Hi, everybody. This is a little story that came to my mind when I read one of the stories where Harry gets a different childhood away from the Dursleys, growing up knowing about magic. Now my idea was to write how it could be if there was somebody in Little Whinging helping him.

As always I own nothing about Harry Potter, just this idea.

The Young Teacher

Keith Brackwood was setting up his study in the house he had just inherited from his grandmother. She had died with 85 years of age, a good, old age and she had simply stopped breathing in her sleep. Just like most wanted to leave this world. Keith himself was grateful that she had left him her house in this town while the other members of his family got investments, cash or had to negotiate who got how much of the family mansion. Yes, his grandmother and grandfather had been rich to boot. The family business which his grandfather had set up after World War II had bloomed in England and even survived the economic crisis.

Keith had worked in the business after school while he caught up on his high school education. Now many would rightfully ask why he had to catch up on his high school education after he had finished school. Well, Keith wasn't normal. He was a muggleborn wizard. It had shocked his family when they were informed about what the incidents that had happened in his childhood really meant. After some discussions and explanations from Professor McGonagall who had come to their home to inform them about Keith's place at Hogwarts, the best magical school in England, his parents had agreed to let him got there.

It was a great place, but too soon Keith realised that not everything in the wizarding world was great. There was bigotry against people like him who had non-magical parents. He had been called nasty things and been bullied. Mostly by Slytherins, but others had also looked down on him. His housemates in Hufflepuff had been great, but with a war going on that targeted people like him, he didn't know what kind of future he would have in the wizarding world. After graduating with good marks in Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions and Ancient Runes he hoped to find a good, nice job. Which turned out to be nearly impossible.

First, most businesses were owned by old pureblood families. As he found out nearly eighty per cent of them believed in the bullshit You-Know-Who preached. Ten per cent while not following You-know-Who preferred to hire people from magical families. The remaining ter per cent were pressured by the others to not hire people of 'lower' blood status.

Oh yes, the wizarding world was so advanced (insert sarcasm). He had tried to find a job dozens of times. But he never had success. So he decided to cut his losses and leave the wizarding world and its unfairness behind. Thanks to telling his grandparents everything that had happened and how nobody ever told the muggleborns what they could expect after school they agreed to let him work in their business in a low position until he got caught up with his education and could go and get a degree in a subject he liked. He had worked eight hours each day from seven in the morning till half past three in the afternoon at his grandparents' business before he got his A-levels. He had never before been as grateful to his siblings as then because they had helped him catch up within two years. It was enough to get him a place at university where he studied to become a teacher for primary school students.

He knew that he had missed a lot while being in the wizarding world, but at primary school that wouldn't matter as much. Right now after he had passed his last exams he had got a position as a teacher for English and Maths at Stonewall Primary School in Little Whinging, Surrey. Which was the reason why he was so happy to have inherited this house. Privet Drive number 14 was in no way as impressive as any of the other houses his family owned, but it was close to his new place of work. The house had been rented out until six months ago when the occupant moved away due to being promoted and taking a new position in Manchester. He had organised for the house to be renovated by professionals while he sorted out his possessions.

After they had finished their work he had got a moving company to transport all his old and new things to the house and once there he and two friends from university started placing the furniture where he wanted it. They had positions in other schools, so they had promised each other to have at least two big get-togethers of the old clique each year to not lose sight of each other completely. Now Keith was putting books into shelves, filled the cupboards in the kitchen and went grocery shopping.

He came across a strange family. There was a blond woman who had a strange resemblance with a horse, he knew it wasn't nice to think like that, but it was the simple truth, she had two boys with her, one with blond hair, that boy was severely overweight and needed to be put on a diet urgently to avoid the boy having medicinal problems later in his life, and a black haired boy who looked like a stick, especially next to the fat boy.

The woman seemed to baby the fat boy and treat the black-haired boy overly harshly. That didn't really make sense to him. Why would she treat two boys close in age to each other that differently? He didn't have time to think about it a lot as the woman put the boys into the car, the blond first while the other boy had to place the bags into the boot of the car strangely, and drove away. Well, right now it didn't matter, he would probably find out the circumstances behind that curiosity when he started working as the two boys probably would go to his school this year or next.

The conference two weeks before the new school year was interesting. They were told about the new guidelines the government had given out for the schools, the funding the school had available, how health organisations wanted school cafeterias to give out healthy food to the children, especially at primary school, and how their school was part of a testing group how the children took to the changes, both from liking the food and their health. A peculiar part was a warning one of the parents had given the school about a boy that would start school this year. From what the aunt of the boy, one Petunia Dursley, said, the boy was a trouble maker and needed a strict hand. Her own son Dudley Dursley would start together with her nephew Harry Potter.

