HP Morgendorffer FF First Grade Part II
What if Minerva McGonagall had successfully persuaded Albus Dumbledore not to leave the infant Harry Potter on the Dursleys' doorstep, but instead place him with the Morgendorffer family from MTV's Daria?
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Disclaimer: Daria is the creation of Glenn 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 to benefit financially from this story. I am writing strictly for my own amusement and ego gratification.
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The fuss about HJ's scar now behind the Morgendorffer family and the remainder of the fall term at J. Frank Dobie Elementary School went by without incident. HJ and Daria applied themselves with connecting letters with sounds, symbols with numbers, and stringing letters together to form words and were soon reading and doing arithmetic at levels well beyond many of their school-mates. They also began to learn about history, geography, and some of the sciences. When an intern working with Mrs. Kettler asked him how much he'd learned in school thus far, HJ smirked and said that while he wasn't a rocket scientist yet, he'd learned which end of a bottle rocket had a fuse.
Daria was a little jealous of HJ. He wasn't one of the really popular kids, but he didn't seem to have any problems making friends. She found that making friends was harder for her. She did have a couple of girl friends she hung with, originally a couple of girls she'd met in pre-school and kindergarten, as well as a couple of new girls they met in first grade. They read, they watched movies, and occasionally they played with dolls, although Daria's dolls tended to be serious young women who were more interested in writing and pursuing careers than dressing in the latest styles or finding boyfriends. They did play house. A couple of their moms actually let them help in the kitchen.
At first Daria was a little reluctant to invite her friends over to play; she worried that her friends might see HJ's accidental magic. That didn't happen. She and HJ got along well enough, but he'd started to act like a guy; he either hung with his own friends or did something by himself when she had friends over.
Some things did change. While Daria was sure she wasn't a witch, she did have several dreams about HJ, some of which were about what would have happened if Mom and Dad hadn't adopted him. Sometimes she saw him as an unwanted step-child living in an ugly house being bullied by his step-parents. He was thin and miserable and she was torn between wanting to cry or jump in there, take names, and kick butt. Sometimes he was in an orphanage, somewhat better fed, but alone and unloved. She told herself that that wasn't going to happen if she had anything to do with it.
Once in a while Mom and Dad would go out on what they called "date nights." Despite the fact that it wasn't an official MACUSA function, Mrs. Kettler had provided them with a list of baby-sitters who were "within the loop" as far as knowing about real magic. Mom and Dad also were able to get Jillian from their commune days to sit them . Daria had mixed feelings about Jillian. She was nice enough, but she too often treated HJ like he was a mini-celebrity. She also kept trying to get Daria to show signs of magic herself. Daria thought Jillian was wasting her time; HJ had it, she didn't.
As the fall semester went on, both Daria and HJ had settled into first grade, and both received positive reports about their academic and developmental processes at the end of the first quarter. HJ was complimented for his academic progress and his social skills, but Mrs. Perez was concerned that Daria was not that skilled at making friends. Still, Miss Morgendorffer was clearly learning how to read and write, kept up with the assignments, and if she sometimes needed a prod to join some of the activity groups, she didn't withdraw and isolate herself.
HJ and Daria developed mixed attitudes towards PE. Daria thought that most of the physical activities bored her and she didn't like the way that some of the slowest and most thick-witted of her classmates suddenly became the kings and queens of the playground. HJ didn't mind PE so much. As a matter of fact, he enjoyed it. Not only did he like the competition, he learned that the other kids wanted him on their teams. If he wasn't the best at volleyball or flag football , he was good enough not to be a drag on the rest of the team. What frustrated HJ was that there weren't very many boys his age who were into baseball.
Christmas came and went. All three of the Morgendorffer children cleaned up: HJ got a new fielder's mitt, both he and Daria got new books, and both Daria and Quinn got new dolls. HJ also got a cool toy from Jillian: a magical toy, a wand that shot out cotton balls. Daria found HJ's toy irritating; sometimes he pointed it at her and shot volleys of cotton balls when she was trying to read something. The best way to get HJ to quit was if she got up and gave him a smack; she'd tried using his toy on him, but it more often than not didn't work for her. Daria knew that HJ's toy wand was magical toy and wondered why it sometimes worked for her. She eventually decided that the reason had to be something like a magical version of static electricity, some sort of residual charge.
Superbowl came and went, as did the All-Stars games. Some of the boys attempted to play basketball, but it was difficult to store; the adult-sized basketballs the PE department had stocked were large and awkward and the hoops were set incredibly high.
Valentine's Day arrived. Daria did her family duty and not only sent valentines to Mom and Dad and Quinn and HJ, but also to all three of her aunts and both of her grandmothers. She was amused to see that HJ got a small stack of valentines; some of the girls thought he was cute. Daria got several herself; she was secretly pleased, but she didn't know what to make of them.
