[Disclaimer: I do not own anything from HP, J.K Rowling does. I am only doing it for entertainment and not money]
: Author's Note : I hope you guys liked the prologue because here's chapter 1. Just read all the children's lines in a cute voice and you'll get how I wrote their lines. Also, I have no idea how baby's pronounce things so did that yourself, too. It's a little short since I really wanted to post something.
Chapter 1: Daycare Downs
Harry Potter-Pasturl had always been different. He was a wizard living in a magical environment, the exception of his Aunt Petunia, who was a muggle, but he never felt like he fit in.
Harry lived a perfectly normal life. He lived in a perfectly normal home with perfectly normal relatives in a perfectly normal street. Nothing in his life could be any more perfectly normal. Even their pet cat, Morris, was perfectly normal, even with his grumpy attitude towards life and all its beauty. Something that perfectly-normal Harry would never understand.
But there was still something.
Harry Potter-Pasturl had a perfectly-normal daily-routine. He woke up, have Uncle Daniel get him dressed and then go to daycare until 3 o'clock, before Aunt Petunia took him and Luke home. Then they would play in their playroom for an hour before having a snack, usually chopped-up bananas, before Uncle Daniel came home. Then he would take the two boys to the park before they came home around five o'clock, when they would have dinner. Then an hour in front of the television before perfectly-normal Harry Potter-Pasturl and perfectly-normal Luke Pasturl would go to bed. Harry couldn't find anything that wasn't perfectly-normal.
So what was it?
Maybe it was because he was an orphan? Harry had learned that the other kids at daycare had parents who loved them, but his aunt and uncle cared for him very much, as they told him each night. Perfectly-normal Harry Potter-Pasturl had decided that when the Dumb-dore had dropped him off with his relatives, the old man had held him a little too tightly. It was the only logical explanation.
That's what perfectly-normal Harry Potter was thinking when Uncle Daniel dropped off him and Luke at daycare on a perfectly-normal Monday morning. He was quickly snatched from his thoughts, however, as Ms. Smith, the kind daycare worker, opened the door.
"Hello!" she greeted, smiling. Ms. Smith was probably the nicest person Harry knew. And one of the prettiest, he realised, with her long sandy, blonde hair and grey eyes. "Coming to drop Luke and Harry off, Mr Pasturl?"
"Um, yeah." Daniel brought a car-key out of his pocket. "Can you keep them for an extra half an hour? My wife Petunia has an extra shift at the café – one of her colleagues is sick."
"Of course, Mr Pasturl. Come along now, children; Hermione's already arrived."
Harry's face brightened up. Hermione Granger was Harry's bestest friend in the whole wide world; apart from Luke, that is. He dashed to the reading area, where Hermione was currently studying a picture book.
"Hermione!"
Hermione glanced up from a picture of a dragon and, realising who it was, broke into a smile before rushing into Harry's arms.
"Harry!"
They hugged as Hermione picked up her book, intent on showing him what she was reading.
"Look at this, Harry," she said. Hermione was delighted at her new find. "This book has dragons! I've always been interested in fantasy," Harry gasped at her use of a very clever word. "books and Ms. Smith told me about this one. I'm going to ask mummy to buy it for me when I get home."
Harry glanced at the front-cover, blinking behind his very cool glasses. He looked all grown up in them. The cover had dragons and unicorns and rainbows and witches, all which Harry knew existed though he had been strictly told never to share any of that information with Hermione.
"I'm going to ask Aunt Petunia to buy it for me when I get home, too!" he squealed. The two friends hugged again until they felt somebody patting them on the back. It was Ms. Smith, gazing down on them with a kind expression.
"Dears," she said soothingly. "Please let Luke play with you while I let the other children in. Remember our motto…"
"Sharing our friends is the same as caring," the three chimed automatically. Ms. Smith nodded before retreating towards her desk, just as the door opened again. Harry grinned at Gavin, a small, light-haired boy with a superhero action figure clutched in his fist.
"I got it! I got it!"
Everybody at the daycare knew of Gavin's obsession with superhero's. Over the last few weeks he had been trying to collect the Golden Superman, which was now in his hand, glistening in the light.
"Cool!" said Luke. "Is it made of actual gold, Gavin? Can I touch it?" Gavin smiled and held his figure up, while his mother tried to unbutton his coat. Luke made to grab at the figure, but fell into Harry so both boys were on the floor. Ms. Smith only shook her head.
"Gavin," she said, picking the two children up, "why don't you allow Luke to hold it? Do you want to show it for show-and-tell?"
