Disclaimer: Nope, still not owning it. Gee, thanks for reminding me!

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Author's Notes: Thank god I'm done with my semester exams! They were really time consuming and hard. What's worse, my swim coach scheduled a meet for after school Friday, the last day of exams. The timing system wasn't functioning right and it took forever to go through the meet. When I swam my last event, it was already 9 p.m. : (

It's a good thing it wasn't a school night or I would have just left.

Once again, this chapter may be a little shorter than the earlier ones but I tried my best. Thanks a ton for the reviews and keep them coming!

Last Time: A new girl comes to school and Harry hasn't been any happier. Sadly, his happiness won't last for long…. Duh duh dun!

Onto the Story…!

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Chapter Five: The Annual Picnic

As the days until the annual picnic dwindled down, Harry's life was at an all time high. With the Dursleys out of his hair for a large chunk of the day, a big class full of kids who welcomed him in as one of their own, and a new friend who shared his exact interests, he felt diverged from his past, almost like being reborn into a new life where didn't have to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs...

Sure he didn't look any different than before. His overlarge clothes still burdened him greatly while his taped up glasses were slightly crooked on his nose. He wasn't sure if he grew a great deal, even if he did at all.

What changed was not noticeable on his exterior self, but inside himself as a person. When compared to the past summer, Harry felt so much better than before. He found that his cheeks ached because of his constant smiling. The muscles used to shape his genuine grin were tight from never having to be used up to then.

One of the biggest reasons why he smiled so often now was the newest addition to the class. Danielle was like a prayer being answered from up above. She was the comforting hand to hold during a thunderstorm, the ear who would listen when talking of fears and deception. Harry himself thought she was the wings that allowed him to fly far away from the Dursleys, the strength to fly away and never look back.

If someone were to guess which kid in the class was the newest there, the last person they would have guessed is Danielle. The way she interacts with her classmates, one would have thought they were friends from birth.

It also seems as if Dudley called it quits. It took him a good deal of time to realize that his attempts of payback of either Harry or Danielle were futile. His door slamming has been reduced considerably, something Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were relieved of greatly.

Dudley was basically the only rock in the stream of the class, always trying to go against the flow. Except now, his once boulder-like status shrunk to one of a small pebble. The earlier fears of Dudley punching the daylights out of his victims now turned into a constant ignoring. Seeing how the future sumo-wrestler couldn't do anything under the now constant hawk eyes of the teachers, there was nothing to worry about.

The only one who still was apprehensive of Dudley (apart from FT who still kept a good ten feet between themselves) was his cousin, Harry. Dudley soaked up his anger and temper like a sponge, holding it in until someone wrung it out of him; this someone usually ending up being that tiny squirt with the odd looking glasses. Once at home and away from his teachers watchful eyes, he would pound the stuffing out of Harry, or at least try to. He would first have to catch his cousin, a mighty feat for a kid who weight rivaled that of a kid twice his age.

Only Harry wasn't too affected from Dudley's punches. As a matter of fact, he was smiling to himself while Dudley tried pulling his hair roughly. He had the one thing his cousin didn't, friends at school who liked him and played with him. And what furies Dudley the most in his life is not being able to take away Harry's friends, his happiness.

And Harry knew that there was nothing to separate himself from his happiness. His friends at school seemed to be extra special nice to him, for they knew that he had to spend a ton of more hours with Dudley then they do. They would sometimes give Harry there extra drawings from art class or extra food at lunch in order to prep him for the long afternoon with Dudley.

But the one person who made Harry one hundred percent immune to Dudley's tactics was Danielle. Just the sound of her name made Harry melt. He really really really liked Danielle, maybe even more than just a friend...

Harry was sure that Danielle also liked him back. There was only this one time where he was afraid she thought so otherwise.

"What's that?" She asked him once a few days ago. They were swinging on the swings out on the playground.

"What's what?" Harry asked, turning towards her. He skidded to a halt and waited for Danielle to do the same. Once their swings were perpindicular to the ground, Danielle continued.