Daria had several strange dreams a few nights later. She dreamt that she was much older and standing at the edge of a cold forest, holding a wand. There was danger around, which was why she had her wand out and was wary. There was also something about Massachusetts that she didn't remember. She woke up feeling puzzled and frightened.
Her dreams bothered her enough that she wanted to talk about it to somebody. She didn't want to talk about it with Jillian; Jillian was already convinced that she was a witch and wanted Mom to start putting in pre-magic school activities as soon as school ended in June. Daria didn't think that she was a witch, but maybe "Mundies" sometimes had strange dreams, too. She decided to mention it to Mrs. Kettler when she came by. Unfortunately Mrs. Kettler didn't stop by that month and the older case worker who came in her place only listened to her talk about her dreams, patted her on the head, and said that it was probably nothing and that she shouldn't worry about it.
Daria celebrated her birthday a week later and Helen took a break from work and drove them down to San Antonio. They spent the morning visiting the Alamo and the Riverwalk, then the early afternoon watching a movie at a mall before returning home to Ruskin.
The weather began to warm and the Morgendorffers accepted that regardless of what the calendar might say, winter was over and spring had started. Harry had spent the last part of March feeling frustrated that he wasn't officially allowed to cross the street, despite the fact that the older boys on the next block played serious games of catch using baseballs and fielders' mitts. Aunt Helen and Uncle Jake finally relented in April, and after some instruction from Uncle Jake, HJ was allowed to cross the street.
Finally, thought HJ. Maybe this time I'll get to play some ball. Now that he could cross the street on his own, he told himself that he was going to look up those kids he'd seen playing catch.
It was late-morning Saturday and HJ decided to try his luck. He carefully crossed the street and made his way down to the house where he'd seen the ball players. He hoped they'd be there, and was relieved to see that they were. They were out in front of what HJ supposed was one of the guys' house throwing a baseball to each other and trying to catch it.
They were all older than he was. No surprise there; HJ had been watching them for months.
"Hi," said HJ. "I'm HJ. I live down the street."
One of the older boys, a tall, red-haired boy with freckles, said "Hi" back at him. He looked at HJ and his fielder's mitt with amusement. "I'm Rusty," he said. He was clearly the leader. He must have been twelve.
"Nice mitt," said Rusty. "Do you just carry it around or do you think you can actually use it?"
"I can use it," said HJ, looking Rusty in the eye.
"This is Jerry," said Rusty, gesturing to a brown-haired boy wearing a Texas State tee-shirt. Jerry picked up the hard-ball they'd been throwing around and smirked at HJ. "Think you can catch it, kid?" he asked.
Jerry first lobbed a ball at the new kid and wasn't surprised to see him catch it. The kid threw it back, although Rusty thought his throw was weak. As a reminder to the new kid that he was playing with the big boys, he sent a curve ball at Travis, who caught it. Travis and Jerry smirked at each other. Time to see what the little wanna-be was made of.
Travis threw a fast-ball at the kid and he almost caught it. If the kid had raised his mitt just a little higher and closed it a little sooner, he would have gotten it. Still, he was impressed.
"He's not bad," said Travis. "He can keep up, even if he does throw like a girl." HJ glared at him from behind his glasses. The three boys spent the next half-hour playing catch with HJ. HJ already knew that Travis could throw a mean ball, but he soon learned that Rusty was almost as good.
The boys got together for a couple of subsequent Saturday s, then Rusty invited HJ over for something special.
Rusty, Travis, and Jerry decided that they not only wanted a little batting practice but that they were also curious to see if HJ could catch their balls when they were batted at him. They invited HJ to come over to the empty Middle School baseball field one Sunday morning to see what the kid could do. Rusty was the pitcher, Travis the catcher, Jerry was the batter, and HJ the general fielder. After HJ caught a line drive, a couple of pop flies and made fast work of a grounder, Rusty gestured him over.
"See if you can catch this one, kid," said Jerry, winking at Rusty. Rusty threw a ball in the zone, Jerry hit it, and the ball went flying high over the field. The three older boys turned to watch HJ and see if HJ could catch it. The ball came down towards HJ. Rusty wasn't sure HJ could catch it. HJ was only a first-grader and kids Rusty's age often had a hard time catching fly balls. No shame if the kid dropped it. But HJ was watching the ball drop down on him like a hawk. To Rusty's surprise, the kid was right where he was supposed to be, his glove open. The ball practically landing in his fielder's glove, and he caught it.
"Damn," said Jerry.
"The kid's a bird-dog," Travis said admiringly.
"Yeah," said Jerry. "We ought to call him that."
"We ought to," said Rusty. "Bird Dog Morgendorffer."
"You know, Little League try-outs are next Saturday," he said. "You ought to be there. I think you're good enough to make the team."
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Author's note: The toy wand was borrowed from another writer, who used it for a "magical Dudley" story. I tried to track him or her down to ask permission, but without success. Whoever you are, wherever you are, thank you very much for your idea. I had fun playing with it.