The Illusion of Youth

By: BYoshi1993

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling. Not me.

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Chapter 1: The Wish

Young four-year-old Harry didn't know what he did to the Dursley's to make them send him to school, but he was so happy that they did! He had the nicest, kindest, prettiest teacher in the world: Ms. Sullivan. The teacher stood at a proud five feet five inches (~1.6 meters) exactly; she had a slightly tanned complexion, brown eyes, long brown hair, and a smile for every student in her class. That smile was quick to go should one of her students start to get out of hand, but for every disciplinary action that she had to take with her students, she always reinforced better behavior afterwards. Her class was set up to flow very well from her desk, the board, and the students. It was set up in groups of stations for each student to sit at when they came into the classroom in the morning and those groups were later used in stations to allow all of her students to move around so as to not get too restless during school hours. The walls were decorated with colorful construction paper to later showcase her students' work and happy designs that showed the alphabet, numbers, and the rules of the classroom.

Harry James Potter, unlike his teacher, stood only at a modest three feet (91 cm.) in his slightly too large clothes and round-framed glasses. He wore a dark green shirt that matched his emerald-green eyes and black trousers that almost passed his sneakers. Harry was a as happy as any four-year-old could be at school for the first time, which was apparently quite a lot when you grew up with a family like the Dursleys. Harry's relatives strived for normality in a world that they knew contained the abnormal: the dreaded Wizarding folk. They treated the cherubic green-eyed child with such distaste simply because he contained magic, the key to the Wizarding folks' power. The Dursleys were burdened with Harry on a cold Halloween three years ago when he was left on the doorstep with the milk with only a note to explain that they essentially had to take the child and be protected or be hunted down by magical terrorists. Needless to say, they were not ecstatic to be taking in their nephew after being coerced in such a way, and they didn't make Harry's stay welcome either as a result.

Harry was given a list of chores every day since he had turned four to "earn his keep" in the Dursley Household. Such chores included raking the leaves, cutting the grass, vacuuming the house and mopping the kitchen, and washing the dishes. While he only got one or two chores everyday due to his young age, he still had to do much more than what was expected to his age group: just being a kid wasn't really something Harry had every gotten to enjoy as he didn't have any toys to call his own or any friends due to only knowing his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley. But now, in this classroom, maybe he could make friends with some of his classmates and play Legos, cards, or tag with them. Harry was as excited as he could be as he watched his guardians leave the classroom, or tried to anyway, as their son became very clingy to his parents as he realized they would be leaving him there the whole day without his television or Playstation to entertain him.

The emerald-eyed boy watched this all without saying much to his relatives other than a "goodbye." He was much more interested in his desk as it was the first thing that was actually his; it had his name on it and everything! The young boy and never really owned much of anything other than the blanket that he was wrapped in when he was deposited on the Dursley's doorstep and Dudley's hand-me-downs. He was quite proud of his shiny, laminated name tag on the top of his desk. Looking around, he saw his fellow students already starting to pick at the tape pinning it down on the desk, but Harry didn't want to ruin the first new thing that was ever his, even if it was only for the school year. Looking inside of the cubby that the desk had, he found that it contained a few books and some pieces of paper but not much else. He wanted to introduce himself to the members of his group, but he had too many butterflies in his stomach to say much else other than a quiet, "Hello."

Sitting at his desk, Harry couldn't really do much other than swing his legs at his seat waiting for his teacher to start the day. After getting everyone seated, Ms. Sullivan clapped for everyone to be quiet and to get their undivided attention. When she was sure everyone was listening, she began her welcoming speech, "Hello! And welcome to your first year of school! I'm sure we'll have a great time together. My name is Marie Sullivan but call me Ms. Sullivan, alright?" She looked out to nods and okays among her students; immediately she decided to make this into a lesson on the rules of the classroom.

"Okay class, from now on whenever I ask you if you understand something, please say, 'Yes, Ms. Sullivan' or 'No, Ms. Sullivan.' I need everyone to do this so I know that everyone understands, okay?"

The class jumped up a bit when Ms. Sullivan looked at them and all droned, "Yes, Ms. Sullivan."

"Excellent job! I'm glad everyone understands. Alright, today I just want to start to know your names and we'll play a game alright? I want us all to say your name as I point to you, and then say something that you like to do. Alright, I'll go first.

"My name is Marie Sullivan, and I like to do a few runs around the park to relax after school," she introduced. Afterwards, she pointed to the nearest student, a brown headed boy, and asked him to introduce himself.

Harry was really nervous. He never had to speak in front of so many people before but worse than that he didn't really know what he liked to do. Before school started, he mostly just did what his relatives told him to do and lie on the floor of the living room watching Dudley play with his toys. He had tried to play with Dudley once, but the blonde had immediately started yelling for his mom. When Petunia came in and saw Harry playing with her son's toys, she immediately berated him for touching things that don't belong to him and sent him to his cupboard under the stairs to "think about what he did." At the time, Harry didn't really know what is was that he did that was wrong but quickly learned to just leave Dudley and his toys alone, even if it meant that he had to come up with things to entertain himself.

