A reviewer with replies disabled (unintelligible frustrated grumbling) asked a very good question. "Why is this listed as a romance story?"

The simple answer is that I intend for it to be so, starting around second year. I've a good idea for at least the main pairing, but I also kinda want to make it a harry/multi fic, but only if I can build the relationships up believably. Lemme know what you think regarding pairings in reviews.

Anyway, I wasn't sure what I should list the fic as, so I figured I'd futureproof it. I thought about labeling it 'horror' but it's more graphic than horrific from here on out, but I'm not an expert on it. Decided that 'hurt/comfort' was a good first genre, considering some of what I have planned, and how this chapter turned out. If anyone has any suggestions regarding what I should list the fic as now, or as the story progresses, feel free to let me know. Hell, any feedback is great.


Pre Hogwarts chapter time.


Gobbets of flesh and shards of bone skittered across the floor, as blood flowed alongside them, coalescing back whence they came. Organs knit back together. Entrails reorganized themselves. Bones cracked as they realigned and became whole. Cranium re-inflated as skull patched itself back together and sucked up its prior contents. After a moment, the hand twitched and mouth groaned. Leaning up, the boy rested the hand upon his head. With a sharp tilt, his neck cracked as he made sure the vertebrae had aligned themselves properly when they'd reformed.

"Well," Harry muttered as he glanced toward where the troll had left, likely chasing after the students who'd already ran. "That could've gone better."


It was only a few days later that the Dursleys returned from holiday. Harry had made good use of the time- showering, cleaning the house, organizing his few things, eating… He'd tried to make his magic work on command again, but after that first day it didn't seem to work. He suspected it might've had something to do with that not-dream and his… death. Still hard to think about, but if he'd had his power taken away, maybe it'd gotten bunched up while it was gone, and he just had a lot more than usual right after he'd gotten it back? It made the most sense to him.

"Uncle Vernon!" He yelled, as the man stepped through the door with an armful of luggage.

He knew he'd never be able to make it look like he'd still been locked in his cupboard. Not when he couldn't make his magic work to pop it back on while he was inside. The best he could do was to try and make it look like a good thing that he'd gotten out.

The man's reddening face was worrying, though. "I cleaned the house! Kept everything neat and tidy. No dust at all!" Harry said, his face smiling but his eyes pleading.

"Why aren't you in your cupboard?" The man rumbled.

The boy's smile faltered. "The… the lock fell off. I don't know how." He lied.

Suitcases were hastily set aside as Vernon strode forward. "Just more of your freakishness, then." He grabbed Harry by the arm to drag him along, too. "I triple-checked that lock before we left. Had to be!" When they'd made it to the cupboard, the door was opened and Harry flung inside. "So stay there, since you couldn't do as you're told!"

Harry bit back a whimper of pain as the door was slammed and the lock set again. That'd been rather more forceful than he'd expected. With a hiss, he checked his arm. He couldn't move his fingers, and the shoulder and arm hurt terribly. It had to be broken.

He couldn't stop the small cry as the arm twitched outside his control, the bones realigning inside his flesh. A moment later the arm jerked as it resocketed itself into his dislocated shoulder.

It hadn't hurt as much as the breaking, but it was still incredibly unpleasant. With a tentative clench of his formerly unresponsive hand, he began examining the arm. It seemed perfectly fine. Holding it up, he looked at it in the dim light from the gap between door and frame. Was this what Death meant? Would this… would his body still fix itself even if he died?


Several days later, his Aunt finally unlocked the door. Apparently he'd missed Christmas- not that he got to celebrate it anyway- and he was to clean the house again before a small party for new year's with the neighbors. Likely so they could gloat over their trip, Harry surmised. Still, it was good to be free of his cupboard again, even if he might be stuck there for the party itself.

He didn't fret too badly. It wasn't long now before classes started again, and they couldn't keep him locked up if he was to be heading to school.