"There," she said, pointing to his forehead. Harry's hand reached up to were she was pointed. His fingers traveled right over where his scar was. His hair must have been blown away from his face while they swung.

"Oh," he exclaimed, as if suddenly remembering where he put shoes. "I got this a long time ago." He wished she didn't ask more about it, but she did.

"How?" She asked curiously, returning her stare back to Harry's green eyes.

"In a car crash," Harry answered gloomily, his own stare looking towards the ground. "I-I don't really remember it, but my parents died in that crash."

Danielle gave a small gasp as she looked at Harry like she's never done so before. "Oh, I'm really sorry, Harry. I shouldn't have asked." She looked ready to stand up and leave.

"No," Harry called out loudly. His eyes pleaded for her to stay, he didn't want to be alone again. "It's O.K. I don't even remember what they look like…" his voice trailed off.

Danielle took a seat back down on the swing. She glanced at her feet while a prolonged silence lingered between the two.

"So," she started to say, not looking up, "that's why you live with your Aunt and Uncle?" Harry has already told her all she needed to know about the Dursleys.

"And Dudley," Harry reminded her. Danielle looked up at him a smiled.

"And Dudley."

After that discussion, Danielle stayed by Harry's side, not wanting him to be alone. Harry didn't mind at all, in fact, he enjoyed her constant company.

In art class, they found a coloring book in one of the shelves with pictures of animals. The two of them spent the rest of art time coloring inside the lines to the best of their ability. Danielle colored her lion purple (it was her favorite color) while Harry colored his butterfly yellow.

On a rainy day while the class had indoor recess, the two would look through the cage bars at the two love birds. The duo often perched close to each other on their tiny swing. They weren't afraid of humans staring at them or even coming close. Actually, one of the lovebirds always hopped on to the perch closest to Harry when he would come by. It would cock its head side to side, taking in the sight of the much larger creature outside the cage with curiosity. Harry thought that their looks matched those of a begging dog, just dying to be free of their cage. He didn't think they liked being locked up.

Harry was saving up on spare change from his lunch to buy himself an ice cream cone. He had plenty enough to buy one now, but he decided to wait until he had enough for two. That way, he and Danielle could walk back home together, licking their ice cream cones in the mild autumn heat.

The day of the annual picnic came out of nowhere. Harry was surprised that a whole week of school went by so quickly. As his teacher would say though, time flies when you're having fun….

And what fun was he going to have at the picnic! There were tons of games and activities planned out for all the kids. Harry once heard in the halls that they were bringing a monkey, but he wasn't sure how true that was….

On the day of the picnic, Harry was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast with Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Dudley when he remembered something.

"Aunt Petunia?" He asked suddenly. His Aunt looked up from her breakfast, putting on her unhappy face.

"What is it, boy?" She asked, her voice meaner that necessary.

"I-I," he tried to explain, "you… you have to…."

"Think before you speak, boy!" Uncle Vernon barked from the other side of the table. Dudley's piggish face turned into a satisfied smirk.

Instead of trying to explain again, Harry pulled out the flier from his corduroys. He wore the same pair from the day he received the note and they haven't been washed since. He handed the flier to Aunt Petunia, he tug it impatiently out of her nephew's hand.

Harry sat anxiously waiting while Aunt Petunia skimmed over the writing. "So?" She asked, putting the paper down.

"Well," Harry stuttered out, his eyes bearing down on his half-full plate. "Everyone has to have a sack lunch for the picnic and…."

Aunt Petunia understood what her nephew was trying to tell her, but Uncle Vernon saw this as an extra opportunity to make Harry miserable. He seized it while he still could.

"Don't you think he's telling us this on a bit of a… short notice, deary?" He asked sweetly across the table at his wife. Aunt Petunia looked ready to disagree, but soon masked it and bore a nasty grin, the same as her husband's.

"If you wanted a packed lunch, boy," she sneered, "you'd had to have asked sooner." Dudley snickered behind his hands.

