Harry Potter was not like the other children, he knew they did not have to cook every meal, they had rooms, not a cupboard under the stairs like himself, but most importantly to him, the other children were loved, they would run up to their parents at the end of the day and chatter about their day and achievements, their parents smiling down on them as if nothing else mattered to them. Harry saw all this as he walked home… by himself like he had done since the first day of school, knowing once he arrived home he had chores to do and dinner to prepare before he could even start work on his homework.

Harry was never physically punished by either Vernon or Petunia Dursley, Petunia had just enough love left for her sister she wouldn't harm him and Vernon respected his wife's wishes.

No what they did was far more damaging, they acted like he just didn't exist, when they needed something done in they would just yell for the "Boy". By 7 years old Harry had realised that the Dursleys would never care what he did, aside from how well his chores were done, so long as he stayed inside his cupboard out of sight.

So one day over the summer, once Vernon had gone to work and Dudley had gone out with friends, he convinced Petunia to let him have a library card so that he could read quietly within his cupboard, she agreed on the condition that his reading wouldn't stop his chores from being done to perfection.

After getting that little library card Harry Potter's life changed, the Dursleys almost forgot about him entirely and Harry went through great effort to make sure they had no reason to remember him, he read about how to fix his clothes so they fitted him better than the rags he started with, he still had to roll the sleeves up several times but that was welcome in the winter as the additional overlaps acted as additional layers.

The majority of Harry's life was spent quietly sat within his cupboard, reading from a great stack of books that he either ordered from the library or collected during his walks around privet drive. However Petunia forgot one major fact and if she had remembered she would never have let Harry read so many books, as with most things people forget it was a simple fact, that children's books often wrote about magic, since no one had told Harry that the books were fictional he regularly tried to mimic his favourite characters when he was alone.

To his great happiness he found that if he really focused he could make objects hover around him and once even made a flower burst into flame, so Harry found the second joy in his life, reading and now magic, he spent every waking moment reading from his books, noting down interesting powers and tried to copy them in the moments alone.

If he hadn't been neglected his whole life he might have gone and shown the Dursleys who would have taken his books away in an instant and they would have returned to their previous behaviour, but Harry never told them of his magic study, afterall they didn't show any interest in his school work or his books so he assumed they just wouldn't want to see his magic work either so kept it to himself.

Thus Harry Potter, saviour of the wizarding world, the boy-who-lived, grew up entirely alone with nothing but books and magic for a long 4 long years.

As any good physiatrist would tell you there are many unseen issues that can occur within children that are neglected, one such issue being the habit to internalise their emotions, Harry had learnt that when he was upset or angry Vernon would lock him in his cupboard without his books for the rest of the day, and once when he had stood up to Dudley and his gang, they took great delight in kicking him to the ground and after returning to number 4 Petunia took away his books for a whole week.

Harry kept his emotions under heavy lock and key after that, some of the teachers warned the Dursleys that he maybe a sociopath as he never seemed to get angry or sad and that they should take him to be checked out, the Dursleys couldn't see the point in doing so and carried on as they were.

He spent most of his school life emotionally neutral aside from the occasional sliver of cheer, and no one really saw what was wrong with Harry who just assumed that it was part of growing older to hide your emotions and only show others what you wanted them to see.

By the time his eleventh birthday was around the corner Harry had mastered the art of masking his emotions and his control over his magic had come along leaps and bounds as a result, he had quickly learnt that emotions left unpredictable results in his magic and when he held back his emotions his magic became easier to control although at first it was harder to bring to the surface.

By then he could cover his skin in an invisible shield that only he could see so that when Dudley tried to hurt him, the pain was more manageable and any wound he received faded the moment he was alone, although both uses of his magic left him severely weakened and unable to use his magic the next day, Harry used them often due to the fact as Dudley grew bigger and stronger he tried to hurt Harry more and more.

Harry felt like he had nothing left to learn while he lived under the Dursleys as some of the stuff he wanted to try would require time and space, neither of which was available to him, this is until one day, a week before his eleventh birthday a letter arrived, one that would shatter the world he knew.

This has been a story I've been planning for a very long time now, I have the next few chapters sort of finished already I just need to read over them and make sure I am happy with them, I plan to try and release a chapter every week, this should give me enough time to finish the chapters I already have as well as start work on more!