Chapter 1 - Welcome to #4 Privet Drive

Stars shone all around them in the vast expanse of blue. The motorbike glided through the skies unseen by the sleeping village below.

*THUMP*THUMP*THUMP*

The bike purred as it picked up speed. It felt wonderful. The crisp air contrasted with the warmth of the coat around him.

*THUMP*THUMP*THUMP*

They dove and passed through a cloud, but when the bike came out the other side, the sky had changed. The stars had blinked out and there was only darkness now.

*THUMP*THUMP*THUMP*

What is that noise? Is the bike broken?

The bike starting bucking as a sickly green light enveloped them. The cold air felt heavy in his chest. There was a scream and a loud noise like wood breaking and the green light felt hotter and hotter on his skin.

*THUMP*THUMP*THUMP*

"Up! Get up! Now!" Harry woke with a start. His aunt raped on the door again. "Up!" she screeched. Harry sat in his bed still half asleep as he reached for his glasses. He was sweating and he did not know why. He was having a dream. It had started pleasant but towards the end it felt wrong. Scary. He tried to recall the good part instead, it had felt familiar. Almost like a memory rather than a dream. It involved...a flying motorbike? But that was impossible...right?

Harry Potter had always had weird things happen around him that made him wonder sometimes. Like that time when he ended in the roof of his school trying to get away from Dudley and Piers. Or when aunt Petunia had cut his hair and looked so horrible he could not sleep all night dreading going to school the next day, only to wake up with his hair looking like nothing ever happened, like it always was: all over the place. Aunt Petunia was not happy that day. All her effort to tame that mass of hair for nothing.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly" said Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. It's Duddy's special day and I want everything perfect!"

"Yes aunt Petunia" he replied.

Dudley's birthday - he had almost forgotten. No wonder aunt Petunia was on edge. He was not looking forward to it. One of the few days they had to interact with...him.

Harry did not like to think about the man. For years he was the victim of his abuse while he spoiled his son and looked at Harry as if daring him to complain. The man that once upon a time he was required to call uncle.

Vernon Dursley was a big beefy man, with hardly any neck but a very large moustache and a temper to match. He was one of the top sales representatives at a drill company called Grunnings. Harry only ever saw him a few times a year. Most of the weekends that he came to pick up Dudley he just stayed in the car and waited for his precious son to get in before driving away. Same when he dropped him off. But some special occasions, like Dudley's birthday, there was no avoiding it. The divorce lawyers had made it clear during the custody battle what his rights would be in respect to visitation rights. Harry figured as much as he did not want to deal with Vernon (he had finally stopped thinking of him as his uncle some time back), aunt Petunia had the rights to not wanting to see him even more. Being kept in the dark about your husband having an affair at work will make you a little miffed at him.

And so it happened that today Vernon was over to celebrate Dudley's birthday by taking him to the zoo. The birthday boy came barrelling down the stairs, excited at what was in store for them today.

"Harry!" called Dudley with a huge smile on his face.

I guess if it makes Dudley happy I can put up with Vernon for today -thought Harry as he smiled at his cousin. He had refused to go to the zoo without him and Vernon had agreed reluctantly to take them both along with Piers, Dudley's best friend and the one who usually held victim's arms back for Dudley to punch. He shook his head in mocking disbelief. Dudley had begged for him to come. It was weird, if someone would have told Harry 4 years ago that he would get along well with Dudley, or that he would be able to play tag with him and Piers (even if he somehow ended up in the roof when running away), he would have called them crazy. Yet it was true...mostly. Dudley had a reputation to uphold in school after all, but he went out of his way to find other targets other than Harry and when not...well, he never really left any bruises and tried to make it up to him at home. It was not ideal but Harry would take anything over what it used to be.

"So, where do you want to go first Dudders?"

"Lions!"

"Ok, you go ahead and get in the car son, I will be right there" chuckled Vernon with a smile. It disappeared from his face almost as soon as Dudley was out the door, and that was when he felt the almost angry grip of that man on his arm. Vernon spun Harry around to face him and with a threatening look said exactly what Harry was expecting him to. "I'm warning you boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you will regret it". Resigned to it Harry meekly responded with a simple "yes sir".