"But-"

"I don't care what you have to say, boy," she warned, her voice rising. Harry stared at his plate, his confidence not strong enough to look his Aunt in the face.

After a brief silence, Uncle Vernon pushed his plate away. "Oh, well," he started, rising to his feet, "time to go Dudders." He and his large son waddled out of the front door to the car.

Harry stood up, grabbed his yellow book bag, and headed for the door too. Before he reached it though, he got a rather unannounced surprised.

"Wait, Harry!" Aunt Petunia called from the kitchen. Harry stopped dead in his tracks. Aunt Petunia called him by his first name….

….and made him a lunch! Aunt Petunia made a hasted sandwich and threw an apple into a brown paper bag. She handed it to Harry and hushed him out the door. No more words were exchanged between the two.

Harry put his lunch in his backpack before heading down the drive way. He was so out of it that he didn't even notice Dudley's ugly face pressed up against the back window, mocking him. Harry trudged along the path in semi-shock. For once, Aunt Petunia actually did sometime nice to him. His heart lifted slightly at the thought of that.

Maybe she did care….

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Once at school, Harry made sure that he'd stay out of Dudley's way. If his cousin saw his packed lunch, he was sure to make a big deal out of it; and nobody wants to see Dudley throwing one of his signature tantrums.

After everyone put their bags inside the classroom, everyone headed outside towards the playground. The lunches were to be placed in a bucket according to class. Harry waited for Dudley to turn around to slip his into the bucket.

Once outside, Harry saw that all the games and activities were already up and ready to go. The classes of nursery kids were running around the playground, excited to try everything at least five times. Sadly, there was no monkey present...

Harry took a seat at a swing, waiting for a glimpse of Danielle. He was hoping the two of them would make their way around all the games and activities together.

"Why don't you go try a game of kickball over there?" A tall teacher asked as she approached him. Harry was the only one on the swing set.

"That's o.k." he replied, looking around the playground again for any sight of that blond hair and red ribbon. "I'm waiting for my friend. I think she's still putting her lunch away."

"I'm sure your friend is already playing a game now," the teacher said, trying to get Harry to take her hand. "Why don't you go over there and then you could make even more friends."

Harry wanted to argue, but he bit his tongue while the tall older teacher led him to were a group a boys and girls were playing kick ball.

At least Dudley isn't over here, Harry thought as he stood in line to kick. Harry played kick ball once with some other boys from his class. They were all surprised that he didn't know how to play coming in to school, but that was no problem as they explained to game to him briefly before starting.

Unfortunately, Harry didn't go up to kick as his team got three outs before. What happened is that Boo-Boo was up to kick. As the ball was pitched, he ran up and kicked it straight up in the air. Afraid of it hitting him, he ducked down on the ground, the ball landing on his back.

"Out!"

As the two teams switched sides, Harry immediately went to the outfield. He didn't like playing kick ball really.

In the outfield, he noticed that a girl from the other team didn't get up and head over to the long line of kickers. Instead, she kept her head bowed, her eyes searching through the grass. As Harry arouched her, he noticed the red ribbon tied in her hair.

"Danielle?" He asked as he walked towards her. "Did you lose something?"

"Wha'?" She asked incoherently, some of her hair in her mouth. She looked up at Harry, her face forming a smile.

"I-I just asked if you lost something…." Harry replied, he felt his face turn slightly red. Danielle's smile just grew wider.

"No, silly," she exclaimed, "I'm looking for four-leaf-clovers." Harry looked down at the grass. Indeed, they were standing in a big patch of clovers.

"Can I help?" Harry asked shyly, pointing at himself. He crouched down on all fours, looking through the grass.

"Of course you can, Harry!" She assured him. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding.

Oblivious to the game, the two of them spent a long time searching through the patch for some four leaf clovers. Danielle wasn't in much luck, she only found about two. Harry surprised himself by finding over ten four leaf clovers.

