The last of the line
Disclaimers: Don't own, don't sue.
Chapter 3: Turning a new page
He was hungry, so very hungry.
He was, at the moment in forth period, History. Which was, unfortunately for him, right next to the cafeteria and he could smell everything. His stomach was growling painfully and thought he was going to pass out. He was also very tired.
The Dursleys had kept him up, telling him that, if he didn't finish cleaning the garage, that was a disaster zone, he couldn't go to sleep and he woke up early thanks to one of his nightmare.
He couldn't wait for the end of the day.
If he was lucky he could steal some food from the Dursleys, or they could feed him. If worse came to worse, he could eat the leftovers, though there weren't many chances of there being any left.
He was very tempted to summon the money that was hidden in an old pair of Uncle Vernon's socks in his cupboard, but thought better of it.
He had worked hard for that money. He had told his uncle that he was in a kind of after school club, while instead he worked in a small bookshop.
He liked it there. It was small, but worked a lot, he could read anything he wanted and it was a place where the Dursleys would never go.
He loved reading. He wasn't obsessive with it, but he enjoyed it. It was all he had growing up with his relatives. He didn't have games or friends to play with, so he read.
He was a smart kid, who could easily get straight A's but chose not to.
Mainly because, when he brought his first report card to them his uncle had closed him in the cupboard for three days without food or water, because he was smarter then Dudley. The other reason was that he didn't like the attention the teachers gave him, so he chose to get a B's average, get some questions wrong, or say that he didn't know the answer.
The bell rang and everybody made their way to the cafeteria, while he went out side in the courtyard to get some peace and quite. While standing on the steps in front of the school with a book in his hands in the cold air and his stomach growling, he kept on reminding himself of what he was planning to do with that money.
When he was finished with school, he was planning of going away from his relatives, find a nice place to live and find a good job. He was hoping that Mrs. Figg would come with him. She was all he had left. He loved her very much. She was like a Grandmother to him. She had always been there for him. He knew, though, that she loved Hogwarts and living in Privet Drive. He had never told her how the Dursleys treated him, not even that he lived in a cupboard. If he did, she would have left everything she had to get him away from them and he didn't want her to loose everything again because of him.
He loved going to her house and train his magic, seeing the cats that had become a second family to him. The cats that she had when they were in the Potter clan were either dead or living on their own. She said that it was safer not to go back again and, even though the cats were like her children, she left them to keep him safe. He owed a lot to her.
There was one cat he preferred most of all.
He had found a little kitten, pure white with amber eyes, under a tree in the park a few years ago. It was really tiny and cold, so he had brought the kitten to Mrs. Figg to take care of it. She had told him that it was his familiar and that the cat was his. Since aunt Petunia didn't like animals Mrs. Figg took care of it.
He called her Hedwig and loved her very much. She seemed to understand him and would always be with him.
The bell once again rang and he got up and went to his next class, P.E.
Unfortunately for him, today was Wednesday, a shorter day and therefore during P.E. they ran around the soccer field 4 times in ten minutes. If you didn't finish on time you had to re-do it too.
He felt too tired to and hungry, he really didn't have the strength for this.
He was doing his second lap, but he could feel himself get weaker with every step he took.
He was so tired, so hungry, so cold.
He felt himself come closer to the ground as his eyes went to the back of his head.
He woke up next on a bed. It wasn't big or really comfortable, but in comparison to his little cot in the cupboard, it was heaven.
He opened his eyes and looked around. He knew this place well, he was here once a week, basically. It was the infermery.
He tried to think of how and why he was here.
Usually he was here because someone had beaten him up. He wasn't one of those losers or anything, but the bigger kids liked to pick on him because they said that he attracted too much attention, especially from the girl population.
It wasn't like he asked for the attention or anything.
The other reason for him always being here was mainly from sports injuries. He loved sports, but wasn't very careful. Once the adrenalin went to his head all that mattered to him was the game. He did play soccer and basketball in the schools team and was really good.
But neither of these two reasons came in mind as he thought about why he was here.
He remembered being hungry, cold and tired. Something about running during P.E. and then nothing.
