A/n: Second chapter! Thank you for the reviews and, to those who read this already, as you can see I made a few changes. Enjoy~
Ps: Forgive me for any mistakes towards the characters and the places and stuff, I'll do my research but I'm not a super fan of either.
Warnings: Child neglect.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Harry Potter or Batman.
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"You can share in my joy, but I don't want to share my misery. No, I want to give away my misery. Go ahead, take it all." ― Jarod Kintz, 99 Cents For Some Nonsense.
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Chapter Two
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Alfred stared at the rather gloomy building in front of him. That was the only word that he found that quite fit it without using words such as demented because if he had to be honest with himself he expected the moment he stepped beyond the cracking double wooden doors ghosts and ghouls would attack him.
The exterior of the building was in simple terms, rotting. The boards that he could only imagine that were blue or maybe even white in past were now grey had holes that the ants and termites ate through. He could see even from where he stood that the rain also played a great number of deals to the structure seeing as a side of the roof was caving in.
The baby blue eyes of the butler looked up at the sign which still miraculously held up.
"Wool's Orphanage for the Unwanted Children" he grimaced.
Merciful god, even the name was depressing! Perhaps he might just encounter a few stray spirits in the place that looked more like a morgue than a home for children.
His gloved hand knocked at the door that had begun to gather frostbite and he wondered about the condition of the children inside.
The door groaned under his knuckle and the man hoped that it wouldn't collapse. He was under no delusion that the people, or most likely the children were suffering inside, no need to kill them with the lack of a door. He waited a few moments and soon enough a long deep sound that sounded almost like a moan followed after the clicking of a bolt.
A woman who seemed as ancient as the dwelling stared up at him with eyes as cold as the current season. "Yes?" she hissed.
Alfred blinked once before clearing his throat.
"Good-day Madame, I received information that a young boy of the name Harry Evans resides in this establishment. Am I correct or perhaps I am mistaken?" dear god let him be mistaken...
The woman stood a bit straighter though it was hardly an improvement due to the hump of what used to be a back. Her wisps of stark white hair blew about her face that seemed to be etched in the stone he stood upon.
"Why would you want such a thing?" the disgust was palpable.
"With all due respect Madame, no child should be called a 'thing'" he responded back like the good Englishman he was raised to be.
The woman sneered, a nasty sight that was portrayed with yellow teeth that were few to begin with and stepped back a clear and unwilling invitation for him to follow.
"There're all things. Such nasty things who cry too much, who want too much. Greedy 'ittle bastards that mummy and daddy didn't want! Nasty nasty little things! Whores birthed 'em, Bastards sired 'em, and given to me!"
Alfred bit his tongue and ignored the woman. While he was trained to ignore certain situations, to ignore people and ignorant comments, the things she was saying dug deep under his perfected poker face. Stepping inside he had expected gloom and utter doom but -
"My God..." he ignored the chilling look the old woman sent him at his outburst. No one would blame him and he wasn't in the least sorry because if he hadn't a glimmer of dignity he would fall to his knees and pray there and now.
Rats.
His eyes grew large when a particularly large one walked. Not scurried in fear of humans but walked like a common house cat that was familiar with its masters. He looked up and saw several others hanging on the spiraling railing of the stairs either simply lazing around or staring at him.
"Hurry up!" he looked away from the beady eyed rodents and to the hunched over woman who was standing on the other side of the room.
Without hesitation he followed with a shiver of repulsion that lingered. His black polished shoes slowly but surely were consumed in dust the farther he followed her into the building. In the back of his mind he wondered if he was going to be murdered. Wrinkling his nose, it bloody well smelt as if something had been dead and on it's way to decomposing.
"Madame… what is that smell?" The woman turned and gave him a smile though her eyes were nasty glint.
"Why don't you go and see hmm Mr. Money and maybe you could buy a new roof or I know! Take away this damnable dirty rats from my care! All of 'em! All of 'em! Each dirty, each nasty, sniveling little greedy things! But ho ho! You only want that tiny freak, the one 'hat thinks he's better than the rest. Thrown away by them you see, Rats all of 'em!"
His brows furrowed and he pursed his lips, refraining from telling the woman what exactly was on his mind and the tip of his tongue, instead following her silently, even though he glared a hole in her hunched back.
Looking up he saw flakes of snow drifting from the large hole in the roof above and his eyebrows furrowed even deeper when he heard the distinctive hacking cough and loud sneeze of a child. They couldn't possibly be in such conditions could they?
A withered and skinny hand pushed open the lone door in the area drawing another sorrowful and eerie moan as it opened. It was then and there that Alfred's heart broke. No words could be spoken- all he could do was stare with his mouth slightly agape.
No less than thirty children were all bundled together in a heap of blankets that looked thin enough they could be paper and he knew that moths had them as regular meals. The room was bare save for a crumbling fireplace that barely sustained a pathetic fire.
Sniffles and hacking coughs that shook their clearly malnourished frames were heard every few moments and by the looks of it, more than a few of the children had fevers, their faces red with colour that could only come from sickness and not internal body temperature. With a heavy heart he knew that many of them may not last until spring came.
He looked down to the creaky boards that were littered with the white fluff that children back in Gotham ran and begged parents to play in, here the children only wanted it to disappear. A rather violent cough snapped him back to reality and he looked up to see a boy of what he estimated to be fifteen shaking in the aftermath and with no effort spat a gob of yellow mucus and saliva just a foot away from the pile.
