The next morning donned bright and sunny. Harry got up soon after the sun, disoriented at first at his surroundings, the bright colors of his room and toys were an unfamiliar sight to him. Everything came back to him as soon he noticed his smaller size though, and Harry got out of bed energetically, heedless of the artificially cool air in his bedroom.

Today was to be his first day of school! Well okay, maybe it wasn’t his first day of school, but it was his first day going to school for this summer... this different summer, a new place with new clothes... a new start. The kids couldn’t laugh at him or push him because he was wearing ugly old clothes or because Dudley told them too.

Harry quickly opened his small chest of drawers and pulled out a new set of clothes, a white pair of pants, a short sleeved collared red shirt and a pair of tan trousers. The store smell was still on them and Harry spent a moment breathing it in and enjoying the novelty of it before moving to the bathroom. The tile was cold to his bare feet after the carpeting of his room and he thought about laying down a towel on the floor before his shower but in the end decided not to. When he was at school he usually took a shower after Quidditch practice, but when he didn’t have Quidditch he always took a shower in the morning. That had happened a lot last year… he shoved the thought out of his head before the feelings he had during that time could come back.

Hastily, Harry got ready for his day at school, hopping through the shower and getting dressed in his new clothes. After he was dressed he checked his new outfit in the bathroom mirror, buttoned the couple of buttons at the top of his collared shirt and made sure that the collar and short sleeves were straight. Lastly, he went back into his room and put on a new pair of white socks and wiggled his feet into his wonderful new trainers. The socks were so soft and fluffy and with his new cushiony trainers on, Harry felt like he could walk on air! He hoped around a few times, just to make sure that he was still grounded. He was a little disappointed and reassured that he was- he was a normal boy today.

Lastly, Harry went back into his room and stopped before the small wand on his bedside table. He made a face at it but picked it up anyway and placed it in a back pocket. Now ready, Harry went to the stairs and almost tumbled down them, literally, before he caught himself on the railing. He still wasn’t so coordinated in his new size so he took care to go down the stairs safely and found his way to the kitchen.

There, Snape sat morosely at the kitchen table, glaring darkly at his glass of juice. The man was wearing his Muggle clothes of black pants and a white buttoned down shirt again although they were different than the ones Harry had ever seen him in before. Hoppity stood in front of one of the kitchen counters, doing something dressed in a light blue suit looking dress. Her frizzy hair was up as usual and she looked to be mixing something in a bowl. Harry assumed that she was making breakfast. He could hear and smell the bacon cooking from here. Yesterday, he had hesitated against fixing or helping with breakfast with his new guardians, unsure as to what they expected, but now affronted with this familiar scene Harry felt more comfortable. He had always at least helped with breakfast, often did it all himself, and he knew that he would be expected to help now.

The bacon still sizzled and by the smell Harry knew that they should be turned by now… years of being hit with hot pans had ingrained it into his being. Hoppity was still mixing stuff at the counter, seemingly unaware of the bacon that was about to be burnt. So it was to be his job then.

Harry looked at the stove and noticed that he was a little too short to see over it and into the pan. Under Snape's dark scrutinizing eyes, Harry hurried over to the nearest chair and very quietly moved it to the stove so that he could stand on it. The sizzling sounds and Hoppity’s humming drowned out any noise that he might have made. Now more assured than ever that he was doing his job, Harry got in top of the chair and surveyed the pan, the bacon definitely needed to be turned by now. He spotted a pair of tongs on the side of the stove and moved over to reach them with his short arms. When he was dully equipped, Harry reached out with the tongs and started to carefully flip over the first piece of-

“Harry!” Hoppity’s terrified voice broke his concentration and he startled, badly, knocking his hand down and glancing off of the edge of the hot pan. He sucked in a breath as white hot pain shot through the back of his right hand and Hoppity hurried over to confront him. No doubt to berate him on taking so long to get ready this morning and now burning the bacon. Harry flinched when she bore down on him and roughly grabbed the tongs from his hand.

“What were you doing, Harry? What were you thinking? Are you hurt?” She asked frantically. Harry didn’t know what to answer. He was confused.

During his silence Hoppity’s face went from perplexed to understanding to angry and she went on to berate him for real this time. “Harry! If you wanted bacon you could have just asked!”

From his chair behind them, Snape gave a loud snort.

“And you!” Hoppity said, rounding on Snape. “How could you just let him do that?”

