Disclaimer: Nope, still not owning it. Gee, thanks for reminding me!
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Author's Notes: I'm really really really sorry that this chapter is really short. This past week has had its ups but far too many downs. My grandpa is in the hospital from a stroke, my teachers don't even seem to care when I tell them I couldn't do my homework because of it, and my mom is agreeing to have me switch club teams without telling me (isn't that great)!
Onto some better news….
OMG! At OCC Swim Championships, I got 4th in the 200 freestyle and 6th in the 100 breastroke (I think that's pretty good for a sophomore). If I swim those times again at sections, I'll make it to districts for sure.
Not only that, I got all my grades on my exams and I didn't fail any (throws a big party and invites everyone). I only missed one question on my pre-calculus exam (some really easy sine question too, oh well….
This week is going to be a long one and I caught a bit of a cold. : ( I have to prepare for a piano and violin competition for school but I don't have any swim meets which means I'll have more time to write. ( :
I started typing this chapter up yesterday and worked on it until midnight. I had two and a half hour swim practice before and just about died on the distance free set (those who don't know anything about swimming, that's o.k. : )
Please leave a nice long review and I'll give you a cookie or something!
Last Time: Harry managed to free the love birds from their cage and lose a dear friend all in the course of ten minutes.
Onto the Story…!
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Chapter Six: Reasons Why I Hate School
Harry was dreaming. He was wandering away on the rainbow carpet that was usually centered in Ms. McKenna's classroom. Only now, it was up in the air miles away from Little Whinging.
He floated away without thought, his mind drifting far off into the undiscovered corners of the universe where no one has ever dared traveling to. His arms and legs felt heavy, but it was a comfortable, hazy feeling that one usually had on the verge of sleep. Speaking of sleep, his tired eyes drooped as the carpet gained altitude up and away….
Only when his mind finally sublimed to sleep, his eyes opened to the real conscious world. Like every day, the drafty ceiling of the cupboard greeted him good morning. With his mind still dazed, Harry sat up and pulled the string to light up the small enclosed space.
'That's strange', he thought wearily. He hadn't had a dream of him flying away from the Dursleys somehow since the start of school. He supposed they had stopped for good once his life started to look promising. He reached over, grabbed his glasses, and placed them squarely on his face.
It was then Harry noticed the thin red ribbon clutched in his hand. 'Even stranger,' he thought to himself, 'why do I have Danielle's ribbon?'
And then that's when it all came back to him. The annual picnic. The mess up at lunch. Danielle crying her eyes out. The love birds flying out the window. The single red ribbon lying on the floor….
Harry scrunched up the ribbon in his fist as silent sobs shook his whole body. He vividly remembered Danielle's stunned yet bitterly accusing stare at him when she thought he stole her lunch. He also remembered Dudley pointing his big, fat finger at him, blaming him for the two bird's sudden departure.
Dudley had of course said that it was all his cousin's fault the birds escaped. Apparently, Harry had unlocked the door to the cage deliberately to try to get Dudders in trouble. Harry of course tried to tell Ms. McKenna what really happened, but she turned the other cheek on him. He had this strange feeling in his stomach that his teacher didn't like him anymore.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had of course received word of what happened the night before. Aunt Petunia looked upon hearing of the lost love birds; they were rather expensive birds. She muttered a few incoherent mumbles about a pet store before returning to her meal. Uncle Vernon however seemed too angry to enjoy his dinner when he heard of his nephew stealing food at lunch from a girl.
"I told you, boy," he threatened over the dinner table the previous night. He had swiped Harry's plate of food and handed it over to Dudley. "I told you that you were too lazy to ask in advance for us to make you one. What's worse, you were too lazy to make one for yourself. Instead, you had to go steal one from an innocent girl. You thief! Do you know what they do to thieves, boy?"
