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Liz sat down next to the boy. She sighed heavily.

Why did she always have to go where she didn't belong?

But...

A warm hand touched the boy's skinny shoulder.

- Get up, miracle...

Harry jerked, at first thinking it was Dudley back. But the hand was gentle, the voice unfamiliar - and the boy cautiously looked in his direction.

A girl was looking at him.

Her dark red hair was dishevelled around her pretty face, her light brown eyes sparkling, and she was smiling, but she looked sympathetic.

- What happened to you?

Harry hesitated, not knowing what to answer or how to explain everything to her, but the girl no longer needed an explanation.

- Your nose is bleeding too! All right, get up, and let's go. Can you stand up?

Harry could. Dudley hit him harder, but never before had anyone taken care of him.

No one.

Never.

Tears welled up on their own, washing away the dirt, dust, and blood on the children's cheeks.

Liz only sighed.

She helped the boy up, put her arm around his shoulders so he wouldn't fall (she thought in passing that he'd make a good handbook for the biology lab - a natural skeleton, which held his soul in place), and took him to the school.

To the laboratory.

Where textbooks, reagents, test tubes, flasks, and many other Very Important Things, Absolutely Necessary for a Chemist were kept.

The boy sniffled softly as Liz washed him vigorously with warm water, continuing the task after she cornered him.

- Now then. Here's the soda. Here are the biscuits. Chew and stay out of the way, and I'm off to class. I'll talk to you when I get back.

And sure enough, the bell rang, and students entered the classroom - got work to do.

Liz had no doubt the boy would get in somewhere, but come on! Everything dangerous is in the safe, and a couple of burns or bruises... what else is there to do?

She wouldn't have been upset if he'd gotten away quietly, though. There was only room in Liz's life for one love - and her name was CHEMIA.

Harry sat, munching on a delicious biscuit, chugging a warm soda, and thinking everything was strange. He wasn't used to the care, the attention, the fact that someone needed him - and he involuntarily reached out to this redheaded girl.

She was kind...

And also...

She was a teacher. Harry didn't know what she taught; at least the cryptic words from behind the closed door didn't tell him anything.

Anhydrite..., hydrogen sulphide..., explosion...

That last one made sense. But... they don't keep blast teachers in school, do they?

He chewed the biscuits and looked around.

It was interesting around, which Harry subconsciously lacked in his relatives' sleek house.

There was something that looked like a scale in the corner, but a strange one. Gleaming cups, clear glass, a pile of handles, and a set of weights lying beside it. Then there were a couple of tables with books, notebooks, and something incomprehensible.

It looks like a huge metal box, with glass in the front, and behind it are various jars and glassware, like pipes and shot glasses, with some of the same lines attached to the top. Harry didn't know the words "flasks" and "test tubes."

By the second wall is another one of these things - and locked cabinets with strange signatures.

"Acids."

"Salts."

"Alkalis."

What are these? No, he won't climb anywhere, but he can just look, can't he?

I wonder...

***

Liz was pleasantly surprised when she came out into the lab after finishing her lesson. Nothing had been opened, spilled, mixed, or tasted (though she certainly wouldn't have been able to resist). The boy stood by the fume cupboard, looking at its contents with big eyes.

- Ah... what is that?

Liz followed his gaze.

- Ammonium dichromate.

- It's orange...

- And it makes a funny little volcano, you know?

- A volcano?! How?

It took about three minutes to pour a pile of the reagent and light a matchstick. And then Liz just enjoyed it.

Seeing such pure and sincere admiration for chemistry on someone else's face is lovely.

- What about this?!

- And this...

***

One experience was followed by a second, a third - and it was getting dark by the time the newfound teacher and pupil came to their senses.

Liz sighed.

- Yeah, we've had a long time... Did they lose you at home?

- No, no! Uncle and aunt would happily have me away for a while longer...

Liz sighed.

- I should be getting home...

Harry sank like a dandelion flower run over by a cart. Liz looked at him carefully.

- Okay. Then let's head back to my place, and I'll feed you dinner - and walk you home so your family won't be angry.

The child's huge and enthusiastic eyes were her best reward.

And a question.

- Is there anything else you can tell me... about chemistry?

Will she?

Oh, Liz could talk about chemistry for hours.

- I can tell you about how they got oxygen.

- How?

- Well, there was this chemist, Joseph Priestley, and he had two mice. So they were the first to know that Joseph had got oxygen.

Liz was more interested in something other than animal experiments.

***

Harry was over the moon. He walked beside Liz, holding her hand - and listened to the heating of the mercuric oxide, making the new substance.... was terribly interesting! Someone was talking to him for the first time in his life, not for orders, mockery, or scolding, but simply because he wanted to tell Harry something.

The boy was ready to go to the ends of the earth like that. But they came much faster - Liz lived very close to the school.

- And here was my dwelling.

It was a tiny house, smaller than the Dursleys', but so much more interesting inside!

The fireplace in the living room, with several flasks of substance on the shelf - Liz blushed and hid something from the chair behind her back.

- 'Sorry, I haven't tidied up. But the experience didn't go at all this morning; there just wasn't time...

- That's all right. And what were you doing?

- Working with organics. I isolated an alkaloid from acacia flowers.

That didn't mean anything to Harry but to stay in here.

- How?

Liz sighed, strode vigorously to the corner, the door Harry hadn't noticed at first, and swung it open.

- Look.

It was a chemical laboratory set up in an ordinary house. Liz had combined three rooms under it that she didn't need anyway. Dining room? A billiard room? And - what for?! Better to equip a laboratory. And yes. The library could also be connected to it.

As a result, one wall of the room was lined with shelves of books. The second wall had two fume hoods, muffle ovens, and an ultra-precise scale. The third wall was occupied by shelves and cabinets with reagents and chemical utensils. A giant chemist's desk dominated everything.

It was almost three meters long, over three meters wide, and had water, electricity, and sewage piped into it. A pile of flasks, test tubes, an incomprehensible pile of leaves and flowers, jars of reagents, and test-tube racks stood on it.

- It's maddening! - Harry muttered.

- Do you like it?

It was the first time Liz had shown someone her greenhouse, even a ten-year-old boy.

- It's excellent! What's that for?!

It's only natural that Harry left the house when it was dark. They'd forgotten about dinner, so Liz made him sausage sandwiches.

- It seemed the children were supposed to be fed something else, but...

Harry didn't mind. And he chewed the sandwiches all the way home.

The Dursleys were already asleep when he slipped into his closet, lay on his bed, and stared at the ceiling with happy eyes.

Sure, he'd been spanked by Dudley today.

But the rest!

He'd found Liz!

He'd been told about the chemistry!

And also... he was told he could see her after school tomorrow! She could use a lab assistant if he's happy with the sandwich payment.

Would he?

Even if Liz demanded that he kiss Dudley daily, Harry would agree even then!