Keith was startled at the name a bit. While he didn't live in the wizarding world anymore, he had heard from old school friends that a boy called Harry Potter had survived a killing curse from You-Know-Who himself and had defeated the Dark Lord and freed them all. It had to be a coincidence. He had seen James Potter at school of course, it was hard not to with how much trouble the five years younger Gryffindor got into with his friends and with him being accepted at the Quidditch team in his second year, but nobody would leave his son in the muggle world to grow up.

So he pushed that thought away. The strange part was that seemingly some of the teachers had heard horror stories about the boy from his aunt before. How could a five year old boy be the monster they described? It seemed like none of the other two that were planned to take on one of the three new first-year classes was keen to have Harry in their class. Well, if they didn't want the boy, he would take him. New teachers often were roped into taking a first-year class as the homeroom teacher to give them experience with the youngest and therefore supposedly easiest-to-handle children. Sometimes it was also a test to see if they would sink or swim.

"If you are opposed to taking Harry into your class, I will do it." Keith said. "I can't really imagine a five year old boy to be that bad. And if he really is mean to his cousin we could probably solve that problem by putting them in separate classes. I know that it would be unusual, but it would avoid a lot of problems we were warned about."

"Not a bad idea, Keith." Howard Fitz agreed. "Just keep a close eye on him."

Keith nodded towards the principal.

"Alright, the classrooms for the new first-years are in the south wing this year. The rooms that the former fifth years had are going to be the ones for the new first-years, meaning rooms S 11 and S 12 on the first floor as well as S 24 on the second floor. Keith, you take S 24, Karen, you get S 11 and Jane, you have S 12. Make the rooms comfortable for the children, but don't forget to give clear rules." Howard reminded them and got three nods. "Now the second to fifth-years keep their rooms except for the 4b as their room needs to be renovated. Jack, you will move to room E 5 for this year."

The addressed teacher nodded. The talks continued until the timetables were worked out and the fields and gyms for physical education classes were booked for each class.

Harry Potter was not sure what he should think about going to primary school. Sure, Dudley had been going to nursery school for over a year already, something Harry hadn't been allowed as he was a freak and didn't deserve that, but primary school was compulsive for all children in England and therefore he had been admitted to Stonewall Primary School, the only primary school in Little Whinging. He had been massively warned to not give his teachers any trouble and follow their instructions. Dudley had got much praise and had been told how well he would do there. And he got a lot of presents and sweets for finally starting real school. Harry didn't know what he should do. He had never got to play with other children, so he didn't know how to do it. And Dudley always hurt him when they played. Would other children do it too?

Well, there was no way around this. Aunt Petunia had put them both into the car and had driven to the school. From the gate it looked quite nice. A big building with a playground and grassy fields around it. Some places had pictures drawn on them where Harry could see older children play some game that involved throwing a stone onto the picture and then hopping on one or two legs around the picture. It looked like being fun. Aunt Petunia led him and Dudley to a big room where lots of people were assembled and sat on chairs with cushions on them. They sat down close to the front because Dudley wanted to have good sight of the play that had been promised to him by his mother.

Harry found the introduction to the school rules that were shown to the new students funny. Somebody used puppets on strings to show what was wrong and what was right. Then the three teachers that would be the homeroom teachers for the new first-years were called forward and they introduced themselves a bit. Harry tried to remember their names. Aunt Petunia was always angry if he didn't remember the name of somebody and then she yelled at him. He didn't want to be yelled at on his first day at school. Then the first class was being called with Jane Cooper as the homeroom teacher. Dudley was in that class. While Harry still had to wait for his turn his aunt harshly whispered to him to not give her or his uncle any trouble and that he would be very sorry if they ever were called to school over something he did. Harry only meekly nodded.

Then after the second class had followed Karen Smith the last class under Keith Brackwood was called and his name was also called. He stood up and carried his old backpack with him. Dudley had got a new one for school, but Uncle Vernon had said that he didn't deserve a new backpack and should be grateful for the one he got at all. Thankfully the other things he needed were really cheap and big sales were always done before school started, so he got notebooks, pencils and the workbooks they needed for first year all new. Of course they were the cheapest ones there were, but he didn't mind; they were his and he would take good care of them. He and the other children in his class followed their new homeroom teacher up two floors until they found a room with a sign on the door that read 1-C, which was their class as they had been told downstairs.

That was the introduction into the story. What do you think so far?