*Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling does it.

Hello everyone! This is my first FanFiction at all, so please be merciful, especially as English isn't my native language. If you see a mistake, please tell me, so I can fix it.

And please review!

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Some pointers for help:

'...' Thoughts
"..." Talk
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Chapter 1

It was a quiet, peaceful evening on Privet Drive, an evening as any other. Families were as usually finishing dinner and went on front of TV, where they spent the rest of the evening. Outside was already dark and full moon illuminated nicely painted houses, shiny cars, freshly mown lawns and broken swings in nearby park. It was cold, autumn night and all was quiet, except of sounds of some passing cars and occasional barking of neighbors dogs. It was a peaceful night.

Except on number 4, Privet Drive.

A small, 6 year old boy, dressed in few numbers over sized clothes, with untamed black hair and bright green eyes, that were hidden under many times broken glasses was laying in small cupboard under the stairs and listened to angry noises, coming from outside. He had bruises all over his body, painfully reminding him of beating that his uncle gave him earlier.

That boy was Harry Potter.

He lived on Privet Drive for five years, ever since his parents died in car accident. But Dursleys weren't a nice family, that everyone believed they are. Vernon Dursley, a big, beefy man with large mustache, liked to drink too much and when he came back home late at night, was usually very violent, especially toward his nephew, who was blamed for everything that went wrong in Dursley lives. His wife, Petunia Dursley, was a thin, horse faced woman, who made Harry do chores, that many older people wouldn't be able to do and treating him as slave. But on the other hand, she adored her only son Dudley and bought him everything he wanted, thus changing him into spoiled, fat child.

Harry has often prayed, that some unknown relative will came and took him from Dursleys. But nobody never showed up and he became even sadder than before. When he went to school for the first time, he hoped that he will get some friends, but Dudley bullied everyone that dared to come close to him and other students quickly learned to ignore him. Moreover, when he brought home a sheet of his grades and his aunt and uncle found out that he has better grades that Dudley, he recived the worst beating he ever had. Since then, he intentionally wrote the tests worst than Dudley and never revealed, how much knowledge he really had. And he really had a lots of knowledge. Every day after the classes ended he went to library, a place he liked the most. This was partially due to Dudley, since he would never go willingly to library, even if his life would depend on it, and so nobody bothered him. The other reason was because of all stuff, he could learn here. His favourite subject was languages. He already spoke fluently Spanish, French, German, and he was also learning few other languages, even old ones, as Latin, Ancient Greek and Old Celtic.

But he didn't learn just languages. There wasn't anything, he didn't excelled in. He learned a Chemistry, Maths, Physics and Biology, all at university level. He studied depths of human mind and read Socrates, Archimedes and Freud. So, in other words, he was a prodigy.

But all his knowledge was the last thing, that went across Harry mind right now. His whole body was currently shaking and he frantically prayed that his uncle wouldn't remember him. It was about one hour earlier when he came back from work, all drunk and angry, as his boss fired him because his lousy job and harassment of his female coworkers. He went straight at Harry and just because his aunt interfered, he made it out alive.

"I want to go away," he silently pleaded. "I don't want to live here any longer. I would go anywhere else but here."

But as to mock his plead, the door of the cupboard were violently thrown open and enraged, purple faced uncle grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of it.

" You have cost me my job, you ungrateful freak. Petunia and I took you in, dressed you and fed you and how do you repay us? I should have thrown you on the street the moment I saw you." He took his belt and prepared to strike him.

Harry closed his eyes and held back a scream as belt hit him, causing him to feel so strong pain, that he almost passed out. As belt hit him again and again, the pain consumed him all and he quickly lost the count of how many blows hit him. His whole body was on pain and all he wanted was to die. But then, he suddenly felt even stronger pain, so strong that all previous things he experienced seemed as nothing, and his mind was assaulted by wave of memories, that weren't his.

'...He lay shivering on cold, hard ground. A bunch of older children surrounded him and grinned maliciously, while they mercilessly kicked him. In the background, he could hear some people laughing, clearly enjoyed the scene ….. A big, thick woman was standing over him and beating him with thick rod. " That should teach you not to do this again, you spawn." ….. He was cornered by bunch of elegant dressed people, who just teared apart his possessions. " Get lost, you little beggar. We don't want your kind here." …..'

So suddenly as these foreign memories came, they also left. He suddenly become aware, that he was lying on the floor and that he could no longer feel his uncle blows, but instead he felt a gentle heat, that surrounded his body and seemed to wash the pain away. He slowly stand up and opened eyes. The sight that welcomed him, almost caused his jaw to hit the ground.

His body was wrapped in wild, liquid red fire, that was gently flickering across his skin. But the fire didn't hurt him. Opposite, when the flame slided over large bruise, it miraculously healed before his eyes, to his great surprise. He slowly looked up and saw that fire had also consumed the other parts of the house. Across the living room, he saw Aunt Petunia and Dudley desperately trying to escape the fire, but they had nowhere to go. Uncle Vernon lay before his feet, an unrecognizable pile of burned black flesh.

A large crash from upper floor brought his mind back. He suddenly realized that he is in the middle of the burning house, that could crash anytime. He thoughtlessly ran to the door, right through the fire, not feeling it at all. He rushed through the door and stopped by the road for a moment, to steal the last glance to his former home that was now bathing in fiery hot fire, before he run down the road and left the burning house and its screaming residents to face their fate.

Harry Potter had left Privet Drive forever.