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Author: Caitlyn Story: Lessons for Life Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-OotP Status: Completed Reviews: 6 Words: 87,853
**Culture note: In England, Kindergarten is actually called "Nursery School". I'm going call it Nursery School here also. But, keep in mind, Chloe is five years old, and she would be attending Kindergarten…to use the American phrase. ~*~ It had hardly been a week. Barely seven days, and Harry couldn't bring himself to imagine life without Chloe. Chloe liked her new home very much. Her curiosity regarding her new world had yet to be extinguished and she kept up a running stream of questions for Harry. Much to her surprise and delight, he always had time for her and every one of her questions. He was nothing like her mum and dad, who had never paid any attention to her. Therefore, Harry became Chloe's favorite person, not to mention hero, in less than a few days. The only thing she'd worried about since she came to live with him was what she was to call him. She liked him very much, but she didn't know what he wanted to be called. She couldn't call him Dad, because that was the other person she had lived with, and Harry really didn't act like him. She also didn't think that he liked her dad very much, and neither did she when it came down to it… so the name "Dad" was quickly vetoed. After much thought, Chloe finally decided on "Uncle Harry"— a sort of in-between title. This particular morning she had just finished up her bread and jam and perched in the chair closest to his desk. She liked spending mornings in his study while he worked. He never minded if she brought some of her toys in to play with quietly in front of the fire. But today, she didn't want to play. Today she had decided to work, like he did. Chloe studied Harry's face as he poured over books. Chloe then picked up the book she had randomly selected from his library earlier that morning. It was a nice thick volume with a dark blue leather cover and loopy gold writing on the front. Her feet dangled off the edge of the chair and she admired the shining cover of the book in her lap, which she thought was very pretty. Chloe cleared her throat importantly and cracked open the book. Harry's quill stopped as he glanced in her direction. He turned back to his work, very amused that Chloe was trying to copy him. When he glanced back to study the scene in closer detail, it was even funnier. The expression on her face was certainly one of a kind. She was obviously trying to look studious, but it looked quite like a scowl to the unknowing eye. Poor Chloe wasn't doing very well keeping up her studious look because the book kept sliding out of her grasp. Harry didn't recognize the book at first, so he craned his neck for a better look at the title. Yuck. "Common Muggle Torture Practices" Harry grinned and reminded himself that she couldn't read very well yet; she probably picked out the book because of the shiny cover. However, it appeared that this five-year-old was looking for a bit of revenge aimed at her Muggle parents. Chloe turned a page and tried to work out a few more words. Mrs. Figg had taught her to read a little, but these words were awfully big. The pictures were interesting though — everyone in the pictures looked horrified at the words in the book. Chloe wondered what they were shocked about. She heard her Uncle Harry laughing at his work; she wondered if that was part of working. Well, if she was going to be like him, she might as well show that she could do work like him, too. She turned the page and began giggling, hoping she sounded convincing. This was too much for Harry, who was now laughing so loudly that he had to turn away to gain his composure. "Chloe," he finally got out, "what on earth could possibly be funny in that book?" Chloe looked at him as if he were quite daft. "I'm working. Isn't your work funny, too?" Harry laughed and put his quill in his inkwell. "Not nearly as funny as you. I'll take that book if you've finished laughing at it." "Working," corrected Chloe. "Can you do spells from that book, Uncle Harry?" "No, I would never do spells from that book. It's a Dark Arts book. I have it so that I know how to reverse the spells in it." "You can only do them backward?" "No," Harry smiled, "only bad wizards do those spells." "You can't?" "I can. I won't." "Even on the bad wizards?" He reached over and took the book from her hands. "Not even on them. Accio!" Another book flew out of the bookcase and landed with a neat smack onto his desk. He handed it to Chloe. "These are nice spells?" she asked. "Yes." "You do these?" "Forward and backward." After awhile, Harry yawned and stretched lazily in his chair. Chloe looked up, long since abandoning her attempts to learn the bigger words in the spell books. She had started a new project and had collected a good many books off his shelves and stacked them up in what looked like the start of a house or a fort. "Guess what?" he said. "What?" asked Chloe, stopping her stacking for a moment. "I got you into school," said Harry. "Hogwarts?" she said, remembering him talk about his