Running Away

After the most unfortunate night, in which Lilly and James where killed, little Harry was shipped off to his muggle relatives. This was where he grew up, being hated and feeling like an outcast. He could never do anything good in the eyes of his aunt and uncle. Everyday he was being looked up in that little cupboard. He hated to stay there, but he had no other choice to where he could go. He had no other relatives, and he had never been outside in the years he had lived there, except of course to weed the garden.

On the day of his 8th birthday, his uncle took him out of the cupboard and told Harry to get the housed cleaned to make it ready for a party. Harry could not believe what he heard, they where going to have a party for him, after all those years. He felt very happy, he was finally accepted into the family, he was being loved. He didn't even mind that he needed to clean the house first, it was normal for him, he needed to do it every day. But this day he cleaned everything. He did his very best to make it look the best he had ever made it look before. He didn't want his relatives to be angry at him for not doing a good job.

After he spend three hours of cleaning the house, he starting decorating it. He put up the most beautiful banners he could find in the house. After this was done, he told his uncle that he was finished. Vernon looked at what Harry had done and he smirked at him. "Is this the best you can do boy?"

Harry looked a bit surprised. "Yes, Uncle Vernon, I worked really hard. Do you not like it?"

"A three year old could have done better boy!" Vernon shouted. "How am I going to have a party for Dudley in this mess? You will clean this all up at once and make this room better!"

Harry started taking down all the decorations, feeling very disappointed. He thought they finally loved him, that they where going to have a party for him, but once again he got slapped in his face with reality. They didn't love him, they only let him stay here because he was a cheap cleaner. They hated him. He felt so betrayed, so sad, that all he wanted to do was to disappear into nothing and cry his eyes out.

His uncle walked into the living room. "Are you finished boy?" Harry silently nodded. "Speak to me when I ask you a question boy," Vernon's voice echoed.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," a very soft voice answered.

"Good," Vernon hit Harry across the face, "this will teach you to do a good job next time." He smacked Harry to the ground, dragging him down the stairs by his feet. Harry's head hit every step of the stairs; slowly he started to loose his consciousness. Vernon threw him back in the cupboard and locked the door again.

After a while Harry opened his eyes as far as he could, which wasn't that far at all. His eyes were swollen. He tried to look around to see where he was, but he could only see black. His head hurt very much, and he could not move. Every time he tried to move, every muscle in his body hurt. Slowly he drifted back to sleep. When he woke up again, he could open his eyes a bit further and his mind started to get a bit clearer again. He could remember what had happened. He felt so alone and sad again. He started to cry silently. After a while, he quieted a bit down again. He didn't want to stay here anymore, he felt like he could not handle a other disappointment again. He wanted to run away, to never come back again. But first he needed to be able to move again.

Harry lay in his cupboard, for days probably, without anyone that brought him food. The only thing he got was a small bowl of water every once in a while, that was shoved trough the door by a little shutter. Because he didn't had any light, he could not tell how long it had been before the door was opened again. But by that time, he could open his eyes again, and he could move a little also. He could feel a big lump on the back of his head.

His uncle pulled him out of the cupboard by his hair. "Now go and make us breakfast, your aunt has done your job long enough." Harry slowly started to make breakfast for the Dursley's. When he finished, his uncle threw a slice of bread in his cupboard.

"Now go back and eat your food. I don't want to hear any noises from you, do you understand?" Harry quickly went back to the cupboard to eat his first food in days. He was so hungry that he finished his slice of bread in a matter of seconds. Though his stomach grumbled still, he decided that he had enough, and started to think how he could get away from the Dursley's. Slowly he started to formulate a plan.

He knew that every night Dudley would walk to the kitchen to get some food, so also this night. Harry heard someone walk down the stairs very silently. Softly, Harry started to call Dudley. Dudley was curious and walked to the cupboard.

"What do you want, stupid brat?"

"Are you hungry, Dudley?"

"Of course I am. You never make us a good meal," Dudley snorted.

"Shall I make you something nice to make up for my bad cooking before?" Dudley, who was very lazy, thought that was a good idea and slowly unlocked the cupboard. Harry walked out of it and went into the kitchen. Dudley was following his moves. Harry made some food for Dudley. After Dudley had finished his food, he put Harry back in his cupboard and locked the door again.

This ritual continued over the next few weeks, until one night Dudley forgot the lock the door again. Harry waited until he heard the loud snoring of Dudley again. At that moment, he slowly opened the door and moved out of his so called room. He walked back into the kitchen, took some food out of the fridge, and put it in a grocery bag. Then he carefully moved to the backdoor, took the key from under the mat, and opened the door.

He breathed out slowly. He was outside again. Harry stood silent for a few moments, breathing in the fresh air that he missed for a couple of months. After a few seconds, his mind came back to Planet Earth and he remembered what he was doing again. He was going to be free at last. There wouldn't be any more people that where going to hurt him. But he had to act fast before anyone would wake up and realize that he was gone. He walked to the end of the backyard where Dudley his bicycle stood. He took the bicycle and walked to the gate, there he searched for the key and found it in the flowerpot. He opened the gate and pushed the bicycled out of the garden and closed the gate again.

He got on the bicycle and started to ride away, away from Privet drive, away from his relatives, away from the pain, the emptiness, the hurt, the abuse, and all the other things his relatives had put him trough. The further he got away, the more he felt relived. He started to feel free for the first time in his life. He had decided that he would go to London. It was a big city, and he could not be found there easily. That is, if his relatives would even come and look for him.

When the sun came up in the sky, Harry was getting tired. He stopped for a few moments to eat some food before he climbed back on the bicycle. He had been riding the bike all day long before he got to a place called Wiltshire. Once he arrived there, he went to look for a place to sleep. He drove around between villas, and at the end of the road was a very big villa. He would almost call it a castle. It was very big. He rode around the grounds to look for a opening in the gate. He had seen a stable at the premises. After looking very hard, he finally found a spot where he could crawl under the gate. He put the bicycle against a tree, a bit out of sight, on the outside of the gate. He crawled under the gate and made a run for the stable. Once he arrived there, he looked for some hay to sleep on. He finally found it, and when his head touched the floor, he fell a sleep immediately.

He had been so tired, that he didn't wake up when the sun got up, he didn't noticed it. Nether did he notice that a girl around the age of fifteen entered the stables to go riding. When she found the boy in the saddle room, she ran back to the house and called her parents. Her parents came with her to the stables and saw the boy laying in the hay. The parents recognized the child immediately. They put a levitating spell on the child and carried him inside. They brought him to there guestroom and put him in bed. Slowly they walked out again and locked the door. They walked back to there living room and started to talk.

"What are we going to do with him?"

"You do know that this is Harry Potter? He destroyed the Dark Lord."

"What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry so much. I will talk to the boy when he wakes up. Then we will see what we are going to do."