Chapter 1

Harry had thought his day couldn't get any worse, but now he realized that it actually could. First aunt Petunia had been in a bad mood all morning, which led her to give him a lot more chores than usual, and find fault in everything he did, then uncle Vernon had returned from work earlier than usual, and in a bad mood as well, and he would do far worse than criticise and shout at him. Dudley had been his usual bullying self all day, of course, and he didn't even have his friends to distract him. Harry hated the summer holidays. The worst part however had been that aunt Marge (who was actually Vernon's sister, but Harry had to call her aunt all the same, despite their mutual dislike) was coming for a visit (the reason for aunt Petunia's behaviour), and Marge had brought along her bulldog Ripper, the reason why Harry was perched in a tree right now, with a bloody leg after the dog bit him.

Ripper was standing under the tree, along with aunt Marge, berating him for taunting Ripper, and uncle Vernon, bellowing at him to come down, which he had no intention of doing, right now sleeping in the tree sounded like a pretty good idea, the problem to that being that it wasn't a very big tree, and while Harry was able to get out of his relatives reach, the branch he was sitting on was far from sturdy, and could barely hold his weight...and not for long, suddenly it broke, and Harry found himself sprawled on the ground, his right arm hurting terribly. He saw uncle Vernon coming towards him with an angry expression, and closed his eyes, knowing he was in a lot of trouble, and wishing he was far away, somewhere safe. There was a feeling as if he was being squeezed through a very small tube, and then a crack, and he felt terribly exhausted, but he was able to see that his uncle was nowhere in sight, before he passed out.

Pastor Jim had been expecting a quiet day, before a small boy appeared out of thin air in front of his house. The boy didn't look dangerous, but Pastor Jim was a hunter, and he knew that normal little boys don't appear out of thin air. He tried all the tests he knew, something made easier by the boy being unconscious, but he didn't react to anything, so he bandaged his leg and took him to the nearest hospital to get his broken arm set, and see what else was wrong with him, as he would't wake up. At the hospital he just told that he had found the boy, hurt and unconscious, outside his home, and had no idea who he was or how he had gotten there, not really a lie. He was told that the boy showed signs of neglect, but not outright abuse, as he was underweight but his only real injuries were a broken arm, probably from a fall, and a bad bite from a dog on his leg, they also told him that he would not be sent home, at least not without an investigation, as he was so thin he seemed almost to have been starved, and it seemed he had been abandoned, a crime in itself. They couldn't tell him why he was unconscious, the only thing that might have caused him to faint being the pain and low bloodsugar, which didn't explain why he hadn't woken up yet, but they told him not to worry for now, he just seemed to be sleeping.

Pastor Jim stayed there until he woke up half an hour later. It turned out the boy's name was Harry, and he had an english accent, but he refused to tell them his last name, where he was from and who he lived with, just telling them that he had no idea how he had ended up there, but the last thing he remembered was falling from a tree after hiding there from the dog who had bitten him, and he absolutely didn't want to return to his relatives. None of his injuries were serious, so after Pastor Jim said he could stay with him for now, and he had talked with a police officer and someone from Child Services, he was allowed to leave the hospital.

Once he got back home, pastor Jim asked him if something like that had ever happened to him before, to which he answered that once when he was hiding from some bullies they hadn't noticed him even if they should have been able to see him, but nothing like that, he added that his aunt and uncle often said he was a freak. He called Bobby to hear if he had any idea of what had happened, and kept an eye on Harry, but had concluded that whatever had happened, Harry probably wasn't the one responsible for it.