0-0-0-0-0

The ride to the zoo was uneventful, with Piers telling them all about the latest videogame he had bought and chatting merrily about nothing and everything. And so it was that they arrived at the zoo.

Even though he was there because of Dudley's invitation, Harry still tried to keep to himself in order to avoid giving Vernon any excuse to pay attention to him. This worked for most of the day - at least until the incident. It had been a very warm day and when Piers started complaining about sweating too much, Harry suggested they go to the reptile exhibit. He reasoned that the area would be somewhat cooler being inside a building rather than out in the sun like the other animal exhibits, but really, anything was better than outside. He was right: there were many interesting specimens, and Dudley ran to one of the windows along the walls that had a giant Brazilian boa, large enough that it could have wrapped its body twice around Vernon's car and crushed it into a compact little junk pile. Dudley pressed his face against the glass, expecting the snake to do something interesting - it was however quite still, probably sleeping.

"What is the point of a giant dirty snake if it is just going to lay there?" he whined. Vernon rapped on the glass with his heavy knuckles, but the snake didn't budge. "This is boring" Dudley moaned as they moved away to the next window. Vernon just muttered something about incompetent animal trainers as he followed him. Harry took the opportunity to look at the snake himself. "Sorry about that, Vernon always expects obedience if he makes enough noise". That was when the snake opened its eyes and stared right at Harry. Very slowly it jerked its head towards Vernon and raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that clearly said 'I get that all the time'. After that it did something even more impossible.

It winked at him

"But, snakes can't blink, much less wink, and wait did you actually understand me just now?" he almost choked in surprise. The snaked continued to surprise him by moving its head up and down in and unmistaken nod. This was when he jumped in surprise as he heard Dudley standing behind him whispering to himself. "Holy crap that was amazing Harry, how did you do that?" It would have not been too bad until Piers yelled out loud "MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT IT WAS JUST DOING!"

Vernon came over and decided whatever it was, Dudley deserved front row and proceeded to shove Harry aside quite forcefully. "Watch it boy, don't be so clumsy around a crowd" said Vernon with a smug grin as he faced Harry and leaned against the glass in front of him with his elbow on the glass and his fist on his temple, blocking the snake from Harry's view. He had caught Harry by surprise and he fell on the ground, knocking his glasses and scrapping his arm which was now starting to bleed. What transpired next happened so fast nobody really understood it had happened until a scream of surprise came from inside the enclosure followed by a loud splash as Vernon fell in the little pond the snake had been using to cool itself inside its enclosure. Panic ensued as the giant Boa slithered into the ground and passed just inches from a shocked and confused Harry.

'Thank you amigo, Brazil, here I come!' said a hissing voice that seemed to come from the snake.

The keeper of the reptile house was baffled and kept repeating to himself "but the glass, where did the glass go?"

The zoo director himself made an appearance to apologize profusely to Vernon and offer him complimentary passes to them. A fuming Vernon refused and demanded a full refund - he did not mention of course that he had already used coupons to get the tickets at a discounted price so he got more money back that he had spent.

The car ride back was hot, uncomfortable and unbearable. While on the underground parking lot he had manhandled Harry into the boot of the car, knocking the wind out of him as he hit him and yelling at him how it was his fault and he had warned him about any freak stuff. It did not matter to him how many times Harry said it was not his doing. "I warn you, you make any noise at all between here and the house and you will pay boy!" Once the boot of the car was closed the sounds outside dimmed but he could still hear him threatening Piers (and Dudley as well although not as strongly) to not say anything about Harry being in the trunk to anybody. Neither boy wanted to join him in the trunk so they agreed to keep quiet.

