Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns her characters and I own mine.

Harry was asleep in his bed in the cupboard under the stairs, but not for long. Soon his aunt's sharp rapping on the door woke him up.

"Up! Up! Get up! I want to see you in the kitchen helping with pancakes in five minutes!"

Harry groaned and rolled over. He had been having this great dream about a white haired man with glasses who was teaching him to grow a long beard. He wanted to go back to sleep and keep dreaming, but he was afraid that Aunt Petunia would come back and yell at him again, so he got up and put on his broken glasses. He got dressed quickly and headed to the kitchen where he could smell the bacon Aunt Petunia had started to cook.

"The griddle's hot," she told him. He nodded wordlessly and began dishing out pancake batter. Not long after, the smell of frying bacon got Dudley up and he wandered into the kitchen.

"Morning darling," Aunt Petunia said giving him a big kiss on the head. "How did you sleep?"

Dudley shrugged and sat down at the table where he began piling food onto his plate. Uncle Vernon came in and sat down and Aunt Petunia brought him his newspaper. Harry poured everyone a glass of orange juice and they all sat down. Uncle Vernon unfolded the newspaper and disappeared behind it and Dudley began wolfing down bacon. Harry settled for a few pancakes instead and poured a generous amount of syrup on them. Aunt Petunia eyed his plate angrily and he put the syrup back with a very small, "sorry."

After breakfast Harry quickly washed and dried the dishes before Aunt Petunia shepherded him and Dudley into the car for school. They were running late and they had only just made it into their seats when the bell rang.

"Good morning class," Miss Anderson greeted them cheerily. "How was everyone's weekend?"

"Good," the class droned together. Veronica raised her hand.

"Miss Anderson I went to petting zoo this weekend and got to a feed chickens!" She exclaimed. Miss Anderson smiled at her.

"That sounds like a lot of fun Veronica."

"It was! And there was this goat and I got to pet it and it at corn right out of my hand. My brother told me that it would eat my fingers off but it didn't and then we all got apple cider."

"My Uncle has a farm with goats." Sophie interjected excitedly. "One time one of his goats had babies and I got to hold it and feed it a bottle of warm milk."

"Why does she always have to one up me?" Veronica muttered angrily. "No one cares about your stupid Uncle and his stupid baby goats."

"Shhh," Elena hissed. "Don't be a jerk."

"My brother came home from University for the weekend so I got to hang out with him. That's what I did this weekend" Seth said raising his hand.

"That's nice," Miss Anderson said. "What's he studying?"

"He wants to be an engineer."

"Well I'm glad you got to visit with him. Did anyone else do anything?

The kids all had great answers. They went to carnivals, birthday parties, on picnics, out to dinner at fancy restaurants, and all sorts of exciting places. Everyone had a story to share.

"Harry you've been awfully silent." Miss Anderson observed. "What did you do this weekend?"

Harry looked up, startled. He had spent the weekend cleaning out the fireplaces and scrubbing the bathroom but he wasn't about to tell the class that.

"Um," he stuttered, "nothing interesting." Miss Anderson looked at him sadly for a minute and he wished he had had something to say. He wished he had parents that took him to petting zoos like Veronica's parents or an older brother to come visit like Seth. He wished he could go on vacation over the summer and come back full of stories about swimming with dolphins and seeing coral reefs. He wished that he could have birthday parties with cake and presents and clowns that twist you balloons into any shape you want. He wished he could have real clothes, real glasses, and real parents. He wished he could have a real childhood. He looked down at his desk so that he could stop making eye contact with Miss Anderson.

"Maybe next weekend then," Miss Anderson responded to his silence. Veronica waved her hand in the air again.

"Yes Veronica?"

"Miss Anderson what did you do this weekend?" She asked. The whole class suddenly looked a lot more interested.

"What did I do this weekend?" Miss Anderson mused. "Well I graded your tests,"

"That's boring," Gordon muttered.

"And I got coffee with a friend and helped him fill out a job application."

"Him?" Veronica asked, excited. "Was it like, a date?" Miss Anderson shook her head and laughed.

"No Veronica it was just coffee."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. He works at the school now so I guess it was strictly professional."

"Oh." She looked slightly crestfallen. "Well, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Okay," Miss Anderson exclaimed clasping her hands together. "What's say we get to work?"

Later that day right before the bell rang for recess Miss Anderson made an announcement.

