Petunia Evans had been devastated when her younger sister Lily was accepted at the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the young age of eleven. She blamed this event on that nasty boy who lived down the street. His name was Severus Snape and he had become Lily's close friend. Petunia considered Lily's decision to choose this magical school over staying with her sister, as a huge betrayal. Petunia herself had written to Headmaster Dumbledore begging to be allowed to attend Hogwarts as well, but had received no reply.

On the day that young Lily and Severus were supposed to be at the Kings Cross station in order to catch the train, Petunia had become all rebellious and refused to attend and say goodbye.

"If I'm not good enough for that snobbish school, then I don't want to know anything about it" she yelled, slamming the door as she left the kitchen.
Lily was devastated that her older sister was angry with her, but young Severus soon cheered her up.

Over the next few years, Petunia became more and more rebellious and wild as she went through her high school years. She drank, and smoked and even developed a reputation for being an "easy" girl.

Petunia was forced to speak to her parents one day when she was seventeen years old, to tell them that she was pregnant and that she was moving out of the house to live with the baby's father. She also demanded that they NOT try and find her. Naturally Mr and Mrs Evans was upset and devastated.

Petunia moved out of their Spinners End home, where she and Lily had grown up, and into a small village in Surrey called Little Whinging where she hurriedly got married to Vernon Dursley. She lost the first child but later gave birth to a baby boy named Dudley. Vernon had found a new job with the Grunnings Drill company on the assembly line.

Since Petunia had grown up in what she considered to be an "abnormal family" she desperately wanted her new family to be perfectly normal so she was determined to squash any and all mention of magic out of their lives. She had not told Vernon about the existence of magic. In fact, she not even told Vernon that she had a sister.

As far as Vernon knew, Petunia was an only child. She had not seen Lily since Lily's last summer vacation at the age of 15. By the following summer, Lily had turned sixteen and was betrothed to her boyfriend, James Potter. She spent the summer with his family. When she turned seventeen, Lily had legally become an adult in that world and she had chosen to stay there as well, thereby being permanently lost to Petunia for good.

Petunia was very protective of her baby son Dudley. In fact you could say she was over protective. Petunia was in fact looking out for any signs of magic, and was determined to squash it or ignore it, if it should ever happen in her normal family. No child of hers was ever going to attend that abnormal school that had taken her precious sister away from her. She wanted nothing to ever take her son away from her either.

This was the situation on the morning of November 1, 1981 when Petunia got up to prepare Vernon's breakfast the way she always did. She was shocked to hear the sound of a baby crying nearby. She tracked the sound of crying to the front door of her house and on unlocking and opening the door, she was shocked to find a baby on the doorstep, wrapped in a blanket and with a note tucked inside the blanket.

"Vernon!" she yelled. Vernon hustled down the stairs to rescue his wife.

"What is that?" She demanded, pointing to the dark haired baby on the doorstep. "Is this your baby? Have you been having an affair Vernon? Could one of your sluts have dumped your baby onto our doorstep?"

Vernon held up his hands. "No Petunia. I promise you, I have not slept with anyone. I dont have any other children. Let's see what the note says, OK?"

Vernon lifted the baby and blanket up, brought the baby inside and shut the door. He pulled out the note.

To Mrs Petunia Dursley

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

My Dear Petunia,

I regret to advise you that your sister Lily Potter nee Evans and her husband James Potter were both killed on Halloween by a wizard who is currently terrorizing our world. The only survivor was their son Harry James Potter. Harry is 15 months old. His birthday was July 31, 1980.

I implore you to please accept Harry into your family and raise him. He needs to be out of our world for his own safety. To that end, I have created special wards around your home at 4 Privet Drive that will prevent the Terrorist and his army from locating you. As long as you all reside at this address, you will all be safe.

I will be in touch again when the time comes for Harry to receive his letter. In the meantime, please try and help him to control any outbursts, by helping him to control his emotions.

Again, I am very sorry to have to convey such sad news to you. I am sorry for your loss.

Sincerely

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts School

Supreme mugwump of the ICW

Chief Wizard of the Wizangamot

"Sister? Wizard? Outbursts? What the hell is this, Petunia?" Vernon yelled.