Vernon seemed to have taken the longest route back, to increase the time Harry spent sweating in the boot, taking sharp turns and causing Harry to get bumped around with all manner of hard objects that were inside. After what seemed like an eternity, he felt the car stop and heard Piers thank Vernon and Dudley for inviting him to the zoo and hurriedly ran inside his house. Some time later the car stopped again and bright light blinded Harry as the door to the boot opened. He was unceremoniously yanked out into the driveway floor and a sharp pain hit him as a shoe connected with the small of his back. More and more kicks came after the first.

"Dad stop! Please!"

Harry was starting to see spots in front of his eyes.

"Dad!

Slowly, Vernon turned to his son and said in a calming voice "its ok Dudders, he won't do any more abnormal stuff around you. I'm just making sure he knows he ruined your birthday and that is not acceptable.

Dudley went quiet and for a second Harry thought the beating was going to continue.

"He didn't ruin it. You did, just…go away please"

Did Harry hear right? Dudley was standing up to his father...for him? Dudley loved his dad. He heard Dudley go inside the house in a run and Vernon follow him. Harry tried to get up slowly and saw aunt Petunia standing at the door with her arms crossed staring down at Vernon, with Dudley cowering behind her and clutching her skirt.

"Pet, please. Let me explain" said Vernon, his words faltering a bit under the strong gaze of aunt Petunia.

"DON'T YOU 'PET' ME! I don't know what happened but you have no right anymore in this household and if Dudders says you need to go, that means you leave.

"But -"

"BUT NOTHING, GO!" Interrupted his aunt before Vernon could continue.

"Fine!" He said and got in his car, slamming the door shut and making the tires screech against the asphalt as he left angry.

"Thank you" said Harry to both of them.

"Whatever" was all the response he got from his aunt before she went inside, not even bothering to see if Harry needed any sort of first aid.

"Sorry about my dad" said Dudley in a very quiet voice as he helped Harry into the house and up the stairs to his bedroom. He sat next to Harry for a long time before he spoke again. "You actually did it didn't you? Weird things always happen around you"

"Dudley I-"

"Don't worry about it. I love my dad, but I saw how badly he treated you. I always knew I guess but I was too scared to see it for what it really was. I admit I bully people, but never to the extent my dad got with you today. Nobody deserves that.

"Thanks Duds, I know it must have been hard for you to stand up to your dad like that" winced Harry after a few moments.

"I saw you talking to that snake you know? How did you do that?" He replied softly.

"I honestly don't know, I am still not sure it really happened. Please don't tell anybody. I get picked on enough as it is by the other school gang you are rivals with".

"...ok. But if you figure it out, you'd better teach me too, deal?"

"deal".

And with that, Dudley left him so he could sleep. He was sore and exhausted and had several small bruises. He would be hurting for at least a week, he thought.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Harry woke up in darkness. A loud grumbling noise greeted him reminding Harry that the last thing he ate had been that morning. He had been anxious all day for his birthday, which was only two days away. Boy was he hungry. He tiptoed his way to the kitchen where he found some leftover sandwiches on the counter with a note.

Make sure you clean up

Nothing more was written yet Harry recognized his aunt's loopy writing. He chuckled to himself in mild amusement. It still felt odd to have aunt Petunia being actually nice to him. Well, maybe not nice - years of disdain are a hard habit to break. Still, compared to Dudley, his aunt's change was even more surprising to Harry.

It made Harry feel a bit mean at feeling happy about the Dursley's separation. His aunt had suffered a lot because of it, but the changes that had come after the ordeal could not be ignored. Aunt Petunia was mortified when she found out about the affair, especially since it circulated through the grapevine incessantly, so her gossiping days had ended once she had experienced being the one gossiped about. She really hated how it had felt.

Also, it seemed that without Vernon's influence, she actually was not that inclined to be nasty to Harry. She just did not care about him instead - so long as he stayed out of her way. She even encouraged him to get out of the house on his own so she would not have to see him much. She did not care what he did so long as she did not have to hear about it.

It was this new freedom had allowed Harry to go out and discover all sorts of things. Like the fact that he could make some money working doing small chores for the neighbours - after he had managed to convince them he was indeed NOT a delinquent. Vernon's indiscretion helped the neighbourhood consider that maybe Harry really wasn't the trouble maker he was always made out to be. He had been able to finally, after years of wearing baggy hand-me-down clothes, afford to buy himself some that fit him.

