September 6, 1988
For 8-year-old Harry Potter, the day started out like any other; he woke up to the sound of his aunt's shrill voice (which, for once, he was actually pleased about since he was having a terrible nightmare about a snake with red, gleaming eyes), he endured his uncle's gruff remarks about his appearance and attitude, he made breakfast for his "family" (even in his head, he used quotations because, in his opinion, it took more than blood relations to make a family), he ate the couple pieces of toast leftover from his aunt, uncle, and cousin's breakfast. Under the scrutiny his aunt, he made himself a small sandwich for lunch at school and a much larger, more extravagant lunch for Dudley, he cleaned the kitchen and dining area then dashed out the door to start his daily walk to school as Dudley climbed in the back seat of the car so Aunt Petunia could drive him.
As he walked slowly towards the school grounds mere blocks from Privet Drive, Harry was dwelling on the nightmare which he had had the night before. Harry remembered his nightmares vividly. They almost always contained an evil, red-eyed snake and killer beams of bright green light. This green light haunted his days, as well as his nights. He was probably the only child alive that jumped when stoplights turned green. He thought this must be from the traumatic events that made up his earliest memories. Memories of flashing green lights and the scream of a terrified woman; this was probably the car crash in which, his aunt and uncle told him, his parents died.
Usually, Harry attempted to arrive at school just as the bell called the students to class as to avoid a run-in with Dudley and his gang before school. However, because he was so wrapped up in the thoughts of his nightmare, he didn't pay enough attention to the speed at which he was walking and realized with a horrified jolt that he had arrived at the school early; what a way to start his third year at school. Quickly, he hurried to his usual hideaway; a place that he usually spent his recess as to avoid Dudley and his gang.
Over the past two years, Harry had hidden in many places around the school, but none were as special to him as the bushes near the edge of the school grounds. The bushes had become, like his cupboard, a safe place to hide from the world. Perhaps it was the fact that students and teachers alike avoided the area, which differentiated the bushes from the many other hiding places he used. He was just settling onto the ground when, in the distance, he spotted a boy, whom Harry didn't recognize, being chased by Dudley and his gang. Since he was clearly a new student this year, Harry wondered what the boy had done to anger Dudley in such a short period of time.
Dudley's gang was gaining on the dark-haired boy, but Harry noticed an easy escape, of which the newbie wouldn't be aware. So, Harry left the safety of his bushes to help the student; he had to respect anyone who could anger Dudley within half an hour at the most.
The boy was heading down the wall towards a corner, perhaps hoping that there would be a teacher on the opposite side; there was not. However there was a door, which was barely noticeable unless, like Harry, you noticed even the smallest of details. The door led to a small closet which, Harry supposed, used to contain the equipment used by students at recess; however since students started bringing their own games for recess, it was now empty but the faculty seemed to have forgotten that it wasn't locked or sealed shut.
Harry jumped inside quickly, leaving the door opened a crack so he could see the boy rounding the corner. When the new boy did fly around the corner, glancing over his shoulder as he went, Harry opened the door fully and yanked the child into the closet before quickly shutting the door before the others reached the corner.
The boy gave a startled yelp, but seemed to realize that Harry was trying to help him and stayed quiet to avoid being noticed by the boys outside.
For 6-year-old Reggie Black, today was a very special day; his first day of school! Today was the day that he got to join the older children as they streamed out of the orphanage on the way to school. Reggie loved to learn; the day Ms. Thomas taught all the younger children to read had been his favourite day spent at the orphanage (Of course, he preferred the days spent outside the orphanage. His favourite outing so far, had been to the zoo, where he got to see all sorts of awesome animals!)
In his excitement, Reggie was practically skipping as he helped himself to breakfast, cleaned his room, and readied himself for the day. The morning seemed to drag on, but finally it was time to leave. The older students found younger students to whom they would show the way to school. Reggie was partnered with a 8-year-old girl name Lisa, who had lost her parents in a car accident some three years previous and a 10-year old boy named George. Reggie noted that neither of his supervisors seemed nearly as excited about going to school as Reggie felt.
"School isn't as exciting after a couple years, believe me," George said in response to Reggie's questions on the subject.
Lisa however had a very different reason for dreading school, "There's this bully in my year named DudleyDursley. He's horrible!" Lisa cried with a shudder, "I love my summers away from him."
"Oh," Reggie replied, not knowing how else to respond; he had very little experience with bullies. The three walked in amicable silence the rest of the way to the school grounds. At the school grounds, George left them to find his friends, but Lisa offered to show him to his class.
