Ms. Lovely teaches him all sorts of things about Wicca. Well, just the basics. Ms. Lovely, after calming down an angry Harry (angry because she refused to elaborate beyond basics), explained that it'd be improper for her to teach him deep Wiccan culture and religion without his guardians' permission and within the school. Harry thinks that it's an excuse to not deal with him. He tells her that. She scolds him for trying to guilt her. Harry stops himself from arguing further.

They still get to go over the basics together. She tells him stories of good morals and animal goddesses. Harry almost tells her about flying motorcycles and men the size of two. He tells her about talking snakes instead.

"You heard a snake speak to you Harry?" Her voice is lilted, and her eyes shine. Harry guesses that she is just indulging him.

"I did" Harry shrugs, "It told me to stop digging holes near its home."

Ms. Lovely laughs with all the air of just finding Harry cute and looks over the rest of the classroom for a moment. Harry and a couple of other kids, in groups and accompanied by other teachers, are still there. It's another day of waiting until Dudley's club is done. Lovely picks up a green crayon and idly draws a cartoon snake. As she draws, she teases him.

"'It,' Harry? Snakes have genders too, y'know"

Harry frowns and a little bit of anger seeps into his voice.

"I don't know. You and the other teachers haven't taught us anything about snakes in class."

"I'm not making fun of you Harry," she calmly responds with a stern look before it softens as she continues, "You don't really need to know the differences between a boy snake and a girl snake-"

"I want to know"

Ms. Lovely frowns and places down the crayon. She glances down at her doodle then back at Harry. She sighs, and places her elbow on the table, and then her chin on the palm of her hand. She smiles kindly and holds up the drawing with her other hand.

"I don't know how to tell the difference between a boy snake and a girl snake, though maybe you could ask the snake yourself next time," she says.

Harry's eyes furrow as he looks between the drawing and Ms. Lovely. He can't tell if she's lying and if she's mocking him. His annoyance must've shown on his face because Ms. Lovely begins laughing again.

"The snake wasn't green. My snake was brown." Harry says.

Ms. Lovely stops laughing and sets the drawing down. She smiles at Harry and picks up the green crayon. Holding it up, she sends an exaggerated thoughtful glance over it.

"I like green, Harry. It's a very pretty colour." She says, and the happiness attached to it confuses Harry.

Later, when Harry stares intensely at his reflection in the mirror, he agrees. Harry wonders if his parents had green eyes.

At home, Harry spends all his free time memorizing the Futhark rune alphabet. He repeats fables to himself when he gardens and cleans. He soundlessly mouths "Harm None" to himself whenever Dudley and his friends chase after him. Harry reminds himself that if he wants to be a Wiccan, that he'd have to stop doing freakish things.

The strange outbursts he used to have, happen less. Dudley stops tripping mysteriously and Harry ignores the snakes and their sadistic ideas for the most part. Pencils stop snapping from the table to his hand. It calms Harry, the idea that he can stop himself. Sometimes, when he feels too angry or too sad, he feels floods of something fluttery and heavy, at the same time, splash through his body in waves.

It starts to feel painful whenever Harry forces the strange inner surge of something away. Harry dreams of black mist and he gets headaches when he feels too emotional. Harry dreams of red eyes but no sound. Harry thinks his cupboard has been darker lately.

Harry keeps trying to make the runes do something physical and visible and existing. He experiments without Me. Lovely and his frustration gets worse with each failed attempt.

He waits and draws runes on full moons. But it doesn't do anything. They remain sketches.

Harry keeps trying. He angrily presses colored wax across the paper and silently demands it to do something. It does nothing.

He carefully memorizes stroke order and angles and every single thing he can about the runes and the way they look.

But for some damn reason, the runes don't light up or float off or sing or do anything remotely magical.

Ms. Lovely tells him that he's been getting angrier. She tells him that she's worried.

Harry, of course, immediately denies it and slams his notebook closed. Ms. Lovely looks at him and shakes her head.

"It's okay to be angry Harry, but it's also important to be able to hold your tongue and review your situation first"

Harry clenches his little fists and spits in reply,

"What? Do you not want to hear me anymore? I can shut up if you want me to"

Another teacher sends him a glare from a table over. The teacher moves to get up, but Lovely motions her to sit back down.

"I really do like talking to you Harry. I'm just concerned for you. And that's a good thing. It means I care, Harry. Do you ever get concerned Harry?" She asks, probing.

