Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

This chapter basically explains the premise and why they move away. Poor poor Harry.

Oh James and Lily are alive in this fic. :D

Prologue

Troubles Behind Us

2003, 29th July

I held my breath as I saw my mother and father walk out into the hallway towards me.

There was a moment of silence before my mother let out a broad grin and held her arms out.

"We won," she said happily, with that sentence I ran out to hug her.

My dad looked on the embrace with almost a sad smile and he patted me on the shoulder.

It finally happened.

I'd never had to see my uncle Vernon again.

As I was hugging my mother, I heard the click of high heels against the wooden floor; I looked up to see the stony face of my Aunt Petunia.

My mother also looked up, her smiley face turned into a glare and she held me protectively in our embrace.

Aunt Petunia looked frightening, even my fat cousin Dudley behind her looked unnerved by her at the moment.

She slowly walked towards me, at that point my father stood defensively in front of me and my mother.

She glared at me with her watery brown eyes.

"I hope you're happy dragging our name in the mud," Petunia spat in a quiet voice.

"Oh it's always about you isn't it?" My mother raged standing up and walking towards her.

My dad held me back, distancing us away from my aunt.

"If you were a decent woman as you so claim, you would've stopped that…pig from hurting our Harry!" my mother snarled at my aunt.

"Your son is a scruffy spoiled little brat that probably deserved it!" Petunia snarled back.

My mother snorted.

"Look at your own child before judging mine!" my mother yelled pointing to Dudley.

In the midst of the argument turned his attention to the vending machine, which when it wouldn't give him his food started to thump and kick it.

"Are you moronic!" my mother started to go red in face.

She was getting so angry that Petunia started to lose her nerve and step back away from her.

"Harry is a child for god's sake! Your nephew! You know if it was me looking after your Dudley I would've set up a proper room for him, not shove him in a cupboard!"

"W-we had too much stuff to move," Aunt Petunia said pathetically.

"You're husband should've gotten longer than two years for giving Harry a scar and stitches,"

Mother had enough of her and started to walk back to me and dad.

"Lily turn away from me and you'll never see us again!" Aunt Petunia screamed at my mother tears rolling down her face.

"That's fine with me; none of us will be missing much!" my mother said angrily.

Aunt Petunia had enough, she stomped away in anger and grabbed Dudley's arm dragging him with her.

Mum looked sad and angry at the same time. She looked like she was about to cry.

"C'mon mate, let's go," Dad said patting my shoulder.

On the way back to the car I couldn't help but feel a lump of dread in my stomach.

Aunt Petunia said that we'd never see her and Dudley again; I wouldn't care less if I didn't see them again. I've never liked them; they were always so rude when I tried to be polite or wanted to talk to them.

It's the fact that we didn't live far from them, only a couple of streets away in fact.

That was what started this whole thing.

When my mum and dad wanted to go on this month long business trip they intended for me to go to Mrs. Figg, unfortunately she tripped over one of her cats and broke her leg.

Which is a shame because I liked Mrs Figg's house, besides the fact of she had hundreds of cats.

Despite us living not very far away, we didn't see each other very often, although I do attend the same school as Dudley.

Fortunately we are in separate classes, he usually kept his distance and the most contact he'd given was an evil glare.

So my mother somehow managed to convince my Aunt Petunia to let me stay at their house for the month.

When you go to a relative's house you'd expect them to welcome you with open arms, but the Dursley's didn't.

As soon as I arrived on the doorstep Uncle Vernon looked as if I was something unpleasant like dog poo or something.

My room in their house was a small cupboard underneath the stairs, there was a large extra bedroom upstairs, I knew because I saw Dudley throwing a toy in there.

When I asked my aunt why I couldn't sleep in there my response was:

"Ungrateful brat, that's for Dudley's things and don't ask questions!"

'Don't ask questions' became more and more frequent the time I spent there.

It was the same answer I got when I asked why Dudley got to eat my food, why I had to clean his room and why I had to make them their food.

Dudley was a nasty spoilt brat that used to try and beat me up all the time. When I say try I mean he tried to catch me, I'm a fast runner and he's very slow.

When I tried to tell Aunt Petunia, he started to cry and she told me not to lie. He wasn't really crying I knew because he smirked at me when Aunt Petunia wasn't looking.

Aunt Petunia was bad most of the time, some days I wondered how she could be related to mum.

Mum so lovely and then she was so uncaring.

When Dudley made a mess he'd blame it on me and I'd have to clean it up, after the first week I was like an unpaid servant.

But the worst by far was Uncle Vernon, at first he'd just yell at me and lose his temper like if I spill his dinner or something.

Then he started to leave me in the cupboard for hours in the dark.

The worst thing he ever did was give me my lighting shaped scar.