"Do you see any you would like to buy?" came the dry voice of the keeper who he sent a glare of his own too.
She snorted and faced the children who had yet to notice them. "Evans!" Alfred jumped along with the children at the shrill voice. If he was to be dramatic he would say that it reminded him of nails on a chalkboard.
He watched and waited but none of the children responded to the name. The young butler barely refrained from repeating it again but couldn't stop the flinch when the old matron called out again.
His blue eyes scanned the crowd of children to see which responded this time. "Where is Evans!" she asked or rather screamed in a voice that no one would believe she had in the small hunched frame of hers. "Where is that smart little rat!? Get out here boy, stop wasting my time! 'ere wants ye!"
"H-he's over 'ere M-m-ma'am" he located the soft and stuttering voice be it from the cold or a natural fear of the woman to a small red haired girl that was near in the center of the mass of bodies. A hand that matched her body perfectly from the sickly thin hands, to the sunken face and almost hollowed brown eyes pointed away from the large bundle of children that sought each other for warmth, even though their bodies didn't have the fatty mass to even produce any semblance of it. Alfred followed the hand to the corner of the room where from the distance he could see bony legs poke out from the end of a short ratted blanket. The small figure was alone, curled in on itself.
Alfred strode across the room in long steps, his heart increasing in speed the closer he got to the body.
It was un-moving and that bothered Alfred greatly enough to have his heart hammering in his ears.
He knelt down and pulled the blanket back and once again a gasp was torn from him. His heart ached. Ached worse than it had when he was informed that his master, the man who he had grown fond of not only as a boss but as a cherished friend was killed along with his wife. It ached worse than when he held onto a wailing eight year old Bruce at the police station. Ached more than when he watched the two coffins being lowered into the earth. More than when he stood by and watched as his young master fell into a spiral of depression.
Without another moment's hesitation he ripped off his trench coat and jacket and soon had the ting figure bundled up into the warm material. "Child!" he tapped against the cheek and flinched at the subzero temperature. The boy in his arms was so chilled that he had stopped shivering drawing more concern from Alfred. "Harry!" he tried again as he began the task of creating friction between the boy and the two coats.
He placed his head to the bony chest just to make sure the poor soul was still alive, it took a moment before he heard a fluttering heartbeat. He rubbed harder mindful still of the boy's obvious fragility but he could deal with red skin after he placed some heat within his body.
Behind him the matron snorted and gave the children around her one last look of disdain before she hobbled back through the door.
"Make sure to close the door behind you! Every time it's opened more come in. More mouths, more clothes, more rats!" she sneered to Alfred who jumped at the sound of her voice. His blue eyes gazed down intently on the pale colored child in his arms.
"Harry my boy, open up your eyes" he whispered to the child. What good was it trying to warm him if he didn't have the will to wake up? As if someone heard him the boy being gave a pitiful whimper and seemed to fold in on himself.
"Harry?" he called the boy's name, his heart sang when he saw movement beneath the blue tinted eyelids. That was good enough for him.
Alfred hoisted the child up into his arms and hugged the teeth chattering child as close as possible and as if he really saw the ghouls and ghost he thought he would see he quickly as the icy floor would permit, exited the crumbling building and into the car that awaited him outside of the building.
"To the nearest hospital. Now!" he barked when the chap at the wheel only stared at him through the window. Every second they wasted the boy in his arms could lose the chance at life. He wouldn't entertain his hopes of the child surviving only with his hands as the source of supplying heat. No the boy need proper care that he couldn't provide with an overcoat and a winter trench.
The young man at the wheel stuttered out a response that Alfred neither cared to hear or wanted to hear, what mattered was that the car was moving towards the hospital and that the boy would at least have a chance.
-:-BH-:-
It was a trying month for Alfred, after taking Harry from that place he was simply to say devastated at the information the doctor had given him.
Harry on the other hand wouldn't even look him straight in the eye, his gaze almost aimed at the ground or at his chest, he wouldn't allow any physical contact, and even the doctors and nurses found the constant flinching and weak struggles to be difficult. So it was for the best when they decided to put him into an induced coma, not a heavy one, just enough for them to be able to administer certain medicines. When he was awake however he would not talk, only giving slight nods, but never words.
Blue eyes snapped open when he felt someone nudge him or more likely, he felt the sheets he was leaning on move. Blue clashed with green and there they stayed, staring at each other until the owner of the green looked away quickly. It was only a few days that he had been taken out of the chemical coma, and every time he woke, Alfred would introduce himself and ask the question he desperately wanted an answer to.
Alfred silently chided himself from causing the child discomfort already. Time to start anew then. The butler straightened in his seat and smiled down at the owlishly blinking boy who for the entire world seemed to be swallowed by the sheets around his tiny form.
"Hullo there, my name is Alfred Pennyworth and I have been told that your name is Harry" he smiled wider when he received a slight nod from the mop of coal black hair. Green eyes stared up at him from under dark hair before he looked away once more.
Alfred smiled softly at the child. He would get better one day, he knew this with certainty.
"Harry my dear boy… how would you like to go and live with me and my charge in Gotham City?"
-:-BH-:-
A/n: Hope you enjoyed the chapter that introduces reincarnated Harry. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review~