Snape just narrowed his eyes. “Simple. I just sat here and watched him. You could have had any number of opportunities to stop him if you weren’t so lost in your little world. Don’t worry though, Potter puts himself in danger for his selfish desires at his every convenience so I’m sure that you will have plenty of opportunities to make it up in the future.”

Harry clenched his hand into a fist, ignoring the slight twinge of pain from his burn. It wasn’t true that he put himself in danger because he was selfish, things just happened to him! He never asked for any of it.

“Well you could have at least stopped him!” Hoppity said, her mouth in a frown.

“And spoil my chance of witnessing your ineptitude? Never.” Snape said, in mock seriousness.

Hoppity’s frown deepened before she determinedly wiped it off and turned back to Harry. “Now Harry, if you want bacon next time just tell me okay? You could hurt yourself.” Mutely, Harry nodded. He didn’t really want bacon, he was happy with just toast but should he tell her that he was just trying to help? No, he decided resolutely. She might not believe him or she would think that he was odd. He was supposed to be a normal boy today, and he didn’t think normal boys helped make breakfast. Plus, there was no way that Snape would believe him and he didn’t want to start another argument between those two.

“Oh dear,” Hoppity said as she surveyed the bacon pan and quickly moved it over to a different burner on the top of the stove. “I suppose I’ll just have to start over.”

Ignoring the very burning bacon, Harry allowed Hoppity to lead him back to the table and next to a seat.

“I want you to have a special breakfast for your first day of school, Harry. Do you want anything in particular?”

Eggs, was Harry’s first thought. “Erm,” he started, suddenly shy as he stood next to the table. “Could I have some eggs please?”

“Of course, Harry-bean!” Hoppity said, beaming and almost hopping to the stove.

Hoppity left him and Harry sat in the chair. From across the table Snape looked at him with narrowed eyes. Harry fidgeted in his chair and looked around the table for something to do. The places were all set and he reached out for his empty glass. His burn was not bad but it was still uncomfortable. If he poured himself a glass of juice he could rest the hurt against it and it would feel better.

He stood up a little on his chair to reach over the table for the juice carton sitting in the middle. He pulled it towards himself, and still halfway standing, he unscrewed the top of the juice container and then started to pour with one hand. He immediately realized that that was a mistake as the carton, slippery with perspiration and too bulky and heavy for his small hand, slipped out of his grasp and crashed to the table. Juice splashed all over the table and onto the front of his shirt even as his seeker reactions had him reaching out and snatching up the container with both hands to right it. Unfortunately, he over compensated and the slippery carton dropped from his small grasp a second time, toppling over to its side and guzzling the liquid out. He was able to quickly right the carton this time but the damage had already been done. Juice had splattered all over the table top, his arms, his shirt and was now dripping onto his trousers. Wonderful.

“You stupid boy!” Snape spat out and Harry flinched at the tone as the man leapt up from his chair, presumably to escape the rapidly swelling juice puddle though he needn’t have bothered; the juice was all trickling towards Harry’s side.

Harry just wordlessly looked at the large mess he had made. He was slightly aware of a gasp from Hoppity before she quickly came over to pull him away from the dripping mess. In her haste, she unknowingly pressed down on the bruise on his right arm and Harry leapt out of her grasp, prompted into action. He had to clean this up! But with what? Harry cast his eyes around the kitchen looking for any kind of dish towel or rag or even serviettes but he the only thing he spotted were the serviettes on the table, one of which was completely soaked. The others seemed fine enough though so Harry hurried to the table and stood on his tip-toes to reach them. He started to mop up the juice with the serviettes as best he could with his considerably short reach.

He was aware of Snape glaring down at him and Hoppity twittering through the kitchen trying to find something else, but Harry just tried to clean it up faster. He got up on a chair and leaned over the table to reach the middle of the table. It was his mess and he needed to fix it. The serviettes didn’t hold much liquid however and Harry was distressed to discover that he was doing nothing more than pushing the juice around. His relatives were right, he was ungrateful and didn’t deserve anything. He had just ruined the first new clothes he had ever got and had just ruined breakfast for everyone. He didn’t deserve a special breakfast and Hoppity would soon realize that he was a horrible little boy and take away his toys and shove him away and throw him in a storage closet and Snape would just laugh at him and treat him like he always did. Harry blinked his eyes, refusing to cry. He never ever cried.

