May, 1985. Harry is five years old.
"What do you think about those Dursleys?" Adelina asked her husband, her words lilting with a slight accent. She looked at Luca lovingly but questioningly.
Luca smiled, his eyes lighting up at the prospect of what his wife was suggesting. "Disgusting, absolutely disgusting," He started, "What do you think, draga mea?"
"I have to say that I," Adelina started, pausing for a moment to move the blinds of her window out of the way so she could look over at Number 4, Privet Drive before continuing, "Come here, Luca."
Luca furrowed his eyebrows as he looked over at his wife, who had confusion written on her face. Very rarely was she ever surprised by anything, much less something on a plain suburb street. "What is it, my love?"
She spoke more forcefully this time, "Come here, Luca. This is... an interesting development, to say the least."
Luca moved quickly, not wanting to miss whatever his wife was looking at. He raised the blinds out of his view to see what his wife was looking at and gave a sharp intake of breath. "Is that...?"
"I'm not sure, definitely peculiar to say the least. I would imagine we would have noticed this sooner..." Adelina's voice trailed off as she looked over at the subject of her interest.
Adelina jumped a little bit as her husband's sudden movements jerked a chair over and sent it toppling onto the ground with a loud bang. Her eyes darted towards Luca and asked, "What's gotten into you?"
"Do you not smell it?" Luca growled out, looking as if he was struggling immensely with something. Adelina's eyes narrowed as she stood up, prepared to stop her husband at all costs.
She scowled harshly, "Of course I smell it! I know you want revenge but you can't lash out like this! We need to get a better look before we do anything else, ok?"
His breathing began shaking as he attempted to calm himself down. "Let's go then, right now."
Adelina nodded sharply, following her husband as he darted out of the house at an inhuman speed and ran down the street, following the subject of their interest, a young wizard by the name of Harry James Potter.
"Don't come back until tomorrow," His Aunt Petunia scolded him. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away until tomorrow morning."
Harry Potter stood in front of his aunt, surprisingly calm considering he had just been slapped, staring unflinchingly at her. He turned on his heel and stormed out, ignoring the muttering of 'freak' before the loud bang of the door slamming behind him.
To any other neighbour at Privet Drive, Harry Potter was a sort of mystery. They knew little to nothing about him other than the fact that he had the most hauntingly stunning green eyes and that he was supposedly a very troubled child. They also knew that he wasn't truly the Dursley's child and that his parents had died in a drunk driving accident that he had survived, leaving him with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead from some shrapnel and some amount of trauma that affected the boy's behaviour and actions. Despite being told this, none of them had truly noticed anything wrong with the boy's behaviour. In fact, the young boy seemed to have a way with his peers and managed to have many friends amongst his age group.
As Harry walked down the street, he couldn't help but wonder what he was going to do for the night. He didn't know whether to go to a friend's house or to just go to a park and camp out. He wandered down the street aimlessly before arriving at a park and sitting down on a swingset before sighing and bringing his hand to his face. He flinched as he felt the tender skin on his cheek and knew there had to be a mark from it.
Suddenly, he heard a stick snap and his head turned to look to see what had made the noise. A man and woman were standing there, looking at him.
"Hello?" Harry asked quietly, unnerved at how he didn't notice them until then.
The man was tall and pale with dark hair that was cropped above his hears. He looked very strong and looked very imposing. Harry was immediately intimidated. The woman was small and petite, but also looked athletic. She had long black hair that went down to about her mid-back. The most unnerving thing about them was that they seemed as if they had glowing red eyes.
"What's a boy like you doing out here at a time like this?" The woman asked with a slight accent. She walked over to him slowly but the man stayed in the same position.
"Um, my aunt was mad at me so she told me to go somewhere else for the night," Harry explained, looking uneasily at the two adults.
The woman grimaced as she sat next to him. "What's your name?"
Harry was starting to get the unnerving feeling of raw terror as he continued to talk to these strangers. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I really should go home..."
She shot up and started speaking urgently, "No! You- you can't go. Just, stay here and talk to us."
Harry started to breathe faster and faster as he stood up slowly and began to walk away, not turning his back on the strange people. "Please, just, let me go home."
The woman looked worried as her eyes went from Harry to the man, but didn't speak soon enough. The man grinned and said in a dark voice, "Why won't you talk to us? We're not going to do anything to you that your aunt and uncle haven't already done."
