Discl... you know it.

His Boy

Chapter Eightteen: School

"Raisins?"

"Raisins."

"Cookies?"

"Cookies."

"Juice box?"

"Juice box." Remus handed Sirius the little box of juice and Sirius placed it carefully into Harry's lunchbox beside the bag of cookies and the box of raisins. It fit nicely in the little lunchbox that Sirius knew was just the right size for a preschooler's snack. Remus rose from his chair and headed into the hallway. "Harry! Come along, we need to be leaving in ten minutes."

"I'm comin'!" Harry called back down from his bedroom. He was having a bit of trouble getting the jumper of his school uniform on over his head. He came out of his room, arms stuck up in the air, hair peeking out of the top of the maroon jumper. "Moony… I think I'm stucks."

Remus laughed and headed up the stairs to help him. He gave the bottom of the sweatshirt a tug and Harry's head popped right up and through. "Well, there's your problem, mate. It got caught on your glasses." Remus smiled and fixed the collar on the white shirt Harry wore beneath the sweater. "Here, we've got to tuck it in as well."

"Aw, Moony. I dun like it tucked in."

"Those are the rules. White collar shirt, tucked into black pants, black sneakers, and a maroon school jumper."

"But Moony…"

"Harry, do you want to look spiffy or shoddy."

Harry sighed, not really caring much about how he looked. As far as he was concerned, he'd much rather wear his normal every day clothes as opposed to his new school clothes. "It's too hot for a jumper."

"Well… yeah, I suppose you're right about that. Tell you what, you have to pack the jumper in your bag, but you don't have to wear it so long as you wear your tie." Harry sighed again. The tie was black with the school's logo on it, not nearly as fun as his Snitch bow tie, which he'd wear even though it kind of choked.

"Oh… ok." Harry nodded, deciding he'd much rather not be so hot by wearing a tie than be super hot wearing his jumper. He tugged it off and Remus went into his room to get the tie. He helped Harry put it on right and then they headed downstairs to where Sirius was waiting for them at the front door.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Sirius smiled, jogging in place. "We don't want to be late on the first day, first impressions are important you know."

"Paddy do I haveta?"

"Yes, you do. You've got to learn your reading, writing, and maths. It'll be fun, I promise." Sirius smiled and unzipped Harry's train backpack. Remus folded up the jumper and put it inside on top of the lunch box. They'd also packed some pencils, and a folder, as per requested by the teacher. Harry added his lion and they zipped it back up before he placed it on his back.

"But Ronnie's mummy teaches him everything, he doesn't haveta go to school. Why can't I stay here wid you?" Harry asked curiously, frowning up at them both.

"Well, for starters, I am really bad at maths." Sirius stated simply, patting Harry's head. "And secondly, think of all the new friends you'll make!"

"But they won't be magic like Ronnie and 'mione." Harry pouted, looking down at his shoes. "I want Ronnie and 'mione."

"Harry, a person is a person whether they're magic or Muggle. You'll have a great time, I promise."

"'mione goes to Muggle school… will she be there?"

"No, 'fraid not, mate. Don't worry so much." Sirius smiled and took his hand, leading him out of the house. He lifted Harry up and carried him over to the driveway where his old wonderful motorbike was waiting for him, complete with sidecar. Now, if it had been a normal motorbike, he never would have dreamed of setting Harry down in the sidecar as he did now, buckling him in, and then plopping a helmet on his head, but it was no ordinary motorbike. He had put so many spells and enchantments on it over the years… it could fly, and was incapable of tipping over, it always landed right side up. "Off we go then."

He climbed onto the bike, put on his own helmet, and off they went, shooting down the dirt lane. At the end, Sirius veered to the left and it wasn't long until they were coming into the small village of Ottery St. Catchpole. The school wasn't hard to find, after the town hall, it was the largest building in the village.

A tall brick thing with three floors it housed both the primary and secondary schools for the entire village, which considering the size of the village, it was just fine. The kindergarten and preschool had their own tiny building off to one side consisting of two separate classrooms and its own smaller, fenced off outdoor play area that was friendlier for the smaller kids than the bigger playground was.

