Warnings: moderate language
Pairings: none
Words: 25000
Other: I am not going to spoon feed you every bit of information, but there will be explanations if you ask. Harry's age will be indicated in the chapter title. Updates will be dayly. The main plot covers first year, but the story will show all of his school years briefly.
Disclaimer: Any lines you recognise come from Harry Potter and hence, are not my own.
"English"
"Parseltongue. Got it?"
…
A young, black haired, green eyed, chronically scrawny and slightly morally ambiguous boy hid in the bushes beside the local park. The slight rocking back-and-forth motion and periodic scuffing his oversized trainers through the dirt betrayed his nerves, but for the most part he remained quite still. Remarkable, for a six year old, to be sure.
Perhaps it was the threat hanging over his head that motivated him so effectively. After all, the Freak knew it was Very Wrong to steal, and he could probably predict the consequences with reasonable accuracy. A couple weeks in the cupboard, no food or toilet breaks, an even longer list of chores, the belt… the boy shivered.
As he sat there, he couldn't properly comprehend why his actions were so wrong, but if shade of puce his uncle had turned was any indication, it was smarter to wait a while for him to cool down than hang around to find out. He'd go back after a couple days.
The first person to tell him stealing was wrong was the friendly policeman at the school visit. Harry wanted to listen to the nice man, but he was also pretty sure the criminal negligence his relatives so generously bestowed upon him was wrong, yet no one had done anything about that. After a few years of being looked down upon for telling tales about the nice Dursleys, Harry learned not to bother. He'd developed into a forward-thinker, and while the inspections from the police brought a hilarious rushed cover-up and a few days respite in case the authorities returned, he learnt to avoid the things that only hurt him in the long run.
But who did stealing hurt? Certainly not Dudley or Vernon, the rats in the trash, maybe, but it's a dog-eat-dog world. Harry got to the scraps first, and so he got to eat. Really, the only part of stealing that hurt was getting caught. He'd have to work on it, practice makes perfect, and all that.
So maybe stealing wasn't wrong, adults were often silly and said stupid things. Especially fat, moustached, occasionally purple mammals who generally answer to 'Vernon' (but will also respond to 'shithead').
It made perfect sense. It was as easy to rationalise as the elementary maths his cousin still struggled with.
