Harry Potter Morgendorffer First Grade Part One

Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter and its characters are the creation of JK Rowling, and are the property of JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own neither, and neither expect nor deserve any financial compensation for this story. I am writing for my own amusement and for ego gratification.

Speaking of ego gratification: How about writing a gratifying positive review?

-(((O-O)))—

Six year-old Harry James (HJ) Morgendorffer walked through the doors of J. Frank Dobie Elementary School with his cousin Daria in Ruskin, Texas. Despite the fact that this was Dobie Elementary and that he'd been here last year, HJ still felt a little on edge. School had started, they were now in the first grade, and Aunt Helen had told him that things were now serious and that she and Uncle Jake were counting on him to work hard and make good grades.

Fortunately, both HJ and Daria had been here last year and had already learned the school's layout: two floors, an auditorium, a gym, a library, and a computer room. They passed the room where they'd gone to kindergarten last year and HJ gave a sigh of nostalgia; he'd had fun there. His new room was a little further down the hall.

Room 1-107 was where his school day would start. He and Daria took seats in the middle. After introducing herself as Mrs. Perez, the teacher started taking role. Harry counted up the number of students and noted that there were twenty three other kids in class besides him and Daria. HJ didn't pay that much attention to roll call. Besides, he'd met most of the kids last year. Bored and looking for distraction, he started playing with his pen.

After taking the cap on and putting it back on several times, Harry imagined the cap to be the cockpit of a hyper-sonic rocket plane. He thought about where he would like to fly it, but decided he'd better check in and see where Mrs. Perez had gotten with roll call.

"Lovett, Marcia," said the Teacher.

Oops, thought HJ. I zoned out a little too long.

"Here!" said a chubby blond-haired girl.

"Lyle, Justin," said the teacher

"Here," said another Anglo kid.

Wake up, Morgendorffer, they've gotten to the M's, he told himself.

"Masterson, Bartholomew," said the teacher

"Here," said a nervous, skinny boy with red hair. HJ felt a little sorry for him. Getting named after a Wild West hero probably meant that he was going to have a whole lot of crap dumped on him.

"McKean, William," said the teacher. There was a pause.

"McKean, William," the teacher said.

"Oh, uh, Here," said a brown-haired boy who'd been zoning out like he had and had just gotten caught.

"Mendoza, Juan," said the teacher.

"Here," said a brown-haired, light-skinned boy. Huh, thought HJ, I thought Mexicans were all brown-skinned and dark-haired.

"Moreno, Isabel," said the teacher.

"Here," said Isobel.

"Morgendorffer, Daria," said the teacher

Here," said Daria.

"Morgendorffer, Harry," said the teacher.

"Here," said HJ. He'd grown used to being called HJ, but Aunt Helen and Uncle Jake told him that he'd still have to answer to Harry for what they called "official stuff."

"Morgendorffer," said the teacher. "School rules. No caps at school. Take your cap off."

Harry grudgingly took off his cap. The teacher stared at him.

"Morgendorffer, is that a scar on your forehead?" said the teacher.

Oh, crap, thought Harry.

"Yeah," said Harry. He'd heard a lot more about his scar than he wanted to remember.

"How long have you had it?"

"I've had it since I was a baby," said Harry.

"Go see the school nurse," said Mrs. Perez.

The school nurse asked him the same question about his scar. HJ told her the truth: he'd had the scar since he was a baby and that he'd had it before Uncle Jake and Aunt Helen had adopted him. The school nurse told him that he didn't have to cover for adults if they were being bad, particularly if they were abusing him. She told him that she would be contacting Child Protective Services. It was for his own good of course.

Harry went home in a state close to panic. He knew that Uncle Jake and Aunt Helen weren't the very best parents in the world, but they loved him, he loved them, and he thought they treated him pretty well. He knew that he was adopted, and he was scared that the powers-that-be would find some way to take him away and throw him in an orphanage or worse, send him back to England where he didn't know anybody and he'd never see Aunt Helen, Uncle Jake, his sisters, or his friends again.

Luckily Aunt Helen came home early that day and HJ told her about Mrs. Perez, the school nurse, and their plan to contact Child Protective Services. Aunt Helen asked Daria if she knew anything about it, and she told her that the school nurse had also asked her to come to her office and be brave and step forward if she thought that she and HJ were being abused.

After announcing her indignation at the teacher's and the school nurse's assumptions, Helen's first thought was to think about legal options. Unfortunately, the state would probably get to send social workers home to interview both her and Jake. She thought about Jake being interviewed by a CPS case worker or worse, Jake being grilled in open court by an attorney working for the state. She grimaced. Jake would never hurt her or his children, but a judge might not see it that way. As much as she wanted to fight it in court, she worried that Child Protective Services would win and that HJ would be taken away.

She'd been around the magical world for almost five years now. She'd begun learning its by-ways, but some of its practices, particularly obliviation and memory-modification deeply offended her. She'd rather fight using civil law, but keeping HJ and her daughters safe overrode her qualms about tapping into MACUSA's resources. Her childrens' privacy and safety came first, no matter what.

She picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Mrs. Kettler, this is Helen Morgendorffer," she said. "We have a situation."

Mrs. Kettler arrived within two hours. She greeted Helen, Jake, HJ, Daria, and Quinn, smiled indulgently when Jake raised his voice in outrage at the CPS, and asked everyone to settle down and relax.

Helen told Mrs. Kettler about HJ and his encounters with his new teacher and with the school nurse.

"Thank you for contacting us, Mrs. Morgendorffer, you did the right thing," said Mrs. Kettler.

"I'd rather have resolved the matter using more conventional methods," said Helen, "but I'm afraid that the case workers won't accept that Lord Tom caused HJ's scar, not something Jake or I did.

"We'll take care of it our way," said Mrs. Kettler. "This whole thing should blow over in a couple of weeks."

-(((O-O)))-

As the days went by, Mrs. Perez became concerned that the investigation concerning HJ Morgendorffer's scar had stalled. First the Child Protective Services case worker told her told her that the investigation was on-going, then that it was resolved. The school nurse then told her that she accepted the case worker's determination after all and that there wasn't a problem.

HJ Morgendorffer's scar refused to heal. Mrs. Perez decided that the case worker was either lazy or had lost track. She resolved to try to go higher up in Child Protective Service's bureaucracy to get the Morgendorffer investigation moving forward again. She left the school building that afternoon thinking about what offices within CPS that she should call. There were two people, a man and a woman, both middle-aged and non-descript, waiting for her when she reached the row in the faculty parking lot where she'd parked her car. Both of them were carrying wands. "Mrs. Perez," said the middle-aged woman, pointing her wand at her before she could open her mouth to cry out, "we need to talk."

-(((O-O)))—

Author's note: Child Protective Services is the Texas state agency tasked with monitoring abused and neglected children and, if necessary, placing them in foster care.