Oh! That was something! Harry liked to make up stories. To entertain himself at home, the young boy put his imagination to the test and started to come up with stories for things around the house like Dudley would do with his toy airplanes and action figures. Though after this small mental exercise, Harry soon got distracted listening to each of his classmates say their names and something they liked to do, he didn't notice that it was his turn until everyone was staring at him.

Nervously, Harry began, "Um..m..my name is Harry Potter, and I like to make up stories," he ended quietly.

The brown-headed woman stared at Harry for a second before saying, "Excellent! I love to use my imagination as well Harry. I'd love to hear a story from you sometime." She finished with a smile in Harry's direction. The small boy blushed and looked down at his desk with a small smile.

The introductions went on until they reached the last child, Harry's cousin, Dudley Dursley who sat across the room from Harry. He was quick to jump up and introduce himself loudly saying, "My name is Dudley Dursley, and I like to watch T.V. and play on my Playstation and play games on my computer and my favorite food is pizza and…"

Ms. Sullivan was quick to cut Dudley off before he got going any further, "Now, now Dudley. I enjoy your enthusiasm but please keep your voice down as there are other classrooms around us, alright? But, I am still glad that you shared with us."

The blonde nodded quickly so he didn't get in any trouble.

She clapped her hand together saying, "I loved each and every one of your introductions. While it may take me some time to learn all of your names, I promise that I will. Now, how about we start to learn the classroom rules before we take a small break…"

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Harry loved his first day of school. He got to make a few friends with some of the other kids in his group and best of all Dudley couldn't do anything to him because he was in a different group. He got to do arts and crafts and even learned how to spell his name, or at least attempt to. He still didn't understand why some letters needed to be capitalized and others didn't but he just followed the directions that Ms. Sullivan told him.

While Harry was sitting in the back of the car on the way home, Dudley was telling his parents everything that happened during his day.

"Mummy, I had a lot of fun today. I guess school isn't that bad because we got to play with blocks and sleep and run around at recess and gym. But I don't like this one girl in my class. Her name is Kaley and she called me fat. I'm not fat am I mummy?"

"Of course not dear. You're just a healthy, growing boy. Don't ever let anyone tell you differently Sweetums," Aunt Petunia doted.

Uncle Vernon was quick to add, "Your mum's right Dudders. If anyone ever bothers you, you give them the old one-two, got it?" He gestured punching some invisible foe, taking his hands off the wheel for a moment, thankfully they were at a red light.

Harry didn't really think that was his Uncle was saying applied to him. He wasn't very strong or as big as Dudley; he had a feeling that even if he did try to hit someone it wouldn't do much and he'd be in even more trouble. He hoped he never had to get into a fight with anyone, though it was hard to imagine fighting anyone in his class. They were all so friendly.

Since he was starting to get bored as Dudley recounted every detail of his day on the car ride home, the precocious black-haired daydreamer decided to imagine a story out of the people walking on the street that he passed in the car on the way home. He quickly tuned out the Dursleys and he watched a young man and woman walk their dog on the side walk. He imagined that the woman was nice like Ms. Sullivan and the man was a successful business man like the ones that he saw in movies on the telly. The couple would have a lot of friends and everyone would like them. They would have to get married because everyone has to get married when their old. Their dog would be nice too; he wouldn't be mean like Ripper, his "Aunt" Marge's dog, who chases him up the tree in the front yard. Maybe their dog could find a friend too and they would have dog adventures through the neighborhood.

Harry was snapped from his imaginations by Vernon opening his door yelling, "Out Boy! We're home!"

The small child quickly unbuckled his seat belt, closed the door, and followed his Uncle to the front door of Number 4 Privet Drive with his Aunt Petunia and rotund cousin. Dudley immediately ran upstairs to throw his backpack into his room and rushed back to the living room to watch the cartoons that were coming on. Petunia went off to the kitchen to prepare a few sandwiches for her growing son because the school obviously didn't feed him enough. Vernon went up the stairs to work on some papers that he had brought home from work; he really needed to show his boss that he wanted the promotion that was up for grabs.

While everyone went their separate ways, Harry was still at the door taking off his coat and shoes to hang on the hooks near the door. He wasn't really in any rush to do anything until his Aunt called him to the kitchen.

"Boy get in here and help me," his Aunt called shrilly. Harry ran from the door to the kitchen so his Aunt wouldn't become even sparer with him; it was hard to tell with her since she always had this look on her face whenever she saw Harry.