Harry glares at her. Of course he's felt concerned! He's not-

His fists clench underneath the desk and his nails dig into his palms.

He's not some heartless weirdo! He feels things! He does!

Harry takes in a few steadying breaths, something that Ms. Lovely taught him a few days ago. Harry calms down and slumps guiltily into his chair.

"I'm sorry," he whispers

Then, Ms. Lovely is kneeling beside Harry. She doesn't touch him. She's never touched him. Harry snidely thinks that it might be because she knows he's a freak-

Ms. Lovely's arms wrap around Harry.

Harry jumps a little and shrinks away from her. He's unsure of what this hug means. It's. it's-

"I'm glad you apologized Harry, but don't just become angry with yourself," She whispers into his hair. She rubs his back, in a comforting motion.

Harry feels his own tears on his cheeks when he suddenly registers the hug as motherly. Harry hears his sobs come out and he tries to stop them. His hands unclench and his nails stop biting into his skin. His attempts to stop crying just make him sound more choked up. Ms. Lovely continues to console him.

"Shhh, Harry. It's alright. I just don't want someone as young as you, as creative as you, bottling up emotions and I don't want anger to be your dominant emotion. Harm None, Harry. Don't harm yourself either"

After a few moments, Ms. Lovely slowly moves to detach herself, but Harry's small arms immediately fly up and hug her back. She allows Harry to collect himself in her arms. Harry slowly calms himself down.

When he's done, Harry roughly wipes his face off with the back of his arm and silently draws futhark runes until Petunia comes to pick him and Dudley up. Ms. Lovely softly talks to Harry the entire time. He doesn't look at her, because he's embarrassed of himself.

Harry relaxes. He lets himself be. Harry talks back to the snakes and he realizes they aren't sadistic, just animalistic. Dudley has… accidents. But they are just accidents. Harry tells himself that he isn't the one making Dudley trip. Harm None.

When Harry suddenly finds himself on top of the school roof during a Harry Hunting session, Ms. Lovely worriedly walks him down and tries to get Harry to explain how he got up there. She smiles concernedly when Harry responds that "He doesn't know" with his own little smile.

The imagery of angry black mist stops popping up in Harry's head. The headaches stop and he becomes less angry. Less outwardly angry at least. There's a little less darkness and he doesn't feel like there's gas bubbling in his chest anymore.

When Harry finds out that Ms. Lovely had been fired for teaching "unauthorized" religion, he didn't cry. He does cry when Ms. Lovely says goodbye and he does cry when Ms. Lovely refuses to tell Harry where she lives and how to contact her through the phone. He calms down when she hesitantly slides him a piece of paper with her email on it. Harry doesn't have easy access to a computer, but the knowledge that if he tried to reach out, he'd be able to is comforting.

"Never stop feeling, Harry. It's not healthy to bottle things up, please remember that" Ms. Lovely says.

Harry will remember. But remembering isn't the same as actually doing what she tells him. So Harry bottles his too intense emotions up. He does it because he's certainly not going to snap at other teachers and especially not his guardians. He lets his anger out on weeds that have grown through the cracks of the sidewalks leading to the playground. He lets his anger out on rats and birds and other small, furry or feathery animals.

He lets his anger out on little pieces of paper. Through pencil and crayon and shapes and runes.

Harry's in his cupboard again when finally the sharp shapes he's memorized make the impossible happen. And Harry is sure he knows the reason it's working.

Looking down at the lit slip of paper, Harry silently admires the work of the Kenaz rune.

The paper is on fire. Harry's fingers are holding the slip, unaffected by the flame but absolutely in contact with it. Harry feels warmth radiate from his rune. He sees the fire sway.

The rune is working, and it's because Harry used blood to draw it.

It's a simple connection to make. He drew this rune out with the blood from a paper cut on his index finger, and when he finished the paper lit up in flames.

This is what he was missing. He was just too silly before, he thought the moon caused the first rune to glow. But now he knows! He's done magic again and now he's a confirmed freak but he's one with powers!

He's heard other students talk about fictional heroes such as Superman and Wolverine, but Harry's real. He's purposefully made something happen and now he's going to master it.

Harry rips the paper in half and lovingly places the pieces on his tiny shelf.

He's going to master these runes and he's going to make sure nobody leaves him ever again.