With a smile, Lisa started leading him towards the school, "There are several doors leading into the school which you can use, but unofficially they're labeled primary, intermediate, and senior based on which age group's classes are closest to it. These doors are the intermediate doors, which are the doors I'm going to use this year," Lisa smiled proudly at her new, elevated status, "If you keep going that way and around the corner, the senior doors are that way but you want the primary doors this way. What teacher did you-" Lisa cut herself of with a gasp, "Oh no!"
"What?" questioned Reggie, looking around but not seeing anything unusual.
"Dursley and his gang are coming this way," she whimpered, "Let's go this way," she said grabbing Reggie's arm and pulling him in the opposite direction.
Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough, "Hey, Gladstone," a voice called, "Hey, Gladstone, why don't you seem glad to see us?" Reggie rolled his eyes as the gang laughed; that was supposed to be a joke?
With a sigh, Lisa stopped, studying her feet with way more concentration than one should have when looking at feet. Reggie really didn't like this boy; Lisa was nice!
"So, Gladstone, how was summer without parents?" The leader (Dursley, Reggie suspected) asked cruelly causing his gang to laugh again and Lisa to sniff sadly.
Something in Reggie snapped at Dursley's question; that was a horrible, awful thing to say! This boy was mean! Reggie decided he didn't like bullies at all! The big, blonde bully opened his mouth to say something more, but Reggie beat him to it; two could play this game, "Hey, Dursley, I have a question," Reggie pulled the attention away from Lisa onto himself, "Are you a bully to compensate for the fact that you look like a pig in a wig?"
That caused quite a stir in the group; Lisa gasped fearfully, Dursley blinked stupidly, and the rest of the gang took a surprised step backwards. Apparently, nobody had had the guts to stand up to the foul boy and his "friends" before. Dursley recovered pretty quickly considering he didn't look capable of stringing a sentence together, "What did you just say to me, midget?" he growled menacingly.
Reggie arranged his face into an apologetic expression, "Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," he gasped. The other boys visibly relaxed, thinking they'd won, "You probably don't understand English..I should say, 'Oink, oink'"
Dudley turned bright red and lunged violently at the smaller (though considering Dudley's size, that's not much of a feat) and younger boy, but Reggie had already darted off in the opposite direction. The other boys quickly followed; being that the boy was two years younger than them at an age when two years made a huge difference, they seemed like they would catch him easily, but Reggie had a plan. He would head toward the "senior doors" in hopes of finding an older student that wouldn't be afraid of Dursley's gang.
The plan was interrupted when Reggie rounded the first corner and someone grabbed his shirt and yanked him backwards. Thinking that the cruel boys had finally caught him, he let out a yelp, only to discover himself in a small, dark room. His saviour, a boy about Reggie's size, quickly slammed the door shut.
"Err..thanks, i-i think?" stuttered the younger boy, out of breath from his run and still a little confused at the change of events.
Harry smiled, laughing silently, "No worries, anybody who can piss off my cousin that quickly deserves saving. Harry Potter," he finished, stretching his hand in front of his body.
Instead of returning the handshake, Reggie stepped back a bit cautiously, "Your cousin?" he ask in a worried tone. He hoped the boy, Harry, wasn't going to hold him here until Dursley got here. though by the sounds of the confused, angry voices outside, he already had; perhaps Harry was waiting for the gang to catch their breath.
"Unfortunately," Harry grimaced, convincingly, "Don't worry, though, we don't get along. You can ask anybody. Everyone knows that I'm his favourite punching bag."
Perhaps it was the bitter tone Harry used that finally convinced Reggie of his saviour's sincerity, "Reggie Black," he introduced, reaching out to shake the hand of the bully's cousin.
The two dark-haired boys sat in silence for a while, waiting for the gang outside the door to disperse. Finally, Harry broke the unspoken agreement of quiet, "So," he asked in a casual tone, "May I ask what you did to rile up Dudley's gang in such a short period of time?"
Reggie looked over to the boy, nervous once more. "Err-" he started hesitantly. Would his saviour be insulted by his snide remark about his cousin? "I sorta asked him if he took to bullying people to compensate for the fact that he looks like a pig wearing a wig."
To Reggie's great surprise, Harry doubled over with laughter. By the time Harry was able to compose himself enough to speak, he had tears in his eyes. Wiping them away, he said, "You know, Reggie – I've often thought that myself."