"Washes your hands, who knows what kind of diseases you've decided to bring home." She had her back turned to him when he came in working on what Harry assumed to be sandwiches. The young man made his way over to the sink and step stool that he and Dudley both used to get around the kitchen. Stepping up, he quickly scrubbed his hands clean so he could help his Aunt with preparations for dinner.

"I'm done washing my hands Aunt Petunia. What do you need me to do?" His Aunt pointed to a few vegetables, a cutting board, and a knife on the table.

Turning around, Harry climbed up the chair so he could reach the cutting board. Picking out the first piece of food - a potato - he began to peel it and cut it up in chunks like he had done before. His fingers were still getting used to handling a knife, but Harry made sure to be extra careful so he wouldn't cut himself. It had hurt enough the first time and he didn't want a repeat.

After finishing the potatoes he moved on to the carrots, onion, and celery. When he was finished he hopped off the chair and walked over to his Aunt to pull on her pants to get her attention. He wasn't allowed to yell across rooms. She looked down at him and he pointed to his prepped food and said, "I'm done Aunt Petunia."

She nodded at his work and handed him one of the sandwiches she had been making saying, "After you eat that, tell Dudley and Vernon that their sandwiches are ready." Harry nodded.

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Time passed by surprisingly quickly in the Dursley household. After he had told everyone that their sandwiches were ready, Harry hopped on the couch to try to sneak a few minutes of the cartoon that was on the telly. His relatives didn't really like Harry watching cartoons, or much of any television, muttering about not wanting him to "get any ideas." He didn't really know what that meant.

Soon enough, Harry had just finishing eating the dinner the he helped make and was on his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth and prepare for his 9 o'clock bedtime to be ready for school tomorrow.

He made it back to his bedroom, turned off the light, and went to sleep and dreamed of a beautiful, young red-headed woman who rocked him in a rocking chair singing "Hush Little Baby."

"I love you Harry. Don't you ever forget that your mommy loves you my beautiful baby boy. I'll love you forever and ever." The last thing he remembered seeing was her beautiful green eyes.

Hours later, Harry woke up with tears in his eyes, a feeling of love (if that was what it was), and a full bladder (an odd combination of feeling to be sure). He ran up the stairs to the bathroom before he burst. On the way to the bathroom he passed his Aunt and Uncle's bedroom and heard them talking.

"Pet, I just don't see how we can keep this up. He's already four and we haven't heard back from any of those freaks; they didn't even give us any compensation for taking him in! At this rate, we'll be out on the streets because we can't make the house payment, let alone enough food for a growing boy. We can't lose our image with the neighbors either. Lord knows that Tom's always wanted to rub his money in my face," Vernon lamented to his wife, "You may have to get a part time job."

"Oh Vernon, don't worry yourself over it. You'll get that promotion. You have to for our family's sake. I can't imagine getting back into the job market after being away for so long taking care of Dudley; I'd have to start at the bottom all over again. It was bad the first time, I can't imagine a second."

Harry didn't really have time to think about what his relatives were saying before his bladder reminded him that he really needed to go to the toilet. After flushing and washing his hands using the stepping stool in the bathroom, he ran down the stairs to his "room" before his relatives could catch him awake.

On his way back to his cupboard, he looked out the window at the black sky outside and happened to see a shooting star. He knew that you were supposed to make a wish on shooting stars from what Petunia had once told Dudley and he thought back on his day. It had to have been one of the best days that he ever had in his entire life and he wouldn't mind being able to do that every day. Especially important, was not having to deal with adult problems that his relatives were discussing. Those didn't sound like fun at all.

"I wish I never had to grow up. Maybe…maybe if I stay little long enough that pretty lady will come back to take care of me," Harry muttered under his breath happily to the shooting star. His intent coupled with the belief in the wish giving powers of a shooting and a child's heartfelt wish, the boy's magic did everything it could to make the young child happy by granting the wish. Little did he know how this wish would affect him in the coming future. He would soon forget the wish as he went off to sleep and the years went by.

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AN: Hope that you guys liked the first installment of my story. I've been watching a lot of the Detective Conan series lately and really started to wonder what kind of trials that a kid may have in an adult world should he/she ever have to stay a kid. So, I thought I'd try it out in the Harry Potter Universe.

Hope that the teacher wasn't too sappy, but as a teacher in training, I think it's similar to what would occur in a young elementary school classroom.

Please tell me if you think that the dialogue and thought processes were believable (or not). I haven't written in a long, long time, and I doubt that my writing has come very far from disuse (other than on school papers). Sorry that I had to use such a cliché plot device, but I couldn't really think about anything else that I could use to get my story going. I have the story outlined for the next few chapters and have an ending in mind…though I have to get there. I plan to go through all 7 of the Hogwarts years and will try my best to include a bit of comedy. I hope I do the characters justice.

As for the wish...keep in mind Harry's four. He's still pretty naive when it comes to certain things.

Regards,

Michael