old school. "No, no, certainly not Hogwarts," he said. Harry got up and stepped carefully around her house. "A-a-a Muggle school?" she asked cautiously, peering over one of the taller stacks of books. "Now, Chloe, do you really think I'd make you go to your first school in the Muggle world?" he said with a mock lecturing tone. Chloe shook her head. "Wizards and witches learn how to read and write and do maths just like Muggle children," he explained. "We just can't live on magic alone. Who'd become a wizard reporter or write spell books if they didn't know how to read or writing?" "Mrs. Figg taught me lots of things," said Chloe. "She said I was supposed to be in nursery school, but my mum and dad didn't want to pay for it, I think. So she taught me." Harry grimaced slightly at this information. He did his best to keep an even tone as he continued. "I've enrolled you into a private nursery school so you'll have a nice small class; the teacher also happens to be a good friend of mine. We don't think you'll have any trouble catching up with the other children, so it's okay that you're starting school a bit late." Chloe looked excited. "With other children my age? Are we going tomorrow?" Harry smiled. "If you go put on the new robes we got yesterday, we can go today." Chloe was back in the study within minutes. Harry adjusted her bright blue robes that had been put on slightly… askew. He set her hat on his desk and awkwardly tried to fix her hair into something that resembled two braids. He quickly gave up and he left her hair down. "Ready?" he said, picking her up. She nodded excitedly. ~*~ "Wow," said Harry quietly, as he and Chloe Apparated into an empty classroom. "This is nice." Harry smiled as he gazed around the classroom. Bright beanbag chairs and pillows in primary colors were surrounding them as they stood in the middle of the room on a rug covered with colorful numbers and letters. Rows of easels took up a corner of the room and half a dozen small round tables took up another corner. Next to a teacher's desk there was a large aquarium that had tropical fish chasing each other around enthusiastically. There was a playhouse that took up most of the far side of the classroom and a trunk overflowing with dress up items. Alongside a spotless green chalkboard there were two bookcases practically bursting at the seams with books. Above their heads, mobiles of planets and stars made soft tinkling noises as they twisted around and around. Harry was very impressed with the ceiling. It looked cut out of the sky, with streaks of dusky pinks, deep blues, and brilliant shades of orange and red. [E/N: I gave the author a bright shiny pink sticker for the rewrite of the classroom description!] Chloe looked up at Harry, eyes wide. "Do you like it?" he asked. Chloe nodded vigorously. "Where are the other children?" "They'll come," reassured Harry, "we came early to talk to the teacher." "I think it looks like an awful lot of fun, Uncle Harry," said Chloe, looking around the room again eagerly. "Do you suppose the teacher would let me look at the books?" Harry nodded. "Yes, I think it will be an awful lot of fun. I'm sure you'll get lots of chances to look at the books." "But," she paused for a moment, "you won't be here with me." "Right," said Harry, "this is half-day nursery school. You go from eleven o' clock until three o'clock. That way I get my work done while you play and we can spend mornings and evenings together." Chloe frowned. Nursery school had obviously lost some of its appeal. "It wouldn't be very hard for me to learn at home," she said slowly. "I could help you work too, Uncle Harry, really, I could." Harry shook his head. "But don't you want to come here? It's only for a few hours. Besides, the study would get horribly boring after awhile." Chloe looked around the classroom again. She now looked quite unsure of the situation. "Do you suppose the other children will like me? And what do I do if the teacher is mean?" "First of all," said Harry picking her up, "I wouldn't leave you here if I thought any of those things would happen. Second of all, I bet the other children will be very excited to meet you." "What about the teacher?" "Did you know that I went to school with her? She's one of the nicest people I know," said Harry. "What does she look like?" asked Chloe. "Does she have a bauble?" Harry smiled. "You've met her, but I don't think you remember. She came to dinner the first night you came to live with me." Chloe looked as though she was trying to remember, but she shook her head at Harry. Harry smiled a little sheepishly. "Well. Ah. Let's see, she's got red hair and her eyes are b—" "Blue!" guessed Chloe. "No, not blue," said Harry. "They're… big brown eyes." "Oh," said Chloe, "does she smile a lot?" Harry now realized he was becoming quite flustered with this conversation. "Er. Yes. She has a very nice smile. She has a very pretty laugh as well." "Does she h—" The conversation was halted when the bright red door opened with a loud bang. Ginny stumbled in, about to drop five teetering boxes, until Harry lifted the top boxes away. Ginny looked surprised at the sudden