Crib: to pilfer or steal, especially, especially to plagiarize

February 7, 1990

"Hey, give it back!" Harry cried indignantly as his maths homework flew out from under his nose.

"Keep your voice down in the house,"Aunt Petunia snapped from the stove, not even looking around to see what was going on.

Dudley pulled out his own crumpled homework assignment and laid it down beside his overflowing breakfast plate. "Just a minute," he grunted, shoving Harry into the wall as he made a grab for his paper.

Harry made one more swipe for the paper, but his cousin jabbed an elbow into his gut before he could get anywhere near it. Scowling, he dropped back into his seat. He'd spent most of last night and this morning figuring out all the answers while Dudley played his stupid computer games and now he'd have the answers in two minutes. And so would all of Dudley's gang, too, Harry was sure.

He glanced over at his aunt, wondering if it was worth trying to tell her. Probably not. She didn't believe a thing out of his mouth, especially if it was something bad about her son. And their teacher wouldn't, either. Dudley always said they'd worked together on it. No, if Harry didn't want Dudley copying his work, he'd have to stop it himself….

XxX

Just before the final bell rang that afternoon, the teacher called everyone up to the front of the room to collect their graded quizzes from that morning. When she handed Harry's back, it was with a frown.

"Not your best work, Mr. Potter," she said disapprovingly.

But when Harry saw the large red zero scrawled in the upper corner, an inexplicable grin spread across his face. He smirked as Dudley passed him, flashing the grade at his cousin. Dudley's mouth fell open. Behind him, Piers smacked Gordon in the arm.

"I told you he was up to something," he hissed furiously, looking at his own zero with a sullen expression.

And the best part? Harry couldn't get into trouble because Dudley couldn't admit he'd been cheating. And it wasn't as if his aunt and uncle cared about his grades at all.

It was only a small victory, but for now, Harry lived from one small victory to the next and just tried to get by the rest of the time.

A/N: Read and review? Pretty please? :)