Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter

Note:

This is a short story of Harry's life set in the Always Waiting Series (Of which the first story is The Boy Who Never Cried Wolf) this won't work unless you've read that first and the next story (The actual continuation of the last) equally won't make sense if you do not read this one. It's only short, 7 chapters long, but please enjoy More notes at the end explaining why the hell I'm doing this.

Prologue…

His first memory isn't anything special. His cousin Dudley is eating cake, nothing new or surprising there, even back then he remembers thinking it's all old hat.

His second though, his second memory is of waking up from a nightmare. A flash of green light seems to follow him into the waking world and from then on, a look at his eyes sends him spiralling into his own nightmares. A mirror cracks once, he's not sure how. Uncle Vernon bans him from ever looking in one again as he locks him in his cupboard. He finds he doesn't mind this punishment, even if he didn't break the mirror.

His third memory, is of her. He meets her at the park when his Aunt and Uncle take Dudley and he has to go with them. A ball hits him and he falls to the ground, then a hand is grabbing him and pulling him up. He flinches away and stares, trying to work out what is in front of him.

"Hi! I'm Lillie," The blob in front of him says cheerily.

"H-Hi," He quietly replies, unused to being spoken to in such a manner. Two bigger blobs come up behind the first.

"What's your name?" Lillie asks.

He frowns, "I don't know."

Lillie moves, then one of the blobs shrinks down to his eye-level, "I'm Andrea Polka, Lillie's Mom," the blob tells him, speaking in a way he has never heard before, "Are those your parents over there?" He looks over at where Andrea's extending blob indicates and sees two blobs he's trained himself to recognise as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon no matter how far away they are, though sometimes it's very hard.

"What's a parents?" He asks.

The two blobs before him move to face each other before back at him, "A Mummy and Daddy," Andrea explains.

His eyes brighten slightly, he knows that one, "No. They're Dudley's Mummy and Daddy. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon."

"Are your par-erm- Mummy and Daddy here?" The as-of-yet unnamed Blob questions as Andrea moves off towards Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

"I don't have them," he replies.

"Everyone has a Mummy and a Daddy," Lillie tells him.

He shrugs, "Not me."

"Oh," Lillie states, she brightens again quickly, "You can share mine!"

Andrea walks back over before anyone can respond to that, "Well, I found out your name," She states, in a voice that to people over the age of four would have suggested she learnt a lot more than that and none of it was good.

"What is it?" Lillie and he ask at the same time.

"Harry."

"Oh! That's like my Uncle Harry, 'cept his name is really Henry, do you think your name is really Henry?" Lillie asks exuberantly.

Harry blinks, dazed, "I don't know."

"People call him Hank, too," She continues as if he had never answered her question, "Do people call you, Hank?" Harry shakes his head. "Can I? It can be a friendname and only I call you it."

Harry blinks in confusion, "Yes?"

Lillie beams at him, "We gonna be bestest friends for ever!" She claims as she hugs him. Harry flinches but she holds tight. She doesn't hurt him though, so he relaxes. "Come on, let's play catch."

"I don't know how," Harry admits.

Lillie remains unperturbed, "I'll teach you."

Lillie isn't a great teacher, but her father kneels behind Harry, holding his hands and helping him catch the ball. Eventually, Harry isn't afraid of having the man so close, and even smiles and laughs.

He and Lillie run around and play right up until Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon call him over.

"We'll play again, don't worry, Hank," Lillie tells him. Harry doesn't seem convinced. "Pinky promise we'll always be friends no matter what." She sticks her pinky out. Harry doesn't know what that means, but he holds his pinky out too and follows her direction to link it with hers and shake exactly once, otherwise the promise is broken. Or so Lillie claims.

Harry scratches his head, pushing back his hair from his face. He hears Mrs and Mr Polka gasp slightly but has to go to his Aunt and Uncle and doesn't question why.

Harry gets in trouble when he gets home. He forgot he's not supposed to play with other kids. He's a freak, he's dirty, he's not normal. But then Uncle Vernon calls Lillie a freak too, so Harry takes that as permission to do it anyway.

It's not until he's in bed that night, rolling his name around in his head as he marvels at even knowing it, that he realises he has no idea where she lives and so he can't ever see her again.

Harry sighs as he rolls over in his little cot in the cupboard under the stairs, a tear rolling down his cheek and he wonders if perhaps he accidentally shook twice on that promise after all.

NOTES:

Okay, so, I owe everyone an apology. The next instalment was supposed to be the actual story but I was having a lot of trouble moving from The Boy Who Never Cried Wolf to The World Isn't Kind. Now the reason for that is I was struggling to write from Harry's perspective but written in a universe created from Remus' perspective. So I decided to write a short prequel (I promise, it's not like the last time I thought that and ended up writing the entire last story, this one is only 7 chapters long). Anyways, I've found it's helped a lot and I'll be back to writing The Word Isn't Kind come 2019.

In any case, I hope you all enjoy this! Sorry again that this is not the continuation of The Boy Who Never Cried Wolf. And, of course,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~Ace