“For Melin’s sake!” Snape barked from where he stood to one side and brandished his wand to angrily mutter a quick cleaning spell at the table. The spell cleaned away the juice and drained the napkins and Harry felt it harshly scour over his hands, drying them. The spell died down and Harry dropped the clean serviettes and stepped away from the now dry table. He was dismayed to realize that his outfit had missed the benefits of such a spell; his shirt was still cool and wet.

“Severus! I thought that you had agreed not to use magic!” Hoppity yelled from where she was gathering up more serviettes to clean the now non existent mess.

Snape’s upper lip curled as he looked at her with distaste. “The brat was just making his mess worse and I’m sure anything you attempted would not have been much better.”

“You could at least cleaned Harry up too!”

Snape just pocketed his wand and sat back down at the now clean table and crossed his legs. He gave her a challenging look, “So you would have me break your own rules when it suited your purposes?”

Hoppity just stood there and Harry, feeling ignored, tugged at his shirt, trying to get the cool wet spots away from his body as he waited for this latest drama to continue and hopefully end soon. He didn’t mind being over looked but he was unsure as to what he should do. Go back upstairs and change again? He didn’t want to seem rude by just walking away but neither did he want to call attention on himself by asking to leave as the latest battle between his temporary guardians seemed to commence. He didn’t have to wait long, however before the smell of badly burning eggs spread through the room, cutting off anything Hoppity might have said in her defense.

“Oh no,” she lamented.

Snape slammed his hand down on the table furiously. “I am tired of your incompetence. Sit down and do not move an inch from that spot!” he spat out threateningly, one long white finger pointing at the seat next to where Harry was standing, still trying to keep the wet splotches of his shirt away from his skin. “And you,” Snape hissed as he turned sharply to the little boy. “Go away and change your clothes. Do not return until the meal is ready. You’re already ruined this day enough without getting underfoot and spilling something else!”

Harry glared at Snape but left without protest. He could feel the glare of Snape on his back all the way until he turned at the staircase. He tried to keep his mind blank and not think of anything as he went back upstairs to his room and changed out of his shirt. It smelled like orange juice and was still wet so he folded it and placed it on the counter in the bathroom on top of the pile of dirty laundry he had left earlier. He tried not to think as he sighed and wet a flannel to wipe the sticky juice from his arms and chest. The drying water left him feeling cold and he wasn’t sure that he got all the juice off but unless he wanted another shower it was the best he could do.

His trousers had a large wet spot on one upper leg so he took of his trainers so he could change out of his trousers too and used the wet flannel wipe the stickiness on his leg away. Now that he was alone and in the privacy of his own bathroom, he turned on the tap all the way to cold and placed the burn on his hand under it. He stood there for a minute, shivering in the artificially cool air before turning off the tap and going back to his room. He pulled out another short sleeved shirt, a blue buttoned down one this time (all his shirts seemed to be of the buttoned down type), and another pair of trousers and quickly put them on.

He spent a few minutes in his room, looking at the toys he had before pulling his laced-up trainers on and slowly starting back downstairs.

When Harry made it back to the doorway of the kitchen it was to see Snape standing at the stove, expertly tossing something in a frying pan. Hoppity sat at the table facing at him, looking subdued but when she spotted him she smiled and beckoned him to come closer. Harry just shock his head no and pressed himself closer to the door frame to wait until Snape looked like he was done.

He caught the frown Hoppity sent his way out of the corner of his eye but he ignored it and kept his attention on Snape. He rubbed one eye tiredly with a fist, he had just woken up but already it felt like it would be along day.

He didn't have to stand near the door for long before Snape finished what he was doing and with a concentrated but stern expression carried the frying pan to the table. Only when Snape had seated him self did Harry walk into the kitchen and tentatively place himself in his seat.

Snape looked up and gave him a darkly annoyed look before picking up his utensils and beginning to eat. Harry looked down at his own plate. There were two fried eggs and a piece of toast lightly buttered. It looked like the bacon had not been remade and Harry was chagrined to know that it had been his fault that they didn’t have any. Even so, he wouldn’t have wanted to eat bacon anyway after the burning smells this morning and was glad that it hadn’t been remade.

He picked up the toast and started to nibble on it. Someone had poured some juice in his cup halfway but he ignored it. He had wanted eggs earlier but now the site of them on his plate made him feel odd.