It happened when Dudley shoved me down the stairs on the day before the last as a 'leaving present'.

At that point something inside me snapped, he came wobbling down the stairs and started to laugh.

I got up and I smacked him repeatedly in the face.

He managed to get a large bruise decorating his eye, and then Uncle Vernon walked through the door and saw me doing this.

Dudley was crying for real this time.

Uncle Vernon got so angry with me his face turned purple; he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and threw me against the wall.

The force of this action made the paintings on the walls shake.

Dudley was still bawling his eyes out and even he looked shocked by this action.

Dudley was bigger then me, but Uncle Vernon was much, much bigger than Dudley. Which is why before he punched me in the stomach, I knew it was going to hurt a lot.

And it did.

I thought it was going to stop there.

Then I saw Uncle Vernon remove his belt, the way he was holding it I knew what he was going to do, so I did what I did with Dudley.

I ran.

But I didn't run fast enough because he managed to catch my forehead with a belt buckle.

I couldn't help but cry when I felt the blood trickling down my face.

Afterwards all the Dursley's became silent. Uncle Vernon stormed out the house shouting, Dudley looked pale and wobbled off to his room.

Aunt Petunia arrived with her shopping; she obviously met my Uncle on the way back because she looked visibly shaken.

Surprisingly she didn't say anything either, she decided to put a couple of plasters on my forehead.

The plasters didn't do much good because the blood seeped through the material.

To be honest I didn't want to talk, I felt shaken and all I wanted was to go home.

When Mum finally arrived to pick me up, her face fell when she saw my forehead.

"Good god, Harry! What happened to you!" Mum cried then she ran towards me.

"Unc-"

"He fell," Aunt Petunia sharply cut me off.

Mum wasn't buying it at all and glared at her.

"Fell? Fell on what?" she demanded standing up.

Aunt Petunia had to think up of an excuse quickly.

"On the corner of a cabinet," she said.

Mum obviously didn't believe her and turned to me.

"Harry, be honest now. I won't be angry with you, what happened?"

"Uncle Vernon hit me," I answered quietly.

Anger quickly flooded into my mother's face.

"Hit you? What did he hit you with? A knife?" she asked.

"Don't be stupid Lily, Vernon was just disciplining-"

"So the story with him falling on the cabinet was a load of crap then?" Mum angrily spat.

"Because I knew that you'd react like this!" Aunt Petunia said frustrated.

"No, mum he hit me with a belt," I said biting my lip.

Aunt Petunia looked livid at me, while mum looked livid too but turned to her instead.

"Your husband isn't getting away with this!" mum yelled at her.

Mum gave me a small cuddle.

"C'mon love, we're going to hospital,"

Aunt Petunia stared at my mum at shock.

"Lily you can't be serious…"

"I am serious Petunia!" Mum growled at her.

I went into the cupboard to get my coat, which infuriated my mother more.

"A cupboard? Is that where he's been sleeping!" Mum shouted at my aunt.

The amount of shouting caused Dudley to peek down at the commotion from the top of the stairs.

Mother led me out of the door, but Aunt Petunia grabbed my Mum by the arm.

"Wait Lily! Please don't do this!" my aunt begged.

Mum waited for an explanation giving her a cold look.

"If Vernon goes to prison…" Petunia looked like she might cry.

"So it's Vernon I have to think about is it?" my mother snarled at her.

My aunt didn't do anything but cover her face with her hands.

"Vernon hits my boy and it's him I have to think about?" My Mum angrily asked.

Mum noticed Dudley at the top of the stairs.

"The least you can do is look after that one!" Mum pointed to him.

After Mum rushed me to the car, Dad drove me straight to hospital, the cut was revealed deep and needed some stitching.

My scar is jagged and resembled a lightening bolt.

Actually I thought it looked kind of cool, it really stung my head though, but when Mum saw it she burst into tears.

"Oh my God, Harry! It's my fault I never should've left you there,"

When Uncle Vernon first got charged, Aunt Petunia started coming over and tried to change my parents mind.

They didn't budge.

So Aunt Petunia tried to get the neighbours to turn against us.

But no one really likes Aunt Petunia so the neighbours started to support us one by one.

Dudley managed to make most of the kids at school ignore me, but that's only because they are afraid of him.

Now that Uncle Vernon is sentenced to prison, I'm worried that Aunt Petunia and Dudley will start to make things worse.

"What a birthday present eh Harry?" my dad said trying to amuse me.

My eyes widened in realization.

My birthday was tomorrow.

With all this commotion with Uncle Vernon, I actually forgot it was my birthday.

I felt myself go red feeling silly.

As went inside, Mum hissed in my Dad's ear.

"James," her head shifted towards the living room obviously indicating something.

"Um, yes!" my dad said out loud strangely.

"Harry, lets go in the living room for a bit," Dad said walking towards there.

