Brian Knight Potter

Chapter Two

The next day Harry asked all his teachers what they knew about Diplomatic Immunity after class. They only told him what he already knew. Hermione was going to ask her Muggle Studies teacher what she knew about it since it was more a muggle thing than wizards. Harry and Hermione had told Ron about helping Mrs. Warner with the kids and he planned on going with them after class to help. They all knew that Mrs. Warner wouldn't object to another helping hand. There were about fifty children enrolled in the program, all very active. During the day there were at least six adults on hand counting Mrs. Warner. After classes fourth years and up came and helped. Usually two to four of the adult helpers left then to see their own families, or just to relax.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were walking across the lawn to the additions. When they reached the wing for the day care, the children were playing in the gym that had been especially built for them including lowered basketball goals. They children were running around playing a game of tag. The three exchanged a look after seeing the active children. It was going to be a tiring few hours.

They spotted Mrs. Warner sitting in the bleachers along with most of the other helpers. They walked over and introduced themselves. "I'm so glad all of you are here. You know I can use the help. Right now it's recess time. When it's over, in thirty minutes, we'll go back into the main room and do art, which can be messy. Today we're just going to let them draw pictures of anything they want with crayons but even that can turn evil. The main goal is to make sure they don't anything," she said and laughed. They laughed along with her. Harry bent his head next to Hermione's ear and said,

"Is she serious about making sure they don't eat anything?" Hermione nodded her head.

They took a seat a few bleachers behind Mrs. Warner near one of the adult helpers. Harry looked down at the playing children and immediately picked out the brown headed child he had seen being beaten. Now that he had a chance to get a good look at him he saw that he had dark skin, not black, and looked like he was from India. He was running and screaming with the other children, but it was obvious he was in pain. He was cringing with every step, and Harry could tell he was having trouble breathing. After ten minutes he was dragging his feet and looked near tears. He walked over to where Mrs. Warner was sitting. She talked to him for a minute, looking concerned, before lifting the child into her lap. He snuggled against her and closed his eyes. Harry tore his eyes away from the child. He leaned over to the adult helper and said, "What exactly are we supposed to do?"

She smiled encouragingly at him. "When recess is over you'll help get them back into the main room, and then make sure that they don't eat anything. Did Tabitha already tell you that?"

"Tabitha?" Hermione asked confused.

"Mrs. Warner. She asks that all the helpers call her Tabitha."

"Oh, yes she told us not to let them eat anything. Would they actually try to eat something? Aren't they a little old for that?" Hermione said smiling nervously.

"You would think they would be too old to still do it, but they do. We won't have much trouble with them eating crayons, but it's the drawing on the tables and walls that is the bigger problem. If you see one of the drawing on something besides paper take the crayon from them, and tell them stop."

"Does that actually work, telling them to stop?" Ron interjected. She laughed.

"Not usually, but you have to try. You'll help with stuff like that. How comfortable are you with escorting them to the bathroom and helping them if needed, if you understand what I'm saying." They all understand what she meant.

"I will if need be," Hermione said but it was obvious by her tone of voice that she rather wouldn't. Harry and Ron both nodded to show that they felt the same.

"Good I think that cover everything."

"There's one thing we all forgot to do. None of us introduced ourselves," Hermione said.

"My name's Amanda."

"I'm Hermione, that's Harry, and that's Ron," she said pointing to each in turn. Amanda nodded at them as they were introduced.

"Who's the boy sitting on Tabitha's lap?" Harry asked. Amanda looked over.

"That's Brian Knight. He's very quiet and well mannered. He's been droopy all day. I think he's starting to come down with a cold or something. He's been coughing a lot today also. He's a very sweet kid.

Of course he's quiet, Harry thought. At home he probably gets hit if he's loud.

"Have you met his father?" Amanda nodded. "What did you think of him?" She thought a minute before answering.

"He seemed to be a loving father, but something felt off about it. I'm not the only one who thinks that. Tabitha and a couple of the other workers think there's more to him than meets the eye," she said quietly glancing over her shoulder. Harry looked to where she had glanced. There was a red headed male sitting a couple of benches above them staring at them with cold, blue eyes.

"What are you doing now Amanda? Telling the new kids more lies about Brian's father?" he said coldly. His voice was crisp and he had an American accent.

"It is none of your business what I am telling them. They are new so I am telling them what is expected of them and what they will be doing to help," she replied just as cold. It was obvious that the two didn't like each other.

"You may have been telling them that earlier but you weren't a second ago. You're always telling someone about one of your feeling about how something is off. You just want his father to be doing something to him so you can have a chance of adopting him. You have ever since what happened to your child.

At the moment Amanda leaped up from her seat and lunged at him. She tackled him to the ground and got five good punches in before the trio managed to pull her off. She was screaming words at him that most of the children's parents would strongly disapprove of their children hearing.

"What in the world is going on here?" Mrs. Warner asked coming over. She looked from Amanda to the male. She sighed. "You two again?"

