This initially started as a non-magic AU where instead of Harry's magic being the reason for ostracization it was his being gay. Then it just turned into this whole... thing. I wrote it the other day after the idea wiggled into my head as I tried to fall asleep. I ended up writing for a few hours and what you read is what I wrote. I most likely won't add or fix or do anything else to this as I don't really like where it went.
(Also, I hope you forgive the whole fourth year/fifth year thing. I didn't realize what I did until afterwards and I couldn't be mussed to do anything about it. And really, I don't remember anything happening in fifth year that just sticks out that I wanted to put in here...)
I don't own Harry Potter. I do hope you enjoy this though.
Harry was a very unassuming boy. He lived with his Aunt and Uncle and cousin. He was small and scrawny and had glasses held together with a bunch of tape from all the times his cousin, Dudley, had punched him in the nose. He wore the same Dudley's hand-me-downs that were about four times bigger than him.
He didn't have anything cool going on for him, like magic or superpowers, but the one thing that set him apart from the rest of his family, was the fact that Harry was gay. No, not happy-gay, Harry would often think to himself. He was homosexual-gay. The worst kind, his Uncle thought.
Harry often thought about why he had to live with his Aunt and Uncle and cousin if they hated him so much, but them he would remember that oh yeah, his parents had died in a car accident when he was just one year old and being the only living relatives, the Dursleys had been made to take him in.
Now, don't be thinking that being gay defined everything about Harry. No. He was also a very good student. (When Dudley and his gang weren't Harry Hunting and running him up buildings or dying their teacher's wig and blaming him, that is.) He loved to learn and discover just as much as the next student, though probably a bit more than them since everyone at the Surrey Primary was rather dull and uninterested in history or math.
Despite the good grades and attempts at good behaviour, Uncle Vernon, a large, beefy man with a thick mustache and almost no neck, just was never happy with Harry. And it all stemmed down to his freakishness.
It's not like Harry woke up one morning and asked to be the one thing that his Uncle Vernon despised the most. If that was what had happened, Harry would definitely have changed his mind by now. But, such as life goes, Harry had accepted that he was just born that way and was destined to pine after boys while his Uncle tried to squash the freakishness out of him.
And that was accomplished through church attendance three times a week, every week, on top of as many chores as Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia could come up with to keep him occupied and not thinking about certain someones, and no contact with another boy his age, sans Dudley who just downright hated his guts.
But it didn't stop there. Harry wasn't allowed to read anything that wasn't approved by Uncle Vernon, so he was stuck with boring old back issues of hunting magazines and Sports Illustrated, which Harry just found disturbing and distasteful. (He often wondered why prim and proper Mrs. Petunia Dursley allowed her husband to own such magazines with scantily clad women, even if they were disguised as sports fans.) The telly, if he had time between chores and church and schoolwork, was never without a man hunting deer or turkey or whatever-it-was was "in season".
Of course, Harry wasn't one of those "fairy" boys that Uncle Vernon liked to compare him to. Harry didn't care about fashion or clothes or anything like that, he just didn't like girls. He liked to play in the dirt and kick a soccer ball as far as he could and watch horror movies to scare the pants off himself.
But Uncle Vernon was convinced that Harry was going to turn his precious Dudley into a "limp wristed, lispy, girly-man". Well, Harry thought, he didn't have to worry about that. Dudley was going to turn out exactly the opposite with a beefy fist, a grunty, pig-voice, and enough 'tough guy'/bully to go around the whole neighborhood. (But then, Dudley loved to throw tantrums like a baby, so maybe he would become one of those creepy Man-Childs.)
Then one day, the unthinkable happened. Just as the church was becoming eye-bleeding-unbearable, a giant, bearded man came to the Dursley's home, telling them about a place reserved in a private school just for Harry. "He's been on the list since he's been born. His parents had him signed up and all his expenses pre-paid as soon as they was expecting."
Harry couldn't believe it. A private school. With a place just for him. And no Dudley or Uncle Vernon or church to bother him. His parents had even gone to it!