"N-no, Uncle Vernon," Harry replied timidly. He really had no idea what happened to thieves. He looked over at Aunt Petunia to see if she would admit to her 'sin' of packing her nephew a lunch for school. Only, his aunt seemed to be avoiding everyone's eyes, her own peering down at her dinner blankly.
"They lock them up in jail for a very long time, sometimes forever," Uncle Vernon then changed from lecture mode to evil-pick-on-Harry mode. "You don't want to be locked up in prison forever, now do you, boy?"
"But I didn't steal anything," Harry tried to explain. Uncle Vernon gave a short husky laugh before rounding on the others present at the table.
"Did you hear that, Dudders?" He asked his pudgy son. Dudley's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, it was now his turn to ridicule Harry. Aunt Petunia still didn't make eye contact with anyone, let alone Harry.
"But the lunches were swapped somehow," Harry tried to make his family understand. "It was like magic."
Aunt Petunia chocked loudly on her food while Uncle Vernon turned purple in the face. Harry looked up at them in confusion, did he say something wrong? Uncle Vernon was the first to regain his composure since Aunt Petunia was still trying to dislodge the food from her windpipe. Dudley was pounding his mother on the back so hard, she would have fallen over in the table weren't there.
"There is no such thing as magic, boy!" He snarled at Harry. "Stop making excuses, or I'll do worse to you than being in jail forever…." Harry gulped loudly, believing his uncle's threat. It wouldn't have been the first time he was hit before.
Harry knew that the only thing stopping his Uncle from pounding him into the ground or locking him in his cupboard for days on end was school. This made Harry relieved, but also scared him. He knew that winter break was coming up soon and the Uncle Vernon is in need of a good punching bag….
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"I don't want to go back to school."
This was the first thing that came out of Harry's mouth at breakfast once Dudley and Uncle Vernon departed for the car. Only Harry and Aunt Petunia remained in the kitchen. He was just waiting to receive his daily amount of lunch money.
"Too bad," she replied harshly. "You are going to school. It's either that, or being stuck in your room all day." Aunt Petunia never said the word 'cupboard' to Harry. He suspected that it pained her to do it.
"But everyone is gonna hate me now for the birds flying away," Harry complained to her. He wished she would show at least some compassion towards him.
Instead, she closed her purse and handed her nephew some change. "Maybe you should have thought of that before you opened their cage."
"But I didn't," Harry explained in a whisper. "The cage somehow opened by itself. I didn't even see how or who. You believe me, don't you? Please?"
Aunt Petunia seemed to think about it for a long minute. She walked to the sink to start the dishes, hoping Harry would take the hint and leave.
"Aunt Petunia?" He asked again. "You bel-"
"I don't know what to believe, alright!?" She practically belted out. Her sudden shout out quieted down as she retreated into her shell. "Hurry up or you'll be late to school." With that said she turned her attention back to the dishes before picking up a wet rag and starting to work.
Harry sighed loudly as he exiting the house and started the long walk to school. Maybe Aunt Petunia's previous affections for him the other day were also a hoax.
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Saying that his class would all hate him was an understatement. It seemed like all the five-year-olds at the school were out to get him. Not only were they mad at him for freeing the class pets, no….
….Danielle didn't return to school because of him.
Ms. McKenna announced it that day. First, she told the class the news. Then, the class spread the news to everyone they knew plus their next door neighbor.
"Everyone, listen up," she called out to catch everyone's attention. Two dozen heads turned to their teacher with eager eyes. They all had noticed that Danielle had a rather suspicious absence from school that day.
"Our fellow classmate, Danielle," she started with a thick voice. Harry was sure she was very sad indeed for losing her love birds. "Danielle decided to not take part in a public school. Instead, she wants to be home schooled by tutors and teachers."
"But why?" Che asked in oblivious shock. A good two thirds of the class looked over at Harry, all of their death glares matching down to the malicious sparkle in their eyes.
