Prologue

May 15th 1997

St Judes Orphanage, London

The man stood in a shabby looking entrance hall, gazing around with observant eyes narrowed, mouth set in a grim line. He wore a plain grey suit, and his thinned ash brown hair combed back behind his ears, with a pair of narrow rimmed glasses perched lightly upon his face. In all, he had a plain, unlined face, entirely unremarkable in his seeming. "looks like more of an accountant than some military bigwig" Vera Malbury thought to herself as she moved forward to greet him, her old bones creaking.

The man wasted no time "Where is the boy?" he asked bluntly. She scowled at the rude tone, but said "ah. we've had ta put 'im downstairs, in the cellar. Its unnatural, the 'ole place was shakin', we weren't jus gonna keep 'im about, 'specially not after what he did ta poor Father Kinley-" The man immediately strode ahead down the cold, dusty hall, disregarding Mrs Malbury who hurried behind him anxiously, keeping up her twittering all the while -"ah mean, we allus knew he was a strange one, even as a babe."

The man glanced at her disinterestedly "He's been here since birth then?" "ooh well, he was a few days old when we found 'im on the doorstep, yessir." He hummed "You said he was strange...how?" She shifted uncomfortably, "Oh, well, all sorts o' odd things have been happening since we took 'im in, windows shattering for no reason, walls shakin', once, ah swear on my life, I saw all the books an furniture in his room floatin in the air, dancin 'round like a ghost was about!
I've never been so shocked in me 'umble life! The parish priest, Father Kinley came an saw it, but he was as spooked as I was, said there musta been a demon in the boy. well an aint it true, that boys sommat wrong or I'm a donkeys aunt!
"
The man hummed again in thought but otherwise kept silent, prompting her to continue.

"Sometimes, when we had ta set 'im strait on summat, the look in 'is eyes, well, near made me quake in me boots it did. He's got the most unnatural eyes, you'll see. An then, just the other day, well, Brian, one o' the boys here, he was up to 'is usual mischief, an apparently, there was a fight between Brian and the boy, dunno what about, but the next morning, Brian was found dead in his bed, with the most horrible look on 'is face. Well I knew then, sommat serious had to be done 'bout the boy, so I called in Father Kinley again, to try an fix the boy, get the evil out of 'im.. an, well," she sniffed "poor man didna stand a chance. It was horrible!"

As she said this, they came to the top of a set of stairs descending into darkness. "I'll say it strait, we'll all be glad to see the back of 'im. You people are gonna take him away, an good riddance" she shuddered, before taking out a small iron key from her pocket and handing it to him. He took the key while giving her a bland smile "thankyou ma'am, I'm sure you have much to be getting back to, We will take it from here" the man said smoothly, already descending the steps to face a worn wooden door. Mrs Malbury looked uncertainly at him for a moment before turning and shuffling back down the hallway, muttering to herself grumpily as she was pressed to the wall to let two other men in suits pass her.

"Sir. The remains are in the process of being gathered for data analysing as you ordered." They stood to attention before their superior, as he turned and eyed them briefly, "Good, the subject is in here, but we don't know in what state, you will stand back and let me do the talking, understood?" "Yes sir" they echoed crisply.

Satisfied, he turned back to the door, and unlocked it. Pushing the door open slowly, he took in the pitch black interior gradually being revealed from the door, coolly observing as random bits of detritus seemingly floated in and out of the gloom, old blocks of wood, an empty sweet wrapper, a dried up animal dropping drifting past his nose, which wrinkled slightly in disgust as he reached up and delicately prodded the offending object to float in another direction.
His sharp eyes scoured the confines of the dank room, searching for - Ah. There. Huddled in the corner, he could just make out the figure of a small boy. She was right about the eyes. he thought to himself. The boys eyes seemed to glow in the dark, a bright almost luminescent green, glaring at him warily.

He stepped forward. "Hello Hadrian. My name is Doctor Harris." ... "I understand that you don't know or trust me yet, but I'm here to help you." ... "I want you to know, I don't think what happened here is your fault." "... you don't?" came a quiet voice from the dark. "You don't think I'm a demon?"

Doctor Harris stepped forward slowly and came to a stop a few feet before the boy, where he carefully knelt down. "No. I am here because you are sick, and I can help make you well." .. "You'll take me away from here?" the boy asked, his voice suspicious. Doctor Harris nodded "Yes, You will come with me to a place where there are other children with the same illness as you." He reached out and took Hadrian's hand, pulling the boy to his feet as he rose, pulling him out of the corner into a patch of light.

The boy looked around 7 years old, and slightly underweight, his worn clothes hanging off him. He had black hair that was curled loosely to just past his ears, with strands hanging across his eyes. His pale skin seemed flawless except where a red streak of blood was smeared over his cheek, with more spots dotted lightly across his chin and clothes. The boy pulled back sharply, "You're gonna take me to prison, aren't you! I don't want to go to prison!" His delicate features were drawn, panicked. Around him the objects that had been previously floating calmly throughout the room started speeding up and moving erratically

Doctor Harris frowned mildly for a moment before smiling thinly down at the boy, trying to reassure him." Don't be silly child" he chided "as I told you, I am a doctor, I am here to take you to a special hospital where we will help you."

Hadrian shook his head and backed up uncertainly, but the doctor still gripped his hand in his own. The man seemed to come to a decision, he half turned and held out a hand as one of the men standing at the door moved forward to hand him a small metal case. opening it, he drew out a small plastic syringe filled with a clear liquid. Hadrian tried to pull away but, not allowing any more resistance, the needle was inserted efficiently into a vein on the underside of his arm. "there, much better hmm?" Doctor Harris said after he removed it, watching as the boys eyelids fluttered before they closed, catching the boy as he slumped over.

Musingly, he looked around the room once more, observing the now calmly drifting objects floating around the room. "fascinating. Despite being unconscious, the boys magic is still active." he muttered to himself. Drawing himself up, with the boy in his arms, he turned and strode to the door where his two assistants stood waiting.

"The subject is sedated for now, it's time to leave. Have one of our lawyers come around later with the necessary paperwork for the authorities, then report back the lab to begin preliminary tests."

Not waiting for an answer, he passed up the stairs and down the hall, not pausing to watch as two policemen carrying a stretcher bearing a shrouded body carefully moved through the front door, drops of red trailing on the worn wooden floor behind them.


Authors Note: This is a major AU story, in this story Harry's name is Hadrian Jude, and he was born on July 31st 1990, so obviously I've moved the whole timeline 10 years forward from canon, so that i can reasonably have more advanced muggle technology in the story. Hadrian was placed in a muggle orphanage a few days after he was born. You'll find out more about why later in the story ;) I've got the first few chapters all planned out in my head, and I'll try to update once a week but no promises.