Petunia had dropped her face in her hands on hearing the news that her sister was now dead and that her nephew was now her responsibility.

"What are these lies? There is no such things as wizards, Petunia. No such thing as magic!"

Petunia raised her face and nodded her head.

"Yes, Vernon there is. Magic does exist. I've seen it with my own eyes. A long time ago sure, but I have seen it. My sister was a witch. When she was eleven years old she was sent off to a special school to learn how to control her magic. Now she is dead and I have to raise her son, my nephew."
Vernon stood up and leaned over his wife in a threatening manner.

"Well now that we have established that this freak comes from your side of the family and not mine, I will not be responsible. You can raise this child however you like, but not with MY money. My son comes first in all situations. If they are both crying, you will settle my son first before this one. You will feed my son first before this one. You will play with and educate my son first before this one. If they are ill, you will tend to my son first before this one. Also I do not want to see or hear anything about this so called magic of yours. There is NO such thing as magic. Do You Understand?"

Petunia nodded.

Vernon headed back to the stairs. "I'm going to have a shower and get dressed. I want my breakfast ready when I come back down."

Petunia nodded again.

Four years later when it was time for both Dudley and Harry to start school, the difference between these two cousins were huge. Dudley was already 3 feet and 8 inches tall. Harry was just under 3 feet tall. Dudley weighed 5 stones, while Harry weighed barely half of that. Dudley had a stocky frame which he used to bully anyone he didn't like, or anyone who tried to be friends with Harry. Harry was quite thin and all of his ribs were prominent on his small frame. He had no extra fat on his body at all. While this was ideal for an adult, it was not ideal at all for a child. Dudley had two whole bedrooms, one for himself and one for all his toys. Harry slept in the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry did most of the chores. "To pay for the rent of the cupboard," he was told. He was making breakfast every morning and lunches on the weekends, except for those days when he was locked in his cupboard for punishment. Petunia still made the dinners. Harry also cleaned the house, dusted the furniture, vacuumed the floors, mowed the lawns with an old 6 bladed rotary mower (rather than one of the new electric mowers), washed the car, did all the laundry, and cleaned the windows. Dudley did nothing at all.

As for food, Harry was never actually given a plate with food on it. He was also never allowed to sit at the table with the Dursleys. He could only grab whatever he could while he was preparing meals and whatever leftovers there might be after dinner. It didn't take long for Dudley to understand this. So he made a point of eating everything on his plate and demanding a second helping and eating all of that as well. Purely so that there was less food available for Harry. And if there were NO leftovers then Harry did not get to eat at all. Dudley always tried to ensure that there were no leftovers.

Vernon checked the bills regularly to ensure that Harry was not using up precious water, or electricity or other hard-earned resources for himself only. It was acceptable for Harry to use these resources only when it was the benefit of the Dursleys. While Petunia and Vernon both never hit Harry, they did ignore him as much as possible. Dudley on the other hand, had been allowed to hit Harry whenever he wanted. So Harry spent most of his free time in his cupboard whenever he was not doing his chores. Whenever Dudley was not outside playing or chasing Harry, he could be found in the lounge sitting in front of the TV, watching the cartoons. If Dudley ever got into trouble, he always blamed Harry and nothing would happen. Dudley was never punished and Harry was just ignored.

No one ever purchased clothes for Harry. He was always given Dudley's hand-me-down clothes. Harry had no idea when his birthday was, or even how old he was. He was not terribly sure what his name was either. He was called Boy, and Freak, a great deal more than he was called Harry.

In the summer that Harry turned 5 years old, he was sent out into the garden and shown which were weeds and which were flowers, and was then told to pull up the weeds only. On his third day of doing this, Harry heard a voice hissing and muttering.

"Sstupid humansss. He isss pulling up the wrong onessss"

"I'm pulling out flowers? Nooo. Which ones are the weeds? I can't see them very clearly." Harry was panicking and also not realizing that he was hissing instead of talking.

"He speakssss to sssnakesss? Can he underssstand me?"

"Yesss, I can underssstand you." Harry was getting a little panicky by this stage. "Who are you? Where are you? I can't sssee you at all."

"I isss down on the ground, bessside you."

Harry put one hand down on the ground and starting patting and feeling.

"No ssspeaker. The other ssside." the snake hissed.

