Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does. If I did own them I would be rich and British; seeing as I am neither I think that it's self explanatory.
Note: Written for the Harry Potter challenge one (angst and 500 words or less) on Beautilicious Imaginility.
Little four year old Harry Potter sits on a cold, hard bench in the middle of a playground. Over in the sandbox he can see his cousin Dudley with some of his friends. Harry doesn't have any friends; Dudley makes sure of that.
All over the park Harry sees other little boys and girls with their Mummies and Daddies. Harry does not have a Mummy or a Daddy. Instead he has a mean Aunt and Uncle who make him do work. It seems to the small boy that he can do nothing right for these people. They rarely strike him but physical abuse is not the only kind. They don't love him.
Harry's Aunt and Uncle don't like Harry because his parents were "freaks." Harry doesn't know what a "freak" is but if they would love him and be kind to him he'd choose them over his Aunt and Uncle any day. Harry's Aunt and Uncle say that his parents are dead, but Harry doesn't know what death is for he is four years old and has not learned this concept yet.
Sometimes Harry dreams of some people who he assumes are his parents. There is a woman with long red hair and a man with hair just like his own. The woman rocks him and sings to him and the man reads him stories. There are others that Harry remembers in the back of his mind: a man who could turn into a dog who would play with him, a man with light brown hair who always looked tired but always had time for him, a man with pale beady eyes who Harry doesn't like very much, and an old man with half moon spectacles and a long white beard. Harry supposes that this is his family but as time wears on his memories of them grow fainter. He mentioned the dog man to his Aunt once but she just yelled at him and Harry spent a week in his cupboard.
Harry remembers other things from the past too. There was a green light and pain and every time little Harry has this dream he awakens shaking and sweating.
Harry has to wear Dudley's old clothes. He makes a rather desolate picture as he sits on the bench with his baggy pants and shirt, his messy hair, and with the scar seared across his forehead. Most of the parents tell their children not to go near the boy for he doesn't look like the kind of child they want them to associate with. So Harry sits alone while the others have their fun and enjoy the love of their families.
Harry's Aunt calls to him in her shrill voice that it is time to leave. The boy gets up and makes his way across the barren asphalt to where she will take him back to his cupboard. He'll have work to do at home.
Later that night, when the household is asleep, little Harry Potter lies awake in his tiny cupboard that masquerades as a bedroom. He clutches at his sheets as he silently cries. All he wants is to be loved.