"Oh, your awake!" Said the nurse, who he hadn't noticed.
"Morning Ms. Jend."
"You need to learn to take care of yourself dear, I knew you were going to have problems soon!"
"What problems would that be?"
"Your weight problem! I told you thousands of times to eat more! You passed out in the middle of P.E."
'So that's what happened' He thought to himself. He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off.
"I have told you before, if things went on this way I was going to do something!" His eyes widened and he felt his heart sank.
"Wha-What did.."
"I called home and told them to come here right away. I have to tell them about your problems! You can't go on like this, if you don't start gaining weight, I will be forced to take you off the school's teams and make you go to a specialised hospital, being anorexic isn't good for you!"
He looked at her with fearful eyes.
She called the Dursleys! He was so dead.
Uncle Vernon was bound to be very angry! He might even go as far as beating him! He had done it before, not often and not too badly, but this was going to send him over the edge.
There was a knock on the door.
'Oh, no! Please don't let it be them, don't let it be them!' He desperately thought.
Ms. Jend opened the door. Harry's heart sank even lower.
It was the Dursleys, and they didn't look quite happy.
"Hello there, I'm Ms. Jend, the schools nurse. Could we please speak outside?" Uncle Vernon nodded, sent Harry a death glare and walked outside.
"You must be Harry's uncle, am I right sir?"
"Yes" Came the reply, he didn't sound quite happy.
"I have some concerns regarding the boy's health. He is severely underweight and I think the cause might be some eating disorder. I fear for his health, he might get very ill. His body is too weak to protect him from getting sick and he has the beginning of a flue already. I told him before that if he didn't start gaining weight I will have to call for help. I think the best solution is to send him to a specialised hospital. I know that it might cost, but I really think he needs the help."
"Very well, we'll talk to him, thank you!" Resounded aunt Petunia's fake sweet voice. "We'll be taking him home now!"
"Yes, of course. Have a nice day!" Said nurse Jend and walked in the infermery. "You can go home now, Harry."
"Tha- Thank you." He stuttered. He was shaking. He heard the whole conversation. The Dursleys sounded impassive, even understanding, that didn't sound good to him. He shakily got to his feet, picked up his worn out and ruined backpack that someone had brought in while he was unconscious and, with a heavy heart, made his way to his relatives.
He looked up to see his uncles face and noticed that it was emotionless. He walked behind them in silence, with his eyes lowered to the ground.
The ride home was so quite it scared him.
It felt like a death march, slowly walking up to the guillotine. When the arrived he closed his eyes briefly, took a deep breath, re-opened his eyes and slowly made his way inside the house.
Thinking that his uncle might actually kill him, he ran to his room, emptied his backpack and started to put some spare clothes in them. He took the sock with his savings and put them in as well, just as he finished his uncle opened the door to his cupboard.
He was purple in the face and shaking with rage.
He grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him out of the cupboard forcefully and painfully and slammed him in the wall opposite of the cupboard.
Harry hit the wall and fell to the ground. He was shaking with fear. He had never seen his uncle this mad before.
He curled up in a ball just as the first kick made impact.
His uncle was yelling at him, saying things like "Worthless freak, only brings trouble, should have left him in the streets, I'll show you to cause problems.." and it went on like that.
Vernon kept on beating his nephew. Harry was scared and in pain, he wanted it to end. When he thought he couldn't take it anymore something happened.
There was aunt Petunia shouting, uncle Vernon stopped beating him and there was an awful smell of fire. He looked up and saw that the walls of the whole house had caught fire. Uncle Vernon turned to him and yelled "You stupid freak, look at what you've done!"
Harry looked around wide eyed. He had caused this, he had once again caused people to suffer. His uncle picked him up and said: "You'll pay for this!" He opened the door to the cupboard and shoved him in before locking him in.
Harry looked around panicked. He tried the door, but it was locked. He heard the front door open and being slammed shut. He could smell the smoke that was rapidly filling up the air. The ceiling of his cupboard caught on fire.
He was going to die. He was going to go up in flames like his clan, killed by his own relatives.
He was panicking, he didn't know what to do. He had never cast such a powerful accidental magic before, and didn't know what to do to stop it.