"Will Harry, Elena, Seth, Anna, and Sophie please stay behind for a few minutes? I need to talk to you all."

A collective, "Oooohhh, what did you do?" rose from the class.

"It's nothing bad," Miss Anderson assured the frightened ten year olds as she shooed the rest of the class out for recess. Nervously, they approached her desk.

"You all really need to stop looking so scared. The reason I want to talk to you is because the school has decided to try out an accelerated reading and math program for the students that placed high enough on the standardized tests we took last week. You five had the highest test scores so, with yours and your parents' permission of course, we would like to place you in higher level classes for part of the day. You're obviously capable of more than the other students in this class and we want to reward you with material that will actually be challenging.

"You're rewarding us by making us do more work?" Anna asked. "That doesn't seem fair." Miss Anderson shook her head.

"It'll be a good thing I promise. I think you'll like it better because you'll be able to move at a faster pace and, because there are less of you, it will be more individualized learning."

"Will you still be our teacher?" Harry asked looking nervous. He didn't want to do this if some other mean teacher was going to come back and judge him.

"No," She answered and his face fell. "I'll be your teacher for science and history and such but for all language arts and math classes you'll have new teacher."

"Who is it?" Seth asked.

"His name is Mr. Lupin and the school just hired him."

"Is this the friend you were talking about?" Sophie asked, giggling. Miss Anderson sighed.

"Yes."

"Well is he a good teacher?" Seth asked very seriously.

"He's excellent." She assured him. "He really has a passion for kids and teaching. Plus he's really smart and very kind. I think you'll learn a lot from him."

The kids nodded; their eyes wide and trusting. If Miss Anderson thought he was worthwhile then they would give him a chance. She smiled brightly at them.

"Good! I'm glad you're all willing to try this out. What I need you to do is get your parents," she glanced sideways at Harry for a moment and then added, "or guardians to sign this form explaining what the program is and then just turn it in to me tomorrow. Just let your parents know that if they have any questions at all they can always email me." The kids took the forms and the bell rang for the end of recess and all of the other kids began filing inside.

"Oh man," Seth said. "We missed recess."

Later that night while Harry finished chopping up carrots for the stew they were making for dinner he wondered what the best way to approach his Aunt and Uncle about the form would be. A horrible thought occurred to him; what if they said no? They always hated that he got better grades than Dudley, but being put into an accelerated program? They were going to flip.

He decided to wait until after dinner when his aunt and uncle would be full and happy. All through dinner he fidgeted nervously and during dessert he spoke up.

"Um Aunt Petunia? Uncle Vernon?" They glared at him. He wasn't surprised. They hated it when he asked questions.

"What?" Aunt Petunia asked sourly. Harry took a deep breath.

"Um, okay, so, um, in school today a few of us got selected to be in an accelerated reading and math program because um we did well on standardized tests and I was one of the kids selected so um will you sign this form saying I can do it?" He said this all very fast and in one breath. They had all stopped eating at this point and were just looking at him.

"Is that why she made you all stay inside during recess?" Dudley asked. Harry nodded. His Aunt and Uncle just looked at each other.

"So let me get this straight," Uncle Vernon said, "Some snot nosed teacher, who already tried to tell me once that my son isn't good enough, is now trying to one up that by putting a scrawny dumb brat like you in an accelerated program? That's just unacceptable." Aunt Petunia sniffed loudly.

"Too true Vernon. As if we would actually believe that you," she glared pointedly at Harry, "are smart enough to take harder classes. That's laughable really."

Harry felt like someone had punched him hard in the ribs and was finding it difficult to talk.

"I am smart," he choked out. "I am." They all just laughed at him.

"Do you have the form?" Uncle Vernon asked. Harry walked over to his backpack and pulled it out.

"Bring it to me," Uncle Vernon commanded. Harry walked over and placed the form in his large purple hand. He read it over and his face got very red.

"Oh no no. Oh this won't do. I can't have my nephew seem like he does better than my son. How would that make Dudley look?" And, almost smiling, Uncle Vernon took the form and tore it to pieces right in front of Harry's horrified face. Dudley laughed and turned back to the television. Uncle Vernon threw the pieces of paper on the floor and turned back to his pie.

"Clean that up," he told Harry gesturing to the paper, "We told you not to ask questions."

A/N: Sorry about how long it took to update! I'll try to be better about that. Anyway your reviews are always appreciated and they make me write faster :)