I don't own Harry Potter :-(
Chapter One
It was just past four o'clock on the afternoon of Friday April 4, when a seven-year-old Harry Potter finally worked up the nerve to return to his aunt and uncle's home.
He was sure the school had called his aunt and uncle and that he would be severely punished. He didn't even know what'd happened. One moment he'd been running from Dudley and his friends as they'd been playing their favorite game, Harry-Hunting, and the next thing he knew, he was on the roof of his school.
The kids in the playground had noticed him standing up there and one of them eventually told a teacher. They got him down and he was taken straight to the principal's office.
Needless to say, no one believed him when he said he hadn't went up the stairway in the janitorial office and instead just appeared on the roof. The principal gave him quite a talking to going on and on about 'respecting "keep-out" signs' and 'staying out of off-limit areas' not even listening to Harry as he explained that he hadn't been anywhere near the janitorial office.
He'd been given detention for two weeks and told his guardians would be getting a phone call.
He dreaded thinking about what his aunt and uncle would do to him. The first time something so strange had happened (he'd turned his teacher's hair blue) he'd been thrown in his cupboard for a month. He wasn't even allowed to eat; he'd had to sneak out of his cupboard at night to get food and use the restroom. And he'd been warned that he was getting off easy and if he did anymore 'funny-business' he'd be begging to only have to spend a month without food in his cupboard.
But he knew he couldn't hide forever, and so he grudgingly goes back home after his hour or so of stalling.
He tries in vain to sneak quietly into his aunt and uncle's house, but the air rings with his uncle's shouts, "BOY!"
"Not so loud, Vernon," Harry's bony, horse-of-an-aunt chides lightly, "What will the neighbor's think?"
"Boy!" Vernon growls, quieter for sure, but with just as much venom, "What's this rubbish about you being on top of the school roof?!"
"I-I didn't mean to," Harry stutters out, "One minute I was running and the next I was on the roof. I didn't mean to, honest. It was an accident!"
Vernon's face, now a nasty shade of purple, is full of disbelief, "Of course you did it on purpose you nasty little beast. Your goal in life seems to be making things hard on Petunia and I who so graciously took you into our home," he drags Harry to the cupboard and throws him inside, "Don't even think this is your punishment; you're only waiting in there while Petunia and I discuss what's to be done with you."
Harry hears the lock slide into place and knows that he's alone.
The inside of the cupboard is dark as only a small beam of light shines through a crack in between the door and the wall, but Harry doesn't mind. He is used to the darkness of his cupboard just as he is used to the spiders that live in the dark with him.
What Harry does mind is the worry of what's to come. He presses his ear to the space that lets in the beam of light and listens.
"What do we do, Pet?" Vernon hisses, "The freak isn't even in year three yet and he's already done you-know-what twice!"
"I don't know," Petunia answers, "What can be done? Those-those people will be coming to take Harry back when he's old enough to go to that school."
"And until then?" Vernon asks, "What are we supposed to do until then? I can't stand having his freakishness around here, Pet. I won't."
"What are you suggesting?" she asks quietly.
"I'm saying we drop him off at the nearest orphanage. This is our home. If we don't want him here, we won't keep him here. If the freaks still want to take him to that school," he spits 'school' out as if it were a dirty word, "than they can find him on their own later."
"When should we . . .?" Petunia trails off.
"As soon as possible," he says, "Tonight if we can."
"Yes," Petunia says, "I agree. The sooner the better."
Harry lies back on his cot and looks up at his slanted ceiling, So this is my punishment? Harry wonders, If I'd have known that I wouldn't have to live with the Dursleys anymore, I'd have climbed to the school roof sooner.
"Get up, Boy," His uncle says, rapping on his cupboard door, "Gather your things and get moving; you're leaving."
Harry's eyes snap open after a particularly unpleasant dream about a mysterious green light and a woman's screams, but unlike the fear and pain from the dream, Harry is excited. He'd finally be free of the Dursleys. He didn't dare hope that he'd be adopted and get a good home, but even an orphanage had to be better than living with his horrid relatives.
Harry gathers his meager belongings, several too-large shirts, a couple pairs of pants, and a yo-yo that Dudley had proclaimed 'stupid' and 'obviously broken' after he had not been able to work it right. Of course after a few minutes Harry could work it just fine, but Harry had been smart enough to keep his mouth shut lest his only toy be taken away from him.
After getting his things together, Harry steps out of his now unlocked cupboard and looks over to his uncle.
"We're sending you off to an orphanage," Vernon spits at him, "I bet you wish you'd stopped with the freakish business now, huh?"
"Yes, Uncle Vernon," Harry says respectively all the while thinking, You stupid git. I want to go to an orphanage.
"Yeah, well it's too late now," Vernon says, "No matter what you say now to try and make things better, you're still going to go."
Harry keeps his head down, in an effort not to laugh at Vernon to his face.
Harry is rushed out to the car and climbs inside still keeping his head down, avoiding eye-contact with his uncle, afraid that if Vernon saw how happy Harry was with his 'punishment' he might not get to leave.
The ride to the orphanage is a silent one as the passengers are too happy about never having to see the other again to care about much else, and therefore passes slowly as they both anticipate finally reaching the destination.
Finally though, after a painful amount of waiting, they arrive at the orphanage, "Get out," Vernon says, sharply, "I never want to see you at our door again!"
