Chapter 21: Interlude - Crawley

For general disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1. However, this chapter has an extended AN at the end; it just seemed necessary at this point.

1986 August, Kithurst Close, Crawley

Harry and his unusual family - a godfather who he lived with, and an aunt and two uncles who visited often - had settled down fairly well. He would still go to aunt Penny and uncle Nick's place sometimes, but more often than not, they would visit. And uncle Mooney would spend all his spare time here; if he wasn't here he was working.

It had taken the adults very little time to explain to him that Hobby and Kreacher could not be seen here, and indeed anything to do with the world of magic was to be kept carefully guarded from his neighbours. They had not told him Hobby may be around, watching invisibly (though not all the time); he had told them his master had ordered him to make sure Harry was safe, although they had countered that the muggle world was incomprehensible to most purebloods.

Nevertheless, Hobby had insisted, and was there a lot. Over the next few days, he helped Harry understand how to use the TV remote (Harry having never been allowed by the Dursleys even to look at the thing!), and the telephone. He found the best places for the occasional dinner treat - like at Grimmauld, he appeared to know what Harry's favourite foods were - and often joined them invisibly and quietly if the place was not too crowded. He didn't seem to be at all confused by the muggle world.

Speaking of the muggle world, it seemed that living for six centuries was enough to make sure you were an expert in pretty much everything, so Nick and Penny were quite at home in the muggle world, too. Nick even admitted he had a couple of expensive cars lying around somewhere, and had enjoyed driving them in days gone by.

So that left Sirius the only one of the little group that had to catch up on muggle life.

Harry had also made a new friend - Hermione, his next door neighbour. The girl was almost a year older than him, but she was in the same class as him (the adults had explained it as something to do with which month you were born in). She had walked up to Sirius on their second day here, when they were getting acquainted with their front yard/garden, and introduced herself.

"Hello, my name is Hermione, and I live next door. Welcome to Kithurst Close; I hope we can be friends", and she stuck her hand out solemnly for Sirius to shake.

Sirius shook her hand, while Hobby shook silently with laughter. Good old Hermione, he thought.

"Hello Hermione, it's nice to meet you, and thank you for making us welcome. My name is Sirius, and this is my godson Harry". At which Hermione turned to Harry, and offered him a handshake too, which he accepted with a shy smile, and a quiet "Nice to meet you too Hermione".

Hermione's parents had come out of their house at that point, seen what their daughter was up to, and had walked over to introduce themselves too. In the two weeks that they had had before school started, they had become good friends, and spent at least a few hours every day in each other's company, either in her house or his.

Neither of them had had any friends before this, of course, which explained why they had become so close in such a short time.

Hermione found a quiet, potentially studious, boy whose godfather doted on him, but did not unduly spoil him. Harry was polite, gentle, and - when you could bring it out of him - had a wonderful smile that lit up his face. And when this happened from something she said or did, she felt really good about herself.

Harry found Hermione to be something like himself, except a few years older, despite that she was actually only about 10 months older than him. She was sophisticated enough to speak to adults like a young lady, she was extremely studious, and she was equally polite and gentle. Her parents doted just as much on her, too. She had a gorgeous smile, though she did not appear to know it. Her teeth stuck out a wee bit, but in Harry's mind that only made her smile brighter.

It was during these two weeks that Harry also found out about her school life.

"Harry, I need to tell you something. You'll find out as soon as we start school anyway. You see, I don't have any friends at school. They call me 'buckteeth bookworm' and other nasty names. I also don't enjoy the childish games they play so that makes things worse."

"Do they hit you?"

"Well no, they're a bit young for that level of cruelty I guess, but I wouldn't put it past one or two of the older ones at some point in the future."

Harry did not need any time to think of what he should say. He gave her a sideways hug and said, "Hermione, you know I never had any friends either". He smiled at her visible relief, hugging her tighter. "I promise you that you will have at least one friend at school".

1986-09-18 11:00 UTC, Northport Primary School, Crawley

Soon after school started, Harry found one big difference between himself and Hermione.

Hermione was a fighter. Not that Harry himself could not or would not fight if needed, but mainly, he was shy, and favoured discretion to confrontation. Hermione's first instinct was to fight - though so far it had only been verbal.

So far.

One day, a boy, who was evidently one of her tormentors in the previous year, decided he did not like the bucktoothed bookworm having a friend. Tommy Dane was a bit large for his age, and decided that physical strength was a good thing to have, and it was time he used it.

He walked up to Harry, and said "Hey runt, you shouldn't hang around with the bucktooth bookworm", pointing to Hermione. "You should be with the rest of us".