"Yes please!" said Gavin, handing Luke the toy. "Everybody's gonna love it, won't they Ms. Smith?"
"Yes they will darling," Ms. Smith said calmly. She glanced out of the window. "And it looks like Benjamin has just arrived." She opened the door and this time a black boy came in, holding his mother's hand nervously. Benjamin had only arrived at the daycare a week ago, and was still scared by the cool kids like Harry and Luke.
Then next few kids turned up soon after. Vicki, a small girl who could draw inside the lines, Sam, the sportiest kid at daycare, Kasper, who was good at inventing game ideas, Matt, the cleverest kid at daycare, Harriet, a girl who Harry sometimes wondered whether she was his long lost twin and Jenny, a girl with glasses. Isabella, another girl from daycare, had caught a cold from Kasper the week before and was probably watching some cartoons on the sofa at that second, Harry mused. Once the last parents left, Ms. Smith moved the kids into the play-area.
The play area was bright and colourful, like Harry's and Luke's was at home, with blankets and toys to keep the children entertained. Hermione was moaning loudly how she wanted to go the reading area to continue reading her book about dragons.
"Let's play dragons!" Luke suggested, holding up his arm as if he was holding a sword. "I'll be a knight, so will Harry. Gavin can be a superhero with Golden Superman and Hermione can be the dragon, since she has read about them and probably knows a lot about them."
Hermione smiled. "I do!" she cried. "I will be Red, a dragon in my book who likes cakes and hates the taste of human flesh. I shall be a friendly dragon!"
"Yeah!" Harry said. "We can all live in our castle with our servants, who bow down to us and do whatever we say. We shall be the kings and queens of the world!"
"Don't we need evil dragon?" Gavin asked. "Golden Superman doesn't have much to do if we just eating cake with dragons."
"He can be our personal chef!" yelled Luke. "And he can- he can make the yummiest, most tasty cake in the whole wide world!"
Cheers escaped their mouths as the group made their way to a stack of chairs and blankets; their castle.
77H77
That's where Ms. Smith found the children as she called them to snack-time, which consisted of some apple-slices. Unfortunately, no child wanted to stop playing.
"Come on!" Ms. Smith called, expecting the usual patter of feet as the children came running towards her. "Snack-time!"
Nobody came.
Ms. Smith entered the room to find Gavin standing on a chair, wielding his superman-figure like a sword. Luke and Harry were both pouncing onto Benjamin, who was crying. Vicki was colouring a dragon and keeping inside of the lines. Sam and Kasper were leaping onto cushions while Harriet was giggling in the corner. To make matters worse, Jenny and Matt were silently doodling on the wall.
Oh dear.
Ms. Smith picked up the bell, which she used when she wanted everybody to stop, and rang it. Instantly the children froze, guilty expressions planted on their faces. They knew what they had done was wrong.
"Snack-time!" Ms. Smith said. "I'll clean this up while you have your snacks. Then we'll all have a serious talk." The children nodded and headed towards the kitchens.
"We were only playing Dragons," complained Harry as he sat down, grabbing a bright green bowl. "It's Hermione's fault, anyway."
"Hey!"
"It was not Hermione's fault!" Luke argued. "You wanted to play Dragons. Hermione wanted to read her book. Where is the book, anyway?"
The children looked around, until Hermione provided it from under her armpit. "It's my book," she explained, "and I wanna keep it safe."
All the children nodded in agreement. Why hadn't they thought of that?
"That's so cool, 'Mione," Luke said. "I'm gonna do that with my books when I get home." He mimed holding a book under his armpit, grinning. "Then I can get smarter than Daddy, and Mummy. And they went to university!"
All the kids opened their mouths in admiration; Luke and Harry really did have very cool parents.
77H77
Petunia came to pick up the children at half-past three. She was mildly excited; since Luke and Harry were her two children and she loved to be around them, but something else was nagging at the back of her mind. Nevermind, the children always came first. Petunia knocked on the door and it opened, to reveal Ms. Smith, the daycare-worker.
"Hallo, Mrs Pasturl," Ms. Smith greeted. "Your husband told me that you would be late. Do come in. I hope everything's alright at the café."
"It's quite busy, nowadays," Petunia agreed, as she entered the room. "We're thinking to branch out to other communities and try become a bigger business. Oh, hello boys."
Luke and Harry looked up from their drawings and ran towards Petunia, collapsing into her legs for a hug. Petunia smiled, they really were adorable.