“Eat up Harry-bean.” Hoppity said, smiling, and Harry wondered how she could still be so happy this morning. “You have a big day today and you’ll need your strength!”

Harry dutifully picked up his fork and nibbled at his eggs. They tasted really good and once they reached his stomach he felt better.

The meal continued in silence, only broken at the end when Hoppity informed Snape of their plans for the day. “We’ll be leaving soon and taking the car. We should be back before three.”

Snape stayed silent but inclined his head to show that he heard.

“Alright then.” Hoppity said and then straightened up from her chair, picked up her plate to place in the sink. Harry followed her example, reaching up to place his plate on the counter next to the sink. He didn’t want to drop it in the sink and break something. He left his untouched glass of juice on the table.

“Here you go Harry,” Hoppity said as she handed him a plastic grocery bag. “I made you a lunch.”

Harry took the oddly shaped bag from her, wondering what she had put in it.

“Good bye Severus.” Hoppity said as she picked up a matching bagged lunch for herself and herded Harry out of the kitchen and towards the garage where the car was. The last glance Harry got of Snape was of the man sourly frowning as he looked into his glass of juice.

The ride to the school was mostly uneventful, Hoppity made a couple of wrong turns but they still ended up safely parked outside the entrance early before school started.

Harry got out from the back seat of the car and with his lunch in one hand and Hoppity holding the other, they set across the car park to the school. An elderly man wearing a bright orange vest and holding a Stop sign smiled and waved at them as they went through the last part, the ground painted in a white diagonally striped subway.

Harry looked up at the school as they approached it; made out of a dark monotone brick, it was mostly a single storey tall, except for a higher part of the building that Harry assumed was a gymnasium or a canteen. The entrance was covered by a long arch painted in a bright red. There were a few trees here and there poking up through the cement but they were all scraggly and young looking with the lower branches cut off.

Hoppity lead him to the front double doors, which were painted a light blue and pulled them open, doing an impressive juggling trick by not dropping her own plastic bag lunch. The entered the building and passed a second set of double doors which were propped open.

They stood there for a moment, just looking around at the inside of the school; the floor was of a marble tile looking material and the walls were made of white painted cinder blocks. Several doors were on the right wall and on the left was also a door before a large expanse of wall covered in brightly drawn cartoon characters and posters.

“Well let’s find the office, shall we?” Hoppity asked and at Harry’s nod she pulled them to the first door and walked in.

They entered a chaotic office where a sleepy looking Asian woman sat, deeply drinking something from a cup. Hoppity introduced herself and asked her where they should go and after rifling through a filing cabinet, the lady told them where to go and handed Hoppity some papers. "You’ll want to drop him off before coming back. His class is room A-16 and his teacher is Jane Alkins. You go out this room, down the hall, turn right and then take the next left. It's on the right.”

Hoppity took the papers, mumbled the directions under her breath and thanked the lady before pulling Harry out of the office and back into the hall.

“Okay, a right, left, on the right, room A-16. Okay. Come along Harry.” And then they set off to find his classroom. Harry looked at the walls curiously, many more cartoon characters adorned them with lots and lots of posters and artwork.

As they made their way, they passed a few children, all wearing bright colours and large knapsacks or holding bright plastic lunchboxes. The children mostly ignored Harry as he and Hoppity walked past, although more than one looked curiously at the bulky plastic bag he carried in one hand.

They soon found the classroom and walked in. It was a brightly lit place with one wall made up almost completely of windows, posters everywhere and things hanging from the ceiling. Small desks were placed in groups of four with brightly coloured chairs. A green chalkboard was on one side of the room, but half of it was covered with posters and more artwork.

Several play areas were in the room and a few children were already there, moving around, playing, running and generally creating chaos.

An elderly lady with grey hair and a slightly hunched over back approached them almost immediately. She wore a dark purple dress and an interesting necklace made of large beads.

"Hello!" she said in a rasping voice. "Can I help you?"

"Ah, yes. This is Harry and it's his first day!" Hoppity said, smiling as she pushed Harry in front of her.

Harry felt acutely visible as several children glanced curiously at him before continuing their play things and the old lady bent down to address him. Just why had he agreed to do this again?

"Hello Harry." The teacher said loudly. "I am Ms. Alkins and I will be your teacher. Say goodbye to Mommy and we'll find your desk now, alright?"

