A/N In this story there are no horcruxes. After the killing curse backfired, Harry just became more intelligent. Although he was still completely innocent in all aspects at that time, his thought process became more like an adult.

He can learn things with the speed of an adult. And he matches Voldemort in his linguistic skills.

Warning: this chapter contains a lot of child abuse.

Chapter 1

1 November 1981

Harry opened his eyes and blinked. His memories were a bit hazy, but he remembered a green eyed woman with red hair and a raven haired man with hazel eyes laughing and playing with him. His last memory was of some manic laughter and a flash of green light. He did not remember anything beyond that. He also knew that he was 15 months old.

Currently he was feeling very cold, though he was wrapped in a blanket. He observed his surroundings. He was lying on the step of some house. As he was about to stand up, the door of the house opened and a thin horse like woman appeared. She was startled to see him and she picked up the letter that was wrapped in his blankets. When she read the letter, her face paled. She grabbed him and dragged him inside angrily.

He asked," Where am I?" She was surprised that he was able to speak at such a young age but she dismissed it and put it down as a quirk of his 'kind'. She told him," Be quiet and speak only when asked to."

So he became quiet. They went into the living room where the horse like women sat down with a man who looked like a walrus. The woman said," You are my nephew. You have to stay with us because someone has left you here. I will be clear from the start. We do not want you here. You are an unwanted burden. You are a freak and are just like your parents. We hated your good for nothing parents but I am just letting you in here because you are still a relative. Since you will be staying with us, you will now always listen to me. You can speak already so no doubt you can understand each and every word of what I am speaking right now. I will start teaching you how to do the chores from today onwards. You will sleep in the cupboard under the stairs and never even dare to come near my Diddykins. You will call me aunt from now onwards and this is your uncle." His 'Uncle' glowered at him.

Harry had never been subject to such behavior but he knew that if he wanted a roof on his head and some food in his stomach then he'd better stay here. He had no-where else to go.

Harry had adult level intelligence due to the backfiring of the curse (there was no other side effect). Although it was not as if he had gained sudden knowledge from unknown origins, but he was able to understand things quickly due to his high intellect. The only sudden influx of knowledge was that he was now proficient in every language that Voldemort could speak. He could easily read, write or speak English, French, German, Russian, Latin, Greek and Parseltongue.

He did not remember anything that happed before the killing curse backfired, other than his parent's blurry images and maniac laughter before a flash of green light. Therefore he was left wondering about his parents. So he asked from his aunt," Aunt, who were my parents?"

She hesitated before speaking nastily," they were good for nothing drunken fools. They died in a car crash while drunk. You survived the accident and got this horrid scar in return. You should be grateful that you got taken in by us."

Harry was immensely sad after hearing this. He thought that probably those memories were of the car accident.

Months passed by. At first Petunia was hesitant due to his age but soon when she saw how proficient he had become at cooking in such a small time, she now made him cook unsupervised. He had to fix meals for three times in a day. He also washed the dishes after each meal and tidied up the kitchen. He had to weed the garden every day. Cleaning up the house, washing clothes were also his tasks, only. The most peculiar thing was that he had started managing all this at the tender age of one and a half.

Even he knew that his level of intelligence and excellence was not common amongst children of his age. Despite this he was thrown or locked in the cupboard for the smallest of mistakes. He was beaten at every moment possible by his uncle. He was also starved regularly. Once or twice his aunt had 'accidently' burned him. Initially he clung to the hope that someone would come to rescue him. But as months flew by, his hope vanished.

He was constantly abused and mistreated by his relatives. He was ashamed at his weakness but he could not do anything about it. He soon realized some things. His realized that despite his wishes no one would come for him and his aunt and uncle would continue to hate him. There was no one in the world who cared about what happened to Harry Potter. He concluded that no adult was trustworthy. He started becoming cynical, depressed and withdrawn.