"How do you do that?" She asked as he pocketed number eleven. "How do you find them so easily?"

"I-I don't know," he replied, a small blush forming on his cheeks. "I just do."

"I bet it's the glasses," she teased. Harry took off his glasses and handed them to Danielle. She tried them on, only to take them off a few seconds later.

"Whoa," she exclaimed. "What are you, blind?" She giggled to herself as she handed the glasses back to her friend. It took Harry a few moments to realize she was joking. He had felt a little hurt by her comment at first.

"Hey!" Another kid called over at them. The teams were switching sides again. "Are you playing or what?"

"No," Danielle called back to him before Harry could. "We're just picking clovers out here!" One of the teachers watching the game of kick ball heard her and came over to the two of them.

"Uh oh," Danielle exclaimed softly. "What? Did I say something wrong?" The teacher didn't look too happy; his face reminded Harry a lot of Uncle Vernon's. He gulped nervously.

"Picking clovers isn't one of the activities at our annual picnic," the male teacher explained to the two. "Either get up and do something productive or you'll be in time out!"

"O.K." Danielle said timidly. It was the only time Harry ever heard her slightly scared. She turned back to him once the male teacher stalked away to yell at some other kids.

"Do you know who that is?" She asked him incurably. Harry shook his head honestly. Never in his life has he met that teacher.

"I know some other girls that are in his class," she told him in a hushed voice. The male teacher had just turned to look back at the two.

"What-what's his name?" Harry asked, trying to hide behind Danielle to stay out of the teacher's line of sight.

"He's Mr. Thoma," she said gravely. "I heard that he doesn't allow nap time and that he makes you sit in the corner if you color inside the lines." Harry gulped again.

"I'm glad we don't have him as our teacher," he exclaimed, thinking about the nice, kind face of Ms. McKenna.

"Yeah, I know."

The pair decided to do as Mr. Thoma ordered and walked over to join the over kids in their activities. They went to the station with the spaghetti noodle art. There, they met up with Che, Carol, Mark, and about ten other kids Harry didn't know.

At this station, there was a large assortment of colored noodles spread out over the picnic table. It was their job to use the different colors and shapes of noodles, paste them to a piece of paper, or make a necklace out of them.

"This isn't so bad," Danielle said after a good five minutes in. She had already made a necklace and went on to make a matching bracelet. Harry nodded his head in agreement. He was almost done gluing on the pieces of noodles. They were taking the shape of what distantly looked like a butterfly.

Mark, who was sitting across the table from them, was currently chewing on the left over pieces of noodles. Disgustingly, some of the pieces were coated with partially dried glue.

"Oh no," Danielle exclaimed getting everyone's attention at the table. "It's him, Mr. Thoma!" Apparently, some of the other children have heard of Mr. Thoma's evil teachings. The girls gasped and stared, one of them ducking under the table. The boys scooted away nervously; Mark looked like he swallowed a rock.

Mr. Thoma walked by, giving a small glance at the table of petrified five-year-olds. When he was out of hearing range, everyone gave a loud collective sigh before returning to their work.

Suddenly, Mark got up from the table and made a dash towards the trash can. His effort was unsuccessful as he doubled over and painfully emptied his stomach. Apparently, the glue-covered noodles didn't settle well with Mark at all as he gave another great heave.

All the girls shrieked and ran the other way. Harry lingered long enough to see Ms. McKenna rush towards Mark from the other side of the playground. She helped Mark up as they made their way inside, doubtlessly to the nurse's office.

"Poor Mark," Harry heard Che say sadly to Carol obviously. The other teachers pulled the children back from the mess and told them to go on their separate ways. Harry and Danielle got separated again. The annual picnic continued on.

Soon afterwards, while Harry was jump roping with FT, he saw a janitor come out and clean the mess. Still, Mark was nowhere to been seen.

"Do you think he's sick enough to have to go home?" Harry asked FT as the two of them swung the opposite ends of the rope around in unison for some girls to jump.