This seemed a bit weird to me, it was like they were hiding something from me.

Mum and Dad sat side by side to each other, they encouraged me to sit in the middle of the sofa in between them. They looked very hesitant to talk.

Something was definitely up.

"Harry, me and your mum have something we want to tell you,"

The awkwardness gave me an idea.

"Oh, are you having a baby?" I smiled. I've always wanted a brother or a sister.

Mum and Dad went pink in the face. They looked at each other and started to laugh.

"No dear, its not that," Mum said through her chuckles.

"Harry, your mum and I want us to move," Dad said with a smile on his face.

There was a moment of silence, it seemed like Mum and Dad were eager for my reaction.

"When are we moving?" I asked.

"Next week dear," Mum said looking concerned.

"Where?"

"It's my old childhood town, Hogsmede," Dad said.

"Hogsmede?" I asked.

I think that sounds really weird, but I guess it sounds more interesting than Stonewall Lane.

"Yes, Hogsmede, that's where your Uncle Remus and Godfather Sirius live too,"

Ah, Remus and Sirius send me birthday, Christmas and Easter presents and cards every year.

But truth be told, I only faintly remember their faces. The last time they've seen me was when I was five years old.

It'll be nice to finally see them again, I hope they are as nice as they seem.

"Would you like a going away party?" my mum asked kindly.

"No, all of my friends are avoiding me because of Dudley," I said truthfully.

"Don't worry, you'll meet nicer people at Hogsmede,"

Mum hugged me to comfort me.

"Oh Harry, you're growing up so fast, I can't believe you're turning eleven tomorrow,"

Mum was starting to get all weepy and nostalgic. That's been happening a lot ever since the incident with Uncle Vernon.

"When you go to Hogsmede hopefully you'll go to our old school Hogwarts," Dad said enthusiastically.

Hogwarts? That's even stranger than Hogsmede, good grief I wouldn't be surprised if our new home was called 'Warthog,'.

"Wait Mum, you lived in Hogsmede too?" I asked.

"Only for my school years dear, your grandparents loved the sound of Hogwarts," Mum revealed.

"It's one of the best academic schools in the county," James added.

"Does that mean I have to take a test?" I asked suspiciously.

"Just a little one," Mum smiled.

I hate tests.

The more my parents reminisced about their time at Hogwarts, the more posh it sounded. It sounded like a school for rich kids and really brainy children.

Unless my parents had a hidden vault somewhere, we were not rich.

And I'm not particularly brainy either.

I'm notstupid, but I don't get full marks on all of my tests lets put it that way.

The sound of meeting new people sounds nice, but what if they were really snotty and looked down at me or something?

What if I had to do this really hard test and I blow it?

Mum and Dad seem really keen on me going to this school, if I'm not accepted they'll be really disappointed.

I didn't need to know why they wanted to move, it was to leave all this drama behind and create something better.

I feel terrible that they feel guilty about all this happening to me, I know it wasn't their fault.

But the only person I'd miss from this place is Mrs. Figg and some of the neighbours.

Dad's car alarm went off, he rushed out of the room and ran to his car. From inside the room me and Mum could hear him yell.

"Good god!"

Mum rushed out to join him, I peeked out of the lacy curtains.

There was thick glass spread out all over the path, the car kept flashing it's yellow lights, I then saw that dad's front window was completely smashed.

Mum rushed back inside to call the police, then Dad came in with a brick in his hands.

"James, you shouldn't tamper with that, it's evidence," Mum said while dialling her phone.

"We all know who's done it," my dad seethed through gritted teeth.

There was a scruffy note taped to the brick, in large neat letters the note said:

'FILTHY LIARS'

Mum and Dad were getting so stressed it began to scare me. I rushed upstairs to my bedroom and slumped onto my bed.

I hated them.

With every spark left in my body I hated the Dursleys.

I'll look forward to never seeing them again.

If Mum knew I thought that, she would tell me to think of all the nice things about the place we live in.

To be honest, I can't think a single nice thing about the Dursleys other than that they had healthy teeth.

The only people I'd miss leaving here, would be the neighbours who supported my parents even though my aunt tried hard to make them hate us and Mrs Figg.

Mrs Figg was always so nice to me, she looked so sad when she heard what happen and made me a jumper with a small cat on it.

Other than them.

If I didn't look like a lunatic, I'd climb to the roof and shout to everyone.

I'm glad we're moving away from here.

Away from these people, away from the drama.

I'll never see Aunt Petunia my horse faced aunt or my piggy cousin Dudley.

Good riddance.

A/N: Harry is eleven years old here and he will be for the next couple of chapters.

The Dursley's may be mentioned but we're not seeing them for a long while. We'll be seeing Hagrid next chapter.

~Blazenix