Hello and welcome to the story, please enjoy.
Warnings for this chapter: Mentions of abuse.
Beyond Good and Evil
Prolog
Harry was sitting in front of his window, staring out into empty air. Thoughts circulated in his head, flitting and spinning, never there long enough to grasp. The shining sun, twittering birds and the gentle breeze carrying the soft fragrance of blooming flowers into his room no longer held any sort of importance. A sigh escaped his lips, his dull and unfocused eyes turned and regarded the snowy owl sitting next to him after a few minutes. His companion was clicking her beak angrily to make her discomfort known. With another sigh he slowly lifted his left arm extending his hand to her. A pained grimace flitted over his face for a moment, the only expression of his own discomfort. His fingers lightly stroked her breast feathers, shaking with each movement, slowly but steadily stopping her angry twittering. She gave a soft hoot after a moment.
With another sigh Harry returned his gaze towards the barely clouded sky. Since three weeks he was back at the Dursleys'. The first few days had been relatively silent, which in itself had been a surprise but had every bell ringing in his head. He knew it would only be a matter of time before his uncle or cousin would inflict any kind of pain upon him. It wasn't until the fifth day when they both had been watching a boxing match on TV and his uncle encouraged Dudley to learn how to box. Normally Harry would not be interested in the slightest but then he had not anticipated that Vernon had gotten it into his head that Harry would prove to be a nice punching bag if he were not to complete his chores. Harry's grimaced at remembering that evening. He stopped stroking Hedwig. His chores. He wasn't complaining about having to do anything. No he even welcomed the distraction from boredom and sinister thoughts. He was in no mood to think. Not about himself. Not about his friends. And even less so about Dumbledore.
His expression darkened. But only for a few seconds before disappearing as if it had not crossed his face at all.
His thoughts circled back to his chores. The only thing that he could complain about would be the amount and the punishment, not that it would matter any way. If not completed to the satisfaction of his relatives or in time, hours of pain would await him. If Dudley was not the one who would beat him up it would be Vernon. Neither of them cared if he ended up with bruises all over his body, pains wrecking his body and making it hard to move around at all. Sometimes they even drew blood. Not much, but still enough to make Harry dizzy. His tongue poked out of his mouth, wetting his lips, a short hiss escaped him as the cut on his lower lip stung fiercely. When the punishment did not end in a beating, he would be denied another meal. They never gave him much to begin with but they never denied him so much food that he would starve. Either way it was not very healthy for him.
Harry was in bad shape. He had lost a lot of weight after returning to Privet Drive. His body was a giant bruise. The blue, red, green and yellow spots dotted his whole body, mainly the areas hidden by his oversized clothes. Wouldn't do for the neighbors to see those.
Even though he was glad for the distraction the chores offered, he was happy when they left him alone. Sure it meant being cooped up in the small stuffy room and to be bored out of his mind, but it proved favorable to being beaten unconscious by either of the large men.
The treatment was nothing new to him. What angered him was the lack of letters from his friends. He gave up a week ago hoping for at least one letter to arrive. He imagined what Hermione would say, if he mentioned the lack of letters to her as soon as he saw her. He could already hear her lecturing voice.
But Harry you know that Dumbledore forbid us to write to you! He doesn't want to risk one of the owls getting intercepted. What if the Death Eaters find out where you live?!
Yep, definitely something she would say to him. And Ron? He would try to change the topic or try to dodge answering altogether if he could. But if he would answer he would probably come up with one excuse or another.
Sorry mate, I wanted to write you. I really did. But you know Herm'. She also caught me trying to send Pig off with a letter for you.
Not that mentioning it to either of them would change anything to begin with. Hermione always lectured him about sticking to rules, Ron sometimes lacked the backbone to go against her.
Harry snorted and offered Hedwig an owl treat before carefully lying down on his sorry excuse for a bed. He closed his eyes and slowly a grin spread across his face.
Tomorrow the Dursleys would leave for the whole weekend. Harry saw this as a chance to escape the confines of Privet Drive either for a short amount of times or altogether. He had come up with a plan, if you could even call it that. He wanted to wait until they left before grabbing his own stuff and leaving for Diagon Alley.
With a smile he fell asleep...