Whenever he was sure the Dursleys weren't watching, he tried to make his power work again. He had to have some way to defend himself if anyone found out he couldn't stay hurt… they'd just keep hurting him, then. Uncle Vernon was usually careful not to leave marks where they wouldn't show, but now the marks wouldn't stay. It was frustratingly slow, and only the proof that came with his inability to die kept him going. He had the power. He knew it, he just had to figure out how to make it work again.


Classes were boring. He was never allowed to do better than Dudley anyway, so why bother trying? What he really wanted to know about was magic. Whenever he got the chance, he'd go to the school library and sit with the matronly librarian, either digesting more fantasy books, or asking her suggestions for additional reading material.

He was quick to let her know that the reason he never checked anything out was because his relatives hated anything magic related, even just fictional stories, and thought his interest made him some kind of tiny cultist or something.

After watching the boy for months as he struggled to bring his reading level up to read works of increasing complexity, she chose to help nurture his love of learning as well as she could- this was a school after all- and would make trips to the city libraries to request some of their titles for the boy. Until returned, she kept them safe in the library under the auspice of reference works- essentially meaning that you could ask to see them, but only if you knew they were available.

The year continued as such. Chores, boredom and belittlement sprinkled through with forays into bring and shining worlds, dark forests and darker towers, of princesses and dragons, and best of all- magic.

Though he couldn't learn spells from the books- if it were that easy, someone else would've done it by now- the ideas therein did give him new ways to think about the problem. New avenues through which to approach it. He started learning basic meditation, and tried to pass some of the boredom in class and locked away, even during the tedium of chores, to focus on other problems.

The day he made one of the pebbles he practiced on float was one of the happiest of his young life.


"Boy, go get the post!" His uncle shouted.

Harry nodded, mumbled an acquiescence, and once out of sight, began grumbling about how he couldn't wait to be shot of them. Just seven more years…

He went, got the mail, and in his boredom as he walked back to the house, began to shuffle through it. Usually nothing interesting in there, just bills or adverts, the occasional holiday card or letter from some distant relation he'd never met.

He froze when he saw one of the letters was addressed to him.

Did anyone even know he lived there? Obviously they did… it was addressed to his fucking cupboard. That… couldn't be right. It had to be some sort of prank or joke, or…

He shook away the thoughts, headed back to the door, made sure he was out of sight of the windows, and tucked the letter into the belt-tightened band of his baggy pants.

"What took so long?" The man asked, once he was back inside.

Harry set the pile, sans his letter, beside the man's breakfast plate. "Had to stop to wave at Ms Figg, keep up good impressions." He half-muttered. The man scoffed, and went back to his food.

So far, he was good…


It wasn't until later, after his Aunt finally stopped hounding him around the garden and found something better to do with her time, that he got the chance to open the letter. He could've done so in his cupboard, but it didn't have enough light to read by.

After quickly scanning the contents, boggling, scanning them more seriously, and honestly considering if this might be some elaborate prank, he decided to sink into the dirt in despair.

I don't have a bloody owl! Who the hell has a bloody owl!?

He sniffed for a bit, wiped some of the grime from his face, and steeled himself. This just meant plan A was still in effect. Keep his powers and secrets safe long enough to be shot of the Dursleys, then go find something, anything, he could use as an edge against the enemy he knew must be coming.


A week later, a loud knock rang out from the door.

Grumbling, Vernon got up from his seat, stowed his newspaper, and walked to the door. "Whatever you're selling, we're not-" He stopped as he got a look at the massive man in front of his door.

"Hullo." greeted the jovial mass of beard and coat. "You must be Mr Dursley. I'm here to see Harry, if ya don't mind."

The smaller man's face began to redden. "Of course I mind! Your lot has no business here, so off with you!" He tried to shut the door, but a massive hand stopped it.

"No business?" He asked, incredulously. "Of course we have business! That's Harry Potter you've got, and I'm to see if he wants to go to Hogwarts!"

Straining to shut the door, not seeming to budge the man's arm much at all, Vernon began shouting. "We'll have none of your freakishness here! We took the boy in, kept him safe, on the condition your lot stay away!"

The half-giant reared back as if struck. He took in a deep breath to begin a bellow of his own, when a tiny voice spoke out.