"Look, Aunt Tuney, look!" Harry squealed, holding up a book. "'Mione was reading this. It's about dragons! Can I buy this book when we get home?"
"Of course, dear," Petunia said. "I better get going, Ms. Smith. Thank you for caring for them."
"My pleasure," replied Ms. Smith. "I hope work goes well at the café. Goodbye, boys, I shall see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye, Ms. Smith!" said the boys in unison, waving. Then they left.
Ms. Smith wiped her brow. It had been a long day. After telling all the children off for not being sensible, she had had to get the children's lunchboxes of their bags, but Benjamin didn't want her to touch his things. And then apparently she had placed Hermione, sorry, Red, in the wrong place since she couldn't sit with Harry and Luke, the knights. And the stupid golden superman figure had to have a lunchbox for himself. The afternoon had gone alright, after the morning's lecture, but Ms. Smith still wanted to drown somebody.
The telephone began to ring. Her mind in another world, Ms. Smith answered it to hear a deep, gruffy voice at the other end.
"Is this Ms. Smith?"
Putting on her profession voice, Ms. Smith answered. "Yes it is, sir. How may I help you?"
"I want to enrol my son in your daycare. And I want you to treat him with the best of what you've got. I don't care how much money I have to give you, just do it."
"Okay, sir. And who is your son, may I ask?"
"Dudley Dursley."
77H77
Daniel Pasturl sighed, checking his watch. He was nearly late for daycare, and definitely late for work. If only Harry didn't have to be some of a lunatic getting dressed. He quickly got the boys out of the car and walked towards the door. Unfortunately, there was already a man there, talking to his son.
"Now Dudley," said the man. "Show all those little people whose boss, okay? Create your army because you've got to fight to be at the top, okay?"
Daniel raised his eyebrow. That wasn't a good lesson to teach your kid.
The son nodded solemnly before entering the daycare. Daniel nodded at the man, before entering the daycare himself. Ms. Smith was busy with the new boy.
"Hello Dudley," she was saying softly. "You're new aren't you? Would you like to play with Benjamin, he's new to."
The boy, Dudley, shook his head.
"Daddy said I had to make my own friends myself. He looks good," he said, pointing at Sam, who was throwing a rubber ball up in the air and catching it.
"Okay, Dudley," Ms. Smith said. "I've just got to say hello to some other children. Hallo, Mr Pasturl. Is Petunia having a late shift again?"
"No," replied Daniel, shaking his head. "She'll be on time. I really need to go now, though; I'm late for work."
"Of course, Mr Pasturl," the lady said, bending down. "Come on now, Harry and Luke. I have the same dragon book out for you to play with today." The boys ran, not even saying goodbye, towards a small girl with lots of bushy, brown hair, who was clutching a book.
"Goodbye," said Daniel and left.
Ms. Smith closed the door, Harriet and Isabella's parent had rang in to tell her that their children were sick, and everybody else was here. She turned around to find Gavin wailing and Harry running around the room, with something gold in his fists.
"What's the matter, Gavin?" Ms. Smith asked, going to the crying child first.
Gavin took a big sniff. "Hawwy… Hawwy took Golden Superman!" he cried and Ms. Smith stood up, scowling.
"Harry!" she said fiercely. "Give Gavin his Golden Superman back right now and say sorry."
"But we were just playing!" explained Harry. "I'm playing Red today and I'm kidnapping Golden Superman. Gavin has to work to get it back."
"Oh, then, that's okay," Gavin said, looking up. He stood up and began to run after Harry. "I shall save you Golden Superman!"
"I'll help you!" cried Luke and Hermione in unison, and soon all three of them were running after Golden Superman. Until Dudley Dursley put a stop to it.
The small boy waddled towards Harry and grabbed the figure, snapping off his head.
"I wanna toy!"
"You broke toy! You broke toy!"
"What is going on here?" demanded Ms. Smith. She picked up the wailing Harry and Gavin, while frowning at Dudley Dursley, who shrugged his shoulders.
"I only wanted to play."
"Well we do not snatch at daycare, Dudley," Ms. Smith lectured. "Time-out."
"But I don't wanna time-out."
She raised her eyebrow at Dudley, who quickly scooted towards the corner. Daycare always presented long days, and now Dudley Dursley had shown up, who knew what could happen.
: End Author's Note : Do you like that I added Dudley into daycare? And Hermione? I went to a nursery when I was younger, but I can only remember that they had these really yummy biscuits. I didn't have friends too, but I was always the quiet kid who played by herself. Hope you enjoyed. And please review, favorite and follow. Thank you for your support for the prologue.