Sorry. Have been away on holiday, I'm going back to school on Monday, SIXTH FORM and have had serious writers block but I know have ideas and the beginning of what will hopefully be a good story, crosses fingers. Hope you like. Lelimo.

Chapter Four – The Beginning of it All

'Harry! Harry! Come on Harry, wake up!'

Harry felt someone pushing him from the left side of his bed, so he rolled over to the right to move himself away from the annoying person.

'Harry. Come on. You've missed breakfast and it's only ten minutes till lessons start.'

Harry heard someone rustling a piece of paper, 'and you have transfiguration first, you know what McGonagall is like on the first lesson.'

Harry slowly opened his eyes to see Neville looking down on him with his permanent look of worry in his beady blue eyes. Harry slowly started to remove his bed covers from under his chin when he remembered his cuts, bruises and tattoos, so he jerked them back under his chin as fast as possible. And what with Neville being Neville didn't notice anything unusual.

'Ok, thanks Neville. I shall be along in a minute, just let me get dressed.' Harry replied sleepily.

'Oh, ok, yes, well, I'll, um, shall I wait for you in the common room?' Neville managed to stutter while heading for the door.

'Nah, it's fine. I'll see you there.' And Neville was gone.

Harry sighed as he stepped out of bed to check his scars. It had now been about 8 days since his very last beating from Uncle Vernon and it was his very last, he would never go back to Privet Drive even though his life depended on it. The wounds were healing slowly but he'd always have the scars, he could probably get Hermione to get rid of them with a spell, but for some twisted reason he wanted them as a reminder of what never to do to another human being. Even though the majority of the bruises had gone Harry could probably pin point where each one had been.

Harry shook his head, he couldn't think of that now, he had to concentrate on getting through the day. Harry checked his timetable – Transfiguration and Charms this morning and nothing this afternoon because he normally would have had Divination but thankfully that had been cancelled for him. Harry then shoved the timetable into his bag as he raced from his dormitory to transfiguration.

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The morning came and went, Harry exchanged as few as words as possible with Hermione and Ron. He just wasn't in the mood, especially with the worried looks that came from Hermione and the stutters that Ron gave as he tried to think of something to say but failed.

Now Harry was sitting at the Griffindor table in the Great Hall staring down at his plate thinking about the morning and the lack of communication and reason for it. When Harry felt a pair of eyes fix themselves upon him from the other side of the room and a million and one thoughts went rushing through his mind.

'Who is it? That direction indicates that's it's either a person from the Slytherin or Ravenclaw table. Now what the fuck are they doing looking at me? What bloody right do they have to do so? And another, why are they looking at me? What makes them want to look at me? Or more probably I am going psycho and there is no one looking at me, and I'm just a twisted, self absorbed person that I'm sure most people think I am. Bloody hell it's only the first day of school I still have 9 months to go. Shit, bugger, fuck is all I feel like saying now. Next thing you know I'll be talking to myself out loud and that'll give them all something to talk about.'

Harry paused in his thoughts, only to think one more thing, 'I'm going to lift up my eyes and look across the room.' It took Harry another 3 minutes to do what he thought and when he did, he realised he wasn't 'psychotic' and that there was someone staring at him. When he saw who that person was all Harry could think to do was to get up and leave the Great Hall abruptly, much to the surprise of his friends.

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As Harry didn't have lessons now he headed to the library, which he knew would be practically deserted. Harry couldn't get out of his mind the face he'd seen across the Hall and he had to have a clear mind continuously because he didn't want anyone to think there was anything wrong.

Harry took a book called 'Handy Curses and Counter Curses' by I.B. Cursed off the shelf. It was the best thing he had to do for now, also it was the closest book within his arms reach. There was also no homework as the teachers had been lenient today, seeing as it was the first day of school and all that. The book turned out to be more interesting than he first thought and kept Harry busy, 45 minutes busier than he had intended to be.

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Harry had been wandering randomly through the school for about 15 minutes when he heard a noise to the right and it was coming from a classroom. Harry stepped closer to the door and pressed his ear to it after checking that there was no one coming down the corridor. He could hear crashes of chairs against tables and walls and tables against tables. It was only when something hit the door making Harry jump about half a foot in the air that he decided to go in. Harry took a deep breath and opened the door with a great push to find a very disturbed and untidy room. He looked for the person who was the cause of this disarrangement half expecting it to be Peeves but he didn't have to look very far to see Malfoy sitting on the only right way round table.

'Yes Potter,' Malfoy said maliciously.

'I heard a noise,' Harry replied while starting to move closer to Malfoy.

'Well you should definitely win the prize for stating the obvious,' Malfoy spat back.

'Thank you very much, but I don't just notice the obvious you know.'

'And what's that supposed to mean? Do you always talk in riddles or is that just a habit of stupid people, such as yourself?' Malfoy muttered.

'I don't and if you knew me better then you'd understand me but seeing as we're not exactly the best of friends then I doubt that you'll ever understand and that's a fact, it's life.' Harry turned his head in Malfoys direction.

'It's fine by me. Why would I want to know someone whose head is so far up his own arse it must be breaking his back?' Malfoy smirked at Harry, the trademark smirk that everyone in the school knew.