appearance of Harry's face in front of her own. "Hello, Harry," she said, setting down the remaining boxes on a nearby table. "Thank you." Harry smiled at her as he set his boxes down also. "We came a bit early so she could get a little more acquainted." "How wonderful," said Ginny pleasantly. "I was hoping for another chance to talk with you. I don't think we were acquainted very well at that dinner." She held out her hand towards Chloe. "I'm Ms. Ginny. Do you like my classroom?" "I like it very much," said Chloe. "Will we be allowed to touch the books?" "Allowed?" said Ginny. "You're more than allowed. You can look at them whenever you want. Some children even take a few home to borrow for a bit." Harry admired how well Ginny was with children. She was the perfect nursery school teacher: kind and patient with an agreeable disposition. Chloe liked her teacher from the very first moment. Her Uncle Harry was right. She was nice and had pretty red hair and a bright smile. Chloe peered curiously at one of the boxes. "Why do you have all those ribbons?" "These? Lots of things. We could decorate with them or use them for arts and crafts, but I haven't really decided yet." Ginny fished through the box. "This one would look very pretty with your robes." Chloe giggled. "I only wear ribbons with braids and Uncle Harry can't braid." Ginny nodded solemnly, her brown eyes sparkling with amusement. "He's a boy and we'll have to forgive him. I'll braid your hair if you'd like." Harry turned slightly red. "Thanks, Ginny." He tried to see what she was doing with Chloe's hair, but he gave up after a second. It couldn't be that complicated, she was doing it rather quickly. "May I go look at those things over there?" asked Chloe. "Those are our easels. You can go play with them if you'd like. I'm almost through here," said Ginny, tying the bow. "There. Your hair is braided." "You do have big brown eyes," said Chloe turning to smile happily at Ginny. "Uncle Harry was right." She then skipped off to look at the easels. Ginny started laughing and glanced at Harry. Harry was now bright red, and trying to remember when he had last been so embarrassed. "I, um..." "Yes?" asked Ginny. "I was trying to describe what you looked like and… uh…" "It's okay," said Ginny, "you have no idea how many times my students have twisted my words around." Harry wondered if he should tell her that Chloe hadn't twisted his words around at all. He had always had a bit of a crush on Ginny, probably since the middle of his sixth year. Of course, he had never dared to think anything more of it than a friendship, with the factor of her six older brothers… He knew he wouldn't have done anything about it anyway since he had feared to like someone, much less fall in love with them, when Voldemort was alive. Ginny had obviously got over Harry ages ago, when she had fallen in love and married. Harry never completely understood her marriage, but she had been very happy… Had been. Eight years later… things were quite different. Ginny and Harry sat down at one of the little tables and their knees wouldn't quite fit under. Harry shifted uncomfortably, afraid he was about to break the little chair. "She's adorable," said Ginny. Harry looked over at Chloe. "I don't know what it is, Gin, but it's been so much fun spending time with her. Sure, some of it has been hard to get used to, but she's so…" "Full of life?" said Ginny, knowingly. "Yes," said Harry, looking enlightened, "that's exactly it! It's unbelievable how much she learns… and talks… and thinks about things, and she's so young! "She's five. Of course she's full of life!" "It seems so odd for me to be so attached to her after only a week." Ginny gazed at him thoughtfully and then shook her head. "No. Why would it be odd? She's attached to you. Think about how unhappy she'd be without you." "She's not that attached to me!" said Harry with a laugh. "You'd be surprised. I see a different child than I saw at that dinner," she said lightly. Harry looked at the floor, coloring red again. "How have you been doing?" Ginny paused and a small shadow seemed fall over her face. "Better, I think. If it weren't for this place, I'd be a great deal worse off. The children here always make me so happy." "As you do to them," said Harry promptly. "Stop it," laughed Ginny. "I'm not that great of a nursery school teacher." "What's that award this place got again?" said Harry in a teasing tone. "The only reason I got that is because I threw everything I had into this place. I had to or I would have gone ma—" Ginny trailed off and fell silent. "It wasn't your fault," said Harry, feeling his chest tighten. "I'm the one to blame. It's my fault." "My brothers aren't any help," said Ginny, talking on as if she hadn't heard him. "They say I need to move on, get over it, and put the past behind me." Harry wanted desperately to change the conversation topic. "I don't think you should," he finally got out. "He would've been going through the same thing if it were you. I should've got there sooner." "You were his friend, Harry. He would've chosen himself to die over you." Harry closed his eyes, trying get rid of the sick