Harry switched hands, and soon felt a small snake, which he picked up and brought close to his face. It was a small green garden snake.

"Hello there." Harry didn't realize it, but he had a huge smile on his face.

"Hello Ssspeaker. You are the first human ssspeaker I have met."

"Thatsss ok. You're the first ssssnake I have met that I can talk to." Harry replied.

Then came a shrill voice from the house. "Boy. Put down that filthy snake and get back to work."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry yelled back, and slowly lowered the snake back to the ground.

"Pleassse stay, and help me pull up the right onessss?" Harry begged. "I have to pull out the weedsss, the ones that crowd out the flowerssss."

The snake knew the difference. Flowers were pollinated by the bees. Weeds were not.

"Yesssss, I will ssstay and help you. Do you have a name?" the snake asked. " No, not that one. The next one."

Harry moved his hand over to the next planet and pulled.

"Not sure what my name isss. They call me Boy, Freak or Harry," Harry's face turned sad for a few seconds as he continued pulling weeds. "Do you have a name?" he asked.

"Yesss. My name is Sssilasss." replied the snake. "Not that one. The next one!"

Harry's hand moved to the next plant over and pulled it out.

"Silas. Got it." Harry was quiet and then plucked up the courage to ask a question. "Will you ssstay with me and be my friend? I dont have any friendsss."

Silas agreed and then asked.

"Sssso why do you have problems with your eyes. Isss there nothing you can do to get them fixed?"

"Yesss, there are things that can be done to fix up my eyes, but I can't afford them. I have no money" Harry hissed back.

"Of courssse you have money. Your parentsss would have left you money at Gringottsss bank. You are a wizard, you know."

Harry stopped moving.

"A wizard? You mean I can do magic? How do you know?"

"Only someone with magic can speak to sssnakesss and sssince you are ssspeaking to me, that meansss you must be a wizard. You have magic."

Harry shivered."That isss a bad word. My aunt and uncle hate that word.

"What bad word?" asked Silas.

Harry didn't see anyone sneaking up behind him. Petunia interrupted the conversation by stepping on the snake and killing it. At the same time she was hitting Harry on the head and screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Stop hissing and get back to work, you filthy lazy freak."

Several windows from neighbouring houses popped open as neighbours began listening in.

Petunia slapped Harry again and hissed in a low voice. "Now look what you have done. Now the damn nosy neighbours know how much of a freak you are. No food for you for a few days. Back into your cupboard. Now!" she hissed.

Harry stood up and walked back to the house. The neighbours eyes followed him.

As Harry disappeared inside the door, the neighbours eyes all switched back to Petunia who glared at them all with her hands on her hips.

Back in his cupboard, Harry curled up in a ball and sobbed quietly. He was pretty sure that his new friend, Silas, was dead. They had been talking for less than an hour, but Harry had discovered some vitally new information about himself.

He was a wizard. He had magic. He already knew that his aunt and uncle hated magic, but he had no idea why. His parents had probably left him some money in a bank. Now all he had to do was to find this Gringotts bank. But since Harry was only 5 years old, that would have to wait. Oh and he would have to somehow find someone who could fix his eyes.

It was three days before Harry was allowed out of his cupboard. He was lucky to have a bucket on one corner for bodily wastes, but the smell left him gagging. As always when he was finally released from his cupboard, the first place he went to, was the bathroom to empty the bucket and relieve himself.

When he got back to the kitchen, Petunia stopped him and told him to sit down. She got into Harry's face and growled.

"If I ever catch you speaking to snakes ever again, or performing anything else of a freaky nature, I will kill you. Is that clear?" she growled. Harry nodded.

"I didn't hear you. I asked you a question and I demand an answer. Is. That. Understood?" Petunia growled again.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry replied.

"Right. Now go and do the laundry. It's been piling up for the 3 days you have been absent!"

Harry did as he was told. He still had not had any food. He was lucky to save some leftovers from dinner that night.

Harry wondered how long he would have to wait to find out, where and how to find this place called Gringotts. But he knew he would never forget that name. He was quite perpared to have to wait until he was all grown up and he was out of this house, before he could do anything about tracking down this mysterious and magical bank. In the meantime, he must say nothing at all to the Dursleys.