AN. Just got my good friend to edit the chapter and fix some mistakes :) Will be posting more chapters this week once they get edited.

Disclaimer: I own no characters, original pots or anything.

Harry Potter woke up in his bed with a groan. He looked over at the clock and sighed; it was an hour until midnight, until he would be 17 and finally able to leave the hell he'd dealt with his entire life.

Chores were harsher today and the beatings were worse than usual. As he tried to sit up he jarred one of his broken ribs, he clenched his teeth to stifle a scream.

Luckily he had already sent Hedwig off to the Weasley twins. Ron and Hermione quit speaking to him the day he came out of the closet and he dreaded the rumors that inevitably come.

Soon after the Headmaster called him to his office after classes, he told him that he had asked Ms. Grainger about the painfully obvious fallout between the three of them and that she had told him everything. The Headmaster told him that he wanted to support him but at the same time he needed to protect the school and gay students had never been accepted there and he wasn't about to let one student ruin everything he had worked for all these years. The Headmaster then suggested that he should cozy up with Ginny, as it had been obvious for years that she had feelings for him, he could marry her and no one would ever have to know his secret and at the same time he could get his childhood friends back.

After that Harry told him that as much as he wanted to he couldn't change who he was and he didn't want to manipulate such a sweet girl just to protect the school or his own reputation.

When he was done talking to the Headmaster he felt like he imagined Voldimort must. Unwanted and ostracized by everyone around him.

The twins heard about everything through Ron and were quick to offer Harry their support.

Before they left they whispered that once he was of age there were a few things they had to tell him about. When Harry asked them what they meant they simply smiled and told him they couldn't say anything until he was officially of age.

Harry forced himself to stop thinking about everything for a while as he sat in his tiny room, he heard heavy footsteps stomping up the stairs and he quickly laid back down to pretend he was asleep.

The door flew open and Harry knew it was going to be a bad night. Sure enough he felt something that hot burn into his neck and jolted away from the bed. His uncle laughed at him and hit across his face with the fire poker.

"This is your last night freak. Tonight your dead." Vernon sneered.

Harry panicked wondering how he was going to escape.

The fire poker dug into his arm and he couldn't hold back the scream of pain. He tried to get away but Vernon grabbed his hair and threw him against the wall. The fire poker stabbed him again and again until it was cool and Vernon threw it aside to start kicking and punching him. Harry tried to get away but couldn't, he was scrambling to get as far away from his uncle as possible as the clock struck midnight and everything suddenly went black.

Severus Snape trudged through the forbidden forest trying to find some ingredients that he needed for a new poison he was making for the Dark Lord. Because they were highly illegal ingredients he couldn't buy any and knew they grew out here having seen them before. He stopped as he seen a burst of black and silver flames and heard an animal in pain. He curiously and cautiously walked over to where the noise and flames came from.

Soon enough he found what caused it and looked at the small frail body in shock. Laying there was a black phoenix with silver tips on the tail and wing feathers. He slowly walked up to it and picked it up gently noticing that it was damaged. He was curious how a phoenix got hurt like this and angry at whoever or whatever cause a pure creature this much pain.

He looked around to make sure no one was there and cast a notice-me-not spell to bring him inside the castle. Luckily the Headmaster was out that day and most of the staff was gone. But it was the portraits and ghosts he worried about the most. Most of them reported everything to the headmaster.

Getting down to his quarters quickly and saying the password he got the phoenix laying down on the table. Running a few diagnostic spells on it he noticed burns, cuts, bruises, broken bones, and a concussion. He quickly got curious because a phoenix should be able to burn it's self and be healthy again. He did a few quick charms to help the broken bones and cuts not sure if a phoenix could have the same potions as humans. Grabbing some salve to help with the burns, and bruises he quickly got to work patching the phoenix up.

When he was done he noticed he had been working for hours already. He decided that he could gather the ingredients the next day and conjured a small nest/bed and placed the phoenix in it.

Bringing it to his room and putting it on the end table he cast a charm to tell him when the phoenix woke up and began getting ready to bed.