Sirius parked his motorbike in the lot and then hoisted Harry up and out of the sidecar, helping him off with his helmet. "Oh Harry, look! They've got swings, and a slide, and monkey bars, and a sand box… won't that be great fun?"

Harry nodded, his green eyes wide at the sight of the bright primary color painted playground equipment in the small play yard. There were no other kids out there yet, but there were ones out on the bigger playground meant for the older kids.

Sirius set him down and took his hand, leading him to the small brick building. It had two doors right in the center, both painted with bright colors and words that indicated one was for the preschool, and the other was for the kindergarten. Sirius opened the one that said Pre-School on it and pushed it open.

Noise assaulted their ears as they entered. Kids crying, kids laughing, kids screaming, yelling, chattering, running about. The room was split into five different sections with bookcases that held just about everything a kid Harry's age could dream about. There was a special tiled floor area for painting and coloring… a whole section full of soft fluffy pillows with shelves full of books around it, another one with toys and toys and toys, a little wooden kitchen and dress up trunk in it's corner, an area with coathooks and cubbies (this was where Harry and Sirius had come through the door) and a big space in the middle of it all covered with a round rug on top of the dark blue carpet.

"Why, hello there!" An older lady with a pretty face beamed as she spotted them and came over. She crouched down in front of Harry, smiling at him kindly. "I'm Miss Nancy, and I'm going to be one of your teachers. Can you tell me your name?"

Harry quickly grabbed hold of Sirius's pant leg and sindled behind him, peeking out worriedly. Sirius laughed and reached down, prying Harry off his leg and giving him a gentle push forward. "It's all right, Prongslet. Go ahead and tell Miss Nancy your name, she won't bite."

Harry bit his lip and shook his head, darting back behind Sirius ever so quickly you'd have thought he'd been stung by a bee.

"Well, I'm not scared to tell the nice lady my name." Sirius ruffled Harry's hair affectionately and then held out his hand as Miss Nancy straightened up. "I'm Sirius Black and this is my godson, Harry Potter."

"Oh, yes! It's very nice to meet you, both of you. I received your letter last week regarding certain circumstances. You need not worry, we've handled things like this before and we always take good care of all of our children. They are our future after all. Perhaps you'd like to stay with us for a little while, at least until Harry gets a bit more accustomed to the environment. Some of the other parents of the other kids will be staying, sometimes the first day can be a little bit scary. Isn't that right, Harry?" She crouched down again, still smiling. "It's a bit scary meeting new people and going to different places, isn't it?"

Harry nodded, peeking a bit more out from behind Sirius's leg. This lady didn't seem so bad… and she was a teacher… he'd never really had any problems with a teacher before. They'd always been quite kind enough to him when he'd gone to school with Dudley.

"Well, if you could find your name on your cubby and put your backpack there for now, we're going to be starting Good Morning Time in a couple of minutes now that everyone is here. I think there might also be a surprise for you in your cubby. Can you do that?"

Harry nodded. He was sure he'd be able to find his cubby without too much problem. He did know what his name looked like after all, and sure enough, after just a moment's searching, he found it. His cubby was painted blue on the inside and had his name taped above it in green marker. He peeked inside it and grinned.

"Lookit Paddy!" His smile grew huge as he pulled out his surprise. It was his name again, only it was written in big black letters on a laminated red crayon that had a string of yarn tied to the either side of it.

"It's a name tag, that's fantastic!" Sirius smiled and slipped it on over Harry's head, making sure the crayon was facing out. "Now everyone will be able to remember your name and you'll know everyone else's."

Harry beamed and tugged his lion out of his backpack before he put it in his cubby. He was glad to have his Padfoot with him, but he was still a bit nervous, so maybe Lion would help him be brave. He liked this place already… but it was still new and Miss Nancy was right, meeting new people could be very scary and there were lots of new people here.

"Alright everyone! Its time for Good Mornings, come and sit down here in a nice big circle around the rug." Miss Nancy called. With the help of the two other teachers, the wild bunch of kids was finally rounded up and seated in the circle area. Harry climbed into Sirius's lap. There were two other parents sitting with them all as well, their kids looking shy and nervous about starting preschool too.

