down beside him to eat lunch, and offer him some of his candy! And then Dudley got in trouble for stealing it, and had to go sit in the time-out corner. And Harry played with Sam for the rest of the day, and Sam showed him how to write his name when Miss Allison asked why he didn't know how.

Harry had been scared he was going to get in trouble again when Miss Allison held up his picture and asked who didn't write their name. He didn't want to say in front of the whole class, and have them all laugh at him, so he waited until everyone was playing and Miss Allison was sticking the pictures on the wall to go tell her which picture was his. But then Miss Allison hadn't been angry at all!

"Why didn't you say that you didn't know how to write your name, Harry? Lots of little boys and girls don't when they first come to school."

Harry hadn't known that. He had thought that maybe he wasn't smart enough for school since he was a freak like Aunt Petunia said. He didn't tell the teacher this, though, remembering lunchtime.

"Dunno," he said instead. He looked at the little potted plant on the window, tugged on his shirt, and wished Miss Allison would stop looking at him and say something.

"We're going to learn all our letters properly tomorrow, Harry. You'll fit in fine with everyone else then."

And then Sam had said "No, he won't," and Harry jumped because he didn't know anyone was behind him. And then he said that Harry would still be behind because everyone was moving forward in a li-neer manner and Harry had started behind everyone, like in a race, and other people like Sam had a head-start, but Harry had lost his shoe and couldn't find it to start running because the ground was muddy. So unless Harry ran really fast to catch up he'd always be behind.

But that was alright, Sam said before Miss Allison could say anything, because he'd teach Harry himself, since Miss Allison was apparently more interested in getting them all to scratch out meaningless doodles and waste the school's resources of construction paper than actually teaching them anything. And after he got back from sitting in the chair in corner Dudley had spent half of lunch time in, he did.

Harry thought Sam must be a child ge-ni-us like on the telly show Aunt Petunia had been watching last week, but then Sam said he was in such a way that Harry thought he really meant the opposite.

But then when Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon came to pick him and Dudley up for ice cream, (ice cream for Dudley, Harry usually stayed in the car when they went out for ice cream, and staged complicated battles between whatever action figures Dudley left behind in the back seat) Miss Allison asked them whether Harry had some sort of learning disability, since Dudley knew his letters and he didn't.

Aunt Petunia had said she often thought he might, but hadn't wanted to get him tested. But then Miss Allison showed them the pictures they had both drawn, and said that maybe Harry was a bit ah-tizzic, because he was clearly much more creative than Dudley. And after they left the school Uncle Vernon had knocked him on the head for drawing attention to himself and thinking he was better than Dudley. This reminded Dudley about lunchtime, and so Harry got put into his cupboard without supper.

So Harry didn't know if he liked school or not. But he thought he'd like to see Sam again.