"I hope not," FT relied. "He'll miss lunch soon." Harry was pretty sure that Mark wasn't up to lunch at the moment.

For lunch, the tables were cleared off as clothes replaced scraps. There was a large group of kids herding around the lunch buckets, trying to find their sack. Harry soon remembered Aunt Petunia's attempt of making his lunch and relieved the short happiness it brought to him.

His stomach growled loudly. All of his running around had made him hungry as he looked around for Danielle. Assuming that she was at an all girls table, Harry decided to take a seat at a table with his other classmates.

The others all opened their lunches and started swapping food around like they always do. Harry recalled that he was packed a rushed sandwich and an apple. He wondered if anybody would like to trade their snacks for his apple….

When he poured his lunch out onto the table though, the expected sandwich and apple didn't roll out. Instead, a nice ham and cheese sandwich, and package of fruit snacks, a juice box, and a bag of gummy bears came out.

"Whoa Harry!" one of the boys exclaimed loudly, catching other's attention. "You should pack your lunch more often!" The kids all asked to trade, but Harry just stared down at his lunch. Now how did that happen…?

Figuring that Aunt Petunia had a very sudden change of heart started eating his sandwich. What unnerved him slightly was that the ham and cheese was on wheat bread. Aunt Petunia always bought white bread at the store.

Dudley soon heard all the commotion and marched his way over. He parted through two classmates to make enough room for his oversized bottom. Upon seeing his cousin's lunch, his sneering eyes turned to shock.

"Hey!" he said loudly, pointing at Harry. "How did you get a lunch?" Harry put down his sandwich to tell his cousin.

"Aunt Petunia made me one right when you left," he said calmly. It was the truth after all….

But Dudley didn't believe him. Instead, he went to find the closest teacher by, which so happened to be Mr. Thoma.

"Mr. Thoma! Mr. Thoma!" Dudley squealed out, grabbing everyone's attention. "Harry stole someone's lunch!"

"N-no I d-didn't," Harry tried to say to defend himself. He rose to his feet, to sort this out with the teacher. The whole table was watching the three of them.

"Mr. Thoma," Dudley accused, "he stole someone's lunch! I know he did!"

"And how do you know that," Mr. Thoma asked cheekly, his dark eyes peering down at Dudley.

"Because my mum didn't make-" he started before biting his tongue, "because heforgot his at home! He told me on the way here!"

"No, I didn't," Harry tried to say, but only a few incoherent syllables came out. He tried to look at his classmates for help. Over at the next table, he saw Danielle glaring at him, her opened lunch box containing a very familiar looking sandwich and apple.

"That's my lunch," Danielle said, rising to her feet. She stared at Harry as if unable to believe what she was seeing. "That's my sandwich and those are my gummy bears. You stole them!"

"N-no," Harry tried to explain. "I didn't steal your food! I-"

"That's enough out of you, young man!" came Ms. McKenna's harsh voice. "I want you and Danielle to follow me. Everyone else, get back to your lunch." She grabbed Harry's wrist tightly with one hand while Danielle followed at her heels. Harry tried to look back at his friends, only to see their jeering stares.

She brought the two back to her classroom in silence. Hot tears were threatening to fall out of Harry's eyes. He tried desperately to hold them back. Everything just needs to be sorted out, he told himself.

Danielle didn't even contain herself. Tear tracks littered her face as she didn't even try looking at Harry. Her silent tears soon became quite sobs, which grew louder and louder.

"Ms. McKenna!" She nearly shrieked once they got to their classroom. "I don't like this school. I want to go home. I wanna go home!"

"Shhhh…." The teacher sighed as Danielle tightened her grip on Ms. McKenna's leg. Danielle kept bawling her head off, which shocked Harry greatly. She had seemed to be a very controlled, collective girl for her age, and now she was acting like a two year old.

"No one here likes me anymore!" She wailed. "I don't want to go to school here! I wanna go home! I wanna go home right now!"