Hoppity smiled, but Harry looked up at her in alarm as the realization hit that he would really be left here, alone to fend for himself in this unfamiliar territory. He couldn’t remember what school was like when he was this young in Surrey, it was sure to be uninteresting and harrowing and well, boring! Just what did one do in lessons this young, recite letters and count numbers all day?

Why couldn’t he have just stayed home and played lego’s?

“Aw, separation anxiety?” the old woman asked Hoppity throatily in an understanding voice.

What? No!

“Don’t worry, Harry, you’ll be able to see Mommy at the end of the day.” She said condescendingly.

Augh, he was starting to not like this lady at all.

The next comment was address to Hoppity in an ‘adult’ voice, "They will all be done at 2:30 and you can pick him up or he can wait outside at the bus stop."

“Alright. Goodbye, Harry!” Hoppity said smiling and apparently oblivious to Harry’s stricken face. “Have fun!” The teacher lead him away and Harry glanced back to see Hoppity's fuzzy hair disappearing through the doorway.

He was lead to a small desk near the back of the room. There was a name card taped across the top that said ‘Harry’ and the chair was a bright green. "This will be your desk Harry," the old woman said hoarsely. She pulled out a red folder and a plastic tray holding a box of crayons and two large pencils from within the desk. "And these will be your crayons and pencils, and this is your folder. You will put all your work in your folder for safe keeping.” Harry looked down to see that the folder also had "Harry" written across the top of the front in a big black pen.

She continued to lecture him in her loud raspy voice. "Now Harry, we have rules in this classroom and if you don’t obey them you will get a demerit, but when the whole class obeys them the whole class gets a star. When the bell rings you are to be at your desk sitting quietly in your chair or you will get a demerit. Whenever you hear the bell on my desk it means ‘Everyone stop what you are doing and be quiet’. You are to obey all the instructions given.

"Yelling is not allowed. You are not allowed to fight or to throw anything. If you have a problem you are to see a teacher or a grownup in the classroom. Don’t talk to any strangers if they come in the classroom or outside on the playground.

"Miss Kincaid is our student teacher and you are to listen and obey her too. If I am busy and you have a problem or need something you can just ask her. She is over there." An old, bent finger pointed at a young brown haired woman in the front of the class talking to a little girl.

“Do you understand all the rules Harry?”

He nodded then voiced his assent. "Yes ma’am. Erm... what should I do with my lunch?" He asked plaintively, holding up his funny plastic bag.

"There is a cubby in the back for you to put your backpack and lunch and your jacket if your bring one. I'll show you your spot." She led Harry to the back where there was a section separated by a low wooden wall where several lunch boxes already sat on shelves at shoulder height.

Harry was shown his spot and he placed his oddly shaped package next to a pink unicorn plastic lunch box and a green dinosaur one. He could see several brown plastic bags along the shelves but no plastic ones like he had. He decided not to worry about it since it was just something to have his lunch in. Something in his bag fell over and he spent several moments trying to right it on the shelf so that the bag would stay put.

He was then lead back to the main classroom and told that he could play until the beginning bell began. He decided to just sit at his desk and look around, feeling alien in this strange place.

As if on queue, a large amount of students poured into the classroom and then the bell rang and the small children found their seats and quieted.

A very small dark haired boy sat across from him. He looked a little dorky with thick round glasses and lime green croakies connecting to each ear piece and dangling along to back so that he didn’t lose his eyewear. A girl with a long dirty blond ponytail sat next to him and a black girl sat diagonally from him.

The morning seemed to pass very fast for Harry. If felt as if the class never did anything for more than a few minutes. First they all stood up and recited some pledge, Harry just stood up pretended to follow the mumble as he placed his hand over his heart. Then they sang some strange song about America or something, which sounded quite awful with 20 young off key voices and then the teacher came over to Harry’s desk and made him stand up and introduced him to the class.

“This is Harry,” she said in her horrible croaking voice, “and he is new today. Let’s welcome him and say hello.”

“Hello Harry.” Twenty high pitched voices sang back. Harry was allowed to sit back down and the teacher walked back to the front of the classroom to tell them all about her trip to some gardens and the birds she saw.

After her short story telling the class had a whole bunch of quick lessons. Harry dutifully followed the other children’s examples and did work sheets and basically followed instructions. He wrote out lines of M’s both upper case and lower and coloured in pictures of monkeys, mirrors and mistletoe.