But the best discovery was perhaps the wonders of the small public library on the other side of the nearby park. It had become a safe haven for him when he needed to escape from the rest of Dudley's gang. After all, just because Dudley himself had started to be nicer to him at home did not mean his gang were going to give up their favourite game of 'punch Harry until he cries' - Dudley could not very well tell them to stop without affecting his reputation or have them turn against him.

More than a safe haven, the library had become a second home to him. Their main collection consisted mostly of books donated by the community over the years and by now he had managed to read almost every book in the sci-fi and fantasy sections. It filled him with joy to escape to different worlds were magic, technology and fantastic beasts were commonplace. He often found himself daydreaming about living in such worlds. The sci-fi in particular seemed the most plausible thing to happen, so he had started reading books on science, physics, chemistry and anything he could find with an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge. He was glad that after the divorce he had also been allowed to move into the smaller room upstairs where Dudley kept all his broken toys. It was way bigger than the cupboard under the stairs he used to sleep in and he would have never had enough room there for all the books he kept signing out of the library.

And so it was that Harry sat in the kitchen in quiet contemplation of life in Privet Drive. He had bad memories growing up, sure, but it had been gradually getting better as of late. Despite the improvement, there was a feeling like something was missing. Something that he had yearned for his whole life – a loving family. He had relatives in aunt Petunia and Dudley, but they were not family. Even if their treatment of him had improved he was still not treated as family, and he had a feeling he never would be.

Harry stood up slowly and started cleaning up. He glanced at the clock in the wall and saw it was only half past 5 in the morning. He could not go back to sleep now even if he wanted to. There was just too much on his mind. He remembered reading about how exercise could help with improving mental health, depression, anxiety, ADHD and more. If he was not wrong, he could swear the article he read also claimed it helped with stress, improve memory, help sleep better and boost overall mood. And right now he could use an improvement on his mood.

He had never really been into working out for its own sake, but he was not that bad in school when in gym class so how difficult could it be right? He decided to start by taking up running. He did not know any sort of workout regimen nor did he own any equipment after all so he figured it was as good as any other place to start. He managed to keep pace for about 10 minutes before he finally gave up and walked the rest of the way back. He decided maybe running wasn't for him. Nobody said 10 year olds had a lot discipline and he did at least try.

As he got closer to his street he heard a commotion coming from a familiar house. Harry was greeted by a very strange sight taking place at number 4 Privet Drive. Aunt Petunia was in the front garden in her bathrobe and hair curls (something she would NEVER had allowed herself to do before as it was not proper) wielding a broom trying to chase away a pair of owls.

"Go. Away. You. Stupid. Things!"

Each word punctuated with a new swing of the broom.

"I do not want your stupid letters! Leave us alone! I will not let you ruin my family again!"

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on in Petunia's head. It made no sense why she was yelling at 2 owls about letters, but it was her face that was the most odd. She had a look of complete disgust mixed with anger and fear. He had seen disgust and anger before, but that terrified look was new. Harry was extremely curious as to what had led to this very entertaining yet puzzling situation. He knew better than to ask however so he quietly sneaked through the back door instead and headed upstairs to take a much needed shower before he set out to start preparing breakfast. He could always find out later. Since Aunt Petunia no longer actively gossiped around the neighborhood she had taken to wandering around the house talking to herself and complaining about whatever was bothering her about the world at the time as an outlet instead. Harry had no doubt she would be complaining about those owls all day.

Morning passed and turned to noon, which in turn led to afternoon and night. And interestingly, Aunt Petunia did not mention the owls at all. In fact, she went on about her day like nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. The only thing of note that happened was all the conspicuous glances she seemed to throw his way every now and then like he was planning something dreadful. These looks were usually followed by looking at the skies through the window as if expecting the owls to return and somehow it being his fault. All the while pretending to not be looking at him at all.