"Alright everyone, we're going to sing a song to say good morning to all of our new friends. And when it's your turn, I want you to tell everyone what your absolute favorite color in the whole wide world is, ok? Here we go then…" Miss Nancy, smiling and pleasant, began singing to the tune of Are You Sleeping. "Good Morning Lucy, good morning Lucy, it's nice to see you. It's nice to see you." She paused, smiling down at the first little girl in the circle. "Can you tell us what your favorite color is?"

"Pink!" Lucy practically shouted, her eyes wide with delight.

"Oh, that is a wonderful color! Good morning Derek, good morning Derek, it's nice to see you, it's nice to see you. What do you like for a color?"

"Yellow."

"Yellow, that's a nice bright, happy color! Good morning Harry, good morning Harry, it's nice to see you, it's nice to see you. What's your favorite color, Harry?"

Harry looked up at Sirius, gripped his lion tighter, and then looked around at all the curious faces. Everyone here seemed really nice… and this song was fun! "Red!" He exclaimed happily, his whole being lighting up with pride.

"What a terrific color! Good morning…."

They continued, going around the circle until every child had announced their favorite color and sung to. By the time they got to the fifth person, the kids had caught on and were joining in. Harry was clapping his hands to the beat,

"Alright! What a magnificent good morning we had! I'm so happy you all sang along and said good morning to everyone. Next we're going to go around the circle again and I want you all to tell me about the best, most terrific thing you did this summer. We're going to go backwards this time though, so we'll start with Veronica."

Harry bounced slightly, excited. He knew he had the absolute best thing that could happen to anyone over the summer and he was quite eager to share it. He listened to the other kids tell short stories about excellent beach trips or holidays to their grandparents' houses, but he was sure he had the best one. No one else would be able to top it.

"Ok Harry, it's your turn. Can you tell us what the best thing that happened all summer was?"

"I…" Harry took a deep breath, his eyes shining with pure delight. "I gotta go live with my Padfoot and my Moony forever and ever and ever and I never ever ever hassa go back to the Dursleys and now I can do lotsa fun stuff with them like like…like.. we go swimming and play outside and eat ice cream and play with Ronnie and 'mione and Ginny and my sissy Luna, only she's not my real sissy, she's just my pretend sissy, and Neville who likes blocks."

"Oh wow, Harry! It sounds like you had a really terrific summer!"

"Mhm." Harry nodded, very proud of himself.

"And what did you did this summer, Derek?"

Once Derek and Lucy had told their stories, Miss Nancy rose from where she was sitting. "Alright everyone, it's time learn about our theme for the week. This week's is underwater lfe!" She reached onto the tall bookcase behind her and pulled out a stuffed shark. "We're going to learn all about fish and the different kinds of animals that live in water. Who can tell me a kind of animal that lives in water?"

…

Harry was impossibly content as he colored away at today's art project, a fish that had two separate pieces he had to color. After they'd heard a story about different creatures that lived in water, Miss Nancy had told them to find the table that matched their name tags. Harry's was the red crayon table, and there was red crayon just like the one that was his name tag taped to the center of his table. Some of the other kids had blue or yellow crayons, but Harry was proud to be one with a red crayon. It was his favorite color after all. The other red crayon kids consisted of a little girl with pigtails named Violet, another girl called Marny, and a boy whose name was Preston. There were fourteen kids in Harry's class altogether, there being an afternoon class after lunch for the rest of the preschoolers in town. The kindergarten worked the same way. Three hours in the morning for one bunch, a half an hour in-between, and then an afternoon class for a second bunch.

Sirius had snuck out after the story, giving Harry a big hug and kiss on the forehead before telling him he'd be back in a few hours. Preschool wasn't very long and he was sure Harry would be fine for the rest of it. He was laughing and getting along quite well with everyone now… it had just taken him a little time to warm up to the idea.

"Oh my, what a lovely fish you're making, Violet! Lots and lots of green." Miss Carrie, one of the other teachers smiled as Violet lifted her fish for her to see.