"I didn't do anything," the red headed male said.

"Liar!" Amanda screamed, shaking with fury.

"Cody, don't say a word," Mrs. Warner said addressing the male seeing him open his mouth. "Brittany, will you take the kids to do art while I settle this?" The woman nodded and started herding the kids back into the main room. The trio stayed there. Hermione had let go of Amanda and was now standing beside Harry.

"Amanda, please as calmly as you can, tell me what happened." She took a deep breath before explaining what had happened. When she got to the part where Cody had started to something about her child tears filled her eyes. She didn't let them fall and finished telling what had happened. Tabitha nodded.

"Cody, let me guess what you're going to say. Where you going to say that you never said any of that?"

"I never did say any of that. She's a liar," he replied with a sneer.

Hermione grabbed onto Amanda as she started to struggle to get at him, fury etched on her face.

"You do know the only reason I've put up with you this long is because your father is one of the people who gives us supplies don't you?" Tabitha said addressing Cody. He had his arms crossed across his chest and a scowl on his face. By the way he was standing it was obvious he could care less what happened next. He nodded his head. "I'm tired of it. You are always starting something with someone and from this point on you are no longer allowed in this wing. I don't care if your father drops his support, and quits giving us art supplies, and snacks, and everything else we're using. I'll find another sponsor. Leave now," she said pointing to the door her voice cold.

Cody blinked. "You can't do this. You have no power to tell me I can't come here!" he said almost shouting. He had taken a step closer to her and was now just a few inches from her face.

"I have the right to banish someone from this wing if I please to, and I just did. Leave." She was now starting to get very angry. Harry made a mental note never to cross her. They stared down each other for a few more seconds before he stomped down the bleachers and out the door.

"I hate him," Amanda snarled venom dripping from her voice.

"I know you do. I don't like him all that much either. Are you alright?" Tabitha asked her voice now concerned. Amanda nodded. "Let's go see the kids then."

When they reached the main room all the children were seated at tables talking and drawing. Amanda walked over to the nearest table and sat down on the floor and started talking to the children.

"Pick a table, introduce yourself, tell them to tell you their names and just talk to them. Ask them to tell you about what they're drawing. They think we can tell what it is, but like most kids their age mostly it's just scribbles. Good luck," she said and walked over to her desk and sat down.

Harry found the table Brian was sitting at and chose that one. Ron and Hermione went to other ones.

"Hi, I'm Harry. What are your names?" he asked the five children sweetly.

"Mine's Aawon," said a blonde headed boy.

"Aaron?" Harry asked thinking the child had pronounced it wrong. He nodded proudly. "What's yours?" he asked a girl with brown hair in braided pigtails and brown eyes.

"Jennifer, but I like to be called Jenny."

Harry turned his eyes to the boy beside her. "I'm Frawkenstien," he said proudly. Harry nodded at him.

Frankenstein? I'm going to assume that's a nick name.

"Mine's Brian."

He looked at the last child. She had brown-blonde hair and brown eyes. "My name is Kirsten."

"That's a very pretty name. What are you drawing?" he said coming to sit behind her.

"It's the ship we rode on to come here. It was wuge and the waves were pweety."

Harry smiled at her mispronunciation of huge and pretty. They're cute when they talk. They can't say half the words correctly.

"Look at my picture!" Frankenstein yelled holding it up.

"It's very good. Why don't you tell me about it?" Harry said moving to site behind him.

"That's my daddy in his army uniform. He's over in um... umm... he's somewhere killing all the bad people using his big gun! He's a hero," the child said excitedly.

"If he's killing people he's not a hero, he's a bad person. People who kill other people are bad," Sarah said while she "drew" her picture.

"He is to a hero! He's not a bad person! He's the best person in the whole world. You're just too stupid to know that!" he yelled at her tears in his eyes.

"I'm not stupid! You're the one that's stupid!" she yelled at him. Amanda came over and picked the girl up taking her over to her table.

Frankenstein started to yell something back but Harry shushed him before he got out. He crossed his arms, scowling. "My daddy isn't a bad man," he said quietly tears starting slide down his cheeks.

"Shhh, of course he's not. Please don't cry. Are you actually going to believe her? You know he's not a bad man. He's a hero like you said. Are you going to let something that some girl said bother you?"

Please let this work. He's three, he'll think girls have cooties.

"No, she's just a girl. Nothing she says matters. Girls have cooties," he said sniffling. Kirsten huffed, picked up her picture and left the table without saying a word. Harry sighed.

Glad that worked. I just hope Hermione doesn't hear about it.

He grabbed another sheet of paper from the stack in the middle of table and started drawing another picture. Harry went to Aaron next. He then went to Brian.

Harry looked at the child's picture. Harry though he could see clouds and something that looked like wings. "Why don't you tell me about your picture?"

"It's my mommy up in the sky with all the other angels. She left, and my aunt said she wasn't coming back. I miss her a lot."

Harry's heart felt like it was breaking.