Later that night, as Harry closed the library book he had been reading (he was on his 7th time reading the Lord of the Rings series), he was still wondering what it had all been about. He looked at the clock in the nightstand and decided to finally go to sleep – 3am was quite late. He had planned to get ready by 6 and maybe giving running another chance but that would be too early now with too little sleep. And he was definitely not waking up early the next day – it was his birthday after all.

It did not matter in the end as a loud crashing noise woke him up in what he felt was way too soon. He fumbled around for his glasses and saw that it was only 6:30am. Down from the living room came the sound of breaking ceramic, shouts and some sort of screeching. He quickly jumped on his slippers and headed downstairs to see what was going on. Once again he found his aunt involved in a battle with a pair of brown tawny owls that had this time somehow found their way inside the house and were wildly flapping their wings to stay away from the crazy lady with the broom that was currently in the process of destroying half her living room trying to hit them.

Harry almost did not notice that the owls were holding something in their legs, it looked like an envelope. But once he saw them he tried to grab it as one of the owls flew by. Harry deftly picked out the envelope in mid-air and the owl took the opportunity to escape into the kitchen. He only had a moment to make out his name on the envelope before aunt Petunia snatched the envelope out of his hands on her way to chase the owl out of the kitchen.

"Give me that, it is not for you"

The blur that was Petunia Dursley moved towards the back door letting the first owl escape through. The second owl followed suit but not without first dropping its envelope on the kitchen table.

The envelope was thick and heavy made of yellowish…parchment? Who uses parchment anymore? Harry had to strain his eyes looking from the hallway. He did not want to tip off his aunt that the envelope was there – she was distracted at the moment smashing more plates as she swung the broom with anger trying to hit the elusive avian invader. From the looks of it the envelope had emerald-green ink on the front and he was trying to make out what it said when he was distracted by an unexpected voice behind him.

"Blimey! What is going on Harry?"

A startled Harry let out muffled yelp as he clutched his chest.

"What is going on is you almost gave me a heart attack! Since when are you so quiet going down the stairs Duds?

His pudgy cousin just smirked.

"I wasn't sneaking unlike some people I know" – he shot his cousin a knowing look.

"Besides, with all that racket it's not like you could hear me anyway. Where did those owls come from? Mum is raising such an uproar the neighbors are going to complain"

"No idea, but look, they were delivering letters of some sort. I don't think aunt Petunia wants us to know, she snatched one out of my hands just now that had my name on it".

A confused look appeared on Dudley's face – "Who'd be writing to YOU?"

Harry cringed and bit back a response. He knew that his cousin did not mean to say that the way he did. He just wasn't the type of person to realize when he said something hurtful. And Harry had to admit that while sad, he was right – he did not have anybody to write letters to, let alone anybody crazy enough to use an owl to deliver letters for that matter. He was as confused and curious as his cousin.

Ten minutes later aunt Petunia managed to finally shoo the bird away. Just when she was getting ready to pretend nothing was wrong, there was a loud bang coming from the living room followed by a crash like something heavy landed on the floor. All three habitants of number 4 Privet Drive rushed to see what it had been that caused yet more noise this morning. What they saw stopped them in their tracks.

A massive creature of hair and fur was invading their home. Unintelligible grunt noises came from the unknown entity.

"Sorry 'bout that" - said the giant of man as he lifted from the floor the door he had apparently knocked off its hinges - "Da'noe my own strength sometimes".

He strode forward towards Harry, who suddenly realized Dudley was no longer next to him and was now frozen with fear trying to hide behind his very skinny mother and failing miserably.

"There ye' are. Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh grew up tae look a lot like yer dad, excep' yeh've got yer mum's eyes" said the giant.

Harry looked up and found the stranger's eyes glinting like black beetles under all the hair, with an unmistakeable look of sincere happiness. The breath he now realized he had been holding was released and despite his appearance and entrance Harry could not help but feel this giant would not hurt him.

"Excuse me but, who are you?"

His voice came out an octave higher than he would have liked but he kept looking at the stranger as if he hadn't. The giant chuckled.