Ms. McKenna kept trying to calm the sobbing girl down. "Shhhh…. It'll be alright. I'll call your parents and se if they'll pick you up."

As soon as she said this, Danielle seemed to calm down a bit. Her face was red and her hair messy. The red ribbon in her hair was threatening to fall out at any moment.

"Ms. McKenna," another teacher appeared at the door with Mark at her heels. He looked slightly green in the face. "Mark here need to go home. He's not feeling much better. Where are his things?"

"Right here," Ms. McKenna answered, reaching out towards the cubby area. She grabbed Mark's coat and bag and headed towards the door.

"Come with me, Danielle," she called half way out the door. Danielle exited with the three others, wiping her face clean of tears. Ms. McKenna then addressed Harry. "I'll be back in about ten minutes then we'll talk about your punishment. Don't go anywhere." With that said, the door closed, leaving Harry with no one but himself.

Harry felt more alone than ever before. Now that he had a taste of what having friends and fitting in was like, the dark loneliness was as painful as ever.

He now wished with all of his heart that he was free from this school. Free of the Dursleys. Free from this life. Free.

"I want out..." he sobbed softly, burring his face in his hands. He wished for a pair a strong arms to pick him up and carry him away to somewhere, anywhere that didn't contain this pain.

"I want out!"

A soft clink caught Harry's attention as he looked around for the source of the sound. The brilliant trilling of the lovebirds caused Harry to turn to the bird cage, or rather, the now empty bird cage. How on Earth did that happen?

The small door to the cage had somehow opened and the two birds were now perched on the top of the cage. Harry stared at them with wide eyes before noticing the still open window! He froze in his spot, if he moved slowly, he could get the birds back in their cage.

Suddenly, Harry turned back towards the door as he heard footsteps creep closer. Dudley had come through the door, his usual sneer on once he caught sight of Harry.

"Look at what you did," he jeered at cousin. "How much trouble are you in for this one?" Dudley then saw the birds on top of the cage. "What? How did they-?"

He suddenly ran over to the cage, his hands outstretched as if to catch the birds on his own. The two love birds saw what resembled a rhino charge at them so they flew away, frightened.

Just as Harry yelled 'no,' the two love birds flew up and around in the air before taking off right out of the open window.

Both Harry and Dudley ran to the window sill and watched as the two birds took off towards the trees on the edge of the school property. Both were shocked as they stared out in the small forest. Harry stifled twice.

"Now what am I gonna do about-" came Ms. McKenna's voice as she entered the room. She never finished her sentence as she gasped loudly at the sight of Harry and Dudley by the open window and the empty bird cage.

All three were oblivious of the single red ribbon lying on the ground….

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Author's Note: I hope this chapter wasn't too boring or anything. It took forever to write as my brain and my hands seemed to be working in opposite directions here.

So now Danielle is basically out of the story. She's not the last of Harry's friends. He'll make more but for now, he's gonna get a bit of the silent treatment.

This was the first of many bumps in the road. It will get better for Harry, but first it's gonna get a little more ugly (sorry Harry).

I want to thank everyone for reviewing for this story so far. I know that my number of reviews is single digit but I'm not complaining. There are some stories out there that have no reviews.

I really enjoy writing this story and I'm sure I'll finish it, no matter how long it takes. It may not be too long right now, but eventually, it'll be 100k . If it's about 20K now with Harry still in his first year of school, we have a long way to go, and more good stories to tell.

The next couple of weekends are going to be hell. I have all of these swim meets, solo and ensemble, our show choir show, our OMEA contests, and our winter homecoming soon. Oh well, who doesn't hate school…..

Just as a reminder, this does has a main plot. It's gonna take a while to get to it but isn't Harry's whole life a big plot?!

Thanks for the reviews and see you next week!

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Next Chapter: Reasons Why I Hate School: Harry is blamed for Danielle and the lovebird's sudden departure. Now, his once friendly classmates hate his guts and it seems even his teacher is siding with them. Dudley is also being a larger prick than normal just for the occasion.

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