"Well," Ms. McKenna tried to explain, "because of some ill-fortunate events yesterday, she decided to leave." Dudley gave a loud cough. The class fell silent. The brief pause was broken when FT raised his hand.
"Yes Frank?"
"What's home schooling?" He asked curiously. Ms. McKenna sighed greatly before beginning to explain to the class the concept of home schooling. Harry however wasn't paying any attention. He just kept his eyes glued on the now empty seat next to him.
He wondered what he and Danielle would be doing right now if the fates were altered somehow. He pictured the two of them doodling on paper while the teacher lectured about the odd numbers. Harry would say something funny and Danielle would laugh before giving her genuine smile. The image of her radiating grin only made Harry's heart ache strongly.
If only he could remember that smile forever, he figured silently. Only now, he has the red ribbon to remember her by. It was now tucked away in his pocket so it stays close to him at all times.
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'If only she could see how much they miss her,' Harry thought as he sat on the empty swings on the playground. No one muttered one word to him at all that day. Even Dudley can't find any words to say to his worthless cousin. Harry just told himself that Dudley was far too stupid to say anything intelligent anyways, it made him feel better.
All of his classmates simply ignored him now. 'Now only if I could get Dudley to do that,' he thought gloomily as he drew shapes in the gravel with his feet. He was so short, his toes just brushed against the ground. 'What had gone wrong…?'
Carol and Che were the ones who missed Danielle the most, both figuratively and visually. The two of them both shed more than tears upon hearing the news that their new friend was to never return. No longer do they know someone who could french braid hair so well.
Frank and FT used to play with the love birds with Harry during indoor recess. Now, they don't play with the birds or with Harry. During the next couple indoor recesses, they sat on the carpet depressingly while watching out the window for any sight of a feather.
Mark stayed out of school for the next couple of days. He was still sick from eating the left over pasta and paste from the picnic. Maybe he wouldn't hear what happened and still be friends with Harry.
But like always, Harry's hopes were too high to be possible. Mark returned to school with a scowl on his face that resembled that of a rat. He obviously heard the news first thing coming back.
Nina had been the first to retaliate against Harry. It was during art class when everyone was painting with finger paints, a little kid's specialty. She used to sit with Danielle and Harry at the round table in the back. She hated having to sit alone with Harry so much, she resulted to flicking paint at him with her fingers. Harry tried ignoring her first but soon paint splattered on his glasses. Now fully annoyed with her and the rest of the class, he dipped his hand in the paint and flicked some back.
Only Nina then got the teacher's attention and got Harry in trouble. He had of coursed tried to tell how she started it, his paint covered glasses as evidence, but the rules weren't as fair as they used to be. Harry had to sit in the corner of the room the rest of the class. He could faintly hear Dudley's snickering over his near silent tears.
Even Ms. McKenna seemed to dislike Harry now! She would ignore his hands in class and not take notice when he'd wave hello in the hallways. One day, he spent five minutes trying to catch her attention so that he could get help zipping his jacket up at the end of the day before giving up.
When school was out, Harry would trudge back to Privet Drive, his pace as slow and gloomy as his past days of school. The loose change in his pocket clanged loudly in his pocket one day. He stopped by the ice cream store on the way home, but only look. It was after picturing him and Danielle on the high stools licking ice cream cones that he left.
'Who needs ice cream?' he thought miserably, 'when you've got nobody to share it with?' He decided that a train ticket sounded like a much better thing to save up for….
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The seasons changed all the sudden as the once mild days of fall turned colder and grayer until winter arrived. In contrast to the changing weather outside, the attitude of the class towards Harry didn't change a bit.
Five-year-olds sure knew how to hold a grudge apparently. They still act as if it were yesterday the love birds flew away. The only difference was that his classmates' lack of acknowledgment of him turned into a constant battle of picking on him. Dudley was as ecstatic as ever of course. His thick classmates finally noticed how 'poisonous' Harry is so now they too detest him.