"You are right, where be my manners. You probably don't remember me since you were just a toddler. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, but yeh'll know all about Hogwarts I reckon"

"Er – no," said Harry, "sorry".

"What yeh mean no? Didn't you ever wonder where your parents learnt it all?" Hagrid stared at Harry with a shocked looked on his face.

"He doesn't, and I had hoped he never would. Bunch of freaks in that infernal place!"

Harry jumped in surprise and stared at his Aunt. He had not expected her to talk at that moment and definitely didn't expect her to say something like that. Did he hear her right? She knew this Hogwarts place?

"Aunt Petunia?" he said tentatively – "do you know what he is talking about?"

Petunia Dursley stood with her arms crossed, staring at the invader as she spoke with a defiant look.

"Of course I do. How could I not. The place my sister disappeared to for most of the year, coming back home the favorite, so talented and – special" The last word said with venomous emphasis.

"I was the only one who saw her for what she was, a freak. A selfish freak that thought she was too good to help her own mother. And I knew when you were left at our doorstep you would be just as abnormal as she and your good for nothing father were".

Hagrid looked at her, his eyes no longer smiling. His voice boomed all across the little house and made the railings on the stairs rattle. "YOU WILL NOT TALK ABOUT HARRY'S PARENTS THAT WAY! THE POTTERS GAVE THEIR LIFE FOR THE CAUSE AND THEIR FAME IS AS DESERVED AS HARRY'S IN OU' WORLD – OF WHICH YEH KNO' NOTHIN' ABOUT!"

"Our world? What world? And what do you mean my parents gave their life? I thought they died in a car crash? What do you mean famous?" Harry could barely hear himself since his ears were ringing from the giant's outburst so close to where he was standing.

"A car cra-?" Hagrid let out a sigh. He had not expected this. "I guess it be easier if aye just say it. Harry – yer a wizard"

There was silence now. The simple claim said by this giant of a man was so incredible that it had difficulty being processed by the family residing in #4 Privet Drive. A wizard? Did he hear correctly? It couldn't be? But then again, Harry could not help but start thinking about all the unexplained things growing up, and somehow, deep in his heart in that instant he just knew it was true.

"A wizard…" he said in barely a whisper.

"Blimey Harry, that explains so much, like the serpent at the zoo! I can't believe it! Why didn't you say anything befo-" Dudley stopped talking abruptly once he saw his mother's ire directed at him.

"Well, yeh don look like you got to read your letter yet. Hold on, I've gottit here somewhere" Hagrid looked in all pockets in his heavy coat (and there were a LOT of pockets) before finally finding an envelope in one of them. "Here yeh are Harry"

The envelope felt heavy when he grabbed it. He saw the emblem stamped on the envelope with wax and the same few words he had managed to read earlier from the other envelope.

Mr H. Potter

The smallest room

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Harry opened his envelope and started reading. It was a letter welcoming him to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and a list of books he would need (a lot of the titles seemed very weird and he wondered if they were even real as he had not seen any titles like that at the library before). He had no words and simply started putting the parchment back into the envelope when he realized there was another envelope stuck to the back of his. He had not noticed before in his shock of learning he was a wizard, but now that he saw it, he carefully separated it (the wax had been pressed against the other envelope and stuck that way – Hagrid must have sat on them at some point).

What he saw in that second envelope surprised him, but not as much as it had his Aunt. She was as pale as a ghost, a look of terror covering her features. "No. No. No no no no no. This can't be. It can't be true. Anything but this"

As she mumbled this, Harry grabbed the envelope and slowly handed it to the person addressed in it. He could not believe it either, certainly this must mean…well, it could only mean one thing. "It's for you" he said, looking down at the writing once again, as if to make sure he had read the right thing. But there was no mistaking it.

Mr D. Dursley

The biggest room

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

A/N

As the description mentions, this is my first attempt at writing a story. I would love some feedback. I have a broad idea of where I want to take the story in the long run, but whether I write past a handful of chapters I guess will depend on how strong I feel my writing is after a while. Please review :)

Edit: reuploaded to fix some typos and formatting.