Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: This story is written with permission of Isebas. Updates will probably be sporatic due to everyday life taking precedence.

o0o0o0o0o

Ten year old Harry Potter was sitting in a clearing in the middle of the woods behind the local park. No kids liked to come inside them since they were usually dark and were said to be haunted by ghosts and full of monsters. A few people had actually disappeared when they went into the woods but nothing was ever proven. He was currently sitting in the shade with his back to a tree relaxing and thinking.

Harry was seen as a freak since his family had started rumors about him. It didn't matter to the rest of the people in Surrey if they weren't true they still believed them and in turn so did their kids. He hated them for it. Nobody cared about others lives, only about themselves. That was a lesson he learned early in life; you got to look out for number one.

Harry had only one friend at school, a girl named Xara Raimes, who was originally from the states. She was a tall skinny girl with pale, almost white hair, and dark blue eyes. Her skin was fairly pale but was covered in light brown freckles. She was very beautiful already Harry had admitted to himself.

At first like any child Harry had wanted friends, but the first few were beaten up by Dudley. After that kids stopped coming up and trying to be friends with him. Xara was the exception, she was very cunning and was almost more blood thirst than him.

She had taken down Dudley and half his gang when they had tried to interfere when she and Harry had first met. She usually took great joy in beating Dudley up whenever she could, making a game of it. His parents had asked about it but his pride wouldn't allow him to tell them that he was beaten up by a girl. When he was all alone was when he discovered his power.

He didn't know what it was but he liked to think that it was magic. Xara was the only one he ever told about it. She had been so excited that she had tried to figure out of if she had the power too but she came up with nothing. Harry was kind of glad, not that he didn't want her to have them, but she would have been scary as hell if she did. She had still encouraged Harry to work on it as much as he could.

He used his growing powers to do his chores and to hurt the ones that had hurt him. It was just the kids that had bothered him though. His hatred for his family was great but he wasn't yet ready to have his revenge on them yet. He knew that they would fear him in time.

He freely admitted that he was different but in his opinion different was better. They were the freaks. It used to made his sad that no one recognized or acknowledged that he was actually abused; over the years that sadness had turned bitter and angry. His anger and rage boiled beneath the surface. Instead of making him weak his emotions made him feel even stronger.

He looked down at the sketchbook in front of him. It was one of the few things he enjoyed doing and was good at in school. It's not to say that he was dumb but he was forced to get bad grades even though he was clearly more intelligent than his peers, let alone his oafish cousin Dudley. He ran the flat side of his pencil against the paper shading the mysteriously cloaked person in the picture. He had seen the man in his dreams, red eyes glowing menacingly.

A hoot broke him out of his drawing and caused him to look up. A brown owl sat on a branch above him with a letter attached to it's leg. He stood up so that he could get a better look at it, before he could however it jumped into the air and floated down towards him. It let out a hoot while lifting it's leg to him, allowing him to notice both a letter and a small brown wrapped package. Harry cautiously took, the only animal he had seen lift a leg was a dog and he didn't feel like getting pissed on.

Furrowing his brows he reached out and pulled the envelope off the owl's leg before sitting the package on the ground. Flipping it over so he could read the front it said:

Mr. H Potter

Shaded Clearing

Little Whining Surrey

Who was sending him a letter?And why? Harry wondered. Only one way to find out.

Sliding his finger under the edge he broke the seal and pulled out a piece of parchment? Who the hell uses parchment anymore? Flipping the letter over he opened the folded note.

Dear Mr. Potter,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been invited to attend Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It is one of the finest institutes of magical learning in all of Europe. A representative will be sent to your place of residence to take you to buy your school supplies from the list provided. If you wish to attend you need only send your response vial owl before July 31st.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

P.S.- I have included a packet of information on the wizarding world made specifically for muggleborn's and muggle raised. Also included is a book that will help explain the night of your parents death and about your status in the wizarding world. The package will automatically resize itself when you cut the string.

So what he did was magic, and his family knew. Also what more could there be known about the night his parents died? They had been killed in a car crash right? Not that he would put it past his relatives to lie to him.

"Can you stay for a while?" Harry asked the owl. The owl hooted in return and flew back into the tree to sit on the branch. Sitting back down himself he read the pamphlet provided and then began on the book. It took him an hour and a half to read it all and by the end he was disgusted and royally pissed off.

He was royally pissed off because his relatives had lied to him and said that his parents had died in a car crash and had kept his heritage from him; since they had obviously known about it. He was disgusted because the wizarding world thought of him as some hero, not to mention that they had needed a one year old child to take care of their problems. He spent the next ten minutes lighting things on fire before his anger was low enough that he could think straight. Tearing a piece of paper out of his notebook he wrote his own letter.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

First off thank you for sending the reading material you provided, it was very informative. I was not informed of my heritage by my relatives but this does explain things to me. I am as of yet undecided if I want to go to your school or rejoin the wizarding world at all. If I am as famous as the book led me to believe why was I left with ignorant muggles, I think the book called them. Why was I not left with a wizarding family?

I will wait until the representative from your school shows up before making my decision.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

He focused his magic and the letter folded itself neatly. Placing his hand on the envelope he let his magic out and consume the entire thing. He concentrated and seconds later a new blank envelope was sitting next to it. Placing the letter in the envelope he pushed his magic into it so only McGonagall could open it.

"I have a letter for you." Harry said out loud causing the owl to fly down to him. He scratched it's feathers for a few seconds before tying the letter to it's leg. "Thank you."

Harry had always felt a strong bond with animals, especially snakes since he was able to communicate with them. There was a young adder that lived in a cave near his favorite clearing that he liked to talk to when he was doing his chores and no one was around. He had given him the name Aevan since he didn't have one, and was one of the smarter snakes Harry had encountered. He thought it might have something to do with being around magic a lot of the time.

Getting off the ground he waived his hand at his clothes cleaning them before picking up his pencil and sketchbook. He folded up his letter and shrunk it and the book. He needed to get back before some idiots came looking for him. On his way back to Number four Harry was wondering what new turn his life would take next.