It was ridiculously easy to just print out a letter over and over again on top of a dotted practice one. It was even easier to circle and colour in pictures of objects that started with that letter. Harry completed three worksheets before they moved on to another lesson about shapes.

The teacher and the student teacher moved through the class and checked up on the children’s progress over and over again. When the student teacher came by his desk the first time she smiled and introduced herself as ‘Ms. Kincaid’ and put a Good Job sticker on his top worksheet and complemented him on how round his O’s were.

Lunch time was a relatively lonesome affair. The other children ran back to get their lunches and milk cartons were passed out to some students. Harry self consciously retrieved his plastic bagged lunch with the children in his group when they were told they could and brought it back to his desk.

The teachers both left and a new woman came in the room to watch them. Some of the children across the room acted up when the lunch teacher turned her back and threw wrappers and bits of food around, a larger boy in particular with spiky dirty blonde hair was very active as he tossed crisps at a boy sitting across from him.

The classmates sitting in his cluster of desks around him eyed his bag strangely and he noticed that the green dinosaur belonged to the boy across from him and the pink unicorn belonged to the black girl across from him. The girl with the long dirty blond hair next to him had a large rectangular bag from which she pulled out a small lunch set, different food items in little trays all covered by a bright yellow film with holes so that one could see in.

All around the room, students had opened their lunches and started to eat. Harry undid the knot at the top of his plastic bag and wondered what Hoppity had made for him.

He pulled out two sandwiches, both wrapped in clingfilm, a bag of crisps that was also wrapped in clingfilm, a bottle of flavoured water, a can of what looked like chocolate milk, a package of small chocolate cakes and at the bottom of the bag was another clingfilm bag of pretzels.

“Ouu! You’re not supposed to have that!” the girl next to him squealed as she looked at his lunch items. “I’m telling.”

Harry looked at her, then his lunch confusedly as the girl got up and ran to the lunch minder. The girl came back followed by the minder and Harry looked at her confusedly as she reached out and took his can of chocolate milk away.

The lady looked at the aluminium can strangely, and then at the large assortment of food items before starting to lecture him. “Tell your parents not to send you to school with any metal or glass bottles or I’ll have to take it away.”

“But my mum gave that to me and I want it.” Harry protested as the woman made to turn away and walk off with his chocolate milk.

“You can have a milk carton this time instead... Harry.” The woman consoled him and read his name from off of his desk. “But only today because we have one extra.” She left and came back with a small red carton of milk and a straw despite Harry’s angry pout and didn’t give his can back even though it was his.

The girl next to him started to make miniature sandwiches from her tray and when she looked at him he glared but she just stuck her tongue out at him self satisfied. What a little brat, the older part of him thought as he opened the milk carton and tested it. The milk tasted awful and he pushed it away.

He opened the wrap around the sandwiches and lifted the top piece of bread to see what they were made up of. One looked to be made of sandwich meat but the other seemed to be peanut butter and jelly, only the jelly looked more like a bright orange gelatinous mass. He wondered if this were some American thing or a Wizarding thing and took a few bites of each sandwich. He nibbled on the crisps and pretzels and had some difficulty opening the bottle of flavoured water- in the end the lunch minder came back and took it upon herself to end his struggles and open it for him even though she didn’t ask if she could. He ate both little chocolate cakes and then cleaned up his mess by placing the left over bits of food back into their strange Clingfilm bags and placed everything back into the large plastic bag.

A very large round trash tin on wheels was pushed through the classroom by the lunch minder and the children threw, tossed and placed their food wrappers in it. When the bin came to his table the lunch minder, the same lady who stole his chocolate milk, snatched up his neatly packaged plastic bag and dropped it into the bin without his consent. He hadn’t eaten all of it and it seemed a real waste to just throw it out but his protest died on his lips as he watched a boy throw a half eaten tuna sandwich and an opened bottle of milk in next and he realized that he didn’t really want it now.

The lunch minder and the rolling trash bin moved off and Harry was resigned to the fact that as a child he would be expected to act a certain way and that adults would trample over him now and do what they thought was best.

It was a peculiar thought and something that he had always chafed at but now although it still frustrated him, it had this strange comforting feeling to it. He didn’t understand it and he wanted to kick the feeling away.

The lunch minder called for the class’ attention and Harry got up and joined the children to stand in a long line to be marched out for recess.

He had no choice but to adapt. Maybe then it wouldn’t bother him so much.