Two days before his second birthday Dudley pushed him and instead fell himself. When he wailed, Petunia came running. Through his fat tears Dudley blamed Harry for his fall. When Vernon got to know about the incident he became purple with rage. Despite Harry's protests of innocence he dragged Harry to the cupboard. There he unbuckled his belt and whipped Harry on his bare back 30 times with that belt. He threw an unconscious Harry inside and locked him with the determination to not open the door for a week.

After a few hours Harry woke up. His back was throbbing with pain. The scab on his back had started cracking and blood was already flowing through the cracks. The pain felt as if someone was repeatedly stabbing him in his back. His stomach was growling as it was almost ten hours since he had eaten anything. When he banged the door for food the only response was," Be quiet freak. You will not get anything for a week and you can't get out. If you make even a single noise after this I will whip you for even longer."

Hearing this he broke down. Whatever innocence he had, he had been robbed of it. He sobbed until he fell asleep tiredly. Those two days were the worst days of his life. The small cupboard was dirty and full of foul smells due to his urine and blood. This and the lack of food and water had made him puke multiple times. His back ached constantly and he fell unconscious multiple times.

Just like sharks could smell blood, the Dursleys could smell his fear. Therefore he stopped being fearful. He decided that he would never show any sign of weakness to anyone from now onwards.

At midnight when he became two years old, he wished himself 'happy birthday' sardonically. As he contemplated his situation he thought,' the Dursley's were never kind to me. I do all their work and am still starved. Not to mention beaten regularly. I could probably do better by eating from dumps and sleeping on the roads.'

That was the moment when he made his decision. Enough was enough. He was going to run away from the Dursleys. He quickly thought of a plan and then grinned manically. He did not have any possession other than his small blanket in the cupboard. He also had a wire, a marble and a broken glass piece which he had collected for later use, from the garden.

Ignoring the protests of his aching back and the cracking of the scab, he started picking the lock with the wire. The Dursley's were sleeping so this made the task easier. Although his heart was throbbing with fear of getting caught, he continued his attempts. In about a minute, he was successful. He opened the door slowly and crept out. He was wearing baggy clothes which were too large for him. He put his wire, glass and marble in his pocket and wrapped the blanket tightly around himself.

He tiptoed into the kitchen, where he stole some bacon from the refrigerator. He ate it while relishing it. Soon his stomach was content. Then he poured himself a glass of water. His parched throat appreciated the feel of cool water.

One benefit of trying to remain quiet all the time because of the Dursleys was that, now he was proficient in working sneakily. Also since he did almost all the work, he knew the place of every single item.

Stealthily, he took the biggest bag he could find. He put some pieces of bacon, steak and some fruits in it. These could last him for at least two weeks. Then he also took all available bottles of potable water. Next he took the first aid kit and some decent clothes. Finally he took all the pounds from the small purse that Petunia kept for daily necessities. He did not regret stealing from the Dursley's even a bit. In fact he thought that they deserved it.

After taking all these things he crept towards the front door. He took the key out from below the doormat and quietly climbed on a stool to unlock the door. He stepped out of the door cautiously. Then he ran as fast as he could on his little legs from the house which had been like a prison to him.

He wanted to go away from there as far as possible. Despite his aching body he kept walking as fast as possible to the nearest bus stand. After reaching the bus stand he caught the bus to London, sat down on the seat and took a deep breath. Part one of mission was accomplished. Now he just had to get off in London, find a place to rent and bandage his back after taking a bath. As for the money he decided to steal it. Then soon his focus wandered to his back again. So much exertion had made it bleed again.

He knew that he could not go to any doctor because then questions would be asked and they would send him back to the Dursley's. As the bus lurched, his pain increased. He gritted his teeth and willed the pain to go away. Suddenly his back stopped aching. He cautiously touched it and to his joy found that his back was healed completely. For the first time in months he smiled.

Now he was free. He could do whatever he wanted.

A/N Please leave a review.