"My fish is good too." Harry announced, holding up his and Miss Carrie smiled.

"You're right, Harry, your fish is lovely as well, lots of red! And I like how Preston is sharing the blue crayon with Marny. That's very nice of you Preston."

Harry and Preston beamed with pride.

Afer the fishes were done being colored, everyone got their lunchboxes from their cubbies for snack time. Harry was quick to trade in his cookies to Marny for some chocolate pudding she had. While the children ate, Miss Nancy watched them, and Miss Carrie and Miss June took all of the fish, stapled both sides of each child's together and then stuffed them with newspaper so that they puffed out all pretty. They then added a string to the top of the fish, the child's name on the string with tape so that they would remember who it belonged to at the end of the week.

After snack time, Miss Nancy opened the backdoor of the classroom and the kids were allowed out once they'd put their lunch bags away. Harry did this quickly, wanting to get outside and play on that slide as soon as was possible.

Once his sneakers hit the dirt, Harry broke into a run, heading straight for the slide and climbing up to the very top. He slid down it, yelling out. "Woohoo!", his arms in the air. He hit the ground, his feet catching him and he ran around again and climbed up onto to find the top blocked by Marny. She was biting her lower lip and looking down quite anxiously. "Are you gonna go down?"

"It's too high." Marny shook her head, holding onto the railing and looking a bit petrified as she moved to the side.

"What if you climb down?" Harry asked curiously, pulling himself up onto the top platform. It was large enough for the two four year olds to stand on with ease. The slide itself was wide, giving the slider a lot of space to go down.

"That's too high too." Marny shook her head, looking quite ready to cry.

Harry pondered for a minute. He looked down at the slide… it was quite tall, but he wasn't scared of it. It wasn't nearly as big as that one at the pool when they'd gone on holiday to the beach. An idea striking him, Harry grinned and reached out, taking one of Marny's hand. "Wanna go together?"

Marny looked down the slide, seeming to think about it before she nodded. She sat down at the edge and Harry sat beside her, holding her hand . She gripped his tightly with her's and the side of the slide with her other one.

"Ready?"

"Uh huh." They pushed off, holding hands and the slide as they went down, whooshing fast and then slowing when the slide evened out at the bottom. Their feet hit the ground and Marny laughed. "That was fun! Can we go again?"

"Yeah!" Harry smiled and they shot back up the ladder.

After recess, the teachers called the children back inside, for it would soon be time for their parents to be picking them up.

"Our fishies!" One little girl squealed, pointing to the ceiling. All of their fish were hanging down on full felt his heart swell with pride as he looked up and found his red fishy. He couldn't wait to show Padfoot!

With half an hour left to their disposal, the kids were let loose in the classroom to play with the toys there, making it easier to round them up when their parents came. Harry laughed as Marny dragged him over to the big box of play clothes and they began dressing up, putting big hats or scarfs or silly jackets on themselves.

"Marny! Time to go sweetheart."

"Bye bye Harry!" Marny called, running to greet her mother. Harry blinked, looking around. Most of the other kids were gone… their mommies and daddies had come to get them. He frowned but moved over to where the large building blocks were. They were really great blocks, big cardboard things in red, blue, yellow, and green. He stacked them high, building a tower and then knocked them down. He built another tower, bigger this time, as high as he could possibly reach… and then he knocked that one down too. He looked around.

All the other kids were gone. He frowned and turned around. Had they all gone outside to play again without him noticing? He had been very focused on his building after all. He ran over to the window that showed the playground and peeked out. It was deserted. He turned back around and peered into the book area… no one. And then he looked in the cubbie area… no one was here either… and all the other kids bags were gone too. He took his lion from where someone had placed it in the cubby. He must have left it at the circle before coloring time… and hugged it tightly.

He went back into the play area where Miss Nancy was tidying up some of the toys.

"Where's my Padfoot?"

"He must be running a little bit late. Don't you worry, I bet he'll be here really soon. Until then though, how about you help me put some of the toys away?"

"Ok." Harry nodded, biting his lip and he picked up one of the blocks, putting it in its place on the shelf, gripping his lion still. He looked around. "I want my Padfoot."