He couldn't breath. He leaned his head against the door trying to catch his breath. The bruises left by his uncle were starting to swell and they burned under the extreme heat.
So hot, so tired, so hungry…
He fell forward as the door was swung opened. He looked up in surprise at Mrs. Figg.
"What…"
"No time to talk Harry, quickly now, we have to get out. Let's go by the back door." She said, pulling him to his feet, he quickly grabbed his bag and they went through the kitchen. He quickly opened the door and made his way out, Mrs. Figg was just following him when something in the house exploded and sent her flying forward a few feet.
He stood still, totally in shock for a few seconds. Panic started to rise in him. The last time that a women fell in front of his eyes in a similar situation was his mother, and she had died that night.
He ran to her, his face a mask of worry.
"Mrs. Figg!" He yelled.
He fell to the floor next to her. Her back was badly burned and she looked to be having trouble breathing.
She looked weakly into his eyes and smiled forcefully, to reassure him.
"It's O.K. Harry, I'll be just fine!" He sensed her magic leaving her, she was dying.
"Don't leave me!" He said weakly. Trying to hold back his tears. She was all that he had left and she was leaving too, he couldn't take it! It was too much.
The house exploded, caused by his emotions, he felt his heart break. It was all his fault too.
If he hadn't passed out in P.E., if he wasn't so underweight, if he just took the beating quietly, if….
Mrs. Figg looked into his face, noticing the black eye and bruises forming and with a worried look said while reaching her hand to touch his swollen cheek: "Why didn't you tell me?"
He looked at her and said: "I didn't want to upset you! You love this place, have a nice house, a good job, why ruin everything you worked so hard for after loosing everything!"
"But…"
"It's all right, I'm fine!"
"I love you like a son, you know that right?"
He nodded to her, not trusting himself to speak anymore as he was incapable of holding back his tears anymore.
They heard sirens in the distance. "Hurry Harry, you have to go!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Just….. go…" She said weakly, loosing her strength. She smiled weakly at him before closing her eyes. Harry looked at her, she wasn't moving or breathing.
He was panicking now, tears running down at an alarming rate. He shook her, lightly at first, then more violently shouting her name over and over.
He couldn't loose her, he just couldn't.
The police and fireman arrived, he looked around and found Hedwig coming towards him. She went up and tried to push him, as if saying that they needed to go. He hugged the dead body of the only family he had left, got up, picked his backpack up and ran away, Hedwig following.
They had been walking for almost a week. He had gotten some food for them with his money and were currently walking in a forest. Harry was currently carrying a sleeping Hedwig and felt like he was going to fall asleep soon too.
He was afraid of going back, his relatives were going to kill him if they found him. He had, after all, destroyed their house, ruined their life, been a burden to them for years, he didn't deserve their pity.
His bruises were still there, his uncle hadn't gone easy on him, he might have a broken rib and he was sure his ankle was sprained.
He saw a clearing up ahead. But he just didn't make it. The exhaustion took over and he fell to the ground. He saw a blurry shape come towards him. He couldn't tell what it was, but looked to be a person with a really bushy head.
He passed out right there and then.
AN: Hi everyone, hope you like this chapter. I wanted to thank my reviewers: GregTheGrimReaper, who could forget my first reviewer, Gallatardo83 and NL Kaos. Thank you.
I'm sorry I couldn't update sonner, but I went on a fieldtrip to Milano. We live in Abruzzo, another region and ended up taking a little small bus. We went to the BIT (Borsa Internazionale del Turismo- Internation Tourism Exchange) I remind you that I go to a tourism oriented high school. After about five hours then we went to see the Duomo and came back home. You have no idea how tiring it is to be on a small bus for 16 hours without being able to sleep 'cause the teacher wanted us to sing.
Anyway, I finally updated and I'd appreciate if you people could review.
P.S.- To GreTheGrimReaper, I put Hogwarts in Great Winging, because it's AU. The magical world and Muggle world live together. It doesn't necessarily mean that they like each other, but they co-exist. There for Hogwarts isn't hidden, but looks like a normal school, with the exception that it teaches magic. Hope that cleared it for you!