"You knew?"

Vernon turned, and the glare on the boy was enough to shake him for a moment. "Back to your room, boy."

The absurdity of trying to keep up appearances at a time like this almost made him laugh. When he'd come to see what all the shouting was about, he'd no idea it actually involved him. But now? "You knew, and never told me? What else have you been keeping from me? What else could you possibly do to me!?" Harry was frantic, now. His breathing heavy, his head dizzy as the world spun, he felt almost as if he were going to throw up.

"Do as you're told, boy!" Vernon roared.

With a sweeping push of his arms, Harry roared right back. The force of his magic barreled into the fat man, knocking him through the door and into the half-giant behind him. Both of them kept going until Vernon landed on the sidewalk, and Hagrid bounced and rolled almost across the street.

He stormed out, taking a moment to observe his groaning uncle lying in the shattered bits of what was once a door. Well that was just great. There was no way he'd be able to stay now. The lashing he'd get from this would last the whole day at least, and even Vernon would notice his wounds fixing themselves by then. A quick glance at the larger man showed he was curled up, nursing a bruised head.

And there went his ticket to magic, again. No doubt the man wouldn't help him, now that Harry had hurt him along with his Uncle. Just like they'd always told the neighbors about him- he was just the picture perfect violent miscreant now. Bludgeoning innocent folk with not so innocent folk.

He couldn't stop the tears, and sniffled as he turned and ran.

He had to get away from here.

Harry was already at the end of the street when he heard his name being shouted behind him. It was the large man he didn't know. Could he really still want to talk to him? What was even going on? What made him so important to be chased after? He already had a madman after him, now this man was after him, too?

The glare he leveled at the other wizard when he turned stopped the man cold. Leaned over as he was and trying to pull air back into his winded lungs, Hagrid raised a hand, trying to show he wasn't armed.

"It's alright, Harry. I won't hurt yeh." He started. He stared at the boy, so much like James, with Lily's passionate eyes glaring fire and hate into his own, and the large tracks of tears winding their way down his cheeks. "My name is Hagrid. They sent me out when we realized yeh might not have an owl to reply with, if the Dursleys were livin' full Muggle. I'm keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts."

The eyes softened a little, and after a moment, the boy wiped away what he could of the tears. He stood himself up tall, took a breath, and said "I'm not going back." Hagrid blinked in confusion, and Harry elaborated. "To the Dursleys. I'm not going to go back there. I can't."

Realization dawned on the man, who glanced back to where Vernon was now rolling in pain, his wife and a couple of neighbors huddled around him. Turning back to the boy, he replied "I won't take you back there, Harry. If anyone tries, it won't be me, and I'll try to convince 'em otherwise. Whaddya' say?" He held out his enormous hand to the small child, who eyed it warily for a moment.

Finally taking the large hand, or rather placing his own tiny one within its grasp, Harry nodded. "Alright, Hagrid. Where do we go now, though?" There was a mix of shouting coming their way from the huddle, though no one particularly wanted to get close to the massive Hagrid.

After a moment of pondering, the large man nodded. "We'll head to Diagon. Get you set up somewhere safe, and even do your school shopping if you feel up for it."

Harry grimaced. "I don't have my list, though."

With a grin, Hagrid patted around at the pockets of his massive coat. "Sent me with a spare letter, just in case, they did. Just… Oh, I'll find it later." He gave up in favor of shepherding Harry off towards the city proper.

"By the way…" The man said, after about half a block. "Happy Birthday, Harry."

Harry smiled, and with a sniffle he wasn't sure the source of, wiped his eyes again and nodded.

"Thanks, Hagrid."


Still trying to figure out a new margins thing. Diagon Pt:1, end.


I've decided to break my chapter length rules again for a few reasons- because this is a good place to stop, Diagon is next, and already shaping up to be a doozy, and I wanted to beef up the word length on the fic to attract more readers.

Anyway, going to be good to hear feedback from everyone.

Current most likely pairings are Harry/Daphne, Harry/Luna, or some flavor of Harry/multi. Probably not going to be an issue until second or third year, though.