Harry shook his head and quietly said "Sorry, but you don't get to tell me whom to be friends with. I haven't known you even half as long as I've known her, and you don't know either of us a third as much as we know each other."

While Tommy was trying to work out what Harry had just said, Hermione took Harry's arm and said "Harry, when you speak to people like Tommy, use shorter sentences with simpler words. It's like talking to a baboon in a zoo - they can understand 'banana' and 'water' but anything more takes time".

For some reason, Tommy understood this. He grabbed Hermione's other hand and pulled her forward to face him square, inadvertently shoving Harry to the side.

Hermione simply stared at him. From the corner of her eye she could see a teacher looking at the confrontation, probably trying to decide if he should get involved or stay out and let the kids handle it. There was something to be said on both sides, and, in any case, Hermione knew he may not be fast enough to prevent something if Tommy decided to up the ante.

"Bad baboon, no banana for you today", said Hermione. "Let go of my hand". Tommy tightened his grip on her right hand, and swung at her with his right.

Unfortunately, Harry tried to block the fist, and took it in the face. His glasses went flying, and a bruise could be seen on the left side of his face.

Hermione shook off the bully's grip and went to help Harry. Another girl handed her his glasses, which had broken when they fell. Hermione gave them to Harry and said "I'm sorry Harry, but we'll get them fixed this evening. Are you OK otherwise? Does it hurt?"

"Yes I'm OK", said Harry. It wasn't a very powerful hit - Tommy was not yet a seasoned bully. He was sure Dudley could have landed a bigger one.

Once she was sure Harry would be OK, Hermione rounded on Tommy. By this time, of course, a bunch of kids had gathered round; pretty much everyone on the playground was there. The teacher who was watching had had his dilemma resolved, so he had started walking toward them, but not hurrying. He still seemed to want to see how the kids would handle this, though he appeared less sure of leaving it at that completely.

"So you think it's OK to hit a girl, do you? You know what I think of people who hit girls?"

Tommy stayed silent. This was his first experience at physical intimidation, and, although he had hit someone, it wasn't who he wanted to hit and intimidate. And this one seemed to be quite the opposite of intimidated.

Before he could think any more, Hermione socked him one on the jaw. Whether the girl had picked up the rudiments of boxing, or it was pure luck, no one would ever know, but Tommy saw stars. He went down with a cry of fear and surprise.

"Don't like it when someone does it to you, do you? If you ever try to hit me or Harry ever again, in fact, if you try to hit anyone, I will make you suffer. Play nice, and be nice, and we'll all get along", she cautioned him.

The teacher had reached the group just as Hermione ended her speech. That last line probably saved her some trouble of her own; he merely looked at her with a curious expression on his face and took Tommy away.

That evening, after they had gone to an optometrist and gotten his eyes checked (just in case) and had the glasses replaced, Harry and Hermione were sitting on Harry's front porch. Harry seemed unsure of how to ask what he wanted to ask her, but eventually he just blurted it out.

"Hermione, where did you learn to fight like that and talk like that?"

"I don't really know Harry, but I read a lot, and we do have a lot of self-help type books at home, even about martial arts".

"What are 'martial arts'?", asked Harry.

"Things to do with fighting. Like karate, judo, and so on. I mean, I've read about a lot of them but never actually practiced any. Maybe I should join some after-school classes", she tailed off.

"If you do, I would like to join you too, Hermione".

"Sure, let me talk to my parents".

Author Note

Apologies for a really short chapter. I'll take some space for an AN, because, despite having said I won't do that, there are some things that need to be said.

A big thank you to everyone for your reviews. I am truly humbled by the positive comments and the thoughtful criticism. I'm slowly learning that writing a good story is more than just good English grammar and spelling, and your reviews are an important part of that learning for me. (Plus I was absolutely flabbergasted to see ApAidan reviewing my story. Wow!)

Responses to important questions will appear - where possible - in some subsequent chapter, worked into the text as dialog or thought (example: my response to the "Jack the Ripper" analogy that someone made, is in ch15, toward the end).

For a couple of questions where that is not immediately possible, or would be too contrived, here are some responses. Please forgive the brevity and the lack of names. (1) Courtroom fail: I agree, but canon isn't much better. Heck one guy was chucked in without even a trial ;-) (2) DMLE checking for compulsions: same argument. Also, the compulsion that Hobby laid on Delores was only to go and offer to do something; the choice of what to do, and to whom, and the decision to actually go through with it, were her own actions. (3) Secret-keeper living in the same house: good catch; but by now you know they moved out anyway. The Fidelius was for protection from Dumbledore, not the death-eaters, so once he is neutralised it's not a factor.