But that didn't mean Dudley could still harm Harry at school easily. The two of them were continuously under surveillance so any signs of crooked behavior were squashed immediately. Even so, Dudley still wasn't fast and agile enough to catch his cousin on the playground. His baby rolls of fat hanging under his chin would jiggle as his jogging feet pounded heavily on the blacktop. It took him weeks of cat and mouse chasing to realize his plan wasn't working. Instead, he needed a diversion. Either that or catching Harry off guard….
….which he was very successful at. There was this one day in the early winter where Harry was hiding at the bottom of the tube slide. Not only was he hiding from Dudley, he was hiding from the frigid cold. Apparently Dudley was so innocently walking by when he noticed someone's feet dangling out the end of the slide. This person had on a pair of old shoes that were once his.
"Hey," he had accused, pointing is wide finger at the stranger in the slide, pointing out the obvious. "Hey! Those are my old shoes! What are you doing with them?"
Harry stayed still and quiet like a deer. He prayed with all his might that either Dudley would either notice Che or Carol on the play ground and go after them or just leave. He couldn't believe his ears when he heard the soft padding of gravel as Dudley retreated. Harry let out the breath he didn't notice he was holding while he eyed his old sneakers admirable. He had them for quite some time. Still, he was proud of Dudley's final acknowledgement of them, he personally never expected his cousin to notice the shoes this soon.
But Dudley was fooled so easily this time. He knew of one person who has his old possessions and that person just so happens to match with his prey: Harry.
Instead of pulling Harry out of the slide by his feet like he would have been expected to do, Dudley decided to have a little more fun. By doing so, he climbed the ladder to the slide and went down it with all the force he could muster, catching his cousin by surprise. Like a pinball, Harry was knocked out of the slide tumbled in the gravel to break his fall. He could hear Dudley's vicious cackle while he tried sitting up. He had gotten some small pieces of gravel in his hair along with in his left ear.
"Ha! Gotcha!" He shouted triumphantly. His loud jeering caught the attention some lingering classmates who also came over to watch.
Everyone seemed to appreciate Dudley a little more these days. The only reason that made since was because they now approved of his victim list. The number one of the list was Harry of course; a common enemy to all.
And every time Dudley would knock him down, Harry would pull himself up from the ground. Again and again, he would pull out some unknown strength to go on another day. He didn't understand why, it would be so much easier to quit.
But maybe it was because he had nothing to lose, therefore nothing to prove or expect. He figured that Dudley's bullying feels good now but he would soon tire of Harry's stoic view. Besides, he has already taken everything his cousin ever wanted.
What's there to take from the boy who has nothing?
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Author's Note: This chapter took a long time to write since it seemed really boring to me, sorry! I promise the next chapter will be the longest yet. I have a lot planned out for it and can't wait to start it.
I didn't have as much time to write this chapter with swimming and homecoming. I ate at a Mexican restaurant before homecoming and I think I got sick from the chicken or something because I ran to the bathroom and threw up right in the middle of the dance. : (
Once this week is over, my life will be much much easier. I promise that the next chapter will be longer and better. I almost dosed off about three times during this one.
Please stick to this story. I pledge not to abandon it ever, unless I die or something (knock on wood). I was brainstorming for this chapter when I came up with the idea of a good epilogue that is slightly an alternate ending.
The epilogue is about Aunt Petunia and Harry having a nice long talk a few days before he leaves for Hogwarts. Since they didn't really patch things up from Harry's childhood much in DH, I decided I'll do it myself. I think it will be a good ended for the story, seeing how the plot will go and everything.
Thank you a lot for the reviews. I may even go into the double digits with this chapter (amazing, I know!). As long as there are more reviews than chapters here, I'll be satisfied (wow that sounds reassuring)….
Thanks for the reviews and see you next week!
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Next Chapter: Mrs. Figg: Yay! An actual character from the series makes an appearance as Harry has to go to Mrs. Figg's house for the first time. Fun for Harry, right?
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