The class was lead noisily through the hall and through double doors to an outside play park. The ground was a black pavement and some bits of it were painted with large shapes. A few things were scattered around like a jungle gym and climbing bars and some strange tall poles with a huge bucket on top with holes shaped out of it which looked to be made for some ball game.

A fence ran around the perimeter of the area only it seemed to go on for awhile. Harry’s class was led through to the part at one end and lunch minders stood between them and the rest of the large park as a sort of invisible boundary, from behind Harry could see other children playing.

One of the minders had a large cart from which balls and outdoor playthings were passed out. Several boys started a game where they threw a small ball off of the tall brick wall of the school.

Harry just stood off to one side, not getting in anyone’s way. He met several children but none of them seemed to be very interested in him, except for one large boy who had been playing the ‘ball off the wall’ game and chased the ball over to where Harry was sitting when it got away.

The ball stopped right in front of Harry and Harry picked it up and gave it to him. The other boy noticed his shoes right away.

“Are those the new Air Turbo 7’s?” The bigger boy demanded.

“Yes.” Harry said curiously back wondering about their significance.

“Do they really blink three times with every step?” A jealous tone tinted the question.

“Yeah,” Harry said and took a few steps to prove it. Some other children noticed and came over to see but the one boy looked at them strangely and then turned away to go back to his game and the other children left too leaving Harry alone until a bell rang and they were all gathered up to go back inside.

When they entered the classroom after recess Harry was faced with a strange dilemma. Mats were placed on the floor of the darkened room and the children went to them and seemed to find a particular one before lying down on them. A large fan in the corner of the classroom was on and made a loud, deep whirling sound, muffling any conversation. Harry just stood to one side wondering what he was supposed to do. The teacher was busy across the room trying to convince two recalcitrant children to lie down. She managed to convince them before seeing Harry and walking over towards him.

“Are you going to be difficult too?” Ms Alkins asked him in her croaking voice once she reached him.

Harry just shook his head ‘no’ wondering what everyone was doing but luckily the student teacher, Ms Kincaid, came to his rescue.

“Harry probably just doesn’t know what’s going on.” Ms Kincaid suggested before turning to him. “Harry, you might not take naps at home but at school everyone has to take a nap after recess unless they want a time-out. You don’t have to sleep but you do have to lie down and be quiet for the whole time.”

As much as he opposed the idea, Harry supposed that he had little choice. He followed Ms. Kincaid to an empty mat on the far side and lay down on it. He stayed awake for the whole long time, listening to the fan and the other children breathing and moving around. Sometimes a quiet voice or a giggle would break out but after the first few minutes it became quiet and Harry grew bored.

After ‘nap-time’ the children got up and put their mats away. The rest of the day passed in a blur for Harry. They had a few more lessons, including an art time before the ending bell rang and they were dismissed. He found himself following the other children out of the classroom to the front of the school.

Luckily, Hoppity was waiting for him outside the office still inside the school and he spotted her immediately and broke away from the throng. Ms. Kincaid noticed and tried to stop him but once she realized who he was trying to get to, he was able to escape and run up to her.

They waited awhile on a bench in the hall until the commotion died down and then Hoppity lead him out to the car.

The first day wasn't so bad, he mused as he was tucked into the back seat. It had been long and his lunch was a little odd and except for the time the girl tattled on him and the nap time it hadn’t been too awful.

He still had rather played with his Lego’s all day though.

“Hoppity?” Harry ventured, still unsure if he was allowed to call her that. She hadn’t ever corrected him before but they were alone now and she might. ‘Mum’ felt a little too personal and awkward unless they were in public and he couldn’t just call her Miss or Ma’am or Professor. Snape called her ‘Smirkett’ but that seemed rude for Harry to use after she introduced herself as his new mum for the summer.

After no corrections came and instead she gave a questioning “Hmm?” he was reassured and continued with his question. “Are all American schools like this one?”

“Oh, I don’t think so.” She answered. “I think that this one is special. I’m told that most American schools are seasonal and aren’t in session during the summer. I heard that you’re in some special program where all the children going into first grade are in your class until they are ready to advance. Was it very different, Harry?”

“I don’t know, I don’t remember Muggle school very well.” He answered and looked out the window. There was something else he wanted to ask her but he couldn’t remember what it was so the rest of the drive passed in silence except for Hoppity’s quiet humming.

