A Different World
Summary:
Harry never lived at the Dursley's, in fact; he has no idea who they are. Taken in by a mean couple, taught to fight and steal, Harry spent ten long years on the street, until one day, he meets an old man with a beard and half-moon glasses telling him that this wasn't the life he was meant for. AU
Disclaimer: If I owned it, I'd be writing book five instead of this.
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Five years earlier
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Harry was running. Again. This time though, he had the misfortune to run directly into someone.
"Sorry," Harry muttered, picking himself up.
"Quite alright, Harry. You seem to be going somewhere in quite a hurry," a bemused voice said.
"Who are you, how do you know my name?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"My name is Albus Dumbledore."
"That still doesn't explain how you know my name."
"I realize that. Come with me and I will explain it."
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"Tomorrow we are starting a House exchange program," Dumbledore announced after dinner one day in late November a month later, "Students were picked randomly, one boy and one girl from each house in every year to a house designated by the Sorting Hat. The list of exchanged students is in your common rooms. If you were chosen, please see your head of house." Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny quickly went to make sure they weren't on the list.
Inter-House Exchange Program
Name, house assigned to
Program lasts for the entire month of December
1st years
Morgan Lancaster, Hufflepuff
Travis Jones, Ravenclaw
2nd years
Terri Lane, Slytherin
Mac Rogers, Hufflepuff
3rd years
Cassy Hures, Ravenclaw
Paul Rees, Hufflepuff
4th Years
Virginia Weasley, Slytherin
Todd Richards, Ravenclaw
5th Years
Lavender Brown, Ravenclaw
Harry Potter, Slytherin
6th Years
Melissa Gregors, Hufflepuff
Tom Parkins, Ravenclaw
7th Years
George Weasley, Slytherin
Alicia Spinnet, Hufflepuff
Harry, Ginny and George looked at each other. "WHAT?!" They cried at the same time. Harry sunk into a near by chair.
"Great. Just great. Stuck in the same dorm with Malfoy for a month!!" he groaned. Hermione and Ron looked sympathetic, but glad it wasn't them. "Somebody seriously has it in for me," he muttered to himself, "Other than Voldemort anyway..."
~~~
Two days later, Harry woke up to green curtains. Groaning softly, he remembered where he was and why. "And I was so hoping it was all in my head," he muttered, "Oh well." He got dressed and headed downstairs without waking anyone else up- the less he had to see them the better.
"Potter!" Draco yelled. 'So much for not waking anyone else up,' Harry thought with a sigh.
"What?" Harry snapped.
"What the hell was with that girl?" Apparently it had been bugging Draco all this time.
"I really doubt Wolf would appreciate you calling her a girl, she takes more offense to that than most boys do. Besides, Wolf is none of your business," Harry snapped, really not wanting to deal with Malfoy this early. Not that he ever wanted to deal with Malfoy to begin with.
"Oh, did I get on Perfect Potter's nerves?" Draco sneered.
"What ever you think you know about me, forget it. If you're going to be that blind to everything, I'd waste my time even trying to explain anything- not that I want to anyway. So leave me the hell alone, got it Malfoy? You can't understand so stop trying," Harry said coldly. Luckily, George came down before it could escalate higher, and steered Harry into the Great Hall, Ginny following with Terri. The four of them had made a pact to stick together- even if that did defeat the purpose of the house exchange.
"Hey, Terri, you ok?" Harry asked. The fourth member of their group had been rather quiet.
"Just a little paranoid I'm going to get cursed or something," she replied shyly.
"You and me both," he replied, eating, "You know, I almost wish people would treat me like they used to."
"Which is?" George asked with a raised eyebrow, wondering what the younger boy would answer.
"Completely ignored me. Even if they did see me, they all pretended like they didn't. I preferred that they didn't see me, actually," Harry said, staring off into space. The others exchanged looks.
"You actually like that?" Terri asked. He shrugged.
"It's what I'm used to. Aside from Voldemort, that's what I hate most about the wizarding world- my fame. It's the opposite of what I grew up around," Harry explained. They ate in silence for the rest of breakfast, and then headed off to their respective classes (Double potions for Harry, Charms for Ginny, Transfiguration for George, and DADA for Terri).
Potions, Harry had re-decided by the end of that class, was a real bitch. Not only did Malfoy bug him the entire class period, for things ranging from "How're the weasel and the mudblood? [Shut it ferret boy]" to "Who the hell is Wolf and what the hell was she talking about? [I said shut it ferret boy, it's not your business]" All in all, Harry was not in a good mood by the time he reached transfiguration. Then Malfoy walked in the door, and made it all ten times worse. Harry had nearly forgotten he had every class with Malfoy. Harry groaned, then glared at anyone other then Professor McGonagall that came within ten feet of him, not wanting to give Malfoy the opportunity to taunt him more, and not wanting anyone else to take Malfoy's place at 'who can annoy me the most today?' Harry sincerely hoped he wasn't crazy by the end of the day, and wondered how he was going to survive the rest of the month. Or whether or not Malfoy would survive the month.
By lunch, Harry was fully prepared to hex the hell out of anyone that pestered him in the least.
Charms hadn't gone well either.
"How did you survive the morning?" Ginny asked when she sat down, oblivious to his mood.
"If Malfoy makes one more dumb ass remark, I will curse him into next week!" Harry growled.
"That well, huh?" she replied sarcastically. He nodded and stabbed at his chicken, pretending it was Malfoy's head. George saved the poor chicken from being mutilated more by distracting Harry with a Quidditch question.
"Gryffindor has two matches this month, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. What do you think they're going to do missing their seeker and half their beaters?" Harry looked up.
"I have no idea," he said, starting to look worried, "We can't afford to lose two matches! We have a reserve beater- that third year, but he's not as good as you and Fred, and I don't think they can work the same with each other. And we don't have a reserve seeker. We really need to get one of those, there's been too many incidents that we lost because I couldn't play." Harry finished eating and decided to contemplate the Quidditch dilemma later. After all, he had CoMC next, then Divinatation. Oh well, at least he would get to see Ron and Hermione.
Harry was nearly smoking at the ears by the time CoMC was over. Just as he turned to go back up to the school, yelling made him turn around.
"SHADOW!!!!!" Harry whirled. Wolf was running toward him, bleeding quite badly.
"Wolf!" he cried, "Wolf, what happened?"
"Dante and his thugs- the Black Riders. They're wizards. They must have followed me to Hogsmeade. I just got away," she gasped. Harry did some very colorful swearing.
"Wizard street fighters slash pickpockets. Wonderful. C'mon on, let's get you to the hospital wing," Harry said, supporting her.
"No, you don't understand. They're coming this way- right now!" she cried. Harry swore quite violently at this.
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Yay! Hope this will make you all (a little) less confused! Sorry for the cliffhanger!!
Thanks to:
serena cherry :-D thanks!! I appreciate any and all help on getting reviews!
Fire-Mage thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! I'm trying it and seeing if it works right now. If it does, I'm gonna reload the first chapter like this too.
Xirleb70 thanks!! I love your story, and I'm really glad you like mine!
Nexus hehehe, that's pretty much how I meant it… although I didn't think it was that confusing until I reread it and saw how little info I gave you guys… oh well, here's a little more!
Chikujin I updated!!! Thanks for reviewing!
~NSW~