Disclaimer: If I owned either Black brother, they'd still be alive and living in my basement. Mwahahaha.
It wasn't long before Harry and Reggie were inseparable. They were rarely seen apart from one another during break at school. Unless, of course, one of them was being chased by Dudley's gang like Harry was at the moment.
Harry looked over his shoulder; Dudley's gang was falling behind but he knew he wouldn't be able to keep running for long. Reggie was running at him from the opposite direction. If I could just get to the bins outside the kitchen, he thought, they could offer us some protection. The bins weren't far in front of him now. Harry leapt, hoping the momentum would take him behind the bins. It didn't. Instead, Harry kept going. He finally landed, miraculously, on the roof.
"What the-" Harry gasped, looking over the edge. He was going to be in so much trouble! Nobody ever believed him when crazy stuff like this happened. Dudley and his gang stopped, stunned at the new development, then turned and fled, obviously scared of whatever force caused their would-be victim to end up on the roof. Reggie was equally stunned, standing at the base of the building staring up at his friend, "What in the world was that?" he demanded.
Harry shrugged, his mind still reeling from his flight, "I think the wind must have caught me mid-jump," that was the most logical explanation that he could come up with.
Reggie however did not agree, "Come off it, mate. Scrawny little thing, you may be, but it's not that windy," he yelled up at his older friend.
Their yelling was starting to attract attention from others around them, including, unfortunately, the schoolyard supervisor, "Dear God, boy!" she shrieked, panic lacing her tone, "What in the world are you doing up there? It's dangerous!"
"I didn't mean to, ma'am. I swear. I just ended up, up here. I don't—I don't know what happened," Harry cried fearfully.
Harry's claims of innocence did nothing to stop the ensuing lecture or the Principal's angry letter sent home to the Dursley's.
"They're going to kill me," he moaned to Reggie as they were leaving the school, "They hate when something strange occurs around me! I always get sent to my cupboard."
The solution to Reggie was obvious, "So don't tell them."
Harry, having not been properly socialized with other children, did not understand Reggie's advice, "But I have to get my note signed," he stated.
Reggie rolled his eyes, "Yes, but what does the note say? It says you were climbing the walls. Not that you were doing anything that can't be explained. So tell them we were climbing the school walls."
"You mean lie?" Harry asked, startled.
"The older guys at the orphanage do it all the time," Reggie shrugged
Harry's mind exploded with possibility, "YES! How did I not think of that? That's the best idea I've ever heard! Thanks, mate!" Harry cried happily.
Harry was still skipping when the two parted ways; Harry to his aunt and uncle's house and Reggie to the place that both boys considered home.
Facing Uncle Vernon's purple face, Harry's excitement was quickly fading and dread was replacing it. It was hard to keep courage when confronted by his Uncle's ugly, purple face, "HOW DARE YOU DO SOMETHING SO FREAKY WHEN YOUR AUNT AND I HAD THE DECENCY TO TAKE YOU IN OFF THE STREET AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGEMENT! WE SHOULD HAVE JUST SENT YOU STRAIGHT TO THE ORPHANAGE!"
Harry had to bite his tongue to resist pointing out that he preferred the people at the orphanage over those on Privet Drive. Instead he took a deep, calming breath and hoped that his uncle wouldn't be able see through his lie, "I don't understand what was so freaky about climbing the school walls. Reggie told me that he didn't think I'd manage and I wanted to prove him wrong!"
This statement threw Uncle Vernon off his rant, "You were climbing the walls?" he asked in confusion.
Harry bit back a relieved smirk, "Obviously, Uncle Vernon. How did you think I got up on the roof? We were just having a bit of fun, I swear."
Uncle Vernon looked taken aback; Harry knew the suggestion that he was the one seeing unexplainable things where none existed confused him. Harry watched his uncle study the letter for a few more moments before, he started yelling again, "WELL, YOU SHOULD BEHAVE BOY! GET TO YOUR CUPBOARD UNTIL IT'S TIME TO MAKE US DINNER, YOU DELINQUENT!"
Harry hurried to his cupboard, unwilling to give his uncle time to change his mind; this was the lightest punishment he had ever received after one of these unexplainable events. He was even going to be allowed out of the space today! Harry had to admit that, for a six-year-old, Reggie was pretty much a genius.
Days later, Harry visited Reggie at the orphanage for the first time, "This is an orphanage?" staring around him in amazement.
To most children, the orphanage was a step down from home, but Harry wasn't most children. To him the orphanage was a palace compared to the Dursley's. Sure, the walls were a little bland, and the toys in the playroom were used and, in some cases, starting to fall apart, but they were cherished and shared among all the children. The caretakers were all smiling at the laughing children despite the noise they were making, and the rooms, although shared by 2 or 3 people, allowed for much more space than his cupboard.
"It's not much," Reggie mumbled shyly, misunderstanding Harry's exclamation.
"Are you kidding? It's amazing! Are we allowed to play with the toys?" Harry chattered, his eyes sparkling with joy.