When they passed Michael’s house, Michael was waiting in the front yard and waved and chased after them through the grass when he saw Harry through the tinted window of the back seat. Harry remembered what fun he had had the day before and really wanted to have more.

“Can I go play with Michael today?” Harry asked as the car continued briefly down the road to their house.

“Of course dear,” Hoppity replied nonchalantly as the car pulled into their drive. “Just be back in time for dinner.”

The car stopped and Harry quickly undid his safety belt and leapt out of the car and started to run, before turning around, running back, closing the car door and then running off.

The last thing he heard was “Have fun Harry!” before he ran across the neighbor’s front garden and met Michael who just happened to have his Ninja Turtles.

---------

Hoppity placed her bag in her room after her long first day as a Secretary at Little Ridge Elementary school. It had been a little over whelming being introduced to how everything worked and to the contraption on her desk called a computer. She only had basic information about such things and it had been a struggle pretending that she used them all the time. She thought that the bright screen had given her a headache but it might have been from the large pile of folders waiting for her on the desk.

All she wanted was a nice cup of tea... her eyes flew open. Whatever happened to the tea set Albus had given them? She started to panic. Had they left it at the airport? She needed that tea set! Needed it! Wait- hadn't the woman at the airport say that it would end up wherever they went? So where was it?

It was probably lost or late. Although she doubted it, maybe the house already had a tea set in one of the cupboards downstairs. She was extremely dubious but it was worth a check. When she got down to the kitchen, she noticed Snape pursuing the cupboards. Noticing that she had entered, he turned to her. "Where is that blasted tea set I had to carry all over the airport?"

Heheh. “Erm, I don’t know. Didn’t you have it?”

“Don’t play coy! You know very well that you were the last person with it in possession before you turned it over to those Muggle people at that flying place.”

“Ah, yes, but the lady assured me that it would end up wherever we are.”

“So where is it then?” Snape ground out.

Hoppity thought for a moment. “Well we ended up at this house so it’s probably somewhere in here. Have you checked all the cupboards?”

“Not all of them.” Snape finally admitted.

“Well I’m sure it’s here somewhere!” she said brightly and got up to start searching and Severus joined her to search anew.

They checked all the cupboards in the house and all the rooms to no avail. The box Albus had entrusted to her was no where to be found.

They congregated back to the kitchen where Hoppity checked the large cold box, known to Muggles as a refrigerator, just in case they had sent it in there but there was only the food they had purchased inside.

“Maybe the Muggle magic was faulty.” Hoppity hazarded to the sour man sitting at the kitchen table.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Muggles don’t have magic. As the new Muggle Studies Professor you, more than anyone else, should know that!”

Hoppity could practically see her worth as a teacher in Snape’s eye decrease to the negatives. She had thought to put Muggle things in terms a grown Wizard would know but it seemed as if she underestimated this particular one. Badly.

“Yes they do! They just use it differently.” Hoppity said hotly, trying to justify her reasoning. At Snape’s semi-interested raised eyebrow she continued. “It’s just different- like electricity... and radios and the telly…” she trailed off. She could tell that the man at least half believed her as he didn’t contradict her and had turned his attention away to idly play with a pocket watch with which he had pulled out.

The quiet clicks of the chain links swinging against each other caught her attention through the stillness of the house. Apparently Snape noticed it too and the watch was stilled. The silence remained, increasing as she was forced to notice it.

“It’s quiet- too quiet. Where’s the brat?” Severus asked suddenly.

“His name is Harry and he’s playing at his friend, Michael’s house.” She said exasperatedly.

“You trust the boy without supervision to not kill himself or get into trouble?” his tone was incredulous and she couldn’t understand why.

“Well of course! He’s not a baby and he’s just next door. Besides, he’s promised to come home before dinner.”

“Just like yesterday, I assume.” Snape asked dryly, with no little sarcasm.

She just stood there silently, trying to come up with a reply. “Well, it was good of you to go get him.”

The man scowled. “I suppose you expect me to go collect him as well then?”

“Well if you wouldn’t be opposed…” she asked nicely.

The watch was opened and the man glanced at it before closing it and replacing it into a pocket and sitting back in his chair. He made no move to get up.

“I thought that you were going to go get him?”

“I changed my mind.” Snape bit out curtly.

Any further questioning was interrupted when the front door opened and a messy haired, green eyed boy practically flew into the house and into the kitchen to tell her that he wasn’t late.