'Think what you like. If you're gonna be a stroppy three year old, I'm going to leave.' Harry stood up to leave but Malfoy reached up his hand and held onto the back of Harry's black T-shirt tearing it to about half way up Harry's back while pulling it down exposing his back almost completely. Harry knew what Malfoy could see, but he didn't speak he just pulled away.

'What.........What are those?' Malfoy asked slowly.

'What do you bloody think they are? Soft cuddly toys? Yes Malfoy, they are tattoos and yes Harry James Potter, Golden Boy; part of Dumbledore's Golden Trio has tattoos. That all right by you? Got the Malfoy seal of approval?' And with that Harry walked towards the door wanting to get as far away from Malfoy as possible. Much to Harry's dismay it didn't work, he heard Malfoy's running footsteps behind him.

'Potter, it was a letter from my Father with some news for me.' Harry turned to face Malfoy who was looking down at the ground. 'Some news, that I don't want made public that I don't want anyone to know, something I have to handle on my own, you know?'

'Yeah I know. Things kept within are sometimes for the best and then it's sometimes better to share, but which one to do is your decision, neither is wrong.' Harry turned and headed off back to Griffindor Tower to find Ron and Hermione.

'It wasn't just tattoos I saw Potter!' Malfoy shouted after Harry, but Harry just kept walking.

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'Harry?'

'Yes?!' Harry snapped back.

'Um, well......er......never mind.'

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5 minutes later

'Harry?'

'What?!' Harry replied in the same tone.

'You should really eat something, it can't be good for you.'

'How do you know what's good for me?'

It was dinner time and so far each piece of food had moved round his plate in a full circle clockwise and now Harry was going anti-clockwise. He had Ron and Hermione at him almost every 5-6 minutes trying to do something about him but Harry introducing the wonder of selective hearing and of course being stubborn Harry wasn't really listening. Of course he had eaten a few mouthfuls to please them but if he ate much more then he would probably be sick.

'This is pointless,' Harry shouted inside his head. So he stopped and started to look round the room at the people that he was living a major part of his life with.

Firstly there were the people around him, on the Griffindor table, his friends, his closest friends, best friends resided on this table right now and at the moment they felt the furthest from him, they didn't know of the new Harry. The one person who had possibly caught a glimpse of this new guy was his arch enemy and sitting furthest away from him. Harry's eyes darted up to search the Slytherin table for the blonde haired with the grey-silver coloured eyes boy. Harry knew there was more to Malfoy, something underneath that shell of skin. Harry found him and guess what, he was surrounded by his 'dogs' as Harry had called them but Malfoy wasn't smiling, laughing or even smirking as per usual. It looked as if the words were gliding over Malfoy's head and there was no sign of him even recollecting that he had heard them. Harry quizzed on this point for a while but then decided to move on, the teachers table.

The elongated table that stretched across the room, with the chatting teachers and burning candles. Professor Flitwick, Professor Spout, Madame Hooch, a space –Professor R.J Lupin would soon be filling that, his friends and the closest thing he had to a Father, coming here to Hogwarts for the second time in just a few days. Next, Snape, oddly quiet and pensive, with a look of annoyance that said plainly to Harry that he was asking himself why pupils exist, why happiness exists and what on bloody earth was he doing here in the middle of it. Harry smiled a small smile at the thought of entering into Severus Snape's mind yet again. Then Professor McGonagall, Head of his House, teacher, nearly a sympathetic friends but not quite. Then, finally Professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry only paused here for a second, there was no need to look any longer – there's only one word to sum him up but Harry wasn't quite sure of what that was yet. Then finally at the end, Hagrid. Another great and amazing friend, one he would never replace or even think about doing so. A priceless friend – much like Hermione and Ron – which was obvious to Harry to never consider changing that.

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'The flame consists of one, two, three, four, is that five? Well definitely four colours. The dancing, teasing, tempting fire playing in front of my eyes.' Harry sat in the Griffindor Common Room thinking and wondering about life, the universe and everything and why it all happens. He had managed to get Ron and Hermione off his back finally, promising them he would lighten up, but no, he wasn't tired yet and no not hungry. 'I do love them so much.' Harry began to fall asleep and dream.

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He was there, in Hogwart's courtyard, circling the Whomping Willow and it had begun to snow, walking round and round it watching his footprints appear in the snow. Slowly they were joined by another pair, male probably, about a size smaller than Harry. Harry began to run round the tree trying to catch up with him and suddenly, they stopped, disappeared into thin air, they were to be no more, to not exist. Harry looked up, tears blurring almost blinding his eyes but allowing him to see the outline of the black figure standing at the entrance to the school watching him.

Harry tried to move towards him but the chains around his ankles and wrists prevented that, then down it came, whip after whip. Now there was no snow, no tree, no Hogwarts, no boy, no nothing except for the continuous whipping that came with the continuous darkness.

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Harry shifted in his seat in the Common Room not waking up but trying to get unconsciously comfortable. The wounds and scars on his back were screaming out in silent pain, while Harry fell into a now dreamless and deep sleep.

Hey!!! The next chapter please r/r. I'm very sorry for not updating sooner. It was very bad of me but please click the go button and give me a review, pretty, pretty please. The next chapter will be up quicker I promise!!