feeling in his stomach as the memory flooded back. "No one would have died! I could have stopped all of it." Ginny looked straight into Harry's eyes."Did you know when we were still in school... he used to always tell me that the Sorting Hat must have made a mistake by putting him in Gryffindor?" "He could not have been more wrong," said Harry sadly. "He'd give his left arm if he knew it would make someone happy. It was an honor to know him." "I'm glad you remember him like that," said Ginny softly. "I loved him very much." They were snapped out of their reverie when Chloe came skipping over with her picture. "Look what I drew!" "It's very good, Chloe!" said Harry, admiring it from a few angles. He could almost tell what it was... almost. Ginny took the picture from Harry and held it in her lap. "Hmmm, this looks like the classroom. There's my desk, there's the aquarium, and that looks just like the ceiling." Harry wondered where she was seeing this in that picture. Chloe beamed. "That's right!" she said proudly. "Speaking of the ceiling, Gin," said Harry, "what exactly did you do to it? It looks even better than the Great Hall." Ginny glanced up. "Oh, no! My ceiling isn't half as good as the Great Hall. It doesn't change with the weather. I just charmed it to look like a sunrise and sunset." "Why sunrise and sunset?" asked Chloe. Ginny smiled warmly at her. "Because I can never decide which is better." "Sunset," said Harry. "It's nice to see everything settle down and start to look forward to the next day." "Yes, but sunrise means a beginning of the day when everything is fresh and new," countered Ginny. "Okay," said Harry said, his eyes crinkling at the corners with amusement, "now I know why you have both on the ceiling." Harry glanced at his watch and fastened the loose catch on his cloak. "I've really got to go now," he said planting a kiss on Chloe's forehead. "I'll be back before you know it." Chloe stood on her tiptoes and hugged Harry tightly. "You can have my picture, Uncle Harry." Harry smiled proudly as if he had just been handed the eighth wonder of the world. He folded the picture carefully and put it in his robes. "Thank you very much." Chloe waved goodbye until Harry Disapparated. "He'll be back," she said, sounding sure of herself as she looked up at Ginny. Ginny smiled. "Yes, he will. Would you like to help me get ready for the rest of the class?" "Okay!" said Chloe. ~*~ That evening, Harry was overwhelmed about how much Chloe could talk about the four hours she had spent in nursery school. He was enjoying her chatter over dinner, which had all too often been a silent affair for him. "Annnnd then, you know what?" she said bouncing in her chair. "What?" he said with a grin. "Meghan Weasley said I was her BEST friend now!" boasted Chloe. "Really? You made a best friend?" he said, buttering a roll and handing it to her. "Uh-huh! And Meghan and me played in the dress up box and Ms. Ginny said we could put our nap mats together for quiet time after snack time," said Chloe gleefully. "Meghan and I," he corrected gently. "Eat your roast, please." Chloe chewed her roast quickly and continued on at full speed. "Ms. Ginny let me change the day of the week on the calendar and we got to play this game with these musical instruments! I got to play the drum! It was soooo loud, Uncle Harry!" She took a gulp of milk. "Did you get to learn a new word?" asked Harry. "Yes!" said Chloe. "I learned how to spell December! D-E-C-E-M-B-ummmm-E-R!!!! December!" she recited. "Ms. Ginny says it'll be December before we know it!" "That's very good," praised Harry. "And Ms. Ginny taught us how to write it too!" Chloe made the letters in the air with her finger to illustrate. "She wrote on the board with bright yellow chalk. She tapped it with her wand too and it marched around the board! So Ms. Ginny and my class all marched around the classroom! Ms. Ginny led, and we all shouted the letters. We all know how to spell it, because Ms. Ginny knows everything." Chloe took a deep breath and smiled at Harry. "Anything else?" asked Harry. "Yes!" she grinned. "What?" "Can I go back tomorrow?" she said, bouncing in her seat again. "Yes," laughed Harry. "Now eat your green beans, please." Chloe speared her green beans. "I love nursery school," she said with a happy sigh. ~*~ Harry tucked her in with her stuffed dragon and smoothed the sheets. Chloe yawned. "I want to hear a bedtime story." Harry obliged and told her about Hogwarts and had barely begun when she was fast asleep. He snapped his fingers for the lights to dim and crept out of the room. Later in the evening, he sat in his study and was trying to go through the motions of reading the paper, but his mind kept drifting back to Ginny. The years hadn't been happy for her. He wanted her to be the old Ginny. The Ginny that hadn't lost a husband to Voldemort. The Ginny that was his friend. The Ginny that he could look into the eyes without thinking that it was his fault that she was different. Guilt settled over him again like a shroud. Harry put his face in his hands. He should've got there sooner.
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