Uncle Vernon had not liked the idea at first, but after a very persuading (and mighty intimidating, Harry thought) argument, Mr. Hagrid had gotten Uncle Vernon to sign the paper allowing Harry to leave for his first year at Hogwarts Boarding School in Scotland.
It was so different there. There were no obtrusive cousins, no overbearing uncles or snappy aunts. There were students his age who actually liked learning what the teachers had to offer. He even met his very first friend on the train ride from King's Cross all the way to northern Scotland! Now he and Ron Weasley were inseparable. Then there was Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom and everyone else in their year!
In his second year, Harry told Ron and Hermione his secret. He told them why he didn't really talk much about home and why he had been that much more excited about school than everyone else. Ron had laughed and called him a ponce while playfully punching him, while Hermione sprouted off statistics and other things. Harry just smiled and laughed.
Harry met his godfather his third year. Apparently, Sirius Black had been in prison under false charges for the past twelve years. In between his sobbing and back-breaking hugs, Harry had managed to catch something about an old friend framing him for murder. It was then they found out their Literature teacher, Mr. Lupin, was Sirius's lover. That was probably the biggest shocker Harry had ever had in his life. For as long as he could remember, Uncle Vernon had hated him for liking other boys, while just next-door, his own godfather was gay as well.
After asking, Sirius had confirmed that yes, James and Lily had known about him and Remus, and yes, they had had no problem with it. In fact, they would have supported Harry with his own decision, had they been there.
Harry moved out of the Dursley's after his third year. While he was still in school, Sirius had opted for guardianship of Harry, as what was supposed to have happened had he not been sent to prison. For all of Uncle Vernon's hatred toward him, he was very reluctant to give up Harry. (Sirius later told him it was because of the inheritance Harry had never been told about. That made Harry feel a bit cold inside.)
He moved in with Sirius and Mr. Lupin – who insisted he call Remus - during the summer and the three mock-family were very happy together. Harry was able to see Ron and Hermione during the holiday and he never once had to go to church.
During his fourth year, Harry met Cedric. Cedric was a year above him and Ron and Hermione, but he was very nice and very kind and very handsome. That was also the year the school was hosting a competition between two sister schools. Hermione met Viktor Krum and Ron met jealousy for the first time.
Fourth year was a very happy time. After soccer practices, Harry and Cedric would sit out on the field and talk and laugh and be silent together. Once, Cedric had even kissed Harry on the lips, bypassing his cheek for the very first time. Hermione and Viktor would do the same, though Harry suspected something was odd about them. Ron brooded a lot that year.
At the final competition, the four contestants, Viktor, Fleur, Cedric, and Harry, were to run a maze in a park not very far from the school. The first person to make it out was the victor.
The maze was windy and had endless turns. There had been a man. He had been lurking in the very middle of the maze. No one really knows why, because he had turned the gun he had on himself afterwards, but he had known about the competition and had waited.
Cedric died that day. He and Harry had been helping each other through the maze, coming to an agreement that if they were able to, they would cross the finish line together for first place. Cedric hadn't done anything heroic or stupid. He was just the first person the man had seen.
Harry dragged his body from the maze, crying and screaming for help. Cedric's father and the principal were on him at once, ushering him away to take care of Cedric. Sirius and Remus held Harry as he cried and told them about the man.
Cedric's funeral was huge. Most everyone from the three schools had attended a service and then a small, more personal viewing was received.
That summer was quiet, except for Harry's nightmares.
Fifth year, with their fifth new Literature teacher (one for each year – the subject was supposedly cursed), bared no better. Mr. Moody, who everyone called Mad-Eye because of his lazy eye, was not really teacher-worthy. He drank out of a flask that fooled no-one, and he often scared the students out of their wits with his weird murmurings. But what drew the line was when he had cornered Harry in the empty classroom.