Reggie laughed at his friend's excitement, "Of course, what else would we do with them?"
Two hours later, Harry was still enjoying the first time, in his memory, he ever had toys with which to play, "Reggie," he laughed, "Motorbikes don't fly!"
"What fun is life without a little creativity?" Reggie retorted, "Plus, neither do boys, but you did it on Tuesday!"
"I didn't fly, I just-" Harry trailed off,
"You did so!" Reggie interrupted Harry's regular excuse, "I'm the same size as you and the wind didn't even push me, so it didn't do anything to you!"
"But Uncle Vernon says that magic doesn't exist."
"Yeah, well your Uncle's a meanie-pants!" Reggie pouted, "Plus, you said that he doesn't like anything out the ordinary, so maybe he just doesn't want it to exist."
Harry looked into his best friend's hopeful eyes, "Well-" he hesitated, "It...it would be pretty cool if we could fly."
"YES!" Reggie yelped, jumping up in excitement at his older friend's submission, garnering the attention of the other kids in the room, "Tomorrow we are going to figure out how to fly!"
The next day, Harry and Reggie spent the entire day at the park. Their attempts at flying were not working as well as they had hoped. They started they started running and jumping as Harry had done earlier in the week; then when that didn't work, they climbed to the lowest branches of the nearest tree and jumped, which led to several bruises but no flying.
They had been at it for almost four hours before Reggie lost patience with their lack of success, "Fine! Maybe people can't fly!" he admitted, tears forming in his eyes from the broken dream.
Harry could not remember believing in magic; it was one of the many things his so-called 'family' stole from him. There was no way that he was going to allow the same belief be stolen from his first and only friend, "No, we can. Remember, I did. We just have to work at it. Maybe...maybe..."
Harry trailed off; he didn't actually know if people could fly, but he was sure going to find out, "We're not focusing enough. When I landed on the roof, I was focusing completely on getting away from Dudley and them, we just have to remake that focus."
"That's true," Reggie muttered uncertainly.
Harry was still considering this when his attention was caught by another group of children 'flying', "Look!" Harry exclaimed, pointing at some older boys on the swings who were jumping off at mid-height and landing hard on the ground.
Reggie looked over at the boys as well. He didn't say anything but Harry could see a complete turnabout in his body posture.
"I'm going to fly again. You in?" Harry grinned, running towards the only available swing. This morning when he left for the park, he would have had to admit that he thought flying was impossible despite his young friend's excitement. But now, he was going to fly, whether it was possible or not. The Dursleys had took his childish innocence, there was no way Reggie's was going to be taken from him by anything.
Playing on the swings was the only fun his 'family' ever allowed Harry to have, mostly because Dudley thought playing on the swings was lame. Of course, Dudley found all games that did not involve punching anyone in the face to be lame. His expertise was not able to ease his nervousness about jumping off the swings at such a height but his determination to wipe the defeated expression off of Reggie's face was.
He forgot his own nervousness and focused solely on the path he had to take in order to keep that awful demeanour of heartbreak far, far away from his good friend. He took one last deep breath just before reaching the top and leapt. As focused as he was on his flight, he didn't even notice the shrieks of fear that came from the mothers sitting by the playground or the gasps of amazement which came from the other boys sitting on the swings. What he did notice was the thrill and sense of completeness he felt during the flight. It was intoxicating; it was addictive.
He was not pulled from his flying high until Reggie's voice broke through the clouds in his mind after he had landed ten metres from the swing set, "You flew! You flew! You flew!" Reggie repeated jumping up and down around Harry.
Harry, himself, was too stunned to join his friend. Just this morning he would have scoffed at anyone who said he could fly off a swing and land 10 metres away...because he believed the Dursleys when they told him magic didn't exist. Had they been wrong, or were they lying? When he voiced these concerns to a still excited Reggie after almost half an hour of brooding.
The answer was almost immediate, "They were lying. I heard some of the older girls talking last night. They said that they knew that one of them liked a guy at school because," Reggie paused trying to remember properly and spoke slowly trying to get it right, "the lady...doth...protest too much. I think that means that if the Dursleys hadn't known about this then they wouldn't have been so insistent that it doesn't exist. I mean the leaders at the orphanage don't believe in magic, but they let us believe what we want."
Harry thought that Reggie's logic was infallible. Why did the Dursleys ban even the word 'magic' from their house? Were his parents magical? Was that what made them so 'freaky'? Because Harry didn't mind being a so-called 'freak' if it meant that he could do magic. Were his parents worthless drunks, as well as magical? Or was that just a story that the Dursleys made up to keep Harry from asking questions?
And thus begun Harry's silent rebellion.
A/N: Thanks for sticking with me. I know it's been forever since I updated but I realized that I had no outline whatsoever, so I started one of those then started outlines for three new stories and then remembered I had to finish this chapter. I have somewhat of an idea of where I'm going with this now so yay for that.