October 23rd, 1988
Harry really didn't like not knowing things. He'd learned ever since he could remember that knowing things meant life got a little easier and not knowing made it a whole lot harder. He had to know every chore in the right order to get done so Aunt Petunia would let him eat his leftovers, had to know every right answer to get them wrong so his grades wouldn't be better than Dudley's, the times Uncle Vernon came back from work so he'd hide in his cupboard until his uncle had eaten and was too full to move for a while so he wouldn't get punished for anything his cousin decided to blame on him. Knowing things was important, the best places to hide, what sort of food wouldn't go bad if he hid it under a floorboard, how to get stains out of clothes before Aunt Petunia saw them, he used to make sure he remembered everything that he'd ever gotten in trouble for so he wouldn't do it again.
Leaving the Dursleys had been like a dream come true, even though it wasn't his parents showing up to rescue him from his cupboard like he'd wished for many times while lying in his cupboard at night. It also meant needing to learn a bunch of new things, like that he could go get food if he got hungry any time of the day, that his showers didn't have to be ice cold and quick, that reading wasn't just to be done behind the door of his room - a whole room just for him was still amazing - and that his door would never be locked unless he locked it himself. There were so many new rules to know and others to forget that sometimes he felt a little lost, like not having to hide in the library during break at school but sometimes still going there anyway - only after eating his snack that no one even tried to throw on the floor - because Hermione was trying to read every book in it by the time they left the school, and that he could and even should ask questions and Mr Wright would never get mad about it, even if they were silly ones, he'd tested it. He could even disagree with his guardian and instead of a walloping, he'd get to sit in Mr Wright's office and argue about it over a pinboard like a game.
He also got to know things that weren't super important but still useful, like how to use a coffee machine! Uncle Vernon couldn't drink it for some reason his doctor said, and Aunt Petunia liked tea, so he never learned how to use one, but Ms Sarah liked coffee better than tea and made it sometimes when she took him to get snacks in the break room at Mr Wright's work, so he watched her do it enough times to remember. The first time she was really busy and he brought her a mug of coffee with milk and lots of sugar the way he'd seen her do it, she'd smiled at him and messed up his hair and called him her little hero, even gave him some chocolate she'd been hiding in her drawer, so he figured it was a good thing to know. She even asked him to get coffee for her once or twice, though only if he got himself a snack, and she always had something else for him on her desk when he came back. He also learned that he shouldn't make anyone else coffee even if they asked, Ms Sarah and Mr Wright got really upset - not with him but still - the one time it happened.
Even with all the new things he had to know, there was still so much he didn't, like how to make his hair stop growing back from a new haircut - he felt so bad for wasting Mr Wright's money but all he said was maybe they should let it grow out instead of cutting it - or how long it would be until he had to learn a whole new set of rules. He knew he couldn't stay with Mr Wright, he was there for some of the talks of magical guardians and how the witches wouldn't let him stay with a squib - what's wrong with squibs? Mr Wright is the best and not having magic doesn't change that - and he even remembered Mr Wright said he'd be living with him for a while , not forever. Except that for the first time in forever, he didn't want to be anywhere else.
Maybe that's why he'd been so scared the day before when Mr Wright looked in pain and got sick all over the floor. He only remembered feeling like that one time when Aunt Petunia killed his little spider friend that kept him company in the cupboard, but even then it hadn't been quite as scary as thinking that Mr Wright might get badly hurt and leave him. He didn't want Mr Wright to leave, or to be taken away by the witches, he wanted to stay with the man that rescued him from the Dursleys, that let him ask every question he could think of and never got mad if Harry climbed onto his lap while he was working, who asked about his day and took him to make friends even if he didn't really think he'd know what to do with so many of them when he'd never even had one before. Mr Wright was like– like what Harry wanted a dad to be like, and he didn't want anyone else to take his place.
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Destinies Collide
同人小说Michael Wright believed himself to be a good person. He paid his taxes, was polite to his neighbors, friendly at the workplace, and made regular donations to charities he became involved within his line of work. He believed himself reasonably aware...