As Harry jumps out of the car, he does something he's always dreamed of doing, "You look like a walrus!" He shouts before running from a now purple faced Vernon and into the safety of the orphanage.
"Hello?" Harry calls, as he enters the doorway. The room is nice and welcoming. It seems more the type of thing someone would expect in a house than in an orphanage.
"Hello," an elderly woman echoes, stepping into the room, "Are you lost, Dearie?"
"I don't think so," Harry says, "Is this an orphanage?"
"Yes," the woman says, "Lady Gertrude's Home for the Orphaned."
"Then I'm right where I should be," Harry says with a smile, "My uncle just dropped me off. He and my aunt don't want me anymore. My parents died in a car crash when I was a baby."
The old woman's eyes grow watery, "That's terrible. They just left you here?"
Terrible? Harry wonders, Is she kidding? This is one of the best things that's happened in my life!
Harry settles nicely into a room with two other seven-year-old boys, Payton and Cal. After an awkwardly shy introduction, though it was long after they should've been asleep, the three begin chatting about things such as video games (Harry had always snuck out and played Dudley's whenever the Dursleys were gone) and superheroes.
Later that night as Harry lies down in his new bed to sleep, he smiles. I love this orphanage. I finally have friends.
Before of course, Dudley scared away any kids who might have even consideredhanging out with Harry, but now that Dudley and the rest of the Dursleys weren't here. . .
I love this orphanage.
The next day, Saturday, was the first real day Harry had at the Orphanage. And it wasn't nearly as pleasant as the night before.
Payton and Cal stuck to him like glue, for which Harry was grateful, but the other children weren't nearly as welcoming as his new friends had been.
Maybe that's an unfair statement.
Other than the annoying attention directed at him for being the new kid and all the questions that were focused at him, most of the other children weren't that bad.
It was eight of the older boys that spoiled the day for him.
Harry, Paton and Cal had all been outside playing baseball, the first time Harry had ever done so outside of gym class, when they'd come outside.
"We heard there was a new kid here and we all wanted to . . . ah . . . welcome him to the orphanage," a beefy kid, obviously the leader of the bunch, says with a sarcastic grin as he and his group come over to the smaller children.
Harry, recognizing the kid for a bully instantly, looks to his Payton and Cal, "Are you any good at running?" he whispers.
The two shake their head and he lets out a groan.
The large kid laughs, "So here's how it works," he says, sauntering forward, "My name is Chad and I'm the boss around here. Everything I say goes and anyone who gets in my way . . . well. . ." he cracks his knuckles in a threatening manner.
Something inside of Harry snaps at this behavior. This was supposed to be somewhere where he'd finally be free from this kind of treatment! "You lot think you're so tough, don't you?" Harry mocks, "But you're just a bunch of overgrown bullies picking on a couple of seven year olds."
"What. Did. You. Say. To. Me." Chad asks, face turning purple in an almost Vernon-like way.
"Was. I. Going. Too. Fast. For. You." Harry asks, mimicking Chad.
Chad lets out a threatening growl, "You and your friends are gunna get it!"
"My friends have nothing to do with it," Harry says coldly, "Or do you pick on people who don't get in your way too?"
"Fine," Chad growls, "Then I'll just get you twice as bad."
"If you can catch me," Harry says, springing off and running. The orphanage, a large Victorian building that looks more like a house than an orphanage, has large spacious grounds and a wood on the edge of that.
Harry races across the yard and out to the woods, being a fast little thing, he leaves nearly half of the older boys behind. Unfortunately, Chad isn't one of those left behind.
Once in the woods, Harry begins twisting and ducking under branches, but the older boys stay right behind him, barreling there way right through the branches and logs. Eventually Harry hits a dead end; a chain-link fence with a 'private property' sign on it, and turns to face the older boys.
"Take back what you said, New Kid," Chad says.
Harry spits at him.
"Why you-!" He reaches out to make a swipe at Harry and he and his gang of boys find themselves on the other side of the fence.
Harry stares at them, shocked.
"What-What did you do?!" Chad screeches, "You freak! What'd you do?!"
Harry gapes at them for another moment before running back to the orphanage, ignoring the thugs' shouts.
How did I do that? Harry wonders, no doubt in his mind at all that he was the one that caused the bullies' problem.
Freak, Freak, Freak, the echo of Chad's voice ringing in his head.
Yes, he answers the echo mentally, But is being a freak necessarily a bad thing? It got me away from Dudley and his friends when they were chasing me, and now it's gotten me away from Chad and his lot. . . maybe . . . if I learned to control it. . . .
The thought trails off in young Harry's mind as he begins another, What does this freakishness involve? Is all I'm able to do is move people? But then he remembers the day he turned his teacher's hair blue. No, Harry realizes, I can do more than just move things, but how? Can I learn how to do it whenever I want?
A very puzzled Harry walks back to the orphanage.
I've got the first three chapters written, but as I keep making little changes to them, they won't be posted right away. Let me confess now, after the first three or four chapters: I WILL BE A SLOW UPDATER. Never let it be said I didn't warn you.
If you see a mistake in this chapter or any future chapters, PLEASE tell me. Next chapter contains Diagon Ally trip.
Reviews? Pweeeaaase?