"I know, he'll be here very very soon, Harry. It's all right."

"But… he promised he'd come back for me. He promised."

"He's coming. Here… how about coloring a picture?" Miss Nancy asked. She went into the art area and sorted through a milk crate full of folders. "I think I have a lion in here somewhere, would you like that?"

"I want my Padfoot."

"Here's a lion!" Miss Nancy pulled the lion picture out and set it on one of the tables with a box of crayons. "Come here and color, Harry while we wait and he'll be here before you know it."

"No… I want my Padfoot!" Harry burst into tears, feeling quite abandoned. He picked up one of the blocked and threw it as hard as he could at the wall and then ran for the cubbies. Maybe Paddy was waiting for him out in the parking lot. Maybe he hadn't come inside because Harry was supposed to meet him outside… maybe he'd just forgotten that… He grabbed at the knob on the door but it wouldn't open. There was some sort of white bulb over it… keeping him from turning it properly. He ran across the school room to the playground door… but there was a bulb here as well… "Paddy! PADDDYYY-YYY-YY!" He ran again, towards the other door, but he tripped over one of his blocks and lay sprawled on the floor. He cried harder.

Miss Nancy hushed him, helping him up. "Shhh, dear, it's all right. He's on his way, I'll bet you he'll be here in just a few minutes."

"He's not comin' baaaaaaaaaaaaaack…" Harry wailed, his glasses getting tears all in them as he tilted his head back and fell back down onto his butt, burying his face in his lion.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up as the familiar voice reached his ears and he sniffled slightly, trying to see through his glasses. And then there were arms wrapping around him and lifting him up, and a familiar smell went up his nose. "L-lexie?"

"Shhhh baby… I've got you." Lexie dug into her pocket and brought out a tissue, helping Harry dry his eyes and clear his glasses.

"Why're you here? Where's Paddy?" Harry asked, completely confused.

"Well, Harry. Padfoot decided it'd be a good idea to build a tree house."

"A tree house! COOL!" Harry beamed now, happy with that idea.

"But then he fell out of the tree and broke his butt."

"He broke his butt!" Harry's eyes went wide with wonder. He had never heard of anyone ever breaking their butt before.

"Yep. So Moony had to take him to the hospital, but he'll be all right. So, Moony asked me if I would pick you up for them today and it looks like it'll be just us for lunch. He said he hopes to be back by dinner though."

Harry laughed. Oh, silly Padfoot! He hadn't forgotten about Harry, he'd just been too hurt to come and get him. Harry supposed it would be very hard to ride a motorbike with a broken butt. He did hope he was ok… but then, Lexie had said he would be.

"Excuse me, but… legally I cannot allow Harry to leave with you unless you're on his list of designated pick-uppers. What's your name?" Miss Nancy asked as she went to her desk and rifled through files until she found Harry's and pulled it out.

"Alexandria Owan… I should be on there. Sirius put me down as a contact when he filled out the forms."

"Ah, yes! Here you are! Thank you for coming. Harry, I hope you had a lovely day at school today, and I will see you tomorrow, alright?"

"Ok!" Harry smiled as Lexie retrieved his backpack and took his hand. "Bye, Miss Nancy! Lexie, see my fishy! That one! With the red."

"Oh, it's magnificent, Harry." Lexie smiled and waved good bye to Miss Nancy and then, to Harry's surprise, she was able to get the door open. Huh…. Lexie must know the secret to the white bulb thing then. He was glad she had come… glad to have not been forgotten. He didn't think he could have born it if he'd been forgotten.

"Come on Harry, we've got a walk ahead of us."

Harry laughed, watching as Lexie swung his ackpack back and forth in her other hand as they started the two mile trek back to his house. She could apparate with him but for fear of Muggles seeing, but a walk in the sunshine… well… that wasn't so bad.

Whew, ok! Here it is, and there we go! I hope you liked this one, it was a bit rough towards the ending again, but I think it came out all right. Please let me know what you thought and if you've got any future suggestions, don't be afraid to put them out there!

Love always,

S.Q.O.