He'd been offering extra-credit to the class for a few weeks and no-one had really been brave enough to actually want to spend extra time with their crazy teacher even if they really needed those few extra points. Finally, Harry decided to give the man a break and try his project, just so the man wouldn't feel bad.
There had been no project or extra credit. He'd just been waiting to get one of the students on their own with the perfect ruse. Later that day, Harry thanked whoever had invented cameras, for the ones placed in the classroom. Mr. Moody had acted very convincingly at first. He'd gotten Harry to drop his defenses and just when the timing was right, he'd got him pinned over the desk, completely helpless.
Harry had screamed as loud as he could, hoping for maybe the teacher next-door or someone walking down the hall to notice and come help him. The security personnel were the ones who came to his rescue. They had been reviewing the live-feed and found the two, Harry flailing and Mr. Moody struggling to keep him down, and rushed to the classroom, while alerting the other staff.
Mr. Moody was immediately removed and arrested and Harry went home that summer, jumping at every clink of glasses or scrit-scrat of nails from Sirius's new dog, Padfoot.
Sixth year, Harry met Mr. Snape, the honors science teacher. He'd known his mother and father from school, and didn't very much like Harry. He found out through letters from Remus, that Severus Snape had been in love with his mum during school. They'd grown up together and he'd harbored a crush on her since childhood. Harry didn't really understand how such a greasy guy like him could ever love someone who wasn't embalmed.
Mr. Snape was a very harsh teacher, but he was probably one of the most competent. He didn't take late work, didn't offer extra credit, and never praised a sole. To be honest, Harry didn't much return his apparent dislike to his teacher. He liked the way he taught. It was similar to the way he loved to learn. It was passionate.
It was at the end of the year that Harry learned that he and Mr. Snape weren't all that different. After visiting with the science teacher, who never seemed very interested in their talks, confessed that he had a not-so comfortable childhood. He explained to Harry that just because someone dislikes the way you are, doesn't mean you have to change. "Remus has told me about your uncle," he'd said. "My father was a very… distasteful man as well. But I learned not to take what he said to heart and I followed your mother to this school and here we grew up, though I admit that I have made very grave mistakes in my life."
Mr. Snape had lost his mother's friendship after a fight with his father. He'd called his mum a few choice words he didn't deem appropriate to repeat and they'd never patched things up before she passed. Mr. Snape resented his actions to the very core, but he'd let his anger with himself spill out and he blamed it on Harry's father, thus creating his earlier prejudice of Harry.
Sixth year, Harry learned that even the meanest, nastiest, hook-noséd of science teachers could give insight and darn good advice to life. He also learned to never go to bed angry or without fixing any wrongs.
During the summer, Harry and Ron spent a lot of time together. Ron's older brothers, Fred and George (twins), had graduated and were moving off to what they told their mother was university, but what was actually a shop they had bought and were now running. Hermione spent her summer with Ron's little sister, Ginny, and with her parents in Majorca and France. Sirius and Remus (and Padfoot) took Harry to the beach and other personable places, to spend more time as a family to make up lost time.
In Harry's Seventh and final year, Mr. Snape had become principal after old Mr. Dumbledore had passed away at the end of the last year. There was a gun shooting. No-one had expected it.
A man, many men, had entered the school and just began shooting and shooting, firing rounds of ammunition in every direction. The teachers had acted admirably that day. Unfortunately, not everyone was safe that day. A girl, Lavender, who had been crushing rather hard after Ron for the past two years, was shot in the head and died instantly. A fellow seventh year, Dora, was shot three times in the back – she'd survived, but was paralyzed from the waist-down. The biggest loss was probably Mr. Snape. He died after taking several bullets meant for other students as he attempted to ward off the gunmen from a classroom full of students and several teachers.
School had been cancelled for the rest of the year as they tried to rebuild with better security and grieved for their losses.
The sevenths years were given a choice to return for an eighth year, free-of-charge to finish their interrupted schooling. Not everyone accepted, but Harry had. He liked to remember that year as being dedicated to Mr. Snape, personally.