Harry gasped and said, "What?! What do you mean?"
The man started walking towards him slowly, scaring Harry, even more, every step he took. "I know about how your Aunt has slapped you, how your Uncle has beaten you, or even, how he touches you in places you don't want to be touched."
Harry's breathing picks up even more as he turns on his heel and starts sprinting, but within seconds, he finds himself in the man's grasp, holding onto him tightly as he turns him around.
Harry is as stiff as a board as he feels the long slender fingers digging into his shoulders and fear grips his heart as the man's red eyes stare into his soul.
To Harry, it feels like an eternity in between seconds as the man looks at him but when he strikes, it happens quickly, faster than anything he's ever seen before, as his teeth sink into his neck.
It feels as if liquid fire is running through his veins and it is the worst pain he has ever felt in his very short life. Harry screams out of instinct but after a second, finds himself incapable of making any noise. He feels himself becoming more and more faint as the seconds go by, and he watches as the woman comes up next to him and says quietly, "Luca, was this really necessary?"
When the man finally pulls his teeth out of the child's neck, he licks his lips and said, "More worth it than I expected it to be. That was the best blood I've tasted in centuries."
And then, Harry lost consciousness.
When Harry woke up, he found himself in the middle of a forest on the cold hard ground. He got up and looked around, and found that he was nearby the park where he last was. He looked down and saw that he was covered in blood.
Fear struck him as a million questions popped into his head. What happened? Whose blood is this? He instantly began running towards Privet Drive, it was early enough in the morning that nobody would be outside and none of the Dursleys would be awake.
When he arrived at the house, he first tried to open the front door and found it locked, so he went around to the back door and tried that door too. Locked. He sighed and steeled himself as he went back to the front and knocked on the door.
He didn't know how he heard it but he could hear his uncle mutter, "What the bloody hell is someone doing here at this ungodly hour?"
The door opened and there, in front of the bloodied boy, was his Uncle Vernon in a bathrobe. His uncle's face immediately got red as he pulled the boy inside, slammed the door shut, and demanded, "Where have you been, boy?!"
Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and answered, "I left, like Aunt Petunia told me too. She told me not to come back until this morning."
Vernon's eyebrows raised as he turned to his wife who was halfway down the stairs. "It's been a bloody week! Where have you been?"
"A week?" Harry trailed off, totally confused. The moments of confusion gave Vernon enough time to notice the blood that was splattered all over his clothes and skin.
Petunia seemed to have noticed at the same time as well and all but screeched, "Where did all that blood come from!?"
Harry gasped, he had forgotten about the blood in the spur of the moment. "I don't know... I just woke up in the woods after those people..."
"What people!?" Vernon yelled, becoming angrier as more of his questions were being left unanswered.
"These people... I was in the park and these people came up to me-" Harry was cut off from his story by Petunia, who was now full-blown screeching.
"More of those freaks! Just like my sister! Just like you! More and more bloody (literally) freaks! Vernon, we're taking him to the orphanage. Today! This boy's freakishness has got to stop!" Petunia ranted, making it seem as if she had said all of that in a matter of seconds.
Vernon nodded, still incredibly confused, but complied with his wife's demands. "Boy," Vernon started. "Take a bath and get all of that filth off of you and pack up your stuff by 8. That's when we'll leave."
Harry gasped at the sudden changes in his relative's actions but set to work. Any place was better than his aunt and uncle's, right?
He grabbed a different set of clothes and went into the bathroom, before stripping and starting the shower. He looked in the mirror and was completely surprised at his appearance. The last time he had seen his reflection, he had been very tan, but now, he was as pale as a sheet! His eyes had changed as well, from their stunning green to a now deep red, just like the people he had seen before.
He knew of stories of mythical creatures so he knew what vampires were, but were they really real? Was he one now? He pushed the thoughts aside and stepped into the shower, sighing as the hot water washed over him and the relief that reached him was immediate.
20 minutes later, Harry left the bathroom, and it only took him a minute to retrieve his things as he didn't have very many belongings. He loaded everything into the car, and he waited for his aunt and uncle to drive him away from Privet Drive for hopefully, the last time ever.
Thanks so much for reading! Today I've started this story and another one called the Twins-Who-Lived, so if you want to check that one out too, that would be great! I'd also like to know which one you think is better so I know which one I should put more effort into!
Please like and comment/review and thanks again for reading!